Like last year, I’m not going to rank these:
- Edan - Beauty and the Beat: Diverse and succinct. Best hip-hop album this year.
- My Morning Jacket - Z: Beautiful, country-tinged rock. Much like Edan’s album, elegant and brief with no filler.
- Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs: Consistent, excellent album that reminds me of the best parts of Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, and Jon Brion.
- Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary: People compare them to the Arcade Fire for a reason — although I liked Funeral better, this comes close.
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: I avoided this album for a while because of the hype, and then listened to it for a week non-stop. Upbeat, melodic, and consistently strong.
- Cloud Cult - Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus: A brilliant, sprawling, diverse album. I’m surprised this band remains so obscure.
- M.I.A. - Arular
- Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic: Slightly better than The Campfire Headphase
- Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
- DangerDoom - DangerDoom: Has surprising staying power given its gimmicky nature. Got me to watch Adult Swim a few times.
Also notable:
- Kanye West - Late Registration: Maddeningly inconsistent and full of filler, but the few high points make it worth while.
- Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike: Fun and eclectic, but gets old quickly.
- Clor -Clor: Quirky and fun.
- Other “almost-great-but-not-quite” albums of this year: LCD Soundsystem, Run the Road, Franz Ferdinand, Boards of Canada, the White Stripes, Gorillaz, Beck, Spoon …
Once again, there are many albums I haven’t had a chance to listen to: Weareamonster, I Am A Bird Now, and Feels to name just a few. There’s too much good music out there to hear it all.
One Comment
I highly recomend that you get around to listening to Feels, as it is an absolutly amazing album. If you liked “Sung Tongs” at all this album (Feels) far exceedes the excelence set by their previous album. Good luck.