3 Down, 9 to Go: Favorite Albums of 2010, Q1

As is my custom, I’m going to wrap up the first three months of the year with a tally of my favorite recordings that I’ve yet heard in the still-young 2010. The take-home message, I think, is that this has been an extraordinarily rich year for new releases thus far– in folk, in pop, in jazz– and I can only hope that the good stuff keeps coming. For now, though, let it be said that any of these albums would make fine additions to my year-end list, and a few of them are pretty much shoo-ins.

One disclaimer: Last time I made a list like this I included a few recordings that I’d heard in advance but were not yet released to the music-buying public; some of you thought I was cheating, so, for this list, I’m only including stuff that released officiall between January 1 and March 31, meaning that a lot of up-and-coming stuff that I really love– music by The Tallest Man on Earth, Josh Ritter, Peter Wolf, Roky Erickson, and others– isn’t eligible here.

01. Anais Mitchell, Hadestown

02. Gorillaz, Plastic Beach

03. Spoon, Transference

04. Gil Scott-Heron, I’m New Here

05. Peter Gabriel, Scratch My Back

06. Mose Allison, The Way of the World

07. Joanna Newsom, Have One on Me

08. Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Steps Ahead

09. Brad Mehldau, Highway Rider

10. Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM

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