Popular With Me 2010: My favorite albums

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[My overall Top 20 albums in a year informed by a mountain of good music and an avalanche of trying times, based purely on how much they resonated with me. I was lucky this year to have seen all but 4 of these artists live. With my 4-word reviews:]

1. Arcade Fire, “The Suburbs.”
Sonically and thematically sprawling.

2. Clem Snide, “The Meat of Life.”
Tracks of my tears.

3. Neil Young, “Le Noise”
And god said listen.

4. Local Natives, “Gorilla Manor.”
Big harmonies, outsized heart.

5. The National, “High Violet.”
Poet laureate of noir.

6. The Futureheads, “The Chaos.”
Yeah, post-punk on XTC.

7. The Morning Benders, “Big Echo.”
Layers of sonics, emotions.

8. Frightened Rabbit, “The Winter of Mixed Drinks.”
Year of mixed drinks.

9. The Radio Dept., “Clinging to a Scheme.”
Once and future twee.

10. Sea of Bees, “Songs for the Ravens.”
A sparkling new voice.

11. The Black Keys, “Brothers”
Less is definitely more.

12. Delta Spirit, “History From Below”
Folk on energy drinks.

13. Titus Andronicus, “The Monitor.”
The enemy is everywhere.

14. Aloe Blacc, “Good Things.”
Hip-hop’s loss, soul’s gain.

15. The Besnard Lakes, “Are the Roaring Night.”
Canadians, nice and loud.

16. The Prids, “Chronosynclastic.”
Edgy post-indie rock indie-rock.

17. Beach House, “Teen Dream.”
Gorgeous, and all that.

18. Janelle Monae, “The ArchAndroid.”
Awe-inspiring artistry; live, too.

19. Robyn, “Body Talk.”
Sometimes I do dance.

20. Avi Buffalo, “Avi Buffalo.”
From mouths of babes.

I feel as though I should also mention:

Lissie, “Catching a Tiger.”
Teenage Fanclub, “Shadows”
Jesca Hoop, “Hunting My Dress”
The Thermals, “Personal Life”
The 22-20s, “Shake, Shiver, Moan”
Ferraby Lionheart, “Jack of Hearts”
Broken Social Scene, “Forgiveness Rock Record”
Ed Harcourt, “Lustre”
Admiral Radley, “I Heart California”
The Dead Weather, “Sea of Cowards”
Superchunk, “Majesty Shredding”