Hep Kat's 2k10
I have 224 albums from 2010, give or take a few. I?m guesstimating that I?ve listened to about 180-200 of those. My top 25 has a lot of things on it that should be fairly recognizable around here. I found myself listening to way too much hardcore for the third year in a row, but 2010 was a fantastic year for it. Personally, I found it to be a pretty weak year for hip-hop which was fairly disappointing. I?ve found myself rating things really objectively over the past couple years I?ve been ?away.? For instance, the vast majority of things I liked this year only got 3s or 3.5s. Every four I gave out is here, and only the top 5 things on this list received 4.5s. At this point the only album I could see getting bumped up to a 5 in the near future is number 1. All things told, 2010 was a kickass start to what should be an awesome decade for music. |
| 25 |  | Envy on the Coast
Lowcountry
Sucks they went and broke up. |
| 24 |  | Kylesa
Spiral Shadow
I saw Kylesa live 2 years ago, and it was easily the worst performance I?ve ever witnessed. As unfair as this may be, I went into Spiral Shadow completely biased by that fact. I?m glad I was wrong. |
| 23 |  | Caravels
Floorboards
A great post-hardcore album. Nothing more, nothing less. |
| 22 |  | Kvelertak
Kvelertak
RIFFSRIFFSRIFFSRIFFSRIFFSRIFFSRIFFSRIFFS |
| 21 |  | Warpaint
The Fool
Something quickly becoming a favorite of my girlfriend, I also found myself taking quite a liking to this. It?s a very delicate sounding album at times, but there?s a roaring fire behind it. |
| 20 |  | Coheed and Cambria
Year of the Black Rainbow
My girlfriend?s favorite band. Despite having one of the most fucktarded titles I?ve ever heard, Coheed?s latest is a great snapshot of a band maturing and making some of the best music of their career. |
| 19 |  | Harlem
Hippies
A charming release with a decidedly proto-punk feel, I was hooked from the first time I heard the chorus of ?Someday Soon.? |
| 18 |  | Everyone Everywhere
Everyone Everywhere
I listened to this a lot last summer, and I now associate it with a lot of fond memories. It?s a great album that with great bits of mathiness ready to jump out at you and mix things up. Great country driving music. |
| 17 |  | Calabrese
Calabrese III - They Call Us Death
Stepping away from their late-90s-early-2000s AFI sound ever so slightly, the Calabrese brothers have crafted a great album while managing to find their own identity. This is a band that could bring horror punk back to the forefront of the genre. |
| 16 |  | Kerouac
Cold and Distant, Not Loving
One of the deepest hardcore albums I?ve ever heard. Just take a look at the lyrics sheet, it?s just brilliant. Shit rages and brings the fucking mosh too. |
| 15 |  | Owen Pallett
Heartland
Ever since I first ?He Poos Clouds? while being driven home from a party in high school, I?ve always wanted to like Final Fantasy aka Owen Pallett more than I did. With Heartland I don?t find myself having that problem anymore; great stuff. |
| 14 |  | Young Heretics
We Are the Lost Loves
This is easily one of the most hauntingly beautiful albums I heard this year. The oftentimes morbid subject matter candy-coated in a dark shade of chamber pop makes for a stirringly relaxing and thought-provoking listen. |
| 13 |  | Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
This is not a 5. |
| 12 |  | Fucked Up
Year of the Ox
Fucked Up finally dropped the pretense and decided to go all-out on the fourth an final installment of their ?Zodiac? EP series. 24 minutes of progressive punk that almost begs to be labeled as something other than hardcore. |
| 11 |  | Titus Andronicus
The Monitor
Unlike Trophy Scars, Titus Andronicus was a band I immediately was proud to smile and say ?Yep, they?re from dirty jerz.? The first time I heard ?A More Perfect,? I knew I was hearing an album that later in life would make me smile and remember the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century very fondly. |
| 10 |  | More Than Life
Love Let Me Go
?Black Eyed? is the best hardcore song I heard all year. Seriously, the intro to that song alone was enough to ensure this getting a spot on this list. |
| 9 | | United Nations
Nevermind the Bombings, Here's Your Six Figures
Geoff Rickly is a really cool dude. I?ve gotten the chance to talk to him at a couple Thursday shows, and he?s always been really laid-back and funny as hell. Or maybe I?m just gay for him. Either way, I wish his main project could make something of this quality. Probably the most clever title/cover of the year in my opinion too. |
| 8 |  | Night Birds
Killer Waves
My girlfriend?s cousin fronts this band. He?s a really nice guy, and he gave me this when we were visiting some of her family in Florida last spring. Almost too short to comfortably be called an EP (but it says it right there on the cover so fuuuuuck you), Killer Waves is a promising bit of surf-influenced punk from a band I?m going to be paying a lot more attention to from now on. |
| 7 |  | Deerhunter
Halcyon Digest
I HATED Deerhunter for the longest time. I?m totally serious. I listened to their early stuff a few years back and nearly immediately dismissed them as complete bullshit. Then I gave Microcastle a listen. Then Halcyon Digest came out. And now here they are. |
| 6 |  | The Saddest Landscape
You Will Not Survive
This one really surprised me. I listened to a lot of skramz this year, but nothing quite sucked me in like You Will Not Survive. I really wasn?t expecting much, as TSL have always been ?just another emo band? to me. I?m really glad I was wrong, because this album is simply gorgeous. |
| 5 |  | Trophy Scars
Darkness, Oh Hell
You?ll hear me dickride a lot of bands from New Jersey because, let?s face it, NJ is the punk capital of the country. I?ve never been a fan of TS though. Their albums were good, yeah, but just seemed to get lost in the wake of other, better post-hardcore releases. But as soon as I heard the beginning of ?Nausea,? I knew they had something big here. Something I could easily fall in love with. |
| 4 |  | Big Boi
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
?The other guy? from Outkast basically just knocked my ass on the floor. |
| 3 |  | House Boat
Processing Complaints
After releasing the best pop-punk album of 2009, super group House Boat (most notable around here, I?d imagine, for containing Mikey Erg) do it again with their sophomore EP. Processing is short, quick, and to the point- it?s pop-punk designed to be played over and over and over and over, without the listener ever feeling bored. It?s fucking ridiculously catchy and easily one of the best pop-punk albums I?ve heard in my entire life. |
| 2 |  | None More Black
Icons
I had almost forgotten about this band before Icons dropped, despite my being a huge Kid Dynamite fan. NMB?s post-hiatus record is leaps and bounds above anything they?ve done before. This is an album that reminded me that good, honest, straight-forward punk rock is what made me fall in love with the genre in the first place. I didn?t need to listen to artsy-fartsy foreign bands or extremely underground powerviolence or what have you. Icons was a breath of fresh air I didn?t even know I needed, and for that, I am eternally grateful. |
| 1 |  | Liam the Younger
Revel Hidden Worlds
I wasn?t really sure where to begin with this one. Earlier this year when I ordered this LP, I was expecting just another run-of-the-mill indie folk album (albeit an exceptional one). I mean, LTY has never been Bob Dylan before, but I?ve always appreciated his discography. Eschewing the free digital download, I decided to wait until my vinyl arrived in the mail. It didn?t take long for Revel Hidden Worlds to strike me in ways I can?t remember an album doing since I first heard Rubber Soul. LTY expounds on his minimalist style of simple, yet incredibly multi-faceted music. It?s much more of a rock record than his past releases, and even could be called a concept album of sorts. With each track, LTY takes another bold step forward, until by the time ?Candle? comes on, he?s walking on water. By the time ?American Flag? drops, he?s walking on thin air. I found myself relating to this so much; it?s just incredible music. My fianc?e and I have already decided to choose a song from this to play at our wedding- a compliment shared only by songs from albums held dear to our hearts for most of our lives. A humble honor, perhaps, but one fully befitting. |
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