HT 25 Best Albums of 2010: Numbers 11-15

14) Girl Talk – All Day

Key Tracks: This Is The Remix, Make Me Wanna, Jump On Stage

Sounds Like: A mash and banger of the best songs from the past 40 years

The Skinny: Greg Gillis mastered the art of the mashup long ago and continues to perfect the art on his latest album under the Girl Talk moniker. The Pittsburgh-based alchemist pulls equally from the rock, hip-hop and pop worlds often within the same measure. It’s one thing to think of mashing T’Pau’s Heart and Soul with Biggie’s Hypnotize, the Talking Heads’ Take Me to the River and Skee-Lo’s I Wish; it’s another thing to pull it off successfully, which Gillis does on Jump On Stage. Unlike some of Girl Talk’s first albums, All Day finds Gillis in a more patient mode, milking the classic tunes for all they are worth before moving on to the next one.

13) Sufjan StevensThe Age Of Adz

Key Tracks: Futile Devices, I Want to Be Well, Impossible Soul

Sounds Like: Orchestrated Dance Club Irony

The Skinny: We’ve been waiting. And waiting. And every time Sufjan has released something, it hasn’t been album number three in his supposed 50-part album-per-state series that would surely break all expectations and turn the state of music on its head each time. At this point, even though we’re used to the fact that this won’t be happening, our expectations haven’t been lowered for each of his new projects. Age of Adz hardly fell short of these expectations. As per usual, Sufjan found a way to fuse the modern with the classic and the ambient with the melodic, somehow blending synthesized blips and beeps with orchestral arrangements and multi-layered harmony. The album, often disjointed and unsettling, is an achievement in itself simply because it’s different from everything else he’s done. It questions pop culture, it makes us question his intentions as an artist. Are his auto-tuned vocals a jab at Kanye or is he embracing the producers’ trick as a musical tool? Are the sing-along harmonies layered over dance beats only there to question pop music’s hold on our society? Who knows? As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter.

12) Neil YoungLe Noise

Key Tracks: Peaceful Valley Boulevard, Walk With Me

Sounds Like: Truth, Rock, Simplicity

The Skinny: Neil Young, a guitar, and a producer. Historically speaking, it may not get any better than that. Produced by Daniel Lanois, Neil Young’s latest solo project is just that. With the exception of a couple acoustic tracks on the album, Neil spends every minute of Le Noise scraping rust off his Les Paul, letting Lanois take the controls in post-production. There is no masterpiece on this album, and he follows more of the same formula that we’ve grown accustomed to, but that’s what has always worked for Neil Young. He does his thing, writes what he wants, and let’s history take hold. Le Noise may not live as far into the ages as Harvest or Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, but for now, it speaks.

11) Mumford & SonsSigh No More

Key Tracks: Little Lion Man, Roll Away Your Stone, The Cave

Sounds Like: A U.K. version of the Avett Brothers or a bluegrass Dave Matthews

The Skinny: Something about Mumford & Sons raises an air of curiosity. It’s not just the obvious question regarding the roots of the staunchly American brand of music with its firm roots in bluegrass & folk – despite emanating from four English lads – but there’s also the question of how they got so big, so fast? The answer is simple: they write great music, play their instruments with technical precision, and jam like a group of friends. Sigh No More is not just introspective, full of life, and fresh, but most of all, it’s fun.

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