The Year in Culture

Kanye West tries to deliver a Swift kick to Arcade Fire: Who wins?

Kanye West brought this critic back to hip-hop.
But in the end, Arcade Fire produced the best album of the year.

Each year at this time, I comprise a personal Top 10 albums list, taking inventory of the finest music that I had the chance to hear in the previous 12 months. Last year, I had a hard time finding 10 albums about which I had positive feelings.

Being the pessimist that I am, I felt that the poor musical output was a sign of a gradual regression rather than just a blip on the radar.

All of that had my expectations seriously lowered for 2010. But the very first song from the very first album I reviewed in 2010, “Horchata” from Vampire Weekend’s Contra, was a blast of fresh air that seemed to turn the musical tides. It set the tone for a year in which my album recap easily could have gone 20 deep and still left out some worthy titles.

The musical pleasures 2010 had to offer us were varied and numerous. Young bands stepped up and answered the bell for the next generation. In addition to Vampire Weekend’s breezy yet profound island pop, there was the slow-motion atmospherics of Beach House, the bratty punk energy of Los Campesinos!, and the thunderous wallop of Gaslight Anthem. All were vital and unique, but they were unified in their respect for songwriting over style.

Veterans were also all over the musical map this year. Elvis Costello harkened winningly back to his genre-hopping late 1980s days on National Ransom, while Robert Plant continued to revitalize roots music in challenging and invigorating ways on Band Of Joy. There were also comeback stories, including two on one album: On The Union, Leon Russell returned from years of obscurity, while Elton John returned to being a stunningly talented musician after decades of settling for being a celebrity.

Speaking of veteran talents, some produced new revelations from the debris of old triumphs. The Rolling Stones excavated the Exile On Main Street sessions and found unreleased material that somehow stood at the same level of the songs on that debauched classic. By contrast, Bruce Springsteen gave us the album that might have been when he released The Promise, a stunningly assured double-disc collection of songs that The Boss had shelved back in the day in favor of what ended up on Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Those scuttled songs sounded better and fresher than the finest work of lesser artists.

Yes, there were some great successes this year, but three stood out above the rest for me. Of the three, The National are the one with the least renown.

If there’s any justice, that will change. Their album High Violet set lead singer Matt Berninger’s deadpanned narratives of adult malaise in thrillingly intricate musical settings, effortlessly creating tension and release. They’ve been building to this peak for a while; they hit it in grand style.

Next, there was Kanye West. As someone who had lost touch with hip-hop since the heyday of Public Enemy and N.W.A., feeling that it had devolved too often into boasting without personality and beats without soul, I was skeptical about West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But he’s the kind of talent that demands that you take notice, and this album never lets up.

On “Runaway”, his stunning ode to self-flagellation, he lays bare all of his demons and inadequacies and comes away with the song of the year.

Which brings me to my favorite album of 2010: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. Frontman Win Butler looked deep into his childhood (spent in The Woodlands) and showed how those ancient wounds are often as resilient as the spirit of those who’ve suffered them. Through it all, his band delivers one stellar performance after another, soaring to anthemic heights and finessing delicate lows. In a year of great albums, The Suburbs stands above them all.

Heck, 2010 even makes me a bit optimistic for the year ahead. I’ve already had the chance to listen to my first new album of 2011, and I can tell you it’s a keeper. Let’s hope, as fans of great music, that momentum wins the day. Stay tuned, folks, and I’ll talk to you in 2011.

Sample some of 2010's best music:

"Horchata" by Vampire Weekend