| Brian Eno Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) | 2.5 |
| Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree | 3.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips Transmissions From the Satellite Heart | 3.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Embryonic | 2.5 |
| The Shins Oh, Inverted World | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Prospect Hummer | 3.5 |
| The Walkmen Heaven | 4.0 |
| Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire Thrills | 1.5 |
| Moonface With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery | 3.5 |
| El-P Cancer 4 Cure | 3.0 |
| Gojira L'Enfant Sauvage | 2.0 |
| Danny Brown XXX | 2.5 |
| Burial Kindred | 3.5 |
| Ty Segall Band Slaughterhouse | 3.0 |
| AJJ Can't Maintain | 3.5 |
| Twin Shadow Confess | 2.5 |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | 3.5 |
| Andrew Bird Break It Yourself | 3.5 |
| Killer Mike R.A.P. Music | 3.0 |
| ScHoolboy Q Habits and Contradictions | 3.0 |
| The Shins Port of Morrow | 3.5 |
| Elliott Smith Roman Candle | 4.0 |
| Swan Lake Beast Moans | 3.5 |
| Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer | 3.5 |
| Moonface Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums | 3.0 |
| Portugal. The Man The Satanic Satanist | 2.5 |
| Sunset Rubdown Shut Up I Am Dreaming | 3.5 |
| Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music For Airports | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 4.0 |
| Grimes Visions | 2.5 |
| Built to Spill Perfect from Now On | 3.5 |
| Kanye West Late Registration | 4.5 |
| Brian Eno Another Green World | 4.0 |
| The National High Violet | 4.0 |
| Okkervil River The Stand Ins | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank | 3.5 |
| Laura Stevenson A Record | 3.5 |
| The Walkmen You & Me | 3.5 |
| Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret | 4.5 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 3.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 3.5 |
| A Winged Victory for the Sullen A Winged Victory for the Sullen | 4.0 |
| Fucked Up David Comes to Life | 3.5 |
| AJJ Knife Man | 4.0 |
| Wilco The Whole Love | 4.0 |
| Givers In Light | 4.0 |
| WU LYF Go Tell Fire to the Mountain | 4.0 |
| Built to Spill There's Nothing Wrong with Love | 4.0 |
| Deerhunter Rainwater Cassette Exchange | 3.5 |
| The Roots undun | 3.5 |
| Real Estate Days | 4.0 |
| Atlas Sound Parallax | 3.0 |
| Laura Stevenson Holy Ghost! | 4.5 |
| Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost | 4.0 |
| Florence and the Machine Ceremonials | 3.0 |
| The Jezabels Prisoner | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse Building Nothing Out of Something | 4.5 |
| Girls Album | 4.0 |
| Band of Horses Everything All the Time | 4.0 |
| Gravediggaz 6 Feet Deep | 2.5 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 3.5 |
| Green Day Dookie | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 3.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing | 4.5 |
| Deerhunter Weird Era Cont. | 3.5 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 4.5 |
| GZA Liquid Swords | 4.5 |
| The Strokes Room on Fire | 4.0 |
| Beirut Gulag Orkestar | 3.5 |
| Okkervil River Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News | 4.0 |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois | 4.0 |
| Real Estate Real Estate | 3.0 |
| The National Alligator | 4.5 |
| Animal Collective Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished | 3.5 |
| Pixies Surfer Rosa | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West | 4.5 |
| Alice in Chains Jar of Flies | 4.5 |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 4.0 |
| Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain | 4.0 |
| St. Vincent Strange Mercy | 3.5 |
| Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica | 3.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Lenses Alien | 3.5 |
| Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind | 4.5 |
| The Joy Formidable The Big Roar | 3.5 |
| Beirut The Rip Tide | 4.0 |
| The War On Drugs Slave Ambient | 4.0 |
| Trophy Scars Never Born, Never Dead | 4.0 |
| *shels Plains Of The Purple Buffalo | 4.0 |
| The Horrors Skying | 4.0 |
| Shabazz Palaces Black Up | 3.5 |
| Wolfmother Wolfmother | 4.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II | 4.5 |
| Washed Out Life of Leisure | 3.5 |
| The Strokes Is This It | 4.0 |
| Menomena I Am The Fun Blame Monster! | 3.5 |
| Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter The Color Spectrum (Complete Collection) | 4.5 |
| The Dear Hunter White | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Yellow | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter The Color Spectrum | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Violet | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Indigo | 3.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Green | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Blue | 4.5 |
| The Dear Hunter Black | 3.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Orange | 3.5 |
| Handsome Furs Sound Kapital | 4.0 |
| The Ruby Suns Sea Lion | 4.0 |
| The Dear Hunter Red | 3.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 4.0 |
| TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes | 3.0 |
| Menomena Friend And Foe | 3.5 |
| TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain | 4.0 |
| Devin Townsend Project Ghost | 4.0 |
| This makes Deconstruction sound like such a joke. |
| Deerhunter Cryptograms | 3.0 |
| Atlas Sound Logos | 3.0 |
| Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver | 4.0 |
| Animal Collective Sung Tongs | 4.0 |
| Menomena Mines | 4.0 |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 4.0 |
| Frank Turner England Keep My Bones | 4.0 |
| Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me | 3.5 |
| The Dodos No Color | 3.5 |
| Okkervil River I Am Very Far | 3.0 |
| The Antlers Burst Apart | 3.0 |
| And So I Watch You From Afar Gangs | 4.0 |
| Manchester Orchestra Simple Math | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.0 |
| Laura Stevenson Sit Resist | 5.0 |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 4.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care | 3.0 |
| tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l | 3.5 |
| The Doors The Doors | 4.0 |
| Young the Giant Young the Giant | 3.5 |
| TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light | 3.5 |
| Panda Bear Tomboy | 3.5 |
| Weezer Pinkerton | 4.0 |
| CunninLynguists Oneirology | 3.5 |
| CunninLynguists got together and watched Inception and voila, Oneirology. |
| Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | 4.5 |
| Yuck Yuck | 3.5 |
| Typhoon (USA-OR) Hunger and Thirst | 3.5 |
| Radiohead The Bends | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 4.0 |
| Radiohead Amnesiac | 4.0 |
| Although it is bolstered by several astonishingly good tracks, Amnesiac's disjointed inconsistency is enough to keep it from reaching the colossal heights that its preprocessors did. |
| Radiohead Kid A | 5.0 |
| PJ Harvey Let England Shake | 4.0 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 4.0 |
| It's no Funeral, but Neon Bible is nonetheless a fulfilling follow up to their critically acclaimed masterpiece. |
| Bright Eyes The People's Key | 3.0 |
| James Blake James Blake | 3.5 |
| Though spares and dissonant, James Blake's self-titled debut feels as if it could implode at any minute; and the result is fantastic. |
| Radiohead The King of Limbs | 4.0 |
| Is it a classic? No. But, shit, it's still Radiohead. |
| Weezer Weezer | 5.0 |
| Braids Native Speaker | 4.0 |
| I'm still trying to understand why there is so much opposition to this? |
| The Go! Team Rolling Blackouts | 4.0 |
| Destroyer Kaputt | 4.5 |
| Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains | 3.5 |
| With "...And the Hazy Sea," as the starting track, Cymbals Eat Guitars begin their career with one of the best indie rock songs of the past decade. Unfortunately, the hugely momentous and almost deflating song overshadows the rest of Why There Are Mountains to the point were the remaining tracks almost feel forced. Regardless, the album is still a solid debut. |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.5 |
| Wholly subdued and efficient, In Rainbows feels as though no one really put any effort into it, but it is still incredibly good, in typical Radiohead fashion. It doesn't possess the lasting effect that OK Computer and Kid A have, but it is nonetheless a remarkable album. |
| Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy | 4.0 |
| At the end of the album, as the final wondrous seconds of "The Ocean" are coming to an end, Sir Plant pretty much sums up the album as he exclaims, "Oh, so good!" |
| Silversun Pickups Carnavas | 3.0 |
| A noise heavy, relatively relaxed indie rock debut that is by all means satisfying, but I can't help but feel as though Carnavas is somewhat forgetable. Maybe it's because I am utterly exhausted. |
| Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion | 4.5 |
| An instant pop spectacle, Merriweather Post Pavilion is Animal Collective at their most consistent, most focused, and possibly their most exuberant. |
| Wavves King of the Beach | 2.5 |
| King of the Beach is an undeniably fun record that implements an almost punk-like surf rock sound and does it better than any of the other similar records that came out in 2010. |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 4.5 |
| At times utterly brilliant, and at other times (though much less often), Mellon Collie is simply bad. Fortunately, Billy presents one of the most ambitious and downright beautiful albums of all time, from the gorgeous self-titled intro, to the infinitely saddening title and cover art; and it is oh so close to making up for the bit of filler that the album contains. |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 4.0 |
| A completely influential album, RATM combines their delicious riffage with the politically charge ranting of De La Rocha to make one of the most unique, intense, and altogether enthralling release of the '90's. |
| Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy | 4.5 |
| As much as I want to hate 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' for the ridiculous name, Kanye's recent antics, and the sheer stupidity of the lyrics, I just can't bring myself to hate it. 2010 didn't see much in the way of rap, so to see the best yet album from the likes of Kanye was much needed. The quality of the songs is great, with almost all of the tracks being immensely likable, and though the lyrics are Kanye at his most profane, there are moments when he comes to terms with himself (well, kind of). |
| Vince Guaraldi Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas | 4.0 |
| The Vince Guaraldi Trio give a perfectly apt and surprisingly pleasant listen for the Charlie Brown Christmas classic. The jazz flows smoothly and the soundtrack even introduces one of the most beautiful Christmas songs to date, with 'Christmastime is Here.' |
| Tame Impala Innerspeaker | 3.5 |
| Tame Impala comes out strong with it's debut, making a psychedelic and completely rocking album. Though it contains a bit of filler, there is enough solid material to make the venture worthwhile. Now that they have this to build on, lets hope that Tame Impala doesn't come out and lay an egg on their sophomore effort (or a Cosmic Egg, to be exact) like their Australian counterpart, Wolfmother, did. |
| The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream | 5.0 |
| Siamese Dream is a noise/alt rock masterpiece with no weak points. Underneath the abrasive hum of the guitar are Corgan's angst ridden, let down lyrics which make it easy to believe that he was, in fact, losing his mind during the recording of the album. Even when the riff's aren't cutting through your mind, the melancholic breeze of the more mild songs are just as enjoyable. |
| Girls Broken Dreams Club | 3.0 |
| "Broken Dreams Club" is by no means a bad EP, in fact, it shows Girls maturing as a band. What I'm not sure of, though, is how much I want to take Girls seriously. I find myself missing the playfulness of "Album" while I listen to their EP. Plus, there are really not songs that stand out on "Broken Dreams Club," making for a fairly boring listen. |
| Animal Collective Fall Be Kind | 3.5 |
| Held together by the infinitely great, "What Would I Want? Sky," "Fall Be Kind" is a mild, yet entertaining contrast to "MPP." |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 3.5 |
| A satisfying album by Win and company regarding the ridiculous nature of today's youth. It's length is probably my only complain. |
| Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti | 4.0 |
| Deerhunter Microcastle | 4.0 |
| With "Microcastle," Deerhunter effectively brakes away from the drone and lo-fi sound of "Cryptograms." The songs are strung together wonderfully, and the albums manages to create a mellow tone before it bursts in "Nothing Ever Happened," where Bradford & company present and enthralling jam session. "Microcastle" is Cox beginning to realize his genius. |
| Fang Island Fang Island | 4.0 |
| As "Dreams of Dreams" comes to it's climax, you know something momentous is about to occur, and you get exactly that with one of the most rocking, and easily the most fun album of 2010. |
| Green Day American Idiot | 3.5 |
| Panda Bear Person Pitch | 4.0 |
| 'Person Pitch' is Panda Bear with complete freedom, doing what he does best: making gorgeous, psychedelic indie pop. |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | 4.0 |
| 'The Wall' is a deeply engrossing, and highly maddening trip through the mind of a man losing his mind. Despite having some weak points as far as musical enjoyability goes, the album is wholly enthralling and contains some of Floyd's greatest moments. |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
OK Computer epitomizes a time of change in a paranoid and frantic melancholy. And the
music happens to be incredible too. |
| Wu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 4.5 |
| The Clan pulls out a hard hitting, uncompromising approach with their debut; and to great effect. Their nine member build, raw beats and honest lyricism make for one of the most appreciated rap albums ever. |
| Animal Collective Strawberry Jam | 3.5 |
| With 'Strawberry Jam,' Animal Collective detaches itself from the melancholic sound that consumed much of their previous album, 'Feels,' and instead delivers a bouncing, loop ridden jaunt that is sure to make you question the sanity of the members, if you already had not. 'Strawberry Jam' is a lot of fun. |
| Deerhunter Halcyon Digest | 4.0 |
| "Halcyon Digest" stays true to it's title and is certainly tranquil, though it is easily more upbeat than "Microcastles." The songs are consistently great and it contains maybe the best song of the year in "Helicopter." |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV | 5.0 |
| Cohesively, Led Zeppelin's untitled masterpiece does not fit that well. Songs change from wildly up beat to very slow on a whim. Despite this, it is impossible to imagine "IV" deserving anything lower than a perfect score, solely because of the strength of all of the songs. Of the eight, several are Zeppelin's best, and all are incredible. Needless to say, this is an album that should remain atop the music mountain for a long while. |
| Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend | 4.0 |
| The first half of 'Vampire Weekend' is an indie pop dream; highly dance-able and completely enjoyable, and though the second half slacks, the album as a whole is still wonderful. |
| Animal Collective Water Curses | 3.0 |
| Water Curses is short, simple and contains four solid AC joints. It is nothing to go crazy over, but it is a solid, between album listen. |
| Animal Collective Feels | 4.0 |
| "Feels" catches Animal Collective between their subtle transition from nearly unapproachable freak folk and ambient based sounds to their lively, almost poppy textures of MMP; and the result is gorgeous. Both of the half's, though starkly different, are meshed perfectly and together make for a wonderful, and highly complex album. |
| Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights | 4.5 |
| Despite the last half becoming somewhat experimental, the first four songs on "Turn on the Bright Lights" are enough to make the album on of the best of the decade. Paul Banks' lyrics seem to be him giving up on relationships and really anything in is life, though at times the lyrics are hopeful, such as on the gorgeous "NYC." "Turn on the Bright Lights" will likely be Interpol greatest achievement, and in a way, it seems sufficient. |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 5.0 |
| Despite the context of the albums heartbreaking title, Funeral is a continually comforting record that hits on all cylinders for its duration. |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 5.0 |
| A beautiful yet heartbreaking depiction of Anne Frank and her turmoil during the Holocaust, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is both optimistic at times, and defeated at others. Jeff Magnum gives one of the best and strangest lyrical performances that I have ever heard and even though his voice can become somewhat shrill, his musical performance is top notch, taking the lo-fi element to new heights. |
