50. Glitter Bones – Returning The Magic
MP3: || “Glow in the Dark” ||
49. Wombs – Unitopians
MP3: || “God is my co-Pilot” ||
48. BIGCOLOUR – Centuries of Summer
MP3: || “red silk bow” ||
47. Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement
MP3: || “Tea Lights” ||
46. Safari – Maybe Tomorrow
MP3: || “Victor Quaalude” ||
45. This Moment In Black History – Public Square
MP3: || “MFA” ||
44. Secret Colours – Secret Colours
MP3: || “Jellybean” ||
43. Weekend – Sports
MP3: || “Coma Summer” ||
42. Sun Airway – Nocturne Of Exploded Crystal Chandelier
MP3: || “Infinity” ||
41. PS I Love You – Meet Me At The Muster Station
MP3: || “2012″ ||
40. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
VIDEO: || “Lucidity” ||
39. HotChaCha – Fantastic Static
MP3: || “Naked Glass” ||
38. Hooray For Earth – Momo
MP3: || “Comfortable, Comparable” ||
37. Twin Shadow – Forget
MP3: || “I Can’t Wait” ||
36. Burnt Ones – Black Teeth & Golden Tongues
MP3: || “Bury Me In Smoke” ||
35. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
MP3: || “A More Perfect Union” ||
34. Harlem – Hippies
MP3: || “Friendly Ghost” ||
33. Dungen – Skit I Allt
MP3: || “Marken Låg Stilla” ||
32. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
MP3: || “King of Spain” ||
31. Big Troubles – Worry
MP3: || “Freudian Slips” ||
MP3: || “Bite Yr Tongue” ||
30. Former Thieves – The Great and Alleged Great
VIDEO: || “Control and Illusion” ||
29. Kanye West – My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy
MP3: || “Monster (feat. JAY-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)” ||
28. Megachurch – Megachurch
MP3: || “Exorcism” ||
MP3: || “The Gay Agenda” ||
27. Baths – Cerulean
MP3: || “Maximalist” ||
MP3: || “Hall” ||
26. Citay – Dream Get Together
MP3: || “Careful With That Hat” ||
25. Suckers – Wild Smile
MP3: || “Black Sheep” ||
VIDEO: || “It Gets Your Body Movin’” ||
24. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
MP3: || “The Hair Song” ||
MP3: || “Old Fangs” ||
23. Wavves – King of the Beach
MP3: || “Post Acid” ||
22. No Age – Everything In Between
MP3: || “Glitter” ||
MP3: || “Fever Dreaming” ||
21. Free Energy – Free Energy
MP3: || “Free Energy” ||
20. Trouble Books – Gathered Tones
MP3: || “Ascending Kidney” ||
MP3: || “Past the New Parking Deck” ||
19. Kevin Greenspon/Cloud Nothings – Split
MP3: || Kevin Greenspon – “Post-Life” ||
MP3: || Cloud Nothings – “I Apologize” ||
18. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
MP3: || “Year’s Not Long” ||
17. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
VIDEO: || “Wide Eyes” ||
VIDEO: || “Airplanes” ||
16. Emeralds – Does It Looks Like I’m Here?
VIDEO: || “Genetic” ||
MP3: || “Candy Shoppe” ||
15. Albatross – Bugs, Berfday, Gum
MP3: || “Think Happy Thoughts” ||
MP3: || “Honey Child” ||
14. Surfer Blood – Astrocoast
VIDEO: || “Floating Vibes” ||
VIDEO: || “Swim” ||
13. Light Pollution – Apparitions
MP3: || “Good Feelings” ||
MP3: || “Oh, Ivory!” ||
12. Beach House – Teen Dream
MP3: || “Zebra (UK radio edit)” ||
MP3: || “Norway” ||
11. Mermaids – Tropsicle
MP3: || “Holiday” ||
MP3: || “Frozen In Time” ||
MP3: || “Make Believe” ||
10. Mark McGuire - Living With Yourself
MP3: || “Brain Storm (for Erin)” ||
9. Cloud Nothings – Leave You Forever
MP3: || “Leave You Forever” ||
8. Herzog – Search
MP3: || “Town To Town” ||
MP3: || “Living Alone” ||
MP3: || “Paul Blart And The Death Of Art” ||
7. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
MP3: || “Revival” ||
VIDEO: || “Helicopter” ||
6. Allo Darlin’ – Allo Darlin’
MP3: || “Dreaming” ||
MP3: || “The Polaroid Song” ||
5. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
MP3: || “Fright Night (Nevermore)” ||
MP3: || “Round and Round” ||
4. Best Coast – Crazy For You
MP3: || “Boyfriend” ||
3. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
MP3: || “Sometimes” ||
MP3: || “Youth” ||
MP3: || “Vacation” ||
MP3: || “Daydream” ||
2. Fang Island – Fang Island
1. Magic Kids – Memphis
MP3: || “Superball” ||
MP3: || “Summer” ||
Honorable Mention
Caddywhompus - Remainder
Candy Claws – Hidden Lands
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
Foals – Total Life Forever
Frankie Rose and the Outs – Frankie Rose and the Outs
Prisoners - Back In The USSA
The Radio Dept – Clinging To A Scheme
Rodeo Ruby Love – This Is Why We Don’t Have Nice Things
Sleigh Bells – Treats
Tamaryn – The Waves
We Are Hex – Hail The Goer
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
Top 7″s of the Year
1. Cloud Nothings – Didn’t You
MP3: || “Didn’t You” ||
2. Japandroids – Younger Us
MP3: || “Younger Us” ||
3. Gauntlet Hair – I Was Thinking…
MP3: || “I Was Thinking…” ||
4. A Lull – Weapons For War
MP3: || “Weapons For War” ||
5. Cloud Nothings – Morgan
MP3: || “Morgan” ||
6. Wild Nothing – Summer Holiday
MP3: || “Summer Holiday” ||
7. Yuck / Herzog – Split
MP3: || “Georgia” ||
8. La Sera – Never Come Around
MP3: || “Never Come Around” ||
9. Family Trees – Dream Talkin’
MP3: || “Dream Talkin” ||
10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Say No To Love
MP3: || “Say No To Love” ||
Most Anticipated for 2011
A Lull – Confetti
Beach Fossils – What A Pleasure
BIGCOLOUR – TBA
Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings
Fleet Foxes – TBA
Gauntlet Hair – TBA
Glitter Bones – TBA
Hooray For Earth – TBA
La Sera – La Sera
Light Pollution – TBA
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
Puro Instinct – Headbangers In Ecstasy
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde
Real Estate – TBA
Spectrals – Bad Penny
Tennis – Cape Dory
Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine
Yuck – Yuck
I have just listened to 80% of these tunes and they are pretty much all crap.
Well I hope you enjoy the other 20%!
I apologize for sounding like a big Negative Nelson but I really was unimpressed by the bulk of the tunes here. They are very samey, as craig says, and usually have a “could try harder” feel, as though the musicians were just putting in time before the bars opened.
Judging from the two tracks here, Emeralds are attempting to build a career on remaking Throbbing Gristle’s “AB/7A”.
Well I am very sorry this list doesn’t meet your standards. I made the best list possible to what I thought was the best as well as what I enjoyed the most.
I have a big soft spot for the pop music this year, and naturally it scored high on my list. But I can hardly call Ariel Pink, Beach Fossils, and Allo Darlin’ “samey”
Plus a large amount of these albums have shown up on many other top lists, so I have to assumed you were unimpressed with those lists as well.
i can’t tell most of these bands/songs apart. emeralds is great tho
What do you mean?
damn… hater central up in here. u mad? go start your own music blog and publish your own list.
Burn.
wasnt trying to burn anyone… but its pointless to come on someone’s blog just to call the shit they like ‘crap’. if you want to be constructive, post some shit you enjoyed more so that everyone can dig it instead of just acting like a pretentious douche. or at least state why you didn’t enjoy it.
sidebar: your emeralds/TG dig is hilariously offbase. try actually listening to either band. hipster namedrop failure.
Total burn. But you’re right, I should bring something to the table.
I concur solidly with the No Age and Beach House picks, along with a few others. I’d also promote the Sleigh Bells and Dum Dum Girls to the main sequence, with Treats being album of the year, without question. That being said, here are three more:
The Phantograms – Mouthful of Diamonds
The Ramadanmans – Work Them
The Go Home Productions – Virgin O’Riley
P.S. It sounds as though you are unfamiliar with “AB/7A”. I’s on Third Annual Report and is quite different from the classic TG sound. Properly speaking it’s a proto-Chris and Cosey track. Give it a listen and I feel sure you’ll agree that it’s clearly the model for The Emeraldses’s efforts.
P.P.S. Yes I am unimpressed with a number of other toplists as well.
@Thenoiseis : Thank you for this list. Your blog is my favourite of 2010.
@Gruff : LOL
Thank you! Much appreciated!
yes there are alot of bands that are in the indie/lo-fi/dream-pop/shoegaze genre with similar sounds, but each band has its own fingerprint on the music world, and it takes a hardcore music lover to compile a list of their absolute favorites for the entire year. While some people might not like the bands or songs listed, why don’t you go create your own music blog and take the hours, days, weeks, months, that are put into making such a list – instead of bitching about how you hate this one. its not that they are “samey” alot of them just fall into the same genres. Anyway, i love this website. I appreciate all the time and effort put into the lists, blogs, reviews, and of course – the free MP3 downloads!! so thank you for all your hard work
Very good words! And thank you so much!