To read the list from the top (#25), click here.
I’ve spent a huge amount of time reviewing 2010 - and with this post I firmly ground myself into 2011 and pledge to get back in to the swing of new releases. Forward thinking from now on. I wanted to put 2010 to bed with a decent post however, so for those of you who have been following my lists as they (slowly) unfold, this is the big finale - my top ten favourite albums of 2010, hope you enjoyed listening to them as much as I ranting about them.
10. Baths - Cerulean - Plea (MP3)
I’ve mentioned L.A producer Baths (aka Will Wiesenfeld) far too many times on this blog - so i’ll keep this one brief. This is beautifully produced chillwave with a touch of Four Tet-style folk about it, bassy hip hop and Toro y Moi style chillwave sensibility - perfectly mixed and harmonised. Its difficult to fault Cerulean, as in terms of eclecticity this one switches genres effortlessly, and constantly challenges without losing its distinctive sound or dream-like musical and emotional flow. Here’s what I had to say about ‘Hall’, which took the number #1 spot in my much agonised over Top Tracks Of 2010 List:
“The first 15 seconds or so of Baths’ Hall sound like Crystal Castles gone wrong – the introduction is a glitchy electronic mess of atonal synth-sounds and heavy vocal distortion, not quite unlistenable, but hardly indicative of the great succession of sounds which are to follow. ‘Hall’ is one of those songs that’s well worth the wait, since immediately following is a euphoric instrumental of folk influenced chill-waving hip-hop – joined only after a minute or so by the desperate vocal of Will Wiesenfeld, whose high-pitched and dramatic falsetto is perfectly levelled and encapsulated within the mix. The song drops out, before dropping back into double the intensity – a heavily dubbed but intensely evocative pulsating wall of electronica, with a slow and galloping drum beat, is to ensue.”
From My Top Twenty Five Songs Of 2010 Post.
9. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can - Devil’s Spoke (MP3)
Widely documented as the outlandish and defiant progression of Marling’s debut album ‘Alas, I Cannot Swim’, even the title suggests that the once-innocent and gentle singer-songwriter has many more a story to tell since her separation from Noah & The Whale’s Charlie Fink and departure from her teenage years. For the music of ‘I Speak Because I Can’ is no longer content, no longer satisfied with the carelessness of youth; instead opting for more turbulent expressionism littered with subtle references to darkness, loss of colour, nature and apologetic lyricism. The album certainly has its positive moments however, the ironically titled ‘Darkness Descends’ shows a rare glimpse of electric guitar on an album considerably more full in sound and infinitely more produced than her original effort. Overall, Marling makes a triumphant return, one which I detailed further back in April, with my original review in 2010.
8.Yeasayer - Odd Blood - Ambling Alp (MP3)
The follow-up to 2007’s stunning but contrastingly guitar based debut album ‘All Hour Cymbals’, ‘Odd Blood’ is the sound of a band let of the leash in terms of creativity and in terms of the acquisition of new electronic equipment. Elements of bouncy Michael Jackson inspired pop spread amongst some fascinating and innovative sonic experimentation is a pretty accurate description of the New York based psych-pop band; the light show for their Reading 2010 set I caught this this year was nothing short of sensational, the album not failing to live up. Chris Keating’s idiosyncratic vocal is confidently thrown around, grounded only by the regularities of heavily synthesised drum machines and erratic, awkwardly resting keyboard noise. Odd Blood is a truly great, all-encompassing and accessible breakthrough album from the band, from which any new release will be intriguing to say the least. Read the original review of Odd Blood from February.
7. Milagres - Seven Summits - Outside (MP3)
By no means their debut, but Milagres’ first album under their current name, ‘Seven Summits’ is a DIY masterpiece, drawing together stunning production technique, an array of organic and acoustic instruments and strings, and the grazed, deep vocals together to create a sound somewhere between The National and The Arcade Fire - expansive yet elusive, and grand. Often the structures are painfully simple, but the arrangements and timings, and grainy accompaniments make for a wiseness in song-writing far beyond what one would expect from the average record. Its no secret that the band are prolific, having already putting the closing touches to their new album due to be released this year. Parts of the blogosphere have already been declaring 2011 ‘the year of Milagres’, and if their debut and clear-cut prolificness is anything to go by, 2010 seems to be just the beginning. Read my ‘Seven Summits’ review here.
6. The Acorn - No Ghost - Restoration / Four Tet Remix (MP3)
My first experience of The Acorn was in support of Elbow at the Bournemouth International Centre in 2009 (I think), but it took me until their next physical release, 2010’s No Ghost, before I parted with my money for them again. What I can remember of their show was quiet and accomplished, subtle and somewhat wasted on the local crowd, but in no way detracted from by the lack of participation. No Ghost in recorded form is considerably fuller and more diverse than any shady tour memory of the Canadian band I may have - wrestling with eclectic acoustic music, organic post-punk and Young-inspired folk rock to create a repeatedly brash, percussive and unusual collection of spindly folk rock songs. Restoration was cut in such a way it even warranted a Four Tet remix (attached), and other tracks such as Bobcat Goldwraith display the danceable jaunts of The Acorn’s songwriting prowess. Almanac and Misplaced are laid back root jams with tinderbox production - sandy yet classical, reflective and stark. See Restoration (also attached) for something in the fairly representational in terms of their winding chill-folk recordings.
5. Blackfeet - Choral Reef - Sleep (MP3)
Listening to Blackfeet, I get the very real feeling that few have ever been graced with the same sounds that I have for myself on Blackfeet’s Choral Reef. Search engines uncover very limited information on the obscure Bournemouth, Brighton and Canterbury based solo project, and information equally as spread is revealed concerning his small label Box Social Records. The date of release for this album, which I am lucky enough only to be in possession of as promo, came and passed without a whisper from their sole online outlet, their Myspace - and a new date, ‘TBC 2011’ has now taken precedence. But the closing months of 2010 I spent so closely tied to ‘Choral Reef’ that I can’t help but include this in my end of 2010 albums list. This is an album of starkly beautiful and introvertive folk, about which I had the following words to say in my album review from this November:
“‘Choral Reef’ begins with the previously un-released track ‘Brother’, which calmly introduces the LP with a gentle ode to vintage recording and 60s lo-fi. At just under four minutes, the song really sets the tone for the record. The sound clips slightly around the mid-point as lazy, blissful harmonies, previously underlying the delicate finger-picks, elevate themselves to the foreground. The gentle acoustics are common throughout the album, exemplified to the greatest extent on ‘Everybody Is Running Away’, and later on ‘Beach Town’. The arrangements are loose and slow-paced throughout, and in the lack of percussion, it is the sparse tones of the guitar which hold the songs together, in almost mechanical fashion.”
4. Beach House - Teen Dream - Used To Be (MP3)
Though few consider Beach House’s dreamy pop music blends to be anything resembling direct, Teen Dream is certainly a little more produced and bound-together than their previous releases. Victoria Le Grand’s idiosyncratic vocals are undeniably delicate yet firmly placed; disconnected from the music, which though airy and somewhat awash with a synthesised folk sound palette, display a certain resonance with steady, grounded drumming to bind together the loose snippets of insubstantiality into something resembling pop music. Norway is perhaps the closest Beach House will ever come to an anthem, with crushing waves of sound in the intro parting at the verse to reveal a drone-like whirr of a foundation. ‘Used To Be’ is a little calmer from the outset, a sparse yet stunning piano-led introduction considerably more subtle than its demos, forming the surrealist skeleton of a song later to develop into a folky chorus with tumbling piano and gentle vocal line. Together, this album simple yet effective, and in practise falls nothing short of stunning.
3. The Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night - Albatross (MP3)
It must come as no surprise to any reader or listener of This Music Wins Blog that The Besnard Lakes would figure somewhere on my 25 Albums Of 2010 list. Their third studio album, and second consecutively to be nominated for the esteemed Polaris Prize in Canada, came out in 2010, featuring once again their typical vast, expansive post-rock sound and challenging time-signatures. In June I called the album a ‘larger than life masterpiece of contemporary rock music’ - read that quote in its original context in my original album review:
“I still find the sound that these guys make remarkably difficult to describe. There’s a definite classic rock influence, but from an angle I don’t think I’ve ever heard…Its genuinely hard to imagine people playing this music, as ridiculous as that sounds, since every element of the production makes this a larger than life masterpiece of contemporary rock music. For me, The Besnard Lakes have managed to make experimental rock music, which is genuinely experimental.”
2. The National - High Violet - Terrible Love (Live On Jimmy Fallon) (MP3)
“From once sparse and predominantly acoustic beginnings, the implication of new members, musical minds and strings has left a production challenge which Katis takes into all of his work and has made his champion. Despite the overwhelming similarities which High Violet shares with its 2007 predecessor “Boxer”, one can’t help but feel that The National have not only taken vast steps forward from their commercial breakthrough album but also made leaps and bounds towards becoming one of the most matured and responsible alternative rock bands on the planet. The firmly levelled yet expansive sound works both to their advantage and within a highly successful, if depressing, formula. High Violet conjures the same shivers as “Boxer” and the same vaguely coherent memories and dreams of every listeners’ darkest days. The timing and context of this album, optimistically placed on the near side of Summer, they are forgiven for; High Violet is the face of a change from highly respected indie rock band, to fully-deserved and recognised household names.”
Taken from my original review, May 28th 2010. Read the full review here.
1. Four Tet - There Is Love In You - Angel Echoes (MP3)
There’s something timeless, awe-inspiring and strangely emotional about Four Tet’s revolutionised sound on There Is Love In You. It seems Kieran Hebden, electronics genius and enthusiast, several years in the making, has discarded his rigid yet expressive staccato drum samples and extrovertive tribal electronica sound for something at least decisively, if not surprisingly, reserved and moody. Angel Echoes is the angular introduction, emerging slowly and with calculated presence, from nothing at all, to form a tangled web of confusing and disorientating sounds, or visions, which set the subtly folk-inspired tone for the rest of There Is Love In You to expand out of. Love Cry is a nine-minute experimental urban dance track, with a one-track mind and un-fazed urgency which far outdoes its repetitive and clear-cut attitudinal focus. The rest of the album is a mix of the two, blending signals and samples into a coolly urban yet heightened emotional state of hypnosis - executed perfectly and originally at every Four Tet show other humans have had the privilege to see to date. Four Tet’s There Is Love In You is truly iconic, magnificent, beautiful and fully deserving of its title.
Honourable Mentions:
Wolf Parade, Caribou, Dum Dum Girls, Stornoway, Caitlin Rose, Deerhunter and, of course, Darwin Deez.
To read the list from the top (number #25) click here.
![[Resonance FM #27] W0LCNUM, Bear Driver, Suuns, Mirror Lady, Sobrenadar, Blackfeet
I missed last week’s show, but return this Saturday where you will hear the droning electronica of W0lcnum (found over on Unholy Rhythms), the woozy new 60s inspired single from London collective Bear Driver, Suuns’ Arena (to which I incorrectly attributed ‘Red Song’ as its title on the show), a bedroom pop song from L.A’s Mirror Lady, an airy (dare I say chillwave) track from the excellent Sobrenadar, before the stunning acoustic music of Blackfeet, from one of my favourite albums. Pick up Blackfeet’s Choral Reef for free, here.
DOWNLOAD: This Music Wins #27 (MP3)
W0LCNUM - It Will Never Be (MP3)
Bear Driver - Never Never (MP3)
Suuns - Arena (MP3)
Mirror Lady - Shapes (Spiderwoman) (MP3)
Sobrenadar - Peri Physeos (MP3)
Blackfeet - Everybody Is Running Away (MP3)
follow me on twitter @thismusicwins for more updates.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luwrxekdnn1qa0h5lo1_1280.jpg)
