Photo: Karmabum
Top 10. Top 10 LPs & EPs of 2010. There was plenty of good music this year, much more out there than the 10 posted here, but these are my top 10 favorite LPs & EPs of 2010. We saw the ebb and flow of Chillwave [link]. Nostalgia hit it's peak then stayed up there and I don't see it dying in 2011 [link].
This was my first year I really followed music, seeking out that new 'relevant' tune of the week. I went to so many concerts and festivals this year (like <30). Saw some truly moving shows[The xx] and some annoying ones [MGMT]. This year I really fell in love with new music and I could name the new/hip trend in music for any month. Without further ado, here are the LPs & EPs that I felt a real/emotional connection with and can't ever see myself from stop listening to or enjoying!
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10 Titus Andronicus :: The Monitor
Recently named Best Live Act of the Year by Consequence of Sound, the New Jersey based, Titus Andronicus, certainly does rock out. I was lucky enough to see them twice in Louisville and got to meet the entire band (following Amy Klein on twitter [@AmyAndronicus] is pretty cool). Incredibly down to earth and touring in a small van, this band is so American and it's awesome. Singing: "The enemy is everywhere!" and "You will always be a loser" (On repeat for like 15 times) then "And that's OK!" Just start the album from the start and I guarantee you won't be able to turn it off. It would be un-American and this is an 'All-American' rock anthem, and that's not always a bad thing.
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9 Gold Panda :: Lucky Shiner
The nostalgia theme of 2010 hit no low especially for this gem by English producer, Gold Panda. On his debut, reverb and constant sampling make this album a beautiful night listen. Read my full review here.
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8 Beat Connection :: Surf Noir EP
Chillwave may be known as a 2009 invention, but it really hit perfection this past year. This Seattle based duo barely made the blog stream, but they nailed both of the major themes this year: nostalgia and surf/summer tunes.
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7 Vampire Weekend :: Contra
If there was one band that people thought would be a one-hit-album-wonder it was Vampire Weekend, and if there was one album I would want to be in my top 10 list it was this one. Back in 2008 when 'A-Punk' was making it's radio rounds and 'independent' music was beginning to dawn on me, Vampire Weekend was just another college, prep band. Now the Ezra Koenig lead quartet is breaking the college band stereotypes and is transcending among the rest of the indie bands and becoming one of the biggest acts 2010 can produce. Contra is as perfect as Vampire Weekend could make it. 'Taxi Cab' is where the album shines and Ezra reminisces on leaving someone because of this class-system and her being "Nostalgic for garbage and desperate for time." Poor girl.
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6 LCD Soundsystem :: This is Happening
"DRUNK GIRLS! DRUNK GIRLS! DRUNK GIRLS!" Oh, James Murphy, I think you could've dropped an album with a few drum kits and you talking about how relevant you were when you were 20 and I'd still love it. This is Happening is as, Ferris Bueller would say, "So choice." And he'd be right. This album is just really, really cool. James, you are still the coolest cat around.
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5 Games :: That We Play EP
Nostalgia again. And not even remotely tired of it. Full of synth-heavy beats and mauled out lyrics with layers of reverb, Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford make a wonderful album that can sum up this whole year and in less than twenty minutes. I cannot wait to hear what else is in store with this band.
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4 Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti :: Before Today
Gorilla vs. Bear asked Carles to write a 'blurb' for them about this album and the Hipster Runoff author, being the poet he is, wrote this amazing review:
“Alas! The brilliant lofi texturewave artist Ariel Pink has finally done it, leaving many of us wondering: “What did music sound like Before Today?” which is coincidentally the title of his gamechanging 2010 release with his band of lofi talismans known simply as the Haunted Graffiti. Merging his ambient bedroom recording artist textures with the modern textures and professionalism of the modern recording vibes required for ‘mainstream indie coverage’, Ariel Pink has emerged from the shadowy textures of yesteryear and has evolved into a modern indie star. It seems as if perhaps the world has finally caught up with Ariel Rosenberg, and our ears are finally ready for his textures. “Before Today” is history, while the future is a mystery but today is a gift which belongs to Ariel Pink.”
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3 Beach House :: Teen Dream
Beginning with putting Norway in the indiesphere scene [link], Beach House released another elegant piece of art. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand continue there reign as the best indie couple, even tho the competition is heating up [Tennis/Reading Rainbow/NOT SHE & HIM]. Teen Dream is so pretty and the album runs so perfectly along. It makes you just want to walk along a white sandy beach in throwback clothes laughing along with your friends, enjoying the tastes of summer, being carefree. What a great teenage dream.
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2 James Blake :: The Bells Sketch EP / CMKY EP / Klavierwerk EP
It's rare to say something like, "Wow I think this is a new genre of music." or "I've never heard anything like this before!" when you listen to music nowadays, but English producer, James Blake may have just done that and he's like a year older than me. He's sampling music and hardly changing it, just adding perfect beats with it. It sounds so clear and precise. Mr. Blake has dropped three EPs this year and his debut is dropping sometime in February. It'll feature one of his best songs, his cover of Fiest's 'Limit to Your Love.' He shows his piano and singing talent on Klaveirwerk ("piano works" in German) and still includes his amazing sampling skills, and his best track, 'I Only Know (What I Know Now)' and as P4k's David Bevan put it, "like infinity trapped inside five minuets." Blake is certainly the best new artist of 2010 and I cannot wait for his debut.
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1 Kanye West :: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I don't even know what to say about this album. It's by far the best album of the year. BY FAR. It again changes the hip-hop game and I am not afraid to say that MBDTF is the best mainstream hip-hop album ever released. It proves how Kanye West is the greatest artist alive he "does the rap and the track" and fucking nails it on this album and every album Kanye will ever produce. As Jon Caramanica of the New York Times puts it, "Every Kanye West album, until the cancer of the world around him begins to encroach on the parts of his cerebral cortex that control his musical ear, will be excellent and huge. He'll never have an idiosyncratic period." My favorite line: "What's a black Beatle anyway, a fucking roch?" Damn Kanye.
