David's Top 30 Songs of 2010

2010 has been one of the best years for music in quite a long time. From the independent rock scene, to electronic music, to pop, to hip-hop, 2010 was a year that was able to breathe new life into what had became a fairly stagnant creative scene. My tastes in music have always varied, covering basically every end of the musical spectrum, and this year my favorites have been taken from almost every genre. So without further ado, here are my 30 favorite songs of 2010 (and please feel free to comment on what you think of my list):

30. Menomena - "Killemall"
On an album that saw Menomena trying a few more different things than they had in the past, “Killemall” was a nod to the sound that they had perfected on their last album. The piano line is reminiscent of the band’s best song, “Wet n’ Rusting”, and seeing this song performed live in Chicago was one of the highlights of my year.



29. No Age - "Life Prowler"
Kicking off ‘Everything In Between’, this song showcased the “new and improved” No Age. The band seemed to be approaching their songwriting with the idea of an epic sound in their heads, and with the repeated background noise (I’m not entirely sure what instrument makes it), they hit their mark.



28. Four Tet - "Angel Echoes"
The title of this song is absolutely perfect. Mixing the classic Four Tet sound with some r&b influences is even more perfect. The best part about the song, though, is the idea that some chopped up vocals were all that were needed to become the most beautiful song in the catalog of an artist that has many of them already.



27. Joker - "Tron"
This beat is one of the hardest things I’ve heard in years. I’m not a violent person, obviously, but this song makes me wanna go fight somebody. I totally love it, but it’s probably not something I should listen to very often.



26. Big Boi - "General Patton"
Who would have ever thought of sampling an opera performance in a hip-hop track? I always thought Big Boi was great, but I also thought he was the less original of the two members of Outkast. While he’s not as out there as Andre 3000, this song shows that the originality that made Outkast so great was a collaborative effort.



25. Local Natives - "Sun Hands"
These guys are insanely impressive lyrically. You have to go through some darkness to finally reach the light, but once you do, never let it go. The tension that builds up throughout this song is thick, and the release at the end leads to one of the more raucous guitar sections in an indie-folk-rock album in years.



24. Arcade Fire - "The Suburbs"
As the first track to be released as a single from the album from which it took its title, this one definitely had me excited about the new Arcade Fire album (as if I wouldn’t have been anyway). While the album as a whole is great, the nostalgic feeling for times gone by that can never be re-created in this song has stuck with me more than anything else from the album throughout the year.



23. Crystal Castles - "Celestica"
The first time I heard “Celestica”, I thought there was something wrong with my copy of the album. This couldn’t be Crystal Castles, could it? The band that was known for its on-record freakouts had created something gorgeous. And you could finally understand the words that Alice Glass was singing! Whatever made them do this, I’m very glad that they did.



22. Deerhunter - "Helicopter"
This is really depressing, lyrically, with its words about being passed on by your friends after they’ve grown tired of you, causing you to wish for death. Damn it if Bradford Cox and the band don’t make it beautiful, though.



21. Best Coast - "Boyfriend"
Everyone has experienced the thoughts that Bethany Consentino sings about in “Boyfriend”. When we were younger, we all had eyes for someone that we knew we could never have, thinking that we were so much better than the person that they were already with. Very rarely do we get what we daydream about, though, which is why we listen to songs like this.



20. How to Dress Well - "Endless Rain"
If you were to take an early 90's r&b pop song, play it repeatedly for a ghost, and then let them try to repeat it themselves, this is what you'd get. Tom Krell is the future of great music, and this is just the beginning for him.



19. Beach House - "Silver Soul'
Victoria Legrand’s voice is one of the best things going in music, at the moment. When added to Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” last year, it turned a great song into an absolute classic. The way that she draws a two-syllable word like “again” into nine syllables is breathtaking.



18. LCD Soundsystem - "Dance Yrself Clean"
In the first few minutes of this song, the intro track of ‘This Is Happening’, it seems like James Murphy has made something small and understated, for once. But then, at the 3:08 mark, the beat drops, and he’s up to his old tricks again. Fortunately, his old tricks consist of making brilliant, brilliant electronic based music.



17. Ghostface Killah - "Street Bullies"
This was a very late addition to my list, but from the first time I heard this song, I knew that it instantly had to be on this list. Although Ghost himself only raps the songs hook, Shawn Wiggs, Sheek Louch, and Sun God pick up all of the slack, absolutely attacking the amazing beat with everything they've got. The album is full of fantastic songs featuring more of Tony Stark, but this is the one that I just can't get enough of.



16. Kanye West - "Devil In a New Dress"
The most amazing thing about this track is that it was produced by Bink!, and not Kanye himself. No matter who gets the credit, though, this is the culmination of years of Kanye’s hazy soul samples. The only downfall is that Rick Ross is on the album version, when someone like Nas or Ghostface would have absolutely killed the song. It’s a credit to just how brilliant it is, though, that even Ross can sound pretty good on it.



15. Big Boi - "Shutterbug"
I may have actually heard this song more than any other this year due to its being featured on NBA 2k11, which I’ve possibly played more than any video game ever. If I have to hear anything repeatedly, though, this new hip-hop classic is a good one to be “stuck” with.



14. Deerhunter - "Desire Lines"
This is Deerhunter’s second vocalist Lockett Pundt’s day in the sun. He shows here that he possesses a voice almost the equal of Bradford Cox, and has the songwriting chops to boot. When the band locks into a groove at the 3-minute mark, it’s one of their finest moments to date.



13. Joanna Newsom - "'81"
Joanna Newsom is clearly one of the more unique artists that music has ever seen. She has a voice that has taken me almost 6 years to finally get used to, but here it sounds like one of the most beautiful things around. Mix in her amazing talents as a harpist, and you have a career high.



12. Katy Perry - "Teenage Dream"
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that Katy Perry would have a song in my end of the year list, I would have been just as confused as I’m sure everyone reading this is right now. I’ve hated everything that she’s done up until now, but I just can’t get over this song. It’s probably the biggest guilty pleasure of my life to this point, but I’m gonna own up to it completely. There’s just such a sense of nostalgia in this song.



11. Janelle Monae - "Cold War"

Jacking the beat directly from Outkast’s B.O.B. is an audacious act, as that was one of the greatest songs of the last decade. Janelle more than lives up to it, though, showing off her incredible voice to its fullest potential. That this woman is not an absolutely massive pop star is a travesty.

10. Big Boi - "Shine Blockas"
With three songs on this list, Antwan Andre Patton (aka Sir Luscious Leftfoot, aka Daddy Fat Sax, aka Billy Ocean, etc.) certainly has had an amazing year. This song is just so full of joy that it almost can’t be contained within itself. It’s practically bursting at the seams with good feeling, and the performances by both Big Boi and Gucci Mane are first rate.



9. Beach House - "Walk In the Park"
In a discography full of quiet brilliance, “Walk in the Park” is immediately the most epic thing that Beach House has ever done. The entire song is simply amazing, but Victoria’s vocals in the chorus make it one of the years biggest and best.



8. Kanye West - "POWER"
Kanye had flirted with using rock samples in his music in the past, but on this song, he uses an amazing King Crimson sample to its fullest effect, going almost all the way into rock and roll territory. On top of showing off his greatest abilities as a producer, his rapping here is some of the best of his career, spitting lines completely full of venom. Apparently a pissed off Kanye West is a really good thing.



7. James Blake - "I Only Know (What I Know Now)"

This is a song in which all of the negative space within it adds up to make one massive positive. There are times within this song where absolutely nothing is happening, not even any ambient recording noise, and all it does is make me long for that vocal sample to come back. Along with Tom Krell from the band How to Dress Well, James Blake has taken 90’s r&b and has turned it into the future of great music.



6. The National - "Afraid of Everyone"
Everyone else seems to fixate on “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, but to me, this is the true standout on one of the greatest albums of the year. After the build-up of tension in the tracks before this one, this song builds it up even more, only to finally release everything at the end in a truly haunting way. From Sufjan’s ghostly backing vocals to Matt Berninger’s seething passion throughout, this is the sound of one of our generation’s greatest bands at the height of their powers.



5. Local Natives - "Wide Eyes"
Very rarely has such a young band been able to tackle topics such as religion and its place in the world around us in such a meaningful way as Local Natives have here. Local Natives have already shown an amazing ability to craft intelligent, thought-provoking music, and this is their current high water mark. It's going to be really hard to top in the future, but based on what they've already accomplished, I'll never underestimate them.



4. Crystal Castles - "Not in Love"
Here, Crystal Castles show that videogame inspired music can possess a real power to move you. Alice’s vocals are once again distorted to the point of being unintelligible, but it doesn’t even matter. The song just keeps adding layers all the way until the end, until it just has no more room to grow. Finally, everything just explodes in a blast of white noise, where the phrase “we are not in love” is the only thing that exists.



3. Robyn - "Dancing On My Own"
Robyn is often times more like a robot than a human being (a concept that she fully grabbed hold of on her new album), but “Dancing On My Own” shows her to have a heart as strong as anyone. This is the sound of a woman longing to be wanted by someone…anyone, but no one even notices her. Somehow, though, she finds the strength to keep at it. Every few years, Robyn releases a track of sheer power, and this is her strongest.



2. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Round and Round"

This is the indie classic that 2010 will be remembered for, years into the future. Ariel Pink shifts gears countless times throughout this song, but each gear moves things into even greater territory than the last. When the true chorus finally hits, it’s something that I never want to end….which is why I’ve used the repeat button more times than I’d care to admit.

1. Jay Electronica - "Exhibit C"

Jay Electronica is the greatest hope for hip-hop to break out in years, and “Exhibit C” is his coming out party. With his Nas-like flow, Jay Elect flips words like few I’ve ever heard. He has an incomparable thirst to be the greatest ever, and with more tracks like this, he really has a shot someday. Just Blaze’s production work is equally brilliant, and the only question that can be taken from this song is asked within it. Like Nas, T.I., and Diddy, all I can wonder what’s taking him so long to release a full album? Call him Jay Electronica, Jay Elechannukah, or Jay Elecyarmulke, but whatever you want to call him, know that this is hip-hop in its purest, most amazing form, and an true sign of the future.