Best Albums of 2010 (25-21)

2010 was a pretty stacked year for music, so I had to make some tough cuts when compiling my list. Last cut was the BAWSE! I hope he can find it in his giant heart to forgive me.

Probably not too broken up about his near miss on my list

Honorable Mentions:
Completely Removed - Medications: These guys are kinda like a poppier Dismemberment Plan and Completely Removed is a very solid record.

Friday Night Lights - J. Cole: It's a Cole World and we're just living in it. Though loaded with great tracks ("Villematic," "Home for the Holidays"), Friday Night Lights barely missed the cut because it plays more like a J. Cole greatest hits collection than a cohesive album and because of the lack of references to the amazing television show.

The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man on Earth: Scandinavia's answer to Bob Dylan continues to flourish and write fantastic, yet nearly indistinguishable, songs about death and love.

The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae: Monae wrote two of my favorite songs of the year ("Cold War" and "Tightrope" are better than almost everything else found on the albums on my main list), but I found the album a tad too conceptual and experimental for my tastes. Still, The ArchAndroid is a fascinating debut and Monae is capable of even greater things if she hones her pop instincts.

Teflon Don - Rick Ross: I wrote a glowing review of this one back in the Summer, but it just barely missed the cut because of the pure volume of quality music released this year.

Now on to the list:

25. Kush & OJ - Wiz Khalifa

"Everything is better when you're high" - "Up"

Wiz Khalifa reached the Billboard top 20 this year with the Stargate-produced "Black & Yellow," but his most buzzworthy release, the Kush & OJ mixtape, proves that Wiz is strongest when rapping over reverb-drenched guitar and 70s drums. Kush & OJ is a comprehensive chronicle of Wiz Khalifa's favorite things: smoking in the morning, orange juice, smoking in the afternoon, video games (see Chrono Trigger sampling "Never Been,") smoking with girls, Chuck Taylor shoes, smoking with his boys (he invites fellow stoners Curren$y and Big K.R.I.T. to join him in his "Glass House"), singing, smoking at night and rapping. By the end of listening to the record, they'll likely be your favorite things, too. Wiz boasts an infectious laugh (he seems to giggle on every track) and an even more infectious flow, reminiscent of stoner legends Snoop Dogg and Devin the Dude. Kush & OJ posits Khalifa as the quintessential 21st century partier, inviting you into his world of blunts, 40s and beautiful girls. Once you step in, its hard to leave.
Standout tracks: "Never Been," "Glass House," "Supply," "Still Blazin" (download link for the whole mixtape above)

24. Stuck on Nothing - Free Energy

"Bang pop pop. When does this searching stop?" - "Bang Pop"

Stuck on Nothing is what music would sound like if Big Star and the Replacements were the most popular artists of the past 30 years, instead of Madonna and Michael Jackson. Free Energy makes excellent pop songs with guitar and drums, instead of MPCs and 808s. More importantly, Free Energy is one of the few bands that do not try to hide their enthusiasm for their music. Stuck on Nothing is a fantastic synthesis of modern and classic rock, giving it a sense of timelessness that most music does not have . "Dream City," with its "na na na" chorus and sax outro, could have been written any time since Sgt. Peppers and "Hope Child" resembles what you would get if you let Julian Casablancas sing for Beggar's Banquet era Rolling Stones. That's the essence of Stuck on Nothing: a throwback that manages to convince you that it isn't a throwback.
Standout Tracks: "Free Energy," "Dream City," "Wild Winds."

23. The Hybrid - Danny Brown

"'Bout to live the title of the GREATEST RAPPER EVER"

Instead of posting a capsule review of Detroit MC Danny Brown's The Hybrid, I'm going to list some of my favorite lines from what might be, pound-for-pound, the best album for one-liners to come out in years:
"I rap like I bet my life on it/cause in all actuality, n***a I did/you rap like you used to hit the pipe/no that ain't dreck that's crackhead shit" - "Greatest Rapper Ever"

"I'm spittin' that shit, smokin on the regular/Writin' sixteens like internet child predators" - "Greatest Rapper Ever"

"Parque floor, green like Celtic/furniture you touch and be like 'what's that, velvet?'" - "Nowhere 2 Go"

"Sittin' in an Audi, L.A. hit the do-over/throwin' up the middle finger yelling f*ck Oprah!" - "The Nana Song"

"Eatin' Cheese Doodles, don't let the size fool you/tonight we eat shrimp take a break from the noodles" - "Thank God"

"Used to get domed up by crackheads/and still got my balls licked by pretty bitches" - "Re-Up"

22. Str8 Killa No Filla - Freddie Gibbs

"My sentiments exactly n***as can't outrap me" - "Crushin Feelin's"

Freddie Gibbs has a booming, authoritative voice and packs a lyrical punch to back it up. Gibbs has an uncommon versatility behind the mic, lending the same virtuosity and gravitas to weed anthem "Personal OG," as his autobiographical standout "The Ghetto." Like Danny Brown, Gibbs excels at painting a portrait of his unfortunate life for his readers, but unlike Brown, he has a fantastic ear for hooks. "National Anthem (F**k the World)" is Gibbs' mission statement, cursing out record labels who wouldn't sign him and the radio stations that wouldn't play his tracks, saying "all my sh*t still be bumpin/Never change my style up for any of them I'm strictly thuggin'." Str8 Killa lives up to its name, with great track following great track. Gangsta Gibbs is ready to hit it big and he's gonna do it his own way.
Standout tracks: "National Anthem," "The Ghetto," "Crushin' Feelin's," "Do Wrong," "Personal OG"

21. Astro Coast - Surfer Blood
"If you're movin' out to the west, then you'd better learn how to surf. The tide will break in on itself. There are no ghosts to exhume or unearth." - Floating Vibes

Astro Coast starts with the best 1-2 punch of 2010, when the Feelies-esque groove of "Floating Vibes" makes way for "Swim," a Weezer-like power ballad. "Floating Vibes" rides a distorted, yet melodic, guitar line to create atmosphere that lives up to its title. "Floating Vibes" is a perfect song to listen to when lying on a float in a public pool. "Swim," one of those songs that sounds like the band took the best parts of four or five songs and combined them, boasts a big guitar riff and an even bigger chorus. There's even a glockenspiel in the build-up to the chorus. Though the album tails off slightly after its exhilarating start, West Palm Beach's Surfer Blood out-California's most bands from California, recording the first great surf-rock album since Dick Dale died. (Bonus points for the red Gibson SG in the "Floating Vibes" video)
UPDATE: A little research shows that Dick Dale is not dead. Whoops! I still like the line though, so it's staying in. I hope you never die, Dick Dale! Here's "Misirlou"!
Standouts: "Floating Vibes," "Swim," "Harmonix"

Album Review - Rick Ross: Teflon Don -

It's the BOWSSSSS!

BOSS! ROZAY! I think I’m BIG MEECH! I listen to a lot of rap for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, such as when I’m listening to Nas, Common or the Tribe, I try to pay attention to the nuances of the beat and the rhythm and lyricism of the verses. Sometimes, however, I just wanna listen to a fat man shout inane catchphrases over the least subtle beat possible. Such is my feeling when I listen to “B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast),” the lead single from Teflon Don, Rick Ross’s fourth album. Ross makes music that appeals directly to the pleasure center of the brain – the area that has always dreamed of popping champagne on a luxury yacht.

Until recently, Rick Ross was a clown, the biggest joke in rap music. Ross is a (give or take) 300-pound man with a full beard who frequently appears shirtless in music videos. Though he has a booming voice, his flow was often stilted and halting and he could never seem to find a rhyming dictionary. Except when he rhymed his own name with the word Boss. He was very good at that and did that at least thirty times a song. Then there was that one verse in “Hustlin’” where he kept rhyming “twenty-twos” with “twenty-twos.” Adding insult, Ross, who consistently exaggerated about being a drug kingpin in his “rhymes,” was exposed as a former corrections officer, which is commonly known as the least hood profession (behind chartered accountant and insurance claims adjuster). It seemed like strong support from Def Jam and a friendship with Jay-Z were the only things keeping Ross from falling off the face of the Earth.

However, with the release of 2009’s Deeper Than Rap, and particularly the single “Maybach Music 2,” a strange thing happened: people began to take Rick Ross seriously. Ross embraced all the criticism levied against him for his previous releases and emphasized the most outrageous, oversized aspects of his music. Instead of rapping about selling drugs and being a kingpin, Ross focuses more on the spoils of his successes: money, cars, clothes and hos. In the late 70s, some (mostly crappy) rock bands released a brand of highly polished soft rock, called Yacht Rock, created to be the type of smooth music that a yacht owner would listen to on his boat. Ross, in 2010, has embodied a similar type of music, which I like to call yacht rap--music to be enjoyed while sipping Cristal on a speedboat, and possibly with strippers and high class prostitutes. Teflon Don is the epitome of his new yacht rap aesthetic.

On Teflon Don, Ross works with producers who can create a larger-than-life, cinematic synth sound and let Ross fill the spaces with his booming voice. The two (nearly identical) Lex Luger tracks, "MC Hammer" and "BMF," are symphonies of bombast and are full of quotable lines and catchphrases. The Boss of Teflon Don is much improved as a rapper . He has improved his delivery considerably and his lyricism isn't nearly as headache inducing as it used to be (or, more likely, he hired a couple good ghostwriters). Ross adopted Maybach Music as a motto, as Ross's music represents a life of unattainable luxury, which Ross enjoys. However, the difference between Teflon Don-Ross and the old Ross is evident on "Maybach Music III," in which he trades in the second version's T-Pain for critical darling Erykah Badu--classy, no? The A-List guest list (Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye, Gucci Mane, Drake) that Ross brings onto Teflon Don, furthers the conception that he's living a life that none of us can possibly lead, and though he's routinely murdered by these guests (especially by Kanye on "Live Fast, Die Young"), he seems less of a punching bag than a gracious host, allowing his friends to step into his mansion and kill a verse.

Ultimately, listening to Teflon Don is like watching a good episode of Entourage (read: one released before 2007). It gives the listener a taste of an unattainable, perfect life and lifestyle, without being the least bit pretentious or condescending. Teflon Don is breezy and very replayable, and while Ross may be full of shit, it doesn't matter if you buy the act and enjoy the fantastic production. While you may never think of Rick Ross as Big Meech or Larry Hoover, you can at least count on him as a reliable source of some truly enjoyable rap music.