Admittedly, I have not been in the music “scene” all that much any more. Back when I didn’t have a bill to pay and had nothing but disposable income, I used to blow money on CDs like it was my job. At one point my collection was worth well more than the car I was driving at the time. Now with more adult responsibilities, I have to be a little more particular with what I purchase. That being said, I tend to rely on others around me, either in real live or my digital life for recommendations on some things. This is a list of five of the best (in no real order) album purchases that I made in 2010. Several were recommended to me by others and a couple were no brainers, but ALL of them are well worth hearing.

Cee Lo – Lady Killer – I have already done a review of this album, but I can reiterate here. This is easily one of the best of 2010 for several reason. It is already up for Grammy Nominations, and once you hear it, you will know why. Cee Lo takes the stylings of Al Greene, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and many more and wraps them all up into one elegant package. The best track on the album is obviously “Fuck You” but there is so much more to this album than just a one hit wonder. Seriously.

Tom Caruana – Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers - Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers is incredible. I have long been a fan of the Wu-Tang and owned just about all their solo albums and most of the group albums, but that couldn’t have prepared me for what is on this. Taking the rhymes and styles of the Wu and dropping them on top of Beatles instrumental loops is truly magical. I was skeptical when a friend told me to check it out. I have never been a big Beatles fan and think they are HIGHLY overrated, but once I heard remix of C.R.E.A.M. I was hooked. It’s really hard to wrap your head around how the hell these would mesh together, but trust me, they do.

Deadmau5 – 4×4=12 – I have to admit here, I had absolutely no idea who Deadmau5 was before this album. Several people that I follow on Twitter were talking about it, and I decided to check it out. This certainly is not for everyone, Electro is very much an acquired taste. It’s a short album track-wise but it’s long on playability. While there are a couple bits that start to grate, the good FAR out weighs the bad here. Listening to the first track “Some Chords” was all that it took for me to want to pick up the rest and play this on loop for hours.

Girl Talk – All Day – Once again, not an artist that I had ever heard of before this year. Girl Talk’s “All Day” if I really had to pick a favorite would be almost a shoe-in. This album is nothing short of astounding. I love music, all types, but I would never in my wildest dreams think to pair up a Peter Gabriel beat with Lil’ Kim or Radiohead’s “Creep” with Ol’ Dirty’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”. The real beauty of this is that they match up so perfectly, that if you had never heard either song before, you would NEVER know they weren’t supposed to be two separated tracks. I have listened to this album enough to recommend it to several of my friends, and a big thank you to Mitch Dyer for pointing it out to me. Seriously there is a reason this album is called “All Day” because that is exactly how long you will be listening to it.

Kanye West – My Dark Twisted Fantasy - A lot has been said about Kanye in years past. Yes, he is an egotistical asshole. Yes, his attitude is something that of an only child that thinks he deserves the world. Sure, I think we can all agree he has a bit of a god complex. The thing is, most of the time his music can back up the reason he has that attitude. His last album “808′s and Heartbreaks” was easily the most disappointing album he has released yet. The problem with it was that you were expecting another “Graduation” and you got something so utterly different that it was shocking. “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” was a return to form for Kanye. The overly used auto-tune was all but extinct from his latest release and I for one could not be happier. Tracks like “Power” and “Monster” show that he can still bring the shit when he needs to. However tracks like “All of the Lights” and “Runaway” prove that he is still growing as an artist as well as a composer (if you can call him that). This album as far as true hip hop goes, is the total package. There isn’t a bad track on here. Also, how can you go wrong with lines like “Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why your wins low.”

The Roots – How I Got Over – Over all The Roots albums have really been hit or miss with me. The last one that I throughly enjoyed was “Things Fall Apart” all the way back in 1999. However that changed with the release of “How I got Over” this past spring. It was THE album for the summer. Had this been on cassette, I would have had to buy it again because it would have been worn out. Much like with Kanye’s, there isn’t a bad track on this album. Most of them run together so well that you actually don’t even hear a change in tracks. “Now or Never” and “How I Got Over” are easily best and even “Hustla” started to grow on me after a while. It’s nice to know that even with them being the “house band” for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, they can still come together and put out something that is this good.

mc chris – Goes To Hell – Ok… So here is my “dark horse” album of the year. Most of you probably have no clue who he is, and if you do it’s probably from the one song that was played in Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” called “Fette’s Vett. The Movie was atrocious, but the song was tight. However mc chris (lowercase no dots) has been around for a while. The first time I heard of him was back when Sea Lab 2012 and Aqua Teen Hunger Force were just getting going on Adult Swim and he did a couple songs on the first season of Attack of the Show (back when it was worth a damn). He played most memorably MC Pee Pants, Sir Loin, and Little Brittle. You will know him by his self admitted “voice of an eleven year old”. I now own all his albums and can’t wait for the next. He is one of the biggest Star Wars nerds I know of and probably the nicest guy to his fans (much different from Kanye). So many of his songs are just fan service for things that nerds can identify with like Star Wars, Video Games, and how much it sucks trying to get a girl. His latest venture is making a kids album called “Marshmellow Playground” and I can’t wait for it to release. Sure it may not be for you, but if you can get past his high pitched voice and nerd tendencies, it’s really something to check out.