The year 2010 in music
2010 was one of the best years in music in recent memory. It was so good in fact that doing my usual top 20 proved to be impossible. What I did was pick my top 20 and put them in order with number 1 being my favorite record of 2010, 2 being my second favorite etc. I also included 20 runners up in alphabetical order. Trying to rank them proved to be an exercise in futility. All the records in the list range from excellent to near perfection. The list includes comebacks (Gil Scott-Heron), records from well established bands and a staggering amount of debut records. It will be interesting to see what 2011 brings. As usual almost all were purchased on good old vinyl. The only exceptions are the William Parker and world's end girlfriend albums. I think CDs are pretty much a dead format. I only purchased three in all of 2010 and was given just a few as freebies. Almost all of these selections can be purchased at Music Saves, Cleveland’s best record store. http://www.musicsaves.com. Big thanks to @sweetsweetjulie for turning me on to several of these bands and Melanie from Music Saves for tweeting incessantly about the Baths record. Her tweets caught my interest, I bought it and it landed at number 2. I must also thank my brother Dan for turning me on to Sleigh Bells. I saw them open for Yeasayer (who sucked) because of him. One quick mention must be made about Brian Eno's new LP. The packaging is vinyl porn at it's best. Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_polak/sets/72157625413304904/. One final word – buy your music legally, support the bands and local record stores. They all appreciate it. As usual, comments and criticism are welcome. And now the list:
The Top 20 Records of 2010 in some semblance of an order
Beach House – Teen Dream
Baths – Cerulean
Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here
Sleigh Bells - Treats
Little Women – Throat
Best Coast – Crazy for You
Suckers – Wild Smile
Small Black – EP/New Chain
Phantogram – Eyelid Movies
Menomena – Mines
Spoon – Transference
Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
The Black Keys – Brothers
The National – High Violet
Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
The Arcade Fire – Suburbs
Grinderman – Grinderman 2
Runners up in alphabetical order
Johnny Cash – American VI: Ain't No Grave
Cocorosie – Grey Oceans
Das Racist – Shut Up Dude/Sit Down Man
Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea
Field Music - Measure
Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP
Maximum Balloon – S/T
Janelle Monae – The Archandroid
Mono: Holy Ground: NYC Live
The Octopus Project – Hexadecagon
William Parker – I Plan to Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield
School of Seven Bells – Disconnect from Desire
She & Him – Volume Two
Stereolab – Not Music
Marnie Stern - S/T
Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
Warpaint – The Fool
Weekend – Sports
world's end girlfriend – Seven Idiots
