My Top 5 Albums of 2010

Because it should be a crime to put out a list like this before 2010 is over. Happy New Year, everyone. Lemme know what you think in the comments.


1. Janelle Monae – “The ArchAndroid”
Janelle Monae is what Lauryn Hill and Andre 3000’s love-child would sound like. The perfect synthesis of R&B, Atlanta Funk, and psychedelic musical experimentation. What’s hardest to believe about this album is that she’s on Diddy’s label. For the last decade or so, save for Notorius B.I.G., he’s found a way to ruin the career of just about everyone he’s managed. Remember Danity Kane, Day 26, Dream, Shyne? I don’t know how it happened, but Sean Combs himself stepped away from the mic long enough to let Monae’s genius shine through on this soaring, if long, masterpiece. No Diddy in the background, as perpetually annoying hype-man. This album is Monae’s, and hers alone (well maybe Kalindo’s as well, the guy supplying the absolutely EPIC guitar solos throughout). It’s scored like a film, with Janelle’s vocals Broadway-quality. She covers about a dozen genres in just over an hour, and manages to make it all cohesive. Some of the tracks, like the nine-minute long “Babopbye Ya” are a bit over-indulgent, but it’s done so well, you can’t be mad. One only hopes that Monae finds away to keep it going. Diddy, keep your hands off.

Standout tracks: “57821”, “Cold War”, “Mushrooms and Roses”, “Faster”


2. Vampire Weekend – "Contra"
Vampire Weekend had the first #1 album of 2010. What an amazing way to start a new decade in music. What they’re doing isn’t new; a Paul Simon-ish take on light, breezy Afro-pop. What makes this disc stand out are the small flourishes, the effortless strings, or xylophones, or percussion instruments you’ve never heard before. Every time I listen to this album, I hear some new tick, some previously unheard buzz, some production trick that makes this quick collection of songs all the more enticing. A friend told me that the problem he had with this album was the same one he has with the Black Keys; justifying loving young white hipster/prep kids’ take on Black (and African) music more than the original. I don’t have that dilemma with Vampire Weekend. They’re not trying to be Amadou and Miriam; they know they can’t be. Their music is more homage than imitation. And it works, because they know exactly who they are, who they want to be, and how to occupy that space.

Standout tracks: Contra, White Sky, Run


3. Kanye West – My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy
This is NOT Kanye West’s best album (It’s a tie between Lat Registration and Graduation). It did NOT deserve a perfect score from Pitchfork. It might not even be an album for the ages. It lacks the wide-eyed introspection of the College Dropout, replaced with an icy, if entertaining, cynicism and self-loathing. The baroque flourishes of Late Registration have been watered-down. The euphoria of Graduation has been replaced with anger, angst, and asshole-ery. Some of the guest appearances take away from Mr. West himself (see “So Appalled”). And there are no radio singles.

But, I can’t hate; Kanye doesn’t make bad albums. So, in spite of its inability to live up to the unmerited critical hype, and my inability to get excited for a first listen when half the CD was given away before it’s release, I have to admit, Fantasy is outstanding. Because Kanye West makes music nobody else can make. Could you see anyone else pulling off “Lost In The World”, anyone having the courage to call himself a douchebag and mean it, like West did on “Runaway”? Anyone getting Chris Rock to be any raunchier on “Blame Game”? Even when working with various producers, and an army of guest stars, Kanye makes everything he does sound like something only he could do. So, Fantasy, like all of his other discs, is beautiful, flawed, and a constant reminder of hip-hop’s ability to channel everything good about modern pop music and culture, while being absolutely unlike anything else at the same time.

Standout tracks: All of them


4. Salem – “Ignore This”
I’ve got a soft spot for Swedish pop. Robyn’s self-titled 2008 album made my top five list that year. She has a way of making a simple, straight-ahead pop song magisterial; Robyn can make four chords and a drum machine fill a room like an orchestra. Salem might be her musical complement. Just as good, but he lives on the deeper side of pop. A mix of Steely Dan and 80’s synth, what his newest album lacks in immediacy, it more than makes up for in nuanced complexity. He’s a jazzer, and it shows on this disc. Listen to the last minute or so of “This Is For”, or the straight out-of-a-movie-score instrumental “Cowboys and Dinosaurs.” This is nothing you’d hear on Top 40 radio (and that makes “Ignore This” a difficult listen in some spots). It’s the kind of music that makes the B-Side of a studio musician’s demo tape. Experimental, quirky-- and impeccably polished. Add Salem’s voice, which is the most unique I’ve heard since Cee-Lo Green, and you’ve got a thing of beauty.

Stand-out tracks: “4 O’Clock” and “Part of It”


5. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network Score
I thought if any instrumental album made the list this year, it would be Four Tet or Flying Lotus. But neither of those albums had the immediacy, or focus of this film score. It’s a mean, brooding set. Industrial, just like all of Trent Reznor’s stuff. And surprisingly, it stands on its own, no movie required. Makes you want NIN to get back together with all deliberate speed.

Standout tracks: "In Motion"

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Ok Go - "Of The Blue Colour of the Sky"
It may be easy to forget, but it’s hard not to dance to this collection.

Gary Clark Jr. – The Gary Clark Jr. LP
The Black Keys WISH they could make blues this good. (Hat tip to Matt Siller for helping me discover this one.)