This year was definitely not the best year for albums. Absolutely nothing was mind-blowing. And Top 40? One of the worst Top 40 years since the pre-“Toxic” era (I still hold that it changed the game). But there were tons of excellent indie pop and below-the-radar mainstream pop songs this year. And yeah, I only did a top 50 this year, but to be fair, last year everything below 50 was a “eh, I guess it’s pretty good” song. As usual my bizarre criteria includes singles, songs that charted on the hot 100, short EPs, and songs with real music videos. Make sure you check out the Spotify playlist I made of ‘em.
Patrick Wolf - “The City”/”The City (Richard X Remix)” This should have been the song of the summer. Amazing big, driving, soulful pop song with a 90s Gap ad of a music video. And the 80s style synth pop remix is just as good. And, fuck, that bridge. Only problem: was released in January. Well, at least it survived the year, at no point being anything less than the song of the year.
M83 - “Midnight City” WHAT IS THAT SYNTH? An amazing danceable synth pop song that all hangs on the craziest sound to ever be created with a synthesizer. It sounds like an alien yelling in traffic. The “verses” start as pure dream pop, but then as the song builds towards its surprise sax solo finale, another voice doubles the hazy singer, but with loads of screaming passion. And a music video as epic as the song.
Stars - “We Don’t Want Your Body” Music video is hilarious, but a bit disturbing for all its scantily clad overtanned bodybuilders. Is this song meant to be a Meatloaf-esque argument duet (not musically, just argument wise)? Spooky organ riff of the year.
Robyn - “Call Your Girlfriend” Robyn could release each track from Body Talk as singles over the next dozen years and get a top ten single each year. Amazing, simple song, amazing, simple music video.
Fucked Up - “Queen of Hearts” Is David Comes to Life the first pop-hardcore album ever? Ultra-melodic big-sounding pop-punk taken to the next level by Pink Eye’s screamed non-melodic vocals. Does every great song this year have an awesome music video? I wish that’s what music class was actually like.
Nicki Minaj - “Super Bass” Finally, a Nicki single worthy of how amazing she is. Actual song of the summer.
Lana Del Rey - “Video Games” Not a bad choice as a successor’s to Amy Winehouse’s crown. I love how she sneers “go play your video games.”
Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself EP
Purity Ring - “Ungirthed”/”Belispeak” This successful meshing of dupstep and synthpop almost makes up for how horrible dubstep is in general. Almost.
NewVillager - “Lighthouse” Freaky-deek pop that was somehow completely ignored by even the indie crowds. Music video is even freaky-deekier.
Bon Iver - “Calgary”/”I Can’t Make You Love Me/Nick of Time” “Calgary” is a very good song, but Bon Iver’s cover of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” embarrasses me, as everytime I listen to it I have to fight back tears. Heartbreaking.
Jai Paul - “BTSTU (Edit)” The most gentle “don’t fuck with me” I’ve ever heard.
Beirut - “East Harlem”
Kanye West - “All of the Lights”
Architecture in Helsinki - “Contact High”
VV Brown feat. Chiddy - “Children” HOW IS VV BROWN NOT A HUGE POP STAR?
Zoo Kid - “Out Getting Ribs”
Beyoncé - “Countdown”
Jay-Z and Kanye West feat. Otis Redding - “Otis”
Yelle - “Que Veux Tu (Madeon Remix)” No song from this year makes me want to dance more. Also, Madeon is awesome.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - “Belong” The twee-est name in the game takes a heavy dose of Smashing Pumpkins.
Lil Wayne feat. Cory Gunz - “6 Foot 7 Foot”
EMA - “California” For all the schmucks who moved to L.A. this year.
Los Campesinos! - “By Your Hand”
Cloud Nothings - “Nothing’s Wrong”
Jamie Woon - “Lady Luck” Not sure how amongst all the good moody R&B this year (James Blake, Drake, Sbtrkt) that this one got ignored. Don’t ignore it.
Adele - “Rolling in the Deep”
Kendrick Lamar - “A.D.H.D.”
Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris - “We Found Love”
Fucked Up (as Animal Man) - “Do You Feed” From the fake compilation album made by Fucked Up as a companion to their concept album David Comes to Life. They made a bunch of fake British punk and new wave songs for a bunch of fake British bands from the fake British town the main character of the album is from. This one, extolling the virtues of curry in an absurd fake cockney accent, is definitely the best.
Drake feat. Nicki Minaj - “Make Me Proud”
Cut Copy - “Need You Now”
Sbtrkt feat. Roses Gabor - “Pharaohs”
Patrick Wolf - “House”
The One AM Radio - “Sunlight”
Holy Ghost! - “Wait and See”
Sin Fang - “Because of the Blood”
Cloud Nothings - “Understand at All”
Dananananaykroyd - “Muscle Memory”
Deleted Scenes - “Bedbedbedbedbed”
Beyoncé - “Best Thing I Never Had”
Iceage - “New Brigade”
Rihanna - “Cheers (Drink to That)”
Holy Ghost! - “Do It Again”
Jay-Z and Kanye West - “Niggas in Paris”
Lady Gaga - “Yoü and I”
Lil B - “Unchain Me”
Jonti - “Fireworks Spraying Moon”
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - “The Death of You and Me”
Well, certainly wasn’t the best year for music overall. I quite possibly listened to more albums than any previous year, but the quality of albums that made my list feels much lower than usual. Nonetheless, the top few albums on the list are so damn good. Both Kanye and Sufjan released hugely original and ambitious albums. The Naked and Famous and Robyn both made near-perfect pop records. Jónsi made one of the best non-twee albums you’re tempted to call a twee album ever. But last year I guarantee the Hold Steady album would not have come anywhere near making the list. But my #1 album of 2009 would have had a hard time making the top 10 this year. So I suppose it all evens out. Enough rambling:
1. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz 2. The Naked And Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You 3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 4. Robyn - Body Talk 5. Jónsi - Go 6. Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry 7. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding 8. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) 9. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening 10. Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin - Reverse Shark Attack 11. The New Pornographers - Together 12. Maps & Atlases - Perch Patchwork 13. Girl Talk - All Day 14. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty 15. Yeasayer - Odd Blood 16. Drake - Thank Me Later 17. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor 18. Vampire Weekend - Contra 19. BBU - Fear of a Clear Channel Planet 20. Los Campesinos - Romance Is Boring 21. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts 22. Fang Island - s/t 23. Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer 24. Black Milk - Album of the Year 25. Grinderman - Grinderman 2 26. The Radio Dept - Clinging to a Scheme 27. Sleigh Bells - Treats 28. Javelin - No Mas 29. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest 30. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I Learned the Hard Way 31. The Morning Benders - Big Echo 32. Primary 1 - Mess Detective 33. Weekend - Sports 34. Ratatat - LP4 35. Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner 36. Marnie Stern - s/t 37. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks 38. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Kollaps Tradixionales 39. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart 40. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs 41. Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself 42. Curren$y - Pilot Talk 43. Delorean - Subiza 44. The Divine Comedy - Bang Goes the Knighthood 45. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach 46. Meth, Ghost & Rae - Wu-Massacre 47. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks 48. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) 49. Dinosaur Feathers - Fantasy Memorial 50. The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever
10. Generationals - Con Law: Criminally overlooked debut from the New Orleans based indie rockers. A lot of Peter Bjorn & John plus Motown elements. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but a front-to-back super solid collection of songs. Stream half the record (including standouts “When They Fight, They Fight” and “Nobody Could Change Your Mind”) here. 9. Maxwell - BLACKsummers’night: It’s rarely a wait as long as EIGHT FRIGGIN’ YEARS between albums is justified, but BLACKsummers’night does just that. No R&B in the ensuing time came anywhere near this album. Maxwell shows himself above any trends from recent years, making classic R&B with his own innovations. Just listen to the first single, “Pretty Wings.” The opening chimes invoke Japanese indie pop artist, Cornelius, who is about as far away from contempoprary R&B as you can get. These little touches do so much throughout the album, the first in a trilogy. Hopefully the next two come a lot quicker. 8. jj - jj n° 2: alright, tumblr didn’t save anything past this point, so the rest are getting short descriptions plus youtube links. Tropical indie pop. Probably involves The Tough Alliance. “From Africa to Malaga” 7. Tvärvägen - Sånger från Tvärvägen: More Swedes. Beautiful music that sounds like it’s going to fall apart at any moment. Kind of like múm. “September” 6. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs: A Yo La Tengo album. “Here to Fall”“More Stars Than There Are in Heaven” 5. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: Music that tumbles around and seems like it’s constantly stopping and starting, but somehow works. Nothing like it. “Cannibal Resource”“Stillness Is the Move” 4. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another: Two of the dudes from Mclusky make music even angrier, louder, and better than Mclusky. “Arming Eritrea”“The Hope That House Built” 3. Smith Westerns - Smith Westerns: Teenagers making lo-fi garage that’s half Nuggets and half T. Rex. “Girl in Love”“Be My Girl” 2. Montt Mardié - Skaizerkite: Swede taking all the best parts of 80s pop: Let’s Dance-era Bowie, Hall & Oates, Kate Bush, etc etc etc. “Welcome to Stalingrad”“One Kiss” 1. Japandroids - Post-Nothing: Two dudes sound like five dudes making dense, esthatic indie rock. Over the top, fun as hell. “Young Hearts Spark Fire”“Heart Sweats”
30. Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor: His first “pop” album in 8 years is the least poppy of said albums. One long wandering track. Keeps to his excellent blend of pop-rock and jazz. 29. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 28. Circulatory System - Signal Morning: The most esoteric band of the Elephant 6 Collective. Psychedelic pop with much less emphasis on pop than other E6 bands. RIYL: The Music Tapes, Neutral Milk Hotel at their weirdest 27. Girls - Album 26. tUnE-yArDs - BiRd-BrAiNs: Heavy-beated… err… folk? One woman uses loops, a strange set of instruments and her unique voice to make one of the most personal albums in a while. RIYL: Micachu, Final Fantasy 25. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE: Sufjan’s excellent orchestral work inspired by the expressway finally released. Equal parts Copland, Gershwin, and Glass. 24. The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon: Speaking of Sufjan, he produced this album and it’s pretty obvious. Simple, pretty folk music (and a Smiths cover) made by a Brooklyn pastor and his wife embellished with Sufjan’s bag of tricks. 23. Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light 22. Wale - Attention: Deficit: DC-based pop-rap. Just and overall very solid pop-rap album. Lyrics are clever, production is great. Mixtape star makes good in the bigtime. 21. Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine 20. Bifrost Arts - “Come O Spirit!” Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs Volume 1: Daniel Smith of the Danielson Famile started up a new record label, Great Comfort Records. The first record is a terrific collection of hymns and spirituals covered by several contemporary folk artists (including the previously mentioned Welcome Wagon). All is really good, but the last four songs are flat-out stellar. 19. Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall 18. Basement Jaxx - Scars 17. Morrissey - Years of Refusal 16. weakness - WEAKNESS: Loud, angry, fun. And it’s free! RIYL: The Mae Shi 15. La Roux - La Roux: One of the many great British pop artists this year, but definitely the only one who made a front-to-back no-filler terrific album. Synthy-pop. 14. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 13. Raekwon - Only Built For Cuban Linx II 12. Passion Pit - Manners 11. A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
And now that the end of decade stuff is taken care of, time for end of year.
50. Bonnie “Prince” Billy - Beware 49. Sufjan Stevens - Run Rabbit Run: String-quartet re-recording of Sufjan’s underrated avant electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. 48. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous: Half of The Arab Strap makes more of his mope-pop, this time with much more pop. RIYL: Frightened Rabbit 47. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 46. Frankmusik - Complete Me: Sadly, high-budget studio gloss took Frankmusik’s basement glitch-pop from great to merely good. Still, though. It’s good. 45. Condo Fucks - Fuckbook: Yo La Tengo side-project of lo-fi garage rock covers. 44. Matt and Kim - Grand 43. VV Brown - Travelling Like the Light 42. Various Artists - Dark Was the Night 41. Major Lazer - Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do 40. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains 39. Beirut - March of the Zapotec/Holland 38. Giuseppe Ielasi - Aix: Strange, hypnotic, looping clicks and pops. Often sounds like a house settling. Sometimes quasi-melodies emerge sometimes they don’t. Probably the weirdest album on my list. RIYL: Matmos 37. Michachu - Jewellery 36. Why? - Eskimo Snow 35. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone 34. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz! 33. The Wave Pictures - If You Leave It Alone: Mix of twee, folk, and soul. RIYL: Field Mice, early Belle & Sebastian, Television Personalities 32. Rihanna - Rated R 31. The xx - xx
I might regret this as my #1 down the line, but dammit, this song is somewhere in the vicinity of perfect. It’s like someone took everything that’s been learend from 25 years of indie pop and made a bionic song out of it. The girl-guy vocals, the terrific repeated melody, the reprisal of the drum fill from between the first two verses (there’s no real chorus) right before the last verse, the reprisal of the organ riff at the end of the song, ugh, it’s all so perfect.
When M.I.A. did this song on Letterman, they switched the gunshots with some other weird sound without telling her (because the sound of gunshots make children want to kill), so when they got to the chorus she got confused, and I believe even stared at her finger gun like in a cartoon.
