Every year the major online music sites count down what they think are the best albums and songs of the year. Who's to say they're right? I've been reading these lists for years now and figured it's about time to put my money where my mouth is and write my own damn list!
So all this week we'll be counting down our favourites, starting with numbers 20-16. Feel free to comment and to suggest your own favourite music of this year. My feeling about these lists is that at the end of the day they're just showcasing some good music you may have missed out on during the year. So I hope you find something here that fits that description, and let me know if there's some awesome stuff that I need to catch up on.
- Robyn - Body Talk
Robyn knows this, and constructed her Body Talk series to ease the pressure of pumping out a full album of killer tunes. So she made three, and spread them out over a year, giving her time to tour the previous album and then prep for the next one. This allowed her the room to breathe and create a surprising dearth of quality tracks, the best of which are handily compiled on the third and last installment of the Body Talk trilogy.
For standouts, you can’t go past the self-pitying club bombast of Dancing on my own and the careful advice of Call ur Girlfriend. Don’t sleep on the rest of the album though. The singles ‘Indestructible’ and ‘Hang with me’ both hit the emotional jugular whilst not abandoning their dancefloor origins and Cry when I get older and Dancehall Queen showcase Robyn’s two lyrical secret weapons - passing on advice to the youth and boasting about how good she is.
Robyn is one of a kind, a Swedish diva who has worked out the critical pop balance of moving the feet as well as toying with our emotions, and this is not only her best album, but the best pop release of the year.
The Outkast rapper has always been a bit underrated. Probably doesn’t help when your partners song is the one that everyone remembers (Hey Ya). That all changed this year when Big Boi finally got his label to drop Sir Lucious Leftfoot and let him prove to the world that Outkast wasn’t only Andre Benjamin.
There is so much to love here. So much Hip-Hop and Funk that I just don’t know what to do, and all wrapped up in Big Boi’s inimitable, spitfire flow. Antwan Patton's thick Southern accent laced bangers like Shutterbug, General Patton and Your DJ Ain’t no DJ to remind haters and never-will-be’s that ‘I'm a leader not your peer’ while the rest of the time was spent talking smack about how good he was with the ladies (Turn’s me on, Tangerine). Shine Blocka’s sounded like one of the best tracks of this year despite being over a year and half old and Hustle Blood found Jamie Foxx at his most sincere.
It was great to have this ATLien’s solo project finally touch down, and even better to hear how awesome it was.
Terius Nash is known more for songs he’s made for others than his solo singles, and it must hurt a little. Do you remember Fast Car? Walking on the Moon? Didn’t think so. Well, how about Rihanna’s Umbrella, Beyonce’s Single Ladies or Baby by Justin Beiber? All songs written and produced by The-Dream. Yes, he has an identity crisis. Not that you’d know by listening to this album, in fact he finds it so easy to channel Prince, Michael Jackson and R Kelly you might think he’s the lovechild of all three!. Love King is a superlative R&B classic by an musical auteur at the top of the game.
Nash can be bawdy, he can be grandiose and he can hit you in the heart, often all in the same song. What separates him from his contemporaries though, is not only his ability to craft memorable melodies, but also his talent in taking even the most ridiculous lyric and make it seem like a John Keats poem. The key is his sincerity. If he’s writing a song comparing his girl to a motorcycle (Yahama), you believe it’s the most beautiful bike he’s ever seen. When he tells you to drop 5 stacks on a make-up bag to appease your girl, it actually sounds like a good idea (Make-Up Bag).
So take all that in and then listen to Florida University and tell me it’s not the second best F.U. song you’ve heard this year.
James Murphy indicated that this was going to be their swansong, and with that, the pressure of the ‘final’ album came (they’ve since changed their mind). Murphy has always been one to let his influences all hang out, and even though the references seemed more overt this time around, the finished product could not have been anyone but LCD.
Opening track Dance Yourself Clean bursts out of the box, All I want apes Bowie for a heart-rending turn and You Wanted a Hit sees Murphy lashing out at the commercially vulturous side of his profession. However, the beating heart of this dance floor epic was I can change, a plea for a second chance from someone who might not deserve it.
Murphy has created and cultivated dance rock in his own image, and after listening to the pitch perfect musicianship and heartfelt lyricism of this album one can’t imagine he can take it much further.
1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Yes, it’s my favourite album this year. The reported three million that was spent on Mr West’s opus was well worth it. Every song here is worthy of the final cut, and each has been buffed and polished to perfection.
There is a little of the best of all of his albums here - The straight up Hip-Hop of College Dropout, the synths from Graduation, the Orchestration of Late Registration and the Auto-Tuned melodies of 808’s and Heartbreaks. You would think that all these embellishments would be too much, but you’d be wrong. There’s the extended solo at the end of Runaway that adds a confused irony by heavily filtering Kanye's voice, the curse-filled Chris Rock skit that rounds out Blame Game and pretty much everything about All of the lights.
The guest stars are too numerous to name and litter just about every track, but never fear, Kanye never loses his voice amongst the crowd. His flow is sharper, his wit just an self effacing and his pompousness knows no boundaries. Yes, Kanye is a douchebag, which would be all anyone would focus on if he wasn’t making music as good as this.
The standouts, there are none, they're all good and therefore so is this album. This is one of the greatest Hip-Hop albums of all time and the best of 2010.
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