It was devilishly hard to pick the ten albums for the list this year. This was due in part to the proliferation of great new music releases, but it was also because I worked just as much on figuring out exactly why I selected the albums that I did.
At the end of the day I know that I listened to "better" albums than the ones that made the final cut; albums that were technically superior or that showcased astonishing sonic talent. But ultimately I chose records that found a permanent place in my emotional life, the ones that touched something in my heart in an undeniable way. Like David Bowie said, "what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts."
10) Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard: Sometimes our hurts are a mystery even to ourselves, and so when you find a voice that understands the strange and fragile quality of them, you want to hear that voice telling you again and again that everything will be okay. Ra Ra Riot's sound has continued to evolve and I'm ever so glad of that.
9) Arcade Fire - The Suburbs: I had reservations about this album when it first came out. It seemed a bit drab and mundane to me. But once I was ready to listen past my initial assumptions, I found a deep wellspring of memory. There were things I was ready to face and things that I was so glad to have found again.
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
8) Sleigh Bells - Treats: Like a machine gun blast of rainbow lasers to your soul, Sleigh Bells get you ready to tear the freaking roof off. Listening to Treats back in May, I was genuinely excited about new music for the first time all year. Take one part innocence and swirl it up with two parts dirty exuberance and you have yourself one hell of an awesome time.
7) Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid: This record was by far the most ambitious and expansive project that I heard all year. Let's just say that it tells Suites II and II in the story of the artist's alter ego, a time-traveling messianic android. It is awesomely cinematic, funky and danceable, furious and passionate, romantic and beautiful. Monáe's voice is stunning and she can do lliterally ANYTHING.
6) How To Dress Well - Love Remains: I've seen How To Dress Well's music explained as "below-fi" and it's a pretty perfect description. My number six record makes me think of Bon Iver's magnificent For Emma, Forever Ago if that album had been led even further into the isolating dark and cold (with a computer in tow.) Love Remains is somehow inscrutable and deeply, actutely penetrating at the same time. It says that there is both darkness and indelible hope inside of us, if we are brave enough to look for it.
5) Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Most every Friday you can find me chilling out at home by myself, drinking wine, reading or watching TV and just winding down from the crazy week. I absolutely love it, and this year it was even better because for months I had Kanye West Good Fridays to look forward to. No one speaks their mind like 'Ye and no one busts their ass like him either. With each of the tracks that were the cherry on top of my Fridays, and with this amazing album, all of his mad, brilliant work paid off. I've loved Yeezy since the first time I heard "Through The Wire" and this is his very best effort yet.
Gorgeous (feat. Kid Cudi) - Kanye West
4) Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz: At one point in compiling my Top Ten Albums list, I decided that I would include The Age of Adz because no other artist says, "I love you" quite like Sufjan Stevens. For this really is an album full of love songs, written and performed in unique Sufjan style, and it moved me like only Sufjan's music can. The songs are at times a shout and at others a lament and the last track, a 25 minute odyssey called "Impossible Soul", is both of these things and so much more. I've isolated the end of the track for you to hear on its own. It is three of my favorite minutes in music this year.
Impossible Soul (Ending Edit) - Sufjan Stevens
3) Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me: This album is pure poetry, with some of the most curious and intriguing lyrical verses which just happen to be set to excellent music, too. I can't help but lose my heart to a record where every song tells such a compelling story. I could probably start an entire new blog based just on Joanna Newsom lyrics alone. Here's a couple of my favorite passages from Have One On Me:
from "Good Intentions Paving Company":
But it can make you feel over and old.
Lord, you know it's a shame.
When I only want for you to pull over and hold me
til' I can't remember my own name.
from "Does Not Suffice":
The tap of hangers swaying in the closet,
unburdened hooks and empty drawers.
And everywhere I tried to love you
is yours again,
and only yours.
2) Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks: There's nothing new here. No unusual instrumentation or experimental arrangements. It's just the simple, straightforward story of love lost, and the seemingly endless days that came afterward. But it's the total and complete honesty of this album that won me over. I have done so many stupid things over the past few years and Scott Hutchison and company sing with no reservation about how they have done the same things and learned from them. This is Frightened Rabbit doing what they do best.
The Loneliness and the Scream - Frightened Rabbit
1) Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can: From the first note of this album until the last, I get that feeling, that one where your throat's all choked up and your chest tightens like a fist and you can't even blink because then the tears will spill over. And it's not that I Speak Because I Can is that sad, really; it just contains a mixture of feeling so potent and compelling that I am almost constantly overcome. I felt this way when I first listened to the record and nothing's changed. Laura Marling has wisdom far, far beyond her years. If only I'd known half this much about life at twenty (hell, if only I knew half this much now). Her songs make me think (hard) about who I am and who I want to be, and what I can do to make these two people one and the same. It makes me resolve to treat myself better and to just let myself be happy in my own skin, which is a pretty great note to end the year on.
