No Ripcord's Top 50 Albums of 2010

Original Source →

50.

March 9, 2010
Critic Score
71
21 reviews

49.

November 2, 2009
Critic Score
77
20 reviews

48.

Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
September 14, 2010
Critic Score
70
25 reviews

Bands like Black Mountain seem very rare, ably and willingly carrying on those wayward sons still in love with arena swagger and hit-making persuasion. Queens of the Stone Age aided in filling that void for a while, celebrating avant-garde manipulations of the 70s rock paradigm, but with Black Mountain the Sabbath-inspired edge gleams so brightly it’s blinding, at least this time around.

46.

February 9, 2010
Critic Score
78
37 reviews

The more tastefully formulated tracks just can’t offset the profusion of soppy lyricism and the tedium of weaker songs. Ultimately, Odd Blood reads as a well-informed but poorly executed homage to the ‘80s.

45.

April 20, 2010
Critic Score
82
35 reviews

43.

October 5, 2010
Critic Score
78
19 reviews

42.

November 15, 2010
Critic Score
71
15 reviews

The album is incredibly smoothly constructed, and as I said before, the songs almost never disagree or sound messy.

41.

September 28, 2010
Critic Score
70
18 reviews

Even if an abundance of programming tools are on hand, all the delectable qualities that defined the band since their beginnings are still intact.

40.

October 26, 2010
Critic Score
77
31 reviews

The Fool flows like a dramatic mood piece – it sustains a homogeneous sound from beginning to end, casually changing course when it begins to drain itself out.

39.

July 27, 2010
Critic Score
76
25 reviews

38.

February 9, 2010
Critic Score
80
31 reviews

37.

September 14, 2010
Critic Score
81
28 reviews

36.

May 11, 2010
Critic Score
83
38 reviews

Being interesting, unique, fun and damn good is near impossible to pull off. Sleigh Bells has done it on Treats, and goddamn is it good.

34.

March 9, 2010
Critic Score
78
22 reviews
If you strip their sound to its core, like the harmonies and the distortion, you’re left with an invariable rock record. If this isn’t a true representation of what modern rock should be, I don't know what is.

33.

March 23, 2010
Critic Score
76
18 reviews

31.

January 26, 2010
Critic Score
83
34 reviews

What I find so satisfying with this album, is how Four Tet envisions the lushness of a song, and sonically creates a buoyant, lighthearted blend – a complete album for the lively and lighthearted.

30.

February 16, 2010
Critic Score
76
22 reviews

Measure can be described as being the metamorphosis that translates Field Music’s born again status. Ambitious as it sounds, it locks itself into a pop compendium, which has always been a strong suit in the past.

29.

November 5, 2010
Critic Score
81
32 reviews

28.

January 11, 2010
Critic Score
79
37 reviews

27.

June 22, 2010
Critic Score
81
23 reviews
It's another rock-solid album from one of rap's most consistently great collectives, with no discernable weak spots to attack.

26.

June 8, 2010
Critic Score
76
8 reviews

25.

May 4, 2010
Critic Score
77
32 reviews
They've never let us down before, and they don't here, as frustrating as it is to hear the band fall just short of crafting something incredible. All the songs stand up, but the album loses steam and focus and begins to drag by the end of its 65 minute running time.

24.

October 12, 2010
Critic Score
73
30 reviews

Write About Love may not be a great leap forward for Belle and Sebastian, but it’s such an enjoyable record it’s difficult to hold it against them.

21.

January 19, 2010
Critic Score
75
23 reviews

20.

May 10, 2010
Critic Score
78
28 reviews

19.

March 3, 2010
Critic Score
82
40 reviews
The album is schizophrenic in it's assemblage of hollow, scrub-cleaned elements into deceptively evergreen tapestries.

18.

September 21, 2010
Critic Score
81
26 reviews

Part mind numbing, part infuriating, part stimulating and always worth discussion, Swans remain a significant force in underground and independent music and this new album sees the No Wave merge with the compositionally avant-garde.

17.

February 23, 2010
Critic Score
85
34 reviews

Have One On Me is so enrapturing, so imaginative and so delicate, that it feels safe to say that in five or ten years time, you’ll go back to it and discover brand new things - whether they be the meaning of a song you’d never fathomed before or a simple amuse-bouche of a beautifully constructed oboe phrase.

14.

January 26, 2010
Critic Score
83
36 reviews

Even if there’s that wistful, pastoral-like imagery to their sound, much of the tracks stray to their own beats, in desperate search of distinction. Instead of modest waltzes and looped drum machines, there’s an evident maturity in the way the production unveils itself as richer and far more multifaceted.

12.

September 28, 2010
Critic Score
79
28 reviews

They’ve evolved in a completely logical direction in ways that are pleasantly surprising but never jarring.

11.

April 27, 2010
Critic Score
77
13 reviews

10.

April 13, 2010
Critic Score
79
27 reviews

The Wild Hunt’s stumbles are too little to mask what could be Matsson’s finest hour. He may act as if he’s the tallest man on earth, but he may very well literally be a talent of Goliath proportions.

7.

March 9, 2010
Critic Score
78
30 reviews

6.

May 18, 2010
Critic Score
86
33 reviews

For a first album, The ArchAndroid is astoundingly accomplished.

5.

September 28, 2010
Critic Score
83
37 reviews

Halcyon Digest goes by like a breeze, and when it’s finished there’s nothing better to do than play it again.

4.

May 10, 2010
Critic Score
84
37 reviews

The National’s latest is easily up there with the very best indie-rock records of the year.

3.

November 22, 2010
Critic Score
91
45 reviews

Kanye West’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a sprawling, ambitious, orchestral fuck-you of an album, and he wants you to know it.

2.

August 3, 2010
Critic Score
88
43 reviews

They’ve spent most of the decade shouting to be heard, but now they are content to let the music and the message flower and take root.  You might think they are just tired, but their nervous energy survives intact.

1.

May 18, 2010
Critic Score
83
38 reviews

Wearing his love for Bowie on his sleeve for all to see serves him well - this album is the most lyrically focused LCD outing and the most uncompromising, with most songs breaking the six minute mark and a few breaking nine. It’s not just a great dance album; it’s a great pop album.

Original Source: http://www.noripcord.com/features/top-50-albums-2010-part-one
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