10 Favorite Albums of 2010
Owen Pallett – Heartland
I think I’ve made the mistake of emphasizing (in my mind) this album’s technical accomplishment over its effectiveness as a great pop album, but still I don’t understand how even a genius like Owen Pallett has time for this undertaking.
Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Please don’t call it haunting: No album made me feel closer to real living breathing people this year. Even the dead ones (Dima, Jay Reatard) sound yet alive, not just a-ghosting. Call it instead: Sundays = Youth.
Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
There was a time when she didn’t believe she could be a singer, and now, at 28, she’s giving words, in her phrasing, more meaning than they have in their entire etymology: “hotter’n Hell,” “duration,” “my love for you,” “lawlessness” (standouts).
Laura Veirs – July Flame
A lot of people made the albums they were born to make this year, none more convincingly than Laura Veirs. That “born to make” designation is especially compelling in her case, ever since I came to the conclusion that July Flame might be a conception album.
Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid
A weird, epic, thorough tangling with music history, from a woman whose brilliance is entirely her own, and who has better taste than anyone right now.
The Radio Dept. – Clinging To A Scheme
A honey-voiced man (Johan Duncanson, who, being Swedish, has of course internalized all music) awash in warm analog environments as delicate as himself.
The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth
A honey-voiced man (Kurt Feldman, whose sadly defunct Depreciation Guild has internalized as much of the best music of the 1990s as has his other band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) awash in warm digital environments as delicate as himself.
Robyn – Body Talk
Any single installment is excellent enough for placement, but since “Cry When You Get Older” is on Pt. 1 and “Hang With Me” is on Pt. 2, let’s just consider the whole 21-song, 82-minute aerobic mastercise for inclusion here.
Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement
That I’m currently so high on a band playing Essential Psychedelic Patterns of American Rock ‘n’ Roll, while Jana Hunter lisps and mumbles half-heard phrases through the compost heap, is proof of some kind of personal salvation.
Jeremy Jay – Splash
A true blue rock ‘n’ roll record, one that couldn’t be more unlike the austere fireside croonery of last year’s sublime Slow Dance. No one’s playing guitar more cleanly, and yet with greater attack, than Jeremy Jay right now.
