The Best Albums of 2010

What a fantastic year. In 2010, indie-rock regained its fight, rappers indulged their ambitions, R&B singers fired on all cylinders and songwriters of all genres let it all hang out. Below are my 10 favorites of the year, followed by 10 excellent runners-up. As always, this list is brazenly subjective—it’s more a reflection of the albums with which I most connected, rather than the ones that impressed me the most—but all of the following have enough broad appeal that I’d blindly recommend them to any music fan.

10. Bilal – "Airtight’s Revenge"

On his chilling second album, his first since his label left him for dead after his 2001 debut, Bilal abandons the optimistic affirmations and easy grooves of first-wave neo-soul for a hardened, “that’s how it is” bluntness. Everything about Airtight’s Revenge is on edge, from its lopsided, blurting beats to Bilal’s fraught voice, a composed, jazzy croon that gives way to frightening fits and spasms. Nine years between records has left Bilal with nothing to lose, so he sings with go-for-broke bluster, taking risk after remarkable risk. This is an album that hits exceptional heights precisely because it’s so willing to go down in flames.

9. Los Campesinos! – "Romance is Boring"

What strikes first about Los Campesinos!’s third album of combustible pop is its scope—this is a restless, massively overstuffed record—but the real revelation here is singer Gareth Campesinos!’s storytelling. Especially in Romance’s expansive second half, the lyricist best known for profane, shout-along slogans writes outside of his comical curmudgeon persona to tell genuinely poignant vignettes about lost love, difficult decisions and psychological crisis. He’s still uproariously funny, though, and his attention to squalid detail lightens even the starkest songs here.

8. Zola Jesus – “Stridulum”/“Valusia”

Fallen opera singer Nika Roza Danilova is a contradictory figure: a nihilist who delights in accounts of the apocalypse, but also a romantic who details the human toll of her own fantasies with deep compassion. Between her many projects and collaborations, she released hours of music over the last two years; the best of it—issued in America this year on the Zola Jesus EPs Stridulum and Valusia and compiled in Europe as Stridulum II—stands as the most emotionally evocative goth-pop since The Cure’s heyday. It’s been ages since the genre has seen a figure with such star quality.

7. Gayngs – "Relayted"

A ragtag crew of friends connected to the Minneapolis and Eau Claire music scenes raid the soft-rock and smooth R&B junkyard, composing a moody album-length suite from some of the most outdated, uncool or downright reviled sonics imaginable: quiet-storm keyboards, synthesized trumpets, Showtime After Dark saxophones. It’s a project that would reek of kitsch if the songs weren’t so nakedly sincere.

6. The-Dream – "Love King"

The scrappiest singer in R&B opens his third album bragging about the many women in his life, but he makes no claims about his ability to keep them. A year after his revelatory Love Vs. Money, one of the decade’s most sonically innovative pop albums, the big-hearted would-be lothario is still trying to buy love, spending his way through a cycle of successful hook-ups and failed relationships. He sets himself up for perpetual heartbreak, but if that means more albums this exquisitely crafted and deliriously catchy, may he never learn from his mistakes.

5. One For The Team – “Ghosts”

Part escapist fantasy about befriending a ghost, part exploration of post-break-up numbness, One For The Team’s third album is first and foremost the catchiest power-pop album of the year, topping even Superchunk’s similarly fantastic comeback record Majesty Shredding. I normally have a low tolerance for hooks this unabashedly sweet, but One For The Team smartly cloaks theirs in a hard outer shell, allaying them with heavy guitar riffs that dig their heels into the ground until they hit clay.

4. Sharon Van Etten – “Epic”

Sharon Van Etten isn’t just another pretty voice (though she is, to be sure, an exceptionally pretty voice); she's is an extraordinary storyteller with a keen understanding of how the slightest vocal inflection can entirely alter a song’s meaning. There are moments on her sophomore album Epic where she assures herself, her ex and the world that she’s fine, she’s moved on and she’s a better person for having withered a traumatic relationship, yet the slightest catch in her throat or trace of bitterness in her voice belies her claims. Over the last year, I've experienced for Van Etten the kind of obsessive fandom rarely felt in adulthood. I've hunted down every rarity she's released, traveled increasingly far to catch her unforgettable concerts, and downloaded disc after disc of her live performances (courtesy of the similarly smitten enablers at NYCtaper.com). It’s an obsession I suspect will only grow, since her songs are so deeply marbled with emotional contradictions that each performance can reveal an entirely different interpretation. Songs this nuanced always keep you coming back.

3. Beach House – “Teen Dream”

Utterly enchanting, an album marveled by its own capacity for joy.

2. Marnie Stern – “Marnie Stern”

Marnie Stern’s glorious third album doesn’t just bare its soul; it bares its soul then invites you to hang out all night watching movies and eating pizza. It’s an album that embraces you with the sincere appreciation of a friend in need. The Brooklyn guitar shredder’s first two records cast her as an awesomely eccentric, noise-kicking badass, but this kinder, gentler record also reveals her a woman in crisis, profoundly lonely and struggling to come to terms with losses she can’t comprehend. “For Ash” opens the album with a eulogy for an ex-boyfriend, and his ghost and the less literal ghosts of every other lover no longer available for her haunt every track—on the devastating “Cinco de Mayo,” waking late at night to an empty bed sends her into a panic attack. Stern’s feat is revealing her heartbreak without weighing down the album. Marnie Stern is as spunky, euphoric and addictive as any rock ’n’ roll record released this year; it just leaves behind bruises.

1. Kanye West – “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”

For the sin of attempting to do something entertaining on an MTV award show—a broadcast, by the way, where such antics are usually encouraged and celebrated—the public castigated Kanye West to a degree that made Michael Vick’s rebukes look like gentle finger-waving. In the backlash that ensued, West was denounced by none other than the President and publicly shamed by, of all people, Jay Leno, who hit West where it hurt most, insinuating that his dead mother would be disappointed in him. Degradation on that scale is enough to shrivel even the most overgrown ego, and sure enough, West's fifth album finds his self-opinion in free fall. When West raps “Everybody knows I'm a motherfucking monster,” he's not boasting; he's acceding to his heinous public image. If there’s an advantage to being cast as a villain, though, it’s that it’s freed West to make his most pointed record yet, an unsparing examination of his vices, anxieties and demons. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has it both ways: It’s unabashedly grandiose, yet for all its orchestral interludes, guitar solos and Justin Vernon features, it retains the satisfying punch of traditional, beats-and-rhymes rap record. It’s a record that affirms Kanye West not just as rap’s greatest visionary, but also one of the preeminent album artist of his time.

And let’s show some love for the runners-up.

Even without the 10 albums above, 2010 would have been a fantastic year for music thanks to these fine offerings:

11. Rick Ross - "The Teflon Don"

Rick Ross builds empires with his bare, callused hands, then takes his armor off and retreats to his fine leather chair to reflect on a hard day’s work. This is a deeply soulful album.

12. Yeasayer - "Odd Blood"

Free hugs for everybody! Everybody gets a weird, weird hug!

13. Male Bonding - "Nothing Hurts"

Everything sucks and/or is awesome when you are young.

14. Big Boi - "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty"

OutKast’s more reliable half never forgets how fundamentally fun it is to rap.

15. Janelle Monae - "The ArchAndroid"

Showstoppers!

16. Joanna Newsom – "Have One On Me"

Weaving poetry from historical fiction and autobiographical sentiment, Joanna Newsom crafts an utterly audacious artistic statement that feels much shorter than its three discs.

17. Arcade Fire - "The Suburbs"

A great album that makes you want to punch it in the face from time to time is still a great album.

18. Erykah Badu – "New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh"

After a decade of bold, sometimes difficult experimentation, Erykah Badu releases her sweetest, most inviting album yet.

19. Harlem – "Hippies"

Harlem feel the same way about rock ’n’ roll as Big Boi does about rap.

20. Crystal Castles - "Crystal Castles"

Guess the first one wasn’t a fluke.