AllMusic's Favorite Rock Albums of 2010

The AllMusic editors are recapping the year in recordings with well over a dozen posts in which they present their favorites within specific genres and styles. Right now, on the AllMusic Blog, they provide a list of their favorite rock releases of 2010. At times it seemed like the rockers of 2010 were working overtime to prove William Faulkner right, creating albums that proved that the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past. Veterans made no bones about returning to their roots – Robert Plant revived the name of his first band Band of Joy for his folk-rock extravaganza, Elton John rescued Leon Russell from obscurity (and helped push him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), Joe Elliott delivered a cracking tribute to Mott the Hoople, John Mellencamp even recorded a record in mono while Elvis Costello drew on pre-rock sounds for National Ransom – but even such new guns as the Black Keys and The Hot Rats, a side-project of Supergrass, explicitly touched upon the sounds of yesteryear when creating their thoroughly modern albums. But they -- like Peter Wolf and My Chemical Romance did in very different ways – found ways of making the past seem present, creating some of the most dynamic rock & roll of 2010.

The Black Keys - Brothers
The Charlatans - Who We Touch
Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Crowded House - Intriguer
Nick Curran - Reform School Girl
The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do
Joe Elliott - My Re-Geneeration
Roky Erickson - True Love Cast Out All Evil
Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Guster - Easy Wonderful
The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
The Hotrats - Turn Ons
Elton John/Leon Russell - The Union
Kid Rock - Born Free
Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a Young Man
John Mellencamp - No Better Than This
My Chemical Romance - Danger Days
Robert Plant - Band Of Joy
Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation
Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs
Neil Young - Le Noise