My 2010 top ten albums list is a good example of how such things are prone to being forever in flux. Only Laura Marling (my then #4) made the 100 Albums queue. The top three are still beloved, but there are other Tracey Thorn and Charlotte Gainsbourg albums I love more (the Hot Chip one is good–just not interesting enough for a 1000+ essay.)
Going through my selected tracks below from that year, most are predictable (Belle and Sebastian, The New Pornographers and Goldfrapp on one of my year-end mixes? Who saw that coming?) Still, a few curveballs remain: actual pop/EDM hit “Stereo Love”, which I might’ve heard on Kiss 108 while getting as haircut; “Shark In The Water”, one of my favorite one-hit-wonders (and it wasn’t even a hit here!); “This Charming Life”, Joan Armatrading’s best song in well over twenty years (not that I’ve heard much in the interim); and “Melancholy Beach”, a Gorillaz song you’d easily mistake for Blur in a blind listening test (I know, like most Gorillaz tunes.)
“Dancing On My Own”, however, completely owns this year (and I didn’t even hear it until that November at the earliest.) As excellent as Robyn’s new album Honey is (released three days ago and already a lock for this year’s top ten), nothing on it compares to what will always be her signature crying-on-the-dancefloor anthem, about which I would change absolutely nothing.
Click here to listen to my 2010 playlist on Spotify.
- The Divine Comedy, “At The Indie Disco”
- The New Pornographers, “Crash Years”
- Hot Chip, “Hand Me Down Your Love”
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Dandelion”
- VV Brown, “Shark In The Water”
- Belle & Sebastian, “I Didn’t See It Coming”
- Laura Marling, “Hope In The Air”
- Tracey Thorn, “Hormones”
- Vampire Weekend, “Giving Up The Gun”
- Broken Bells, “The Ghost Inside”
- Best Coast, “Boyfriend”
- Fitz and The Tantrums, “Breakin’ The Chains of Love”
- Corinne Bailey Rae, “Paris Nights/New York Mornings”
- David Byrne/Fatboy Slim feat. Theresa Andersson, “Ladies In Blue”
- Goldfrapp, “Alive”
- Grafitti 6, “Annie You Save Me”
- Janelle Monae, “Wondaland”
- Laura Veirs, “July Flame”
- KT Tunstall, “(Still A) Weirdo”
- Metric, “Eclipse (All Yours)”
- Spoon, “The Mystery Zone”
- Field Music, “Let’s Write A Book”
- Edward Maya feat. Vika Jigulina, “Stereo Love”
- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, “I Learned The Hard Way”
- Guster, “Architects & Engineers”
- The Gaslight Anthem, “American Slang”
- Gorillaz, “On Melancholy Hill”
- Robyn, “Dancing On My Own”
- The Radio Dept., “You Stopped Making Sense”
- Scissor Sisters, “Invisible Light”
- Joan Armatrading, “This Charming Life”
- Arcade Fire, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Bottled In Cork”
Haunted Jukebox 