The Best Albums Of 2010

[alexsarll]

Yes, it's that time of year again; I think I've heard everything that's coming out (and the Duran Duran was really not worth waiting for), I've listened back to the ones I couldn't make up my mind about, and then I've started juggling positions and seeing which orders made sense. Nonetheless, this list is of necessity provisional; I completely missed until this year the arrival of at least two albums which should have been in 2009's top 20, by Circulus and George Pringle. It should also go without saying that like any such list, it is entirely subjective. And Number One is really not going to surprise anyone to whom I've talked about music in the past couple of years. So without further ado, the chart rundown:

1. Songs For Swinging Lovers - The Indelicates
2 Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele
3. There Are No Maps For This Part Of The City - Seafieldroad
4. Ex-Maniac - Babybird
5. Heaven is Whenever - The Hold Steady
6. Demonstration Songs - Mikey Georgeson
7. The Five Ghosts - Stars
8. Rancho Tetrahedron - Cathal Coughlan & the Grand Necropolitan Quartet
9. Dead Orchestras - Swimmer One
10. Together - The New Pornographers
11. Propellor Time - Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3
12. Owls - Brontosaurus Chorus
13. History of Modern - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
14. Tomorrow Morning - Eels
15. He Who Saw The Deep - I Like Trains
16. American Slang - The Gaslight Anthem
17. Ivory Tower - Chilly Gonzales
18. Falling Down A Mountain - Tindersticks
19. Society of Figurines - Scarlet's Well
20. Belle and Sebastian Write About Love
21. Oh No... - Lily Rae
22. The Promise - Bruce Springsteen
23. Au Contraire - Foxy Shazam
24. This Is Happening - LCD Soundsystem
25. Romance Is Boring - Los Campesinos!
26. One Life Stand - Hot Chip
27. Stridulum II - Zola Jesus
28. Drown Your Heart Again - The Strange Death of Liberal England
29. High Violet - The National
30. Fixin' The Charts Volume 1 - Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now!

...and there was a 30-40, but halfway through putting in the HTML for the italics, I decided no, all of those are either too samey or too patchy. They had lovely moments, but they weren't great albums. And moments don't make albums. A lot of my favourite songs this year - Big Boi's 'Shutterbug', Robyn's 'Dancing On My Own', My Chemical Romance's 'Na Na Na', Shrag's 'Rabbit Kids', Underworld's 'Between Stars' - were from albums other people really rated, but which to me sounded like more than half filler. Then you had Spoiler Alert!'s 'Booster Gold' and Mitch Benn's 'I'm Proud of the BBC' (an EP track and a stand-alone single, respectively), and Gaga's 'Telephone' from a 2009 album. I don't buy the whole death of the album line, mind; there have always been great singles that hunt alone, or live on patchy albums. But I have found that when an album isn't physically present, it can no longer nag at you from the corner of your eye. When it's not even digitally present, when there's only access to it - on Spotify, most especially, with its refusal to tell you what you were doing even the five searches back that it used to manage unless you specifically note an item at the time - then only a song itself, lodged in the brain can remind you about an album, remind you that you were briefly very impressed, pull you back. And it doesn't happen as often as I would have expected. Is that determined by the music the year had on offer, or is it a general thing? No idea. But looking back at that list, thinking about all the albums that didn't make it, an awful lot of music this year has sounded tired. That is not in itself a bad thing - tiredness is an emotion which, like any other, can set the tone for great art. But not all of them were accomplishing that transmutation and, even when you think about the ones who were...well, it's not the best of zeitgeists, is it?

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

and Gaga's 'Telephone' from a 2009 album

I get the impression that one of the problems facing pop spinners this year is that it hasn't thrown up anything that lights up the dancefloor like bona fide 2009 single 'Bad Romance'.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

NB There are I'm sure far worse problems to have than a solid gold (in the Phonogram 'Atomic' sense) floor filler with an extended lifespan!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Do you reckon? 'Telephone' didn't really stand out on the album, but especially once That Video had hit early in 2010, it seemed to be an equally reliable source of dancefloor awesome. It did seem to be another year without an omnipresent summer hit, though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I did get it from there, but things have been tending to come and go for a while. I've suspended my account (in part due to skintness) but with the recent departure of those three big indies, it's entirely possible that I may not bother resuming it.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think I may already have had the benefit of that once, when even skinter, but it was a while back so yeah, worth a try, isn't it?

I had a similar experience of puzzlement with the recommendation engine when it was adamant that I'd like a load of Pitchfork indie, but seemed unaware that a new Marc Almond album might interest me. Admittedly the new Marc Almond album wasn't much cop, but still...

[augstone.livejournal.com]

Well said about (the death of) albums.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, you would say that given you're in pole position for next year! ;)

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

Dear Barry Sarll

I take it you haven't listened to allo darlin, by allo darlin then?
Or Mos Dub by Mos Def?

I thus call into question your research ;)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I listened to about half of the Allo Darlin', paused it, and never got round to restarting. There were a few of those from indie darlings (no pun intended). And I do like (some) Mos Def a lot, but I can't think of any artist where I'd feel the need to listen to their reggae remix album.

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

in which case you have no heart or more likely yor heart is blinded my prejudice - maybe george micheal had a point.....

I'll obviously put some AD on my el jay over christmas some other year and you'll leave a comment about how awesome it is..... becasue that's how it works

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Sometimes one song can sound excellent in isolation which, surrounded by an album full of similar but inferior material, was lost in the morass. I was far from the only person who heard and never really noticed 'Sing' on Blur's Leisure, but was then blown away by it outside that context on the Trainspotting soundtrack. The effect that sequencing and such can have is part of why I still find the album such an interesting format.

as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

but that's the point - the AD album is a lovely ALBUM

and that was my point when you said that on a boat couldn't be enjoyed without the video, it's not right - it's JUST YOU ;)

Re: as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

1. That wasn't what I said about 'On A Boat'. I said that the video, and recreations of same on the dancefloor, were a large part of its charm. Which is different.

2. You are contending, then, that every single other person who has started listening to the Allo Darling album has been unable to stop for whatever reason and has loved it? I can quote no other counter-examples, it is true, but somehow this seems unlikely - you'd think they'd at least have picked up a couple of prize nominations if that were the case.

Re: as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

2. yup - if you included the word "without prejudice" and assumine that the person wasn't horrendiously opposed to the smindier side of music, I genuinely would. It is a thing of beauty..... and seriosuly if you can't think of someone who hates something then it must be good....

what you said is like saying "smash hits couldn't have *really* liked martin gore's first solo album - otherwise it would have featured in their end of year polls"

Re: as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Did they like Martin Gore's first solo album? I don't really see where you're going with that.

I didn't by any means dislike the AD album, I just didn't feel compelled to finish it either. It was perfectly pleasant, it simply didn't grab me.

Re: as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

martin gore's first solo album was the only album to ever get full marks when reviewed by smash hits, if memory serves...............

Re: as I prepare to say farewell to my pride again

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You learn something every day. And then did it not make the end of year poll at all? That does seem peculiar, magazine polls normally weight in such a way that everyone's first choice will at least make the list somewhere.

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

Wot no Everything Everything? *dies tragically*

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Yes, this! I only realised how good a record it was after listening to it three times while travelling around London getting stuff sorted for Bowlie last week. It had previously felt a bit too complex-for-complexity's sake but after paying proper attention to it on and off for half a day all the multiple parts and tempo shifts started making a lot more sense.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear the album, having concluded from a couple of tracks to which people had excitedly linked that they were one of those slightly fiddly bands I simply don't get (see also: Animal Collective; Beta Band).

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. They are pretty damn fiddly, and if you normally don't like even a bit of fiddliness then they're probably not worth perservering with.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I do like some forms of fiddly - David Sylvian, for instance, is not averse to a bit of it. There's just a certain fiddly/indie combination which leaves me cold.

[darkship.livejournal.com]

I suppose it says it all when your 2nd favourite album of the year is (presumably) a covers album; or is that a joke?

I didn't know TSDOLE had finally bothered to do another album- I'll be all over that shit.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Or even a first album proper, if you consider the other a mini.

The Amanda Palmer/Radiohead thing is 4 REAL and, my comments notwithstanding, would have placed fairly high most years. I used to love some of Radiohead's stuff before they went up their own arse and started deliberately suppressing all their best songs - and on this someone with a very good voice but occasionally questionable material (you'll note the list does not feature her other album this year, Evelyn Evelyn) takes the best of those songs*, strips them down so the heartache and frustration sounds new again, and it's amazing.

*Plus one great track I'd missed because it was languishing on a crappy later album, as per my comments re: Leisure to Dan, above.

[icecoldinalex.livejournal.com]

I'm becoming a fixture on this thing.

i can only approve.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Stars had a new album this year. That'll prolly be high on my 2010 list if I get round to hearing it.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Oh and has the Hurts tune grown on you then or was it just on at the time?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

A bit of both. I was listening to your Christmas Spotify list, but I have since watched the video again and found it stuck in my head, so I think it may have snuck up on me.