My Top Albums of ’10 5 – 1

It’s near impossible to pick one top album with the massive amount of music I listened to this year but I thought I’d try to at least give you an idea of what you should grab this year before we start anew.

20 thru 16;  15 thru 11; 10 thru 6

5.  Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

As well as sharing a birthdate with me, Kristian Mattson shared with us a fantastic album in the Wild Hunt.  His acoustic folk blend  and his trademark raspy voice made this an absolute favorite of mine.  His words are sincere and his playing is simplistic and beautiful.

Hear: King Of Spain

4.  Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Mumford & Sons exploded this year and for good reason.  Their album, Sigh No More is littered with explosive tracks.  Although the music is formulaic, that does not detract from just how awesome they are, great songwriting and music that will pound you to submission how could you not love it?

Hear: Little Lion Man

3. Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love

The Isobell-less Belle and Sebastian proved to still be great. Stuart Murdoch is still writing fantastic pop gems.  What’s not to like.  This album is full of mod inspired 70s pop songs that are growers.  Repetition makes this album that much better.

Hear:  Write About Love

2. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Arcade Fire hit another home run with their 3rd album.  They make grand statements with their music.  A grandiose album with an epic and haunting mood.  The music and writing is so ambitious it was so fantastic to see it follow through into a beautiful album.

Hear: Rococo

1a. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

The 6th proper album from Sufjan Stevens flips the script on what you think a sufjan album should be.  Gone are the locales, and historical references, gone are the banjos.  Whats left? A moody electronics, deep bass and drums album that is beautiful, epic and truly just electronic orchestral arrangements.

Hear: Too Much

1. Blake Mills – Break Mirrors

Break Mirrors, the debut for Blake Mills, former member of Simon Dawes (what is now Dawes) is a fantastic way to create an album.  The craftsmanship, talen, songwriting and musicianship on this album is outstanding.  What is more outstanding is throughout all of this, Mills bests seasoned musicians and songwriters at a mere age of 23.  This album has everything you could possibly want; exploratory guitar tracks, introspective and sometimes comical writing. Standout tracks to me are the hilariously written ‘Hey, Lover,’ ‘Hiroshima’ which has a great shredding guitar solo (you’ll be surprised) and the album opening ‘Cheers’ which was on my list for best album track ones.  It’s hard to find any weakspots on this album (other than its only 30min long) and I think it deservedly sits atop my list of the year.

Hear: Hey Lover