Creative Director Emma Hope decides that 7 is a brilliant number and shares with you her brilliant list of 2010’s 7 most brilliant albums.

#7 Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights // Broken Social Scene

This is my last choice and I was going to give it to First Aid Kit’s album The Big Black and the Blue but, for some reason recently I’ve not really been feeling their music. Instead the last spot on my list goes to Broken Social Scene. I’ll admit to not being a major fan, not for any particular reason other than not having listened to them all that much. Indeed, this went unlistened on my iTunes for a while. I was missing out. This record was released as a bonus EP with their latest album, so is kind of a weird choice for my list haha. These very short and mostly instrumental tracks are definitely different to what I’ve heard of theirs before but I really like them, which is justification enough, I think. 

Favourites: “Sudden Foot Loss” and “Professor Sambo”.

#6 Crazy for You // Best Coast

 

BOYS

GETTING HIGH

SUMMER

A BLISSFUL IGNORANCE OF ISSUES OF MUCH SIGNIFICANCE

To summarize: ‘Crazy for You’ is fun, carefree, and a very enjoyable record, with super short burst-of-energy tracks which is something I love. (and it even has a cat on the front!)

Favourite tracks: They are all pretty much interchangeable (shoot me) but I probably like “Boyfriend” the most (shoot me again for making an obvious choice) or maybe “Goodbye”.

#5 Innerspeaker // Tame Impala

Ever since my dad, a bit of an ex hippy, gave me a mix cd of psychedelic music when I was about 9, I’ve had a love for it, and so was excited by the sound of Tame Impala in a review written by Nick Kennedy. I listened to and subsequently loved their album, and their set at Reading Festival was brilliant - no small talk, no pauses, just really great music - the band was definitely into the performance, and it was one of the highlights of my weekend.
Favourite songs: “Lucidity” is constantly in my head, and I also love “The Bold Arrow of Time” and “I Don’t Really Mind”. 

#4 We Are The Lost Loves // The Young Heretics

Young Heretics are a brother/sister duo from Australia, whose debut We are the Lost Loves is an album I adore for its seductive eccentricity. Songs like “I Know I’m a Wolf” and “Bones of a Rabbit” add a streak of subtle, sexy threat to the album, and an array of instruments and audio effects bring a richness to the record. The result is an album that I really love.
Favourite songs: probably the two mentioned, also “Risk/Loss” and “010100110100111101010011” (yes, it’s really called that!)

#3 Made the Harbour // Mountain Man

A full review I posted can be found here. The first I heard of Mountain Man was, I think, from a tiny column in a magazine I was reading, stretched out in the sun, Pimms in hand. They instantly interested me, and when I looked them up I became really captivated with their music. It’s beautiful and ethereal and most importantly perhaps it feels untainted, uncorrupted by the world of busy cities and screaming traffic. I believe it was recorded in a cabin somewhere, and it certainly has a wonderfully rough edged quality that adds a sense of mystery and nostalgia to the vocals. This album is enchanting, and that is why it’s on my favourites.
Favourite track: probably “Soft Skin”, but they are all lovely. 

#2 History from Below   // Delta Spirit

I did a full review of this album here, but to summarize why it makes my list: the lyrics are brilliant, the vocals are brilliant, the music is brilliant. (Has the word ‘brilliant’ lost all meaning yet?) This album marked a step in the right direction after 2008’s Ode to Sunshine - Delta Spirit managed to keep the really great things about their music but also bring an added sense of maturity.
Favourite track: probably “Ballad of Vitaly”, for the epic, beautiful and tragic narrative unravelled by the lyrics. 

#1 Teen Dream // Beach House

I love this album. It’s the occasionally sleepy, often hypnotic and always beautiful vocals and rhythms which does it for me. This album is harmonic and coherent, the songs all feel natural in each other’s company…they form a line holding hands, each one leading gently into the one behind it. Haunting and wonderful, Beach House’s Teen Dream definitely deserves its spot in my favourites. Music always becomes that much more special when you can associate it with a certain time, and to me this album is warmth and long hours of sun, it’s those wonderful moments of solitude, cycling and lying around, which, in a truly miserable January, are what I really need right now. Favourite track: ALL OF THEM!