END OF 2010: Album Edition

As the end of yet another year approaches, I took a looksie at the albums released in 2010, and really thought which were worthy of my top marks.  There is really no method to my madness, I just looked at which albums I listened to the most, which had the best individual songs, and which was best all the way through.  The three strongest albums came to me pretty quickly though it was difficult ranking them in order from first to third.  Well any way here it goes.

*Just as a disclaimer, I did not include mixtapes in this segment

Number 3
Travie McCoy's Lazarus
Final Say 9.25 out of 10





Gym Class Heroes [GCH] front man Travis McCoy begins this countdown with his single debut in Lazarus.  I was worried in the weeks before this album arrived due to the high hopes and huge letdown I was given with GCH's third album The Quilt, however I was wrong.  I flash back to all the hype about Lil Wayne and his album in which he would "sing" all of his songs in the "rock" experiment Rebirth.  Most critics and Lil Wayne fans slammed the album (see Blargus).  Travis McCoy succeeded in what Wayne failed to do.  He crushes this genre, the rap-sing-hip-hop-guitar type genre, which may be his alone.  His voice is not only passable, but enjoyable, he sings about real things and is happy, which is just refreshing.  The first single from the album was "Billionaire" ft Bruno Mars was a smash hit on the radio, along with the most uplifting music video I have seen in a long time.  Lazarus chalk full of songs that are uplifting and about having fun, no violence, no degrading women, and no shit talking.  This is my third choice of the year due the fact that not all of the songs are as strong as they should be (see Critical, and The Manual), which is weirdly more songs then the #1 and #2 albums on my end of year compilation.  On a high note though, Travie's individual songs go toe to toe and maybe even beat the best in albums 1 and 2.


Number 2
Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Final Say 9.5 out of 10





Ah Kanye.... Forever the entertainer.  Thank you for this CD and consistently dishing out honest, and real hip hop to the masses.  As I touched on in an earlier review, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy delivers.  It's almost disheartening to me to put this Album in second place.  So many times I've listened to this album since November and it still strikes me as powerful.  Kanye has a way of making you feel his pain, through clever and sometimes cleverly crude lyrics.  He does not hold back, and the final product is extraordinary.  Mr. West did not snap up the top honors as "Album of the Year" not because of the albums faults but of its tone, you have to be calm, and almost upset to listen to this full album or watch the accompanying film Runaway.   There is a time and a place for this, but the winner was a Album that requires no mood or feeling.  Do not let this fool you, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is fantastic.



Album of the Year
Number 1
B.o.B's  The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Final Say 10 out of 10





Well here we are, number one, and the winner B.o.B aka Bobby Ray aka Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr (a three way tie?).  The rapper B.o.B, from Atlanta (Decatur) blessed the planet with coming to it and giving the gift of great music.  B.o.B often references his distance from others (especially other rappers) by calling himself a type of alien (like superman).  The title of The Adventures of Bobby Ray, plays on that comic book aspect of his life.  However there is no doubt that Bobby Ray is superhuman, he raps, sings, plays piano and guitar and is quite good at all of them.  Its hard for me to focus on just this album due to the fact I have hundreds of mix tape tracks of his which may be even better then this album, but I will.  If you haven't been living under a rock in 2010 you probably have heard his radio smashes Nothing on You ft Bruno Mars, Airplanes Part 1 and 2 ft Hayley Williams of Paramore and Eminem, and Magic ft Rivers Cuomos of Weezer.  The albums wonder does not end there though.  The Kids involves Bobby Ray spitting verses at speeds to the likes of Simmons idol Andre 3000.  Bet I ft T.I. is a straight hood song with clever rhymes and a great chemistry between the Atlanta natives.  Finally Past My Shades ft Lupe Fiasco looks at Simmons common theme of feeling out of place in the music business and the internal conflict of Bobby Ray and his "thug" alter ego B.o.B.  This conflict is also a norm throughout the album, how Bobby Ray thought he had to act and talk in order to acquire a record deal.  This album may be the end of B.o.B and the coming out party for Bobby Ray:

"The difference between B.o.B and Bobby Ray is ... when I was signed under B.o.B, I was really young and didn't understand the type of business I was getting into," he explained. "[I didn't understand] how free I could be with the music. I felt like I had to play this person, play this certain character — talk a certain way, dress a certain way, rap a certain way. Now that I look back on it, I don't really feel that way. I don't really believe it. I wouldn't do that now. I wanted to break away from that and not box myself in. Bobby Ray isn't a character — he's really me. At the same time, it's so different, it's like a snake shedding its skin. Shed the old and onto something new. When I feel that's had its run, I don't think I'll do another name-change, but you're constantly evolving and that's where the inspiration from that came from. ... Moving forward, I'll officially be Bobby Ray."


When all is said and done, this is my go-to album of 2010, Bobby Ray is a chameleon and no two songs are the same in this album.  I strongly urge the fans of The Adventures of Bobby Ray to find B.o.B's mixtapes and try them out as well, some of them are better then this album of the year.  




Honorable Mentions

Chromeo Business Casual
Ke$ha Animal
Bruno Mars Doo Wops and Hooligans
Chiddy Bang The Preview