1. Justin Townes Earle “Harlem River Blues” – I just think this is the best-executed album in what is probably my favorite genre. JTE don’t like the term alt.country, so we’ll call it roots rock or just say that I like my rock with a bit of twang, some harmonies, and a Southern inflection with an acknowlegement that there’s a larger world and culture out there.
2. Mynabirds – “What We Lose in the Fire, We Gain in the Flood” – This is what I think a come down record should sound like. This is a great mood album, and that mood is painkillers and pot and a good album.
3. Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – I’m not ready to call this The Kid A of Rap, and album that changes what a rap album “can be,” as a friend of mine has called it, rather I just think it’s a great album about fame, sex, money, and getting it. It’s easy to dismiss Yeezy’s schtick as being all about ego, but I’ve always enjoyed his take.
4. J. Roddy Walston and The Business “S/T” – This is what I think about when I think the about “fun, energetic rock and roll” I have seen used to describe Free Energy.
5. The Drive By Truckers – “The Big To Do” – The usual complaints about The Truckers are all here, but this is still a solid album by a band I like. I think they could certainly use a joly or an extended break, but I like most of the material here, and love “Birthday Boy” and “Eyes Like Glue” to name a few.
6. Phosphorescent – “here’s to taking it easy” – “It’s Hard to Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama” is certainly being used around here as a theme song, but this album seems to combine a lot of what works about the early stuff with the type of imagination in tempo and lyrics that they somehow gleaned from making the “To Willie” covers album last year. I think in 10 years this and The Mynabirds will either be the best representations of music from this time in my list, or I’ll be shaking me noggin over their inclusion.
7. The Walkmen –“Lisbon” – This is a hot shot debut, as I just recently gave this a few spins, but I think it works on so many levels, and I think agree with Drinky’s take on them vis-à-vis The National, whose album is not charting here.
8. Peter Wolf – “Midnight Souvenirs” – “I Don’t Wanna Know” is certainly a contender for song of the year, and the rest of the album works on a dad-rock level that so many fail to achieve. The production is clean, but not overt, and there’s nary a black female back up singer nor a blooze guitar wank off to be found.
9. The Hold Steady – “Heaven Is Whenever” – See my comments about The Truckers album. They may have lost the ability to completely get under my skin and make me play an album 16 times in a week, but they’re a solid band putting out solid output with material and lyrics right in my wheelhouse.
10. Delta Spirit – solid album that I keep returning to, but don’t find transcendent.

The Next few albums I liked but didn’t care enough to rank:


Girl Talk – “All Day” – What can I say, I am a sucker for a good gimmick, and I think he’s the best at this type of thing going today.

Jerry Lee Lewis – “Mean Old Man” – I think this is better than “Last Man Standing” despite a similar cast and raison d’etre. I think the source material is a little stronger, and it’s less of a cry for revelance.

Big Boi – Some good songs, but he and Andre need each other to make albums worthy of Top X lists, imo. They are much better than the sum of their parts and it shows here.

2 Cow Garage – “Sweet Saint Me” – Just a liiiitttttlllleeee too power pop and a little less rootsy than their previous ouput. Just shy of the top 10.

Bobby Bare, Jr. – “A Storm, A Tree, My Mother’s Head” – While a lot of people seemed to think this was some kind of great leap forward, I slot it sort of like I feel about The Hold Steady and Truckers albums: solid, if not spectacular effort from an artist I enjoy.

The Promise - Dominated my late 2010 listening, and just make me want more of these reissues.

Exile Reissue - I have a feeling there was something better that could have been done with the material, but the packaging, and the Keef-sung version of "Soul Survivor" make this worth the price of admission.

Wasn't into:

Harlem - "Hippies" - amateurish - fun/humor = MEH
The Soft Pack "S/T" - See above
Beach House - Teen Dream - I liked these folks better when it was more about the atmosphere.
Wavves - "King of The Beach" Take a stoner with a Nirvana bent, a drum machine, some Beach Boys fantasies and Dead Kennedy's vocals and what do you have? A pile of shit that's what
Best Coast - Take the above pile of shit's girl friend. Sub out Beach Boys for Girl Groups and you still have one big jagoff.
Vampire Weekend - "Contra" - If only because Horchata is the worst song of the year, and I can't get past it to listen to everything else.

Damn, I did not hear that Two Cow Garage.

It was pretty forgettable.

Two records I didn't write about because they were 11-20 on my list that you sort of group together here are the Hold Steady and Truckers. To use your words, I don't think Heaven is Whenever is transcendent or anything but it is solid and for some reason I think it's actually going to age better than a lot of their catalog.

As for the Big To Do...Is there a band more fucking frustrating? This is probably a separate thread, but I could make every single Truckers album roughly 60% better just by cutting anywhere from 2-5 songs. Here it's "Drag The Lake..." and especially the utterly abominable "The Wig He Made Her Wear". Shit replace those two with "Girls Who Smoke" and the cover of "Strutter", shake up the sequencing and this fucker is Top 3.

So I'm thinking that I'm going to have to listen to those Mynabirds and Phosphorescent albums.

Guess I need to hear Peter Wolf

Good list

Interesting. I love that thing and figured it'd be right in your wheelhouse.

No telling, I guess.

i have more in common with your "wasn't into" list than the rest of it.

Yeh, dem ATL boys done jumped the rails on that one.

Aurprised to see Justin Townes Earle at number one. I like it quite a bit and it seems to be growing on me, but it just doesn't seem like the kind of album to top a list. I do like that it's short. Does what it needs to do and leaves you wanting more.

I said it was just outside my top 10. Watch out early onset.

Hey, I'm suffering from alcohol poisoning this AM in addition to the usual Al's Hammer.

I forgot to list my rap songs of the year. This is based solely on the cathartic experience of playing obnoxious shit about dealing drugs, fucking, and all other kinds of I'll shit:

1) Wacka Flocka Flame feat. Roscoe Dash and Wale "No Hands"

2) whoever the fuck did the Hard in the Paint parody "Head of the Mothafucking State"

3) The Diplomats "Salute"

4) Gucci Mane feat. Swizz Beats "Gucci Time"

5) Young Jeezy feat Plies "Lose My Mind"

6) DJ Khalid feat. T-Pain, Luda, and Snoop "All I Do Is Win"

7) Drake "Over"

8) Young Dro feat. Gucci Mane "Freeze Me"

9) Birdman feat Little Wayne "Fire Flame"

10) Nicki Minaj feat. Eminem "Roman's Revenge"

have you checked out Odd Future yet? Specifically Earl or Tyler the Creator? Seems like some of it would be up your ally.

I can't see him liking that.

I can pretty much tell by the names I won't like it. Doesn't sound hood enough for me.

I wouldn't make judgments about them on their names. But you like rap about money, cars, etc.
I've only heard Tyler's album but it's probably one of the most nihilistic albums I've ever heard. I'd compare it to say, Gravediggaz , but if you weren't sure if they were kidding.

what if I was to tell you that they rap about raping a lot, and doing drugs that make meth look classy . . . is that something you might be interested in?

yes.

You guys know me so well!

i can't believe anyone thinks "drag the lake, charlie" is one of the (if not THE) worst tracks on TBTD - that song is great

Seriously.

I read Earl is even worse.