(normally unnecessary) best albums/EPs of 2010 list
so after being let down by pretty much everyone i thought i respected to rate music for me i decided that “if you want sum’ done right, you gotta do it yourself” (via fred durst)
as arbitrary as lists are, credit is NOT being given where it’s due
and i don’t know about you guys, but this has been a year of quality electronic or electronically-based music for me more than any other year, so if you have a problem with my bias on this list let me know and i might care.
so here we go w/ 15 ALBUMS
15. The Gaslamp Killer - Death Gate EP
Hugely fun journey through the 60’s w/ the Killer and friends.
14. Knxwledge - Klouds
I love everything about this guy’s music.
13. Rudresh Mahanthappa & Steve Lehman - Dual Identity
This is live instrumental jazz in 2010.
12. Teebs - Ardour
11. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
I wasn’t really into Sufjan until this album. Amazingly inventive and almost circus-like at parts.
10. Big Boi: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
ATL did it again. An instant classic. Only Big Boi could make some of those instrumentals not too cheesy to handle.
9. Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers
I listened to this for the first time having some similar ideas about some percussive sounds they use in tracks like “Mayor” and this definitely made me jealous. Snap-and-pop pleasuretown
8. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
This one is tough - it’s kind of simultaneously the best and worst Gorillaz album. It can be hit and miss on a lot of occasions for me, but supremely solid guest spots from Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and of course De La Soul has kept it afloat. Let’s just hope the iPad album doesn’t ruin Gorillaz’ 2010. (NOTE: i listened to The Fall. i need to listen to it again but wtf damon. wtf.)
7. Four Tet - There Is Love In You
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Most reviews of this album are right in saying it’s his best. This was the first new album I listened to this year and it really set the tone for what I’d be listening to for the rest of the year. Hence the obvious biases in this list.
6. Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
This was the 2nd album I listened to this year. The layering these guys accomplish without getting too jam-bandy is incredible. In “Toccata” EVERYONE is just going at it for 9 minutes with no stop. Definitely their best album yet. Now if they would just tour the US.
5. Flying Lotus - Pattern+Grid World EP
What is essentially a compilation turned out far more fully-formed than expected. Only 20 minutes but infinitely replayable, caught between a viewpoint in the afterburner of Cosmogramma, but looking back as far as his Shhh! and Raw Cartoons material.
4. Baths - Cerulean
The sheer number of good tracks and the quality of the production for what is the end-all do-all bedroom pop album truly astonishes me. The answer to a prayer.
3. James Blake - CMYK EP
2. James Blake - Klavierwerke EP
I’m writing about both here because it’s the duality between them that makes it so great. You can hear so many of the same ideas in both EPs but one is a hazy dream of R&B crafted on a stoned dance floor, the other a completely organic interpretation of what feels like an enclosed space, a small room. Not to mention the painstaking detail and the astonishing ability to find new things each listen despite the perceived minimalism. The most progressive new producer around right now.
1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
LIKE, COME ON PEOPLE, ARE YOU KIDDING? These are supposed to be top ALBUMS lists!!
Klavierwerke EP doesn’t even come close to this as good as it is. There’s so much to say here but all I can say is listen and listen again and again and again.
Does no one in the press care about moving music forward anymore?
Note: after writing this i listened to the (technically 2011) leak of james blake’s LP and (2010 but i was late to the party) Dirty Projectors + Björk’s Mount Whittenberg Orca which would have changed this list. probably the #3 and #9ish spots respectively. listen to them.
Time Wharp
