Best of 2010 • The albums we adored pt. II

A lot of painstaking thought went into compiling this list: the fifty albums of 2010, made by or prominently featuring women, that really knocked our socks off. Some did it quietly and with heart, others by sheer force of will, but all of them got under our skins and stayed there. Here are the twenty-five that impressed us more than anything else we heard this year.

Honourable mentions | 50–26

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[Bird; June 2010]

“This is music that reaches into the depths of those willing to give it the time and attention it needs. And that is perhaps the crux of this; The Fallen By Watch Bird has to be taken as a whole. While a couple of tracks on the album can be taken as coherent in themselves, it really is a piece of music that needs listening to intently from start to finish. At times quite moving in ways which are hard to fathom, it’s a quiet masterpiece of intriguing imagination.” – Martyn Clayton

Try these: ‘Europium Alluminate’, ‘Whispers Of Winter’, ‘Noctilumina’

[Ninja Tune; August 2010]

“The sin of pop music at its worst is hearing the wails of a talented singer divorcing themselves from what is essentially their core instrument. Soul music of course, is the antithesis of this, a genre where the singer is encouraged to draw as much of themselves up into their song as is possible. It’s in the goosebump thrill of this that Andreya Triana excels. An intuitive singer aware of the power that pauses can command, Triana also refuses to overextend her lyrics, instead letting each sentence cascade into short, elegant strokes, creating a natural grandeur. As such, there are no overstuffed joints here; everyone one of Lost Where I Belong‘s nine tracks are standalone works of soul-tingling beauty, symphonic in power because of their subtle, sailing simplicity.” – Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Try these: ‘Town Called Obsolete’, ‘Lost Where I Belong’, ‘Darker Than Blue’

[Preservation; August 2010]

“For a long time now it has seemed that the contemporary classical scene has been barricaded to female solo pianists. Though the past decade has seen artists composing for classical instruments unexpectedly in the ascendant, most of them are pianists who build their arrangements around their majestic keyboard-led instrument; and most of them are men. Fresh hope for redressing the gender imbalance is arguably personified in Australian pianist and composer Sophie Hutchings. Her modern approach to classical music is distinct in its perception and highlighting of the melodic motifs, employing complicated textures only to serve her own aesthetic purpose rather than any virtuosic posing or some elitist eligibility. Becalmed is a soothing and ever-surprising collection that sounds shockingly mature to be her debut.” – Tomas Slaninka

Try these: ‘Portrait Of Haller’, ‘Sunlight Zone’, ‘Following Sea’

[EMI Norway; March 2o10]

“Classically trained Norwegian pianist Susanne Sundfør took a huge artistic leap with her third album, The Brothel, positioning herself as a contender for the avant-garde elite that includes the likes of Joanna Newsom and Hildur Guðnadottir. Sundfør has never sounded so expressive, so vulnerable, intense and epic. The Brothel is unquestionably one of the masterpieces of 2010.” – Alan Pedder

Try these: ‘The Brothel’, ‘Lilith’, ‘O Master’

[K; June 2010]

“There are break up albums and then there are the kind of albums that totally reinvent the tone, the kind where it almost seems possible to hear the singer’s heart actually break. No Snare from Portland resident Melanie Valera, better known as Tender Forever, belongs to the latter category. With flair and charisma, Valera presents a visceral, melancholic, resonant and, yes, downright tender narrative of falling out of love. She truly lays it bare on this newest release, condensing every last bit of emotional turmoil in to each of this short album’s nine songs.” – Elyse Cain

Try these: ‘Like The Snare That’s Gone’, ‘Unfortunate Friends’, ‘Got To Let Go’

[One Little Indian; September 2010]

“In ‘Crazy Car’, Arnalds sings, “What is wrong with vanity? / why not just embrace it?” – and she’s completely right. Innundir Skinni touches on all the positive meanings of ‘vanity’ in its purest form, where undressed melodies are treated with arrangements that add new colours while retaining their fragility. As a document of Arnalds’ artistic maturation, its tapestry of moods and ideas guarantee that any walk inside of Arnalds’ inner world is both amusing and surprising; the only discontent comes when the journey ends after just thirty minutes.” – Tomas Slaninka

Try these: ‘Innundir Skinni’, ‘Crazy Car’, ‘Madrid’

[PIAS; May 2010]

“Grey Oceans heralds a subtle change of sound for Bianca and Sierra Casady that seems almost simplistic and refined next to the dense, emotionally raw content of its predecessor, The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn. Clean, classical piano has overtaken the previously predominant toys and harp strings, a new energy provided by recently adopted band member Gael Rakotondrabe, a jazz pianist the sisters met in their native Paris. The swirling, ever-tangled CocoRosie stalwarts of opera, electronica, blues and folk are still here, but have morphed and transitioned, smoothing out some of the DIY fuzz and static of earlier releases. The instrumentation is more solid, more tangible, yet the air has grown mystical; expansive as a forest or the open seas, Grey Oceans is suffused with a tear-kissed melancholy that mingles teasingly with sprite-like faerie mischief and desert magic, touched with soulful, jazz-inflected melodies.” – Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Try these: ‘Lemonade’, ‘Smokey Taboo’, ‘Gallows’

[Crossbill; June 2010]

“Based predominantly on ‘lovey-dovey’ matters of the heart, despite the title’s suggestive, sinister subtext, Songs For The Ravens is perhaps best described as generally quite adorable, sometimes bordering on the well-meaning complexity of infatuation. Every emotional need is covered so that, while the songs are not exactly varied in focus or feel, it’s clear that Sea Of Bees are no one-trick, er, corvid. An engaging introduction to a nice new talent, one can only imagine that the big black birds will tap their beaks on a nearby surface, both in time and in approval.” – Anna Claxton

Try these: ‘Wizbot’, ‘Skinnybone’, ‘Fyre’

Read our interview with Sea Of Bees

[Sub Pop; March 2010]

“I Will Be sifts ’60s girl-group sentiments through a filter of sparkling pop structures and garage-punk salutations, all cultured under the care of producer Richard Gottehrer and coasting with summery surf magic with each wave of reverb. There’s a wholesomely sensual, romantically frenetic power to the album, captured on the surfy bravado of the title track, which speeds with beating-heart rhythms and twanging guitar trysts. The urgency that begins on ‘It Only Takes One Night’ is simmered down into the melancholy, angelic harmonies and fine, twinkling strings of closer ‘Baby Don’t Go’, bowing out an album that thrills from beginning to end. It’s over in less than half an hour but radiates with a versatile, classic greatness that means repeated replays are a necessary joy. I Will Be is the schoolbook crush that grew up into a genuine young love; blissfully exciting and forever cherished.” – Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Try these: ‘Baby Don’t Go’, ‘Jail La La’, ‘Bhang Bhang, I’m A Burnout’

[Souterrain Transmissions; October 2010]

“Despite its traditional eponymous label suggesting that Marnie Stern’s heavily caffeinated music might have calmed a little, that’s simply not the case. Marnie Stern is as densely arranged and as freely careening as its predecessor. Listening to it can occasionally feel like riding a rodeo horse. Give it a fair chance, though, and it begins to make sense. On the first listen it’s exhausting; on the tenth, it’s compelling. A strange and beautiful album that confirms Stern’s status as an artist sui generis.” – Christopher Monk

Try these: ‘For Ash’, ‘Female Guitar Players Are The New Black’, ‘Her Confidence’

[XL; February 2010]

“The Magician’s Private Library provides a unique listening experience that makes perfect sense when pictured as having sprung from the inner sanctum of someone rifling through the bookshelves of illusionists, dreamers and believers in the supernatural. A willing participant, Miranda mystically waltzes through corridors of dusty scripts, the spectre of Jeff Buckley floating above her, sometimes possessing her in a passionate vocal before chasing her from the library to become a hopeless soul once more, leaving only vivid colours and an enraptured girl wishing the adventure would never end. Yet all good things must, at least for now. But if this stunning debut is anything to go by, we can only hope Miranda has plenty of sequels in store.” – Anna Claxton

Try these: ‘Forest Green Oh Forest Green’, ‘Joints’, ‘Waves’

[Hyperdub; April 2010]

“Contact, Love, Want, Have is the debut album from Ikonika, aka Sara Abdel-Hamid, one of London’s most exciting electro-based artists. There’s an ever-present urban style to the beats and structures, which take an inventive, original approach, but what really astounds are the swooping, almost cinematic emotives that grace most of the tracks, threading in and building up to unexpected, subtly grand bridges. Ikonika cuts across the dubstep stratosphere with this album, creating a compelling, mind-bending masterpiece that should earn praise from all quarters. Contact, Love, Want, Have has the same thrill as discovering the ultimate cheats, defeating all the bosses, making god mode, reaching the secret levels and ultimately clocking the game. Win.” – Charlotte Richardson Andrews

Try these: ‘Yoshimitshu’, ‘Sahara Michael’, ‘Idiot’

[DK; September 2010]

“When Dawn Kinnard’s debut album The Courtesy Fall was released in 2008, it was hard to find a review that didn’t contain the words ‘brilliant’, ‘husky’, ‘smoky’ and ‘Dusty Springfield’. Listening to Wrong Side Of The Dream, it’s easy to see why. If anyone can claim artistic kinship with Springfield’s sultry white-soul stylings, it has to be this lady. Leaving the obvious comparison aside, however, Kinnard is in fact a damnably hard artist to pigeonhole. As history attests, that’s no bad thing; the most compelling artists tend to be those who have a natural ability to surprise you, catching you unawares as the playlist swings in mood from melancholic to euphoric. Wrong Side Of The Dream is, in that respect, note perfect.” – Andy Wasley

Try these: ‘Favorite Ghost’, ‘Are You Still Crazy About Yourself’, ‘Jail Last Night’

[The Leaf Label; August 2010]

“Swedish husband and wife team Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin released third album Rivers initially as two individual vinyl-only EPs: the musically dense Retina, which made use of the dozen-strong Schola Cantorum Reykjavík Chamber Choir, and its austere counterpoint Iris, which concentrated on the resonant sound of the steel pan drum. These Trinidadian instruments forced up against the Nordic vocals and crisp percussion conjure an intriguing, otherworldly atmosphere, at times sounding like undulating waves, at others like percussive water droplets.” – Lucy Brouwer

Try these: ‘Fight For Me’, ‘Bleed Like There Was No Other Flood’, ‘The Course’

[FatCat; August 2010]

“A ghostly portrait of an austere woman, her hair tangled in the throes of an invisible squall, framed with histrionic script reminiscent of movie posters from Hollywood’s golden age. This is the cover image that Nina Nastasia has chosen for her newest album, Outlaster, and a sense of the theatrical is duly apparent. Where the portrait recalls a turn of the century Victorian séance, the listener finds an apt motif for an album with a surprising array of spectral instrumental accompaniment. With this latest album Nastasia has taken a bold step into territory that she has seldom trod before, and it pays off magnificently. Even with the inclusion of a sultry tango, in the form of the spry ‘This Familiar Way’, Outlaster manages neither to estrange her fanbase nor to ever stray too far from the very best of her catalogue. And that, in its own very particular way, stands as a testament to the power of audacity.– Terry Mulcahy

Try these: ‘What’s Out There’, ‘You Can Take Your Time’, ‘You’re A Holy Man’

[Supply & Demand; October 2010]

“Loosely described as ‘chamber folk’, Dark Dark Dark’s music contains traces of New Orleans jazz, Eastern European klezmer, minimalism and even pop. And just as the songs lay bare Invie and La Count’s most intimate details, so too does the album sleeve, their tattooed bodies photographed naked; vulnerable yet visibly defiant, Dark Dark Dark have nothing to hide. Wild Go is a record out of time, the lack of electric guitars and expansive use of piano setting the album apart from fashion without being nostalgic, and blazing a humble trail for its talented creators.” – Lucy Brouwer

Try these: ‘Daydreaming’, ‘Heavy Heart’, ‘Say The Word’

[True Panther Sounds; October 2010]

“Glasser is the the alias of Cameron Mesirow, a one-woman machine producing some of the most original and interesting music out there. Ring, her full-length debut, is a sort of organisational concept album, basing its sequencing on the classical chiastic (or ring) strucure, the idea being that you can dive right in and appreciate it from any point in the story. It’s a fascinating idea, and a highly successful one, as it ensures an even distribution of highlights throughout the album. In terms of sound, Ring is difficult to pigeonhole, tribal influences blending seamlessly with pop, electro, techno and rock, made all the more impressive by the fact that nearly the entire record was made by Merisbow at home on GarageBand, before being polished up by Fever Ray producers Subliminal Kid and Van Rivers. Genre-shunning, mystical pop at its very best. Oh we forgot to mention that Cameron’s also an incredible singer. And that opening track ‘Apply’ came top on our list of the year’s best songs. Do you really need any more reasons to listen to this album?” – Odhran O’Donoghue

Try these: ‘Ring’, ‘Mirrorage’, ‘Home’

[Virgin; March 2010]

“It’s all too easy to call Laura Marling’s second opus a folk album, but such a description belies and confines the musical accomplishments contained within. There is no doubt that it draws a large amount of inspiration from folk artists of the ’60s and ’70s, but it seeks a more fluid definition that would encompass the likes of anyone from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy to Kathleen Edwards to Thao Nguyen. The rich allusions to the past, both in the lyrics and in the music itself, make this album almost effortlessly timeless. Marling is making old struggles relevant through a skilled retelling. Amidst the coy, impish and self-aggrandising pop starlets of her generation who claim to empower themselves by teasing boys, Laura Marling is a breath of fresh air.” - Elyse Cain

Try these: ‘Rambling Man’, ‘Devil’s Spoke’, ‘Alpha Shallows’

[Island/Konichiwa; November 2010]

“There is something truly remarkable in the way she is able to balance complex emotions with a dance-pop sound while playing with genres. Whether she’s rapping with Snoop Dogg, singing like her heart is breaking, flirting, sweating, offering sagely advice, being authoritative, sometimes staying detached, often getting really intimate, what Robyn ultimately aims to do is to offer up music suffused with a total joy for living. Armed with such a dazzling array of talents, Robyn is ahead of almost everyone working in pop today – a certain type of zany genius at work. While not every track on Body Talk is brilliant, the record is loaded with such a hefty amount of truly outstanding songs that, on their merits alone, make this one of the best pop albums ever made.” – Chris Catchpole

Try these: ‘Dancing On My Own’, ‘Indestructible’, ‘Call Your Girlfriend’

[Souterrain Transmission; August 2010]

“Armed with a show-stopping voice and a truckload of ideas, Nika Roza Danilova dazzled us yet again with this year’s Stridulum II, which combines an assured sensuality with dramatic atmospherics and, well, a somewhat bleak outlook. Flush with industrial electronics, thudding drum beats and her usual smattering of vaguely gothic noise, it’s a triumphant leap forward from The Spoils, as the youngster (scarily, she’s only twenty-one) explores a more hi-fi and electronic palette. Not even the fact that it is a cobbled together release can detract from the power and splendour of Danilova’s unique vision. There isn’t a superfluous moment on this release, with each song offering something special, whether it’s the soaring chorus of ‘Manifest Destiny’ or the synth-pop magic of ‘Sea Talk’.” – Odhran O’Donoghue

Try these: ‘Manifest Destiny’, ‘Sea Talk’, ‘Night’

[Bad Boy/Wondaland Arts Society; July 2010]

“With her debut album The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe has hit the scene with the sound of something hurtling from the cosmos at a great speed. Continuing the story begun on 2008′s Metropolis: The Chase Suite, android Cindi Mayweather has been condemned to be disassembled by the Star Commission for falling in love with a human. She has now returned from the future, messiah-like, to save a community of androids. Monáe will no doubt have her critics who complain that all this is rather bonkers, not only in subject matter but also in ambition. It is certainly lengthy and demands a heck of a lot from the listener but The ArchAndroid, for all its weirdness, is thankfully full of rewards. The term ‘classic album’ is so often overused, as is the frequently misappropriated phrase ‘true star’. But it’s perhaps not overreaching to apply these to Monáe and The ArchAndroid, an incredible intergalactic adventure that quite frankly makes ‘Star Wars’ look like a trip to Devon.” – Chris Catchpole

Try these: ‘Cold War’, ‘Come Alive (War Of The Roses)’, ‘Tightrope’

[Rough Trade; October 2010]

“Few bands live up to the kind of hype that has been heaped upon the LA-based quartet of Emily Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa, but Warpaint have done (and surpassed) it in a most impressive fashion. With an album where all tracks stand out and enchant in their own right, Warpaint have delivered one of the year’s most exemplary albums with The Fool. The girls’ collective talents as instrumentalists, songwriters and incredible vocalists, not to mention live performers, opens up an exciting world of possibilities when reflecting on what they may deliver next.” – Mark Bullock

Try these: ‘Undertow’, ‘Majesty’, ‘Baby’

[Bella Union; January 2010]

“Beach House’s third studio album, Teen Dream is a delicately complex paean to young love and human connectedness, and the boldest offering to date from the Baltimore-based duo. Entering into the album’s world of disjointed piano, spaced-out production and off-kilter guitars can only be compared to the disorienting, nostalgic headrush of remembered love, the stupefying yet comforting intoxication of which is rendered near perfectly. As a whole, this teenage dream is hard to beat.” – Katy Knight

Try these: ‘Walk In The Park’, ’10 Mile Stereo’, ‘Silver Soul’

[Drag City; February 2010]

“Pity the poor alchemists. For centuries they grappled unsuccessfully with what Joanna Newsom has managed in just six short years; everything the self-professed harper from northern California touches appears to turn to gold, inciting breathless raves of a fervent devotion. Presented as a triple album, Have One On Me spans a luxurious two hours, its eighteen carats divided equally between the three discs and ranging from under two to eleven minutes in length. Newsom’s fearless ambition and total creative control over the whole project is nothing short of awe inspiring. Epic in every sense.” – Alan Pedder

Try these: ‘Have One On Me’, ‘Good Intentions Paving Company’, ‘In California’

[Righteous Babe; March 2010]

“Hadestown is the setting for Anaïs Mitchell’s rethought myth of the musician Orpheus and his blushing bride Eurydice, played by Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) and Mitchell respectively. Her highly evolved storyline is explored in twenty songs, all with a variety of styles and characters, including Greg Brown as Hades, Ani DiFranco as Persephone, and the delightful choruses of the Haden Triplets.

As an album, Hadestown is an incredible work, a staged folk opera that holds its own as a purely audio release. Though performed by Mitchell and a revolving crew in tours around America, this studio version manages to stand independently and maintain an awe-inspiring quality. And despite its garlanded guests, it ultimately showcases Mitchell above all others. Her words are the props, costumes, set and lighting for the staging of the opera, expertly written lyrics that craft the story and inform the music, conjuring up the sound and speech of the post-Depression era.” – Dalia Wolfson

Try these: ‘Wedding Song’, ‘Why We Build The Wall’, ‘Way Down Hadestown’

Tagged anais mitchell, andreya triana, beach house, becalmed, body talk, cocorosie, dark dark dark, dawn kinnard, dum dum girls, glasser, hadestown, holly miranda, i speak because i can, ikonika, innundir skinni, jane weaver, janelle monae, joanna newsom, laura marling, marnie stern, nina nastasia, no snare, ólöf arnalds, outlaster, ring, rivers, robyn, sea of bees, sophie hutchings, stridulum II, susanne sundfor, teen dream, tender forever, the archandroid, the brothel, the fool, the magician's private library, warpaint, wild go, wildbirds and peacedrums, zola jesus