Best 25 albums of 2010 - Ain't No Kayne on this list

This was a ridiculously great year for good and new music and I finding it increasingly difficult to agree with other top album lists from Pitchfork, Amazon, and Rolling Stone & all that other bullshit lists that include Mr. West.  There is so much overload of criticism from bloggers, Facebook "likes", and Twitter suggestions this year I found myself shaking my head at the top picks for music. The only top album lists I was please with came from Waterloo Records, the continuous collective list of new albums from Indie Cafe, and the good bloggers & folks from Stark Online.

That all being said I have decided I am going to make my own list, not rank them in order, and highlight a few albums I thought you should know my opinion on their latest album (if it matters).

Here we go!

Best 25 Albums of 2010

• Neil Young - Le Noise
• Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
• The National - High Violet 
• Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love  
• It has been about a decade since Belle & Sebastian has released a new album and Write About Love was a surprise for me when it released in October 2010.  I am a fan of this album because it is reminiscent, to me, of Simon & Garfunkel's arrangements in their 70's pop music & melodies. Belle & Sebastian are not trying to come out with a "new & improved" sound rather B&S make it a point to create these intricate melodies that are classic of the rest of their catalouge. This is a modern rock album that is pretty and potentially an album that every song could be "radio friendly".
• Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
• Warpaint - The Fool
• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs 
• Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
• The Black Keys - Brothers
• Sun City Girls - Funeral Mariachi
• It really comes down to this for SCG's - you either like them or you don't. The group of guys (no, they're not girls) have released about 50 LPs and Funeral Mariachi is the farewell album of the band due to a death of their drummer, Charles Gocher, in 2007. The first time I heard an album by SCG was in my uncle's car while riding to Hondo, Texas to attend a family reunion. The album was Dante's Disneyland Inferno (reissue 2006). If you get a chance to listen to it you should - that shit is intense, wild, and can be best described as a 'cluster-fuck'. I loved it. Funeral Mariachi is the best album of experimental folk and psychedelic rock I have heard in awhile that seems to have a more friendly listen for anyone who may be hearing the band for the first time. This is a band who I am sure influenced Animal Collective & possibly did the same drugs as Ween. This album is free-form, psychedelic folk, surf-rock, that can really fuck with your mind if you let it. I recommend you let it. Let it. Trust me - it feels good.
• The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
• Crocodiles - Sleep Forever 
• Joanna Newsom - Have on Me
• Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
• IRM is Beck's creation, composition, songwriting, & production. You can hear it on every single track on Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest. Her last album 5:55 was respectfully easy listening but this album is her best vocally. This album is played non-stop whenever I ride my bike around town. Give it a listen - she is after all French hero/actor/director/poet/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg's daughter. Also, did you see Charlotte's latest film? It was nothing I expected it to be and that should be read as a good thing.
• MGMT - Congratuations
• Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
• Broken Bells - Broken Bells
• Spoon - Transference
• Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
• Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
• Sleigh Bells - Treats
• Mixing metal with pop is what I like a lot. I saw Sleigh Bells during SXSW this year and I was blown away as I watched their live set. Fuckenamazingman!
• Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
• Holy shit! I was just introduced to this album by a friend, Brendan. As soon as I heard the whole album I had to get it myself. I blare the shit out of this album in my car and whenever I approach a cop at a light or stop sign I feel like I am doing something bad so I turn it down. This is the stuff you wanna hear to pump you up before getting into a fight. (at least that's how it makes me feel)
• Magnetic Fields - Realism
• Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
• Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock

Let's see what happens in 2011.  I'm pretty stoked about hearing new shit from My Morning Jacket, Radiohead, Battles, Explosions in the Sky, Fleet Foxes, M83, and Mogwai.