musicAddicted

10. Warpaint - The Fool
9. These New Puritans - Hidden
8. The Radio Dept. - Clinging To a Scheme
7. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
6. Perfume Genius - Learning

(Listen to the samples and read my descriptions below.
Don’t forget to check ranks 5-1 & top alternative albums of 2010. Also, check top 5 pop singles.)

10. Warpaint - The Fool

In the song that gave name to Warpaint, Emily Kokal sings that the war you fight is underneath the water, getting even deeper. Really, The Fool takes place inside of this completely female quartet’s hearts, whose music is often tagged as post-punk, psychedelic rock, or art-rock. Their songs handle with love; unfulfilled, misunderstood, too fearful, or egoistically cruel. Warpaint write stories that everyone can identify with as they describe well-known feelings of snub, infidelity or a fear of loss and at the same time they amazingly combine three different vocals with echoed guitars and vigorous drums. Warpaint fight their battle inside & although they lose their love, their music is a victory for listeners.

9. These New Puritans - Hidden

Jack Barnett, main brain of These New Puritans chose bassoon as a central instrument for their latest work, Hidden. He was probably amazed by its mysterious, but warm sound that can be transformed into two basic emotional layers: deep, staccato tones invoke warning, or combative siren, while the higher ones sound almost fairytale-like. Hidden consists of various winds, Czech Orchestra and child choir that deepen its frighteningly mystic atmosphere. The most impressive ingredient is the subduing vigour and aggression of hip-hop beats and hard electronics that can also evolve into gothic, seriously classic scariness. As much as Hidden is beautiful, it is frightening.

8. The Radio Dept. - Clinging To a Scheme

In the end of the catchiest song, Never Follow Suit, Johan Duncanson sings that “We will never follow suit, we will always stay off route.” The most successful album of Swedish trio clings to its engaging aversion towards commerce, business and politics and despite their light naïveté and frequent disagreement, their music is believable. Because Clinging To a Scheme is an expression of youth resolution and protest. The fact that all of the three are in their thirties emphasizes its nostalgia that dwells in lo-fi approach, retro synthesizers, hush and dreaminess. Clinging To a Scheme retains its simplicity and welcome brevity that stay detailed and imaginative. Piece of synth-pop, little bit of shoegaze, small part of rock, The Radio Dept. are amazingly and freezingly mixed pop-cocktail.

7. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

The Age of Adz, Sufjan’s sixth studio album is true to the overused saying that you will love it or hate it. After this year’s earlier EP All Delighted People, Sufjan ran into the territory of dissonant electronics that reach maximalist size again. Above his typical acoustic banjo, choirs, strings and winds he adds gargantuan dose of droning electronics that sometime feel too much. Moreover, his tenderly boyish voice was filtered through Auto-tune to reach plastic caricature sound. His megalomaniac album mixes traditional balladic folk with experimental synth-pop, avant-garde and contemporary R&B. The result is a huge emotional dose that is hard to manage while the 25-minute epic giant Impossible Soul creates its own dimension. The Age of Adz stands on the hazardous edge between grotesque, kitsch, tragedy and perfect epics. Sufjan then reminds an antic hero who defiantly struggles against all around him, but most importantly, against himself. Fortunately, he doesn’t loose and don’t die as he would in antic tragedy but on the contrary, he fulfills his ambition and brings an ultimate piece of art.

6. Perfume Genius - Learning

Learning is one of the most emotional and demanding artistic statements in few years and to understand it on the first listen is probably impossible. The whole story of Mike Hadress is captured on his debut: from abuse and depression to a nerve collapse that evolved into the recording of Learning. 26 years old Hadrreass bet on the straightforwardness: ten short songs for piano and electronic organ were composed during a short time exactly in the same order as found on the album, what makes it even more autobiographic image of Hadreass’ depressive-apathetic ideas and life observations. The most outstanding song is ‘Mr Peterson,’ a song about ambiguous relationship to his teacher, who needed his love, played him Joy Division tapes and when Hadreass was sixteen, Peterson jumped of the building. Learning is weirdly gorgeous thanks to its honesty and fragility that charm slowly, but surely.