Plan B set a benchmark 'in terms of pop artists pushing themselves', while Cee Lo Green provided 'darkness and humour'. Here, Laura Marling, Mark Ronson, Brian Eno and other star acts pick their favourite sounds of 2010
Laura Marling
Everything from the artwork to the structure and order of Arcade Fire's The Suburbs is as close to perfect as it gets for me. A well thought-out, intelligent (but not intimidating) and evocative piece of music that doesn't centre around love or heartbreak, but puts you in a world within a world ? and that's an awkward pleasure to experience and, I imagine, a difficult thing to convey. It's the kind of album one must listen to on enormous headphones in a busy place, ignore everything and be grateful that someone out there has gone to the effort to bring this to your ears, and you'll feel that way again and again, as it seems to have the addictive and invigorating qualities of caffeine. To sum up, it's all right, yeah.
Simon Neil, Biffy Clyro
The new Bring Me the Horizon record, There is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let's Keep it a Secret, blew me away. It is one of the best metal records I have heard in years: jam-packed with ideas and energy, and, most importantly for a metal record, the vocals don't make you cringe. There is real soul and passion bleeding out of all 12 orifices (or songs, if you prefer). Unrelenting and inspiring.
Oliver Sim, the xx
I thought Beach House's album Teen Dream contained some beautiful songwriting; and Victoria Legrand has one of the voices of our generation.
Rumer
My favourite band are the Golden Retrievers, so much so that I've seen every live show that they've done this year. The lead singer, Clyde Wright, has the most beautiful voice: they sound like a cross between Bread, CSNY, Steely Dan and Little Feat. By day, Clyde is a psychiatric nurse in a hospital for the criminally insane, and writes with his bandmate, Jonathan Dunning, about the struggle to get a break, and the bittersweet nature of being a husband and father. Sensitive souls like Clyde and Jonathan are often overlooked in the music industry, and we shared these experiences through songs, friendship and collaboration. There's an EP on iTunes (on which I sing backing vocals) called "Way to Change", though their debut album is still on its way. Their demos are so good that when I hear them, I actually have the leave the room.
Suggs, Madness
It was Jerry Dammers's Spatial AKA Orchestra playing Sun Ra's "Space is the Place" at Glastonbury. Perhaps it was the state of mind I was in at the time, but there was something really soothing about the repetitiveness of it: "space is the place, space is the place..." I can't say I've got a million Sun Ra records, although I like the idea of him, and Jerry added a beat and a reggae bassline.
Jerry I've known for a very long time: it was one day when he came to visit me ? when I was staying at my mum's flat, above Maple's carpet shop on Tottenham Court Road ? that he had the idea of forming a record label and calling it 2 Tone.
Jim Sclavunos, Grinderman
You can see why the National caught on with their album High Violet: they have the ability to write an anthemic tune, but they give it a bit of a twist. They're catchy but never overblown. Matt Berninger's vocals are key to that. He understates everything and the lyrics are allusive ? he tells a story but not in a direct way, so you get glimpses of what he's writing about but you can't pin it down. It makes for a more imaginative listening experience. My favourite track on the album is "Bloodbuzz Ohio". It's got a quirky little groove to it. The boys are not quite neighbours but they live in my vicinity in New York. Live, they're more dynamic, a bit more expansive.
Tinie Tempah
I bought The Defamation of Strickland Banks by Plan B the day it came out. I like the fact nobody was expecting this: you could still tell it was him ? the singles had little raps on them - but the fact that he could sing so well was the surprise. And no mainstream artist's done a concept album in a while. You can visualise it, it all fits together so well: when I saw the videos it correlated with what I already had in mind.
He's set a benchmark in terms of pop artists pushing themselves. It's good for fans when artists take a sudden left turn that isn't contrived.
Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip
I'm picking a strange house tune ? "Timepiece" by Nochexx. I heard about Nochexx via a musician I know who lives in Cambridge, who works under the name Um. This doesn't sound much like any other music about the moment. It's got quite lo-fi production, odd melodies; garage-y house music but still unusual and warm sounding. I like things that sound like that.
Jack Barnett, These New Puritans
Having had quite a lot of dealings with classical musicians recently, the awkward clash between Tim Key and a string quartet on his With a String Quartet. On a Boat made me laugh. Aside from that, it's very funny and has a nice semi-ad libbed narrative.
The advantage of it being a non-musical album is that I can't describe any "soaring melodies" or "angular guitars" or "breathless vocals". And I like the fact that it's in real-time ? there should be more real-time albums.
K'naan
I really loved the song "40 Day Dream" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - partly because I think it was recorded analogue straight to tape, so it feels like a warm towel on your forehead.
Duffy
I was en route somewhere and a song came on the radio that I'd never heard before and I thought, "Oh, gosh! What is this?" It turned out it was "Sweet Disposition" by the Temper Trap. There's something very mysterious about it that I like. Ambiguous, if I can get away with that word. It's hard to tell whether it's a man or a woman singing, but there's a really uplifting, operatic quality to the voice; it's something out of the box and really rather brave. I'm a big fan of the deep soul that Dave Godin promoted, and he once said that to appreciate music you need to know how it feels to be standing at the edge of a cliff. And I experienced that feeling with this.
Antony Hegarty, Antony and the Johnsons
Separating the feminists from the boys' club in the press, Grey Oceans by CocoRosie was released, synchronistically, at the time of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It presented a futurist environmental vision, both mystical and personal, enveloping and utterly original.
Example
I played Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer non-stop for two weeks after it was released. The "F**k You" single is a bit misleading. It's the most obvious pop song on the album and it's there to get people talking about it, get kids excited. But I've found myself skipping that track as there's so much more to the album, more darkness and humour in there. I've been a fan of his for about 15 years, and I'm 28 now. I first heard him when he was in Goodie Mob. I was a big fan of the first OutKast record and they were all part of the same Atlanta scene. I love what he's done with himself, it's inspiring. At first it seemed weird to hear a rapper singing, but he sounded amazing with Gnarls Barkley on "Crazy" and he's got even better since then.
Flying Lotus
I had Innerspeaker by Tame Impala on in the background a lot when I was on tour in Japan. It seemed like every track was lush and beautiful, there's an amazing rhythm section and lots of attention to detail. It's a record that's influenced by all the classic rock I like, like the Beatles, but it fuses it with new things. I've taken it to Hawaii and other beautiful places and there are a lot of good memories attached to it. It's been the soundtrack to a lot of adventures, man.
Richard Hawley
Edwyn Collins's Losing Sleep: it's a fantastic record with a lot of emotion in it. Music should be a reflection of your life, not "fantasy island swimming pool in LA" bullshit: the kind of stuff that moves me is where there's a degree of truth in it. Edwyn's personal story is amazing [he suffered two brain haemorrhages in 2005] and I would imagine it's affected the lyrics but aside from that, this is just a great record in its own right. He's written so many songs that have moved me over the years ? I was a massive Orange Juice fan in my teens. I also like what he's about as an artist as he's stuck to his guns over the years. I know there's a lot of competition but I think he's Scotland's greatest songwriter.
Ben Lovett, Mumford & Sons
Having been a massive fan of Johnny Flynn since his wonderful debut album, A Larum, I think he delivered the best possible follow-up, and his Been Listening is my album of the year. It's even more developed than that debut, with each song so dense both lyrically and musically. We've toured with Johnny a lot in 2010 and it all works amazingly well live, too.
Mark Ronson
Probably the only legitimate hip-hop banger this year (maybe in several years) to not feature Auto-Tune vocals or paper-thin drums from a shitty new synth was "As We Enter" by Damian Marley and Nas. It's a tough party record, with thick drums, a horn break and two guys effortlessly trading rhymes in two different dialects. It's a throwback to the golden era of 90s hip-hop without sounding like a pastiche.
Cee Lo Green
I've got to say, not a lot of American music has really impressed me this year, so I'll pick Florence and the Machine's Lungs. But then I've always loved British pop music, it's what I grew up with.
Katie White, the Ting Tings
I liked someone called Tune-Yards, who sounds a bit like an indie Amy Winehouse and who I saw live in Berlin, and also Nicki Minaj because she reminded me of TLC. But I'm going to pick a group of women: Warpaint. It felt to me as if there's something really authentic about them ? for instance, their videos weren't too polished. And this trippy music they make: it's just very expressive, and memorable.
Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian
I heard a tune on the radio that I liked so much that I went and bought it, which proves it must be the best thing I've heard this year, because no one buys anything these days! It was "On a Mission" by Katy B. I love the bass on it; it reminds me of the old rave days. And I don't know the first thing about who she is or who made the record, and I like that about it as well.
Ellie Goulding
I've been fascinated and inspired by Stornoway's Beachcomber's Windowsill since it came out. Delicate, melodic, nostalgic folk songs with an occasional burst into rock'n'roll. It's the combination of heart-wrenching lyrics and such a simple, fragile way of presenting them that gets me the most. Life moving too fast; lost love; remembering simple childhood pleasures; and politely suggesting that we were all "born to be free range". Not over or underdone, this is the most underrated folk album of the year.
Zane Lowe, Radio 1 DJ
I've loved everything that Jay Electronica has done, soulful, timeless rap music. His rhymes can be incredibly complex, but you can follow everything he's saying, and that's a real gift; and you catch the retro references but the way he puts everything together is incredibly futuristic. His new one, "The Dream-Shiny Suit Theory" is a great example, it's got an incredible groove, and it features an appearance from Jay-Z, who's signed him to his label.
Brian Eno
It's a bit postmodern of me, but I immediately think of something that wasn't released this year - a six-CD box set compilation of obscure religious and gospel music from the first half of the 20th century, Goodbye, Babylon. It comes in a beautiful wooden box with a fantastic 200-page booklet with Bible verses, lyrics and a really great scholarly essay. I love this kind of archaeology of the beginnings of music, in this case soul and rock'n'roll. There is also a fantastic Jerry Lee Lewis box set I love filled with studio outtakes where you can hear Jerry and Sun Records' Sam Phillips argue about whether rock'n'roll is the devil's music, because Jerry thinks singing "Great Balls of Fire" means he has the devil in him. His cousin was the evangelist preacher Jimmy Swaggart. One of the Goodbye, Babylon CDs just features hair-raising sermons, the greatest hits of pastors. Of the songs, I particularly love a track called "When Was Jesus Born?" by Heavenly Gospel Singers, which just makes me want to sing.
Arthur 'Artwork' Smith, Magnetic Man
The best things I've heard all year are an album called Outside the Box by a friend of mine called Skream and a track by Benga called "808 Attack". The former's album is groundbreaking. My favourite tracks are the opener, "Perferated", and "Where You Should Be" featuring Sam Frank.
Patrick Wolf
Serafina Steer's Change is Good, Change is Good was my personal soundtrack to the summer. I went to Wales to explore the Black Mountains and the Skirrid with my boyfriend. It was the only CD we brought along that we thought might not break up the peace and quiet of an escape to Welsh mountain summer air, late-night fires and nature's own silence as we slept in a caravan with only a solar panel for the boiler and just this beautiful record playing when we got in the car. it gave me the calm to tackle my own album when I came home to London, where I used it to block out the sound of the tube train rides to the studio each day. It's like Stereolab and Shirley Collins made an album together about the trials of 21st-century romance. The haunting sharp swing of a farmyard gate at the beginning of "Day Glo" will for ever bring me right back to the rolling hills, country air and wonderful golden, simple happiness of this summer. So, for that, it is my album of the year.
Jon Boden, Bellowhead
Being an unreconstructed folky, bands like Arcade Fire have a habit of passing me by. However, they are a band to which Bellowhead have been compared more than a few times and that, coupled with the embarrassment of ecstatic reviews occasioned by the release of The Suburbs, finally made me drag my head out of the sand and have a listen. I have to say I think the hype is justified. To be able to create such epic, emotionally captivating music out of such everyday subjects as suburban sprawl and the disconnect with schoolfriends is remarkable and deeply enriching. There's something profoundly likable and ordinary about the voices and characters depicted, and yet they also seem to inhabit a metaphysical, almost mythological space enthroned in sweeping synths, brooding orchestral brass and searing electric guitar. I'm totally captivated by the apocalyptic imagery of the everyday that seeps out of every pore of this truly classic album.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/nov/28/best-sounds-2010
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