The Best Albums of 2010: Wendy Roby and Natalie Shaw

Today we've another double-header for you, with a pair of the BBC Album Reviews' finest critical types compiling their favourites of 2010, for you to seek out and enjoy. When she's not writing for the BBC, Wendy Roby can be found reviewing the singles every week on DrownedinSound.com, and she also recently popped up on Radio 1's Review Show with Nihal; freelancer Natalie Shaw, meanwhile, is among the experts whose votes made up this year's BBC Sound Of... poll. Chances are you just might have heard of a couple of the albums they've picked as favourites. Check out all of our Best Albums of 2010 blog entries here.

Wendy Roby (reviewed albums)

1

James Blake - CMYK EP

Many people want to wake the town and tell the people about James Blake, but I think CMYK is my favourite of his work to date. The brass stabs on 'Postpone' are strangely arousing. Also, beautiful. (Yes, this is an EP, not an album... let it go.)

James Blake on BBC Music



2

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer

Gonjasufi is King of the Hippies and his album is a maddening, swirling and dense artefact that I keep going back to. Kowboyz&Indians is the standout for me.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

3

Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre

This is the slinkiest album I heard all year, full of deeply troubling references to mistreated children, hanging ropes and absurdly dark conversations with a God you can't satisfy. It's the sort of album you can drown in, and it completely obscures the modern world when you listen to it.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

4

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Damon Albarn's cast of a thousand takes in everyone from Mark E. Smith to Bashy. But I think it's The National Orchestra for Arabic Music who make the finest contribution, on White Flag's dizzying The King & I-style strings.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

5

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

I always thought Yeasayer were the sort of band I admired rather than loved, but Odd Blood changed all that. It's a proper pop album, it's absurdly funky and, at times, sort of euphoric.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

DrownedinSound.com (external link)

Natalie Shaw (reviewed albums)

1

Field Music - Field Music (Measure)

A sprawling and magnificent double-album, deliberately fragmented and richly produced - an anxious, self-doubting display of public disarray. And the album that finally pushed Field Music to the heights they so deserved.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

2

Everything Everything - Man Alive

A pop-loving masterpiece, and one that's never afraid to take chances that, without fail, pay off. Everything Everything condense around three albums' worth of ideas into one, producing a big, brash, brightly-coloured debut with a huge heart.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

3

The-Dream - Love King

Somehow not reaching UK superstar status, The-Dream's third album is seedy, profane and so meticulously crafted. Comm-place cat-and-mouse chasing of a lady feels new and exciting as Love King is over in a flash, unusually for the genre.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

4

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1

The first of three albums in a year, and a super-powered eight tracks. Body Talk Pt. 1 is commercial to a tee, charged with emotion and blessed with the perfect popstar at its helm. This album set a new benchmark for pop music.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

5

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

It didn't seem possible that Kanye West could meet his own hype but this is a firm flash in the face of the doubters. 808s & Heartbreak was strategy, and this is a masterpiece - intense and exhausting but oh-so-ambitious, a capitulation of the genius that's come before him.

Read the BBC review and listen to previews

Coming later this week: contributions from Mike Harding and Bob Harris, as well as writers including Paul Lester and Lloyd Bradley.