2010: New Music For A New Decade
by Ken DiTomaso
There was a lot of excellent music put out this year, so why not compile it all down into list form? All the cool kids are doing it after all, so I might as well get my say in. Below you will find my top 10 albums of the year, along with some unranked honorable mentions and albums that either surprised or disappointed me. I must say, the decade of the ‘10s is off to a great start.
Honorable Mentions
Magnetic Fields - Realism
Frontman Stephin Merritt tosses off great little pop tunes like they were nothing, and Realism is no different. It’s also The Magnetic Field’s most quiet and folky album to date, so it’s not too surprising that it’s been overlooked. The word “quaint” probably describes this album better than anything else.
Cee-lo Green - The Ladykiller
“Fuck You” is the single of the year bar none, as far as I’m concerned. Even if the rest of the album sucked, it would still be worth it for that song. Thankfully, Cee-lo knows his stuff and this is a fine modern soul album.
The New Pornographers - Together
AC Newman and company continue to do what they do best, and that’s make power-pop better than anybody else. I wish they’d let Neko Case sing more lead vocals, but then again, I wish that with every album that they release.
Steven Page - Page One
I was unsure the direction Page was going to go in since his tenure with The Barenaked Ladies has come to an end. Thankfully, his debut solo album shows that he’s going to keep doing his thing and doing it well. Some very solid pop here, it doesn’t particularly take any risks, but since when has that been a requirement for a good solid album?
Surprises
Phil Collins - Going Back
When I heard Phil Collins was putting out a covers album, my reaction was probably the same as pretty much anybody’s might have been. Knowing Phil’s recent solo album track record (bad) and the track record of cover albums in general (also bad), I didn’t think there was any fathomable way this could be good. But, hey, what do you know? It’s actually pretty darn decent. Sure, this album doesn’t have any particular reason to exist – none of the covers here eclipse the originals – but they don’t have any reason to. The point of this album is just to sit back and chill out for a while with some classic Motown tunes. Collins performs them all professionally, and a good time is had by all.
Al Jardine - A Postcard From California
This album had no business being good. A late period Beach Boys solo album from somebody other than Brian Wilson seemed bound to fail. Yet against all odds, it’s actually pretty nice. He managed to pull off an album that not only looks back at some of the great triumphs of his former band but actually brings them back, both literally (in his covers of “Help Me Rhonda” and “Honking Down The Highway”), and figuratively (on the brilliant reunion track “Don’t Fight The Sea”). Some of the tracks are kind of useless, (such as Alec Baldwin’s laughable spoken word interlude), and the album is very short, but there’s enough of that old Beach Boys magic here to perk up the ears of any fan.
Devo - Something For Everybody
When this reunion album was announced, I was baffled by how positive the reaction to the news seemed to be. Had all of Devo’s fans forgotten about how excruciatingly awful their last few studio albums were? Who’s to say that this would be any different? Well turns out it was. Featuring upbeat, well-written, and well-produced tracks, Devo doesn’t show their age here for a second. You could pack the dance floor with these songs and nobody would bat an eye (unless of course they listened to the lyrics and noticed that these songs might just have been mocking them a little). The marketing campaign for this album was brilliant and deserves special mention. From fan surveys to absurd board meetings to an all-cat listening party, the promotion was at least as entertaining as the album itself. Pity it seems to be over now. Anyway, Something For Everybody isn’t a great album by any means; some cuts go too far in trying to be modern and some of it is really repetitious. But it is a good one, and probably their best since 1980’s Freedom Of Choice.
Die Antwoord - $o$
Die Antwoord was revealed to the world through a handful of music videos that went insanely viral at the beginning of the year. They were treated as funny yet creepy one-meme-wonders who would soon be forgotten about. Who would have guessed that they would have turned out to be so darn good? Their image is so outrageous that some people still can’t get past it. But they’re missing out, since Die Antwoord’s brand of frenzied psycho-rap is ridiculously fun, catchy, and creative. Unfortunately, there are a handful of real duds mixed in with the gems which drag this album down. But they’ve still got my attention in a big way, and I can’t wait to see what they get up to next.
Disappointments
The Pipettes - Earth Vs. The Pipettes
This album isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but considering I lived and breathed their debut album We Are The Pipettes for at least an entire summer, I can’t help but feel enormously let down by this follow-up. It’s got a different sound then their old stuff had and that shouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. I’m all for changing things up, but the quality has to remain. Unfortunately, they simply just don’t do this new style as well as they did their old style. I still think they could pull through and make a comeback on their third album, but they’re really going to have to buckle down. And while they’re at it, stop all the ridiculous lineup changes please!
Sleigh Bells - Treats
It’s really difficult to enjoy a band whose greatest asset is also its greatest fault. Take away the ear-destroying noise and distortion and there isn’t much left. Leave it in and, well, it’s grating as hell. The overdrive in overdrive attitude Sleigh Bells have can be infectious, and their songs are quite catchy and certainly loaded with energy. But I have to firmly put my foot down and say that the way this album approaches music offends my sensibilities as both a musician and as a fan of music in general. I suppose, in a way, they kind of deserve just a little praise for getting that result out of me.
Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back
The polar opposite of Phil Collins’ covers album, Scratch My Back takes itself deadly seriously and implodes in a steaming pile of awful. It’s strange because if any former Genesis member seemed like he could pull of a covers album, it was Peter Gabriel. He’s done covers before and they’ve all been fine, but the problem here is that he didn’t want to just play the songs straight. These covers rearrange every song for Gabriel to sing with a small chamber orchestra, and in the process they’ve made every song seem deathly boring and pretentious. Not only that, but for an artist whose vocal skills have regularly been one of his strongest points, this album has terrible vocals. A flaming disaster on all counts is what this album is, and it is a black spot on an otherwise very respectable body of work.
The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Arcade Fire is quite possibly the biggest band in indie right now, and for their first album in three years what do they give us? A proto-concept album about one of the most done subjects in rock history, filled with nothing but mid-tempo monotony. The cathartic emotions that their music used to stir are all but gone. And for a band with so many different instruments in their arsenal, you’d think they might actually put them to good use instead of shoving everything into the mix in the background and calling it a day. There’s nothing bad on here by any stretch of the imagination, but when the strongest emotions a band can stir in me is “meh,” I think it’s time for them to get their priorities re-straightened. Arcade Fire may have set the bar with their previous work, but it’s so high that even they can’t reach it anymore.