2010 Review: Top 30 Albums of the Year

Happy Twenty-Eleven everybody! Cool Music Central continues the long standing tradition of kicking off the New Year with a post dedicated to the best albums of the year past (since 2000 to be exact, from a different URL back then - anybody still remembers Netscape websites?).

In our 2010 Review we have presented so far our favorite albums from the veterans and the newbies, the Top 100 Tracks of the Year and the first part of our Top 60 Albums of the Year. Time then to turn our attention to the Best of the Best - C.M.C.'s Top 30 Albums of 2010.

As early as April it became clear to me that unless something truly extraordinary was released in the next eight months, then The Fall (still The Best New Band In Britain after 28 albums as this NME review correctly pointed out) would claim once again the Number One spot of my year-end list (the first time was twenty years ago with "Extricate"). And although we did listen to plenty of excellent records in the remainder of the year, nothing really could measure up to the renewed fire and fury of Mr. Mark E Smith and his ever-changing group. As I was writing in our May review "what remains constant throughout the album is the band's unflinching focus and unrelenting intensity, resulting in its best work since The Unutterable back in 2000, an LP that found its way in our Top 20 Albums for the '00s. I’m convinced that a similar achievement for the new decade is more than possible thanks to the mighty roar of Your Future Our Clutter".

While the top of our 2010 list is claimed by a legendary group with a long history, the new breed has a strong presence in the rest of the Top 10 with the amazing debuts of Glasser, Dum Dum Girls, Sleigh Bells and Salem earning a place among the best albums of the year and, more importantly, showing quality that promises even greater things for the future. No Age, Beach House and Wolf Parade also produced brilliant albums that stand out as career highlights. Arcade Fire's ambitious concept album "The Suburbs" may not surpass the quality of their previous efforts, but it's sufficiently strong to lead the band for the third time in one of our year-end Top 10 lists. As for The National, their fifth effort "High Violet" proved to be the best of their decade-long career, an album that was becoming even more addictive and necessary the more you listened to it.

To read more about our favorite albums of the year, check out our Listening Habits posts of 2010 here. And here is the complete Top 30 list based on what we've been able to listen to so far:

Top 30 Albums of 2010

1.   Your future our clutter - THE FALL
2.   Ring - GLASSER
3.   High violet - THE NATIONAL
4.   I will be - DUM DUM GIRLS
5.   Treats - SLEIGH BELLS
6.   Everything in between - NO AGE
7.   Expo 86 - WOLF PARADE
8.   The suburbs - ARCADE FIRE
9.   Teen dream - BEACH HOUSE
10. King night - SALEM
11. Crystal Castles (II) - CRYSTAL CASTLES
12. Sisterworld - LIARS
13. Grinderman 2 - GRINDERMAN
14. Transference - SPOON
15. The fool - WARPAINT
16. High Places Vs Mankind - HIGH PLACES
17. Hidden - THESE NEW PURITANS
18. Nerve up - LONELADY
19. Gemini - WILD NOTHING
20. Forgiveness rock record - BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
21. Root for ruin - LES SAVY FAV
22. Wilderness heart - BLACK MOUNTAIN
23. Crazy for you - BEST COAST
24. Contra - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
25. Total life forever - FOALS
26. The flexible entertainer - PIT ER PAT
27. Sea of cowards - THE DEAD WEATHER
28. Majesty shredding - SUPERCHUNK
29. The Soft Pack - THE SOFT PACK
30. Sleep forever - CROCODILES

2010 Review: Top 60 Albums of the Year (31 to 60)

365 days, 78 posts and 6700 visits later...2010 is about to wave goodbye and we're once again ready to see off another year in our time-honored tradition of counting down our favorite albums of the year.

Today we have the first part of a Top 60 list that could easily expand into a Top 100 as there was no shortage of good music in an otherwise troublesome year. As usual, I'm going to point out the fact that the order of the year-end list is not going to be finalized until I finally find the time to listen to all of the albums currently waiting in my busy player's queue. When this happens, the complete and thoroughly thought through list of 2010 is going to appear in Cool Music Database, the central hub of every yearly list I've ever compiled and more. To get a better idea about all the records I've listened to and appreciated in 2010, check out our Listening Habits posts from the past 12 months here.

Meanwhile, here's how the second half of our Top 60 Albums of the Year list currently looks like:

Top Albums of 2010: 31 - 60

31. Penny sparkle - BLONDE REDHEAD
32. Interpol - INTERPOL
33. Disconnect from desire - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
34. Cosmogramma - FLYING LOTUS
35. MAYA - M.I.A.
36. Brothers - THE BLACK KEYS
37. Coconut - ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
38. Congratulations - MGMT
39. Innerspeaker - TAME IMPALA
40. Halcyon digest - DEERHUNTER
41. Forget - TWIN SHADOW
42. The Drums - THE DRUMS
43. Avi Buffalo - AVI BUFFALO
44. 1000 years - THE CORIN TUCKER BAND
45. The monitor - TITUS ANDRONICUS
46. Phosphene dream - THE BLACK ANGELS
47. XXXX - YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!
48. The optimist - NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB
49. Swim - CARIBOU
50. Latin - HOLY FUCK
51. This is happening - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
52. My beautiful dark twisted fantasy - KANYE WEST
53. How I got over - THE ROOTS
54. The Hundred In The Hands - THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS
55. Fire like this - BLOOD RED SHOES
56. Transit transit - AUTOLUX
57. Black noise - PANTHA DU PRINCE
58. There is love in you - FOUR TET
59. Stridulum II - ZOLA JESUS
60. The age of adz - SUFJAN STEVENS

Bubbling under: Broken Bells - BROKEN BELLS, The courage of others - MIDLAKE, Northern aggression - STEVE WYNN &THE MIRACLE 3, Blurry blue mountain - GIANT SAND, Together - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, I'm having fun now - JENNY AND JOHNNY, The five ghosts - STARS, Lisbon - THE WALKMEN, Absolute dissent - KILLING JOKE, 2 - RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR, Beat the devil's tattoo - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, Amsterdam throwdown King Street showdown! - SOLEX VS. CRISTINA MARTINEZ + JON SPENCER, Odd blood - YEASAYER, Mines - MENOMENA, The golden archipelago - SHEARWATER, Have one on me - JOANNA NEWSOM, Here’s to taking it easy - PHOSPHORESCENT, Possession sound - GUN OUTFIT, Nothing hurts - MALE BONDING, Romance is boring - LOS CAMPESINOS!, Plastic beach - GORILLAZ, Strange weather, isn't it? - !!!, Where did the night fall - UNKLE, Before today - ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI, Grey oceans - COCOROSIE

Next up: 2011 arrives and Cool Music Central spills the beans about the Top 30 Albums of 2010 - Cheers!

2010 Review: Top 100 Tracks of the Year (1-50)

So how was your Christmas weekend? I hope you all had a great time! C.M.C. started the celebrations on Friday with the unveiling of the first part of our Top 100 Tracks of the Year and we’re proceeding today with the presentation of our very own Festive 50.

The rules of this game were made clear in the previous post, so all that remains is to explain the difficult process of deciding our Single of the Year. In reality it’s a tie between two very different but equally loved tracks, The National’s "Bloodbuzz Ohio" and Dum Dum Girls’ "Jail La La". Both tracks were inducted in our Killer Tracks Hall of Fame in the first half of the year (see here and here respectively) and I still can’t get enough of either of them.

In the end, the decision for that all-important number 1 spot was not down to a flip of the coin but to the fact that I have yet to see a "Best of" year-end list with the Dum Dum Girls on top. One of C.M.C.’s many missions is, of course, to correct all music-related wrongs, so our Top 50 Singles list comes just in time to take care of that. Another factor that tipped the odds to Dee Dee and her band’s favor was the fact that if we didn’t have the rule of including just one track from each band in our Top 50, Dum Dum Girls would certainly have the most entries. Apart from their awesome Sub Pop debut 7 inch that claimed the top, the Girls released a series of ace singles in 2010 including "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout" on Slumberland (included in the second half of our Top 100), "Stiff Little Fingers" on Hell, Yes! and a split with Male Bonding on Sub Pop with the excellent "Pay For Me". Not to mention the fact that each and every track on their great debut "I Will Be" would make for a first-class single release.

Without further ado, here’s our Top 50 Singles of 2010 accompanied with mp3 links where available and a player where you can hear and see videos for most of them:

Top Tracks of 2010: 1-50

1.   Jail La La - DUM DUM GIRLS
2.   Bloodbuzz Ohio - THE NATIONAL
3.   Bury Pts 2+4 - THE FALL
4.   Infinity Guitars - SLEIGH BELLS
5.   Written In Reverse - SPOON
6.   Worm Tamer - GRINDERMAN
7.   Ready To Start - ARCADE FIRE
8.   Barricade - INTERPOL
9.   Mirrorage - GLASSER
10. Proud Evolution - LIARS
11. Attack Music - THESE NEW PURITANS
12. Celestica - CRYSTAL CASTLES
13. Art Czars - JAPANDROIDS
14. Ego Death EP - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
15. Old Fangs - BLACK MOUNTAIN
16. Norway - BEACH HOUSE
17. Can’t Feel Born EP - HIGH PLACES
18. King Night - SALEM
19. IxC999 - WHITE RING
20. Intuition - LONELADY
21. All To All - BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
22. Giving Up The Gun - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
23. Everybody’s Under Your Spell - THE DUKE SPIRIT
24. Doubt - THE CORIN TUCKER BAND
25. Semi-Precious Stone - WOLF PARADE
26. Odessa - CARIBOU
27. Water - PIT ER PAT
28. Here Sometimes - BLONDE REDHEAD
29. Let’s Get Out Of Here - LES SAVY FAV
30. Digging for Something - SUPERCHUNK
31. Glitter - NO AGE
32. Undertow - WARPAINT
33. Boyfriend - BEST COAST
34. Skinny Little Bitch - HOLE
35. Blue Blood Blues - THE DEAD WEATHER
36. C'mon - THE SOFT PACK
37. Sleep Forever - CROCODILES
38. Babelonia - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
39. Blue Blood - FOALS
40. Lying - FACTORY FLOOR
41. Born Free - M.I.A.
42. Pow Pow - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
43. Latin America - HOLY FUCK
44. Slow - TWIN SHADOW
45. Golden Haze - WILD NOTHING
46. Fool's Day - BLUR
47. Get Some - LYKKE LI
48. Next Girl - THE BLACK KEYS
49. Solitude Is Bliss - TAME IMPALA
50. Forever & Ever Amen - THE DRUMS

Listen to the Top 50 here:

Next weekend: All you ever wanted to know about C.M.C.'s Top Albums of 2010!

(mp3s, flvs via pitchfork, stereogum, KEXP or the relevant record labels)

2010 Review: Top 100 Tracks of the Year (51-100)

As usual, I started trimming down the long list of our favorite tracks of the year trying to decide what to include in Cool Music Central's Top 50, but it became obvious that I was leaving out too many great ones. Therefore, this year we're expanding our singles list to a Top 100 split into two parts: today we're presenting in no particular order the tracks between 51 and 100 and on the 26th we'll give you our Top 50 Singles of 2010.

As it is also usual, there are a couple of self-imposed rules in the compilation of this list: 1) All tracks included here were either released as singles in any shape or format (digital or physical) in the past 12 months or given away as free mp3s (which is a modern and more effective way of getting your music noticed than hoping that the radio will play your single). 2) Only one track from each artist/group is included in the Top 50 to ensure that a wider array of music is represented in our list. This rule is relaxed for the second half of the list which we are presenting today, meaning that some of the artists below will make a second appearance in a couple of days, when we'll unveil the Top 50. So, now that the rules are clear, let's get on with the show:

Top Tracks of 2010: 51-100

Not In Love (feat. ROBERT SMITH) - CRYSTAL CASTLES
Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout - DUM DUM GIRLS
Tremel - GLASSER
Chaos - NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB
Pigeons - THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS
AM/FM - !!!
Hoola - ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
Don't Ask - BLOOD RED SHOES
Jezebel - ANNA CALVI
Hotel Room - SMOKE FAIRIES
Round and Round - ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
The Overachievers - LIARS
Hide It Away - RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR
Crash Years - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Scissor Runner - JENNY AND JOHNNY
Compliments - BAND OF HORSES
Revival - DEERHUNTER
Let Them - JJ
Fixed - STARS
Hey Cool Kid - CLOUD NOTHINGS
Romance Is Boring - LOS CAMPESINOS!
Found Love In A Graveyard - VERONICA FALLS
Natural Selection - UNKLE
Lemonade - COCOROSIE
Stylo - GORILLAZ
High Road - BROKEN BELLS
Siberian Breaks - MGMT
Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums - MOONFACE
Ayisha Abyss - SERENA MANEESH
Seed, Crop, Harvest - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
Swim - SURFER BLOOD
Night - ZOLA JESUS
Rattling Cage - FOREST SWORDS
Sing - FOUR TET
O.N.E. - YEASAYER
I Feel Better - HOT CHIP
Tighten Up - THE BLACK KEYS
Anyone's Ghost - THE NATIONAL
Month Of May - ARCADE FIRE
Heavenward Grand Prix - JAPANDROIDS
We Want War - THESE NEW PURITANS
Ashes to Ashes - WARPAINT
Dear God 2.0 - THE ROOTS
Gold Guns Girls - METRIC
Tonight - THE BIG PINK
Zebra - BEACH HOUSE
Real Live Flesh - TUNE-YARDS
Mind Eraser, No Chaser - THEM CROOKED VULTURES
Commotion - THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS
Hearts (oOoOO EP) - oOoOO

Listen to a playlist including most of the above tracks plus the festive (?) "Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don't Die)" by the Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls (hint: make sure not to miss the smoking hot last video on this player!) - enjoy:

(mp3s via pitchfork.com or the relevant record labels)