Top 10 um…er.. 12 Albums of 2010

Let’s try this again. 2010 was actually a pretty good music year and after some technical and memory glitches I am ready to put out a full list. Let’s start with the bad stuff so you can end on a positive note. This year had several disappointing showings from a few bands.

Incubus’ Brandon Boyd had a solo album, ‘The Wild Trapeze’, come out. From my listens the album has some terrifically well-written songs that are completely destroyed by the awful mastering. The entire album is over-compressed and has distorted clipping at every turn. Even listening to it on the lowest possible volume makes your ears fatigued. It is the worst sound I have ever heard on an album and is such a shame. Other disappointing showings came from lackluster albums from Rogue Wave and Stone Temple Pilots. The latter managed to make an album almost entirely composed of boring fillers. Then you have the usual collection of crap and endless lines of bands trying to sound like the horrible trash from the 80’s. On to the good stuff.

(1 to 10 scale where 10 is very good, 5 is neutral and 1 is very bad)

12 – Toadies “Feeler” 6.5 ☆
This album was originally written as a follow up to the classic “Rubberneck” album but was never released. Then certain songs from it were placed on “Hell Below/Stars Above”. Toadies rerecorded it and released it this year. It only feels like a half album because so many of the songs are already out there and the other versions of the songs are better. But overall it is a good listen of course.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/13 Your Day.mp3″]Your Day[/gplayer]

11 – The National “High Violet” 6.7 ☆
When I stumbled across this album it made me think of Mark Lanegan. Not as cool as Mark Lanegan and a little boring and poorly lyric-ed at times, which is why it gets only a 6.7.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/11 Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.mp3″]Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks[/gplayer]

10 – Kings of Leon “Come Around Sundown” 6.9 ☆

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Radioactive.mp3″]Radioactive[/gplayer]

9 – Soundgarden “Telephantasm” 7.1 ☆
“Why so low Dale?” I hear you asking. “I thought you loved Soundgarden!?!” Indeed I do and I have hopes for the future. But you must remember that I hate “best of” albums from bands that I already own every album for, especially when they have one or two new songs to entice me to buy an album of stuff I already have for 2 songs (and while I can still hear frequencies higher than mp3s can play I hate itunes quality). Soundgarden did just what bothers me. So 7.1 was it.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/2-12 Black Rain.mp3″]Black Rain[/gplayer]

8 – Tonic “Tonic” 7.3 ☆
It kind of feels like I already owned this album, but I am ok with that because Tonic had a bit of a return to an earlier feel on this album, with slight tweaks and a little stretching.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/07 Feel It Now.mp3″]Feel It Now[/gplayer]
[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/08 Where Do I Fit.mp3″]Where Do I Fit?[/gplayer]

7 – El Ten Eleven “It’s Still Like a Secret” 7.4 ☆
As someone who still has an attention span, I am a fan of instrumental music. El Ten Eleven put out a worthy record this year and while they can’t make everything a transcendent experience like “Explosions in the Sky” does, they can make everything a pleasant experience.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02Sycophants.mp3″]The Sycophants Are Coming! The Sycophants Are Coming![/gplayer]

6 – Blitzen Trapper “Destroyer of the Void” 7.8 ☆
Just good solid music on this album. Many tracks remind me of some good things from the 70’s.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 Laughing Lover.mp3″]Laughing Lover[/gplayer]

5 – Arcade Fire “The Suburbs” 8.2 ☆
Congrats to Arcade Fire, another band that I had only heard the name of before 2010. I gave The Suburbs a listen and found a majority of it to be quality material that seems to get better when I listen to it again.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 The Suburbs.mp3″]The Suburbs[/gplayer]

4 – Band of Horses “Infinite Arms” 8.3 ☆
I just recently discovered this band. I must have been in some strange nexus of the universe because they have been around for a while but I have not heard them and they are quite good.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 Factory.mp3″]Factory[/gplayer]

3 – Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan “Hawk” 9.0 ☆
These two, from “Belle and Sebastian” and “Screaming Trees” respectively, come together to make a great sound. Just another really good album.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/02 You Won’t Let Me Down Again.mp3″]You Won’t Let Me Down Again[/gplayer]

2 – The Black Crowes “Croweology” 9.1 ☆
I have already committed my feelings about this album to digital paper. Definitely a great album and although it is a “best of”, the songs are re-recorded in new versions.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/soulsinging.mp3″]Soul Singing[/gplayer]
[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/goodfriday.mp3″]Good Friday[/gplayer]
[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/girlfromapawnshop.mp3″]Girl From a Pawnshop[/gplayer]

1 – Alain Johannes “Spark” 9.6 ☆
It is always a good sign when your only problem with an album is that you want more of it. As a musician who has helped and worked with many greats, it is nice to see Alain put on a great show by himself. Sadly his wife wasn’t around to help him put on the show and that seems to come through in many of his lyrics. His contributions to artists like Chris Cornell, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age are made more clear by hearing him by himself. I hope to hear more from Alain and to hear it very soon. He made the best album of 2010.

[gplayer href=”http://www.everydaynormal.com/files/01 Endless Eyes.mp3″]Endless Eyes[/gplayer]

As usual I am open to suggestions or friendly reminders as to why I am wrong or what I missed. Hopefully at this point I haven’t missed anything else.

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