This is a top 10 list. I’m only really doing it for reasons that will become clear later in the week. Hopefully tomorrow. Probably Friday. More likely still, never. We’ll cross our fingers.

1. Twin Shadow- Forget
   This was the soundtrack for my 2010.  I was psyched to hear the first few songs online, but I didn’t realize how psyched I was until I got the cd at the wedding of the century.  Starting that weekend, I began a Twin Shadow listening spree that isn’t quite over yet.  When I was packing up my apartment in Chicago, it was the only CD I had, so I listened to it non-stop.  Then I listened to it non-stop again once I got to DC.  After a few weeks, I’d maybe only listen to it every other day, but then TS (also my sister’s initials) would play a DC show and I’d get amped all over again.  Anyhow, it’s awesome, and it’s my favorite record of the year.
2. Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz
   This record totally surprised me.  Not only did I not know it was coming out (been kinda busy with school),but I figured when it did come out it would be just a Sufjan Stevens record- pretty, cool, interesting, but I’d probably listen to it a dozen times and be over it.  But that was not to be.  It’s a crazy, weird, quiet, dancy, spastic record with all the cool arrangements and complexity and beauty you’d expect, but then a whole lot of weirdness on top of that.
3. Superchunk- Majesty Shredding
   Awesome.  I don’t even know why I bought this, I only really like two Superchunk songs (Foolish and their 100,000 Fireflies cover) and noneof their records would have even made it to a top 100 list, but I liked the idea of a bunch of old folks making a record, plus Merge is basically flawless so whatever.   And this record, like the label, is basically flawless.  It doesn’t sound like a band that’s been putting out records since forever: it’s got the great energy/urgency they’ve always had. I think every song on the record has at one point been stuck in my head for a day or two, and never in the annoying/gottagetitoutomfg sort of a way. Especially “Crossed Wires.”
4. The Books- The Way Out
   Another Books record!  Always good news!  It didn’t seem like it had actually been that long since Lost &Safe came out (still one of my favorite album titles), but it had been more than five years.  Kinda like Sufjan, I was expecting a mellower affair, but it’s practically danceable.
   It’s also got great packaging, complete with stickers you cxan use to create your own cover.  Of course, I left all the stickers on their paper (I bet most people did), but it’s a neat idea.
5. Neon Indian- Psychic Chasms
   I bought this record because it has a super ugly cover and he was playing Pitchfork, so I figured I’d buy it.  For a while it was the only song I had on my laptop, so I listened to it endlessly while studying.  I hate saying that a record is good to listen to while doing something else, because that’s so backhanded it can’t even be a compliment, but I wrote some pretty good papers with  this in the background.  Twin Shadow covers  Neon Indian, so that’s weird and cool.  Pretty fun to see at Pitchfork, but I think they’d be a lot more fun to see in a sweaty club than a sweaty park.
6. Girls- Broken Dreams Club
   It’s a Girls record with six songs on it.  It’s on  the list, cause it’s awesome, but I’d prefer another six songs or so.  I think a lot of people secretly like this record- my brother recently confessed to liking it, as well as a couple other people.  When I first heard Album last year, I couldn’t decide if I hated it or loved it.  This time, however, I immediately loved it, but I guess that’s not too surprising.  I wanna hear some dancy remixes!
7. Surfer Blood- Astro Coast
   I wrote about this record when I First bought it, and I thought it was boring, generic indie rock.  I still hear why I thought that, but the songs are way better than I gave them credit for.  And lest I seem like too much of a Twin Shadow fanboy (which I am), my opinion re: SB changed before the Twin Shadow remix of “Floating Vibes”came out.
8. Thermals- Personal Life
   I liked the Thermals at first cause they were a lo-fi punk band with diary-like lyrics that didn’t make  you cringe.  Easy.  Then they got all political, and the result was awesome, but I’m glad this record came out.  That said, I prefer playing it at 45.
9. Broken Social Scene- Forgiveness Rock Record
   This band is good.  This record is good.  I’m sick of writing.  I should have written this in reverse order, you know, with my favorite at the bottom of the list so I’d more more interested in writing about the music as  I went along, rather than the reverse.  In related news, I don’t much like the video for “Texico Bitches.”
10. Spoon- Transference
    Yup.  Another Spoon record.  I feel kinda the same way about Spoon as I do BSS- I love the way they sound and can listen to their records pretty much whenever and get stoked, but there’s like..  nothing specific that I can point to, just the sound.  They just sound cool?  That’s silly, but, like I said, I’m getting sick of writing.  Yup.

The next five, in no order, with even less commentary:
Ted Leo- Brutalist Bricks
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Band of Horses- Infinite Arms
Girl Talk- All Day

Things I just got into in 2010,a year or more late: White Rabbits, Grizzly Bear, The Carpenters, The Bevis Frond (specifically “Lights Are Changing” a cool track made famous by a Mary Lou Lord cover, I think), Belle & Sebastian’s first two records (we, along with Brussels sprouts, have the same initials), Rocket From the Crypt / Night Marchers, Field Music, Superchrist, Sweet Cobra.  The Sweet Cobra record technically came out this year, bu..you know.  Technicalities.