Music: Our Top 15 Albums of 2010

Legrand’s voice is often compared to Nico’s, but there’s a little bit of Stevie Nicks here, too - she really belts it at times, and her voice is more dominant in the mix than on Beach House’s previous records. Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac also makes its influence felt in the little flourishes of pop craftsmanship that work their way into the folds of these songs: “Norway” sounds like pop-candy with a measurable half-life with its breathy “ah-ah-ah” vocals, and “Used to Be” has more buoyancy than anything the band has recorded.

That levity is only recognizable when juxtaposed with a heavy, sensual sound that is, let’s face it, undeniably sexy. “Silver Soul” splinters open with Legrand’s sultry sighs over a Doppler-effect guitar chime that sounds like a wobbly siren, and the droning slide guitar during the verses on “Norway” makes you see red. Elsewhere, a lean pop sensibility accentuates the band’s trademark woozy textures on “Better Times”, and the crashing cymbals and chugging tempo give “10 Mile Stereo” a shoegaze washout. Album closer “Take Care” smolders for three minutes before layers and layers of Legrand’s vocal - “I’ll take care of you, it’s true” - cascade down like fireworks before fading out.

Over a year has passed since it first leaked, yet Teen Dream retains all of its power. The album is the result of a considerably talented band relentlessly testing themselves, incorporating new elements within an already-established sound to create something beyond anything they have ever done. It sounds as if it came from some haunted, infinite place, where everyone you ever loved is a blindingly bright mirage, or a ghost that you could put your arms through. Beach House are more confident here, constructing cathedrals of sound and maneuvering gracefully through them. The result is our pick for the best album of 2010.

- Phillip Pantuso

With a message that many of us can relate to, Arcade Fire's third album The Suburbs alternates through a bittersweet tribute/tirade to the green-lawn lined dystopia of cities' outer fringes. From the jangling opening chords of The Suburbs' title track to the echoing outro by lead singer Win Butler, the circular motion of the album serves as a completely satisfying experience from start to finish. Falling squarely into the 'art-rock' category with overtones of Depeche Mode, Butler's lyrics are complemented by wife Regine Chassagne's sweet vocals much more than on the previous two albums, Neon Bible and Funeral. Utilizing unique string arrangements created and performed by Owen Pallet, epic songs such as "Rococo" rattle around in the brain, begging for a repeat play to untangle all of the interwoven instrumental parts.

On top of creating incredible music, Arcade Fire orchestrated several groundbreaking alternative interactive experiences this year. The Wilderness Downtown is a film/music video for the track "We Used to Wait" that uses Google Maps to create an individualized suburban landscape background in the video, generated by plugging in your childhood zipcode at the start. The lyrics page of Arcade Fire's site gives the simple instructions "Click, Drag" which then allows the user to move words around the page, creating new songs with just a few mouse clicks. Eight different album covers lend another individualized feel to the album itself.

In conjunction with American Express, Arcade Fire's August performance at Madison Square Garden broadcasted live on YouTube with live streaming commentary by folks watching it at home. Parts of the highly recommended show remain available for viewing as a part of the UNSTAGED series. Interestingly (for the audiophiles out there anyway), the band also chose to use a process that allowed both the digital (CD, mp3) and analog (vinyl) releases to sound the same with minimal compression to squash the digital versions.

With widespread critical accolades and Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Album and Album of the Year, Arcade Fire's third release had a fantastic 2010. More than that, it became clear that Arcade Fire has big plans to change how fans interact with and consume their music. Stay tuned to see which boundaries they push next.

- Julie Schlembach

In 2010, The National came stumbling back into our lives, sadder and more angsty than ever. Despite the big sales and tour venues for the record, some rated High Violet as 'more of the same', with both Pitchfork and Paste affectionately calling it "sad bastard music." In truth, the band created a more produced and accessible version of themselves, channeling both the sorrow of prime Leonard Cohen and the arena-rock melancholy of U2's "You're So Cruel."

The trick to this is that in spite of their freewheeling, hard-drinking live shows, the album shows nuance by identifying with real people and real problems. This isn't a Sofia Coppola fiction ("Lemonworld" excepted), it's the continued story of growing up, feeling responsibility and regret, and both daydreams and nightmares about everyday life. The songs, like the band, work on a slow build - upon first listen, lead single "Bloodbuzz Ohio" sounds downcast and decidedly not pop - but once familiar with the lyrics, a listener can find themselves waiting to shout the relatable chorus of "I still owe money, to the money, to the money I owe" to anyone within earshot. Similarly, "England" finds a quiet majesty and epic scope that can give a listener chills. In the end, opener "Terrible Love" may just be The National's mantra, as the drone-y, Jesus and Mary Chain-style guitar open eventually builds to a beautifully noisy refrain that "it takes an ocean not to break." It's a fitting mission statement for a band at their absolute peak.

- Tom Thornton

It’s always a delicate balance for that young band looking to take the next step. Deliver an album that sounds just like your past ones? You get accused of “safety.” Mix it up too much? You alienate your core base. Such was the dilemma for Atlanta’s Deerhunter, a group on the rise after 2008’s double release Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. Add in a high profile lead-singer with a budding solo career of his own (Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound) and you’ve got a band that could have been crushed under it’s own expectations, like so many in this day and age.

But Deerhunter delivered with this year’s Halcyon Digest. It ain’t just a home run; it’s a slam out of the damn park. Their fifth record is another notch in their continued evolution while fitting in nicely in their overall discography. The group’s experimentalist bent is still in full-force—the record is bookended by the hazy shoegaze of “Earthquake” and “He Would Have Laughed”—but a new commitment to the ever-elusive pop hook is a nice addition. Halcyon positively burns with psych-pop power on songs like “Revival,” “Memory Boy,” and the sax-fueled “Coronado.”

Where this twin aesthetic intersects, though, is what makes the album one of the best of the year. Guitarist Lockett Pundt takes the mic on the twisting “Desire Lines,” delivering an epic that’s loud but sweet. And Bradford Cox ups the ante with the devastatingly beautiful “Helicopter,” perfectly straddling the avant-pop divide. With one foot in their own past and another in the future, Halcyon Digest proves what we’ve been thinking all along: Deerhunter are in it for the long haul. We couldn’t be happier to join them for the ride.

- Art Levy

If you're looking for the least likely act of the past ten years to graduate to festival-headliner status, LCD Soundsystem is probably it. Initially something of a side project for New York producer and label owner James Murphy, the band have somehow put together second and third albums that both transcended their influences and stood out in a crowded indie-rock landscape. Murphy's strengths are multi-faceted: his ability to stretch a song to epic lengths of seven to nine minutes without boring us, for one, and (on this album) a new found emotional range to his sometimes deadpan vocals.

There's a lot of feeling and range (anger, snarkiness, exhaustion, and regret) in these lyrics and melodies, but they're sometimes coated in such beautiful production and/or dance floor beats and synths that it takes a while for the lyrical impact to sink in. While many critics name-checked Bowie and Eno as primary influences for This is Happening (and, on "All I Want", fair enough) the truth is larger - Murphy's mental encyclopedia of dance music, art rock, and even prog makes his music a unique and compelling voice - a forty-something who isn't "Losing His Edge," but rather, setting the pace and leaving most contemporaries in the dust. One can only hope that the pronouncement of LCD's end is untrue, because it'd be a shame not to here where this vision goes next.

- Tom Thornton

Yeasayer kicked their game into high gear with the release of this year’s Odd Blood. The Brooklyn-based band crafted a much more accessible package of experimental, art-pop compared to their 2007 debut, All Hour Cymbals. The early leak of the album’s first single “Ambling Alp” proved to be captivating and catchy with a sci-fi, tech-savvy flare built around an uplifting message, through which Chris Keating repeats the overwhelmingly positive chorus to, “stick up for yourself.” Paired against a vibrant arrangement of computerized drums and synthesizers, Keating’s vocals are urgent and easily slip into a yearning falsetto, reminiscent of disco-era heavyweights like The Bee Gees. This combination easily lends to dance-inducing songs throughout the ten track album, especially in songs like “Madder Red,” “Mondegreen,” and “ONE.”

As a whole, the album strongly demonstrates their knack for wild, inventive dance music. The six-piece collective has grown tremendously as offbeat prog-rockers. The album has an undeniable throwback element - synthy, glam-rock that keeps the energy of the production highly consistent and confident. Odd Blood is encased in a psychedelic atmosphere that deconstructs, rebuilds, morphs and mesmerizes. While this was one of the first big releases of 2010, it resonated as one that may have been put down, but always remained at close reach.

- Jessica Skinner

Bands that straight-facedly call their music rock 'n roll may seem increasingly few and far between, with most raising that banner lacking in innovation or artfulness. Despite that, Spoon, as usual, this year added still another volume to their career-long testament that you can be an artful studio perfectionist who takes creative liberties with lyrics and song structures and instrumentation, while still paying homage not only to pop music, but also to the decades-long tradition of rock. The result of all this was that Transference proved not only one of the year’s best albums to play really loud with the windows rolled down, but also one of the best albums to introduce to people who, god forbid, don't listen to as much music as you do.

What the veteran quartet lacked this year in terms of chart-topping radio-friendly hits, they more than made up for with earnestness and a willingness to take their polished approach in different, less glossy directions. Perhaps more than their last couple albums, Transference held together as a ramshackle whole, an album that saw them flexing their independence and sustainability—true, they hired no hotshot outside producer, and true, the bare sound of the album was indicative of a mature musical confidence. Ultimately, the album's diversity from end to end, ranging from the footstomping “Written in Reverse” to the satisfyingly simple “Who Makes Your Money” to the date night romancer “Out Go the Lights,” proved once again that this Austin-born, Britt Daniel-led band hasn't yet run out of ideas.

- Nick Courtright

It was just October of 2009 when Sleigh Bells seemingly came out of nowhere to become the "next big thing" at the CMJ festival in New York. Armed with a couple of blown-out tracks on a demo disc, their music was immediate and bombastic. This spring we were treated to a full-length album, and Treats powers through eleven songs in a mere thirty-two minutes with all the intensity of the original demos ("Infinity Guitars" dares to get even louder than the demo version).

It remains to be seen if this is a band that will have longevity: their live shows (including a disastrous set at Beauty Bar this fall) have been dubbed "awful", "disappointing" and even "sonic terrorism" by one reviewer. In their studio versions, "Rill Rill" and "Run The Heart" hint at the diversity that we're hoping will surface with a second record. From "Infinity Guitars" blasting on the packed dance floor at Barbarella to "Riot Rhythm" being featured in a Honda commercial, this entire record remains an instant adrenaline rush and helped to define our year in music.

- Matt Shiverdecker

Following individual solo escapades (Dan Auerbach’s solo release with Hacienda and Patrick Carney’s involvement with Drummer), the Akron duo Black Keys reunited with for this year’s Brothers - their sixth and most refined album - an effort that proves their chemistry is truly a sure thing. Yeah, they invited a couple other dudes along for the ride this time around to balance and broaden the energy (Leon Michels and Nick Movshon provide bass and keyboard/percussion, respectively), but the dynamic duo remain the focus while consistently keeping things raw and bluesy.

The Black Keys make it seem so simple. Brothers is rooted in traditional, minimalistic, blues-rock. The musical partnership between Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach is soulful and sexy - Auerbach’s raspy howl and gritty guitar riffs compliment Carney’s controlled percussion from start to finish. While stand out hits like “Tighten Up” launched the album into mainstream success, Brothers as a whole demonstrates great range. “Everlasting Light” showcases Auerbach’s newly-found falsetto, “Black Mud” exercises their blues-fueled instrumentals, “Sinister Kid” gets down and dirty, “Ten Cent Pistol” conjures a spaghetti western, and “These Days” taps into the mind of a haunted man. The stripped-down, honest nature of The Black Keys is what makes their albums so powerful. In an industry where synthesizers abound, they stay true to basic instrumentation. They’ve got heart - it spills out of every ounce of their seductive production and continues to make them a stand out act that just won’t quit.

- Jessica Skinner

This California indie rock outfit has rapidly built a Blitzkrieg following with their debut album, Gorilla Manor, which is built upon the idea of the endless harmony. Usually it’s wise to wait for at least their sophomore effort before trumpeting a band’s worth, but we feel these masters of the vocal meld have put in the work, and it shows.

The group started on the self-funded Gorilla Manor at the end of 2008, and a successful trip to Austin for SXSW ’09 put them on many critics’ watch lists. The album arrived in the US in February - it was released in the UK three months earlier - giving their growing fan base only a short period of digestion before their appearance at ACL 2010. By that time, singles like the album’s opener, “Wide Eyes,” were hard to avoid. The track treads lightly with glittering, plinking, dreamy guitars and understated keyboard backed by busy beats. What is most noticeable here, as with the entirety of the recording, is the group’s carefully constructed three-man harmonies which soar just above the crowd united in a powerful tone where each individual utterance is indivisible. There are definite variations in mood and pace on Gorilla Manor; the pulse quickens along with the sounds of strings and distortion on “Camera Talk,” and in between the great swells on “Stranger Things” the single-vocal verse is set side-by-side with shared harmony, and the effect is charming and enchanting.

- William Mills

After waiting five years for a full-length followup to Illinois - Sufjan Stevens' universally acclaimed, grandiosely orchestral meditation on the folklore and history of the state it's named after - eager fans were probably a bit shocked at what they got this year. Age of Adz starts innocently enough, as sparse finger-picked guitar lines waver under staccato piano key plucks. But most traces of organic instrumentation vanish with the smack of splattering synth lines that kicks off "Too Much."

And the surprises don't end there. Stevens leaves almost no room for his usual poetic reflections and intellectual discourses on Adz, favoring instead cryptic verse and scattered, cathartic pronouncements. It's a shift in style and perspective for the visionary musician, but this change is the perfect complement to the free-form soundplay of the album. And it's one that made all the more sense when Stevens revealed that the album was, in part, a reaction to an illness that was affecting his nervous system. Age of Adz subverts expectations, to be sure, but it wouldn't be Sufjan if it didn't.

- Alex Daniel

Previous to now, Ariel Pink’s recordings have been hodgepodge pop experiments that sunk or swam based on the listener’s tolerance for weird whimsy and Pink’s maddening refusal to self-edit. But with this year’s Before Today, Pink and his band have arguably made their first record with listeners in mind. The songs on this breakthrough album are concise and catchy, but still manage to challenge a listener with a its myriad of moods and flavors, whereas old recordings managed to challenge a listener’s patience above all. Before Today is a strong set of songs that still manages to not take itself too seriously, as nods to yacht rock and a song called “Butt-House Blondies” should indicate. It’s still not for everyone, but this is the closest Pink is going to come to your weird-tooth and sweet-tooth simultaneously.

- Adam Schragin

Before the release of Plastic Beach, Gorillaz seemed like more of a post-modern curio than anything else, a somewhat ridiculous cartoon-cum-band outfit in which the music was more side effect than driving force. But all that changed this year, as Blur-famous mastermind Damon Albarn promoted Gorillaz from side project hell to mainstage attraction, and while his sometimes-obnoxious political mugging remained, for the first time the music really took the lead over everything else. Armed with a cast of collaborators that would make just about anyone shy of Kanye jealous—Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Mos Def, etc.—the sprawling LP featured about as diverse a range of styles as appeared on any album this year. And while Albarn is caught up in everything from iPad glorification to talking shit on Glee, Plastic Beach was a testament to the fact that no matter how grating he can be as a personality, his musical acumen still stuns.

With songs like “Stylo,” “Rhinestone Eyes,” “Empire Ants,” “On Melancholy Hill,” and absolutely no hesitance to incorporate musical ideas from around the world, whether it be Arab backing band or The Clash or a symphony orchestra, this is an album that, even if its length and wackiness might have scared some people off, was never afraid to take the risks it needed to take to get where it needed to go. And where it needed to go was to the place where middling expectations are blown away. Simply said, there may have been albums this year that got more attention, but there were very few—if any—that were as fun.

- Nick Courtright

White Denim dropped Last Day of Summer on us with practically no fanfare: one day, a link to download the album with an accompanying letter from frontman James Petralli appeared on the band’s website. In that note, Petralli explained that Last Day of Summer was a “summer retreat from ongoing work on the third full length,” and the songs do sound like a band experimenting for fun, unwinding after a long day’s work. The approach is more casual and carefree, which lends Last Day of Summer a lightness not normally associated with a White Denim, though these guys are so talented that they pull it off anyway. Take album highlight “Tony Fatti”, which begins with a twitchy guitar riff before the catchy, clipped chorus kicks in, and your feet start to move. Or “If You’re Changing”, a summery slow-jam that shows off Petralli’s newfound vocal confidence. Or “Some Wild Going Outward”, a wistful acoustic stomp with some shimmering arpeggios and a bouncy bass line. You get the idea - front to back, Last Day of Summer is full of catchy jams that made for a perfect into-autumn listen. And it’s essentially a B-sides record. We can’t wait to see what’s next from these guys.

- Phillip Pantuso

With his band Sigur Rós on “indefinite hiatus,” semi-reluctant mouthpiece for the band Jónsi Birgisson began to make moves of independence. His most startling may have been his contribution to house DJ Tiësto’s 2009 album Kaleidoscope. On the unusual but affecting title track, Jónsi steps squarely into the spotlight as electronic instrumentation swells around his chants, eventually culminating into a dance groove hard enough to get whatever the Icelandic equivalent of a guido (guidó?) is up and fist pumping like a champ.

While nothing on Jónsi’s debut album reaches that set of extremes, the music on Go is a stretch into new textures and sounds for the artist that doesn’t lose the dramatic arc and beauty that made his main project so affecting in the first place. Songs like “Go Do” and “Animal Arithmetic” are more jovial than Sigur Rós allowed itself to be, whereas “Tornado” holds onto beauty and melancholy that fans will recognize from the old days. Go is a necessary and brave metamorphosis from a talented singer and songwriter formerly content to let his music obscure his personality. On Go, both shine without diminishing the other.

- Adam Schragin

Thanks to Justin for the image.