The best albums of 2010

[Des]

worldy music nerd boy

Fantastic, Jamie - I always wondered what to call myself - now I know!

[Chris P]

random order:
Martha Mavroidi - The Garden of Rila
Albert Kuvezin - Poets & Lighthouses
Devon Sproule - Live in London
Tiken Jah Fakoly - African Revolution
Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal - Chamber Music
Josh Doughty - Kora
Kadialy Kouyate - Londo(Wisdom)
Nuru Kane - Number One Bus
Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
Kelly Joe Phelps & Corinne West - Magnetic Skyline

[matt m]

I need to hear the Albert Kuvezin, haven't got round to it yet. I haven't really listened to much non-UK/US music this year, I'm ashamed to admit. In fact, I haven't been grabbed by much new music.

Gone Ashtray - Matt K Shrugg
This is the only album I've loved from start to finish. Monomaniacal garage punk, with a fair bit of 60s psych influences. Reminded me by turns of Mudhoney, Stooges, Zappa, Beck and Beatles (some great Ringo-style drumming). The distortion on it is insane: garage that really sounds like it was recorded in a garage.

How Snakes Eat - Mathew Sawyer & the Ghosts
A bit more miserable and whingey than his excellent debut, Blue Bird's Blood, but still, sounds like the Television Personalities, or perhaps Robyn Hitchcock, produced by a bedroom Ennio Moriccone.

Punch Brothers 'Antifogmatic' was a brain-peeling listen, but a bit too up-its-own-arse. 'Alex' is a great song though.
Nina Nastasia's album 'Outlaster' has two amazing songs - 'Moves Away' and 'Holy Man' - but rest of album's disappointing.
Hip-hop-wise I enjoyed Johnny Polygon's sparse electro party tunes on his 'Rebel without Applause', though he's quite a lazy rapper. And Mr Brady's 'Labor of Love' had more quirks than most hip-hop these days - some Giorgio Moroder touches and wrong-footing off-beats.
Jason Steel's 'Fire Begot Ash' had, again, several attention-grabbing tracks, but didn't feel like a finished album to me. While I'd rather listen to any of those songs than the current glut of drippy, platitude-ridden singer-so-called-songwriters, I reckon Steel could have compiled one killer album out of all the various EPs he's recorded over the last 24 months or so. (He ought to consider the occasional guest musician too)

In short, I could make a great compilation tape of tracks from 2010, but hardly any albums really did it for me.

[Chris P]

just remembered that one of the reasons I updated my picks was to include Tiken Jah Fakoly's strong & heavily African instrument laced 'African Revolution', so been in & edited above
Matt, I reckon the Kuvezin's brilliant & emotionally resonant too, a slight step aside from the Yat-Kha sound.

[Jamie Renton]

Matt, I reckon the Kuvezin's brilliant & emotionally resonant too, a slight step aside from the Yat-Kha sound.

I agree. It's very dark but very warm & quite different to what they've done before. I've written a review of it for the forthcoming issue of fRoots.

[howard male]

OK, here’s my final 10. In the end I only had to loose 'The Story-Faced Man' by Vinicio Capossela in order to squeeze in 'The Sea' by Corinne Bailey Rae. The latter may superficially sound a little middle-of-the-road but her song structures are 100% original, her melodies exquisite, and this album just grew on me more and more over the year.

But as others have said in this strand and elsewhere - there were very few albums by individual artists that impressed this year. I had high hopes for Janelle Monae’s debut, but in the end it’s just ‘Tightrope’ that stands out as the single of the year, and nothing else on the album comes near to it.

And it’s a poor state of affairs when one of the year’s best – Delaney Davidson - probably hasn’t been played on the radio by anyone in the UK. I saw him perform in front of about 15 people and just thought, something’s really wrong here. But I’m sure we’ve all had an experience like that.

Another thing these top tens point out is how we are all really on completely different planets musically – perhaps even more so since Charlie’s passing. Because it’s not just a question of taste, it’s also a question of simply not having heard (or in some cases even heard of) the artists and albums others are enthusing about.

1.Trad-Mods vs Rockers – Alternative Takes on Congotronics – Various
2. The Sea by Corrinne Bailey Rae
3. Fool’s God – Fool’s Gold (came out last year but it was new to me this year.)
4. Next Stop … Soweto. Township Sounds from the Golden Age of Mbadanga - Various
5. Own Side Now – Caitlin Rose
6. Oi! A Nova Musica Brasileira! - Various
7. Let This Be The Last Night We Care - Alcoholic Faith Mission
8. Bruie Lentement - Mama Rosin
9. Self Decapitation – Delaney Davidson
10. Palenque Palenque! “Champeta Criolla & Afro Roots in Colombia 1975-91” - Various

[Jonathan E.]

[ . . . ]
Another thing these top tens point out is how we are all really on completely different planets musically [ . . . ]

If that means there's a lot of diversity in musical tastes on display, isn't that a good thing?

I think we share one, perhaps two, titles in our 2010 Top Tens — mine is nowhere near finalized, but I either haven't heard your others (six of them) or they're not for me.

None of Matt M's choices mean anything to me, although some are intriguing.

Of Chris P's selection, one might be a contender, I'm not familiar with eight of them (although two are queued up on Mog for later delectation), and one just didn't grab in a spot in my (potential) Top Ten.

Except for a few people who have very similar tastes to mine, I find that those type of agreement numbers are quite common: they're probably roughly reflected in the fRoots results, although I didn't tally up with such obsession. But, ultimately, this diversity strikes me as an indication of strength rather than something to mourn. Among other things, it means there are lots of releases — no one (or almost no one) is really going to have a comprehensive view of the field, and so we can all bring something to the table.

[kk]

Album of the year for me is Tindersticks‘ Falling Down A Mountain and its companion piece Live In London. Falling Down A Mountain isn’t their best album by any stretch, but to me, even a slightly substandard Tindersticks effort still effortlessly beats most of anything else….the band are in a cracking live form currently, and Live In London captures a bit of that magic

1 Tindersticks "Falling Down A Mountain" & "Live in London”
2 Kadialy Kouyate "Londo/Wisdom"
3 Amparo Sanchez "Tucson Habana"
4 Syriana "Road To Damascus"
5 Lisa Gerrard "Departum"
6 Ali & Toumani
7 Zarah Hindi "Handmade"
8 Max Richter "Infra"
9 Gaida "Levantine Indulgence"
10 Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal "Chamber Music"

Overall, and contrary to some other posts, i thought it was quite a good year, i had to leave out quite a number of albums which i also thought were very good

[howard male]

Hi KK

Allow me to try to spoil Tindersticks for you (as I did for my bro in law) by pointing out that the singer sounds like Vic Reeves doing his club singer routine.

But, yes, the Syriana album is a definite grower.

[kk]

Hi Howard, allow me to spoil the spoiler… but your post is an ironic wind-up, right? It is surely only NME reviewers that regurgitate this lazy cliché?:)

(i have never seen the Vic Reeves impersonation - one of the advantages of not living in the UK, i guess.....)

[NormanD]

Folks - aren't we meant to be talking about what we like, rather than make comments, etc, on others' choices?

[howard male]

Yep, sorry. It was only a joke. My bro in law and I still laugh about it, so I though you lot might find it amusing. Clearly not.

[kk]

no problem, Howard, of course it IS amusing... i thought it was a wind-up, but message boards don't always convey humour well, and many people do - still - use the VR comparison in all seriousness (including, well, in the NME review of their last album....)

[howard male]

Do you know what, KK? I’ve not done more than glance at the front cover of an NME since 1882, so I had no idea that the Reeves comparison wasn’t an original perception.

But perhaps you had to be there – some ten years ago - when my bro in law’s face fell the moment I so cruelly enlightened him. He hasn’t been able to listen to the band since. But as this loss was concurrent with the beginnings of an appreciation of Balkan and African music, I feel that if I took away with one hand, I gave back with the other.

[matt m]

oh, I'd forgotten about Cath & Phil Tyler's 'The Hind Wheels of Bad Luck' album.

Not sure if it was a 2010 album or not. I think it was available as a download in Dec 09, but the CD came out January.

A British folk album that I suspect might be enjoyed by those who don't normally like that kind of thing. Not least cos one half is American...