I’m terrible when it comes to end of the year lists.  I say it at the beginning of every year-of list I’ve ever written, and I’ll say it again right now.  The idea of compiling an entire list of the “best” music (new music at that) I’ve listened to over the entire year is so overwhelming my brain invariably regresses to a primitive caveman state and I can only remember the last two or three albums I’ve digested fully.  It’s a rough go this time of year, but alas, it’s the burden I must bear.

That said, I vacillated back and forth this year about how exactly I was going to present the music I enjoyed the very best of 2010.  Would I put together a mixtape?  Would my list be a list of other people’s mixtapes I thought most worthy?  Would I clump the albums or songs together by theme or by experience or by location?  The options, they overfloweth my cup.

In the end though, I found 30 songs I loved and with the help of a crack team of well-trained carrier pigeons, I whittled and wove until I had a list of tracks that more ably wedged themselves in the gooey matter of my brain than any others.  It’s big and ungainly and I’ll try hard not to drown you in my traditional verbosity.

Thanks for a wonderful year!

The Daily Choice’s Top 30 Songs

30. Reading Rainbow - Always On My Mind - Makes me want to pump my fist and laud life in general.
29. Robert A.A. Lowe - Suno vidis - Video game theme song as seen through a frosty microscope.
28. John K. - Lost In The Beat - This years love of the 80s distilled in to a single track.
27. Family Trees - Dream Walkin’ - A title perfectly suited to this lethargic smile-inducer.
26. Monster Rally - Holiday - To paraphrase: like Madlib with a mai-tai.

Read and hear the rest of Noah’s favorite songs after the jump.

25. Dylan Tidyman-Jones - Antelope - The Beach Boys hugging Panda Bear.  A man to keep an eye on.
24. Gabor Szabo - Comin’ Back - Yes, sitar-influenced jazz music is amazing, and this proves it.
23. The National - Runaway - A simple, traditional stunner from theses heavyweights.
22. Dirty Beaches - True Blue - Like prom, but covered in a smoky fuzz.
21. Paul Cary - Iryna - Rock and fucking roll.
20. La Femme - Telegraphe - A scooter, midnight, France.
19. Tim Cohen - I Come Alive - Like an undead lounge singer’s mournful croon, but strangely peppy.
18. Harlem - Someday Soon - Like The Strange Boys exactly one album ago.
17. Strange Boys - A Walk On The Bleach - The Strange Boys, but with some wisps of hair on their testes.
16. Woodsman - Insects - Pass the LSD please.

15. Tame Impala - The Bold Arrow of Time - The best psych album/track of the year.
14. Sonny and The Sunsets - Too Young To Burn - Sonny Smith, the poster boy for the prolific.
13. Ariel Pink - Round and Round - Is there words to describe this? Yes: amazing.
12. Cults - Go Outside - Like sonic meth.
11. Takkhala - Play With Fire - Persian cover of The Rolling Stones.  Need I say more?

10.  Future Islands - Tin Man

I couldn’t imagine that I’d ever place a song with steel drums anywhere near my top ten of the year.  But the combination of the grimy tropical sound with Future Islands frontman Sam Herring ragged croon is entrancing, a track (and album) I’ve absolutely worn out, but still find the urge to listen consume on a regular basis.

9. ARP - White Light

Somehow I’ve become an enormous fan of avant-garde electronica this year and ARP’s The Soft Wave is absolutely the main reason.  ”White Light” is like listening to a radio station in the middle of America, the slightest of sound finding its way through the fuzz, giving you just enough reason to not
turn the dial.

8. Personal & The Pizzas - (I Don’t Want To) Think About It

The inclination is just to call Personal & The Pizzas, big, dumb rock ‘n’ roll, but the mournful tune of Personal’s voice and the downright somber bit of guitar solo in the middle knocks it up at least a couple notches.  Seems like Jersey beens a popular influence this year, and Personal & The Pizzas take the overarching concept of Jersey rock and roll - the leather, the cheap beer, the tight-jeaned hip swagger - and compound it.

7. Beach Fossils - Distance

It was a hard made decision to choose between this Captured Tracks single and the “The Golden Age” the highlight of Beach Fossil’s full length release.  In the end “Distance” just pushes the envelope a little further, invoking the cloudy beachside resorts BF is so apt at portraying as well as a nostalgic haze of youth.

6. Thee Oh Sees - Castiatic Tackle

Thee Oh Sees have been banging out stellar tracks (nee albums) all year long, but the throaty roar of “Castiatic Tackle” takes the impressively sized cake. I’ve heard the new album from this formidable group, and let me say, harmonicas and flutes actually make these guys more enjoyable.

5. Mountain Man - Animal

I was stunned when I first heard Mountain Man’s haunting “Animal.”  I was stunned when I heard Alex Bleeker & The Freaks covered it.  I’m stunned now as the song washes over me once again, the angelic harmonies of these three massively talented women the most charming of the neo-folk groups that stepped in to the spotlight this year.

4. The Mallard - Ex/Old Hates Tatesale

I’ve posted so many times about The Mallard, seen so many of her shows, and generally fawned over her lo-fi sound that it’s almost redundant to remind you how much I love this performer (as both musician and friend).  But I do, all of her thrumming hooks, her dead-pan delivery, the simply complex mix of drum and guitar.  It saddens me she’s been on musical hiatus for the last few months, but from what I hear the urge is returning and I simply can’t wait.

3. Moon Duo - Stumbling 22nd St.

Propulsive, rhythmic, everything I love about Wooden Shjips but instilled with futuristic riff that is completely unexplainable.  Makes my mind pulse like nothing else this year.

2. Beach House - Walk In The Park

The best track off the best album of the entire year.  Stunning in all ways.

1. The Morning Benders - Excuses

No song this entire year has captured such a perfect mood then The Morning Bender’s “Excuses.”  There’s an almost 1940s big band to the whole proceeding, a sort of magical dinner club vibe that’s only broadened by the piercing vocals of  Chris Chu.  It’s haunted me from the moment I first heard it, and its endearing hooks and lyrical flourishes continue to reverberate in the darkest corners of my considerably sized head.  Not the best album of the year, but certainly the most incredible song.