2010 was a really, really good year for music. Below is a somewhat long-winded summary of my favorite releases from 2010.

With seemingly every other band releasing an EP or full length for free on their Bandcamp page and Altered Zones (R.I.P. Pitchfork) uncovering gem after gem, 2010 made for a pretty fun year for musical discovery (although it also proved to be the hardest year yet to stay on top of everything).

If you somehow make it to the bottom, you’ll find that my tastes lean heavily in the “pop” direction and that I think Kanye West is a douchebag. That should preemtively answer most of your questions, I think. 

Anyways, enjoy or whatever. Top songs coming in a hot sec, as well. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS (5) 

Best Coast – Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
If there’s any knock here, it’s that there isn’t much variety (ok, and the lyrics are nothing to write home about). But neither are horrible problems to have when you write melodies as well as Wavves-boo Bethany Cosentino. “Boyfriend” is a memorable track opener and the whole album is loaded with some of the bigger pop hooks of the year. Possible point deduction occurring here for being such a sour puss live (what, Wellesley College is too small time for you now?). But other than that, solid tunes! 

Bikini – RIPJDS EP (Lefse Records)
I think the first 10-15 times I listened to this EP was on the beach in Mexico while reading Haruki Murakami’s mind trip of a novel, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”. The result: I’m finding it really hard to separate Bikini’s fist-pumping dance cuts from Murakami’s spellbinding storytelling. All I know is that I love both this Muscles-recalling EP and Wind-Up a lot.

ceo – White Magic (Sincerely Yours)
A proper Tough Alliance album would have challenged for the top spot this year and if this wasn’t so short, it would have to.

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (4AD)
I’ve kept Bradford Cox at an arm’s length for a long time now, which is no small feat considering the dude’s like 6’10 and wiry as hell (don’t get any ideas Angus Andrew!), but Halcyon Digest finally roped me in. I might even still be a few listens away from this thing turning into an all-out classic. There’s something lurking in all of these songs just begging to be teased out. Give me some more time, will ya?

Yellow Ostrich – The Mistress (S/R)
Try telling me that there has been a better time to be a music fan than now. You can find the entire Yellow Ostrich discography for free on their Bandcamp page. Scrappy, lo-fi folk rock jams with a whole lot of heart.

Top Ten

10. Tennis – Baltimore Cassette // “Marathon” (Sixteen Tambourines, July 31)
One of the more irritating things I came across this year was an overwrought New York Times mega-profile on “20-Somethings” and how this downturn economy was really cramping their ability to “meander” or “find themselves” or at the very least, land an unpaid internship at their favorite poetry zine. The paper of record even tries to nail this point home by accompanying the article with photos from 20-somethings who they sent out to TAKE PICTURES WITH THEIR IPHONES. “Times are tough, but at least Mom and Pops are still fronting my $98 a month AT&T bill. Cheese!”

Anyways, the article seems to posit this idea that it is impossible to work at an entry-level job to pay the bills AND find the time to pursue your interests and hopes and dreams on the side. It’s okay to cut your teeth somewhere, kids. You can still be alternative even with a 401k. But stop sitting around feeling sorry for yourself and just do something.

This all (in a weird, roundabout—and possibly not even coherent—way) brings me to why I love the husband and wife duo Tennis from Colorado and the fact that they simply up and left their domesticated lives to sail around the East Coast for a year and write songs. They saved up every last penny they had, bought a sail boat, and most importantly, became inspired to write a collection of lovely, nautical-themed pop songs. Refreshingly, Alaina Moore sings with a level of confidence and self-assuredness that offset the more well-traversed twee, 60’s girl group aspects of the band. Coupled with the crunchy guitars and DIY production, it’s definitely pop music with an edge. “Marathon” will be the song that helps them purchase their next jib, but their entire debut cassette is littered with fuzzy pop gems. A proper debut album is on the way, and if you’re looking for a great white hope for 2011, here’s your best chance.

9. Delorean – Subiza // “Real Love” (True Panther, March 9)
Delorean synthesize just about every sound I’ve come to love over the past few years into one delicious Basque cocktail. From the building house and techno intros that recall The Field’s masterful sampling to the blowout beach choruses, Delorean pull all of the right strings. Despite the genre-hopping, the album feels tight and cohesive. The songs take time to develop, but when the intros finally give way to the bursting vocals you can’t help but think hot damn I sure wish I was studying abroad in Spain again right now. Oh, sorry, just me?

8. Tokyo Police Club – Champ // “Wait Up” (Mom+Pop Music Co., June 10)
One of the more fun, feel-good records of recent memory. I seem to be developing a knack for slotting at least one of these bombastic/infectious indie rock albums on my year-end list (Champ is eerily reminiscent of Harlem Shake’s (R.I.P.) Technicolor Health from ’09), so I don’t see why this year should be any different. Along with a few other albums found on this list, TPC soundtracked a good portion of my summer. A few notes into “Favourite Food” and I can almost hear the sound of my air conditioner sputtering.

7. Selebrities – Ladies Man Effect EP //  “Move This ” (Cascine, August 11)
On paper, Selebrities look like just another ‘80’s-fetishizing band that could be easily written off. But something about the way the trio imbue their new wave synths and glam with a darker, gothic vibe give the music a welcomed novelty. Maria Usbek sings with such disaffect that you find yourself surprised each time she returns to do a new verse. Hilariously, the best song on the EP (and one of the best of the year, for that matter) is a cover of Technotronic’s “Move This”, where Usbek’s disinterest clashes sublimely with bouncing, playful synths and Technotronic’s call for bootyshaking. While it’s practically a rite of passage for any Brooklyn band, Selebrities do not caring (and re-appropriating!) really, really well.

6. Spoon – Transference // “Written In Reverse” (Merge, January 18)
Short of Animal Collective, there hasn’t been a better band in the last ten years. Just look down that murderer’s row of albums: Girls Can Tell (2001), Kill the Moonlight (2002), Gimme Fiction (2005), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007), and now this year’s, Transference. It feels silly to tag any of their albums “the best” considering they are all so solid, but Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was definitely the most accessible to date and an album that endeared the band to an entirely new batch of listeners. Transference doesn’t quite bring the same pop fireworks as Ga, but for me, it carries a special aura that makes it feel like a classic rock record.

The thing that continually popped into my head as I played this album throughout the year (mostly when it was dark or cold out) was how effortless it came across. The album feels like a one-off jam session that Britt Daniels & Co. just happened to record in their studio, as if it would never be heard by anyone else. There are weird quirks to the production that magnify this quality, too: the abrupt end to “The Mystery Zone” and the radio static of album opener “Before Destruction” give the album this slightly off-kilter/not-fully-finished vibe. Their ability to sound nonchalant, all while churning out taut, post-punk jams is a testament to just how excellent a band they are.

It’s a shame this album is being so overlooked. It’s understandable, though, especially in a year where a lot of established, vanilla indie rock bands delivered forgettable albums (Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, The National, Broken Social Scene, The Hold Steady…should I keep going?). Transference isn’t immediately gripping, but if you’re willing to stick with it, the payoff is huge.

5. Robyn – Body Talk Pt. 1 // “Cry When You Get Older” (Konichiwa, June 14)
The opening track is annoying, and the traditional Swedish song at the end is a bit of a snoozer, but the string of 6 songs between the bookends represent (at least in my mind) the most ideal actualization of big-time, stadium pop music. Robyn, not unlike the artist accountable for my third favorite release of the year, takes the hedonism of a club atmosphere and subverts it with themes of alienation and loneliness. The result is something incredibly palatable as far as radio pop music goes and endlessly replayable. “Dancing On My Own” is the album’s cornerstone and everyone’s song du jour from Body Talk, but “Cry When You Get Older” is my personal favorite. All of these songs own so much, though, so I don’t want to enter the business of splitting hairs. Six of one, half a dozen jams of the other.

Seeing Robyn live also propelled this disc up my favorite releases of the year. Anyone who can make me feel comfortable dancing amid a House of Blues theatre packed with gay men has clearly done something right with their on stage presentation. With all the California Girls brushing their teeth with bottles of Jack, I can’t help but think the world would be a better place if more Robyn singles were pumping out over the radio waves.

4. Clive Tanaka y su orquestra – Jet Set Siempre 1° Cassette // “All Night, All Right” (Tall Corn Music, March 2)

It’s a bummer that Pitchfork has let a release like Clive Tanaka y su orquesta’s Jet Set Siempre 1° cassette wallow in obscurity on their neglected (and terrific) younger brother site, Altered Zones. One of the more truly mysterious and confounding artists out there right now, Clive Tanaka has a Japanese web address, uses a lot of Spanish on his website, and makes otherworldly Balearic-infused disco jams. The Jet Set Siempre tunes were only released on cassette and have yet to see a digital release, although that day is surely coming. Despite being shrouded in mystery, it’s still a shock that music this good hasn’t found the light of day outside of some small time praise on AZ.

The “For Dance” A-side of the tape gets things going with show-stopper “All Night, All Right” which begins with a stuttered beat emerging from a sheet of radio static to pair with the most surprisingly effective vocodered vocals. What gives way is a dance floor burning banger that refuses to be contained. All of the elements (vocoder, cheesy guitars, disco lyric vapidity) would appear to be too much to recover from, but in Clive’s hands they are handled magnificently. The result is something instantly enjoyable on a visceral, dancing level, and at the same time, on an intimate and personable level. “I Want You So Bad”—the second of three unstoppable songs that kick off the A-side—slows things down slightly, but doesn’t lose the pace and rhythm initiated by “All Night”. Again, Clive’s simple “I want you so bad” refrain humanizes the club-vibe of the song into something more relatable. Basically, it’s club music for your headphones.

The final cut of the triumvirate, “Neu Chicago,” might be the best one of all, though, as it opens with surely the best riff of 2010. By the time the vocals finally catch up to the earworm intro, Clive is just making a victory lap. The “For Romance” B-side, while not as lively as the front (nor is it supposed to be), lives up to its name with a more relaxed set of jazzy, electronic cuts that send the thing off into the sunset.

If you need any further encouragement, this cassette was the impetus to me buying my first cassette in ages just so I could have something tangible to associate with this piece of music. That has to count something, right?

3. Beach House – Teen Dream // “Norway” (Sub Pop, January 26)
An incredibly solid, top-to-bottom record that ushered me into 2010, remained in the disc changer through the warm months, and stormed back onto the scene when it got cold again. Needless to say, any near-snow accidents I had were almost all a result of jamming too hard to Teen Dream in the car. I enjoyed bits and pieces of their older albums, but none of them ever came close to being as completely realized and full-bodied as Teen Dream. Victoria Legrand’s voice is seriously out of this world and the tight instrumentation created a lush, snow-globe like world for the melodies to swirl in. Anyone putting this album atop their list won’t be receiving any grief from me. (And since I am definitely the type to give grief to someone for their own personal, totally arbitrary rank of an album they enjoyed, this is obviously the highest possible honor!)

2. Wild Nothing – Gemini //  “Bored Games” (Captured Tracks, May 25)
I’ve listened to this album as much as anything on this list and I still can’t put my finger on what exactly keeps drawing me back. It might seem a bit on the nose, considering the highly eponymous opening track, but Gemini really does feel like a woozy dream. There are definitely distinguishable moments of pain and sadness and warmth and chilliness and confusion and bliss, but when it’s too-quick thirty minutes are all said and done, it’s feels like one singular hazy experience that doesn’t lend itself well to a snappy summary or a detailed breakdown.

With that being said, I’m not going to try. Like any good dream, the experience in your head never translates as well to discussion or description. Better to keep it to yourself. Besides, an album as a wonderful dream might be the greatest complement of all.

1. Dom – Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP //  “Living In America” (Burning Mill, January 18)
While most everyone else spent 2010 worshiping and making e-shrines to Kanye West, I was busy celebrating the Year of Dom. One of the popular lines I heard about Kanye this year was that “he loved music more than anyone else in 2010.” Which, first of all, laugh out loud. Secondly, I think what they mean is that “he loved himself more than anyone else in 2010.” But on a similar note, nothing musically this year provided me with more pure fun or joy than Dom’s seven snappy songs on his Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP.

The EP clocks in just under 19:00, with no song lasting more than 3:07. It’s an incredibly quick collection of songs no matter which way you look at it. But while a ton of artists this year certainly took stabs at creating the perfect album, they all got snagged up on something—an unhealthy attachment to nostalgia, their own indulgences, or just themselves (‘Sup Ye’?). But Dom stayed true to what he does best: write really, really good pop songs with giant hooks. You don’t need a narrative or a Twitter stream (although they are certainly there if you want) to understand or make sense of these songs. They are entirely self-evident, sitting there on a platter for your enjoyment.

“Living In America” is the most fun song of the year—a fist-pumping Americana anthem and a real producer’s touch away from total ubiquity. The songs (I would assume intentionally) slowly become more filled with heartbreak as the EP progresses, but even when Dom is getting maudlin on a track like album closer “I Wonder,” there’s still that sense of whimsy that keep things light-hearted.

Even Dom’s live show felt like the most logical extension and representation of these songs: a dude and his friends joking and jamming away on stage, not giving a shit about anything else. No matter where Dom popped up in 2010—on my iPod, in a Pitchfork interview, or even in my girlfriend’s personal space (don’t ask!), Dom was definitely having “the most fun of anyone” this year.

Sometimes my top album of the year remains a photograph or a snapshot of a specific year that I prefer to check-in on every once and a while for nostalgic purpose. I don’t see that happening with Sun Bronzed Greek Gods, though. I’m not sure I’ll ever move on.