HT 25 Best Albums of 2010: Numbers 6-10
For the second consecutive year at Hidden Track, we concocted our innovative little experiment for the year-end Best Albums list. Instead of picking the old fashioned way – subjectively – we opted for something a little different: a collaborative, collective list that incorporates the opinions of everybody here at HT.
To begin, we devised an all-encompassing list of well over 100 nominees, whereby most everything our contributors recommended made the list. Then we invited our crew of writers to independently and blindly vote on the whole list on a scale of 1 to 20 (20 = five stars). We ended up with varying degrees of familiarity with the nominees as some folks voted on just about everything, while some just a few. From there, we deployed our egghead algorithm for rating albums: (two times the average rating) + (the total number of votes). At that point, we took the top 25 highest scores and presto: the Hidden Track 25 Best Albums of 2010. No bullshit, no big opinions; just the results.
We’ve got just ten albums to go on our week long countdown, let’s check out albums number 6-10…
10) Beach House – Teen Dream
Key Tracks: Zebra, 10 Mile Stereo and Norway
Sounds Like: The music a female version of Neil Young would make while fighting the effects of Ambien
The Skinny: Beach House’s Sub-Pop debut, the band’s third full-length album, showed a major progression in the band’s sound as the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally put together an album of dreamy originals that draws you in during the first few seconds of opening track Zebra and doesn’t let you go until the final notes of the closing Take Care. In between, Legrand and Scally take us on a tour of diverse soundscapes with layer upon layer of goodness that you’d never expect from a two-some. Whether using organs, slide guitar, or lush harmonies – Beach House put together a masterpiece of atmospheric rock.
READ ON for the next four albums in our countdown…
came out in 1997. At points you almost forget the band still exists. For the group’s first full-length since 2002, the Brit-pop act returned with another album full of their unique blend of British Invasion rock, mixed with sitars, eclectic samples and sound collages. The LP includes a fantastic cover of Manfred Mann’s version of The Mighty Quinn and the soaring 16-plus minute psychedelic-gospel-funk-soul jam Turned On Truth.
next Tuesday and are primed for a breakout year of their own, managed to turn a truncated 45-minute set into a free-wheeling showcase of their boozy, country-infused, folk-rock.
