favorites of two thousand ten

Instead of a “Best Of” list, M|H is presenting you with a favorites list. There were too many purportedly great albums, songs, and shows we didn’t get around to hearing/seeing. The albums are listed chronologically, but other than that there’s no particular order to our selection. Please point out our glaring omissions.

[ALBUMS]
Spoon – Transference – 01.19.10
-Essential Track: Written in Reverse
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More – 02.16.10
-Essential Tracks: White Blank Page, The Cave, Sigh No More
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor – 02.16.10
-Essential Tracks: Wide Eyes, Airplanes
Horse Feathers – Thistled Spring – 04.20.10
-Essential Track: Cascades
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs – 08.02.10
-Essential Tracks: Suburban War, We Used to Wait
The So So Glos – Low Back Chain Shift EP – 10.12.10
-Essential Track: Lindy Hop

[SONGS]
Courtship – Ride
Delta Spirit – Bushwick Blues
The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
Cults – Go Outside
The Love Language – Heart to Tell
Yeasayer – O.N.E.
Let’s Wrestle – We Are the Men You Will Grow to Love Soon
Broken Bells – The High Road
The Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard
Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime
Vampire Weekend – Run
The Black Keys – Tighten Up
The Soft Pack – Answer to Yourself
Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land

[ARTISTS WORTH PAYING TO SEE]
Paul McCartney
Owen Pallett
Janelle Monae
Yeasayer
The Antlers
Matt & Kim
Sleigh Bells
Horse Feathers
Great Lake Swimmers

Want a more in-depth analysis of some of 2010’s best? Keep an eye out for Jonk Music‘s Best Songs of 2010 list. Jon was kind enough to ask us to weigh in on some of year’s best songs.

it will set you free

“Oh, man is a giddy thing,” says the first track of Mumford & Sons’ latest release, Sigh No More, and in relation to listening to this album, truer words were never sung. I listen to a lot of music. I love a lot of music. Rarely, however, am I ecstatic upon first listen. While listening to Sigh No More, I was beyond. Moved. Grinning. Heart overflowing. From opening vocal harmonies on par with Fleet Foxes to the final musing on life, death, and what you’re left with, Mumford & Sons delivers track after track of heartfelt abandon.

Encompassing influences from folk, bluegrass, and roots music, Mumford & Sons create foot-stomping assaults, using banjo, mandolin, upright bass, keys, and guitar as their weapons. Soul-bearing despair and triumphant cries of hope further push the agenda, a summation of what it is to live and feel.

The title track “Sigh No More” and “White Blank Page” stick with you long after the record has stopped spinning, somehow standing out above the other phenomenal cuts on the album. You can get a feel for the album as a whole by checking out the band’s video channel. And please do. Theirs is a sound that is truly spectacular.

—

Sigh No More dropped 02.16.10.
Find out more at www.mumfordandsons.com.
Special thanks to Laura M. for alerting me to their existence.