Saturday, January 01, 2011

UK Blogger Albums Of 2010 Poll Results

As our final act of commemorating a year just gone, let's reduce the cultural innovation of music making to a competitive sideshow that acts as the natural opposite to individuality and free untained opinion. For the sixth time, we took a master list of a number of UK music blogs and their volunteered (or filched) lists of best albums of the year just gone to see what the people made of the longform music presented to them in 2010. Because we had a record number of participants, a good number more than sixty, for the first time we've extended the master list to a top 75. All shall have prizes.

Thanking everyone who responded/counted, this year's particular roll of honour, then: 17 Seconds, Addict Music, Amusia, And Everyone's A DJ, Another Form Of Relief, The Auditorium, Aye Tunes, Both Bars On, Breaking More Waves, The Daily Growl, Dots & Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Echoes And Dust, Faded Glamour, Flying With Anna, Folly Of Youth, Getintothis, God Is In The TV, ireallylovemusic, In League With Paton, It's Getting Boring By The Sea (RIP), Just Music That I Like, Just Played, mapsadaisical, Mostly Armless, Music Fans Mic, Music From A Green Window, Music Liberation, Muso's Guide, Nu Rave Brain Wave, Odd Box, Parallax View, Peenko, The Pigeon Post, The Pop Cop, Popjustice, The Popscener, Ragged Glories, The Recommender, seven sevens, Song By Toad, Sonic Masala, The Sound Of The Overground, This Must Be Pop, Tonight We Dance Tomorrow We Cry, Useless Chamber, The Von Pip Musical Express, We Are Not A Rock Band, We Write Lists.

Formalities over, on to the list of lists:


75 MASSIVE ATTACK - Heligoland
74 TRASH KIT - Trash Kit
73 THE CORAL - Butterfly House
72 HER NAME IS CALLA - The Quiet Lamb
71 SHE & HIM - Volume II
70 THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND - Drown Your Heart Again
69 THE SOFT PACK - The Soft Pack
68 SWANS - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
67 WILD NOTHING - Gemini
66 LIARS - Sisterworld
65 RM HUBBERT - First & Last
64 PLAN B - The Defamation Of Strickland Banks
63 RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu
62 FIRST AID KIT - The Big Black And The Blue
61 RICHARD SKELTON - Landings
60 SHRAG - Life! Death! Prizes!
59 BROKEN RECORDS - Let Me Come Home
58 FUTURE ISLANDS - In Evening Air
57 THE BLACK KEYS - Brothers
56 FANG ISLAND - Fang Island
55 SMOKE FAIRIES - Through Low Light And Trees
54 MARINA & THE DIAMONDS - The Family Jewels
53 THE INDELICATES - Songs For Swinging Lovers
52 THE PHANTOM BAND - The Wants
51 THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT - St. Thomas

50 GOLD PANDA - Lucky Shiner
49 MIDLAKE - The Courage Of Others
48 OWEN PALLETT - Heartland
47 TEETH OF THE SEA - Your Mercury
46 MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Postcards From A Young Man
45 JONSI - Go
44 STANDARD FARE - The Noyelle Beat
43 BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB - Flaws
42 MUSIC GO MUSIC - Expressions
41 SAM AMIDON - I See The Sign
40 CRYSTAL CASTLES - Crystal Castles (II)
39 ZOLA JESUS - Stridulum II
38 JANELLE MONAE - The ArchAndroid
37 GORILLAZ - Plastic Beach
36 PERFUME GENIUS - Learning
35 VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Contra
34 SUFJAN STEVENS - The Age Of Adz
33 FRIGHTENED RABBIT - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
32 STEVE MASON - Boys Outside
31 ADMIRAL FALLOW - Boots Met My Face
30 EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Man Alive
29 WARPAINT - The Fool
28 HURTS - Happiness
27 GIL SCOTT HERON - I'm New Here
26 ANAIS MITCHELL - Hadestown
25 FOUR TET - There Is Love In You
24 BEST COAST - Crazy For You
23 DEERHUNTER - Halcyon Digest
22 ROBYN - Body Talk
21 JOHN GRANT - Queen Of Denmark

20 DEFTONES - Diamond Eyes
Video: Diamond Eyes

19 AVI BUFFALO - Avi Buffalo
Video: What's In It For?

18 FLYING LOTUS - Cosmogramma
Video: MmmHmm

17 MEURSAULT - All Creatures Will Make Merry
Video: Crank Resolutions (live)

16 ALLO DARLIN' - Allo Darlin'
Video: Dreaming

15 KID CANAVERAL - Shouting At Wildlife
Video: You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night (live)

14 THESE NEW PURITANS - Hidden
Video: We Want War

13 YEASAYER - Odd Blood
Video: Ambling Alp

12 CAITLIN ROSE - Own Side Now
Video: Shanghai Cigarettes

11 JOANNA NEWSOM - Have One On Me
Video: Good Intentions Paving Company (live)

10 LOS CAMPESINOS! - Romance Is Boring
Wrongly-tagged-as-twee emotionally spawling octet go home from the dancefloor to lash out at themselves in the guise of doing so at the world
Video: The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

9 KANYE WEST - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Byword for arrogance makes $3m album in seclusion with A-Z of A-list guests...and it's an eclectic, epic grandiose statement of new intent. Who knew?
Video: Runaway

8 SLEIGH BELLS - Treats
Distorted, metallic electro beats and noise-pop guitars collide, on full churn but finding vocal calm in the middle of the maelstrom
Video: Infinity Guitars

7 FOALS - Total Life Forever
Math be damned, they now want to give pop a new experimental mainframe, finding emotion and taking more care of the little bits in between the angularity
Video: Spanish Sahara

6 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - This Is Happening
James Murphy's last stand sees him write valediction and desperation as two sides of the same coin, backed by art-rock electronic questing
Video: I Can Change (live)

5 BEACH HOUSE - Teen Dream
Drowsy, drifting detailed dreampop, to which Alex brings guitars that slither and soar and Victoria brings a newly enigmatised husky vocal topping
Video: Walk In The Park (live)

4 CARIBOU - Swim
Dan Snaith mines the heart of dark, intelligent electro-dance, both restless and tranquil while leavened with bounce and mesmeric optimism
Video: Odessa

3 LAURA MARLING - I Speak Because I Can
Nu-folk's cause celebre develops spectacularly, earthier of voice and arrangement, more tenderly probing into love, heartbreak and the emotional pull
Video: Rambling Man

2 ARCADE FIRE - The Suburbs
In which Win and co look back to where they came from, reconnecting in a musically more variable attempt to observe, fear and find they don't belong any more
Video: Ready To Start

1 THE NATIONAL - High Violet
After two years of last-poll-counted close finishes a winning album that fairly sprinted clear of the pack from the off, so much so The Suburbs would have needed ten unanswered first place finishes to depose it by the end of poll counting. An emotionally, poetically meaningful evocation of all the dark heartland opening up and leverage of personal anxieties the band have strived for.
Video: Bloodbuzz Ohio

2 comments:

Breaking More Waves Blog said...

As I believe I was 1st to get my nominations back :) I can categorically say that High Violet was in the lead from the off. :)

tincanman said...

hey, count my blog in next year! My list: http://tinyurl.com/352c7dt