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2010 Albums (so far)
March 14th, 2010 by MelodyI’m gonna try to keep on top of this one better than I did last year, so I’ll update/bump every time I add another 10. Obviously it’s early in the year so don’t be put out if your fave is at the bottom or anything… so far this year has been pretty good, and there’s some real goodies to come. I’m personally looking forward to releases from Smoosh, Evelyn Evelyn, Rufus Wainwright, Belle and Sebastian, She & Him, Miranda Cosgrove, Emily Osment, Goldfrapp, Arcade Fire and Red Sky July. Hopefully Jessica Lombard and Raphaël too 
- Plastic Beach – Gorillaz
This is one of those albums that comes along every so often and I simply can’t not put it at the top of the list, even though I know I’m gonna need to listen to it many more times to make that powerful a judgment. I think this album may be genius… I started out almost hating it but I held out because Damon Albarn tends to know what he’s doing… somewhere something clicked, and by the end, my mind was a little blown. I can’t wait to listen to this one again and forego that initial “WTF is this?”-ness, lol. - I’m the Rain – Sophie Zelmani
I knew I would love this one before I even listened to it and wasn’t let down. Zelmani is just one of those people who I will always be eager to hear from, and I recommend to anyone that you seek out her work. It’s not quite up there with her last, 2008’s “The Ocean and Me”, but it’s pretty darn close. - Y Not – Ringo Starr
With respect to George Harrison and John Lennon, who have their reasons for not releasing music anymore, I found myself as I listened to this album thinking Ringo might just be becoming my favourite Beatle. He most emphatically does not produce songs with profound meaning and import, but he does with startlingly increased regularity, pop out these near irresistible bursts of fun. And I don’t listen to a lot of “fun” music, but for what I need, I would take Ringo’s cheese over the more popular sleaze any day. Having said that, the duet with Paul McCartney on this one is an unexpected beauty. - American VI: Ain’t No Grave – Johnny Cash
My one problem with this one is its length: barely breaking 30 minutes, they could really have combined this with the previous volume on one CD and it’s not like the tracks weren’t there. It is great, however, to still have “new” tracks from this man, and all of these live up to the rest in the “American” series. - Lights – Ellie Goulding
There’s always a couple of albums like this on my list by the end of the year which I frankly can’t think of much to say about except that I liked. I just read that Rachel Stevens has a new album due out this year, as does Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and those two are much more my kind of this kind of pop, but this was better than expected from an artist who made all those hollow “sound of 2010” lists before anybody had even heard a peep out of the new material etc. I really like Starry-Eyed. - Have One On Me – Joanna Newsom
I wasn’t keen on Newsom’s last celebrated effort “Ys” though I tried my best with it. I only really got excited to listen to this one when Peter Serafinowicz of all people tweeted that the first (of three, count ‘em) CDs sounded like early Kate Bush. He wasn’t wrong. I kind of got tired of it by the end of the exhaustive 2 and a half hours, Newsom has certainly done a Tori Amos here, dumping far too much into the package that could have been excised to make something much closer to perfection, but I know I’m fairly alone in having that sort of objection. What I liked here is great. - Talking to You Talking to Me – The Watson Twins
Here’s another group I’ll likely never have a bad word for, though they’re yet to create anything outside of the Jenny Lewis project “Rabbit Fur Coat” that really bears multiple listenage. I think I liked this album much more than their last, “Fire Songs”, something kinda clicks almost exactly halfway and it becomes very interesting indeed, so I’ll probably give it at least a second chance to see if I was merely warming up to them again for that first half. - A Curious Thing – Amy MacDonald
This one had an uphill struggle with me to even hope to exceed the glory that was MacDonald’s debut and almost immediately I fell into disappointment as I listened. There are moments on this where it’s cringingly evident they are trying to recreate the flow of “This is the Life” but they fail every time. By the time it gets to her solemnly strumming Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” on the hidden track at the end I was done. She has a nice voice and energy that makes this still worth a listen over many worse things that won’t even get a look-in on this list, but I hope the next will be something actually new like the first. - The Shadow of an Empire – Fionn Regan
Another I have little to say about. I bought Regan’s last after his Mercury nomination (I think I sought out all the nominees that year because I was stuck for something to listen to) and quite liked it. And I quite liked this one. Nothing to really shout about though. - The Family Jewels – Marina & the Diamonds
Like I said at the start, don’t get me wrong about this being down at the bottom. I actually kinda liked this one more than I expected, and for some reason I kinda like the idea of Marina & the Diamonds too. It’s incredibly samey but that’s unlikely to bother the target current mainstream audience, and I’d wish success on Marina much more readily than similar, dumber, uglier (in ideas, not appearance) outfits.
Best Picture: Up in the Air (that’s my final answer) I still really want 
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (
![Is-Slottet [Ice Palace]](http://homepage.mac.com/shoat/movies/i/is-slottet.jpg)
