Our Critics' Year-End Top Tens: Andy Odom Touts Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's "Surprising and Varied" Before Today

By DC9 At Night Thu., Dec. 23 2010 at 12:07 PM

In this week's paper, you may notice a piece including some of our DC9 writers' choices for best albums of the year. But, space being limited, we couldn't run all of our writers' lists. So, thanks to the power of the Internet, we're doing just that, right here.

Denton-based scribe Andy Odom picks his top albums of the year.

10. The Beaten Sea - S/T

9. Beach House - Teen Dream

8. Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Good music is timeless, and, evidently, so is this band. Twenty years after their high-water mark (commercially, at least) with Bandwagonesque, this Scottish quintet still stands as professors of top-notch pop rock. If only there were more students listening.

7. The Walkmen - Lisbon

6. Best Coast - Crazy For You

5. Midlake - The Courage of Others
Every now and then, the Europeans get something right. Not turned off by the presence of a flute, our friends overseas have dumped all sorts of awards and titles on Denton's Own, recognizing not only how compelling of a live act they really are, but how excellent their new album is.

4. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone

3. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

2. Doug Burr - O Ye Devastator

1. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
It's the album everyone had blasting from their stereos this year -- OK, aside from Arcade Fire and Kanye West, whose new album received praise that no album could ever live up to. But Before Today does live up to its hype -- at times, it's as endlessly surprising and varied as Girl Talk's All Day or as danceable as Robyn's Body Talk. And, arguably, it's better than them all.