Best Music of 2010, Pt. 1: Short Form and Albums #10-6

It’s my favorite time of the year: best-of list season! While Pretzel Logic has had a confused and somewhat schizophrenic year, that won’t prevent me from tossing my own vote into the fray. Despite a wealth of great releases, I’ve decided to pare the list down to eleven entries, covering one short form release and ten long-playing albums. These select few represent the music I’ve enjoyed the most over the past twelve months, forging the way into our brand new decade. So, read ‘em and comment away. Tell me what you liked and what you hated. If something piques your fancy, go listen. Above all, enjoy the great music that 2010 has brought into the world.

Best Non-Album Single/EP Release of the Year
“Art Czars”/“Racer-X”
Japandroids

Vancouver’s Japandroids had a lot of work to do in 2010, touring and promoting last year’s Post-Nothing album and generally doing all those things ambitious young rock bands need to do to make a name for themselves. Yet, amidst the busy schedule, they found time to release a series of incendiary 7” singles, each backed by a cover song. Of the three that appeared this year, “Art Czars” is the most thrilling and vibrant, honing the noise of their debut album into lean, mean, anthemic aggression. Yet, it’s the b-side cover of Big Black’s “Racer-X” that steals the show, somehow topping the original in terms of snarling nastiness while still retaining that crucial, precise edge. In a year when old fashioned, loud rock music was all but extinct, Japandroids kept things kicking with this fantastic single.

#10
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire

Even when they’re off their “A” game, Arcade Fire manage to win. The Suburbs is a massive work, clocking in at a clean hour and spread across sixteen tracks. There’s no denying it: some of those songs are weaker than others. The Suburbs is the first Arcade Fire album that feels unessential at times. Yet, the high points of the album are truly wonderful. From the spiky “Ready To Start” to Win Butler’s chest-beating breakdown in the middle of “We Used To Wait,” The Suburbs delivers those classic moments fans expect. There’s a running narrative about childhood and suburban life tucked within the tunes, but the best selling point of The Suburbs remains Arcade Fire’s patented brand of larger-than-life drama. The size and scope of their music seems to know no bounds and The Suburbs will only catapult them to newer, grander heights.

#9
Plastic Beach
Gorillaz

During the five year silence between Plastic Beach and Gorillaz’s last album, Demon Days, most people assumed we’d never see Damon Albarn’s cartoon band ever again. They always felt strangely temporary, with their gimmicky concept and sporadic output. Then along comes Plastic Beach, a staggeringly complete and crafted album, bursting with guest artists and musical diversity. Albarn and his conspirators have moved noticeably away from hip-hop, but the songs here are still unlike anything else around. Lead single “Stylo” sounds like Ground Zero for some future Bee-Gees revival, while the lovely “On Melancholy Hill” and “To Binge” return Albarn to his English-rock songwriting roots. Above all, though, is the fact that Gorillaz are clearly no longer a cartoon band. Plastic Beach meditates on serious issues of ecology, responsibility and loss. Albarn has asserted control, put all joking aside and delivered the great Gorillaz album we always knew could happen.

#8
Homeland
Laurie Anderson

“And so finally, here we are, at the beginning of a whole new era, the start of a brand new world… and now what?” This is the question Laurie Anderson asks at the beginning of “Another Day In America,” the eleven-minute centerpiece of Homeland. Anderson doesn’t have the answers, but she’s more than willing to shine an analytical light on where America stands at the beginning of our very young century. The result is an icy, eerie trawl through the repercussions of the past hundred years of society, witnessing the consumption of the world’s resources and the fracturing of our emotions. However, Anderson’s social critique is never as blunt and heavy-handed as all that. Homeland’s songs have the brisk beauty of snow, a motif that reoccurs constantly throughout the album. Whether she’s singing in her natural, piercing voice or processing it through her trademark vocoder, her words have an alien, poetic grace to them. Anderson’s return to the recording industry is more than welcomed. The world needs artists like her.

#7
Hidden
These New Puritans

No one can ever fault These New Puritans for not having enough ambition. On only their second album, this young English band decided to pull out all the stops: bassoons, Japanese drums, elaborate sampling, Foley work and a seemingly endless ability to stretch the definitions of rock music to the breaking point. Hidden is an angular, claustrophobic work, recalling the oppressive atmosphere of postpunk, while also relying heavily on the rhythmic assault of contemporary rap. This is an album ruled by percussion, meaning that listening to it is always a visceral experience. There’s little humor to be found, but there was never room for irony in the first place with music this iconoclastic and eclectic. These New Puritans have delivered a true art rock album, letting their wildest musical fantasies loose and turning in an astonishing sophomore effort in the process.

#6
The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Janelle Monáe

It’s probably no coincidence that Outkast’s Big Boi appears on “Tightrope,” the lead single of Janelle Monáe’s world-conquering debut album. It's time that Outkast passed the torch of progressive pop music to someone and Monáe has proved herself to be a very capable heir. There’s just so much within The ArchAndroid to love. The lean funk of “Tightrope” is sandwiched neatly between anthemic electro-pop (“Cold War”), folk balladry (“Oh, Maker”) and basically every other genre known to humanity. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is united by a storyline inspired by sci-fi classics like Metropolis and name checks Philip K. Dick? Monáe has arrived and the world is still trying to understand just where she came from. We can only hope that she stays for as long as possible before hopping back in her spaceship and returning to her home on the planet of perfect pop.