Back in 2007, a band called Thrice began working on a concept of having four EP’s spread across two albums, with each EP representing a classical element: fire, water, earth, and air.  Each element contained six songs, twenty-four songs in total.  Many regard this project, titled The Alchemy Index,  as their greatest recordings to date; each song bring brilliantly written, produced, as well as performed.  It was an original concept, deeply loved by their fans and many in the music community.  Three years later, a band called The Dear Hunter began working on a concept called The Color Spectrum, a concept of nine EP’s with four songs each, encompassing a single album of thirty-six songs.  Initially, many were skeptical it ripped off the idea of The Alchemy Index, with members of Thrice even joking about it during interviews, saying they would respond with a new project called The Periodic Table, with multiple songs dedicated to each chemical element, totaling hundreds of songs.  As big a fan as I am of The Dear Hunter, even I was skeptical at first, but in the end was blown away by the result.

The Color Spectrum, though you may argue the originality of the idea, is a great concept.  The colors (black, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet, blue, and white) each entail four amazing songs.  The groups themselves differ in genre, and though a couple songs may perceptively fit better within other colors, the album as a whole speaks wonders on the talented versatility within the band, namely Casey Crescenzo. Casey has proven his writing and vocal talents several times before with previous albums, and this project pushes the point further by showing his ability to create beauty outside of what seemed to be his comfort zone.

The album starts with the color black, a darker, heavier electronic/digital feel, and swiftly moves through other colors to get to the white finale.  Any listener can find something great on this album, be it country or heavy rock or folk or acoustic piano, there seems to be something for everyone (outside of hip hop) on this album.  You can find the classic Dear Hunter style of violin, horn, guitar driven story-telling (indigo, violet), but you need to hear the differing styles you’ve yet to hear from them (black, yellow, orange, red, etc.).  Key tracks on this album would pretty much be the fourth song from each EP, as they all sum up the color perfectly.  ”This Body”, “We’ve Got A Score To Settle”, “But There’s Wolves?”, “Misplaced Devotion” (a personal favorite of mine, strangely reminiscent of Mumford & Sons), “The Inheritance”, “The Collapse of the Great Tide Cliffs”, “Therma”, “Look Away”, and “Lost But Not All Gone.”

I honestly cannot say enough great things about this album.  You can argue all you want whether they ripped off Thrice, but in the end, you have to appreciate the talent, versatility, and beauty that is The Color Spectrum.  As much as I’d hate for this concept to be a trend, I would love for more bands to do things like this.  The Color Spectrum is my favorite album of the year so far.  Please give it a listen.  Five out of five stars. *****

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Manchester Orchestra that some blogs and review sites, for some reason, seem to have a huge distaste for.  More specifically, I refer to Pitchfork… I may be snobby, but I’m not a hipster and I do have a deep appreciation for music, regardless of genre or fashion sense.  Sorry Pitchfork, but you’re wrong about this band.  ”Simple Math” is the band’s third full length, and sits as a great blend of the first two.  It takes the subtlety of the debut, grabs the big arena-distortion of the second, and becomes something beautiful on its own.  This album starts soft and quickly builds into something that sends shivers up your arms.  Fans of the band will love the continuation of their progression, and people who don’t know them can watch the video for the single, “Simple Math,” and fall in love.  The video for “Simple Math” is one of the best videos I may have ever seen.  It shows that people can still create amazing videos, that there are ideas still out there.  I’m honestly at a bit of a loss for words with this album.  It’s inherently good, its production is outstanding, and it leaves you wishing there were more than just 10 songs.  One thing I frequently get disappointed by, is when a band comes out with an album consisting of only 9 or 10 songs.  If you release an album, make an album.  Just  because you barely made the double-digit mark doesn’t mean you should stop there.  A full length should consist of upwards of 12 to 14 tracks (not including skits or excerpts).  However, that doesn’t take away from the album as a whole, so mind the mini-rant.  The best tracks on the album are certainly “Simple Math,” “Virgin,” and “Pensacola.”  This is a band who has seemed to evolve into each album rather than just creating another to fill a contract.  Giving this album more listens also gives this album more separation from the previous albums.  I give this album a full five out of five.  I love it.

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Cage is a band that hijacked radio, television, and video games with the song “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked.”  If you ever read my review of that album, which you probably didn’t, you’d know that I only gave it a 3 out of 5, due to all other songs outside of “In One Ear” being nothing like the hit, and the album as a whole being a little too heavy on the Zeppelin rock we’ve all heard before.  With Thank You Happy Birthday, it’s clear that Cage went into the studio with the intention to do anything they felt like doing.  It opens up with the catchiest song on the album, “Always Something,” reminiscent to the odd rhythm of “Wicked.”  The whole album has twists and turns, going from what appears to be a would-be single, to something completely confusing and left-field.  The majority of this album could never do well on radio, but that doesn’t mean the songs aren’t good, they just don’t belong in the mainstream.

Fans of the first album are going to initially be turned off completely by the new album.  But in a way, I like that.  Don’t expect anything on this album to be similar to the first, or really anything you’d expect from them.  If the album is anything, it’s original.  One of the more original albums to come out for a very long time.  And though this goes against what I just said about originality, this album has a great 90′s feel to it.  A lot of the mixing and themes will bring you right back to the mid 90′s alt rock that you loved so much.  Honestly, you’ll probably see a lot more of this from bands.  The 80′s throwback is HOPEFULLY on it’s way out, and even though I keep repeating that to myself while continuously getting let down, I certainly feel that the time is nigh.  What’s next? Well, what killed the 80′s?  Grunge.  And you will hear a lot of grunge influence on this album, even though you may have to search through chaos to find it.  Though I’m excited for a 90′s throwback with original twists, I’m also scared it will be the new big thing and overstay it’s welcome.

Thank You Happy Birthday, at it’s core, sounds almost like an experiment for the band.  Like they wanted to have a couple catchy songs to appease the fans, but primarily wanted to go crazy and push the limits of absurdity to see who will follow.  Just listen to the songs “Sell Yourself” and “Sabertooth Tiger” and you’ll know exactly what I mean.  You know that annoying chick that you see at Pinkberry that’s like “O M G! Cage The Elephant is soooo cool! No Rest For The Wicked is like the cooooolest song!” Well, this album is going to hit her in the face as she frustratedly thinks to herself, “so now I have to like THIS in order to be hip?”  This album may not sell as much as the first, or have nearly as many downloaded singles, but I have a good feeling this will be the fan favorite years down the road.  Four out of five stars.

#10 – Eminem Recovery

We’ll start with the album that isn’t necessarily a surprise to be on the list, but was initially a surprise to be good at all.  His previous work, Relapse, was a huge disappointment to fans, but still critically acclaimed.  That isn’t really shocking though considering the “critics” who “acclaim” the album are usually people who don’t understand hip-hop at all or have any knowledge on the subject.  ”Hey, it looks like Eminem has his first album out since 2004. It must be his comeback! It’s probably really deep and awesome!” Let’s be honest, even Eminem recognized the mediocrity that flooded that album.  He spent a good chunk of Recovery talking about how he disappointed fans and how he worked hard on the current installment trying to not make the same mistakes again.  It goes to show he cares much more about his fans than his critics, which, regardless of how I may feel about something being a critic, needs to happen more often.  The album was good, and is probably going to grab even more Grammy’s for the artist this year.  Well done, Em.

#9 – N.E.R.D. Nothing

This album further proves was great musicians these guys are.  They are underrated and overlooked, but still highly respected in the industry.  A good throwback to old school Soul and R&B, this album has it’s flaws, but its certainly a step in a direction you will see a lot more people lean towards.

#8 – Big Boi Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

This is an album that should have been released circa 2007, but due to label complications and reps not understanding its artistic creativity, it was pushed back until recently.  Not a bad thing in the long run, since it still exploded with originality even if belated three years.  It’s a fantastic reminder of just how ridiculous both members of Outkast are, as it inherits classic sounds from the group, while also shooting into futuristic areas that apparently label reps couldn’t wrap their heads around three years ago.  Not to mention, it has one of the best intro’s I have ever heard on a hip-hop album.  There isn’t a single song on the album that isn’t short of fantastic.  A must have for people who love the genre.

#7 – Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

A phenomenal album coming from the biggest love/hate artist in the industry, possibly ever.  He is the only artist that could ever piss off thousands upon thousands of Bonnaroo attendees, wrongfully embarrass a teenage country sensation in front of a live national audience, release pictures of his dick online, become the joke of one of the highest rated South Park episodes ever, and still sell a shitload of records while achieving high critical acclaim.  He is cocky and completely self-absorbed, but still a musical genius and a legend of this generation.  This album further proves both his insanity and talent, joining along a brilliant short film that, in my opinion, is a major turning point in music video history.

#6 – Glassjaw (all released singles)

Ok, so I know this isn’t an album, but that doesn’t stop these tracks from being incredibly important.  Glassjaw is a band that wrongfully got mixed up in the late 90′s/early 2000′s mix of nu-metal bands.  The had a phenomenal major label release in  ’02, a gigantic cult following, but they also had so many contractual problems that they were nearly forgotten.  While one member went on to found one of the biggest artist merch sites available (MerchDirect.com), another to be involved in about four other bands, another to put together the band MenWomenAndChildren, and the other two to join Saves The Day, it was long believed that a third album would never happen.  It was a shock and surprise to everyone when a track called “You Think You’re (John Fucking Lennon)” appeared in an audio stream on their website in November of 2008.  Though taken down soon after, each following bit of information regarding future recordings and show appearances acted as drops of gin to an alcoholic audience going through horrible withdrawals.  It wasn’t until August of this year that they started gradually releasing singles, one by one, from their upcoming EP, rumored to come out on 1/1/11.    It has earned a #6 spot on this list because the songs are that good.  All Glassjaw fans are going ape-shit over them, and though it’s believed that all songs on the upcoming EP have all been released (five in total), if the future of the band’s writings and recordings are anything like this, you can expect them to absolutely explode back onto the scene any day now.

#5 – Look What I Did Atlas Drugged

An underground band with a dedicated following combined with intellectual music ability and industry know-how, Look What I Did’s third installment is a fantastic testament to what harder music needs to be: original.  The band can’t necessarily be compared to anyone else, though if you really know that genre you can hear certain influences.  They have been around for nearly a decade, and their maturity over the years is shown in songs like “Pussy Comitatus” and “Baby Darwins.”   While still holding onto their signature blasts of energy and lyrical wisdom, Look What I Did is a band to make note of.  This album may not make a lot of Top 10 lists, but that’s merely because the word hasn’t spread far enough…yet.  Expect a lot from these guys, and especially of a new platform lead vocalist Barry Donegan is helping develop called Gazzmic, which aims to revolutionize the way bands and artists develop and market themselves in this new age.

#4 – Karen Elson The Ghost Who Walks

It is very rare that a model-turned-artist actually provides an album worth notice, and this is the most prime example.  Karen Elson started as a very talented and successful model, posing for magazines such as Vogue, W, Elle, and several others.  On top of her exemplary modeling career, she started dabbling in music providing backing vocals for Robert Plant’s Dreamland, a duet with CatPower, as well as a lead spot with a New York based cabaret group, The Citizen’s Band.  Also, she just so happens to be married to Jack White.  Eventually Jack convinced her to do her own album, with his talents as producer.  The album came out nearly perfectly.  Overly enjoyable and easy to love, The Ghost Who Walks, makes you realize just how talented  Karen is, and it puzzles you as to why this is only her debut.  I, along with many others, eagerly await a follow-up.

#3 – Foxy Shazam Foxy Shazam

Foxy Shazam is a band that The Dune Review has mentioned several times, and it’s a bit obvious we are huge fans of them here (you like how I use the word “we” instead of “I”? It’s so you think this site is bigger and more important than it actually is).  We listen to this album constantly and it never stops being brilliant.  Unfortunately, this band isn’t as big as they should be.  With an album like this, combined with one of the greatest on-stage performances in the industry today, the ignited wick is creeping closer and closer to dynamite.  Don’t believe me? Take a look at the comments people leave on their videos and iTunes pages.  The songwriting talent they have developed over the three albums added to their catalogue so far is unbelievable.  Check this album out, I implore you, you will be thankful.

#2 – Dillinger Escape Plan Option Paralysis

I realize many people may not understand this genre of music, as to many it sounds like random noise and screams.  Those who do understand the genre, however, more than likely completely agree with my decision to put this album so far up on this list.  Dillinger Escape Plan has always been the band that other acts in any type of metal genre look up to.  In actuality, they are one of the most respected bands around, regardless of genre.  When it comes to metal, most of it begins to blend together after a while, creating a boring, uninteresting soup filled with black hair dye and undersized clothes.  Option Paralysis gives life into a genre lacking in new ideas.  To say that this album sets a new standard is an understatement.  They took the bar, shredded it, shoved it into a potato gun, and blasted it through the ceiling.  It further proves why this band is so feared.  It’s why people listen to new bands like Periphery and say “yeah, they’re pretty awesome, but they’re no Dillinger.”

#1 – Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer

Is this really a surprise? The moment the single “Fuck You,” hit the internet, The Lady Killer became the most anticipated album of the year.  It’s difficult to come up with another song from a major artist that virally spread so quickly.  Not a single person heard “Fuck You” and had a “meh” attitude.  It was one of the most brilliantly written songs in a very long time, and it’s a great example of how the rest of the album sounds.  Every single song on this album is amazing.  It’s nearly impossible to listen to it and not want to dance until your feet bleed or get goosebumps with the final two tracks.  Cee Lo has long been a great writer, but always remained underrated…that is, until now.  Not only is this album on the top of this list, but “Fuck You” is certainly the #1 jam of 2010.  Expect Cee Lo to take away a nice handful of Grammy’s, as well as the respect he has so long deserved.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Deftones have always done well.  They have their dedicated following, they’ve earned their respect, etc.  Honestly, for them to keep pumping out albums is borderline unnecessary, but we would never let them know it.  Honestly, all of their albums sound pretty similar but with different themes or emotions.  This album isn’t anything too different, but that doesn’t stop it from being a fantastic album.  Along with that, they really stepped up their game when it comes to music videos.  ”Rocket Skates” is a fantastic throwback reminiscent of the video for “Be Quiet And Drive,” and “You’ve Seen The Butcher” shows what performance shots need to look like, while being one of the sexiest dark videos in a good while (just ignore the video for “Diamond Eyes” because it’s kinda lame).  For fans of Deftones, and for kids who were teenagers in the late 90′s, this album is a must have.

Childish Gambino - Culdesac

Those who know this artist also know him as Donald Glover, the multi-talented actor who plays Troy on the show Community.  Not only is he great there, but he’s also a part of the sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy, a trio of comedians that blew up online with the help of College Humor and YouTube, while still doing his own personal stand-up on the side.  Still not impressed? Well, he’s also a writer for 30 Rock.  The kid has four jobs.  You’ll be seeing a lot more of him, and his music as well.  Take the few good things about Drake, combine them with Lil’ Wayne, crumble on some MC Chris, and blend it with indie-rock, and you will have the album Culdesac.  The dude is really, really talented.  And, the album is free.  How can you dislike that? Check out www.culdesac-album.com to get yourself a copy.