2009 was kind of a lackluster year for music, but 2010 came roaring back with a great year in a variety of genres which is really great for me because as many of you know I listened to music pretty much 24/7 whether it be my “no swears” playlist that I have on in the background while I am teaching at work, my adrenaline playlists while at the gym or running/biking/playing sports, my studying playlists and more. I have about 700 songs on my 2010 playlist on my ipod many of them instant classics. I’ll start off with my list for my 10 Favorite albums of 2010, followed by my most hated albums of the year, some honorable mention albums that were really good but just not good enough to make the top 10 in this great year, and finally my thoughts on everything else that I listened to this year or made major cultural impact in the pop or indie worlds.

10. The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae

This album somehow sounds simultaneously very old school (she has obviously influences from James Brown, Prince, Outkast, and Ceeloo) and like the future. The opening single “Tightrope” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc ) with its bouncy beat, horn section, and Monae’s alternating between souring vocals to scat rapping that will force someone even as rhythmically challenged as me get up and dance. Her track “Cold War” also will bring people out to the dance floor but its lyrics are an anti-conformity individualistic anthem with the opening line “so you think I am alone, but alone is the only way to be, when you step outside, you spend life fighting for sanity” and ends with the line “don’t you cry when say goodbye.” Monae is ridiculously talented and can do a lot more than make great funky dance tracks. Songs like Sir Greenwood and Say You’ll Go show off her beautiful voice in ballads. The music behind Babopya sounds like it could be the soundtrack of a great movie from the 1940s. Amazingly enough all these varying styles of songs go together as a loosely based concept album about the future with the Archandroid character (Monae) as the centerpiece. Monae is blessed with one of the great voices to hit the music scene in a while (if you have seen her live she can dance too) and her adventurism to try to use her voice in a myriad of ways means she will knock bog her self down only using her great voice for very typical RnB balleds like Alicia Keys.

9. Recovery by Eminem

My very succinct review of this album would be grading the choruses a C, the beats a B, and Eminem’s verses an A. This might have cracked the top five if some of the choruses were not so corny or bad. That being said Eminem is on top of his game here. (I am not going to say it is a return to form because despite what people including Eminem say, last year’s Relapse album a good album) Eminem goes out of his Dr. Dre and self produced comfort zone on this album to work with a larger a variety of collaborators including pop/rnb star Rihanna. Both Eminem and Rihanna know a thing or two about being a volatile relationship and on this album they team up for the song of the year “Love The Way You Lie.” The song was a number one pop hit due to Rihanna’s haunting hook and the great beat even though Eminem tells a detailed tour de force story of a sociopathic co-dependent dude who ends up killing his girlfriend rather than let her leave. Eminem opens up on his problem with drugs on this album as well on songs like “Not Afraid” which somehow works despite the corny chorus and “Talking To Himself” where talks about the various breakdowns he has dad. That is not to say that Eminem has gone “soft.” On Cold Wind Blows he lambasts enemies both real and imagined and he still has the abilty to drop both sick and hilarious lines like “they can get a belt and a kneck tie to hang themselves by, like David Carradine they can go fuck themselves and die.” One of the other suprising tracks is “No Love” with features a sample of Haddaway of all things and features Lil Wayne. The last verse of the song Eminem unleashes a classic verse that features a multitude of flows and rhyme schemes that few other rappers could ever dare even attempt to emulate.

8. Teen Dream by Beach House

Some albums need to be listened to straight through to get their full effect. This is one of those albums. It is also an aptly named album because listening to it almost has an hallucinatory affect of transporting you to a dream like state and making you feel more connected to space and time. I know I sound like a pretentious ass writing that, but listen to the album in a dark room and tell me it is not true. 

7. This Is Happening by LCD Sound Systems

James Murphy and his crew in LCD Sound Systems have an amazing ability of being able to make songs to dance to but that can also make you want to laugh or cry. In the laugh category is a song like “Drunk Girls” which was an instant party anthem with its lines like “drunk boys keep pace with the pedophiles” and “drunk girls wait an hour to pee;” but, the song hits its apex when Murphy croons “I believe in waking up together- so that means making eyes across the room.” In the heartbreaking almost bringing you to tears category of song is a track like “I Can Change.” The songs opens with the lyric “tell me a line-make it easy for me-open your arms dance with me until I feel alright.” Later Murphy hits the refrain begging “never change, never change, never change, this is why I fell in love.” After the relationship deteriorates “if she calls you tonight everything will be all right-love is a curse-shoved in a curse-love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry-and this is coming from me.” Murphy perfectly delivers that last line with a sly wink and a nod. At the end of the song we get the refrain of Murphy pleading to his lover “I can change, I can change, I can change, if it helps you fall in love.” The written words do not do the songs justice so just go listen to it. In the track “All I Want” which musically gives a nod to David Bowie’s Heroes Murphy selfishly sings “all I want is your pity-all I want is your bitter tears.” The track “One Touch” an electronic meditation on the need to connect with other people. LCD’s last album gave us one of the all time ever best songs in “All My Friends” this album never reaches that zenith, but it gets pretty close at times and sounds great throughout.

6.  Str8 Killa No Filla by Freddie Gibbs

The recession hit everyone hard, but places like Gary Indiana are decimated even further than most. That’s where Freddie Gibbs is from and you can feel the pain in his voice and lyrics. Gibbs will most likely be called a gangter rapper, but unlike most in that genre he does not glamorize anything, however his silky smooth flow brings his tales to life. On his track ‘The Ghetto” he talks about how crappy schools, no jobs, combined with eating too much Spam will force anyone to end up in the drug trade to try to get some money. The track “Slanin Rocks” talks about the drug trade further but breaks up the bleakness with a hilarious reworking of The Whispers song “Rock Steady” that features breaking into an old school 1980s style flow at the end. Gibbs is also a great story teller who shows some 50 Cent esque pop flair on tracks like Best Friend which tells the story of Gibbs trying to hook up with his girlfriends best friend. But, Gibbs is at his best when expressing the anger of the underclass in this country like the centerpiece of the album “The National Anthem” with the chorus screaming “fuck the world!”

5. Contra by Vampire Weekend

I wrote a lengthy track by track review of this great album in January which you can read below. I have listened to the songs on this album nearly a 100 times and they still somehow sound musically fresh.

 Horchata:  For people who are not fans of Vampire Weekend, the biggest complaint is that they are a bunch of upper class, east coast, Ivy League, 20 somethings, who unabashedly make songs about being upper class, east coast, Ivy League, 20 somethings (I give them credit for “keeping it real” because if they talked about anything else it would come across as phony). Well this song will certainly piss off those people, but for anyone else who wants a nice mellow vibe that captures the feel of being on vacation to escape the stress and cold of the winter will love this. Even if you don’t have the cash to actually escape down south when it is cold (hell, I know I don’t), it is hard not to appreciate the bouncy tropical music of this and the sheer creative randomness of rhyming Horchata with balaclava. Overall it reminds me of the best of Jimmy Buffett.

White Sky: A bouncy little beat with some hand claps. The song perfectly captures the feel of wondering around Manhattan with lyrics that have sly humor and social commentary; “The elderly sales clerk won’t eye us with suspicion-the whole immortal corporation has given its permission.” Later on, they name drop minimalist sculptor Richard Serra and compare his stuff to looking like a skate park which it kind of does.

Holiday: For some reason, I find myself skipping this song for others on the album. Maybe because musically and lyrically I feel like that there are other songs that do similar stuff but better on the album or the fact that in general Holiday is the second most overused name for a song. (Angel is number 1) That being said, the song is a still a catchy 2 minute little ditty and has a change of pace half way through and has some funny self mocking of liberal elitist.

California English: Vampire Weekend have always had a lot of hip hop references in their songs (more on that later), and in this song they go the full T-Pain on us and actually use some auto-tune. But they don’t actually use it in a T-Pain style of way that much; instead, they make this really bizarre double time effect that kind of burrows into your brain. It is pretty cool. Lyrically again, there are countless great observations about the ridiculousness of upper class college kids who trying too hard to be racially sensitive and environmentally friendly to the point where they worry about which tooth paste they are using. “Sweet carob rice cake -She don’t care how the sweets taste -Fake Philly cheese steak -But she use real toothpaste -Cuz if that Tom’s don’t work -If it just makes you worse -Would you loose all of you faith in the good Earth?” Vampire Weekend use a lot of references and in their lyrics which might annoy some people, but damn it is impressive how often they find the perfect reference to make their point; such as the reference to Hapa Clubs which are college socially clubs intended to promote tolerance of multi-ethnic students in the first verse of this song.

Taxi Cab: This is my favorite song on the album and one of the few that discuss a relationship. The lyrics feature some great heartbreaking lines about a failed relationship: “ you stand this close to me-like the future was supposed to be.”  Or “in the shadow of your first attack- I was questioning and looking back- you said baby we don’t speak of that-like a real aristocrat”  Musically there is a piano that comes in and out at various parts of the song that works great.

Run:  This song has a pulsating melody that moves the song forward. Thematically it reminds me of many other songs about the daily grind like Dave Mathews Band’s “Ants Marching”, Girls’ “Hell Hole Ratrace” and Animal Collective’s “Daily Routine.” The opening lines are a concise statement about how most of us live: “Every dollar counts-And every morning hurts-We mostly work to live
Until we live to work.” The rest of the song Is him and his significant other fantasizing and contemplating trying to escape that life.

 Cousins: This has so much manic energy and different sounds (with a Mediterranean influence) it just makes you want to dance around like an idiot Peanuts style.

Giving Up The Gun: In typical VW Ivy League style referencing style, the title of this song is a reference to a Japanese history book. The song features one of the catchiest choruses on the entire album lyrically they impressively use the Giving Up The Gun analogy throughout the song to describe a musicians struggling to maintain a musicians style life as they get older.

 Diplomat’s Son: They use again some almost hip hop style beats in the background of this. This is well done story telling song about “hooking up” Again as with many of VW stuff the beauty lays in how intricate the music is and how the lyrics can make you feel like you actually are witnessing or hearing about a specific event:” That night I smoked a joint-my best friend we found ourselves in bed-when I woke up he was gone-He was the diplomats son-It was '81-He was the diplomats son-It was '81
Looking out-at the ice cold water all around me-I can't feel any traces of that other place-In the dark with the wind comes racing off the river-there's a car -all black with diplomatic plates”

 I Think You’re A Contra: This is another track that is looking back on a failed relationship. Since we both made up our minds -You gotta watch out for yourself -So will I.” The music has a dream like quality that gives it the feel of looking back.

 Giant: This first bonus song opens with blaring horns and a reference to The Notorious Big “It was all a dream, I used to read Passion Magazine” and a beat that is an homage to the Young Gunz song “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.”  What else could you ask for?

 California English Part 2: This second bonus song has a skittering backdrop and his yet another ode to California. Not bad, but not as great as some of the other stuff on the record so I understand why they just threw it on as a bonus.

4. Volume 2 by She and Him

I have listened to this album more than any other this year according to my ipod stats. (about 160 times ) When M Ward and Zooey get together they don’t reinvent the wheel. In fact they borrow from a style of music that is over 50 years old now, but they just make pretty song after pretty song.

3.  The Suburbs by The Arcade Fire

The Suburbs is an album that both romanticizes and criticizes the old suburban American (Canadian?)  dream with epic songs that rival the best of The Arcade Fires past great work and their most obvious influence Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. They tell the stories of how modern society has fundamentally changed the way we live with lyrics like “it’s strange how we used to wait for letters to arrive, and stranger still how something small could keep us alive”  off of the track “We Used To Wait” or “dead shopping malls rise like mountains behind mountains and there is no end in sight-I need the darkness-someone please cut the lights” on the track “Sprawl II.”

2. Sit Down Man/Shut Up Dude by Das Racist

It would literally take me a 100 pages to quote and explain all of the great references in these albums. This is the most hyper-literate album I have heard. Unless you know your hip hop, world history, pop culture, sports, drug culture, brand names, movies, literature, religion and pretty much everything else you will miss a lot of stuff here. I know I probably did not catch all the references. If this was just a bunch of creative references it would not be one of the best albums of the year. But they weave all these references together to make some of the most funny and poignant commentary on race, commercialism, and other aspects of the modern world.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West

The song “Runaway” starts off pretty much the simplest way a song can start off; just one key on a piano being hit over and over again. It ends about 9 minutes later with Kanye’s singing voice being distorted to the point where he sounds like some sort of dying digital monster. It is the center piece of Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which is both an album that fits this time in our worlds history perfectly but also sounds so go throughout that it will also no doubt have a timeless quality to it. The catchy chorus of “Runaway” is a both an ironic and un-ironic celebration of the “douche-bag” which is the type of character that become the dominant male archetype the past few years and especially 2010. We need “douche-bags” to both entertain us, but also as someone to levy our hate against. Case in point someone like Brett Favre who was constantly on the news in 2010 partially because he sent a reporter a picture of his dick… and what is the first line of Kanye’s song “Runway” which was written before the Favre story “She found pictures in my email- I sent a girl a picture of my dick.” Talk about life imitating art.

Acting like a “douche-bag” is something that can get you a lot of attention, but can turn you into a pariah. This is something Kanye knows just as well as anyone after he stole the microphone from America’s sweet heart Taylor Swift. Kanye address the type of loneliness and distance from society on the track “Lost In The World” which uses indie darling Bon Iver’s distorted voice on the chorus to great effect. The song really gives the affect of feeling shut off from society. That song perfectly transitions into the track “Who Will Survive In America” which features legend GIL SCOTT HERON! (Losing My Edge- reference) going off on various hypocrisies in America on a spoken world diatribe. Sometimes our entire country can take on the personality of a douchebag too.

            One of the oldest traditions in hip hop is the posse cut where you find a great beat and everyone in your crew tries to one up each other with a great verse. Usually on those cuts there is some third rate member on your crew on it, but Kanye had pretty much most of the hip hop community rally to his side after he was shunned by the majority of America. And that all-star hip hop crew joins him on two historically great posse cuts “Monster” and “So Appalled.” On Monster Nicki Minaj goes all in and gives the verse on the year in complete manic mode constantly switching voices, flows, and rhyme schemes. On “So Appalled” the arrogant disdain everyone has dripping out of their microphone has for artists who are beneath them is palatable energy adrenaline rush. When RZA comes in near the end with his husky voice screaming “champagne wishes and 30 white bitches” it’s sounds like a giant fuck you to everyone who criticizes hip hop for its excess.

            My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy also has some great story telling. The track “All of the Lights” explodes out of speakers with blaring horns and Rihanna singing in a souring vocal “turn all the lights in hear baby, I want ya’ll to see this” and its followed by Kanye’s verses telling a paranoid story about his decisions ruining his relationship with his girl and his daughter. On “Devil In A New Dress” Kanye goes back to his old soul sampling production style to  tell a story of his girlfriends turning into a heartless bitch as they date but acknowledging that of the reason for that is because he is a dick a while spouting random funny throw away one liners like “I ordered the Jerk and she said you are what you eat.” “Devil In A New Dress’ is like a companion piece to the song “Blame Game” which again gives the painful and hilarious details of a bad relationship; but on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye never settles for the small scale so of course the last 3 minutes of “Blame Game” features a hilarious cameo from Chris Rock playing Kanye’s exgirlfriends new man thanking Kanye for Kanye helping turning his girlfriend from a normal girl to a sexy freak.

            Kanye throws everything in this album to create a beautiful schizoid mess; and the first “Power” set it all up with its knocking beat and sample of King Crimson’s “21rst Century Schizoid Man. The 2 most famous moments of Kanye’s public life are his spouting off on live T.V. about Hurricane Katrina and Taylor Swift. What is so great about Kanye is that he is not afraid to touch on any topic no matter how big (Katrina) or how juvenilely trivial (best female video at the MTV Video Music Awards). “Power” is a great example of this. He opens the song going off on society “the schools open and the prison open we ain’t got nothing to lose mother fucker we rollin” and opens the second verse settling petty disputes “fuck SNL and their whole cast, tell em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass.” The idea of a beautiful death goes back all the way back to Homer’s Iliad with characters talking about wanting a Kelios Thanoton” or a beautiful death that will let their names live through the ages. The track “Power” ends with a Dwele singing “oh this would be a beautiful death, jumping out the window, letting everything go.” On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and throughout his career Kanye has let everything go showing us all of his ego and insecurities and genius… because of that his name will live through the ages. 

Now Onto My 5 Most Hated Albums of 2010:

1. Animal by Ke$ha

I love some dance pop. Songs like Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Miley Cyrus’s Party In The USA are perfectly constructed dance pop songs that I will happily look like an idiot and sing and dance along too.  I even like some white female rappers like Uffie. Over the course of this year, I have grown to hate Kesha as she represents everything that can go bad with dance pop and or a white girl rapping. Lets just start with her voice. When it is natural voice or when it is put through auto tune it sounds like nails on a chalk board. Then there is the idiotic and simplistic ab ab rhyme scheme half rap half sung flow thing she does which gets repetitive as hell. It gets grating after hearing “Tik Tok” just once, but they played it a 1000000 times and she also uses the same flow on some of her others songs like “We Are Who We Are” which are just half assed rewrites of the first single “Tik Tok.” That one features productions sounds which sound like they came from a 10 dollar bought at Radio Shack in 1988. And this might be a little below the belt (god help anyone who goes below the belt on Kesha) but she is fucking hideous looking which makes the songs even worse because it is hard to imagine any guy who was not completely drunk off his ass and looking to fuck anything resembling a women not running away in horror as Kesha comes near him in the type of club exploits she describes in her songs. Her looks half to be brought up because they add an element of un-believability to the songs and just another one of your 5 sense ruined when possibly encountering this monster.

2. The Beginning by The Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas continue to take aspects of hip hop and dance and dumb them down in ways to make them anthems for lame 6 year olds and their even lamer moms who think they are letting their lame 6 year olds be cool by listening to hip hop. Case in point lead single “The Time” which samples the Dirty Dancing song on the chorus and then segue into Will I Am tired rhymes that bite others like “I came here to rock-light a fire make it hot-I’don’t want to take no pictures-I just want to make to take some shots-so come on lets go-lets lose control-lets do it all night.” In hip hop, it is not primarily about what you are saying it is about how you are saying it and I can’t think of lyrics about partying that are more boring and less creative than that type of stuff that Will I Am spouts out. It makes me not want to be in a mood to party which is the exact opposite of its intended effect. To make the lyrics even more anything, they keep doing that Black Eyed Pea production cliché of using the autotune vocorder thing at the end of the line to stretch it out which again sounds awful to my ears.

3. A Thousand Suns by Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park were one of the best selling artist of the last decade. Somehow their comically bad whiny angry rap rock style was very appealing to a lot of people presumably teenage boys. Well, this album is no worse or better than their first crappy albums, but it seems like now the teenage boys have even moved on and still don’t about them even more. The album still provides quite a few moments of unitential comedy like the track “The Catalysis” where we find Chester getting borderline religious on our asses yelling “Lift Me Up-God Bless Us Everyone”

4. Come Around Sundown by Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is a classic group that I did not like but had nothing against early in their career, but that I started to hate when I had to hear them everywhere. This album was not as big as hit as their last one luckily; For some reason I just can’t stand Caleb Followill’s voice especially when he does that emoting thing while singing banalities like “spill out streets of stars and ride way-find out what you are” on tracks like “Immortals.” It seems that they have added even more pandering with lyrics that sound like they are from a Dodge Ram commercial on this album such as the closing track “Pick Up Truck” where Caleb sings “when he pulled in and revved it up, I said you call that a “pick up truck.”

5. Need You Now by Lady Antebellum

This is a huge selling country pop album ( thank god Eminem passed them for best selling album of the year) with lyrics about getting drunk and calling your ex or  driving on open highways. A lot of people can relate to this stuff. As I don’t like to drink or drive on open high ways and such I cannot relate to it. Furthermore, the actual lyrics always just seem extremely trite to me like “she grew up on the wrong side of the road-where the church bells ring and strong love grows” from the song “American Honey” and the actual music seems schlocky which means that unlike some other country songs that I cannot relate to but appreciate because of the beauty of the lyrics or music, I end up not relating and cringing at the sound of the lyrics, music, and their voices. In short, I hate this crap.

Honorable Mentions: These were all great albums that might have made my top 10 most years, but did not this year because the year was so good:

The Twilight Saga Eclipse Soundtrack

I hate these movies, but the soundtracks are fucking amazing and this one is the best one yet.. All the songs by different artists flow really well together and featuring some of their best work. Everyone talked about Ceelo’s great novelty hit “Fuck You” this year, but it is his songs “What Part of Forever” on this album which was his best songs\ this year. The emotion in Ceelo’s voice when he sings “what part of forever, don’t you understand? I could stay stay stay, if that’s what you want want want” could bring tears to the eyes of even the most hardened individual. Vampire Weekend contribute the musically innovative “Jonathan Low” and Florence and The Machine the anthem “Heavy In Your Arms.” Sia’s track “My Love” is the sound of looking up at a starry night. Neutron Star Collision shows Muse off at their over the top pompous best. Beck and Bat For Lashes team up for “Let’s Get Lost” which could serve of the soundtrack to any make out session on a cold winter night. Metric give us the great dancy introspective track “Eclipse.” And I can keep on going with great tracks from the The Black Keys, Unkle, and more.

Distant Relatives by Nas and Damien Marley

I was slightly disappointed when this album first came mostly due because Nas verses are a little hit and miss and some of the chorus (like My Generation with Joss Stone) are a little bit corney) but it grew on me over the course of the year due to Marley’s great production and melodies. The track “count your blessing” does Marley’s linage justice with the warm way Damien sings “ I got love and assurance-I got new health insurance- so I count my blessings.” On songs like “Tribal Wars” and “Africa Must Wake Up” they tackle subjects of race relations. The opening single is a club banger with Nas and Damien trading lines back and forth between the entire song which is a style of rap we don’t hear enough anymore that I love. However Nas drops his only classic verse not when he is talking about African History but when he angrily goes at his ex wife Kelis at the end of “ Strong Will Continue.”

Thank Me Later by Drake

I like to make fun of Drake; mostly because how could you not make fun of a Canadian rapper who starred as Jimmy on Degrassi The Next Generation. That being said, he made a very good debut album that is the antithesis of most huge debut hip hop albums. There is not one song here that I would call a party song. For most of the album Drake laments all the hangers on that come with fame and all the other crap you have to deal with and longs for a simpler life trying to hook up with a chick in his dorm room.  That being said, Drake does excel at LL Cool Jesque songs for the ladies. The track “Fancy” has some great lines like “I love my women book and street smart-as long as they got a little class like half days-and the confidence to overlook my past ways.” Mid way through that song is a great break down where the beat drops away and we hear drake’s voice like he is rapping under water or someplace distant shouting out to girls from different regions which transitions to his great last verse with lines like “go Cinderella-orgasm blush lipstick with concieler- devil in a tight dress girl you a killer.” The track “Miss Me” which features Lil Wayne is another stand out and features the oft quoted line “I love Nicki Minaj-I told her I admit it-I hope one day we get married just we say we fucking did it-and girl I fucking serious I am with it if you with it-because your verses turn me on and your pants are mighty fitted”

Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj

Speaking of Nicki Minaj she came with the other big hip hop debut album of the year and she completely delivered. For the idiotic reason of being female some compared Nicki Minaj to Lil Kim even though they do not sound a like; Minaj came out with more of a Busta Rhymes manic animated flow style. Thus, she was at double risk of being pigeon holed of either being just another overly raunchy Lil Kim clone or being more of a one trick pony and only being able to do manic guest verses. Nicki blew off those stereotypes with her first 2 singles “Your Love” and “Right Through Me” both of them radio ready rap balleds that work really. Few things are cuter then the way Nicki raps “when I was a geisha he was a samurai.”  On “Right Through Me” she tells a great story of the turmoil that can happen in a relationship when you get too close to each other. “Save Me” has Nicki rapping over a Radiohead style bleep bloop track to her lover.  But Nicki proved that she was not all just love song ballads after her first singles with “Roman’s Revenge” where she rips into Lil Kim who had been taking shots at her recently over a banging beat while paying homage to Busta Rhymes on the chorus. O the Rihanna assisted “Fly” she creates an empowering anthem. The track “Girls Fall Like Dominoes” is a amusing tale of her stealing chicks away from Drake and Lil Wayne. The only real low point on the album is the Will I Am featuring ‘Check It Out.”

Sir Lucious Left Foot The Son Of Chico Dusty by Big Boi

This is what I like to call a “good sound system album.” If you try to listen to this on your lap top speakers or something like that, it is kind of pointless. This album is designed to play loudly preferably in a club that allows the all the hard base on songs like Shutterbug and Daddy Fat Stax to detonate into the club and get everyone’s asses moving. That being said my favorite song which features Big Boi’s best rhymes is actually one of the more laid back tracks “Shine Blockas”

The top 10 list and the honorable mentions were not the only good albums that came out this year, nor were the most hated the only crappy albums that came out this year and there were plenty of albums that fell somewhere in between; thus, it is time for some more pithy thoughts on the rest of the stuff that came out in 2010.

Born Free By Kid Rock

I have to admire Kid Rock’s ability to pander. If he stuck with his original rap/rock formula that made him huge in the late 90s he would have been a has-been by now. Instead he pretty much flipped the script and went all Bob Segar/John Mellencamp on us and made songs like the title track Born Free which reference every single possible patriotic symbol and can also bring in extra money as they will eventually be used in Chevy commercials.

Loud by Rihanna

Rihanna goes back to her bread and butter making quality lusty party dance tracks like “Whats My Name”, “Only Girl In The World”, and “Cheers” that you don’t mind hearing over and over again whenever you happened to turn on the radio.

The Adventures of Bobby Ray by B.O.B.

This was a good singles album but it could have been a better album. On B.O.B. mixtapes he proved to be a very good and quirky rapper; I don’t know if it was B.O.B. choice or the labels but he pretty much took out all of his quirkyness and went straight for radio singles with pretty much every song on this album. Almost all of them follow the template of having a huge sing-a-long style chorus usually sung by a guest artist with relatable themes. All that being said, I don’t want to disparage this album because he made some of the best radio styles singles this year and every year needs songs like “Nothing On You” and “Airplanes” which everyone knows and can sing/rap along to.

Power Supply by Anamanaguchi

You can’t listen to this for too long without going insane, but in small doses this band that makes songs modeled after old school video game music like Mario and Sonic can’t help but put a smile on your face.

Brothers by The Black Keys

This is not a bad album, but I do think it is one of the most overrated albums of the year as I see it popping up in many critics top 5 albums of the year. The dudes in The Black Keys do basic bluesy rock well on songs like “Next Girl” and “Too Afraid To Love You.” I just feel like they do not add much to what has already been done in the genre and overall that makes the album kind of boring and I did not skip their songs if one comes on my ipod during random play but I don’t ever go out of my way to listen to this.

Congratulations by MGMT

Ironically my favorite song on this albums is the bouncy and catchy as hell track called “Brian Eno.” That ironic because it is Eno’s production influence on the group which at times goes a little to ambient for my liking which made me not like this album as much as their first one. That being said, I think this slight switch up and a littleless overt poppyness was necessary in their evolution as a band. The final track “congratulations” kind of works as political/sociological commentary. The multi-section track “Flash Delirium has namely after the build up breaks into the final crescendo at about the 3:00 minute mark. 

Romance Is Boring by Los Campininos!

I was a little disappointed with this album; they seemed to purposely eschew some of their pop sensibilities which they did so well on past albums for a harder almost grungey sound. That being said, lyrically this album is often funny and true to life. It reminds me of their fellow countrymen Nick Hornby’s style of writing and humor. The track “Straight To The 101” has some the best lines like “I think we need more post-coital-and less post-rock-I feel like the build up takes forever and you never touch my cock.” That is both a great dis on the genre of music of post-rock (see bands like Mogwai) and an analogy for their relationship. The song also ends with the Nick Horby esque list obsessed joke “I phoned my friends and family to gather round the television- the talking heads countdown the most heartwrenching breakups of all time-imagine the great sense of waist the indignity the embarrassment when not a single one of that whole century was mine.”

No Mercy By T.I.

In 2010, T.I., started the year off in jail, got out, and then quickly went back in when he violated probation with drugs and guns in his car. In between the jail stints he recorded this album and you can tell it kind of sounds rushed. There is not a song on here that is very memorable or approaches his best work like “What You Know” or “Rubber Band Man.”

Surf Noir by Beat Connections

I got this off their site as a free download after a friend recommended it and it is pretty good. I have a mix on my ipod called my trippy mix filled with danceable electronic stuff with abient influences and this goes well in there. That being said, the lack of lyrics or anything approaching the catchiness of Passion Pit made me not go out of my way to listen to it that often.

How To Destroy Angels  (self titled album)

Speaking of free downloads, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor gave this album away for free. It is what you would expect and album produced Reznor that features his wife to sound like. A lot of industrial beats with his wife sorta singing/spoken wording lyrics about death or something or other.

Business Casual by Chromeo

These 2 dudes from Canada due a pretty good Hall and Oates impersonation on this album

Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene

This is a Canadian Rock Super group and I like some of their earlier stuff and a ton of stuff the members have down with other bands; however, I gave this album a listen or two and my general reaction was “eh.” I just did not get much from it. Maybe if I gave it more of a shot it would have grown on me.

I am Having Fun Now by Jenny and Johnny

I love the song “Big Wave.” It is one of the best songs written about the recent recession. Sample lyric “it’s the new American way-we’re spending what we haven’t made- and we save our money in good faith-and work hard for our living wage-but still the banks got a break-cause the dreams a lie-and the snake it bit you while you were awake.” Unfortunately that is one of the few tracks that approach the greatness of Jenny’s work with Rilo Kiley or her solo stuff/Watson Twins albums. I hope whatever she does next the album is almost all Jenny and less Johnny.

Speak Now by Taylor Swift

Swift is like a perfect album selling machine; she is an angelic looking girl who can write catchy pop country love songs that either have lyrics that sound like the plot line of a Hallmark movie like “you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter” in the song “Mine” or lyrics that seem to refer to famous celebrities she has dated like “dear John, I see it all now that you are all gone-Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with” which most interpret to be referring to John Mayer. Overall, while appreciate her ability to craft perfect pop hits, after a while I think the song structures get a little too predictable and end of sounding very similar to some of her other hits.

Last Train To Paris by Diddy Dirty Money

Puffy (err I mean Diddy) still can’t rap well in the traditional sense, but he is still a great maestro and able to coordinate all his musical helpers to make an interesting album. On this album his co-stars are the 2 chicks in Dirty Money and various hip hop heavyweights like Rick Ross. (in his case heavy weight is a literal term) The album has quite a few great dance songs like “Hello Good Morning” and “Ass On The Floor” which both should become club staples. Near the end of the album we get the introspective track “I am Coming Home” where Puffy worries that he is not their enough as a parent for all his kids and that he still is immature with a souring chorus by Skylar Grey. This is a type of track that is a little corny, but just like “I’ll Be Missing You” Puffy finds a way to somehow make it work. I would not be surprised if this becomes a big hit in early 2011.

Have One on Me by Joanna Newsom

I am usually into quirky stuff, but fully admit that Joanna’s harp playing, high pitching voice singing, triple album is even too quirky for my tastes and I hit skip whenever it comes on my 2010 ipod mix.

Danger Days, The True Lives of The Fabulous by My Chemical Romance

These guys kind of seemed tapped out.

Hurley by Weezer

Hurley is another album similar to some of Weezer’s other late work the last few years that sounds like Rivers wrote some of the songs in a couple of minutes. Rivers still has some creative spark left with catchy and funny songs like “Train Wrecks”, “Memories” and half assed buy still insanely catchy “Smart Girls. Yes, I no passionate fans will long for the days of Blue and Pinkerton (hell they toured and played both of the albums whole so you can’t complain too much) but really no artists aside from the Beatles has ever maintained the level of greatness that Weezer had early in their career throughout their entire career so people need to give Rivers and the boys a break.

Man In The Moon 2: The Legend Of Mr. Rager By Kid Cudi

Cudi does not stray too far from what he did on his first album with songs about smoking weed and generally being kind of paranoid. Unfortunately, he does not produce anything up to the level of “Day and Night” or “Make Her Say” on this album. That being said, I still like a lot of tracks on this like “Mr Rager”, “Wild’n Cause of Young”, and “Scott Mescudi” vs. The World.” The last song gets bonus points for the Scott Pilgrim reference. In addition, the production is interesting throughout with mixtures of sparse beats, synthesized keyboards,   and occasional strings.

All Day by Girl Talk

Are you planning a party? Well just press play to another one of Greg Gillis uber-long mixes that cross the spectrum of the music scene in the past 40 years and your party is all set for music.

I Will Be by The Dum Dum Girls

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a girl who can make this type of low-fi indie pop rock and The Dum Dum Girls proved that they (she) can do it really well on this album. The track “Jail La La” tells a funny little story about ending up behind bars. The songs “Catholicked”, “baby don’t go”, and D.A.L. are also stand outs.

Write About Love by Belle and Sebastian

Honestly I have not listened to this enough to give it a proper review. But, when I heard it once straight through it seemed to fit into exactly what one would expect from a Belle and Sebastian album and all the good and bad that goes along with that.

Crazy For You by Best Coast

This album is a great indie pop summer album about longing for love. Bethany Costello for delivering refrains like  “I hate sleeping alone” at the end of the song “When I am With You I Have Fun” or “I Wish He Was My Boyfriend” from the track “Boyfriend.”

Soldier of Love by Sade

Some artists are timeless, Sade exists outside of time. She (they) don’t change their sound much but since they only come out with an album every decade or so, it never sounds tired. Sade’s voice is still as amazing as ever as she sings “I lost the use of my heart, but I am still alive” on the title track. One of my other favorite tracks is the sweet sounding “Babyfather.”

New Amerikah Part 2 by Erykah Badu

I love love the track “Window Seat” with the little piano in the background and Badu’s haunting voice as she sings “can I get a window seat-don’t want nobody next to me- I just need a ticket out of town.” I listened to this while on a long train ride and it just felt perfect. I am guessing Badu was listening to  a lot of Biggie recently because there are Biggie nods to and references to Biggie all through this album most notably the track “Turn Me Away (Get Munny)” which uses the same sample as the Junior Mafia track.

Raymond vs. Raymond by Usher

Usher has mastered the art of paint by numbers RNB hit. He has had a few that have transcended the formula and become legit classic songs in the past like “Yeah” and “You Make Me Wanna.” This album does not have anything that good, but songs like “Hey Daddy” and “Guilty” work in the clubs.

Plastic Beach by The Gorillaz

This is a good album that kind of got lost in a year with a bunch of other good albums. There are some great guest appearances on this most notably from Mos Def and Bobby Womack and the production is interesting throughout.

The Record Collection by Mark Ronson

Ronson shows off his production talent again on a wide ranging album. I love the novelty song ‘The Bike Song” because of my constant bike riding and the Ghost Face Killah featuring track “Lose It In The End” kicks major ass.

Sex Dream and Denim Jeans by Uffie

Uffie is best in small doses. If you listen too long her voice can get just a little annoying, but overall this may be one of the best white girl rap albums ever. Uffie’s nimble naughty rhymes along with her French techno production style make for some great club songs.

Stick Up Kids by The Black Rabbits

This is not the usually sound you hear from a band that based in Boston. The Black Rabbits are not very original but they do great impersonations of Pharrell Williams and Teddy Riley (the later of whom they are working with) on this ep. These are catchy old school rnb jams that will get people dancing and the world will always need stuff like this.

Stone Temple Pilots (self titled)

STP is at the point in their career when they don’t have any new really good ideas for songs but they have enough experience that they can churn out decent standard alt rock songs like these.

Nobody’s Daughter by Hole

I wish this album was better, but its not. Songs like “Samantha” and the title track are ok, but they have too much Linda Perry influence and not enough Courtney.

Peace and Love by Juliana Hatfield

I loved Juliana’s last album How To Walk Away; this album is a detour from that fuller album to a very bare bones Juliana with an acoustic guitar approach. Juliana’ strong lovely voice carries the day even if the songs are not as fleshed out as her best work.

Get Wasted and How To Be Mean by PalmDale

These 2 Eps are from Boston homegirl Kay Hanley’s  new California project with Linus of Hollywood on guitar. She does not stray too much from the Cleo power pop formula. The song “Here Comes The Summer” is the perfect anthem for the start of summer. On “Can’t CanT Wait To See You”, Kay uses her still strong as ever voice to full effect on with the longing lyrics.

High Violet by The National

This is a good album to listen to straight through. Matt Berninger voice does not sound like Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder or My Morning Jacket’s Jim James but it has a similar quality in that it can make just about anything sound good. Especially when the songs are this strong.

 How I Got Over by The Roots

This is a short album with a lot of guest stars. Some of the guest work better than others. One of the highlights is Monster Of Folk featuring Dear God Part 2 and the John Legend assisted “The Fire.”