My Top 11 Albums of 2010

Yes, it’s that time of year again! I hereby present you my list of the top 11 new albums that I have most enjoyed this year. This also marks the 5-year anniversary of my top 11 albums list! I’ll also be giving you my top 11 songs, a new addition I started last year.

[(Annual) Disclaimer: These selections are not supposed to be “the” top albums of the year, hence the “my” in the title. In no way am I suggesting these albums are better than all other albums that were released this year. These are simply the ones that I liked best.]

1. Enemy of the World

Four Year Strong

At first glance, I had a hard time picking out a #1 album this year. While there were plenty of great albums this year, none really blew the others out of the water the way that fun.’s Aim and Ignite and Brand New’s Daisy did last year, or My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade did in 2006. To decide, I thought a little bit about the original purpose of this list — to identify the albums which I enjoyed the most. When I put it that way, the answer became clear. No, it’s not just that their amazing cover art was hands down the best of the year. In truth, no other album came close to matching the raw enjoyment I got out of listening to FYS’s sophomore effort Enemy of the World this year. This album is a non-stop, in-your-face party, and FYS’s blend of hardcore and pop-punk has been honed to a level that far surpasses their fantastic debut, Rise or Die Trying (#4 in 2008). Brutal guitar hooks (“It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now,” “Nineteen With Neck Tatz,” pretty much every other song on here), some of the most phenomenal gang vocals I’ve ever heard (“Wasting Time” is epic in this regard), and a healthy dose of double bass pedal mesh perfectly with Dan O’Connor and Alan Day’s scream-tinged, aggressive dual vocals. There’s not a skippable song on this entire album. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing — on your way to work? A job interview? An IM sports game? A late-night paper writing session at the library? The dentist? Go ahead and put on Enemy of the World. You’ll be pumped for it, guaranteed.

2. Easy Wonderful

Guster

It’s been quite a while — four years in fact — since Guster’s last studio album, Ganging Up On The Sun (2006). And it has been well worth the wait. Far sunnier and more upbeat both lyrically and musically, Easy Wonderful is written almost entirely in major keys. The instrumentation seems more playful (for instance on the single “Do You Love Me?”, which also showcases frontman Adam Gardner’s vocal range), and the album is peppered with “doo doo doo” and “oh oh oh” gang vocals galore. Each song seems to have a little extra effort put into the arrangement to make it memorable. Take the slide guitars on “This Could All Be Yours,” for instance. The infectious calypso percussion and harmonica of “This Is How It Feels To Have A Broken Heart.” The mandolin, pizzicato strings, or almost mariachi-band horns on “What You Call Love.” “Jesus & Mary” is one of my favorites, and trust me, you’ll be whistling that riff for days. The electronic loops and drum machine on the closing “Do What You Want” (plus a cool little electric guitar riff) are a nice bit of experimentation, and it works. While other albums on this list grew on me over time, I fell in love with Easy Wonderful pretty much immediately. Don’t be surprised to find yourself singing along on the second listen.

3. Would It Kill You?

Hellogoodbye

This album is one of the true gems of 2010. Hellogoodbye fans have also been waiting four years for the band’s highly anticipated follow-up Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! (#7 in 2006), mostly due to an extremely protracted legal battle between the band and its former label Drive-Thru Records, which was finally resolved this year. During that time, Hellogoodbye also went through an extensive lineup change — their keyboard player, drummer, and bassist have all been replaced, and Forrest Kline’s vocals remain the only constant. The fact that they also added a mandolin/ukelele player in Andrew Richards should tell you a little something about how the band’s sound has evolved. All that time also allowed Would It Kill You? to be finely honed into a gorgeous, wonderfully complex instrumental tapestry, with a half-dozen interweaving layers — mostly acoustic ones — shedding the digitized, loop-heavy simplicity of their previous efforts. While this might cost Hellogoodbye a little in terms of instant sing-along-ability, they more than compensate for it with brilliant instrumentation (see the romping horn section on “Betrayed by Bones” or the xylophone, guitars, piano, and soaring strings on “I Never Can Relax”) and dramatically improved lyricism. From the “oh oh oh” gang vocals in the opening seconds of the adorable “Finding Something To Do” to the slow, mandolin-backed crooning by Kline on “The Thoughts That Give Me The Creeps,” to the building climax of the title track — honestly I have fun just trying to pick out all the different instruments as I listen. Highly recommended — gets even better with each listen.

4. Some Things Don’t Wash Out

You, Me, and Everyone We Know

This album is just irresistibly fun. Singer Ben Liebsch channels the vocal range of Cartel’s Will Pugh and the ironic lyricism and half-spoken delivery of Say Anything’s Max Bemis. The band adds a shake of lacksadaisical horns, a sprinkle of tasteful gang vocals and stirs in a liberal helping of tight pop-punk guitars. The first three tracks of this album (“Shock and Awe,” “I’m Losing Weight For You” and “Livin’ Th’ Dream”) are a seamless, boisterous flow of high-energy, major-key merriment. In fact, the remainder of the album hardly lets up, with “A Bigger Point of Pride,” “Bootstraps,” and the title track delivering a virtually non-stop audio joy ride. It’s hard not to smile at the lyrical wittiness and disco beat of “James Brown Is Dead,” and when the band finally takes a breath, slowing it down briefly with “The Next 20 Minutes,” the claps and horns keep things interesting. “A Little Bit More” is hands down the best song on the album, with one of the catchiest hooks I’ve heard this year (not to mention the brilliance of the lyrics). “In case you don’t like blunt, let me make this less clear,” warns Liebsch on “The Puzzle.” And just like that, the album ends, with the the thundering bass drum hits, cymbals, and claps on the swaying closer “Moon, Roll Me Away.”

5. High Violet

The National

This is an album best listened to on big speakers, sitting alone in your apartment’s couch on a Sunday afternoon with a good book — on which you cannot focus because you keep getting constantly distracted by the brilliance of this album. I’ve been listening to The National since Alligator (2005) and I think this band has gotten exponentially better with each release, both lyrically and musically. Lead singer Matt Berninger has perfected his low, melancholy delivery on High Violet, perfectly nonchalant, but simultaneously earnest. Lyrically, there’s a sad overtone to this album (the track “Sorrow” might be a dead giveaway on that point). I also really love the way Bryan Devendorf’s drumming style has evolved on this album in comparison to previous efforts. While the magnificent singles “Lemonworld” and “Bloodbuzz, Ohio” deservedly steal the show on this album, I also appreciate the brooding, slow building “Afraid of Anyone,” which features a really neat unique little distorted guitar riff and pulsating percussion. The triplet acoustic guitar rhythm and haunting vocals of “Runaway” and the shimmering but eerie “Conversation 16” (a zombie confession?) are also well-worth checking out.

6. The Forecast

The Forecast

Despite being dropped from their record label after 2006’s In The Shadow of Two Gunmen, the Peoria, Illinois-based quartet The Forecast managed to put out one of the best albums of 2010. Blending country/western influences with an edgy, raw rock sound and the signature dual vocals of lead singer Dustin Addis and bassist Shannon Burns, this self-titled album is about leaving home — and coming back. Maybe it’s the Illinois roots (the album also contains a song titled with our state’s name), or the fact that it came out during the long winter in Prague when I was feeling a little homesick, but right from the melancholy acoustic guitar of the opener “Losers”, I just fell in love with this album. The emotion of the single “Lost At Sea” makes it one of my favorites on the album, and the simple, catchy hook of the upbeat “I’ll Set You Free” is also a highlight. The sunny “Kisses” is followed by the mesmerizing riff of the slow-burning “Snake Charmer,” and Burns’ and Addis’ traded vocals over the huge guitars of “If I’m Not Mistaken” are memorable. The lyrical trajectory of the album comes to a climax with exceptional dual vocals on “Life’s A Garden, Dig It,” “A Better Man”, and the epic closer “Double On The Rocks” (one of the best songs of the year, see below).

7. All Day

Girl Talk

Gregg Gillis proves he’s still the master of mashup. While All Day isn’t as instantly infectious as Feed The Animals (#3 in 2008), it is still, as one reviewer put it, “stupendously danceable.” The album is Gillis’ most dense, boasting 373 separate samples to FTA‘s 322. I also got the sense that Gillis tried to broaden his horizons, reaching back into the 60’s and 70’s for more samples this time around, and featuring older artists more prominently (as well as female rappers…but maybe that’s just me). As to my favorite mashup on the album, it’s hard to say… Missy Elliott and the Ramones? Juicy J and Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky”? Wale and Beck’s “Loser”? M.O.P.’s “Ante Up” and Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The U.S.A.”? Radiohead’s “Creep” and Ol’ Dirty Bastard? Lil’ Kim and Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”? Lil’ Jon’s “Get Low” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia”? U2 + Twista + Daft Punk? Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of” and Rye Rye feat. M.I.A.? Rick Ross + Basement Jaxx’s “Where’s Your Head At?” Birdman and Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”? I could go on. There’s just so much to like here.

8. Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys

My Chemical Romance

No, it may not be quite The Black Parade (#1 in 2006), but this is a superb album. Lead singer Gerard Way and company reinvent themselves yet again, discarding whatever remnants of the “emo” label they might have had left and opting for a much more straightforward rock sound (though Way’s distinctive vocals are easy to recognize). Despite Way’s insistence that Danger Days is not another concept album (because it has no discernible plot), it comes pretty darn close — taking place in a dystopian future in the year 2019, the band’s alter egos (the Killjoys) are a band of renegade outlaws fighting a hopeless battle against an evil mega-corporation that has taken over. The album also features periodic narration by an underground pirate radio DJ named Dr. Death Defying. My Chem has become famous for their music videos, and this album does not disappoint (you can watch them here and here). Opening with the high-energy, riotous single “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na),” and continuing through the irresistible dance-rock of “Planetary (GO!),” and “The Only Hope For Me Is You,” which seems destined to be a radio hit. The frenetic “Party Poison” and “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back” (which has a raw, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge sound to it) are followed by “S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W,” a slower track which features an oddly catchy falsetto chorus. While the last half of the album is a little uneven, it features the album’s two most aggressive offerings, “Destroya,” and the manic closing track “Vampire Money,” a sarcastic send-off the band wrote after turning down an invitation to contribute a song to the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. Good choice, guys.

9. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West

Not only the first hip-hop album to ever make it onto my top 11 albums of the year, Fantasy is also one of the only hip-hop albums I actually enjoy listening to in its entirety. While I continue to despise Kanye West as a person, I have to admit that the man is a musical visionary. Blending soul, R&B, hip-hop, and eyebrow-raising production choices which include samples ranging from Black Sabbath to Bon Iver, Kanye has put together an album with enough musical complexity, intrigue, and variety to keep me listening to the end. Lyrically, Fantasyseems deeper and cleverer than Kanye’s previous work, and serves as a rather fascinating window into the troubled rapper’s psyche (most interesting is how cognizant — and comfortable with — Kanye is of his own arrogance). From the epic soulful opener “Dark Fantasy” to the fist-pumping single “Power,” to the horns and staccato percussion of “All Of The Lights,” the dark pulse of the guest-heavy “Monster” (how many songs feature both Jay-Z and Bon Iver?), the piano samples and electronica-vocoded outro of “Runaway.” I appreciate the variety found on this album. The heavy synth saw of “Hell Of A Life” leads to the album’s conclusion with “Lost In The World,” a fantastic dance-inducing adaptation of Bon Iver’s “Woods.”

10. Epilogue

The River Empires

What do you get when the former frontman of a hard rock band starts a “bluegrass/cinematic” project? Answer: The River Empires. Not satisfied with the creative juices stirred by Falling Up’s final effort Fangs! (2009), a strange science-fiction concept album, Jesse Ribordy decided to take it a step further. The River Empires’ Epilogue is intended to be the final piece of a five-part soundtrack to a miniseries Ribordy is writing and pitching to TV stations (yes, seriously), which the band will release as separate albums in reverse chronological order. Overly ambitious? Maybe. But all of that aside, Epilogue is a fantastic musical journey. The lyrics are rather cryptic (and the “plot” impossible to decipher) but Ribordy’s vocals are so beautiful you don’t really care. Brimming with accordions, bells, strings, mandolins, tambourines, pianos, and a myriad of other instruments, the album is a lush — and at 29 tracks, exhaustive — masterpiece. For those intimidated by the album’s length or depth, check out “A Toast To The Snake King,” “The Coventry,” “Three Tigers,” or “The Curse of Maybel Cains,” some of the album’s more accessible tracks.

11. Invented

Jimmy Eat World

While I appreciate that Jimmy Eat World’s follow-up to Chase This Light (#6 in 2007) takes a darker, less radio-friendly approach, the execution is a little uneven. The album bursts off to a fantastic start with the acoustic, folksy “Heart Is Hard To Find,” and the crunching guitar riffs of the hit single “My Best Theory.” The next track, “Evidence” — perhaps the most classic JEW-sounding song on the album — features one of the biggest, most epic guitar hooks any JEW fan could ask for. I’m not sure what the band was going for with the awkward falsetto of the chorus on “Higher Devotion,” but I nearly always skip this one. The album loses focus through the middle, but I’m a sucker for the twinkly piano accents in “Littlething.” After suffering through the filler “Cut,” the band kick-starts the album again with the aggressive “Action Needs An Audience,” which almost seems to have a bit of 80’s-goth vibe to it. The final two tracks are by far the album’s best — the phenomenal title track, featuring twangy acoustic guitar and female vocalist on duet, simmers along for five minutes before exploding into a cacophony of plugged-in sonic glory. “Mixtape,” sure to become a fan favorite, is a simple but poignant closer.

Honorable Mention:

Brothers – The Black Keys

The Suburbs – Arcade Fire

My Dinosaur Life – Motion City Soundtrack

Masterpiece Theatre – Marianas Trench

Terrible Things – Terrible Things

Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place – Anberlin

Top 11 Songs of 2010: (with a little help from my last.fm profile)

Click on the links to listen to each song.

1. “Sleep Well” – Mae

2. “Double On The Rocks” – The Forecast

3. “It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now” – Four Year Strong