With yet another year coming to its inevitable end, the music writers here at JustPressPlay felt as if it was due time to present you with what we feel are the ten best albums of 2010. It's been a strange year in music. It was a year in which critical darlings Arcade Fire, media darling Kanye West and indie darlings The National all released new material. Our list surprisingly features none of those releases. Though we do have reviews for them here, here and here. Instead we feature ten albums that we feel truly deserve the publicity that we are about to give them. Without further ado, our top ten albums of 2010.
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10. Blind Guardian - At The Edge of Time
Every track on At The Edge of Time has literally everything you would expect from a Blind Guardian release, from the speed-metal driven riffs to the symphonic orchestral melodies. This time around there is no symphonic keyboards like in the band’s previous releases. Instead, most of the orchestral elements are done by the FILMharmonic Orchestra. Who says an orchestra has no place in metal? The orchestra brings out the feel of the style of music that (Blind Guardian) are known for. (Anthony Hogie)
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9. Moulettes - Moulettes
There’s not a lot of bad to things that can be said about the Moulettes' debut full length. It’s highly original and yet maintains its accessibility despite the fact that it’s really like nothing you’ve probably ever heard before. Though lyrically it helps if you have a taste for the macabre, the songs are so undeniably unique and well crafted that it’s hard not to like this band. With splendid vocal harmonization, great songwriting and a flat out wildly original concept, the Moulettes have given us what may be the best debut of 2010. (Tyler Barlass)
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8. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Steeped as much in 70s gonzo soul-funk as the southern rap style he’d already mastered, Big Boi’s long-delayed solo effort, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, is an urgent and impressionistic hip hop LP, containing all of the virtues and drawbacks that entails (plus a few astonishing and exhilarating virtues I wasn’t expecting). At just shy of an hour, Sir Lucious refuses to overstay its welcome, and thanks to the immediacy and force of the scrambled synth-funk beats, steel-edged rhythmic thuds, and hopscotch verses, it might have even survived another cut or two. (Matt Medlock)
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7. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
The virtual band’s curious nature of freeform genre swapping has always been one of their most rewarding traits, but on Plastic Beach, the weird interludes, mod experiments and far-flung bricolage have been pared away for a series of undulations that may trade on instruments but not intent. This album is primarily based around cycling synth figures; pointed, clacking, throbbing or pounding, it’s a near-perfect marriage of early motorik and midnight house. Take nearly any individual track and compare it to another and you’ll find a wealth of difference in detail and sound, but rarely during the disc’s flow do you truly notice the breaks. (Matt Medlock)
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6. Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Over the past couple of years, Dr. Dog has fast become one of my very favorite acts in today's scene. Their mixture of jovial '60s style pop music and powerful '70s soul combined with a touch of americana is about as appealing to me as a description of sounds can be. Helmed by the voices of two distinct vocalists, guitarist Scott McMicken with his higher hitched tenor delivery and bassist Toby Leaman with his soulful, demanding tone, Dr. Dog utilizes the effect of two radically different singers sharing lead on their albums to near perfection. (Tyler Barlass)
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5. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
If, as James Murphy claims, This Is Happening turns out to be the last LCD Soundsystem album (or the last before an extended hiatus for the moniker), perhaps we should be grateful. For one, he is departing on a high note, leaving us begging for more. And for another (and more controversially), he is offering more of the same, with few modifications to the surface area, and difficult-to-grasp modifications to the deeper meaning (which was usually a lot of surface, anyway). If this suggests that I find LCD to be empty and repetitive, then allow me the opportunity to then insist that no one in the last decade has done his fusion with finer clarity, better chops, or greater impact—dubbed by some to be dance punk, but is really just wry, conflicted dance music that’s not always easy to dance to even when you really want to. (Matt Medlock)
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4. House of Heroes - Suburba
Suburba is not just a slick, well produced rock record with a number of memorable tunes; it’s also an ambitious road trip. From the feel good rhythm of “Relentless” to the Muse influenced, anthemic album closer “Burn Me Down,” House of Heroes proves that they can craft smart, melodic rock music that’s both engaging and yet not overly complicated or sickeningly over produced. (Tyler Barlass)
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3. The Black Keys - Brothers
The amount of great memorable songs on Brothers is easily of a greater ratio than that on any previous Black Keys album. Rather than crafting an album that’s cohesive and similar in sound from one song to the next, this album leaves us with a collection of individually unique compositions, focusing less on the overall sound of the album and putting more emphasis on each individual track. Starting with the Motown soul of album opener “Everlasting Light” and followed by the sing along chorus of the menacing “Next Girl,” it’s easy to see that the Keys are weaving gold on Brothers. (Tyler Barlass)
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2. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
A more focused group than we’ve come to expect, with a firm pursuit for real songs and real feeling (melding joy and gravity is never an easy task, but even when one frequently find the words elusive in their meaning, the music pantomimes with rich detail), results in their most mature and polished work to date. It’s not as rampantly, breathlessly alive as You Forget It In People nor as thrillingly messy and deliciously schizophrenic as Broken Social Scene, but the Broken Social Scene of Forgiveness Rock Record sounds more like a real band with real intentions than ever before. (Matt Medlock)
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1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
While it remains primarily electronic and beat-centered, Cosmogramma is obsessed with spastic and jarring breakdowns that are alive with the juice of both raw emotion and pure technique. The strings and harps of “A Cosmic Drama” should compete unnaturally with the frenetic and undisciplined rhythm of “Nose Art” and the scrambled eggs miasma that comprises “Zodiac Shit,” but there’s something beyond meter (and even mood) that makes them flow together even though they stand at a gap between different sectional suites. Beats also take a backseat on some alarmingly beautiful and mellow passages like “Mmmhmm” and “German Haircut,” while the digi-fractures of classic glitch splinter the dreamy laments of “Satelllliiiiteee” and “…And the World Laughs with You” (the latter features a Thom Yorke vocal, and individually could be mistakenly confused for a Radiohead B-Side, but in context flowers naturally from Flying Lotus’ IDM fetish). “Recoiled,” meanwhile, employs skronky horns and cymbal splashes in a way that could be easily confused for the real midnite-hard deal, until it gets interrupted by some sublime static and choppy chatter near the midpoint. How impressive are these mutations? Flying Lotus actually manages to make video game blips and burbles sound orchestral through navigation and layering alone. Need more proof? It’s tough to notice the bass even while the walls shake as it pumps out of the stereo! Easily the most complete and wholly satisfying album from Steven Ellison yet (sorry, Los Angeles fans, but it’s true), Cosmogramma is one of the year’s absolute must-buys. (Matt Medlock)
