American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums of 2010

American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums of 2010

Original Source →

48.

August 17, 2010
Critic Score
68
13 reviews

47.

Javelin - No Mas
April 6, 2010
Critic Score
66
13 reviews

46.

April 6, 2010
Critic Score
77
15 reviews

45.

The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
September 14, 2010
Critic Score
68
17 reviews

44.

May 25, 2010
Critic Score
73
6 reviews

42.

November 2, 2009
Critic Score
77
20 reviews

40.

January 26, 2010
Critic Score
83
36 reviews

With their third full-length effort, Beach House forces the listener to re-examine pop music status quo while taking another giant stride as a band.

39.

April 20, 2010
Critic Score
82
35 reviews

37.

Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime
May 11, 2010
Critic Score
72
7 reviews

33.

Mount Eerie - Song Islands Vol. 2
October 4, 2010
Critic Score
62
3 reviews

32.

Johnny Flynn - Been Listening
June 7, 2010
Critic Score
73
9 reviews

31.

William Tyler - Behold The Spirit
November 22, 2010
Critic Score
75
3 reviews

30.

October 26, 2010
Critic Score
77
31 reviews

28.

Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett
May 25, 2010
Critic Score
73
14 reviews

26.

January 11, 2010
Critic Score
79
37 reviews

Far more than a companion piece of leftover ideas, the album is light, musically savvy and, for the most part, pulls off a thick dose of shamelessly sunny pop across all of its 10 tracks.

23.

September 14, 2010
Critic Score
79
22 reviews

22.

September 14, 2010
Critic Score
68
11 reviews

21.

October 12, 2010
Critic Score
77
34 reviews

The Age of Adz builds on his previous dabblings in electronica by integrating the ideas he has clearly been stewing with the aspects of his work so dear to fans.

18.

Old 97's - The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1
October 12, 2010
Critic Score
71
8 reviews

16.

August 17, 2010
Critic Score
76
12 reviews
It's about people, and Mellencamp continues to write and sing about them better and better with each passing year.

15.

Punch Brothers - Antifogmatic
June 15, 2010
Critic Score
77
6 reviews

14.

Elvis Costello - National Ransom
November 2, 2010
Critic Score
75
22 reviews
Over the course of 16 tracks, Costello flexes his stylistic muscles and exercises that famously acerbic wit.

12.

October 25, 2010
Critic Score
72
17 reviews

Speak Now is Taylor Swift’s best record yet, all in her voice with no co-writers. It’s a powerful statement from someone who has proven that she knows who she is, and, whether Nashville likes it or not, is here to stay.

11.

April 13, 2010
Critic Score
68
35 reviews

MGMT plots a strange course for their listeners with Congratulations, but the material here often exceeds that of the band’s initial full-length.

10.

January 12, 2010
Critic Score
78
20 reviews

9.

August 3, 2010
Critic Score
88
43 reviews

The Suburbs offers plenty of the dense and stately keyboard-heavy pop that fans of the band have come to expect, with some much-appreciated frothier moments, but a melancholy theme of reluctant adulthood, or resistance to change, runs through even the more lightweight numbers.

8.

September 28, 2010
Critic Score
74
28 reviews

There are no enduring classics here like the songs on 2007's Live At Massey Hall, or anything to rival the material that helped define late '70s AOR from, say, American Stars 'n Bars or Rust Never Sleeps. But this is a record well worth having, and it's a blessing that we still have enduring artists like Neil Young creating such vital music.

7.

May 11, 2010
Critic Score
75
25 reviews

Here’s To Taking It Easy stands as a triumphant proclamation of Phosphorescent’s ongoing ability to provide quality heartbreaking Americana. The album also showcases Houck’s finely tuned ability to use an album in it’s totality as a vehicle to communicate story, heartache, and tribulation.

6.

September 14, 2010
Critic Score
81
22 reviews

5.

February 9, 2010
Critic Score
78
37 reviews

The fact that these guys can expand their sound and still feel entirely comfortable in their own specific framework, much less top themselves a second time around, is proof enough that Yeasayer are one of the best at what they do.

1.

May 18, 2010
Critic Score
79
33 reviews
Original Source: http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/12/american-songwriters-top-50-albums-of-2010/
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