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Sleigh Bells is the unlikeliest of duos. Derek Miller was once the guitarist for the hardcore band Poison The Well, and Alexis Krauss was once a member of a virtually unknown teen pop group called Rubyblue. She also appeared in a
Nickelodeon Magazine commercial in 1997 or so. Flash forward to 2008, Alexis was with her mom at a restaurant in Brooklyn while Derek was waiting tables. He mentioned that he was looking for a female vocalist to accompany him for a music project. Alexis' mom volunteered her right away, and Sleigh Bells was born. What came next was nothing short of insane.
Treats pushes the outer limits of music, and literally pushes the edge of the wavelength in terms of amplification level. In the loudness war, Sleigh Bells has won. You can't go any further. The wall of noise is offset by Alexis' hypnotizing melodies. To use some terms that other reviewers have used,
Treats is bombastic, raw, visceral, fresh, ear-busting, and remarkable. Some of my favorite tracks include "Kids", "Tell 'Em", and the calm before the storm "Rill Rill", but the top one in my book has to be "Infinity Guitars", the track that turned me on to Sleigh Bells in the first place. "Infinity Guitars" will eviscerate you, and you will enjoy every second of it. POW POW POW POW POW.
Treats is my #5 album of 2010.
I've been a casual fan of Sia for many years. I first heard her on "Destiny", the song by Zero 7 that was released in 2001 and made its way to a little-known block of late night music videos called MTV2 Dance in 2002. I came to like her trippy, sleepy, somewhat jazzy delivery style on "Destiny" right away. Later on, I fell in love with "Breathe Me" from her album
Colour The Small One. Some years went by, then I rediscovered Sia once again very early this year when she released "Under The Milky Way", a cover of the 1988 song by The Church and the first of a handful of songs to be featured in those Mercury commercials. In the early summer,
We Are Born arrived, and with Sia fresh on the mind (thanks in large part to her excellent song "My Love" from the
Eclipse soundtrack that was released around the same time), I made sure to give her whole album a chance. I'm so glad I did, because it's an amazing piece of work.
We Are Born is Sia at her best. It's more upbeat than her previous work, for sure. She noted her childhood influences, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, which helped drive the sound of some songs on the album. Nick Valensi, guitarist for The Strokes, also contributed to the album.
EW described it accurately as party music with a heart. I have many favorite tracks, including "The Fight", "Stop Trying", "Be Good To Me", "Bring Night", "Cloud", "The Co-Dependent", and "Big Little Girl", just to name more than a few, but the excellent "Clap Your Hands" has to be the winner. It's one of the best songs and trippiest videos of the year. As a whole, this album is nearly unbeatable.
We Are Born is my #4 album of 2010.
Kaki King is a seasoned guitar virtuoso. She pioneered her signature finger-tapping style while busking in NYC subways and then signed with Velour Records in 2002. She went on to release four albums of primarily instrumental material. The whole time, truth be told, I didn't even have any idea she existed, outside of her guitar work on "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" by Foo Fighters from their 2007 album,
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Even then, I only knew her as a guest credit, not an artist in her own right. That all changed early this spring when she showed up on
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Just who was this Kaki King? I watched her perform her lead single "Falling Day", and I was sold. I rushed to get
Junior, an album that saw Kaki leave behind most of her classic finger-tapping in order to branch out into some new styles and more songs with her own vocals, making a transformation into a more well-rounded artist.
Junior is Kaki's fifth album, as noted by the "Transmission No. 5" label that appears on the album cover. The art and much of the album itself carries a vaguely mysterious Cold War-era theme that's both chilling and ominous. Put that on top of Kaki's tangling guitar work, the strong percussion section, and the "post-domestic disgust" of her lyrical content, and you have one hell of an album. That ominous Cold War "everything's going down" feel to the album likely came out of the despair she felt while writing its songs. "Listening to
Junior, it's apparent that if Kaki King hates her ex this much now, she really must have loved her then," one review said. Kaki King was heartsick and took out her loathing on all of us. It's an album you have to listen to as a whole, from its opening track "The Betrayer" through "Death Head" and out to "Sunnyside", its heartbreaking conclusion. It's unsettling, foreboding, contemplative, and brilliant.
Junior is my #3 album of 2010.
Everyone remembers the night of September 13, 2009. Kanye West was over. He had finally gone too far according to the general public. His douchebaggery was no longer charming or funny; it was just mean. He could never recover from such a blunder. Forget it. Right? Well, I don't have to tell you what happened. Kanye might have fallen off the planet for a while but he was preparing to come back with a vengence, fully embracing himself for both the bad and the good, imagining and then realizing what would become his grandiose and ever-evolving vision, a "hedonistic exploration" of his psyche. The result? This masterpiece,
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Kanye released a somewhat outrageous amount of the album well before it came out. It started with the premiere of "Power" and its hypnotizing, incredibly short music video; "Power" would go on to be featured in promotional material for
The Social Network, which was a perfect usage. It continued, of course, with "Runaway", which Kanye brought to this year's stunning black and white VMAs exactly one year after he had been totally written off. Who else could sing,
let's have a toast for the douchebags, let's have a toast for the assholes, and actually mean it? No one. The short film that came soon after was a wonder to behold. MTV played the film in its entirety; a rare event. Was he really going Michael Jackson on us? What's up with that giant Michael Jackson head, anyway? "Runaway" the song was enough to try to comprehend, but the film was even more than that; it gave us a preview of half the album.
Speaking of, let's get to the album itself. Man, what an album. Kanye himself is at the top of his game here, delivering some of the best lines he's ever written. That said,
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy isn't just a Kanye album. It's a gathering of talent, a veritable revolving door of the best names in the business. It feels very much like a group effort: Kanye featuring the world. I can't even keep track of the number of guest appearances. "Georgeous" has Kid Cudi, of course. The monumental and wondrous "All Of The Lights" features everybody under the sun. Who isn't on that song? "Monster" has the unstoppable Jay-Z, the always welcome jaunty gruntle of Rick Ross, and what's probably the best Nicki Minaj verse you'll find anywhere. "So Appalled" and "Devil In A New Dress" continue to up the ante. Near the end of the album, we hit "Blame Game" featuring John Legend, and just when you think you've heard it all, here comes nearly three minutes of Chris Rock out of nowhere for comic relief in what's otherwise probably the most destitute song in the genre of hip hop. "Lost In The World" segues into a spoken word piece by Gil Scott-Heron that ends the album on a powerful but sobering note.
Aside from the stunning array of talent and musical variety found on the album, it's a rare window into the mind of a troubled but resilient visionary, at once vulnerable and invincible. It's an album that challenged the boundaries of modern music. It's an album that will continue to be dissected and analyzed for years to come. It's a mind-blowing body of work that must be appreciated as a whole, beyond radio singles. It's an incredibly cohesive album that must be heard from beginning to end, and then heard again, and again. It's that grandiose and ever-evolving vision, realized and encapsulated. Quite simply, it's Kanye's masterwork.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is my #2 album of 2010.
Here she is, the most killingest pop star on the planet. No one would have predicted it at the beginning of the year, but 2010 was the year of Robyn. I was browsing around some music blogs early this year when I got word of "Fembot", her first new song release of the year. I stepped back for a moment. Wait, that Robyn? The adorable little Swedish girl with the comically large bubble jackets who could ride with the hardest of them? The singer I first fell in love with in 1997, the one with those bubblegum pop anthems "Show Me Love" and "Do You Really Want Me"? Yes, that Robyn. It was true.
I got to studying right away. I found out that Robyn did not in fact mysteriously disappear after the year 1997 came and went. No, she went on to release two more albums in Sweden that didn't really go anywhere, and then she did something bold. She left her record label and started her own, Konichiwa Records. She released a self-titled album in 2005 that was entirely her own thing, nobody else telling her what to do anymore. It worked.
Robyn was a commercial and critical success in Sweden and the UK, and it was so ahead of its time it's ridiculous. She was doing her own blend of electro-pop in 2005 that would go unmatched for years. Once the initial success of
Robyn ran its course, the album was re-released in 2007 and she spent the next few years touring and contemplating her next project.
That brings us back to 2010. "Fembot" was blowing my mind; I couldn't believe it was real.
Once you gone tech, you ain't never going back, Robyn sang self-assured on the fiery, futuristic track. I knew right away, whatever she was working on, it was going to blow everything else out of the water. Just the one track by itself already did, and that was only the beginning. The weeks went by and we learned of Robyn's plans to conquer the entire year. Instead of releasing one album, she would release three EPs:
Body Talk Pt. 1 in June,
Body Talk Pt. 2 in September, and
Body Talk Pt. 3 in November, for a total of 21 new tracks in 2010. It was a grand idea, but would it be successful? Was this staggered approach the right idea? No use acting like we don't know the answer, so let's cut to the chase: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Body Talk Pt. 1 hit the Internet early, in April. It was fire. Flames shot out of your computer after you downloaded the thing. It opened with the bombastic "Don't ****ing Tell Me What To Do", which was followed by the aforementioned "Fembot", the monster hit "Dancing On My Own", the wonderful "Cry When You Get Older", the outrageous "Dancehall Queen", as well as "None Of Dem", an acoustic recording of the upcoming release "Hang With Me", and the bonus track "Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa", a traditional folk song from Sweden. I swear, Robyn could've stopped right there with
Body Talk Pt. 1 and it would've been enough to make my top ten. It was an EP of unusually great pop music.
Body Talk Pt. 2 also hit somewhat early (surprise!) in August. In what was an unbelievable feat, Robyn managed to put out another eight songs that were at least as great as the first set, if not even better. "In My Eyes", "Include Me Out", "Hang With Me", "Love Kills", "We Dance To The Beat", and "Criminal Intent" ruled the late summer and fall. The standout from this set, however, was "You Should Know Better" featuring Snoop Dogg. I don't even know if I have the words to describe this gem of a song, which
The Times said transformed Snoop into a "cuddly international treasure", the best phrase I've ever heard.
You see, I danced with the devil in Kathmandu; I came humming and blasting with the boogaloo, too; now I declare most solemnly; the prince of darkness know better than to **** with me, Robyn laughs, knowing just how cute she sounds while spitting those hardcore lines. This set finished with an acoustic recording of "Indestructible", which would show up for real on the next set, much like the acoustic "Hang With Me" did on the previous set.
Body Talk Pt. 3 arrived on time in November. This set brought the full version of "Indestructible", as well as four additional tracks. "Time Machine" is probably the most solidly arranged, unmistakably heartfelt pop song I've ever heard, not to oversell it or anything. "Call Your Girlfriend", "Get Myself Together", and "Stars 4-Ever" rounded out the final set of songs with an earnest sincerity that you won't find anywhere else.
You and me together, stars forever, Robyn sings out loud with true passion at the very end of the album. These five tracks from
Pt. 3, in addition to the ten best tracks selected from
Pt. 1 and
Pt. 2, were packaged together on the full-length album,
Body Talk, which was also released in November, finally putting a cap on Robyn's epic year-long
Body Talk project.
Robyn makes pop music with a heart, which sets her apart from everybody else in the game. Like most of us, she is a complex person with a full range of emotions. Unlike most of us, however, she expresses every last one of those emotions through her music. Whether it's self-assuredness and confidence or vulnerability and sensitivity, Robyn will lay it all out there on the track. Robyn said it herself: "I love big sad pop songs. That's where I naturally go. That's the best." Sure enough, she created and released a greater number of those songs on
Body Talk alone than anybody else could in their entire career. There's a certain three-dimensional, genuine quality to Robyn and her music that you simply can't find anywhere else. Her music transcends the production of its sound. In every way, her music is
human. Simply put, Robyn is the best. Make no mistake about it,
Body Talk is my #1 album of 2010.
SINGLES (SPRING)
Erykah Badu - "Window Seat"
The New ****ographers - "The Crash Years"
Band of Horses - "Compliments"
Slash f/ Nicole Scherzinger - "Baby Can't Drive"
Taio Cruz - "Break Your Heart"
M.I.A. - "Born Free"
Broken Social Scene - "Forced To Love"
Blur - "Fool's Day"
The Gaslight Anthem - "American Slang"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Between The Lines"
B.O.B. f/ Rivers Cuomo - "Magic"
Marit Larsen - "If A Song Could Get Me You"
Elizabeth & The Catapult - "Race You"
Crystal Castles - "Celestica"
The Disco Biscuits - "On Time"
Bat for Lashes - "Daniel"
The XX - "Islands"
Deftones - "Diamond Eyes"
Camera Obscura - "The Sweetest Thing"
Gossip - "Pop Goes The World"
Laura Marling - "Devil's Spoke"
Vita Chambers - "Young Money"
Eminem - "Not Afraid"
Allison Moorer - "The Broken Girl"
Sky Ferreira - "17"
Jay-Z f/ Mr. Hudson - "Young Forever"
SINGLES (FALL)
Weezer - "Memories"
Karen Orzolek - "If You're Gonna Be Dumb..."
Sky Ferreira - "Obsession"
Kimberly Cole - "Smack You"
Just Kait - "Sick"
Duffy - "Well, Well, Well"
Anna Rose - "Picture"
Sarah Harmer f/ Neko Case - "Silverado"
Marnie Stern - "For Ash"
Lykke Li - "Get Some"
Rihanna - "Only Girl (In The World)"
OK Go - "White Knuckles"
Yolanda Be Cool - "We No Speak Americano"
Mumford & Sons - "Little Lion Man"
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - "Janglin"
Ke$ha - "We R Who We R"
Kelly Rowland - "Commander"
Pink - "Raise Your Glass"
Willow Smith - "Whip My Hair"
Dum Dum Girls - "Bhang Bhang, I'm A Burnout"
Shad - "We, Myself, And I"
James Blake - "Limit To Your Love"
Nelly - "Just A Dream"
The Downtown Fiction - "I Just Wanna Run"
Selena Gomez & The Scene - "Round & Round"
Lights - "My Boots"
The Lonely Island - "I Just Had Sex"
TOP 40 ALBUMS
20. Taylor Swift - Speak Now
19. Fefe Dobson - Joy
18. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
17. Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You
16. Uffie - Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans
15. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
14. Ke$ha - Animal
13. The Like - Release Me
12. Hunter Valentine - Lessons From The Late Night
11. Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite
10. Florence & The Machine - Lungs
9. Sara Bareilles - Kaleidoscope Heart
8. Best Coast - Crazy For You
7. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
6. Marina & The Diamonds - The Family Jewels
5. Sleigh Bells - Treats
4. Sia - We Are Born
3. Kaki King - Junior
2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
1. Robyn - Body Talk
I want to thank you for reading TC's top 40 albums of 2010. It's hard to believe I've completed 8 consecutive years of these year-end lists. I've had so much fun over the years describing my favorite singles and albums as they've related to events in my life and the rest of the world. Once again, thank you so much for your support this year and every year. I hope you have a very happy and healthy new year. I wish you the best in 2011 and beyond.
Finally, an announcement. I wanted to make this announcement in December, but I decided to wait until the end of this event for proper dramatic effect. Everyone knows, sometimes too well, that all good things must come to an end. I made a personal decision in December that I would begin to phase out my responsibilities as an ATRL administrator. I have already taken successful steps toward this goal over the past month. Throughout the year of 2011, I will delegate my remaining responsibilities to our other ATRL leaders, and then I will make a graceful exit from this wonderful community. This was not an easy decision to make. I have been an ATRL member for over 10 years, and I have been an ATRL administrator for the majority of that time. However, I am confident that ATRL will continue to thrive and that it will have strong leaders to guide it through the years to come. I love ATRL so much, and I love all of you. Thank you!
Triple K
Anyone who doesn't like WRWWR is just plain pretentious.
one of my favorites 
