Later this week we will list our Top Music Videos, the Year in Photos and (MY FAVORITE) the Best & Worst Album Covers of the year, along with our list of Top Compilation and EP releases of the year.
Yesterday, we listed the Jivewired Radio Top 50 Spins, which was voted on by our listeners, with Mai Bloomfield taking the top spot for her single "Eclipse" from her "Eclipse {Sampler}" EP.
I have set up an Amazon page where you can purchase any of the albums listed here or your favorite tracks from each album. The page is located at the following link: Jivewired Top 20 Albums Of 2010 and can be purchased for CD shipment or digital download.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful and musically enriched New Year. I thank you for listening to Jivewired Radio and for supporting indie music, and I hope you will continue to listen throughout the new year.
And now, on to the Top 20 Albums of 2010...
20. Crystal Castles (II) by Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles was never exactly a groundbreaking force in the whole 8-bit, chiptune, whatever-you-want-to-call-it genre they emerged from. What made vocalist Alice Glass' and multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath’s take on it so exciting was the energy, the pop sensibilities, and attitude they brought to the proverbial table. It wasn’t wholly original, but they had some interesting ideas, and... well, it didn’t hurt that Glass is so easy on the eyes, either. On their sophomore effort, which is a self titled one like their first (they’re too cool to title their albums, man), they downplay the glitchy bleeps a bit to flesh out their sound a bit more, and it pays off wonderfully.
-- Review by Smevin Bravis
Best Songs: Celestica, Suffocation
Team Photo: Baptism, Empathy
19. High Violet by The National
There isn't a bad song on the album, and generally when people say things like that they seem to imply that there are still a few duds here and there. But "High Violet" is literally free of weak moments. Anyone familiar with how The National operate won't be surprised by that, but it's still an impressive feat because they're fairly deep into their career.
The National should give faith to anyone who has become disillusioned with indie music, anyone who misses a time where it didn't seem like all the musicians thought they were better than you and you could actually relate to the damn words they were singing. High Violet is another batch of cement to further supplement their already unshakable, concrete career.
-- Review by SputnikMusic.com
Best Songs: Conversation 16, Bloodbuzz Ohio, England
Team Photo: Lemonworld, Mr. November
18. Orchid by K.C. Clifford
"Orchid" is the fifth release from talented singer-songwriter K.C. Clifford, and the album is poised to turn some heads thanks to her exhaustive musical immersion on the project. On "Orchid", sensitivity cascades without dissolving into vulnerability, and gorgeous melodies surface without fading into saccharin sentimentality. Clifford establishes a picturesque footprint that is proficient, beautiful, and musically significant. It is also one of the best folk/modern folk recordings of the year.
K.C. Clifford styles an amalgamation of both country and folk music and does in a manner so as to honor and uphold both, without diluting one for the sake of the other. This formula was pioneered by Gram Parsons and in tribute and reverence, artists such as Jeff Tweedy, Ryan Adams, Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris have carried that torch magnificently. With "Orchid", K.C. Clifford serves in musical kinship, nearly coequal in talent to the best of that genre. This is a stellar effort, and if you are a fan of the folk/modern folk/americana genres and their hybrid brethren, then "Orchid" is a CD worth owning.
-- Review by Michael Canter
Best Songs: Story Of Our Own, Redman, Jericho
Team Photo: Broken Things
17. Lisbon by The Walkmen
From the first to the very last last note, there is much precision in the tunes of "Lisbon," and though they are working within standards of melody and tone, the band separate themselves in the surprises of each song. The rumor is that more than 30 tunes were recorded with only eleven eventually selected. Even in their editing, The Walkmen have become true professionals, finally comfortable in their own sound and now fine-tuned enough to create a masterpiece.
The Walkmen won’t ride this record’s reception and reviews to anything more than the moderate success they have maintained for nearly a decade. But, they have created something that will sound rich and meaningful outside of its time and place. And that might be better.
-- Review by The Consequence Of Sound
Best Songs: Angela Surf City
Team Photo: Blue As Your Blood, All My Great Designs
16. Crazy For You by Best Coast
For an album of such modest intent-- girls meets boy, girl loses boy, girl locks herself in bedroom and pines over him for all of eternity-- it's remarkable that "Crazy For You" became such a polarizing artifact, the simplicity of its execution seemingly matched only by the divisive discourse surrounding it.
But whether you think Bethany Cosentino's boy-crazy jangle-pop mash notes sound timeless or tired, classic or clichéd, you can't deny her sense of commitment-- her unwavering attempts to evoke that sense of disappointment in staring at a phone that never rings practically transforms Crazy For You into the world's first accidental concept album. And snicker all you want at Cosentino's remedial rhymes (miss/kiss, crazy/lazy, friend/end, etc.), but, as the swoon-worthy chorus of "ooohs" on "When the Sun Don't Shine" attests, her siren of a voice can sell a song without any words at all.
-- Review by Stuart Berman
Best Songs: Each And Every Day, Crazy For You, Boyfriend
Team Photo: When The Sun Don't Shine
15. Waterproof Matches by Mon Monarch
(not available on Amazon)
Purchase By Clicking Cover Art
Mon Monarch is the creative collaboration of Chuck E. Costa, Eric Dawson Tate and Colin Meyer. Costa is an award-winning songwriter who has shared the stage with the likes of Rosanne Cash, The Weepies, Pete Seeger, Peter Case, Dar Williams, Josh Ritter, Richard Shindell and Andrew Bird to name a few. After a few years of making music together, the three headed to upstate New York and recorded "Waterproof Matches", their first recording collectively as Mon Monarch.
For most American Folk music, the common denominator is that when you head out to hear it live, you typically get exactly what you would expect: acoustic, spare and unadulterated music. Too often, the same music that has been honed and perfected in the Village cafés and dive bars is carried into the studio where it suddenly becomes beefed up into some sort of pseudo-pop intermix of session guitarists, gaudy arrangements and unimaginative overproduction that alienates the folk-music fans. Costa, Tate and Meyer have managed to keep the sound on this album true to its genre, combining smoky vocals with evocative songwriting and brilliantly understated instrumentation.
-- Review by Michael Canter
Best Songs: I Know Better, In The Weeds, Answers, Gettysburg
Team Photo: Pockets
14. Red Light Rabbit by The Quick & Easy Boys
Punky, funky and just a little bit country, Portland trio the Quick and Easy Boys deliver all the goods without a hint of genre dilettantism on their rousing sophomore release, "Red Light Rabbit." Granted, our heroes aren’t quite the clever and unique genre alchemists they think themselves to be—everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Phish to My Morning Jacket has trod similar territory—but these guys (singer/guitarist Jimmy Miller, singer/bassist Sean Badders and drummer Michael Goetz) do it with verve and understanding, and I’ll be damned if inventive guitarist Miller ain’t a hotshot in the making.
Punk and funk drives the band and separates the Quick and Easy Boys from the rock masses. Great on record, I can only imagine the raucousness that accompanies their lives sets—I mean, you get a bunch of punks, funky souls and cowboys in a room together…
-- Review by Stephen Haag
Best Songs: Take Your Medicine, Daggers, Red Light Rabbit, Foster I...
Team Photo: 7 Ways, Spicey Paella
13. The Age Of Adz by Sufjan Stevens
This is an album built on earlier ideas that doesn't seem like a retread, and it also explores new thematic terrain. Taking a more personal tack with songs inspired in part by a long and serious illness, "The Age of Adz" infused the busy orchestration Stevens has become known for with a sparkly electronic sheen and featured bolder melodies and stronger vocals. Big-hearted, warm, and ambitious, the album felt immediately provocative even as it provided a sense of relief. It's also the kind of album that has a lot to explore and sounds better with every listen, so if Sufjan takes his time with the next one, this should hold us for a while.
-- Review by Mark Richardson
Best Songs: Too Much, I Walked, Impossible Soul
Team Photo: Age Of Adz, Vesuvius
12. One Life Stand by Hot Chip
Hot Chip have always seemed older than their years, but this album, their fourth, is the one in which they grow up for real. They have always paired an ear for the dance floor with an eye for the impenetrable lyric, their songs brimming with so much energy, so many ideas that the listener was sometimes scalded. In "One Life Stand," however, everything is pared back and pried open. Musically, melody is to the fore, with new lines grafted carefully on to one another, the predominant influences being 80s house and disco and even Will Oldham. Lyrically, there is a clear theme: the transformational power of love. Alexis Taylor's vocals are perfectly suited to this subject, and where his falsetto might once have seemed cold, here it's delicate and tender. Marvelously, this is still music to dance to. More than dance in fact; you can exult to this.
-- Review by Paul MacInnes
Best Songs: One Life Stand, Take It In, Hand Me Down Your Love, I Feel Better
Team Photo: Brothers, Slush, Alley Cat
11. 4x4=12 by Deadmau5
Joel Zimmerman doesn’t like being called a DJ. The 28-year-old dance music phenomenon from Toronto, better known as Deadmau5, rolls his eyes at the description, which he sees as a hopelessly outdated way of describing what he does. His sets are closer to live performances. He plays mostly his own material, assembling tracks on the fly, using cutting edge computer technology, including software he’s helped write himself. “There are no CDs involved,” he explains. “It’s a technological orgy up there and I try and keep it more my music than anyone else’s. If people come out to see Deadmau5 I want them to hear Deadmau5 music.”
Rocking stages in his trademark LED mouse helmet, Deadmau5 recalls the salad days of Daft Punk, when cartoon robots ruled clubland. "4x4=12" is audacious, mixing generic house grooves with eclectic fare like "Bad Selection," a kinetic jam with dog-whistle synth builds. The masterstroke is "Raise Your Weapon," which breaks down into a sick dubstep beat. "How does it feel now, to watch it burn?" asks singer Greta Svabo Bech before the bass hits. So what's burning? Your synapses, dude.
-- Review by Will Hermes
Best Songs: SOFI Needs A Ladder, Raise Your Weapon, Some Chords, Animal Rights
Team Photo: One Trick Pony, A City In Florida, Bad Selection
Picks #1-#10: http://sonicbytes.blogspot.com/2010/12/jivewired-top-20-albums-of-2010-1-10.html
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