1.
He greatest collection of sounds of any popular CD I’ve heard so far this year, blended, shaped, cajoled and forced together into a style that nods to many (most obvious are Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads’ use of African music) but is totally its own. From the opening lines of Horchata, you’re hearing a different sound (“In December drinking horchata / I'd look psychotic in a balaclava / Winter's cold, it's too much to handle / Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals”) that captures the excitement of the best groups that have expanded the meaning and scope of rock and roll (for me, U2, Talking Heads and The Police come to mind). Also, it’s quite a feat for a CD to stay current on my iPod and in my car for 8 months, but Contra has that staying power because it challenges on all levels but never forgets to sound and fell great. 3 key tracks: Horchata, Giving up the Gun. I Think Ur a Contra.
Year of Release:
2010
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4,130
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2.
One of those albums where the artist brings together all the strands of its prior albums – garage, blues, metal, soul, arena, the case of the BKs - for a truly stunning CD. Here, the BKs show themselves to be the current masters of the riff and the mood. Each song has its own short, insistent combination of melody and rhythm that gets under your skin and sets up residence in you mind. The words are straightforward, fit into each song’s groove and feeling, so that you’re immediately invested in what’s going on. But it’s the music that blows me away on this CD. A killer cover of the Gamble & Huff classic Never Gonna Give You Up ties together all the different voices on the second-to-last track. 3 black key tracks: Next Girl (“Oh my next girl will be nothing like my ex-girl”), Ten Cent Pistol, Unknown Brother.
Year of Release:
2010
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5,131
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3.
The union of an unlikely pairing – indie rock (James Mercer of The Shins) and hip-hop/neo-soul (Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse) – creates a sound that’s much more than the sum of 2 such disparate parts. This is what I call alternative pop – or what the Z-100s of the world would be playing if I was running the world. The first track, The High Road, let’s you know what’s in store: mid-tempo, minor chord, electronic atmospherics for two-thirds of the tune, breaking into a major key, arm-waving, cell-phone lighting coda. Think of a warmer-sounding version of early ‘80’s new wave, but be prepared for unexpected twists and turns along the way. 3 key tracks: The High Road, Vaporize, Trap Doors.
Year of Release:
2010
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1,337
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4.
In my imaginary world where Broken Bells is a regular on the radio, this CD by the Apples in Stereo is a greatest hits collection by one of the per-eminent pop/rock bands of the 21st Century. Every song is full of hooks and swirls, multi-layered vocals and recording gimmicks, and memorable melodies and natural harmonies. The use of synthesized vocals on a number of the songs is particularly striking in two respects: First, it gives the CD the feel of a long, lost Electric Light Orchestra album, perhaps what ELO’s inconsistent double album Out of the Blue could have been with some better, more consistent songwriting. Second, it provides a unified sound to a CD that covers a wide spectrum of the pop/rock landscape. Call this one a guilty pleasure. 3 key tracks: Dream about the Future, No One in the World, Told You Once.
Year of Release:
2010
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192
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5.
I think he’s one of the most gifted, inventive, insightful singer/songwriters to come out of the last decade. He’s spent the last 5 years or so living in Valencia, and his last two CDs had brief flashes of Spanish folk music, flamenco, samba and bossa nova increasingly coloring his music and worldview. On El Turista, Rouse fully embraces the old and current music of his adopted hometown, pushing his sound past the traditional singer/songwriter model, experimenting with jazz and flamenco, singing in Spanish, and examining his life as an American living abroad. This is an album of layers, where a traditional song like Cotton Eye Joe is re-worked into a melting pot of American and Spanish folk, sung and performed with the commercial sensibilities of an indie pop/rocker. The foundation of Rouse’s songs is still the American singer /songwriter, but there’s a rich display of talent being showcased here. 3 key tracks: Lemon Tree (the best example of the different musical influences on the CD), I Will Live on I
Year of Release:
2010
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7
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6.
The DBTs are not just the best American rock and roll band around today. They one of a small handful of rock artists putting out consistently excellent CDs every couple of years which set stinging social commentary to blues-based rock on a family tree that starts with the Stones and Allmans. The range of issues is compelling: father flight (Daddy Learned to Fly), alcoholism (The Fourth Night of My Drinking), unemployment (This F---ing Job), infidelity (You Got Another), sexual abuse (The Wig He Made Her Wear), the grimier side of the music world (After the Scene Dies), murder (Drag the Lake Charlie), unfulfilled dreams (Santa Fe). People are real in the world of The Big To-Do, and situations are unresolved and messy. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll, but it really is more. 3 key tracks: Daddy Learned to Fly, After the Scene Dies (“when the last one leaves / and the last note fades / and the last dreams’ been put away / shut the light off, shut the light off / after the scene dies / what you gonna do when the c
Year of Release:
2010
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70
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7.
On Magnetic North, Hales fulfills the promise he hinted at on his prior CDs (this is his 6th since 2002, 5th in the US), showcasing memorable melodies in sparkling production with tasteful arrangements, including the occasional orchestration. It would be too easy to describe him as a poor man’s Coldplay, a member of the Radiohead- Keane –Travis school of what Chris Martin called “limestone rock” (something in-between hard and soft rock), a 21st century Elton John or an English Ben Folds, and would actually miss the mark with what Hales has done on this CD: present 12 excellent songs with melodies that sound as new and fresh as they sound of a piece with the rich history of post-Beatles British pop/rock. Ultimately, I’ve listened to this CD so much since I bought it back in April I had to place it in my Top 10. 3 Key Tracks: New Friend, Reel Me In (a song I had so stuck in my head the other night I was certain I heard it on the radio, until I realized this isn’t music that’s getting on the radio these day
Year of Release:
2010
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2
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8.
Ritter’s songs are stories, and his best lyrics are cinematic in scope and emotion. The Curse is the “typical” song about an archaeologist falling in love with the Egyptian mummy she discovers, who comes to life in her presence and stays timeless while she ages. In Folk Bloodbath, Ritter connects to some of the more notorious bandits of the 19th century (“And I'm looking over rooftops / And I'm hoping that it ain't true / That the same God looks out for them / Looks out for me and you / Angels laid them away”). Ritter has a way of tossing off memorable lines, and the best songs on this CD connect with feelings and experiences deep inside us, like the best poetry. 3 key tracks: Change of Time (“I had a dream last night / I dreamt that I was swimming / And the stars up above / Directionless and drifting … Time, Love / It’s only a change of time”), Lark (“The trees rustle as if to kneel and listen / To the heartbeat of a lark or the lark in my heartbeat”), Lantern (“Be the light of my lantern, the light of
Year of Release:
2010
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Rank Score:
80
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9.
This is the CD they hinted they could make with 2006’s Boys and Girls in America, and just not delivered in 2008’s ironically titled Stay Positive. These ten song-stories may be sung-talked by Craig Finn, but each has its own rhythm, riffs and feel, avoiding the sameness that made Positive such a negative. The band sounds very focused on this CD, and the music side of the songwriting finally has a richness and depth that matches the emotional weight and storytelling style of the lyrics. While the Steady may have bar band roots, they finally take their game into more sober surroundings, and it’s like a cloud has lifted on the band. Besides, have to love a band that name checks an underrated Todd Rundgren song (“Utopia is a band / They sang Love Is the Answer / I think they’re probably right”), from We Can Get Together). 3 key tracks: The Weekenders (“In the end only the girls know the whole truth / In the end I bet no one learns a lesson”), We Can Get Together (“heaven is whenever we can get together /
Year of Release:
2010
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56
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10.
To the Sea is as solid a CD from beginning to end as you’ll find this year. There’s still plenty of the surfer dude in the laid back, toss-off-a-song approach that JJ now has refined to a science, but I hear some old Kinks, and even a nod to the Beatles and The Byrds in a few places, showing a musical depth and connection to the broad arc of rock and roll over the last 40+ years that prove Johnson’s not just former surfing champ. A lot of the reviews use the word breezy to describe Johnson, but this CD seems like the winds of change. 3 key tracks: You and Your Heart (which I heard at an ice cream stand in Safed – Israel’s center of Kabbalah – this summer), From The Clouds, Turn Your Love.
Year of Release:
2010
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Rank Score:
48
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