Since I’m later than everyone else and am expounding (and have expounded) elsewhere plenty on 2010 I’ll keep this one short. The following is a list of the most compelling records I heard in 2010. Not coincidentally these really were the records I actually listened to most. To my mind, every one of my choices exists as a whole record, and not just a collection of individual singles, so, in my humble opinion, every single record on this list is worthy of taking the time to listen all the way through to be absorbed fully.

Since I only did twenty songs for 2010, I also limited myself to an unordered list of twenty records (plus a few stellar EP’s). Click the link on a band name to see what we’ve wrote about them in 2010.

Morning Benders – Big Echo (Rough Trade Records)

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (4AD)

The Head and the Heart – S/T (self-released)

Damien Jurado – Saint Bartlett (Secretly Canadian)

Hoquiam – S/T (Secretly Canadian)

Beat Connection – Surf Noir (self-released)

Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice Very Nice (ABC/Warner)

Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives – S/T (Amigo/Amiga)

Best Coast - Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)

The Moondoggies – Tidelands (Hardly Art)

Pearly Gate Music – S/T (Barsuk)

Sonny and the Sunsets – Tomorrow is Alright (Fat Possum / Soft Abuse)

Dinosaur Feathers – Fantasy Memorial (self-released)

Beach House – Teen Dream (Sub Pop)

Ravenna Woods – Demons & Lakes (self-released)

Phosphorescent – Here’s to Taking it Easy (Dead Oceans)

Sharon Van Etten – Epic (Ba Da Bing Records)

The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge Records)

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty Records)

Joseph Giant – S/T (self-released)

EP’s

Lemolo – Open Air (self-released)

Pickwick – Myths Vol 1 and Myths Vol 2 (self-released)

The Lonely Forest – The Lonely Forest EP (Trans)

Girls – Broken Dreams EP (True Panther Sounds/Matador)

Tallest Man on Earth – Sometimes the Blues Is just a Passing Bird (Dead Oceans)