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Top Ten Albums Of The Year

• 14th Dec 2010

So as the year draws to a close people tend to get all reflective on the year that's passed and the things that have left a mark on them and the things they wish for the following year.

This isn't that kind of mushy stuff though, just my favourite albums, a few disappointments and a tip for the top.

10. Broken Social Scene – 'Forgiveness Rock Record'.
By all accounts, this is apparently a step down compared to previous BSS albums. However it's the first one I ever heard and it's flippin marv, so there.

9. Lonelady – 'Nerve Up'.
My favourite solo laydee of 2010, even more than Janelle Monae, if I were a Serious Rock Critic I might have said something about the fragility of Isobel Campbell meeting the angular sounds of Bernard Morris' guitar, most notably on the spellbinding 'Marble'. But I'm not so I probably won't.

8. Kanye West – 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'.
If this had come out earlier this year I would have quite definitely placed it higher. 2 weeks isn't enough to get to grips with this album but 'Power' is definitely the best balls-out event single I heard this year.

7. UNKLE – 'Where Did The Night Fall'.
UNKLE can do no wrong by me. It's similiar to their last record but a bit more psychedelic, which I think we can all agree is A Good Thing.

6. Arcade Fire – 'The Suburbs'.
Not as many “oh-my-flippin-heck-this-is-a-bit-good-in-a-religious-way” moments as their first album but this is an actual, proper, honest-to-goodness album in the sense that it starts good and it ends good and it stays good in between.

5. Delphic – 'Acolyte'.
My fave new band of the year. Plus, it reminded me how completely brilliant 'Bizarre Love Triangle' by New Order is (as, too, did Hot Tub Time Machine, a film that had no right to be even half as fun as it actually was).

4. Caribou – 'Swim'.
So geeky-looking it's basically offensive. But what an album. Probably the best live act I saw this year too, at least the best one I can think of right now.

3. The Black Keys – 'Brothers'.
I'm not going to lie, The Black Keys are pretty much my idea of 'bedroom music' (apologies if this qualifies as WAAAAY TMI). And every time I listen to 'Brothers' I feel like I've been bathing in Sex Panther.

2. Foals – 'Total Life Forever'.
By rights this would be my favourite of the year and it's probably what I've listened to most. HOWEVS….

1. Four Tet – 'There Is Love In You'.
This is just off-the-scale-effing-heart-wrenchingly-amazing right from the off. Words like “beautiful” get thrown around far too often (mostly by me, and mostly at different types of cake), but this album completely deserves it.

Album that I haven't heard but will definitely be at least number 4 on this list when I do:
Daft Punk – Tron Legacy Soundtrack.

Letdowns:

LCD Soundsytem – 'This Is Happening'.
Not cos it's bad because it obviously isnt – in fact if someone asked me to describe LCD it'd be the first thing I play them. But it just seems a bit of a step down after 'Sound of Silver' which I'd probably take to a desert island and then draw a face on and talk to when I ran out of food

Interpol – s/t.
The clues were there. Everyone's favourite member leaves. Not bothering with an album title. That f**king hideous Wordart album cover. It's just too half-arsed. Altho they were muy good at Brixton last night, so you know, there's that

Album I just don't 'Get' of 2010:

The National – 'High Violet'.
What's the appeal? Even if I don't like something I can usually understand why other people listen to it. But there's just nothing in any of their songs I can cling to. Basically when people say “listen to the national”, i get through like 3 songs and then realise I could have done the same thing a million times better if I listened to Interpol's 'Untitled' ten times in a row.

Picks for 2011:

Alex Metric
I bum Alex Metric hard. In a figuarative sense, mostly. But he's fucking good at basically everything.