10 Best Albums Of 2010

As the first half of 2010 draws to a close, James Montgomery lists his 10 favorite albums of the year—so far—for MTV:

• Kate Nash: “My Best Friend Is You represents Kate Nash at her most scattershot, squeaky and downright smart,” he writes. She’s made “an album that's rough, sprawling and unafraid to get plain weird.”
• Yeasayer: Odd Blood is “perhaps the most fittingly titled album in recent memory, a wavy, dreamy listen, full of supple, electronic fields that undulate and dip, creating precipitous peaks and delving canyons. Pop music for the 22nd century and beyond.”

• LCD Soundsystem: On This Is Happening, “acerbic, sarcastic, downright hilarious” James Murphy is “like Randy Newman, only for bloggers and kids who still take drugs and dance all night, and minus the paunch and the Hawaiian shirts.”
• Vampire Weekend: Contra is “by no means an angry album; rather, it's a determined one, a well-conceived, flawlessly executed ‘f--- you’ to their detractors. Of course, they back it all up with a boatload of really great tunes, making Contra perhaps the most polite middle finger in music history.”
• The National: “Somber. Brooding. Beautiful. These are some of the things the National do better than anyone, and on High Violet, they're doing it best.”

For the complete list—and a boatload of honorable mentions—click here. (More lists stories.)