B&C's Best of 2010 in Albums

[IWasBored]

i never got around to hearing 90% of the stuff i wanted to hear, so if i did try to make a list, it would definitely suck.

 

[iron yuppie]

An album that I recently heard that may have slipped into my honorable mentions is Small Craft on a Milk Sea. I don't believe that I have seen it mentioned in here yet.

 

[u2popmofo]

Why the dilly dally on the tally, pal-y?

 

[PhilsFan]

I'm waiting to see if anymore lists come in. I have everything submitted tallied up.

 

[cobl04]

then relaunch Bowie survivor?

 

[PhilsFan]

It seems like the only person who might post a list who hasn't is Powerhour. After I find out what he's doing I'll post the results.

 

[PhilsFan]

Fuck it, I'm gonna post the list with the results I have. How should I post it? I'm thinking "unnecessarily drag it out by counting down the top 20 post by post." Your thoughts?

 

[iron yuppie]

How should I post it? I'm thinking "unnecessarily drag it out by counting down the top 25 post by post." Your thoughts?

That might be fun, especially seeing as how I have next to nothing to do at the moment.

 

[PhilsFan]

Alright, here's 11-20. The tiebreaker is number of votes. If that doesn't work, they just tied.

20. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast (25 points, 4 votes)
T-18. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (26 points, 4 votes)
T-18. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (26 points, 4 votes)
17. Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer (27 points, 5 votes)
16. Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago (28 points, 4 votes)
15. Wild Nothing - Gemini (28 points, 4 votes)
14. The New Pornographers - Together (34 points, 7 votes)
13. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me (35 points, 3 votes)
12. Beach House - Teen Dream (35 points, 6 votes)
11. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (42 points, 5 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

10. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz (42 points, 6 votes)
9. Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring (42 points, 9 votes)
8. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (48 points, 6 votes)
7. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (50 points, 6 votes)
6. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (54 points, 6 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

5. The Black Keys - Brothers (60 points, 8 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (87 points, 10 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

3. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (92 points, 10 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (154 points, 13 votes)

 

[PhilsFan]

And your 2010 B&C album champion...

1. The National - High Violet (164 points, 16 votes)

 

[cobl04]

for LCD beating Kanye!

that's a pretty good list, team. we're a force to be reckoned with.

 

[powerhour24]

Thanks for potentially being patient for me Phil, I actually did post my list last week, but I didn't rank them.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Fuck yeah.

THE NASH!

A very deserving winner.

We are awesome. Fuck everybody else.

 

[LemonMelon]

I adore The National, but ew. Suburbs is pure craft and the margin between the two should have been massive.

Yay Surfer Blood, Pornos and Wild Nothing! All very good albums there, and a bit unexpected.

 

[IWasBored]

had i made a list, high violet would have been #1. i am amazed that the numbers turned out to reflect my opinion (well, on that album. i didn't hear most of the other ones, and even if i had heard a lot of them i know stuff like kanye and the arcade fire wouldn't even rank as i really can't stand either of them, hence the reason i didn't hear either album. but i digress...). in something like 7 or 8 years of posting on this forum, nothing i think even comes close to what the majority of folks think. but that's probably cos it's just such an awesome album, that even i couldn't find some way of disagreeing.

 

[djerdap]

I adore The National, but ew. Suburbs is pure craft and the margin between the two should have been massive.

Exactly the other way around.

 

[iron yuppie]

I may have said this before, but High Violet and The Suburbs offer an interesting comparison. They both deal with the same basic themes: mid-life malaise and reconciling your present with your past. Whereas Win hammers the listener over the head with the theme (count how many times the word "suburbs" occurs throughout the album), The National allows it to come through in the arrangements and simmer under the surface lyrically. High Violet is an exercise in subtleties, whereas Suburbs is overly-grandiose, I think.

 

[PhilsFan]

Thanks for potentially being patient for me Phil, I actually did post my list last week, but I didn't rank them.

I saw that, and I saw you say you might go back and rank them later, which is what I was referring to.

 

[PhilsFan]

I adore The National, but ew. Suburbs is pure craft and the margin between the two should have been massive.

Yay Surfer Blood, Pornos and Wild Nothing! All very good albums there, and a bit unexpected.

I may have said this before, but High Violet and The Suburbs offer an interesting comparison. They both deal with the same basic themes: mid-life malaise and reconciling your present with your past. Whereas Win hammers the listener over the head with the theme (count how many times the word "suburbs" occurs throughout the album), The National allows it to come through in the arrangements and simmer under the surface lyrically. High Violet is an exercise in subtleties, whereas Suburbs is overly-grandiose, I think.

IY pretty much nails it for me. Matt Berninger's a much more interesting lyricist for a full album than Win Butler is. I find Butler sort of trying to beat me over the head with the whole "US KIDS WERE SORT OF CONFUSED LIVING IN THE SUBURBS" theme.

Also, you can't mention repetitive Butler lyrics without mentioning that he's probably said "the kids" over the course of the three albums 60 times.

 

[phanan]

That's the whole point, though. It's a concept album with a main theme that is woven throughout the entire work - it's supposed to have repetitve lyrics. It's like when you listen to a symphony - it's made up of different movements, but there will always be a central theme that reappears throughout.

Now I dig The National as well, but let's face it - the reason the lyrics take a back seat to the arrangements is because they aren't quite as strong in the first place.

 

[PhilsFan]

I disagree entirely. There's a difference between repetitive lyrics and running out of ideas, and I think Butler runs out of ideas pretty quickly. There's only so much you can say about the suburbs while trying to sound as innocent as he does. The whole attitude seems to be "I'm getting older and all this new shit is being thrown my way and there's nothing I can do." There are more sinister motivations growing up as a teenager in the suburbs too, but he leaves that whole part out. As a teenager, you're in a rush to get older, and you start getting into some shit you're not ready for.

Obviously the two albums are talking about different periods in life (teenage years vs. mid-30s), but I've always felt like Berninger does a good job of displaying all the feelings of whatever he's talking about. I feel like Butler is too one-track minded, and not for the benefit of his lyrics.

I like both bands and both albums, don't get me wrong. But I'll never give Butler an edge over Berninger in the lyrics department.

 

[phanan]

But I'll never give Butler an edge over Berninger in the lyrics department.

So you don't think the lyrics on Funeral are as good as anything from The National?

 

[powerhour24]

Neither one comes anywhere near my top current lyricists, outside of certain songs, lyrics aren't those bands' strongsuit.

 

[PhilsFan]

Funeral is a great album, they hit all the right notes there. I think his lyrics have really fallen off in the last two albums, though.

 

[iron yuppie]

For me, Win and Arcade Fire in general are less consistent than Matt and The National. Win has tremendous lyrical moments, and AF has certain songs that are no less than transcendent and, as a whole, stronger than any individual moment of The National's career. But I also think that AF has never made an album as consistent as Boxer or High Violet, in my personal opinion.

In terms of the lyrics, I think that one's individual preference will ultimately depend on which one speaks to your personal experience and worldview more profoundly. For me, Matt definitely trumps Win in that category. Whenever I listen to The Suburbs, though, I just can't shake the feeling that some of the lyrics are forced in a way that other concept albums, such as Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, never seem to do.