Best of 2010: “Silence Takes Too Long.” Top 15 Albums!

I feel some responsibility and obligation to apologize to Thom Yorke for not really listening to that Flying Lotus record.

Enjoy.

Here’s my Top 15 Albums Of 2010, descending order? (#1 is the best anyway).

…

15.
Pomegranates
One Of Us

Why?

Because they remind me so much of those Ottawa bands that I love (The Balconies, HILOTRONS), which means they make the kind of straight up indie rock music that makes me fall in love all over again with straight up indie rock and forget about all the meta shit at play with that particular genre of music.

..

14.
Baths
Cerulean

Why?

Because looking over the whole thing, all Passion Pit and Fleet Foxes and Burial and hints of the Postal Service, it’s about the perfect continuation of electro-pop you could ask for — fuzzy yet refined, concise and smooth, packed with hooks.

..

13.
Meursault
All Creatures Will Make Merry

Why?

Because I can imagine a big white lighthouse in Scotland, somewhere on the coast. And the lighthouse keeper, you know, he’s a bit of a crazy guy, and one day he says let’s convert this bitch from a lighthouse to a soundhouse, so instead of a giant beam of light, we’ll crank some indie rock or something out to the ships. So they dismantled the mirrors and the light and everything, and set up some really nice Paradigms up there, and then they just play this album on repeat, letting it float out through the fog and skip along the white caps. Surprisingly, the ships are okay. After pulling into harbour guided by the sweet sounds of the soundhouse and this album, one fishing barge captain even remarked: “That song, ‘Weather,’ it kinda sounds like 2010’s ‘Postcards From Italy’”.

..

12.
Frog Eyes
Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph

Why?

Because it’s a clusterfuck of ideas, sounds, instruments, and scratchy throats, but what it really is is an album that keeps on begging to be explored, asking you to quietly peer down its long corridors or loudly open a door and declare yourself. Dunno if that really does it justice, but this is the last one I’m writing, and time is of the essence.

..

11.
Villagers
Becoming A Jackal

Why?

Because Villagers songs typically exist in the lyrical reality of Elvis Perkins (which is a sort of magic-realism type world, where weird images collide with day-to-day activities (see “Home,” etc.)), and that’s a world I can always use some more of. Because the production here is incredibly well thought out, and your ears will thank you as a result. Every back-up vocal, every horn, every guitar chord is meticulously placed.

Why not?

Because he kinda sounds like Conor Oberst, and his name is Conor O’Brien (really), which makes him a sort of potential double copy-cat.

..

10.
The Radio Dept.
Clinging To A Scheme
Why?

Because this thing’s got effortless swings from danceable to maudlin, but still remembers that it’s an album as a whole, and not only that but a Radio Dept. album, and then not only that but maybe the best Radio Dept. album, which is some feat.

..

09.
The Books
The Way Out

Why?

Because The Books are the only band who can successfully make albums that are Zen Koans (or make Zen Koans into albums). Or, how I like to think about it:

“is an excellent way of explaining or talking about The Way Out” is an excellent way of explaining or talking about The Way Out.

..

08.
Nina Nastasia
Outlaster

Why?

Because it’s perfect in the way songwriting can be perfect, can spell out a sentiment, can retell or conjure up a story and make you actually care about it (especially when it’s something that you probably wouldn’t actually care about otherwise). But then more than that. Brave in that Nina Nastasia isn’t the best singer in the world, but she still goes with the most naked production in the world — the most vulnerable to scrutiny. Because the delivery of lines like “You can have my sixth grade picture” will continue to trip me up for as long as I live.

..

07.
Surfer Blood
Astro Coast

Why?

Fuck why, let’s go on a roadtrip and play this shit from the stereo. We can drive to the beach with the windows down. No no no I don’t care that it’s winter now, and no no no I don’t care that you have Christmas shopping to do. I’ll give you this copy of Astro Coast for Christmas. Right now, in your car. What? No. Let’s fucking go before this CD ends. Get your swimsuit or whatever. Just listen to this shit. Yes, the next song is just as catchy. It’s about watching Twin Peaks which, while awesome, is not what we’re going to do today. Listen again. These songs are sparkling like a birthday cake.

..

06.
Los Campesinos!
Romance Is Boring

Why?

Because what do you know about Los Campesinos!? They have a fucking exclamation mark at the end of their name, which you can’t say about Animal Collective or The Shins. Even Godspeed’s exclamation mark didn’t make it to the end of the name. Premature exclamation. LOL. Anyways, Los Campesinos! are my band, and I love them in a way that you never can. But I suppose you should love them too, though I don’t think you can buy their first EP anymore… too bad for you (not for me though cause I bought that shit on the first day possible). I was there, man. Also, hey, their songs’ sentiments and ideas and criticisms are the kinds of sentiments and ideas and criticisms you want people to think that you have simply because you listen to Los Campesinos! (or other awesome bands with similar lyrics, but why bother with other bands because Los Campesinos! rule. 4eva.). Signed, Me, Aged 17 years.

..

05.
The National
High Violet

Why?

It’s all about the worldview for me I think, the way it’s so desperate and bleak and paranoid in a kind of suburban, middle-class way, if that makes sense. It reminds me of an alternate-universe version of Tallahassee maybe, where the simultaneous pulls of love and hate (or healing and destruction) are so palpable and feel so real, where at first you ask how the people that occupy these songs could be so torn and so broken, but then realize that disintegrating relationships are always much more complex than just a distillation of a singular feeling.

..

04.
PS I Love You
Meet Me At The Muster Station

Why?

Because these guys rock as hard as Japandroids, and as well as Japandroids. And all their songs have lines in them that you always just wanna shout out while the song is playing, and there aren’t too many albums that do that for me anymore.

..

03.
Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

So this album, it’s kind of. Well. Picture this. A beautiful and scantily-clothed Phoenix crashes into Earth from another world and then a handsome man (who drives a really expensive car) has to take her from the wreckage of her crash and teach her the ways of humanity. He ultimately fails, because human society is actually really complicated and teacups are hard to hold when you are half-bird and have bird hands, and choking down a Thanksgiving turkey is even harder (because that would be cannibalism). So he gets kinda depressed about failing and then there’s a commercial for an industrial production of Swan Lake. In the end he learns some valuable information about what statues really are. He is also maybe given some sort of musical superpowers from the Phoenix which allow him to make the very album I’m offhandedly narrating. Because no one within human society can music like this for real.

..

02.
Sufjan Stevens
The Age Of Adz

Why?

Because we need to praise artists who still strive to be ambitious, who run with the whims of their creative inner-voices, and who still have the desire and the wherewithal and the talent to make 25 minute closing tracks that are completely enthralling, hook-laden and enjoyable over the course of all of those 25 minutes, and THEN call you back for another listen. Because Sufjan has made an album that doesn’t rely at all on his usual narrative-driven songs (”words are futile devices…”), but it comes off just as emotionally resonant, powerful in its themes, and unified as a whole. And because The Age Of Adz is simultaneously everything a Sufjan album shouldn’t be (repeating repeating phrases, beats and snyths, auto-tune etc.) and still sounds like everything a Sufjan album is (exceptional composition, grandiose musical flourishes, excellently organized, etc.). “Do you want to love me more?” Sufjan asks. Yes. But I don’t see how I can.

..

01.
Future Islands
In Evening Air

Why?

Because it’s an incredibly saddening and accurate crystallization of what goes on in a break-up (read: it’s a concept album). And because I think it’s really hard to make a good break-up record, or one that people might take seriously. Because it’s full of the moments one is cursed replaying after a break-up — how you’re trapped to view the so obvious way that your partner didn’t look you in the eyes, or how you knew they weren’t thinking about you anymore. And because, musically, it’s full of frustration and powerlessness and ultimately it’s a thick soup of denial mixed with realization. And whether you love or hate the Meatloaf-esque vocals, you’re bound to feel the disenfranchised way they sound, caught under a grumble of noise — drowning a little. Which is the point. The vocals are everything — we need them, but we almost don’t want to hear what they’re saying, or how they’re saying it.