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MAGNET’s Top 20 Albums Of 2010

December 16, 2010

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20. BEST COAST | Crazy For You [Mexican Summer]
spacer The subject matter on Best Coast’s first album is largely limited to boys and the occasional shout-out to beloved pet cats and weed. In a radical departure from her earlier work with Pocahaunted, frontwoman Bethany Cosentino takes this restricted thematic palette and runs with it. Crazy For You is awash in unironically sunny vocals and tight guitar hooks that sound like the California-dreamin’ love child of Liz Phair and the Beach Boys. “Boyfriend,” “Honey” and “When I’m With You” are standout tracks, but the album as a whole is thoroughly enjoyable in its focused simplicity and makes good the argument that the West is best.

“Boyfriend” (download):

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19. TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS | The Brutalist Bricks [Matador]
spacer It isn’t easy being a 40-year-old teenage anarchist. (Actually, Ted Leo is probably more of a socialist, but since when has American media paid much attention to the definition?) Leo and his Pharmacists are wise to politics but hopelessly adrift in every other category, searching for love and heroism in an increasingly fragmented world. So they recorded The Brutalist Bricks, a series of small explosions that ricochets from song to song like a bag of firecrackers set alight by much younger versions of Billy Bragg and Elvis Costello. Whatever side you’re standing on when the smoke clears, don’t ignore song-of-the-year contender “Bottled In Cork.”

“Bottled In Cork” (download):

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18. ADMIRAL RADLEY | I Heart California [The Ship]
spacer Like a sack-hungry defensive end jumping the snap count, onetime Grandaddy maestro Jason Lytle continues, unabated, to write the most addictive melodies and engaging lyrics of any indie rocker over the past 15 years. The debut from Admiral Radley, a fine blend of two old pals from Earlimart (Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray) and Grandaddy drummer Aaron Burtch, continues Lytle’s obsession with his former home turf, penned from his current Bozeman, Mont., sanctuary. “I Heart California” (“I am California, iced tea in my hair/Drugs fall out of diaper bags as Midwesterners stare”) should make Lytle’s musical hero, ELO’s Jeff Lynne, exceedingly proud.

“I Heart California” (download):

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17. IDLEWILD | Post Electric Blues [Nice]
spacer After a 2009 release overseas, Post Electric Blues hit U.S. shores this year. You probably didn’t hear about it, though, as it’s merely the latest Idlewild record (the Scottish band’s sixth) to be greeted in the States with resounding silence. It’s sad, albeit simultaneously predictable and baffling, that an LP this strong, this tuneful, this passionate—holding songs such as rough-edged epic “Post-Electric,” the mournful “Take Me Back In Time” and the grandiosely pop “City Hall”—didn’t garner slavish praise and, more important for the group, an audience outside of in-the-know fanboys. One of these days, these lads are going to finally scrap any notion of conquering America. That’s completely disheartening, but we don’t deserve them anyway.

“Younger Than America” (download):

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16. GUSTER | Easy Wonderful [Aware/Universal Republic]
spacer If 1999’s Lost And Gone Forever was the anthem of Guster’s turbulent mid-20s, then Easy Wonderful marks the age of the content, settled-down dad (in a good way). With the three original members all happily married with kids and a relentless following for a band that’s been going strong for nearly two decades, it’s not surprising that the theme of the Massachusetts quartet’s sixth full-length is an optimistic, sunshiny jangle with catchy hooks and choruses that beg to be sung along to. However, don’t think that the band has strayed too far from comfortable territory: People who have been fans of Guster since way back when it was just Gus will appreciate Easy Wonderful’s familiar feel as well as the band’s growth, while first-time listeners will slip into full-blown fandom with ease.

“Bad Bad World” (download):

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15. DEERHUNTER | Halcyon Digest [4AD]
spacer For all of Deerhunter’s collective achievements so far, this year marked the point when Atlanta’s purveyors of “ambient punk” solidified their rightful place among indie rock’s elite. The quartet’s fourth LP is at the same time filled with the listless waves of noise and pop deconstruction that have endeared Deerhunter to critics for years and an entirely new vision, where harmonicas, saxophones and a general relaxing of its experimental m.o. give way to Exile On Main St. and Motown references. Indeed, Halcyon Digest puts on full display a vitality only hinted at previously, making the thought of the band’s next move that much more intriguing.

“Revival” (download):

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14. BOSTON SPACESHIPS | Our Cubehouse Still Rocks [Guided By Voices, Inc.]
spacer Cubehouse, the fourth rapid-fire Boston Spaceships effort, got somewhat lost in the triumphant shuffle that was the Guided By Voices “classic lineup” reunion tour. A shame, really, as this most British Invasion-centric Spaceships LP (“Bombadine,” in particular, is about as late-‘60s Who as it gets) is further proof of Robert Pollard’s amazing songcraft showing no signs of decline. Sure, it was beyond rewarding to see Pollard and his old crew showered with powerblessings from the devoted, but it’d certainly be nice if the bandwagon jumpers paid as much attention to the glorious Spaceships as to honoring Pollard’s past glories.

“Come On Baby Grace” (download):

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13. THE RADIO DEPT. | Clinging To A Scheme [Labrador]
spacer The long-in-the-making third album from these less-than-prolific Swedish nü-gazers clocks in at a brief 34 minutes, but Clinging To A Scheme eats like a meal. You can throw away those pesky My Bloody Valentine and Pet Shop Boys comparisons once and for all, as the Radio Dept. has clearly come into its own with these 10 tracks, honing its atmospheric, dream-pop sound while sharpening its skills as serious songwriters. If Clinging To A Scheme isn’t providing the soundtrack to all of your daily activities, that’s only because you haven’t heard it yet.

“Heaven’s On Fire” (download):

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12. THE WALKMEN | Lisbon [Fat Possum]
spacer The Walkmen were slow starters in the early-’00s NYC rock race, outsprinted by everyone from the Strokes and Interpol to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On The Radio. But a decade later, Hamilton Leithauser and his bandmates have taken their treble-charged approach to transcendent victory. The relaxed, sun-sweetened Lisbon earns its Portuguese pedigree, softly splashing around in the glassy eddies of echo-laden guitars and occasionally indulging in brass-band melodies that make it all seem as formally solid and artistically bold as a Goya painting. Here’s to late bloomers and the sound of nowhere in particular.

“Stranded” (download):

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11. DR. DOG | Shame, Shame [Anti-]
spacer Last month, they took a wrecking ball to the Spectrum—the dank, decayed Philadelphia arena where Dr. J and Billy Joel hung their banners from the rafters—and finally serenaded the end of the ‘70s by piping in some Springsteen while the building came crashing down. But it should’ve been native sons Dr. Dog heard at the funeral, for this is the present and future classic rock. Music critics will write that Shame, Shame sounds like the Flaming Lips doing Wilco’s Summerteeth, but Dr. Dog doesn’t warrant that kind of detached thinking. This album is about the late-20s swoon into manhood and the magic in the night.

“Stranger” (download):

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10. THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS | Together [Matador]
spacer If memory serves, every one of the New Pornographers’ five albums has graced MAGNET’s year-end list. Even if we drank the initial serving of Kool-Aid, its effects surely would’ve worn off by now; and the fact that Carl Newman’s wrecking crew unfailingly continues to execute thrill-ride pop choruses only makes our jobs here more difficult. There’s no exciting new storyline to Together, except the fact that its title is telling: The lines between vocalists Neko Case and Kathryn Calder are becoming blurred, the distinction between songs by Newman and Dan Bejar are thinner, and the whole gang has honed its mercenary talents into uniform excellence.

“Your Hands (Together)” (download):

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9. THE BLACK KEYS | Brothers [Nonesuch]
spacer With their simple-yet-powerful guitar-and-drum alliance, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s voguish tweak on Memphis barroom rock sadly and unjustly continues to draw comparisons to infamous non-couple the White Stripes. With album number six, however, the Black Keys have shown tremendous growth as songwriters, cranking out 14 surefire originals plus a killer cover of Jerry Butler’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The self-produced, back-to-basics Brothers is for people slightly sick of going to shows that consist solely of lights and laptops and want to revel in rumbling guitar riffs, pummeling drums and unadulterated vocals.

“Tighten Up”

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8. TEENAGE FANCLUB | Shadows [Merge]
spacer One of the great mysteries of guitar pop is the fact that anyone with 10 digits and a pulse can string together some jangly chords, yet precious few can take these rudimentary elements and turn them into something memorable. If two decades of helping to write the book on post-Big Star pop hasn’t yet convinced you, the first 15 seconds of Shadows provide ample evidence that Teenage Fanclub has what it takes to permanently implant a tune in your cerebrum. Admittedly, recent output from these Scots has become so breezy as to make contemporaries like the Posies sound like Slayer by comparison, but the fact that they can still bait a pop hook with a recording so mellow and understated speaks volumes about their songwriting powers.

“Baby Lee” (download):

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7. ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED

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