I'm opinionated about music. OK, I'm opinionated about a lot of things, though I tend to write the most about my music opinions. So, cutting to the chase, what I heard that was released in 2010 merits, at best, a C-. Longstanding personal favorites who released albums this year mostly get a thumb's up from me. Objectivity and I are sometimes ships passing in the night. "Mid-career" bands releasing a third or fourth or fifth album this year mostly were disappointing (Ted Leo (sorry, buddy) and the Hold Steady lead this pack). And probably the less said about the career turn of Paul Weller the better.
Wake Up the Nation was certainly more coherent than
22 Dreams, but I think he needs to take another walk through the wild wood for inspiration.
The annual nod for album that gets a lot of praise and I don't get in the least: Broken Bells. Oooh, James Mercer sings about mean things. But the real penalty flag I'm throwing here is on Danger Mouse who's gone from the astounding
Grey Album to just plain grey.
And the moment you've all been waiting for...
10. Sun Kil Moon --
Admiral Fell PromisesA man and his
guitar. An album of all originals from Mark Kozelek under his band name,
Sun Kil Moon. Two years ago, Sun Kil Moon toured as a full group; in
2010 it was just
Mark solo on stage as he is on nearly all the tracks on
Admiral Fell Promises.
He isn't breaking any new ground here: long songs that unfold at a
deliberate pace with detailed stories as pinpoint as photojournalism.
The formula works for him and you either like it or not. I'm firmly in the
like camp, though objective enough (HA!) to say that this collection doesn't
hold from song one through ten. He has added some flamenco
flourishes to his intricate acoustic guitar runs that don't always add
the right color, but the story-telling is top-notch. The brilliance and
beauty of "Half Moon Bay" cannot be understated. Name-checking Highway 1
and Devil's Slide that wind past the seaside town and attendant
nostalgia. It instantly shares top billing among my favorite Mark songs
-- Sun Kil Moon's "Carry Me Ohio" and Red House Painters' "San
Geronimo," another track about a San Francisco Bay Area village.
9. Los Lobos --
Tin Can TrustThis is
going to date me, but the boys from East L.A.
have been doing this for what, 30 years now? I can argue they are quintessential
American band weaving Mexican
cumbia,
American roots, rock, and straight-up blues, effortlessly shifting from English
to Spanish and back again. Melting pot, anyone? And, remarkably, through three
decades the Wolves remain the same, led up front by David Hidalgo's
mellow-as-whisky voice and Cesar Rosas burlier guitar leads. (And the next time
you see
Rosas without his Ray-Bans will be the first; the man must have had
them on his face in the crib.)
For the
most part, the extra guests that have found their way onto recent Lobos'
releases were left off
Tin Can Trust to the album's benefit. The most visible partner is the Grateful Dead.
Lyricist Robert Hunter has a co-songwriter credit on the weak link "All My
Bridges Burning," but Los Lobos dig deep into the Dead's "West L.A. Fadeaway" to
great affect. The lyrics ("I met an old mistake walking down the street today" and
"I need a West L.A. girl, already know what I need to know") take on extra bite
coming from a very East L.A. dude. The
question wasn't rhetorical in 1985, but the view from here -- wondering whether
wolf will survive -- isn't tough to answer.
8. Best Coast -
Crazy for YouThose who know me can't be surprised I fell for Best Coast. To borrow an Imperial Teen album title, what is not to love? Fuzzbox guitars, catchy hooks, easy-to-pick-up lyrics, girl singer...it's like the Jesus and Mary Chain was fronted by a Reid sister. And yes, I know all about
Sister Vanilla.
7. Kanye West -
My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyOK, OK, I submit. I'm a late-comer to Kanye. His off-mic persona is off-putting. But, I'll now give him the Russell Crowe defense: a total asshole (and he'll tell you so about 5,000 times on
...Fantasy) but a top-notch performer. C'mon, rapping to the beat of Sabbath's "Iron Man"?! 'Nuf said.
6. Emma Pollock --
the Law of Large NumbersOne is the loneliest number, yes?
The Law of Large Numbers
is actually full of songs about a pretty small number: two. As in a
couple. And just about every song has a first-person narrator and a
"you." The exceptions? The book-ending instrumental tracks "Hug the
Piano," a solitary pursuit with a very consistent partner. In the first
song with lyrics, "Hug the Harbour," the narrator says, "My trust lies
in your precision." And "precise" is the descriptor I kept coming back
to as I listened to
...Large Numbers more and more.
The
music is impeccably turned out and matches to the cadence and rhyme of
the lyrics. There's not a spare beat, not an overstuffed thought. Even
Pollock's diction makes every word, especially on the end of a line,
clearly distinct. An odd observation I readily admit, but the production
is so sharp that it genuinely seems to have been a calculated decision.
For instance, "Red Orange Green" has end rhymes of "weekend" and
"weakened" and you can hear the difference. This song, perhaps my
favorite, also suggests that Pollock listens to fellow Glaswegians Sons
and Daughters -- and probably should give their "Rama Lama" a co-songwriting credit. The film noir-ish music matches
the onomatopoeia in the chorus ("creak creak creak...tick tock
tick...flip flop flip"). With a family and a business (Pollock founded indie label
Chemikal Underground Records and was in the "house band"
the Delgados), tours to North America are infrequent. Best pick this one up to hear her at all.