I have noticed a marked improvement on the quality of albums released in 2010 compared to the last couple of years. Of course, this is just my personal viewpoint. After mulling it over for a while, I think the reason for this is that I've found there to be a bit more ambition and determination in albums released this year.
Take Arcade Fire for example - The Suburbs is a 16-track concept album about childhood and the want to escape from your home town. It is like nothing they have done before and a lot of the tracks don't really have a chorus. Yet, it has made them one of the biggest stadium bands on the planet. And one that has never had a hit single.
Foals and Everything Everything are examples of British bands forging a unique identity through making ambitious music that isn't easy to define. Foals sophomore effort Total Life Forever shows they have a heart whilst retaining their peerless musicianship, and Everything Everything, in my opinion, have made the best debut album of the year with Man Alive; an album that draws on about a hundred different musical influences every second that it really shouldn't work but does so with seemingly effortless ease.
Robyn decided that 2010 was going to be the year that she did whatever the hell she wanted to do and no-one was going to tell her otherwise (if they did they would probably end up with a kick in the nuts). She released three albums (Bodytalk Parts 1-3) of pop perfection (ok so Part 3 was more-or-less a compilation of the first two but whatever), which contain at least two of the best singles of the year. Now that's ambition.
As for The National? Well, they just blew everyone else out of the water.
Below are my Top 10 albums of the year. Thoughts welcome.
10. Interpol - Interpol
Another effortlessly epic outing for one of the best guitar bands of the last decade. Their fourth outing, Interpol, like it's predecessor Our Love To Admire (massively underrated), is a slow burner but once it's got you it becomes clearer how dense and multi-layered an album it is. It also proves that they are formidable musicians (Sam Fogarino's drumming in particular gets better and better). Interpol are a band that have survived the indie storm over this past decade by consistently writing exceptional songs. As you would come to expect from them, Interpol is a dark and moody work but, in songs like Barricade and Memory Serves, features some of their most accessible music to date. And Lights may be the best thing they have ever recorded.
Best track: Lights
9. The Miserable Rich - Of Flight and Fury
Britain's best kept secret. The Miserable Rich hail from Brighton and write intimate chamber-pop that could melt the hardest of hearts. Featuring a violin, cello and double bass, their arrangements are stunning and song-writing superb. Of Flight and Fury, their second album after the also excellent Twelve Ways To Count, seems to mainly be about getting smashed and breaking up with your girlfriend. But to sum it up as that does it a great diservice. They are a clever bunch of people that conjure up witty and charming stories that the string section compliment perfectly. At it's heart though, this album is pure pop loveliness (Oliver and Let Me Fade are two of the most beautifully executed pop songs I have heard all year), which means that everybody should be listening. Someone please make them massive. I can't do it alone.
Best track: Oliver
8. Stornoway - Beachcomber's Windowsill
Talking about the 'indie-folk' movement that has come to fruition over the past couple of years can often conjure images of people from London dressing up as tramps and pretending their from Ireland. In other words, a lot of it is not very 'authentic'. Thankfully, on their debut album Beachcomber's Windowsill, Stornoway are all about the songs. And what magnificent songs they are. Songs like The Coldharbour Road, Boats and Trains and The End of the Movie are all at once melancholy, whimsical, and beautifully simple. Lead singer Brian Briggs' voice is often choir-like in its delivery which, along with the sparse yet intricate instrumentation, bring to mind images of a snowy countryside in the winter without ever descending into the dreaded realms of the 'twee'. One of the most underrated albums of the year.
Best track: Boats and Trains
7. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
I hate Laura Marling. She's only 20 years old yet has already released two quite incredible albums, both of which have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Her songwriting ability is ridiculous and her voice stunning in the way that only someone ten years older than her should really have. Not only that but I Speak Because I Can is such a huge step up from her debut Alas I Cannot Swim that it's quite frightening to think of what the future holds for her music. How good can she get?? I Speak Because I Can is a more moody work than it's predecessor and has an alt. country feel to it rather than folk. Songs such as Devil's Spoke and Rambling Man evoke the imagery of dusty landscapes and the lone traveller. But there is much beauty to be found as well, especially on Goodbye England (Covered In Snow); a song perfect for this wintry December. She weaves stories of love and deceit better than any other British songwriter and will probably be doing so for many years to come.
Best track: Rambling Man
6. Robyn - Bodytalk Pts.1 & 2
The opening track on Bodytalk (Part 1), Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do, pretty much sums up Robyn's year. One can imagine her record company demanding just the one perfect catchy-as-hell pop album, resulting in Robyn getting mightily pissed off, kicking the crap out them (possibly) and deciding to make and release three albums in 2010 containing songs such as the bizarre and eerie Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa, which brings to mind Japanese horror movies featuring scary 11 year old girls that want to kill you. Robyn is a true innovator and artist. She will do whatever the fuck she wants. The Bodytalk trilogy (with the third part more a culmination of the first two than a final installment) features many incredible pop songs such as Dancing On My Own, Hang With Me and Fembot - all so effortless that I wonder if she is taking the piss out of nearly every other female pop artist on the planet for not even coming close. What separates her from the rest is the real emotion she invests in her songs. Dancefloor fillers they may be but if you listen to the words you'll find that the stories are often a tad depressing. So the Bodytalk albums are dance, progressive-pop and, er, emo-tronic?
Best track: Hang With Me
5. The Walkmen - Lisbon
Lisbon is the fifth album by The Walkmen. It is the only one I have. This makes me feel bad as it is bloody brilliant and I'm guessing their other albums are too. So why I haven't I got them? I, like a lot of people probably, only know (or knew) about them because of their brilliant 2005 single The Rat (their only real hit to date). I believe it is still a regular on the playlists of indie clubs everywhere. So it has taken me 5 years to realise that they are so much more than that song. Hopefully many other people will too as they really deserve to be recognised as a great band. Lisbon (where they wrote the album) is beautifully melancholic and sails along at a steady pace; gradually revealing itself over time. Oddly enough, never have a band managed to conjure up the imagery and idiosyncrasies of small European towns with their music so well. Odd because they are American. Songs like Juveniles, Blue As Your Blood and Stranded are slow and ponderous in their delivery but intensified by Hamilton Leithauser's (great name) Bob Dylan-meets-Rod Stewart vocals. Magnificent.
Best track: Juveniles
4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire may well be the biggest cult band on the planet, apart from Radiohead. Their albums have all been critically lauded and they sell out huge venues across the globe. Yet, they are still a mysterious bunch and have never had a hit single. Their debut Funeral is considered by many, including myself, to be a masterpiece. The follow up Neon Bible was, at the time of its release, also hailed to be the same but has over the years suffered a minor backlash. The Suburbs has topped many album of the year polls already this year and is definitely better than Neon Bible (which was intermittently brilliant). It is an epic sort-of-concept album about childhood and home towns and, like its predecessors, utterly unique unto Arcade Fire whilst sounding like nothing they have done before. It is not an easy trick to pull off. The Suburbs, Ready To Start and We Used To Wait are three of the best songs they have ever written, Month of May their most punk song to date and songs such as Ready To Start and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) show the band experimenting with a more electronic sound. It is ambitious, epic and brilliant. Only time will tell whether it is better than Funeral.
Best track: Ready To Start
3. Foals - Total Life Forever
I think I was as stunned as everybody else when Foals released Spanish Sahara earlier in the year. It was one of those 'where the hell did that come from!?' moments. Their mighty fine debut Antidotes showcased a musically brilliant and ambitious band but one that maybe lacked a bit of emotion. Whereas on Spanish Sahara, lead singer Yannis Philippakis sings in falsetto lines like "now the waves they drag you down, carry you to broken land" over shimmering guitars and watery electronic blips that build up to an almighty and revelatory climax. It is easily the track of the year and one of the finest songs of the decade. What a comeback.
Although the rest of Total Life Forever may not scale the heights of Spanish Sahara (it's a pretty high height), it is still an astonishing achievement that reinforces Foals as being one of Britain most exciting bands. The first half of the album is near perfection. They manage to create Sigur Rós style soundscapes whilst infusing everything from hip-hop (Miami) to 80s funk (Total Life Forever) without ever sounding contrived. Like with Arcade Fire, they have managed to sound completely different without compromising their unique identity. Total Life Forever is an album full of real emotion and depth from a band that contains arguably the best rhythm section of any British rock band. They could go anywhere from here.
Best track: Spanish Sahara
2. Everything Everything - Man Alive
This album is completely bonkers. The music is bonkers. The lead singers voice is bonkers. The lyrics are completely bonkers. If the album was simply mad and nothing else then it wouldn't be on this list. The reason it is here and so high up on my list is because it features some of the most ambitious and best pop songs of the year.
Man Alive is the debut album from the indescribable Everything Everything. It is an album that shouldn't work - after many, many listens I still don't really understand what Jonathan Higgs is singing and when I do the words don't seem to make any sense. The music often sounds like contemporary RnB, Foals-style math-rock and latter-era Radiohead all at the same time and the songs themselves sometimes discard their choruses halfway through and go into some batshit crazy hip-hop breakdown. That they've managed to make a coherent and uniquely satisfying pop record is a miracle. Not only that but, in my opinion, it is the best debut album of the year. Highlights, of which there are many, include the singles Schoolin' (featuring possibly the best final section of any song ever) and Photoshop Handsome (which sounds at times like the Double Dragon theme tune). And there are moments of unexpected beauty in songs like Leave The Engine Room and NASA Is On Your Side.
Just this month, Everything Everything performed Man Alive in its entirety live with an orchestra after months of rehearsals. They are a band with bucket loads of ideas, ambition and talent and I doubt anyone could guess what they will do next. The new Radiohead? You betcha.
Best track: Schoolin'
1. The National - High Violet
Allow me, if you will, to make a film analogy for this one...
In 2008 a film was released called Synecdoche, New York - written and directed by script writing genius Charlie Kaufman (previously responsible for films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation). It is an art house film that cost a fair amount of money and subsequently flopped at the box office. The basic story concerns Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman); a theatre director who attempts to create a life-size replica of New York in a warehouse after he is given a MacArthur grant. He wants to create an epic production about his life. There isn't really a plot though, for this is a film not about a singular aspect of life, but life as a whole.
Synecdoche, New York is a massively ambitious, extremely difficult and devastatingly emotional piece of work, and one of the finest films I have ever seen. When I saw it for the first time I came out feeling like someone had beaten my brain with a stick; I couldn't fathom its brilliance. When I watched it for the second time it suddenly struck me that I was watching a rare work of utter genius. And afterwards, when I realised what it was actually about, I felt so overly emotional that I began to wonder whether I was having a minor breakdown.
It is a film about art, money, family, relationships, love, hate, age, sex, life and (mostly) death. It is about being an individual and no-one but yourself understanding what it is like to be you and you not understanding what it is to be like anyone else. It is desperately sad yet features moments of subtle beauty. It is a film you have to watch a few times to fully appreciate its intricacies and understand its many meanings. For a while it made me feel like no other movie was worth watching because it wouldn't come close to the overwhelming magnificence of this one.
That's how I feel about High Violet.
Album of the decade.
The National - Gods among men.
