Editors' Choice for October 2010
Fortuna POP!
Allo Darlin's debut album is a twee pop lover's delight.
Secretly Canadian
Swanlights is the most accessible, uplifting, and lushly orchestrated of Antony and the Johnsons' album -- even with a curveball duet with Björk.
Paw Tracks
Down There has not only the same woodsy, pixilated folk-pop of Animal Collective but also much of its fractured production smarts.
Matador
Write About Love is another collection of familiar but satisfying indie pop from Belle & Sebastian.
Kranky
Lasted adds substance to Benoît Pioulard's shimmering songs.
Comedy Central Records
If you happen to enjoy the way Burnham turns from erudite to ignorant on a dime, then Words Words Words is the gift that keeps on giving.
Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music Entertainment
The ninth volume in Dylan's ongoing Bootleg Series contains recordings he made for publishers Leeds Music and M. Witmark & Sons between 1962 and 1964.
Columbia / Sony Music
Dylan's first eight albums are available for the first time in their original mono mixes.
Astralwerks / Virgin
Olympia is Bryan Ferry’s first collection of primarily original material since 1994’s Mamouna, and features Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy MacKay -- all original members of Roxy Music. It's Ferry’s most seductive album since Avalon, a luxurious collection of softly stylized sophistication.
Jive / Silvertone Records / Sony Music Entertainment
Living Proof follows the template of 2008’s Skin Deep by featuring only original material penned by Guy.
Cherrytree Records / Interscope
$o$ is utterly unique and downright dazzling if you dream of a Grand Guignol hosted by P. Diddy.
Decca
Elton John pays tribute to his longtime “idol” Leon Russell by recording a full album with the maverick singer/songwriter -- with the assistance of producer T-Bone Burnett, who had the duo record live in the studio.
Aware Records / Universal Republic
Guster's sixth effort is another reliably well-written, well-played guitar pop album featuring the power pop classic-to-be "Do You Love Me."
Lefse Records
Tom Krell's dreamlike debut album mixes lo-fi and R&B to intimate, striking effect.
Ubiquity
The duo's second album is a relaxed, richly constructed blend of indie folk and bedroom electronics that works as a perfect soundtrack to a quiet autumn day.
Le Grand Magistery
Le Concorde's second album is a wonderfully frothy pop album that looks back to the sophisticated pop of the '80s for inspriration, but sounds totally modern.
Cash Money
Originally planned as an EP, Lil Wayne’s I Am Not a Human Being arrives as a ten-song LP and includes the lead single “Right Above It.”
Kill Rock Stars
Marnie Stern's self-titled, hook-laden third album is a noisy, beautiful study in contrast, with technique, flair, and accessible, poignant songwriting.
Cryptogramophone
Nels Cline's ambitious Dirty Baby features two long-form large-band compositions to accompany 66 images by artist Ed Ruscha.
Tompkins Square
Paddy McAloon's fully formed, keyboard-based demo recording is a loose concept album about the joy of music, and one of Prefab Sprout's most consistent outings.
Deutsche Grammophon
Epic / Sony Music Entertainment
Shakira's seventh studio album, available in both Spanish and English versions, features collaborations with Dominican rapper El Cata.
Where It's At Is Where You Are
Shrag's second album is full of hypercharged and tender indie rock that compares favorably with the early work of Los Campesinos!
Bomp
Bad Times Good Times appears to be a remixed and reworked version of Teenage Heartbreak plus two unreleased demos and a pair of live recordings.
Asthmatic Kitty / Rough Trade
A schizophrenic, genre and subject-spanning electro-orchestral collection of original pop songs.
Big Machine Records
Swift sticks close to the country-pop her fans' love with all-new, self-penned material.
Foreign Exchange Music
The third album from Nicolay and Phonte is more lush and downcast than 2008's Grammy-nominated Leave It All Behind.
In the Red Records
The band's second album is less noisy and more nuanced than its debut, sounding more like a college rock band of the 1980s than a 2010 noise pop band.
Peek-a-Boo
Originally created for a multi-media presentation, Hexadecagon translates successfully to disc, moving the Octopus Project into the front lines of America's most imaginative and accomplished indie rock bands.
![Underwater Moonlight [Yep Roc LP]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0003131652/front/220/NIYUDwuMUsDp7xcLPgymSQSijaXJlYnq0St31qpAJWo=.jpg)
Yep Roc
A college rock touchstone that wedded surreal humor and jangling guitars to driving post-punk rhythms.
Rainbow Quartz
The Volebeats deliver a wonderfully timeless album that sounds a bit like the Flying Burrito Brothers doing Exile on Main St.
Luaka Bop
Estuando a Bossa, the third album in Tom Zé's multi-decade study of Brazilian music, gets a U.S release from Luaka Bop.
Domino
Tricky's sparse, menacing Mixed Race is a worthy follow-up to Knowle West Boy that reflects on the tragedies of gangster life.
Various Artists
Apple Records / Capitol / EMI
The first-ever compilation of Apple’s roster and the flagship for Apple/EMI’s exhaustive 2010 Apple reissues series captures the lunacy and fleeting brilliance of Apple Records, often making it seem like little more than the Fab Four’s personal playground.
Various Artists
Masterworks Jazz
An excellent four-disc survey of Creed Taylor's CTI label at the height of the '60s bossa nova craze.
Rendezvous Music
Wayman Tisdale's last recording is a FONKtastically joyous groove album in the lineage of P-Funk and EW&F.
Bloodshot
Flint, MI's Whitey Morgan & the 78's make hard outlaw country with Motor City swagger on their Bloodshot debut.
