This has not been a normal year for music: Anytime a former homeless guy (Devendra Barnhart) and cabaret act (The Pussycat Dolls) share space on the album charts, you know something went awry. But weird, at least in this context, didn't meant bad. From M.I.A. (too sexy) to Kanye (too popular) and Stevie Wonder ("Shelter in the Rain"), many albums could have been included in this space but, like Goldilocks, didn't quite fit. The Daily's Mikey Goralnik surveys the best of the best.
1. Sufjan Stevens, "Illinois," Asthmatic Kitty Records
I can't define beauty, but I know when I hear it. No one could predict that 78 minutes about the twenty-first state that rely so heavily on the trumpet could sound like this, but "Illinoise" is sheer, absolute beauty. Steven's instrumental dexterity, both in terms of depth and breadth, is unthinkable. His songwriting, with its cadence and truth, is at once a poetically brilliant and an inescapably visceral probe. His ambition, his humility, his voice ... this album deserves much more space than this.
2. Edan, "Beauty and the Beat," Lewis Records
I've never wondered how a Beach Boys/Nas collaboration would sound, but I am glad to now know. On one hand, the London-via-Boston MC/producer crafts beats more steeped in the sunshine, colors, and hallucinogens of late-1960s pop-rock than rap. On the other, his delivery is straight-up street: articulate, ferocious, and punishing. In the middle are his lyrics, equal parts hardcore hip-hop and drug-addled rumination. Together, "Beauty" is a sun-splashed, East Coast masterpiece.
3. M83, "Before the Dawn Heals Us," Mute Records
Listening to M83 is a lot like watching Jonathan Larson's "Rent." It's so cheesy, so overly dramatic that you know you should hate it, but you love it. You're mortally embarrassed to tell anyone that you find it emotionally riveting, but it's just so damn good that you want the world to know. Just play your friends the lush sound-scapes and Anthony Gonzalez's ethereal vocals from the chilling "Teen Angst." Then they'll understand.
4. Deerhoof, "The Runner's Four," Kill Rock Stars
In many ways, the San Francisco band's eighth album is so diverse and intricate that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why it sounds so good; it's an album whose true value will not be clear for several years. In other ways, it is a foot-stamping rock masterpiece whose manic and masterful guitar work is ironically complemented by fairy-esque vocals and gloriously unintelligible lyrics. Their progressiveness completely precludes Deerhoof from commercial success, but in five years, popular music will sound like "Four."
5. Adult., "Gimme Trouble," Thrill Jockey Records
For music so sparse and minimal, "Gimme Trouble" sure is horrendously scary. Stepping ever farther away from their art-punk beginnings, the Detroit duo sound like they gave a first-grader a drum machine and two hours training, but by sandwiching those sounds between rubbery synth effects and churning bass lines, they inexplicably achieve a sound whose simplicity is both compelling and nightmarish.
6. Andrew Bird, "Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs," Righteous Babe Records
What troubadour Andrew Bird lacks in emotional poignancy he more than compensates for with breadth of songwriting and instrumentation. His lyrics are sardonic and prickly, but musically he is divine. A violin virtuoso, Bird sugars his plucking and bowing with glockenspiels, minute technical effects and dexterous whistling, and does so within myriad song structures. In any non-Sufjan year, this would be the best singer/songwriter album.
7. Bloc Party, "Silent Alarm," Vice Records
People hate on London's Bloc Party because they "sound too derivative of other British post-punk bands." A) Who cares? and B) No, they don't. On their debut full-length, the quartet are clearly influenced by Gang of Four, Joy Division, et al, but Matt Tong's acrobatic drumming, Kele Okerke's endearingly ugly vocals and a collective knack for instrumental and studio nuance set Bloc Party apart, and portend ginormous things for these twentysomethings.
8. Four Tet, "Everything Ecstatic," Domino Records
Certainly not Kieran Hebden's best work, but even the British techno composer's worst is damn good. Using only his laptop, he loops, splices, and mixes mechanical music with breathing, organic sounds into a sonically complex swirl. With its delicately ephemeral effects and the drastic inter-song shifts that accompany each added instrumental track, "Everything Ecstatic" sounds exactly like its title: glittering, bright, animated and alive.
9. The National, "Alligator," Beggars Banquet Records
Two of the many reasons emo music sucks are that the musical progressions are simplistic and predictable and the songwriting is shallow and juvenile. The National's Americana-tinged indie rock is nothing to swoon over, but it functions brilliantly as a base for singer/songwriter Matt Berninger's grimly bleak lyrics about drinking, materialism, and sex; his broken croon will haunt your dreams. This is emo music for people with real problems.
10. Odd Nosdam, "Burner," Anticon Records
The Cincinnati experimentalist's bizarre musical constructions have defied genres and confused listeners for years, but while "Burner" is one of the year's most mystifying releases, it is also his most coherent album to date. Adding live drums and homemade field recordings to his collection of antique samplers, D. Philip Madson has fashioned a dense, foggy ambient record to both nod your head and take drugs to.
