Top 20 Albums of 2010... The Top 5

OK, apologies for building suspense. I'd like to say it was intentional, in truth that's the most I've written in about a year so I was flagging towards the end! Here's my top 5 albums of the year.

No.5 Janelle Monae - The

Archandroid

It's a concept album of such bonkers ambition it could quite easily turn out as self indulgent dribble. But somehow, this pint-size, cartoon like woman channels everyone from James Brown - David Bowie in her sprawling, diverse debut album and pulls it all off. I don't care much for the narrative of the record, but it does add to her kooky character, especially onstage. Its the individual songs that make this record so special, individual being the operative word, they all sound so different but somehow fit perfectly together. Tightrope is a contender for song of the year, Big Boi's appearance isn't just for show - it sounds like Outkast has a new female pocket rocket lead singer and she's kicked André and Big Boi into touch. Faster and Cold War only cement her superstar-in-the-waiting credentials. If anyone can tell me why she isn't huge already, please comment below, cos I'm stuck. For now, I'm going to enjoy every second seeing her perform in small venues before the enormo-domes take her and I don't mean the arenas, I mean the space-robots from the future who exist only in Janelle Monae land.

4. Foals - Total Life Forever

It's so pleasing seeing a band fulfil their promise of potential, especially on the "difficult" second album where so many others fail. Total Life Forever takes Antidotes and just makes everything BIGGER. Its bolder, the bass is funkier, which is the first thing I noticed. They've learnt to build songs, layer them more and make them anthems displayed perfectly on Spanish Sahara, This Orient and Total Life Forever. I saw them about a week after the record had been out and the

whole crowd new every word to every new track played. It was quite a feeling, and the album is quite an achievement. Intelligent, funky, guitar pop is alive and well.

3. Hot Chip - One Life Stand

YAY! They've made a proper album! Was my response after the first few listens of this record. Hot Chip are a great singles band, which isn't really a criticism, they have great singles - which is good right? Well yes, but I think they wanted more than that, the fans wanted more than that, there was something missing - a consistent, complete album. This album transforms them from the adorable geeks that turn up every couple of years with a

catchy tune or two, to a real national treasure. At 10 tracks, there's no fat, every track is great, there's traditional hot chip dance floor geekery and there's

tender moments too on Brothers and Alley Cats, the latter is one of my favourite tracks they've done "You painted a song" croons Alexis. They did and its a masterpiece.

2. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

In the past BSS have frustrated me, I know they have tunes, I've heard them - Anthems for a

seventeen year old girl, Superconnected, Fire Eye'd boy. Great tunes, and live - wow! But they're usually sandwiched between some jams and fiddly noises, experimenting - some I love, some I can do without. FRR dispenses with all that and goes straight for the gorgeous hook-laden melodious rock songs. Not just 2-3 and a few jams - FOURTEEN! 14 tracks of song writing brilliance. Every one of em! I've just checked the tracklist again to see if I'm exaggerating cos I'd hate to mislead you all, but no, I recognise and could hum each one to you right now. They're all so catchy, that's why. I'm not going to single any out. If you like great melodious indie-rock music, buy it. You have to buy it too, don't download it for free, there's like a million people in the band and the royalties must get quite thin when you get down the line to the 6th lead guitarist.

1. The National - High Violet

*Yawn!* How predictable, Paddy has chosen The National as his favourite album... I can hear you from here so STOP IT! I didn't want to pick it! I was forced to, hear me out.... OK, I have no smart excuse, its brilliant and I played it the most. This band gets better, I cant think of a band from my generation that have produced 3 albums one after the other of the quality of Alligator, Boxer and High Violet. This one rightly propels them into the mainstream, they're no longer my favourite band that no-ones heard of. They couldn't be after this. Bloodbuzz Ohio is the most radio friendly track they've ever done. That statement conjures images of watered down The National for the masses. Now here's the brilliant thing - it wasn't! It was great, still brooding, still moody but a little more upbeat so Chris Moyles' Sun reading, WKD-on-their-cornflakes eating, moronic listeners could handle it without calling in and oozing DUHHHH HIS VOICE MADE ME DO BAD THINGS TO MY WRIST. Sorry, that was uncalled for, I know some nice people listen to Chris Moyles too, and I know some very nice people with otherwise exceptional taste in music who Matts voice makes them want to do bad things to their wrists.

Anyways, my point was High Violet isn't anything different to what The National have always done. Beautiful string arrangements with intricate guitars, dark lyrics "I was afraid I'd eat your brain.." and Matt Berningers menacing, baritone vocals. There isn't a duff track on the record, but if you didn't like them before now, you're not going to like them after this - unfortunately for you a lot more people like them now so you're gonna hear them a lot more, in the shops, on the radio, at a festival main stage, wherever you are - that voice, following you... whispering... scared? You should be, he's evil.

The Top 20 Albums of 2010

I think 2010 was a great year for music, I've never understood how people can say XXXX year was a bad year for music - do bad years exist? Or do you just have to try harder than some years to find the good stuff? I don't think I tried particularly hard this year I guess is what I'm saying.

I'm fortunate to have a lot of friends with good taste and a wife with excellent taste too. I don't really read much music press, very few blogs or listen to radio so the stuff I like I find from friends, twitter or going to gigs, then look em up online afterwards.

Before we get to the list there are some albums that I didn't get til Christmas that haven't made it to the list which may have if I'd had more time to digest, these are The Avett Brothers, Beach House, Local Natives, Cee Lo and Four Tet.

Anyways, lets crack on with my top 20. I'll do the 20-11 as a list then go in to more detail for the top 10.

20.Yeasayer - Odd Blood

19.Fenech Soler - Fenech Soler

18. Bombay Bicycle Club - Flaws

17. The Black Keys - Brothers

16. Francis and the Lights - It'll be better

15. Jamie Lidell - Compass

14. Kele - The Boxer

13. We Have Band - We Have Band

12. Grosvenor - Soft Return

11. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

I think I heard ONE by Yeasayer at the end of 2009 and was convinced if they could follow that up with a great album they'd go huge. Ambling Alp was the first single and I was all set to declare my new favourite band - 2 outstanding songs in a row.....aaaand the rest of the album couldn't live up to it, but its those 2 tracks that gets it in my top 20. I now want to talk about all those albums cos they all have their moments of utter genius, but I cant, I don't have time and neither do you. Maybe in a later blog...

What I tried to do with this list is rate them purely on how much I listened to the album, forget about what a technically great album Plastic Beach is - I didn't listen to it as much as I did these next 10, so it misses out - but only just!

10. Pulled Apart By Horses - Pulled Apart By Horses

Shortly before I heard PABH, I declared that there hasn't been, a decent English ROCK band in a long while. You know the ones that make you wanna throw things, and scream out the lyrics while in the flat on your own. I heard I punched a lion in the throat first and it didn't just grab my attention, it grabbed the scruff of my neck and shook me til I took back those words in the first sentence.

Speaking of the lyrics, you cant be this BALLS OUT RAWWWK without your tongue being slightly in cheek, and PABH lyrics really shows they have a sense of humour, close that living room door turn up the volume and shout "I'LL MAKE YOU DANCE WITH MY BALLS ON FIRE!!!"

9. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

They made it acceptable to say I love drunk girls and not get a slap from my wife. Great comeback single, I then got a 12" white label of Pow Pow at Record Store Day and expectations of the album reached lofty heights. It was a slow burner for me though, Dance yrself clean scared me witless every time the album started on my iPhone. If you haven't got it, you think your volume has broken so you crank it up to hear the verse, only for the chorus to blast your ears a new hole. Ive read a few interviews with James Murphy and it seems he enjoys annoying people, this quiet-loud beginning DID-MY-HEAD-IN. He's also said that he likes the live shows to be as unemotional as possible (?). Odd guy, but a genius, the album grows into a dancefloor monster that only they can do. If its to be their last, the legacy remains unblemished.

8. Best Coast - Crazy For You

I was never really into lo-fi fuzzy pop that much, but I think Pains of Being Pure at Heart changed that in 2009. So this years fuzzy-ness hit comes from Best Coast. Lovable quirky lyrics, compliment the sweet simple melodies which make up some pretty perfect pop songs.

When people started raving about She and Him earlier this year I told them to listen to this instead. Its just so much cooler and they have a similar retro vibe.

7. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

OK, Admission time. I really did not get this album for months. It just seemed so dull, repetitive, uneventful.... suburban *cliché cringe*. I tried to like it, almost forcing myself to listen to it in the first few weeks. It didn't work though. I kept it on my iPhone as a gesture, like you keep an old school friend on facebook during your quarterly "friend" culls - sure, they're dull, but they don't deserve to be treated badly.

Then we went to see Jools Holland being filmed and they were on. BANG, At last! It clicked, it made sense. There was urgency, there was delicacy, there WAS tunes. I knew there was all along, honest...

6. The Drums - The Drums

Anyone who hasn't found themselves dancing / singing Lets Go Surfing in the past 18 months since it first appeared on the Kitsuné Maison vol. 8 compilation is probably dead. Its infectious riff and opening Oh mamaaa, made it a an indie sing-a-long classic. But who knew they would have depth?! This album shows a maturity that no-one could have anticipated. Great slow shufflers like Down by the water showed they could do a lullaby if they wanted and Best Friend had real heart. Influences from Beach Boys and The Cure span the record. The Drums will be played up and down the countries indie discos for years to come.

A rare case of hype equalling the end product.

I'll post my top 5 in the coming days, for now if you haven't heard any of the above, go forth and spotify.

Heckles, arguments, comments welcome.

Corrections to my grammar - get a life.