Best of 2010: Our favorite albums

By Wired Oregon in Music on February 7th, 2011 | 0 comments

Our favorite albums released in 2010, as voted on by Wired Oregon staff and contributors. View some of the individual lists below.

1. Broken Bells — Broken Bells

Release date: March 9, 2010

Songs: 10

Length: 35:50

Label: Columbia Records

Top Tracks: “The High Road,” “October”

3. The National — High Violet

Release date: May 11, 2010

Songs: 11

Length: 47:40

Label: 4ad Records

Top Tracks: “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” “Slow Show”

5. Mumford and Sons — Sigh No More

Release date: February 16, 2010

Songs: 12

Length: 48:33

Label: Glassnote

Top Tracks: “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave”

7. Two Door Cinema Club — Tourist History

Release date: February 28, 2010

Songs: 10

Length: 32:32

Label: Glassnote

Top Tracks: “Come Back Home,” “You’re Not Stubborn”

9. LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening

Release date: May 17, 2010

Songs: 11

Length: 65:31

Label: DFA/Virgin

Top Tracks: “I Can Change,” “Drunk Girls”

JAYSON BERRAY’S PICKS:
1. LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
This album is electro-pop at its best. It’s pure original fun from start to finish. Dancing may not be your strongest skill but when this album is on that won’t matter.
2. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye is lucky that his personal conduct doesn’t dictate how good his music is. This album is one grandiose musical experience. “Runaway” is quite possibly this year’s best song. It had a painfully simple piano lick, a deep beat and let’s face it, the lyrics couldn’t have said it better.
3. John Legend and The Roots — Wake Up!
The Roots are one of the greatest groups to emerge from the hip hop community in the last twenty years. With this album they were given a solid lead vocalist in John Legend and overall demonstrated a clear focus of consciousness and activism.
4. Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
The Arcade Fire can carry an “indie snob” stigma, but at some point you have to just get over that and find out for yourself. If you are on the fence about Arcade Fire, listen to this album. Many of us are familiar with what it’s like to grow up in suburban America and while this isn’t a concept album per se, it certainly suffices as a soundtrack to that lifestyle.
5. The National — High Violet
Rarely do you get an album that gets better with every listen. But this one does. It’s full of pain and hope. I almost wish I’d had it to listen to back in the days of breakups.
6. Johnny Cash — The American VI: Ain’t No Grave
Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin are easily the greatest artist/producer duo from the last twenty years. The last of Cash’s posthumous albums, this was very poignant and a great way to say farewell.
7. Bruce Springsteen — The Promise
Some of Springsteen’s past albums are timeless. This particular collection isn’t new in the traditional sense, but it’s new to you and I. Outtakes from the sessions for 1978’s “Darkness On the Edge of Town,” this collection is a throwback to an old sound but it’s as relevant as ever.
8. The Sword — Warp Riders
Not much can be said about this album aside from the fact that it should have been an 80s science fiction movie. Maybe it still could be. If you’re a nerd who likes heavy music and mythology then this is easily the album for you.
9. The Black Keys — Brothers
Not much is different this time around with regard to previous albums, but it just seems these guys have snatched some more engaging tunes out of the air. Not many bands consist of only drums and guitars/vocals but these guys will go down in history as one of the greatest of that vein. It’s just another example of something that Danger Mouse touches turning to gold.
10. Broken Bells — Broken Bells
This album may not make you see stars at first, but it grows with time. Danger Mouse has a knack for unlikely collaborations (demonstrated here in his pairing with The Shins’ James Mercer), but the result is always good and this is just another notch in his musical belt. As time goes on we’re going to see his talent combined with bigger and bigger acts.
Honorable Mention:
Kings of Leon — Come Around Sundown
Jimmy Eat World — Invented
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — The Social Network
She & Him — Volume Two
The Chemical Brothers — Further
Band of Horses — Infinite Arms
Antony & The Johnsons — Swanlights
Linkin Park — A Thousand Suns
David Gray — Foundling
God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise – Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs

JOSHUA KAGI’S PICKS
1. Freelance Whales — Weather Vanes
2. Joshua Radin — The Rock and the Tide
3. Mumford & Sons — Sigh No More
4. Frightened Rabbit — The Winter of Mixed Drinks
5. The National — High Violet
6. Broken Bells — Broken Bells
7. Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
8. Two Door Cinema Club — Tourist History
9. Bruno Mars — Doo Wops and Hooligans
10. Jonsi — Go

PHIL LUECK’S PICKS
1. Cee-Lo Green — The Lady Killer
A couple of ballads, a couple of songs that would have been at home in 1978, and, oh yeah, the most profane Motown pastiche ever recorded. And that voice — that big, high, slightly gritty voice slightly reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield’s — brings it all home. This varied, soulful album makes it clear that Danger Mouse wasn’t the sole creative force behind Gnarls Barkley. And “F*ck You” is the best single of the year, and if you disagree, refer to the title (and don’t buy the cut version, half the fun of the song is listening to Cee-Lo bite into each and every “F*ck”).
2. Florence and the Machine — Lungs
Yeah, technically it came out in 2009, but I discovered it this spring, so I’m counting it. And she DOES have a pair of lungs on her. The career-making performance of Dog Days Are Over on the Video Music Awards (best performance by far, especially after watching Justin Bieber and Usher lip-synch their way through most of theirs) really broke her in the U.S., but there’s much more here, including a remake of Chaka Khan’s “You Got the Love” and “Kiss With A Fist”, a superior song about domestic violence to the far more popular “Love The Way You Lie” by Eminem and Rihanna.
3. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
West is a freak, a jerk, a genius and a douchebag, and if you don’t believe that, he cops to all of them on this album, plus he put them behind an album cover that Walmart rejected as being too risque. “Runaway” is the standout on this album, even if its nine-minute running time might turn off some listeners (it would be right at home, timewise, on “This Is Happening”). That song is typical of the scathing self-analysis he does on this album (the only other rapper who came close in that respect was Eminem, on “Recovery”). There aren’t too many obvious singles here, but it’s one of the most fascinating albums of the year.
4. John Legend & The Roots — Wake Up!
Between gigs on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the Roots teamed up with Legend and brought some old soul protest songs into the 2010′s. They were surprisingly relevant, especially Les McCann and Eddie Erickson’s “Compared To What”, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes’ “Wake Up Everybody” and Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” And the Roots, as always, are a kick-ass backing band.
5. LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
Indie rock that also has a good beat and and you can dance to it? This is it. This is the album that would come out of a three-way between David Byrne, Devo and Giorgio Moroder. This felt far more like early 80s synth-pop as I remember it than anything Lady Gaga released this year. Plus, “Drunk Girls” is big, dumb fun.
6. Janelle Monae — The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Wow. This album, was big, dramatic, eclectic, experimental…and it had a story (an android is sent back in time to save Metropolis…never mind, it’s too complicated). She wasn’t afraid to be different, and it paid off, and it gets better with repeated listening because there are so many layers to these songs. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
7. Robyn — Body Talk
This was actually a collection of the best songs off her past two albums, so it might be a little unfair to list here, but there’s no disputing that this was the best dance-pop album in a year that was lousy with dance pop (and while I’m at it, would someone tell Dr. Luke and David Guetta that their Casio keyboards have OTHER beat settings?) This album was different, probably different enough that there were no real hits in this country, but plenty in Europe. “Indestructible” was the single, and deserved to be a hit.
8. Mumford And Sons — Sigh No More
A bunch of Brits doing rootsy music that sounds like it came straight out of Appalachia? Hey, a lot of the Band was from Canada, so why not? This album did more to establish a sense of place and mood than perhaps any this year, with chilly harmonies and acoustic guitar and banjo flourishes. This wasn’t hugely hyped coming out of the gate, but has turned into a word-of-mouth hit. And was there a stranger Hot 100 hit than “Little Lion Man” this year?
9. Mavis Staples — You Are Not Alone
The voice is a little more lived-in than when she sang lead on songs such as “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There”, but she still sounds great going through this collection of ballads and gospel songs produced by Jeff Tweedy, for whom this was clearly a labor of love. If there were any justice, this would have received the same notice as Johnny Cash’s late material with Rick Rubin.
10. Bruce Springsteen — The Promise
In a year full of great re-issues (Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones “Exile on Main Street” could have just as easily been in this spot). The reissued “Darkness on the Edge of Town” sounds great all by itself, but it’s this extra discs of previously unreleased material that’s really interesting — several songs that could have stood on any of Springsteen’s other albums but just weren’t right for “Darkness”. Two of the songs on here actually became hits for other artists (“Because the Night,” for Patti Smith and “Fire” for the Pointer Sisters).

ROB MOSELEY’S PICKS:
Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
Beach House — Teen Dream
The Black Angels — Phosphene Dream
The Black Keys — Brothers
Black Mountain — Wilderness Heart
Delta Spirit — History From Below
Dr. Dog — Shame, Shame
Eminem — Recovery
Gaslight Anthem — American Slang
Interpol — Interpol
The National — High Violet
Tallest Man On Earth — The Wild Hunt
Wolf Parade — Expo 86

ADAM SPARKS’ PICKS
1. Two Door Cinema Club — Tourist History
2. Eminem — Recovery
3. The Black Keys — Brothers
4. Kings of Leon — Come Around Sundown
5. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals — Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
6. MGMT — Congratulations
7. Broken Bells — Broken Bells
8. Gorillaz — Plastic Beach
9. Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
Honorable Mention:
John Legend and The Roots — Wake Up!
Vampire Weekend — Contra
Mumford and Sons — Sigh No More

 

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3. Mastodon — Crack the Skye
4. Smashing Pumpkins — Teargarden, Vol. 1
5. Decemberists mix it up