My Top 10 For 2010
10. DOM - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods - DOM's music just makes you want to get up and move. Indie rock backed with swirling synths. "Living in America" is vying for my song of the year. A shame that this EP only has 19 minutes worth of music though!
9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs - I've never really been that into Arcade Fire, but The Suburbs is quite good. "Ready to Start" is a great single.
8. Tears Run Rings - Distance - Yes! More perfectly constructed "newgaze" - love it. These guys really sound like an updated Slowdive. "Inertia" and "Reunion" are the top of the crop from this album.
7. Crystal Castles - (II) - a nice dark electro album here - some tracks are a little too crunchy/choppy for me, but others, such as the wonderful "Celestica," are fantastic. Although not on this album, nice touch for collaborating with Robert Smith on a vocal version of their cover "Not In Love."
6. Groove Armada - Black Light - a nice mix of big beat and house, with enough vocal tracks to sing along to. "History" with Will Young and "Shamless" with Bryan Ferry are must-haves.
5. Class Actress - Journal of Ardency - probably the best electro-pop I've heard in years. I've played the title track from this EP over and over and over again. Cannot wait for a full-length.
4. New Young Pony Club - The Optimist - less electro-pop than their debut (which really wasn't an over electro-popped album, but certainly dancier), I really think that this is what Elastica would have sound like a decade later. Dancey punk, this album does not disappoint. Best track is "Lost Girl"
3. Interpol - Interpol - very good, but not great, album (at least compared to their past work). I do not think anything could ever match the majesty of "Turn On the Bright Lights," so it's always hard to compare Interpol albums. Some good stuff here though - "Barricade" is fantastic and perhaps my favorite song from 2010. I realized that the best Interpol tracks have a heavy bassline in them, and "Barridcade" and "Success" have such a bassline.
2. Underworld - Barking - perhaps their best since Beaucoup Fish, this album toes the line between big beat, trance, house and straight up club disco. Love "Bird 1," "Scribble," and "Always Loved a Film."
1. School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire - Really just a perfect album - laid-back and "dreamy" in many respects, but also makes you sit back and take notice. "I L U" is one of the best tracks I've heard in years, and "Bye Bye Bye" has such a great electro-shoegaze throwback sound to it.
Honorable Mention: Goldfrapp - Headfirst - glad to see that Ms. Goldfrapp has returned to her electro ways. Her best album since Supernature. As always, soaring vocals, but again over top of a lush soundscape; and UNKLE - Where Did the Night Fall - glad to see UNKLE get back to its trip-hop past. I absolutely love "The Answer."Tracks that I loved from 2010: In addition to those noted above, I loved The Black Keys' "Tighten Up," The Chemical Brothers' "Swoon," Kisses' "Bermuda," Klaxons' "Echoes," Shit Robot's "Take 'Em Up" (with Nancy Whang on vocals), Still Corners' "Endless Summer," Tamaryn's "Love Fade," Violens' "Acid Reign," and United Nations of Sound's "Are You Ready" (hooray for the return of Richard Ashcroft!),
I think my biggest disappointment in 2010 was Gorillaz' Plastic Beach - sort of all over the place.
Music that I re-discovered in 2010 (a/k/a likely to have happened to come up while shuffling my iPod and I forgot how much I loved) - Ned's Atomic Dustbin (God Fodder is just fantastic); Everything But the Girl (I forgot how good Walking Wounded and Tempermental were - and I actually discovered "Tracey In My Room," an incredible remix of "Wrong," for the first time about a month ago); DJ Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love);" and tracks off of Siouxsie and The Banshees' singles collections, such as "Fireworks," "Dazzle," "Cities in Dust" (perhaps my favorite Siouxsie song) and "The Killing Jar."
posted by Christopher at 9:57 AM
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