It’s about time I posted this. Here’s my annual list of music I enjoyed this past year. I know I have forgotten tons of records or have yet to realize just how great some of these recordings are. Just as I am writing this, I went to pull something to listen to and came across the great Woods At Echo Lake LP (on Woodsist) which came out this year and which I totally forgot to put on this list. I just need to stop revising and procrastinating and post this list. There’s also plenty of music which came out this past year I am still discovering. I gave up in vain when I tried to sort out all the compilations and reissues I have listened to this year. This list has come about from many nights sipping coffee and whiskey while spinning records. So, fuck it, without further ado, here’s my favorite music of 2010:
1. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (DFA)
2. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Warp) & Pattern + Grid World EP (Warp)
3. Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers (Hotflush) & Maybes EP (Hotflush)
5. James Blake – The Bells Sketch EP (Hessle Audio), CMYK EP (R&S) & Klavierwerke EP (R&S)
6. Darkstar – North (Hyperdub)
7. The Books – The Way Out (Temporary Residence)
8. Future Islands – In Evening Air (Thrill Jockey) & Undressed EP (Thrill Jockey)
9. Jaill – That’s How We Burn (Sub Pop)
10. Toro Y Moi – Causers Of This (Carpark)
11. Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego)
12. Vampire Weekend – Contra (XL)
13. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me (Drag City)
14. Four Tet – There Is Love In You (Domino)
15. Beach House – Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
16. Sleigh Bells – Treats (N.E.E.T./Mom & Pop)
17. Actress – Splazsh (Honest Jon’s Records)
18. Wild Nothing – Gemini (Captured Tracks)
19. Nice Nice – Extra Wow (Warp)
20. Javelin –No Mas (Luaka Bop)
21. Sun Araw – On Patrol (Not Not Fun)
22. Sun City Girls – Funeral Mariachi (Abduction)
23. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Def Jam/Rock-A-Fella)
24. Surfer Blood – Astro Coast (Kanine Records)
25. Caitlin Rose – Own Side Now (Rough Trade)
26. Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek – Bird, Lake, Objects (Faitiche)
27. Demdike Stare – LP Trilogy: Forest Of Evil, Liberation Through Hearing, & Voices Of Dust (Modern Love)
28. Gonjasufi – A Sufi And A Killer (Warp) & The Caliph’s Tea Party EP (Warp)
29. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today (4AD)
30. Autechre – Oversteps (Warp)
31. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge)
32. Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here (XL)
33. No Age – Everything In Between (Sub Pop)
34. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (4AD)
35. Twin Shadow – Forget (4AD/Terrible)
36. Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal (Editions Mego)
37. PVT – Church With No Name (Warp)
38. How To Dress Well – Love Remains (Lefse)
39. Supersilent – 10 (Rune Grammofone) & 11 (Rune Grammofone)
40. Dustin Wong – Infinite Love (Thrill Jockey)
41. Mark McGuire – Living With Yourself (Editions Mego)
42. Philip Jeck – An Ark For The Listener (Touch)
43. Oval – O (Thrill Jockey)
44. Strong Arm Steady – In Search Of Stoney Jackson (Stone’s Throw)
45. Keith Fullerton Whitman – Disingenuity (Pan)
46. Harlem – Hippies (Matador)
47. Dirty Projectors & Bjork – Mount Wittenberg Orca (Self Released)
48. Hype Williams - Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite And Start Gettin’ Reel (DeStijl)
49. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (Modular Recordings)
50. Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise (Rough Trade)
51. Matthew Dear – Black City (Ghostly)
52. AMM – Sounding Music (Matchless)
53. Avey Tare – Down There (Paw Tracks)
54. A Silver Mt. Zion – Kollaps Tradixionales (Constellation)
55. Alasdair Roberts & Friends – Too Long In This Condition (Drag City)
56. Best Coast – Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
57. Jaga Jazzist – One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune)
58. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (Bad Boy/Wonderland Arts Society)
59. Forest Swords – Dagger Paths (Olde English Spelling Bee)
60. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Love Is A Stream (Type)
61. Jonsi – Go (XL)
62. The Knife & Friends – Tomorrow, In A Year (Mute)
63. Brian Eno – Small Craft On A Milk Sea (Warp)
64. Salem - King Night (IAMSOUND)
65. oOoOO – oOoOO EP (TriAngle)
66. Wavves – King Of The Beach (Fat Possum)
67. Imaginary Softwoods – Imaginary Softwoods (Digitalis)
68. Balam Acab – See Birds EP (TriAngle)
69. Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone (Anti)
70. The Fresh & Onlys – Play It Strange (In The Red)
71. En – The Absent Coast (Root Strata)
72. Spoon – Transference (Merge)
73. Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love (Matador)
74. Madlib – Medicine Show Series (Now Again)
75. Tristan Perich – 1-Bit Symphony (Cantaloupe Music)
76. Liars – Sisterworld (Mute)
77. Dom Thomas – Synthetic Soul & Other Junk (Brutal Music)
78. Natural Snow Buildings – The Centauri Agent (Vulpiano Recordings)
79. Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring (Arts & Crafts)
80. No Joy – Ghost Blonde (Mexican Summer)
81. Scott Tuma – Dandelion (Digitalis)
82. Eleh – Location Momentum (Touch)
83. !!! – Strange Weather, Isn’t It? (Warp)
84. The Samps – The Samps (Mexican Summer)
85. Games – That We Can Play EP (Hippos In Tanks)
86. Koen Holtkamp – Gravity/Bees (Thrill Jockey)
87. Bill Orcutt – Way Down South (Palilalia)
88. CocoRosie – Grey Oceans (Sub Pop)
89. Warpaint – The Fool (Rough Trade)
90. Yellow Swans – Going Places (Type)
91. MGMT – Congratulations (Columbia)
92. Date Palms – Of Psalms (Root Strata)
93. The Radio Dept. – Clinging To A Scheme (Labrador Sweden)
94. Barn Owl – Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey)
95. School Of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire (Vagrant Records)
96. Broken Bells – Broken Bells (Sony)
97. Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty)
98. Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday (Sub Pop)
99. Kyle Bobby Young – A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Young (Low Point)
100. Fabulous Diamonds – II (Siltbreeze)
Stuff that got listened to this year but didn’t make the list for one reason or another:
Avi Buffalo – Avi Buffalo (Sub Pop), Bardo Pond – Bardo Pond (Fire), Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle (4AD), Broken Records – Let Me Come Home (4AD), Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts Productions), Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer (Elektra/Asylum), Chromeo – Business Casual (Atlantic), Circle – Rautatie (Ektro Records), Common Eider, King Eider – Worn (Root Strata), Duane Pitre – Origin (Root Strata), Elephant9 – Walk The Nile (Rune Grammofone), Eluvium – Similes (Temporary Residence), Evan Caminiti - West Winds (Three Lobed Recordings), Fursaxa – Mycorrhizae Realm (ATP Recordings), Gaslamp Killer – Death Gate EP (Brainfeeder), Glasser – Ring (True Panther Sounds), Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (Virgin), Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (Anti), Heavy Winged – Fields Within Fields (Three Lobed Recordings), Hot Chip – One Life Stand (Astralwerks), Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Hawk (Vanguard Records), Jack Rose – Luck In The Valley (Thrill Jockey), John Roberts – Glass Eights (Dial), Kemialliset Ystavat – Ullakkopalo (Fonal), Kevin Drumm – The Obstacles Of Romantic Exaggeration (Karl Schmidt Verlag), Les Savy Fav – Root For Ruin (French Kiss), Little Women – Throat (Aum Fidelity), Local Natives – Gorilla Manor (Frenchkiss), Lone – Emerald Fantasy Tracks EP (Magic Wire Recordings), Lost In The Trees – All Alone In An Empty House (Anti/Epitaph), Magic Lantern – Platoon (Not Not Fun), Male Bonding – Nothing Hurts (Sub Pop), Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Totem Two (Important Records), Menomena – Mines (Barsuk), MIA – MAYA (NEET/XL/Interscope), Mike Patton – Mondo Cane (Ipecac), Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (Glass Note), Nobody – One For All Without Hesitation (Traffic), Owen Pallett – Heartland (Domino), Pulse Emitter – Over Clouds (Root Strata), Sharron Kraus – The Woody Nightshade (Strange Attractors Audio House/Carrot Top), Squarepusher – Shobaleader One: d’Demonstrator (Warp), Sunburned Hand Of The Man – A (Ecstatic Peace), Superchunk – Majesty Shredding (Merge), Teebs – Ardour (Redeye) & Ardour B-Sides (My Hollow Drum), The Black Keys – Brothers (Nonesuch), The Girls – Broken Dreams Club EP (True Panther Sounds), The National - High Violet (4AD), The Roots – How I Got Over (Def Jam), The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack (Kemado), The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt (Dead Oceans), These New Puritans – Hidden (Domino), Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (XL), U.S. Girls – Go Grey (Siltbreeze), Wolf Parade – Expo 86 (Sub Pop), Wooden Wand – Death Seat (Young God), Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Secretly Canadian), Zola Jesus – Stridulum EP (Sacred Bones Records),
This was my least favorite thing I listened to this year (and a record that actually received a fair amount of hype): Fang Island – Fang Island (Sargent House)