My Favorite Albums of 2010!

Ok, so I'm not going to rank these albums because I love them all for different reasons. These 5 albums are what I listened to the most this year. As usual, 4 of the 5 have a female vocalist and the one lone male voice fills out the top 5. If you don't have these albums, you need to check them out, cause I have pretty good music taste:)

Beach House-Teen Dream

*This album really was my first favorite album of 2010. I had heard of Beach House and even taken a listen to their previous two albums, but it was this third album that really grabbed a hold of me. The strength of the first single Norway was the beginning of a year long love affair with this album. Of my top five listed, this is the only band I actually had the opportunity to see live. They were fantastic. For such a mellow, dreamy band, Victoria Legrand can really rock out and has excellent stage presence. I can't imagine anyone not liking this album. It has forced me to look back and re-evaluate what I thought of their previous work. Something I am still working on.

Best Coast-Crazy for you

*The hype on this album was large to say the least. Reading reviews and comments from critics that had heard promo copies, I did not really expect to like it. The key terms of Lo-Fi, reference to 60's girl groups and the indie cred, all felt like it was going to be another Vivian Girls or Dum Dum Girls, both of which are not really my cup of tea. I was very pleasantly surprised. Bethany Cosentino did something different than those other bands, she found the fun! Yeah, its Lo-Fi. Yeah, it sounds like 60's wall of sound girl groups. And yeah, it was an indie record, but it is just pure California fun. This album was made for sunny road trips. This was by far the best "Summer" album this year.

Yeasayer-Odd Blood

*Odd Blood is the second album by this Brooklyn band. Their first album All Hour Cymbals got many critics attention because of some of the afro-beat, world music, psychadelic influences. With this second album, they still have all of that, BUT they made it more pop and more accessible. I think this was a big win on their part. This album was full of great tracks, Ambling Alp, Madder Rose, O.N.E, and Love Me Girl. This was another album that came out just as Summer was about to hit and it made you celebrate. I really regret not seeing this band this past year, especially since they released a live album by download from their website on Xmas. I really love lead singer Chris Keating's voice. His voice has the distinctive quality of Damon Albarn or Richard Ashcroft. There is just something about it that makes it stand out to me. I really hope to catch this band live next time they hit Detroit.

Warpaint-The Fool

*Warpaint released their first proper album The Fool late in the fall. They came to my attention because of their slot opening on tour for The XX this year. That being said, I missed that tour too(I really missed some good shows this year, ugh). Before this album came out I bought their previous EP/Album Exquisite Corpse. I really loved that album and I still might like it better than The Fool. The Fool is full of sounds and soft vocals, driving at times, barely audible at others. I guess that mix is what gives it a mysterious, bedroom whisper, hypnotic quality. I have a feeling this will be one of those records that continues to have layers and grow on the listener.

Janelle Monae-The Archandroid

*This is by far the most ambitious album of the year. Janelle Monae crosses all boundaries-soul, rock, classical, funk, you name it! This larger than life full length debut album takes you into a Sci-Fi world of bounty hunters, android body doubles and time travel, all in the name of love. Sounds crazy and it totally is, the strangest thing is that it works. The entire album is fascinating and compelling. My favorite tracks are Dance or Die, Faster, Tightrope, Neon Valley Street and Wondaland. It was hard to pick favorites. More than anyone on this list, this is going to be an artist that will become big, really big!