Phil's Top 5 Albums of 2010 (so far)

Phil checking in here. This is a list of five albums I have enjoyed from this year. Off we go, after the jump:



1) Beach House - Teen Dream



In September of last year, I recognized and struck up a conversation with Alex Scally, the guitar player for Beach House, while working at an unnamed boutique hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon. During our conversation, he mentioned that he is looking forward to the new album release, because he and Victoria (Legrand, the singer and keyboard player for Beach House) hate their old material. Granted, it was six in the morning, and he said it with a slight chuckle, but I was pretty taken aback by the gravity of his statement, given how fond I was of Beach House and Devotion.

However, being a musician myself, I understand what it means to hate your songs. More often than not, it means you've got something bigger, better, more challenging and more rewarding up your sleeve, and you can't wait to show the world. And with Teen Dream, Alex and Victoria certainly had one hell of an ace up their sleeves. They have created an album that has an extremely specific (one might even say narrow) direction, yet evokes an incredibly broad array of emotions within the listener. It is not an album to listen to in the car with the windows down, or to play on the stereo with friends drinking beers on the porch. It's a stay-in-bed album (they don't call it "dream pop" for nothin'). An album to listen to in the closet with the lights off. It's an album to play over and over again. It's a blissful album.

2) Owen Pallett - Heartland



Of all the qualities I admire about Owen Pallett, it's his ability to plant his tongue firmly in-cheek that I adore the most. He creates beautiful musical landscapes and counter-balances them with utterly absurd narratives. Does he really sing about a Disney kid wearing cutoffs and a beater on this album? Does he really hit and break the jaw of a cockatrice on this album? He sure does. And you should hear what he can do with a violin and a loop pedal.

3) Caribou - Swim



Dan Snaith is charting new territory with Swim. He has been releasing understated psychadelic indie pop music under the monikers Manitoba and Caribou for about a decade now. But Swim is far too minimal to be a pop album. Instead, it's a mesmerizing microhouse album. It's hypnotic and romantic. It plays with your senses and does circles in your head. Allow me to repeat: The album does circles in your head.

4) Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti - Before Today



"Can't Hear My Eyes" is a smooth jam, reminiscent of post-disco 80s R&B. "Bright Lit Blue Skies" is a cover of 60s garage rockers The Rising Storm. The whole album has a retro feel to it, with a broad range of influences, which I suppose is nothing new for Ariel Pink, but it sounds absolutely magical here.

5) Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me



I spent the former half of 2010 largely in an empty apartment and a nearly-empty hospital in a city with which I was very unfamiliar. I worked graveyard shift and didn't have any friends. Have One on Me, much like Teen Dream, is a wonderfully comforting album to put on in an empty apartment. It's special for me. I have been spending the latter half of 2010 in good company and good spirits, but I still plead to retreat into Newsom's arms on bad days.