The LPC Staff's Top Ten of 2010: CaptainCommonSense

Back again today with another top ten list for you readers. Today, we're featuring CaptainCommonSense's top ten albums of 2010. Much like thessad, his main interests in music are indie rock and hip-hop, but you can't ignore his taste for noise rock and metal.

Without further ado, here's CaptainCommonSense's top ten albums of 2010:

10. No Age - Everything In Between

No Age is without a doubt one of my favorite noise rock bands ever, and definitely my favorite from the 2000's. Why? Because No Age is just great at writing catchy noise rock songs that stick with you. Like many of the other albums on the list, it's something you could see yourself listening to months from now, maybe even a year or 2 later.

9. The River Empires - Epilogue

29 Tracks. 29 Tracks usually is a big signal for me that an album is not worth my time. In this case those 29 tracks are some of the best 29 tracks this year. This Bluegrass/Prog Folk album is exceptionally great, and it manages to keep a person's interest all over the 1 and a half hours of great music this almost effortless churns out. It sounds like what would happen if Sufjan Stevens and Wilco (On their more country sounding sounds) teamed up and I enjoy this every time I listen to it.

8. Envy - Recitation

Despite me not being able to understand a word they're saying, I love this CD because of their ability to play. Although it is kind of alleviated by the fact that a lot of it is Post Rock, the Spoken word & Screamo portions in Japanese still hold my interest. I'd probably write more about this if I actually got it but it's definitely worth a listen or 2.

7. The Black Keys - Brothers

I've never listened to The Black Keys before. In fact, I had just jumped on the MTV bandwagon when they started playing their songs during commercial breaks for The Real World. I kind of expected this to suck but I was really, and I mean really, surpised at how fun this is. The Black Keys are a indie Blues Rock duo that's just now getting mainstream attention for this album, and with this I can't really see how I didn't notice these 2 before. The soulful singing and rough guitar work seems like something I would have picked up sooner. It's definitely a fun album, sort of in the same vein as "Is This It?" by The Strokes as it's a simple album that you could just replay over and over and over again.

6. Big K.R.I.T. - K.R.I.T. Wuz Here

My friends, I bring you the second coming of Pimp C. K.R.I.T. skyrocketed from being virtually unknown to one of the premier underground rappers/producers in the South. K.R.I.T. starts of the record with 2 of hardest songs of 2010 so far: Country Shit and Return Of 4Eva. Country Shit especially becomes a Southern anthem following other songs kind of like Southern Hospitality but from a "Pimp" mentality. As a rapper/producer he naturally has an exceptional ear for music and he knows how to make tracks bump. Lyrically the tracks shift between UGK/Big Boi style pimp-ish lyrics to politically influenced Goodie Mob songs. The best part about this is it whets your appetite for more of this, and leaves you excited for more of his work.

"Winners never lose, how dare you confuse us
They quote what I spit like Confucius"


5. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

From the very first time I heard Cosmogramma I could tell it's going to be an album I listen to for years to come. Cosmogramma is a fusion of Flying Lotus's influences: Jazz, Hip-Hop and IDM. The album comes across as an almost flawless experiment in mixing and matching these. It's something that anyone can sit there and enjoy, wheather they like Hip-Hop or Electronic.

4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Before I go on, let me say that 808's is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. Now if 808's was good, how does one improve on that? Does he follow it up with another sad auto-tuned affair or does he go back to his straight rapping roots? He certainly has evolved a lot as an artist over the years, going from his early production and his rise to fame because of that, to his humble rapping beginnings, then moving on to his more experimental stuff on 808's (and Graduation I guess, he tried a few new things on that too) and now to this. This piece of work.

I purposely tried my best to ignore the G.O.O.D. Friday tracks, as a bunch of the songs that made it on the album were apparently taken directly from G.O.O.D. Friday (don't quote me on that though). I tried to surprise myself by waiting and seeing what Kanye had in store for us. His whole Phoenix movie thing on MTV didn't really get my hopes up for the album much as it seemed like he was trying too hard to be "artsy" and it would probably blow up in his face, but the singles like Runaway kept me from losing all hope. The beginning is more of "Old Kanye" as he's putting more of a focus on his rapping instead of his singing, which is always welcome, while the latter half is more of "New Kanye" where he does a lot of singing, but not really anything reminisent of 808's (In fact, the only track that sounds 808's ish is Lost In The World). It kicks off pretty light but then progresses and proceeds to take us on a joyride with Kanye at his most experimental, and as makes this one sound "different".

3. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

According to a Pitchfork review, Halcyon Digest is about the joys of music discovery. I guess it's fitting that when I heard this album for the first time I was really excited because it was eye opening. Like there was pre Halcyon Digest 2010 and a post one for me because when a record like this drops, it changes the whole landscape of music in a period. The discovery of that particular song or band that you can just connect to is an awesome experience.

The sound of this album is just really fucking amazing, for lack of a better word. It's intoxicating to the point where you could spend days listening to this 1 CD and never get tired of it. Which is what I've done, on top of Pilot Talk and Kanye's new album, I've been listening to this one a lot lately just trying to take it in more, and it's gotten better with every playthrough. Helicopter stands out as the best track on the album and probably my song of 2010. He Would Have Laughed is another song that I greatly enjoyed as it was a tribute to Jay Reatard, member of The Reatards. This entire album just manages to have a sort of feel to it, different from some of the stuff they did before, like a sort of sincerity that you just don't find much anymore. I love it. I absolutely love it.

2. World's End Girlfriend - Seven Idiots

I haven't played a Final Fantasy game since I was about 16, but I've always wanted to revisit the series. The sights and sounds shifted between light-hearted to sorrowful in a descending fashion, like it's taking you from the norm and then slowly dragging you down to the end. I get the same feeling during this album. I really have to get around to thanking Red for this one, as it's probably one of the most mind blowing pieces of music I've ever heard. I was immediately curious as to what kind of CD could leave him not knowing what to classify it as, so I naturally had to hear what this was. The moment I started listening to this, I was just awestruck at how amazing this album sounds. The math rock-ish guitar riffs to the glitchy sort of beeps crafted some sort of entrancing sound that carried my emotion as the album progressed. As the album went on and the tone became more sad and dark, I actually sort of felt the same, which doesn't happen very often. And on the earlier tracks such as "Les Enfants du Paradis", the upbeat feel it had left me feeling cheerful. It's almost an Opera, but there no scenes or acts in the conventional sense, just his instruments telling a devine tragedy.

1. Curren$y - Pilot Talk

Curren$y has had a weird career so far - he was on Young Money, one of the most hated labels on the internet, left there in 2007 and got signed to Amalgam to release "This Ain't No Mixtape", his debut album. From there, he released more mixtapes such as "Smokee Robinson" and then came out with this earlier this year. This then became my album of the year from when it came out (I believe back in June) to about October, and for good reason. Curren$y's lazy yet technical and well thought out way of rhyming is almost as good as the weed he was smoking probably all throughout this album's conception. Curren$y's flow is intoxicating and addictive, and when backed by what almost sounds like live instrumentation it basically becomes audio dope. Curren$y always was a fun rapper to listen to because the laid back feel of his music is almost like a modern day Snoop Dogg. On Breakfast it kind of hits you why you like Curren$y in the first place, he can get away with rapping about anything because he can make things sound...well...hot. Over a jazzy beat he just went off and started rapping about playing NBA Live while eating snacks and then goes on to say "Off brand mother-fucker/Odd number/You are not even/On my level...". I guess that's just part of his appeal, that almost "I don't care" sort of effortless feeling that you get when he raps.

So on today's list, you got a new #1 album, but you've seen a recurring theme so far - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy really is that good.