Top Ten albums of 2010

Dear chaps and ladies, boys and gals, I think it's about time for us to look back over the best albums of the year!


Here's my top 10 of 2010 *queues The Wizzard circa Top Of The Pops 1985*


1. Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now.
2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Foals  - Total Life Forever
5. The National -High Violet
6. The Like - Release Me
7. Janelle Monae - Archandroid, pts 2 and 3
8. Warpaint - The Fool
9. Plan B - Defamation of Strickland Banks
10. Mark Ronson - Record Collection.


(all links are to Spotify)


Honourable mentions, well, there are so many. Cee-Lo Green's 'The Lady Killer', Beach House's 'Teen Dream' (which I didn't take to initially at all, but I'm now re-appraising, now that it seems to be in a lot of year-end lists), Frighten Rabbits' 'Winter Of Mixed Drinks', and far too many others to mention. Erm, ok, Darwin Deez.


I was left feeling I could / should have listened to loads more, but I've only got two ears, and I have my fingers in several other pies, including TV journalism, tech, and film. I was fascinated that The Drums debut seemed to drop out of peoples' awareness, which confirmed what I believed previously - that they're a band who were built on hype. I am left doubting if there'll be much interest when they return, given that the interest in them was largely manufactured by a small portion of the media.


Kanyes' record was fascinating. Hugely overblown, full of celebrity cameos, but, crucially, it DID deliver. It was the antithesis of stripped-back '808s and Heartbreaks' in production, and perhaps a response to the doubters in the fallout from his public humiliation following the Taylor Swift debacle. 


Caitlin Rose's debut was authentic, with beatiful songwriting, and tasteful 70s country-pop production, a true delight. Janelle Monae's record became one of the most talked about records of the year in media circles, and I guess people were impressed by the ideas and inventiveness of the whole archandroid concept, the variety of the songs, and the quality. r'n'b is often very conservative, and this was the opposite, harking back to the work of Stevie Wonder, or Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' in being a concept album in the soul genre.


Speaking of soul concept albums, the Defamation of Strickland Banks was another from Forrest Gate rapper Plan B, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is one of the most commercial albums in my list, and certainly inspired by the likes of Amy Winehouse and other contemporary takes on Motown, but I couldn't care less, the sheer quality of the songs overrides all other considerations.


Anyway, enjoy Xmas, and have a listen, if you haven't already!

THAT Record sleeve for Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'

Record sleeves recent made the news pages of music websites when geek rocker Weezer decide to put chubby Lost star Jorge Garcia, better known as the show's character Hurley, on the sleeve for their new record.

The results were greeted with much mirth, and merriment, though it turns out, they claim, that they were in fact naming it after the international surfware company.

Roll forward a few weeks to Kanye West, around whom a great deal of anticipation is building ahead of his forthcoming album, 'My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy'. The rapper says that is label told him US Chainn Walmart wouldn't stock the proposed cover, though they have just an hour two ago released a statement to deny this.

The rapper how now proposed to offer 5 different album covers in order to be able to offer one which will not offend national supermarket chains, and other mainstream retailers.

Anyway, for my own take, I think the proposed image does expose the dark spectre of racism which still looms large over US society. The half-woman half-phoenix straddling the beer-holding man may not be a clear representation of a human being, but the implication is clear - as is the sense that miscegenation is not welcome in America, and represents the worst fears of US's white majority.

The whole fiasco also reminds me of Spinal Tap's 'Smell The Glove' argument in their hilarious movie, where a  woman kneels before a man, who is holding out a glove before. "You should have seen the cover they wanted to use", says their nefarious English manager to an uptight female record executive. "I tell you, he wasn't holding a glove".