1. Adele, 21
Named for the age Adele was when she
recorded the album, 21 marks the moment the
perpetually brokenhearted singer reached the top of Britain's soul-revival
scene. Full of gospel-tinged pain, remorse and longing, 21 is a nuanced breakup
album that is steeped in sadness but never veers into cornball territory (a
balance struck with particular grace on the album's biggest tearjerker,
"Someone like You"). These are songs of solace for the lovelorn,
whether you're the dumper or the dumpee.
2. Florence and the
Machine,Ceremonials
Florence Welch's signature
ethereal-folk-rock sound cemented itself on her 2009 album, Lungs; on Ceremonials, her ballads sweep to new levels of wild passion
on the momentum of pounding drums, lush piano, the occasional harp and Welch's
full-bodied wails. Despite her penchant for emotive gloom, Welch's tales of
heartache can be oddly uplifting; When Florence sings about dark nights, She
ultimately wins tham.
3. Kanye West and Jay-Z, Watch the Throne
Many of the 15 songs on Kanye West and Jay-Z's opulent collaboration
deal with wealth, status and religion. West likens himself to Jesus (again),
and Jay-Z offhandedly mentions that he considers $50,000 pocket change. But Watch the
Throne isn't just an exercise in "luxury rap,"
as West puts it in "Otis." The rappers shoes some pretty dark topics.
The history of urban violence in "Murder to Excellence" and their own
socioeconomic achievement in "Made in America" help turn Watch the
Throne into a beautifully decadent album by two of
hip-hop's finest artists — men grappling with what it means to be successful
and black in America.
4. PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
The British alt-rock queen's 10th studio album is a stuning piece of
music and one that requires attentive study. Let England
Shake focuses on the horrors of World War I — PJ Harvey
describes fallen soldiers as "lumps of meat" and fish that are
"quivering in the heat" — but wraps its atrocities in muted melodies
that are so beautiful and chirpy, you at times forget that she is singing about
a tragedy that claimed millions of lives and temporarily tore the world apart.
The album is heavy in autoharp and zither, with the occasional xylophone;
together their sounds create a fantastical, dreamlike sense that helps
mythologize the war. And Harvey's witty use of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime
Blues" refrain, "What if I take my difficulties to the United
Nations? This is a daring album, and one
that features some of Harvey's best work to date.
5. Frank Ocean, Nostalgia, Ultra
On Nostalgia,
Ultra, which Frank Ocean made available for free on his
Tumblr this year, the singer offers up bleak but appealing R&B tracks, many
of which sample, remix or otherwise lend from songs ranging from MGMT's
"Electric Feel" to the Eagles' "Hotel California." Ocean
also weaves audio of a tape recorder in rewind, video games and Nicole Kidman's
adulterous monologue from Eyes Wide
Shut into his songs to give the album a personal feel
— as if Ocean were gifting us with a collection of sounds that he finds
emotionally meaningful. Yes, he operates in depressive, downbeat moods, but his
pop hooks and hip-hop-inspired beats help him do it in a way that doesn't feel
self-pitying.
6. tUnE-yArDs, W h o k i l l
The one-woman project by Merrill Garbus mixes musical genres
the way stylists mix clothes. Garbus blends R&B, folk, African beats and
pop to create a bold, brightly patterned outfit that should clash but doesn't.
A better example of this is "Gangsta," which uses police sirens, horns
and erratic sounds to create a danceable, energizing song that is absolutely
captivating. Garbus' weirdness is tempered on W h o k i l lby bassist
Nate Brenner; he grounds listeners with fluid rhythms as her androgynous voice
flies in all directions, bellowing one minute and cooing the next. W h o k i l l has an urgent, frenzied feeling to it,
and most of the songs deal with various forms of turmoil and violence, leaving
the listener as frazzled as Garbus sounds. This is an experimental album by a
woman unafraid to try something new.
7. Caitlin Rose, Own Side Now
This is not the twangy pop that you find on a CMT marathon; no, Caitlin
Rose is a 24-year-old with an acoustic guitar and a deep appreciation for early
country sounds written long before she was born. With a voice like a winsome
version of Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, Rose mixes traditional country techniques
— a picked guitar here, a lazy Southern drawl there — with alt-country
flourishes to craft a sound that rests somewhere between indie folk and that
classic 1950s Nashville sound. The album's best track is the boot-stomping
"Shanghai Cigarettes," in which Rose likens quitting smoking to
stubbing out a relationship. The melody, so light and sweet, fits perfectly
with her analogy; Rose doesn't cry over her empty pack but tosses it away and
moves on with her life.
8. The Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee Part II
In
less than three seconds, the snyth beats of "Make Some Noise," the
opening track of the Beastie Boys' first proper album in seven years (the delay
was largely due to member Adam Yauch's battle with cancer) prove that the
middle-aged rappers can produce rhymes with as much verve and energy as they
did decades ago. Hot Sauce Committee Part II mixes samples with live instruments to create that busy,
distorted hip-hop sound the New York group is known for. (Those fuzzed-out
vocals on "Ok" could just as easily have appeared on 1992's Check Your Head.) The Beastie Boys have always had a knack for quirky lyrics
— here they reference everything from ornithology to Ted Danson — but their
true talents lie in their ability to craft head-bobbing beats. This is not
Maybach music; this is hip-hop done the Beastie Boys way: goofy, funny and addictive.
9. Civil Wars, Barton Hollow
Joy Williams and John Paul White are made for each other — or at least,
their voices are. On their debut album, the Nashville songwriters meld their
vocals together — in songs that are mostly about how terrifying love can be or
how difficult it is to escape one's past — to create bold harmonies that are so
attention grabbing, you don't even initially notice that their only accompaniment
is an acoustic guitar (or sometimes a piano). References to burning coal,
preachers and winding roads, combined with the songwriters' penchant for
dropping their gs at the end of words, create idealized, dreamy
visions of a rural South that you intuitively recognize, even if you've never
been there. Barton Hollow is just the first act
in what promises to be a long and fruitful career.
10. Black Keys, El Camino
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