Please note: the excerpted reviews are not written by me, while I may be inclined to write effusively about each of these record so many have already done so that it would be redundant. So I'm just editing for space, with links to the full reviews are in the album title.
Also: a previous post for favorite songs of the year can be found by scrolling down, or if you're too lazy to scroll, just click here.
And now, the list:
1. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Genuine Negro Jig
For the most part this album’s an unashamedly foot-stomping countrified fiddle-and-banjo racket, and with it the trio reclaim what is usually assumed to be exclusively hillbilly property. But this historic black style is mountain music with something more, as these 12 tracks show how it fits between the European quadrilles and the Anglo/Celtic folk that came across the Atlantic and the rural blues and ragtime jazz that grew out the American South, informing so much contemporary music. And in the hands of the Carolina Chocolate Drops this history lesson is far from dry.
The relatively youthful threesome learned their craft from original Piedmont players and swap instruments – banjo, fiddle, jug, harmonica, guitar, snare drum and kazoo – with ease, and although they all sing, the guys, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson, leave most of the vocals to the opera-trained Rhiannon Giddens. Cleverly, the group mix traditional songs with original compositions and a couple of surprising covers, allowing them to honour the past, then subtly nudge it forward linking it to the modern music they grew up with.
2. The Green Children - Encounter
From the opening notes of the title song, Encounter, you know you’re in for an album full of lush arrangements that owes as much to nature as to electronics. Or as the press notes call it “ethereal pop with post-modern dance beats.” Basically, the kind of music you’d expect to hear at a hip coffee house, a chill after hours lounge or that restaurant where it’s impossible to get a reservation.
But there’s more to The Green Children than simply their music. There’s also an important movement. Milla and Marlow also cofounded The Green Children Foundation to help raise awareness and funds for the Grameen Bank and Grameen Healthcare Services in Bangladesh. And when the band released a CD/DVD in Norway in 2006, through sales and donations, they raised about $500k, which helped open the Grameen Green Children Eye Hospital. And 100% of the money donated to the Foundation goes directly to the cause.
3. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
For the L.A indie rock quintet Local Natives, it all comes down to voices. Sometimes they're up front, gliding over a haunting little Saharan-blues guitar lick; often they flit about in the margins, lighting up a song like a pulled curtain...The tipsy saloon piano that buoys lead single "Airplanes" and the coy, restrained fuzz of "Camera Talk" prove the Natives can wring evocative sounds from traditional instruments. Drummer Matt Frazier has an ambitious knack for accenting a song with bursts of clatter...but the band always comes back to the spectacle and possibilities of those vocals. There's a bit of Broadway, a touch of Motown and a tang of choir nerd to them, but Local Natives avoid the preciousness of Grizzly Bear or the gang-chorus rapture of Arcade Fire. It's a rare band that can use its chemistry as its own instrument.
4. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Serving up a comprehensively postmodern survey of pop culture with wit, panache and an enviable dose of hooks, This Is Happening manages to avoid predictability by consistently keeping one step ahead of the listener yet sidestepping clever-clever irony with a genuine warmth that’s naturally layered within the giggling heathen at the heart of the record...What Murphy does best is balance these tendencies so that none of his whim-chasing expulsions ever feel crass or smug, and by finding the spirited inspiration in the nondescript, the self-effacement in our projected criticisms, and the fun in the commonplace, he’s able to keep us entertained in the process....by finding a way to be life-affirming while keeping our hips shaking, without casting off life’s woes and joys as either paltry or boring, LCD Soundsystem has succeeded at capturing both our minds and our bodies without sacrificing its head-nodding spirit or its heavy-hearted sense of purpose along the way.
5. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
The songs zip gleefully from genre to genre, mostly grounded in R&B and funk, but spinning out into rap, pastoral British folk, psychedelic rock, disco, cabaret, cinematic scores, and whatever else strikes her fancy. It's about as bold as mainstream music gets, marrying the world-building possibilities of the concept album to the big tent genre-mutating pop of Michael Jackson and Prince in their prime. The first listen is mostly about being wowed by the very existence of this fabulously talented young singer and her over-the-top record; every subsequent spin reveals the depths of her achievement.
6. Eric Bibb - Booker's Guitar
[Eric] Bibb is a creative songwriter, an excellent singer and a masterful guitar player, and that's all on display here. The songs are understated little gems filled with the passion of honest expression. They're what I would call "soft blues" -- music inspired by and drawn from the tradition, but not necessarily in the traditional blues musical format. The tracks are all original, and all-acoustic, with Grant Dermody adding subtly powerful harp accompaniment...this is a gently swinging and thoughtful bluesy album for a cold winter night and a double shot of Jim Beam Black.
7. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
On this project, Earle is less concerned with lyrics than with finding his sound, and he finds it in a fat-toned, unhurried country-blues. That greasy groove allows his handsome tenor to relax until he sounds as if he's talking off-handedly and confidentially, even as he hits every note with dead-on pitch and a resonant hum.
The 10 original songs are mostly juke-joint numbers, finger-snapping tunes about fickle women and footloose men. Some of the best musicians in Nashville lay down an understated but irresistible throb beneath such songs as "Move Over Mama" and the title track. But it is Earle's voice, shrugging off a thousand bumps and bruises to look forward to the next scene, that sells them.
8. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Within the band’s stripped-down rock, there are hints of ‘50s surf and ‘60s garage rock, echoes of ‘70s punk and new wave à la the Modern Lovers, traces of ‘80s college rock, and more. Yet the Soft Pack’s music doesn’t feel overtly retro -- they’re just not trying hard to sound “modern.” Unlike some of their predecessors, their simplicity is more direct than arty, a bash-it-out and get-it-out-there approach...They’ve got the template of classic sounds down and failsafe pop instincts...compared to the increasingly delicate, intricate indie of the late 2000s, The Soft Pack sounds vital.
9. Francis and The Lights - It'll Be Better
Francis Farewell Starlite is a smart 28-year-old songwriter in love with Eighties R&B at its slickest, whitest and oddest — he sings a little like Peter Gabriel and mixes cutting jazz-piano chords and clever pop constructions like Steely Dan. That sensibility has earned him production work with Drake, and on his full-length debut, Starlite turns his faith in catchy tunes into a series of studies on the persuasive power of pop itself.
10. Fitz & The Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces
Even if Fitz & company were to fall through a wormhole while performing and land in 1967, they wouldn’t be greeted as great innovators. Their sound is traditional genre to the point of being unabashedly cliché more often than not...yet the tracks that stretch the clichés the thinnest justify doing so by being the catchiest damn sweets on the album...To answer the question inherently presented by anything retro, this band’s debut represents a true revival, rather than an exhumation; Without heart, you’re just a zombie, and Fitz & The Tantrums are not lacking anything in that category. In fact, many of the compositions on Pickin’ Up The Pieces are so perfect and full of conviction that it’s hard not to call them classics without exaggeration...and to say that the flawless, heartstring-plucking album-closer Tighter gives Elton John a run for his money might not even be saying too much.
11. Aqualung - Magnetic North
Aqualung moves from track to track on Magnetic North wearing a variety of different personas. He can change from Beck to Coldplay to Radiohead all within a few bars. And quite often when artists breach that kind of mimicry it comes off as such, but he manages to maintain his identity while taking the form of (what I can only assume are) his greatest personal influences.
And the writing is equally enchanting. The beauty of his writing is found in its simplicity. He says exactly what he is saying…This record has a lot of integrity, and is extremely accessible. I’d recommend this to anyone who just loves music.
12. Seth Swirksy - Watercolor Day
Rejoice, pop fans: the first truly great record of 2010 has arrived, in the form of Seth Swirsky’s gorgeous “Watercolor Day.” The 19-track collection of sweet, summery sounds is equal parts Beach Boys (circa ’66/’67), Emitt Rhodes, Harry Nilsson and every great sunshine pop act from the late ’60s.
Swirsky has fashioned a marvelous mixture of beautifully understated lead and background vocals, perfectly placed horns and strings, and a host of intoxicating melodies that swing and sway.
And the rest of the top 20, loosely ranked
13. Darius Rucker - Charleston, SC 1966
14. Sara Bareilles - Kaleidoscope Heart
15. Jaheim - Another Round
16. Lana Mir - Lana Mir
17. JJ Grey & Mofro - Georgia Warhorse
18. PJ Morton - Walk Alone
19. Sugarland - The Incredible Machine
20. Sugar & Gold - Get Wet!
