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

1. Beach House – Teen Dream

2. Baths – Cerulean

3. Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here

4. Sleigh Bells - Treats

5. Little Women – Throat

6. Best Coast – Crazy for You

7. Suckers – Wild Smile

8. Small Black – EP/New Chain

9. Phantogram – Eyelid Movies

10. Menomena – Mines

11. Spoon – Transference

12. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

13. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

14. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

15. The Black Keys – Brothers

16. The National – High Violet

17. Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP

18. Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be

19. The Arcade Fire – Suburbs

20. 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