Best Records of 2010

[Maggie]

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

The Black Keys - Brothers

The National - High Violet

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Broken Bells -Broken Bells

Phosphorescent - Here's to Taking It Easy

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring

 

I could list a bunch of really good honorable mentions as well, but these are my definite favorites.

[sgtpepper64]

Nice to see Bobby Bare Jr. get a couple of mentions.

A-Storm-A-Tree-My-Mother's-Head is a great album, although I think seeing him play it live really sold it for me.

 

Without a doubt my favorite album of the year has to be:

 

 

It's one of those albums that has become instantly familiar to me, and that only seem to come around every couple of years.

Great to see them branch out sound and songwriting wise. Beautiful album.

 

Also really liked:

and was surprised to see it go unmentioned.

[augurus]

Here we go. It should be noted that my #1 is head and shoulders above everything else.

 

1. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

It's really good! It's not my favorite of the year, but I was quite shocked by what I heard and the beauty of it. I hope to see more VCers pick this up, so there goes my bump.

[lost highway]

Superchunk- Majesty Shredding

Black Keys- Brothers

El Guincho- Pop Negro

Mavis Staples- You Are Not Alone

Bottomless Pit- Blood Under the Bridge

Dr. Dog- Shame Shame

Black Mountain- Wilderness Heart

Brad Mehldau- Highway Rider

 

At first I thought it was a dud year, and then I remembered all of these great records.

[Vacant Horizon]

Superchunk- Majesty Shredding

Black Keys- Brothers

El Guincho- Pop Negro

Mavis Staples- You Are Not Alone

Bottomless Pit- Blood Under the Bridge

Dr. Dog- Shame Shame

Black Mountain- Wilderness Heart

Brad Mehldau- Highway Rider

 

At first I thought it was a dud year, and then I remembered all of these great records.

 

 

haven't listened to the black mountain yet. pretty good eh? that brad mehldau album is excellent.

.

[aggies08]

Love

Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Delta Spirit - History From Below

Joe Pug - Messenger

 

Like

The Black Keys - Brothers

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

The Walkmen - Lisbon

Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

 

Dissapointed By

The National - High Violet

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away

[lost highway]

The opening track of the Black Mountain is an instant classic. The rest of the record is just pretty good, but it's worth it for that track.

 

No one seems to know who Bottomless Pit are (ex Silkworm) but if anyone likes Yo La Tengo, and Neil Young, Bottomless Pit is fantastic.

[Moss]

I love the Black Mountain album. To me the first 2 songs are classic and maybe it drops off a bit from there. Definitely worth a listen though.

[ih8music]

2010's highlights for me are:

 

Delta Spirit - History From Below

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Drive By Truckers - The Big To-Do

The Black Keys - Brothers

Glossary - Feral Fire

[myboyblue]

2010's highlights for me are:

 

Delta Spirit - History From Below

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Drive By Truckers - The Big To-Do

The Black Keys - Brothers

Glossary - Feral Fire

I can get behind these. Have you heard Joey Kneiser's solo album? It should have been on my list for sure.

[tinnitus photography]

I think I am out of step w/ most of my fellow staff writers at Prefixmag.com

 

(hint: my list is under Tim Bugbee)

http://www.prefixmag.com/features/post/best-albums-2010-staff-lists/46581/

[ih8music]

I can get behind these. Have you heard Joey Kneiser's solo album? It should have been on my list for sure.

No, I didn't even know he had one out. Just got in to Glossary a few months ago.

 

I'll check it out - thanks for the tip!

[dthedust]

did broken bells come out last year?nobodys mentioned that ive seen.

mumford and sons

deerhunter

deertick

broken bells

black keys

 

these are all ive heard worth buying,anybody got any suggestions that fit those,even though these are on everyones list.deertick barely makes the cut,nothing was better then war elephant, but this is close.id put tallest man on earth but reminds me to much of deertick mixed with fleet foxes or something.looks like animal collective merriweather post pavillion gets best album of the decade to me.

[Nobody Girl]

1. The National - High Violet

2. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

 

The rest, in no particular order:

 

Beach House - Teen Dream

Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Broken Bells - Broken Bells

Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do

Glossary - Feral Fire

The Tallest Man on Earth - Wild Hunt

Janelle Monae - ArchAndroid

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

[solace]

my favorites this year:

 

1. The National - High Violet
2. Beach House - Teen Dream
3. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
4. The Tallest Man on Earth - Wild Hunt
5. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
6. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
7. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
8. The Black Keys - Brothers
9. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
10. Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
11. The Walkmen - Lisbon
12. Delta Spirit - History From Below
13. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
14. Jónsi - Go
15. Anaïs Mitchell - Hadestown
16. Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon
17. John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up!
18. Aziz Ansari - Intimate Moments For A Sensual Evening
19. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
20. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone
21. Strand of Oaks - Pope Killdragon
22. LCD Soundsytem - This Is Happening
23. Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love
24. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
25. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
26. Best Coast - Crazy For You
27. The Drums - The Drums
28. Spoon - Transference
29. Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
30. Jeremy Messersmith - The Reluctant Graveyard
31. Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing
32. Gayngs - Relayted
33. Menomena - Mines
34. Guster - Easy Wonderful
35. S. Carey - All We Grow
36. Wolf Parade - Expo 86
37. Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot
38. Wild Nothing - Gemini
39. Johnny Flynn - Been Listening
40. Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
41. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way
42. Ted Leo - The Brutalist Bricks
43. Grinderman - Grinderman 2
44. Sharon Van Etten - Epic
45. The New Pornographers - Together
46. Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
47. Sleigh Bells - Treats
48. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
49. Lissie - Catching A Tiger
50. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

Fair amount of hip hop there, but no How I Got Over?

[solace]

just missed the cut

 

along with Drive-By Truckers, Yeasayer, etc.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

Damn. HIGO is my #1, easily. Interesting.

 

I have been meaning to check out Big Boi's album. I enjoy Outkast a fair amount.

[solace]

it's probably their best since Phrenology, but there's still a bunch of songs i don't love on it (the Joanna Newsome one for one, and the Monsters of Folk one is just OK)

[makeshift]

Wolf Parade- Expo 86.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

it's probably their best since Phrenology, but there's still a bunch of songs i don't love on it (the Joanna Newsome one for one, and the Monsters of Folk one is just OK)

I think it's their best, period, but that works. Either way, glad to see some love for Wake Up.

[solace]

honestly i don't like their lineup now as much as with Rahzel & Skratch...

 

they're still insanely talented as a band and i love them a lot still, but my 3 favorite Roots albums are from the 90's.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

See, HIGO reminds me much more of those 90's records than stuff like Phrenology/Rising Down/Things Fall Apart/Game Theory.

 

There's really no Roots album I don't think is good, but their jazzier side is my favorite, and I loved it returning (in a way) on HIGO.

[kidsmoke]

Nobody's mentioned it, so I will:

 

The Extra Lens' "Undercard". I can't stop listening to this musically gorgeous & lyrically sharp album! It rocks and it doesn't. Nice ratio of both. Just such a wonderful & wickedly clever album. Sample lyric:

 

"There was one

thing

I found that I couldn't help thinking,

as they pried

me

free with the jaws of life

None of this di-

saster would ever have happened

if I had

not

been driving my neighbor's wife

to the Alta Loma Days Inn,

where I'd registered us as..."

 

hahaha, Darnielle can tell a good story. The Extra Lens is John Darnielle (of Mt. Goats) and longtime collaborator Franklin Bruno. They've really created something special here. I haven't described this beauty well at all. Go listen yourself. The first songs rocks my socks off. I'm sure the neighbors think I play it overly loud.

 

I also am loving Steve Wynn's new album with the Miracle 3, called "Northern Aggression". A very rockily seductive album. And I love Mavis' You Are Not Alone". I listen to it often and usually want to hear it twice through, which is always a good sign.

[lizish]

Best of the year 2010:

 

 

 

I’m getting even more regional. It’s the theory of like groups reinforcing each members ‘Awesome’ musical picks. ‘Cept I circle jerked to some CBC Radio 3 friends this year. It’s funny the Glossary et all albums were really good, but they didn’t include a live uptick that all of the bands below got.

 

1) Hollerado -- Record in a Bag.

 

Not sure what the actually release date was, but the record got distribution in 2010 and that’s the date on my copy. First saw them in the Summer - who were these guys singing Weezer covers, but they weren’t Weezer covers, these were catchy as hell originals. When a drunken version of the Black Lips’ Katerina came up at the show, I found my record of the year.

 

2) Basia Bulat -- Heart of my Own

 

This is better than the 1^st cd and you all should be ashamed for ignoring it. Got her booked for February and also seeing her in one of the beer parlours in Stratford that the Band frequented. Already put in a request for Chest Fever

 

3) Rizdales -- How the Marriage Ended

 

Equally as good 2007’s Radio Country which was a top ten for the decade.

 

4) Daniel. Fred and Julie – Daniel, Fred and Julie

 

This thing is just haunting and gorgeous. It was recorded in Julie Doiron’s garage with a single mic and her kids playing in the background. Daniel is Daniel Romano and Fred is Fred Squire, both veterans of other Ontario and Maritime acts. Got Romano booked for tomorrow night with Ox and then Doiron in January. They will be amazing.

 

 

 

5) Shad – TSOL – The Sound of London.

 

 

Shad is pretty well the nicest musician I have ever met. He hung around the indie store as a high school student trying to get me into this rap artist and that Hip Hop act. Wished I paid more attention and ‘Rose Garden’ is my song of the year. Saw him electrify a crowd this year at Hillside

 

6) Olenka and the Autumn Lovers -- And Now we Sing.

 

This is Polish folk-rock and celebrates that local aspect on an extreme level. The song’s prostitutes and dive bars are the stuff I walk by everyday.

 

7) Baby Eagle – Dog Weather

 

Most recent find. Saw Steve Lambke from the Constantines in the summer and liked it, but it was a shambles with lots of Youngian emotional lows, a drunken Time Fades Away but not on a good night. On record this is much more enjoyable, yet with a fall apart immediacy.

 

Dog Weather is also the second record in my top ten from You’ve Changed records. YC is Steve and Daniel Romano’s label and the band is made of these two, plus the east coast duo Construction and Destruction.

 

8) QUEST FOR FIRE - Lights from Paradise

 

My main guy Andre Ethier did the cover painting and I love the druggy sludge

 

9) Deer Tick – Black Dirt Sessions

 

10) Christine Bougie – Aloha Supreme

 

Darcy Hancock’s partner in crime. Christine is also the lap steel /drummer for Amy Milan and a bunch of other Canadian acts. This whole record is instrumental, yet the I swear I hear voices in the cover of I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.

 

Rest:

11) New Pornographers -- Together

12) Superchunk -- Majesty Spreading

13) Sadies - Darker Circles

14) Dan Mangan – Nice Nice Very Nice

15) Besnard Lakes -- Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

16) Woodpigeon -- Balladeer.

17) PS I Love You – Meet me at the Muster Station. Eighties revival done cheesily but well.

18) The Minotaurs -- The Thing

19) Phosphorescent - Here's to Taking it Easy

20) Doug Paisley -- Constant Companion

21) Jim Bryson and the Weakerthans -- Falcon Lake Incident

 

 

Re-issues/Compilations:

 

Blue Shadows -- On the Floor of Heaven. Absolutely lovely and the thing I have played most this year.

 

Fucked Up -- Couple Tracks. The collected 7" singles from the

last decade.

 

 

 

Songs

 

 

 

Shad – Rose Garden

 

John K Samson – The Last And

 

Blue Shadows – Raised on Robbery