[Shaun]

Example - Won't Go Quietly
I did actually quite like this to begin with, but I reckon that might have been on the merit of the singles. There were one or two pretty listenable tracks but otherwise it was a lot of filler and repeated noises.

The National - High Violet
It's been hyped by many as one of the best albums of the year but to me it just didn't twig. It's too Bruce Springsteen - it's full of Americanisms and that same generic mid-tempo, gritty vocal, sound. Not my thing at all.

Ellie Goulding - Lights
I gave this a quite average review. That's because it's a quite average album. Sound of 2010 she was not: Goulding just had 10 quite forgettable album tracks. Snore.

HURTS - Happiness
Blah. Not even sure if it grabbed many others, I don't remember it really grabbing any high positions... it was just an hour of moody electronics, and that's been done to death in recent years, let alone a decade of it...

Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
I did actually really like this. It's an album with the name "Summer Cum" as an album track ffs. But I don't know...it was too much of a 'let's frolick through strawberry fields' affair...no real depth, or interesting innovations.

Michael Jackson - Michael
It's only just leaked and I don't think been released yet, and to give it fair due - it's not as horrible as I was expecting. But that said...let the man rest in peace. Noone deserves to have their name posthumously dragged through the mill of **** that is Akon.

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
Blah. 4 decent tracks and then a tirade of crap. NEXT.

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
It's full of some quite pleasant songs. But critics overhyped this, I think... it's nice as a little replacement to your annual Snow Patrol outing, but otherwise I've got more than enough in my library of songs like this.

[Tom4784]

Agreed with most. Although Devotion by Hurts <3.

[Shaun]

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Only avoids the bottom category thanks to E.T., Firework and Teenage Dream - but otherwise this was an album of Ke$ha tunes. Abysmal.

Goldfrapp - Head First
By all means it wasn't a terrible album, but if you put this head to head against their last release, Seventh Tree, it looks like a bad tribute act. 3 good songs followed by the experience of a lacklustre German disco.

Rihanna - Loud
Whether or not you prefer her Russian Roulette style of music, this fails to meet even her lighthearted standards of Good Girl Gone Bad. A few potential singles interspersed between absolute waffle.

Eminem - Recovery
In short: no1curr. He's way past his prime and whilst it's a hell of a lot better than Relapse, so is a coma.

HIM - Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice
Another example of an artist way past their expiry date. Just many levels of disappointment.

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
A massive disappointment for me after only recently (prior to the leak of this) becoming a fan - it's full of clumsy electronic experimentation and there's just no cohesion whatsoever. A few decent tracks and wavelengths but otherwise...no.

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 3
Truly an example of running out of steam, and to be honest it was predictable. Her triple-album project of 2010 started out promisingly but by this, her final offering, she was well and truly out of ideas.

Take That - Progress
Just horribly disappointing. Electro is not their market at all. Ditch Robbie for good, go back to your last two albums, and restart from there. Thanks.

Keane - Night Train
I quite liked lead single 'Stop For A Minute (feat. K'Naan)' but otherwise...just give it up. Noone likes you any more.

The Futureheads - The Chaos
Hopefully the end of them, to be honest. Their cover of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" last time around was just offensive. Get out.

Christina Aguilera - Bionic
Just a monumental list of errors. Badly advertised. Badly put together. Badly recorded. She never tried outside of the States and it flopped there: the lead single only made #12 here. There's some saving grace in the deluxe tracks, but you have to wonder why on Earth she didn't just ditch half of the standard edition and include those.

The Script - Science and Faith
All of the mediocre MOR of the last album without any of the decent songs. Another artist whose days are numbered.

[Shaun]

Joe McElderry - Wide Awake
I sincerely apologise for ever voicing support for this non-entity.

The Black Eyed Peas - The Beginning
Potentially the worst album I have ever heard. Words cannot express the rapid journey from great to awful they have ventured.

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns
Honestly, who cares any more?

Cheryl Cole - Messy Little Raindrops
Messy little songs, really. Absolute zero longevity or creativity.

Ke$ha - Cannibal
I'd rather she just vanished from popularity right now if this is what we're going to be lumbered with every year.

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite
Even her fans cite this as a deteriorated album, and as people who believe 'Fever' is the best album of all time, that doesn't speak highly of this...

Maroon 5 - Hands All Over
Quite how they got successful in the first place is beyond me. The last of a wave of albums in the mid-2000s with no real staying power or interesting material.

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. - Record Collection
This was firmly cemented as my worst album of the year until BEP came along. It's drab, it's messily put together, it's a huge fall from grace and everything that summarises him: boring, devoid of personality and poseur.

[Tom]

^ Agree with most but Rihanna. Not got her album but I like every song shes released off that album

[Shaun]

Yeah I like the singles too...but the rest

[Jayson]

You forgot Kele's album in the try harder next time section (although hopefully he forgets about solo stuff and goes back with Bloc Party)

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Jaydolph

You forgot Kele's album in the try harder next time section (although hopefully he forgets about solo stuff and goes back with Bloc Party)

Aaah, I deleted his album. But yeah I agree.

[Smithy]

I knew you were gonna want Ke$ha to kill herself

[Tom4784]

I pretty much agree.

[Z]

Word.

[MeMyselfAndI]

are there any albums you actually like?????

[Shaun]

I'm doing my top 30 later.

[Shaun]

#30 - The Drums - The Drums
Only just scraped onto my list because some of the more retro vibes this throws out. It's sort of like the Beach Boys, if they'd started on the east coast instead... the themes and tunes are lovely.

#29 - Cee Lo - The Lady Killer
More of the same really - nice classic sounds, great voice and whilst there's a certain lack of depth, it's a nice little sojourn into the 60s.

#28 - My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
It's certainly no Black Parade, but it's a nice little ray of sunshine in an otherwise far too serious and miserable self-serving discography. It dips in places but there're a lot of fun tracks.

#27 - Delta Spirit - History From Below
I caught them on Jools Holland one time and they've got a real Killers vibe to them - exciting, electronic-tinged rock and a tendency to tell stories with their songs rather than go for general love ballads. I thoroughly recommend them.

#26 - Skunk Anansie - Wonderlustre
It really makes the grade on the merit of about 5 tracks, plus my excitement to have them back from hiatus. It's a lot more soft than their previous albums but I'm just happy to have Skin back on the scene...her voice

[Tom4784]

Skunk Anansie & Danger Days <3.

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

i would lol if kesha read this and killed herself

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Scott

i would lol if kesha read this and killed herself

pmsl. I'd feel SLIGHTLY guilty. lol nawt

[Shaun]

#25 - Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1
Quite a decent pop album by any standard. No really naff tracks, plenty of good tunes and a little dabble of unusual influences (in the form of a Swedish nursery rhyme) - easily the best of her 3 this year.



#24 - MGMT - Congratulations
Probably a big disappointment for most, I actually quite enjoyed the weird psychedelic electronics on this. By no means not a pop-pickers album, but there were still a handful of decent tunes in 'Brian Eno', 'Flash Delirium' and 'Song for Dan Treacy'.



#23 - Villagers - Becoming a Jackal
A lot of interesting, poetic lyrics here to accompany some pretty unchallenging music. It's very mellow but there's also something quite mythical about it all.



#22 - James Blunt - Some Kind of Trouble
-loses 10 man/credibility points-
But in all seriousness, whether you believe me or not is irrelevant: I genuinely enjoy his music. There's some great songwriting here and some shocks too (notably 'Turn Me On'), but it all comes together wonderfully.



#21 - Klaxons - Surfing the Void
I much preferred this to their debut. There're some interesting developments on their former 'bash at a keyboard and call it 'energy'' style, and whilst it fared averagely in reviews and chart success, I enjoyed it.

[Shaun]

#20 - Stars - The Five Ghosts
I've only really discovered this band lately. They have quite a few nice songs. The album's quite varied really, lots of low-key indie electronic pop, but without being depressing as the XX. The vocalist sounds quite a bit like Ellie Goulding. Not everyone's cup of tea, and not my favourite, but pleasant enough.



#19 - Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
Not my favourite of Hegarty's albums but to be honest I haven't listened to this properly. What is evident though is a significant improvement in the songwriting: it's gone from generic moaning to quite beautiful songs - with a guest appearance from Björk to boot.



#18 - Kelis - Flesh Tone
Well for starters it's the only Kelis album I've liked throughout. It's what every current pop/dance album is not - cleverly crafted, cohesive and structured, and reinforces tune after tune. Very impressive.



#17 - The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
It's so Springsteen-inspired that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was his. But for every criticism I can make about Brucie, his songs capture the imaginations of everyone and the craftsmanship behind this album is commendable. I recommend 'Boxer' and 'Bring It On'.



#16 - Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Their second album (surprisingly) now, Nick Cave's sideproject haven't really caught my attention until now...because I'm a bit of a Bad Seeds fan. But the songs here are eclectic: some menacing, some heartfelt, some emotional, some angry. I love how accidentally aggressive it sounds.

[Z]

Flesh Tone is probably my favourite album from this year, I'm curious as to what else placed higher!

[Shaun]

#15 - Robert Plant - Band of Joy
I've never come across any of his solo/side project material other than this so where it compares to his back-catalogue is quite beyond me. But I think it's quite a pleasant, mature love album and sounds more Beatles (particularly You Can't Buy My Love) than Zeppelin...



#14 - Perfume Genius - Learning
A very simplistic album. He's got a very raspy voice and over the simplest piano tunes it struck an immediate chord with me - I can't remember where exactly I found him, but I'm glad I did.



#13 - Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love
Has some great collaborations with Norah Jones and a surprising one in the actress Carey Mulligan, but on the whole I think it's built on their typical mellow sound with some genuine romantic music - it's more symphonic and harmonic than their previous material.



#12 - Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
It was pretty much universally panned everywhere I read apart from Q and Rolling Stone, and I'm not sure why. Maybe they were built up as the new stadium-rock gods by the idiot media and were then surprised to hear a return to their more bluesy, Southern-tinged sound. I personally loved this.



#11 - Lissie - Catching a Tiger
It's got so many songs that sound immediately familiar despite me playing them very seldom - and I think that's evident of how potent and warm her music is. It's not really surprising when you read comparisons of her to the great Stevie Nicks - her voice has that smokiness and the songwriting has that spot-on accuracy she did.

[Tom4784]

I got mixed feelings on it so far, I didn't like MGMT's new album it was too pretentious and Kaxons' album was very hit & Miss. I liked Come Around Sundown more then I used to.

[CaraRawr]

My Chemical Romance

[Shaun]

oh shoo.

[Damaris]

The Drums should be higher!