... The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now: Top 11 Albums of the Year/Best Songs of the Year (A Toast to Walks in the Park, Drunk Girls and of course, Douchebags

So, 2010 was probably the best year for music in awhile (Sufjan releasing a new album! Godspeed You! Black Emperor announcing an end to their hiatus! Thom Yorke starting a band with Fea!) . Therefore, doing a top 10 albums list was an extremely hard task, and last night around one in the morning when I finally came up with one, I discovered that I left off a very important album, and so had to extend it up to eleven. First, though, I'd like to do a couple honorable mentions for albums that I thought were amazing, but for various reasons, did not make the top eleven.

Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
Best Coast - Crazy For You
The Black Keys - Brothers
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

And now...

11.

Vampire Weekend - Contra

Paul Simon's biggest fans release another great album. This is very bubbly and made for great listening during the summer. (Don't worry, I'll spare you cliches.) Just listen to "Horchata" or "White Sky", and let your mind take you way back to the summer of '10.

10.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

It's funny that Kanye West became the toast of Indie town after the release of Fantasy. (Okay, Pitchfork started following him like mad after it was revealed that Bon Iver's Justin Vernon would be included on this album.) This is an album that has topped everyone's end-of-the-year lists, from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone to Paste. And there's a reason for it. Kanye has turned the low-point of his career (interrupting Taylor Swift during her VMA speech back in 2009) into beautiful, dark and twisted art. One needs to look no further than the obvious highlight of the album, the poignant "Runaway". Kanye actually sings on this track, and while his voice may not be the best, it's at least sincere. And just when you think the last tiny piano key has clinked like the champagne glasses in the titular video, a flurry of violins plays Kanye out and it doesn't come off as corny in the least. But before you think Kanye has lost his edge and is going all apologetic, he quickly reminds us through out the album that his braggadocio is still in tact (take for example the verse, "I got so much head I woke up as Sleepy Hollow"), but it isn't a put-off in the least. The one, two punch of "Lost in the World" (Featuring a Volcano Choir sample) and album closer "Who Will Survive in America?" (Featuring a Gil Scot-Heron sample) made for the best global jam this year. Don't be surprised when Fantasy sweeps the Grammy's.

09.

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

Think Neutral Milk Hotel's classic In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Now replace the Anne Frank subplot with one about the American Civil War, and add lots of electric guitars. My favorite is the closing track, "The Battle of Hampton Roads". Best bagpipe solo you'll hear all year.

08.

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

When I saw Sufjan Stevens at the Paramount Theatre on Halloween Eve, he said that Adz (pronounced Odds) was about the relationship between heartbreak and the apocalypse. (He later went on to quip that while, "It's a dramatic viewpoint, it does pay the bills".) So, it's a joke, yeah, but there's also a truth behind it. Anyway, this is a very mature album for Sufjan to make. After retreating from singing after 2005's glorious Illinois, and finally promulgating that the whole fifty states album theme was just a joke (unfortunate, since I was really looking forward to New Jersey: Ode to the Turnpike), it looked Sufjan was done outside of obscure soundtracks for expressways. But, thankfully, we were wrong, and Sufjan came back in more-or-less full swing. Granted, the tear-jerker vignettes that made his last albums so wonderful (Sufjan Stevens is the Sherwood Anderson of Indie) are absent here, they are made up by Sufjan presenting himself at his most vulnerable. You don't need to look any further for proof than the twenty-five minute culmination of Sufjan's entire career, "Impossible Soul". In my opinion, this open diary of a song is the best song out of Sufjan's catalogue. Go ahead, read it. Remember, it helps pay the bills.

07.

Jonsi - Go

I'm a huge Sigur Ros fan, and as a result, this was the release I was most excited about this year. And it did not disappoint. Without a doubt, this was the happiest, most saccharin-injected album probably anyone heard this year. "Go Do", "Animal Arithmetic" and "Boy Lilikoi" were automatic smile-inducers. But the best thing about this album was how majestically it translated live. The imagery was beautiful (a musty journal of animal drawings being caught on fire, then a storm of butterflies fluttering from the scene during "Hengilas"), and if you thought "Grow Till Tall" was great on the album, it was NOTHING compared to the raw intensity of the live version.

06.

Caribou - Swim

It's nice to see Dan Snaith's (Caribou is a solo project of his) finally getting the recognition he deserves. This is one of those albums that is so good, that I don't really listen to his other works anymore - as awesome as Andorra was. I don't know if you've heard "Bowls" yet - and I suspect you haven't - but it is easily the coolest instrumental all year. This was everyone's invitation to the trippiest anthropological rave of the year. (Basically, if you didn't see him at Sasquatch, you missed out.)

05.

Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Sorry FlyLo, but this was my favorite electronic album this year. It's very interesting because you can dance to it - "Love Cry" and "Sing" - or you can just chill to it - okay, all of the songs - there was no wrong way to listen to this album. There's plenty of vocal samples and cooing, which I like, because it shows the human element behind the laptop producing these beautiful sounds. Also, the closing track, "She Just Likes to Fight" is the equivalent of going to both an oxygen bar and a burlesque show. An odd description, but it works if you've heard it.

04.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

This is Deerhunter's most mature album to date. There's even a touching, albeit odd, tribute to the deceased Jay Reatard. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Microcastle and Cryptograms, but the filler was sometimes a bit too much. Halcyon corrects this problem by simply eschewing filler. And the results are amazing. This is sort of like the In Rainbows of 2010 - no filler, short and just really good rock. This is the kind of album that demands numerous listens - not because it's challenging, but because it's just such a pleasure to listen to. Trust me, "Desire Lines" gets more awesome with each listen.

03.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

The Coolest Album of the Year goes to.... this one! A little after the three-minute mark on opening track "Dance Yrself Clean", I knew that this was going to be an amazing album. No other album described hipsters better than this one - if only because James Murphy spent the whole CD making fun of them. If you don't believe me, check out the hilarious "Pow Pow". This is an over-hour long party where drunk girls get surprisingly deep and there's non-stop grooves and hooks. Yet, there's plenty of serious moments on here, as well. "I Can Change" is about changing yourself for someone, or risk being alone forever. But it's sleek 80's synth makes it feel right at home in this party of an album. Unfortunately, this is the last LCD Soundsystem album, but hey, what a badass way to leave the party.

02.

Beach House - Teen Dream

Everything is so warm about this album, yet so cold. The sounds are warm, but the lyrics are practically anything but. Katy Perry's Teenage Dream this is not. I loved this album the first time I heard it and it remained my favorite album of the year until a certain other album came out. Victoria Legrand's husky, yet, sultry voice grace this album like a blanket at the beach. And that's why this such an important example in polarity. It sounded great at the beach during summer, and it's comforting and even dark in winter. And yet, "Walk in the Park" is the best Autumn song since Sigur Ros' "Hoppipolla". Basically, you should go out and buy this, or download it or do whatever it is you usually do when acquiring music. Trust me. I don't think it's possible to not like this album.

01.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Arcade Fire are the J.D. Salinger of Indie music. The way they describe childhood malaise and ennui is staggering. Yet, it's extremely heartfelt and relatable. Arcade Fire have turned a nice, idyllic utopia into a frightening dystopia where "Malls rise like mountains beyond mountains". I wrote a review for this album earlier in the year on my friend Joe and I's website, but I've come to hate that review. It was written in haste. This is Arcade Fire's best album, and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is their best song since "Crown of Love". Somehow, Arcade Fire brought back disco. And the results were infectious. The rock on this album gears towards the school of the Boss ("Ready to Start" and "Month of May") and yet, it sounds brand new. The Suburbs cements Arcade Fire's status as the most important band in Indie, but that also means that they have graduated and are off into the stratosphere with the likes of Radiohead and Animal Collective. If you've ever waited for a letter, learned to drive, gone to a mall or just found the joys of an empty room because, "When I'm by myself, I can be myself" then this album is for you. Or, if you just like really awesome rock, then this will more than suffice. As long as there are childhoods, The Suburbs will be relevant.

Okay, time for songs. No descriptions because I'm tired of writing now. "Drunk Girls" was the best song of the year. The rest are just others I enjoyed.