05-01-2011, 00:01
Okay, here's my down-n-dirty dozen best albums of 2010. I thought of waiting a while longer to fully digest the 2010 albums I bought late in the year (December) but with more on the way and maybe to be ordered soon, I figured that would be a fool's waiting game. So, here we are ...
1) Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid – Easy call. Gave me the most joy in 2010. There was a time in the last quarter of the year when this fell out of rotation (because I was buying so much music) that I thought it might lose its grip on the top spot. When I began listening to all my 2010 albums in December, I was quickly reminded there really is no challenger to Janelle's throne.
2) Dave Holland Pathways – Very well done. Contains the first certified 5-star song of the year for me. Holland's style isn't for novice Jazz listeners; when I first started listening to him, I was bored silly. One day, it all clicked and since then I've never been disappointed in any of his albums. This one was even better than most of his, and snags the runner-up spot this year.
3) Roots How I Got Over – Though it was released in June, it is the album that received the most play of any '10 album. By the JazzyRandy Music Appreciation Law #4 (what you play the most, ipso facto, you like the most) this should be my #1 album of the year. But I can't justify moving either of the top two albums down, so HIGO remains in this slot.
4) Tom Harrell Roman Nights – Very enjoyable through and through. Harrell has always had an interesting style but his albums were always hit-and-almost-miss with me, usually within the albums themselves. Since he settled on this supporting band three albums ago, he been consistently brilliant. Except for the ballad of a third track, this album is a smooth swingin' toe-tapping affair.
5) Incognito Transatlantic RPM – Has constantly remained in rotation for over 5 months since the first play. For that reason, I think it should be moved higher. It won't, because while I can listen to this so easily, it contains mostly very good songs and few great songs. After a couple of uneven albums, it was nice to see Bluey and company return to their usual great form.
6) NaS & Damian Marley Distant Relatives – Very easy to get into. Five songs I could listen to all year and love, and only one I skip regularly; the rest are very good. The mixture of Hip Hop and Reggae is so magnificently seamless I wonder why it hasn't been done this well before.
7) John Legend & The Roots Wake Up! – Very fine listening. Some songs are so good I wanted to move this higher, but a couple are lame enough to get skipped every time and a couple more are listenable but nothing special. This is about the right spot for this.
8) Sugarland The Incredible Machine – This was one of those albums I bought, immediately fall in love with, and play dozens of times in the first few weeks. Usually I fall out of love in a couple of months and they receive rare listens thereafter. If the first two Sugarland albums are any indication, this one won't fade away. It's just good clean fun and happy feelings, and there's nothing wrong with that.
9) SF Jazz Collective Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour – There's enough dynamism to rank it at least this high, but not enough to make a higher ranking an automatic decision. I appreciate the change at tenor sax and trumpet, (especially trumpet, where Sipiagin was a boring turn-off for me. Beware the ballads (one per each of the three discs,) which are so interminably paced I can't listen to any but one. Very good triple-disc release, but a bit shy of great.
10) K-os Yes! - Disappointing upon first round of listens. So much so, I never thought it would end up on my year-end best list. After a long hiatus, I found the nirvana in this one. Not as good as his first two albums, but probably as good as the previous one. Hard to explain what this is about if you haven't heard K-os before. Think Hip Hop spirit infused with equal doses of soul and Island hipness.
11) Rhymefest El Che – This was a tough rank for me, partly because it was a late-year acquisition and partly because a couple of tracks bore me silly lyric-wise and production wise. However, there are enough very good songs that I find myself going back to this enough to satisfy JazzyRandy Music Appreciation Law #4.
12) Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part 2: Return Of The Ankh - Hard to judge overall. It's good, but even after months of listening I can't tell how good, yet. The problem is that unlike every Badu album so far, this one doesn't have that one song that is my unquestioned favorite. This has a lot of songs I like, but none I love. Another thing that detracts is a couple of songs outstay their welcome. What keeps it on this list is there are a trio of very good songs, and nothing about it I hate or even strongly dislike. She needs Poyser to return to her backing band/slash/production team.
1) Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid – Easy call. Gave me the most joy in 2010. There was a time in the last quarter of the year when this fell out of rotation (because I was buying so much music) that I thought it might lose its grip on the top spot. When I began listening to all my 2010 albums in December, I was quickly reminded there really is no challenger to Janelle's throne.
2) Dave Holland Pathways – Very well done. Contains the first certified 5-star song of the year for me. Holland's style isn't for novice Jazz listeners; when I first started listening to him, I was bored silly. One day, it all clicked and since then I've never been disappointed in any of his albums. This one was even better than most of his, and snags the runner-up spot this year.
3) Roots How I Got Over – Though it was released in June, it is the album that received the most play of any '10 album. By the JazzyRandy Music Appreciation Law #4 (what you play the most, ipso facto, you like the most) this should be my #1 album of the year. But I can't justify moving either of the top two albums down, so HIGO remains in this slot.
4) Tom Harrell Roman Nights – Very enjoyable through and through. Harrell has always had an interesting style but his albums were always hit-and-almost-miss with me, usually within the albums themselves. Since he settled on this supporting band three albums ago, he been consistently brilliant. Except for the ballad of a third track, this album is a smooth swingin' toe-tapping affair.
5) Incognito Transatlantic RPM – Has constantly remained in rotation for over 5 months since the first play. For that reason, I think it should be moved higher. It won't, because while I can listen to this so easily, it contains mostly very good songs and few great songs. After a couple of uneven albums, it was nice to see Bluey and company return to their usual great form.
6) NaS & Damian Marley Distant Relatives – Very easy to get into. Five songs I could listen to all year and love, and only one I skip regularly; the rest are very good. The mixture of Hip Hop and Reggae is so magnificently seamless I wonder why it hasn't been done this well before.
7) John Legend & The Roots Wake Up! – Very fine listening. Some songs are so good I wanted to move this higher, but a couple are lame enough to get skipped every time and a couple more are listenable but nothing special. This is about the right spot for this.
8) Sugarland The Incredible Machine – This was one of those albums I bought, immediately fall in love with, and play dozens of times in the first few weeks. Usually I fall out of love in a couple of months and they receive rare listens thereafter. If the first two Sugarland albums are any indication, this one won't fade away. It's just good clean fun and happy feelings, and there's nothing wrong with that.
9) SF Jazz Collective Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour – There's enough dynamism to rank it at least this high, but not enough to make a higher ranking an automatic decision. I appreciate the change at tenor sax and trumpet, (especially trumpet, where Sipiagin was a boring turn-off for me. Beware the ballads (one per each of the three discs,) which are so interminably paced I can't listen to any but one. Very good triple-disc release, but a bit shy of great.
10) K-os Yes! - Disappointing upon first round of listens. So much so, I never thought it would end up on my year-end best list. After a long hiatus, I found the nirvana in this one. Not as good as his first two albums, but probably as good as the previous one. Hard to explain what this is about if you haven't heard K-os before. Think Hip Hop spirit infused with equal doses of soul and Island hipness.
11) Rhymefest El Che – This was a tough rank for me, partly because it was a late-year acquisition and partly because a couple of tracks bore me silly lyric-wise and production wise. However, there are enough very good songs that I find myself going back to this enough to satisfy JazzyRandy Music Appreciation Law #4.
12) Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part 2: Return Of The Ankh - Hard to judge overall. It's good, but even after months of listening I can't tell how good, yet. The problem is that unlike every Badu album so far, this one doesn't have that one song that is my unquestioned favorite. This has a lot of songs I like, but none I love. Another thing that detracts is a couple of songs outstay their welcome. What keeps it on this list is there are a trio of very good songs, and nothing about it I hate or even strongly dislike. She needs Poyser to return to her backing band/slash/production team.