jackhammer

Yes we have another 4 weeks to go but the year is nearly over, so let's see those lists and a sentence or two on why you chose it.

In alphabetical order:

Anathema- We're Here Because We Are Here.
Once again another solid release from the band that are every bit as good as Porcupine Tree minus the technical interludes and with added emotion too.
Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
Best Metal crossover album made in years and a perfect antidote to average Nu Metal.
Clubroot - II:MMX
If you are going to rip off the ambiance of Burial you may as well do it with class.
Demdike Stare - Liberation Through Hearing
Probably the years best Electronic album. Moody, atmospheric yet obscure enough to run the gamut of electronic sub genres with aplomb.
Dessa - A Badly Broken Code
Full of brash confidence and a sweet melancholy centre, this is Hip hop with added colour.
Erland And The Carnival - S.T
What is Freak Folk you may ask. Here it is in one 50 minute bite that is both dutifully bound to Folk parameters whilst gleefully smashing them with a rubber hammer.
Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent
Stunning. Stunning. Stunning. Gives new meaning to industrial Post Punk.
These New Puritans - Hidden
Years ahead of it's time and one of the most original albums I have heard for a long time, even if it's a tad too obscure for it's own good at times.

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Sljslj

Good idea, jackhammer!

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Paedantic Basterd

1) These New Puritans - Hidden: Completely took me by surprise. It's the most original album I've heard this year.
2) Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz: Disregarding the 25 minute cluster**** at the end of this, which in future listens I will editorially omit, an insane album. The man has lost his mind.
3) Owen Pallett - Heartland: Beautiful album, engaging tale.
4) Beach House - Teen Dream: Went into this with very low expectations, because their self titled was so boring, but was absolutely surprised. Gorgeous.

Dayvan Cowboy

VHS Head - Trademark Ribbons Of Gold
It's like frolicking through a field of spacetime knots, waiting to be sucked into the infinite singularity points and being drawn into the gravity disturbances caused by the nearby neutron stars, filled with pulsating lights and an infinite wall of danceable noise, all in synchronization. (almost like a physicist's Tron)

Extra Life - Made Flesh
You can feel the red, glaring, angry energy coming off of this album. Charlie Looker chants and shatters the guitar laden lattice of noise with interesting percussion and a spice of twinkling electronics.

Zs - New Slaves
Surfing through pulsating, vibrating waves of distortion and jumping on jittery percussion, you find yourself among saxophones, electronics, handclaps, and pure noisy power. You can feel the distorted guitars shimmer and glow with their brass saxophone counterparts in unison. In the title track, New Slaves, they demonstrate how powerful the effect is. you can feel everything igniting in a twenty minute explosion of pure energy, like when antimatter meets it's matter counter part and becomes annihilated immediately afterwards in a magnificent ballet of heated particles.

Inception (film score) - Hans Zimmer
It's like a desolate area you've never explored in the back of your mind, and it's strange, it scares you, but you take joy in the oddity. You know that you're not going to be there very long, and your brainwaves are stretching out like elastic strings that suddenly snap and they trigger a marvelous spark. At the same time, you feel a creeping feeling of existence. Should you be doing this? should you be here? no, but you're in the depths of you mind anyways, and nobody can do anything about it.

THATS ME TOP FOOUR FOLKS.

loveissucide

The Wild Hunt-The Tallest Man On Earth
No reason not to like it, it's an extremely strong set of songs and melodies.

High Violet-The National
Promise fuffilled, and then some.Feels like the culmination of everything their prior albums were hinting towards, with not a wasted second on it.

Becoming A Jackal-Villagers
Possibly the most promising debut of the year.

Plastic Beach-Gorillaz
Tackles a wide variety of styles, and manages to make them glue.No small feat considering how little there is uniting these tracks.

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RVCA

Yay, this thread!

1. Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit

I'm not exactly an expert in instrumental albums, nu-jazz, post-rock, or whatever else you'd call this, but I know this is my favorite album of 2010. Most of the tracks are very captivating and easy to listen to, with lots of fun and interesting instrumentation. The experience definitely weakens towards the end of the album, but overall, a very solid outing by Jaga Jazzist.

2. Guster - Easy Wonderful

I'm a Guster fanboy so I suppose this is expected, but I find this to be another solid release from my favorite alternative rockers. Not quite as good as Ganging or Lost and Gone, but still endlessly enjoyable and heartbreaking.

3. Beach House - Teen Dream

I guess I'm a sucker for catchy, feel-good music, but Teen Dream was my go-to album when I just wanted to relax and space out in my own company. One of my first experiences with dream pop, and so far, the best experience.

Honorable Mentions
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope To the Sky
Vampire Weekend - Contra (VW fan and proud)
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante (great post rock)
These New Puritans - Hidden
Robert Plant - Band of Joy
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Jack Johnson - To The Sea

Sljslj

Yes! I love this, it's one of my favorites of the year as well.

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clutnuckle

I'll get around to posting my list eventually.

As for now, one of my favorites of the year was



Smoke Song by Vibracathedral Orchestra.

Words don't really do this kind of music justice, though I'll try my best. It's freeform droning and folk colliding in a vacuum with dozens of instruments flying in and out of the soundscape as the songs progress. Very long, mind-melting compositions that are bound to make any drone-lovers go nuts.

LoathsomePete

Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odnini

After seeing Enslaved pull off 4 out of the 9 tracks on this album live last night it really made me love the album even more. Brilliant production, song writing, and experimentation, I can honestly say I never would have expected to hear a David Gilmour-esque guitar solo in a black metal song but once again Enslaved have proven to me that they are so much more than normal black metal. Agalloch had a top contender though, but I still prefer Enslaved's contribution to 2010 as my top album of the year.





Hypnos 69 - Legacy

One of the finest throwbacks to '70's progressive rock, in fact I was pretty convinced that there was some kind of error and this album was actually from the '70's. The band really manages to capture that sound and style perfectly yet still retaining their own artistic integrity. I sent this out to a couple of people but never heard back, in any case this was one album I was happy not to sleep on.





Kno - Death Is Silent

2010 was kind of a disappointment for me hip hop wise, not a lot of releases from artists I like and not a lot of strong releases from artists I like. One day I was just browsing RYM and I see that Kno (from CunninLynguists) is holding the number one spot for the year. If anyone is not familiar with this fact, I am a HUGE CunninLynguists fan and always enjoyed Kno's contributions on the first two albums. I was a little sad that he took a background route with the production of the next few albums, but still his production is always top notch, but hearing him behind the mic is always appreciative. The album definitely follows some familiar patterns and has some familiar guest spots, but it's definitely Kno's. Some incredibly dark, yet hauntingly beautiful lyrics and beats on this album that definitely made hip hop 2010 enduring for me.




Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent

As Lee has already pointed out, some incredible industrial post-punk, but what's even more incredible is all these guys are in their '50's by now and they still rock harder than everyone they've ever inspired. Not only that they really showed some variety with their electro dance number "European Super State" but still gave enough for us headbangers to headbang to. The production was a nice step from their last album which was a little murky at times, and the band really prove themselves as songwriters with some incredibly intelligent lyrics regarding the current state of affairs in the world. This was an album I was looking forward to last year and I was happy to hear that my anticipation wasn't spoiled.




Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

My first introduction to the name who gets name dropped by nearly every hip hop artist I like, and I can see why. A mixture of spoken word, world, and electronic must really showcase the man's talent and adaptability. But where his talent lies is in his writing, which on this album discusses the pros and cons of growing up without a strong male influence in his life. Some really moving stuff that I wish I grabbed back in February when I first spied it. I only wish it was slightly longer, but it still does it's job and has inspired me to look into the rest of his discography.




In Vain - Mantra

I called them "the Opeth of this decade" and I am going to stand by that statement, unless of course their next album sucks, which I find highly unlikely. Some incredibly varied progressive death metal that can be pounding on my ass with a meat tenderizer one moment and then soothing it with a stringed quartet melody the next. With three vocalists playing different roles there is enough variety in vocal style to give a little something for everyone as well as some well crafted melodic pieces. Give them two more albums as good as Mantra and I won't be the only one calling them "the Opeth of this decade".




Munly & the Lupercalians - Petr & the Wulf

First Munly album since 2004's Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlotts and I am not the only one happy to see this poor bastard come out of his shell. With a new backing band and what he says is the first of a three part trilogy he shows everyone that he still knows how to write music that is really in a league of his own. Petr & the Wulf is his take on Sergei Prokofiev's story with each song using unique instruments just as in Prokofiev's orchestration. The fact that it's the first of three gives me hope that part two may come out within the next year or two, which is always a bonus when a band can have consecutive releases.




The Sadies - Darker Circles

Let it be said that no band is beyond redemption, my first experience with Canadian alt. country/ rock band The Sadies was not a pleasant one. Last.fm kept on recommending me them because of my love for Elliott BROOD, another Canadian country band, but when I first heard Favourite Colours (2004) last year I was pretty disappointed. That said when I saw that they had a release this year I decided to give it a try, I mean it couldn't disappoint me more than the new Deertick did, and it didn't, in fact Darker Circles gave me a whole new appreciation for the band. It is an incredibly blend of straight forward rock riffs with hints of steel guitar and twang of their country influences with some really personal and well written lyrics. An album I have praised a lot over the year.




Massive Attack - Heligoland

Not within spunking distance of their best work, but after 7 long years of silence it is nice to see that the band knows how to make some decent chillout music and keep to their roots. I was debating whether to give this spot to Morcheeba for their album Blood Like Lemonade but that album started off strong, but didn't have enough interesting moments to really make an impact, and while Heligoland wasn't mind blowing, it was still enough to stand up on it's own. Great for writing a paper to, and that can go a long way when it comes this time of year.




Solefald - Norrøn Livskunst

One of my favorite avant-garde metal bands had a silent drop this year that's received nearly unanimous praise from critics and fans alike, but not enough attention from other media outlets. Keeping with tradition, Solefald have mixed things up yet again to avoid being type cast into a single genre. On Norrøn Livskunst you'll find elements of progressive metal, black metal, rockabilly, jazz, and even scat. Vocalist Lazare continues to master his craft, utilizing different vocal styles and really making them his own. Definitely not an album for everyone, but if you're into odd music then it's definitely an album I would recommend.

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clutnuckle

Liked the picks, though. I still have to hear a few of those actually, and the ones I did hear I did enjoy.