Do you remember “glo-fi”? The much maligned chillwave? Of course you do … for now. It’s interesting to note that after all of 2010’s trendy genre terms and hot-for-a-minute one-man bands, our Top 5 consists of a handful of sturdy veterans. The Top 10 expands to include a couple newcomers, newbies amid, again, three established crews. What does it mean? Well, the situation’s analogue to 2006 when a number of so-called “blog rock” bands like Tapes ‘N Tapes, Clap Your Hand Say Yeah, and Cold War Kids made immediate wav(v)es, but albums released by old standbys received the year-end kudos. This isn’t to say you should reject the new — there are plenty of debut albums in our Top 50 and plenty of worthwhile debuts that didn’t make it — but it does say something about the amount of music released and processed and then forgotten in any given year. (Trivia: Which band that debuted in ’06 made it into our Top 5?) A positive result of all the fractures, fissures, flashy genre names: The average listener is definitely hearing more music and becoming more adventurous than in, say, 2006. (Sorry Decemberists.) Which means bands that may have seemed too “weird” for a casual listener even a few years ago are popping up in unexpected places in 2010.

It’s unclear why — oil slicks, down economy, jeggings — but it’s also been a much darker year for music via bands like Crystal Castles, oOoOO, Balam Acab, Zola Jesus, White Ring, Salem, Frank (Just Frank), the sundry so-called “witch house” (and Wierd) crews. As a result, the following list features more than a couple folks who might be charged with having goth tendencies (or at least black nail polish and old Cure and/or Kate Bush shirts). To take this sense of adventure into another direction, our No. 1 is someone your father might even know about and our No. 5 is on a “major label.” Notions of what “indie rockers” listen to is shifting and expanding, a positive step toward escaping the pratfalls of across-the-board year-end list homogeneity.

One of the fun things about lists is discovery, so it doesn’t make sense giving away too much, but we will say that what follows is the result of four people saying yes and no and maybe, and that if you were to break out individual lists from it, they’d look very different. (That said, if you asked us to collaborate again, it would look very much the same.) It should be noted that the following doesn’t include any metal — a separate one-man list for the heavy stuff will show up in Haunting The Chapel later this month, so please don’t ask why we didn’t include Agalloch or Watain. Also, we disqualified EPs; those get their own special ranking below the main list.

Start digging, digesting, and disagreeing.

50 Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here?

49 Small Black – New Chain

48 Sharon Van Etten – Epic

47 Baths – Cerulean

46 Frank (Just Frank) – The Brutal Wave

45 Perfume Genius – Learning

44 Field Music – Field Music (Measure)

43 Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty

42 Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement

41 Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal

40 Glasser – Ring

39 Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner

38 Avey Tare – Down There

37 jj – jj nº3

36 the morning benders – Big Echo

35 Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

34 Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

33 MGMT – Congratulations

32 Twin Shadow – Forget

31 Warpaint – The Fool

30 Das Racist – Shut Up, Dude

29 Matthew Dear – Black City

28 Delorean – Subiza

27 Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid

26 Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

25 ceo – White Magic

24 Tamaryn – The Waves

23 SALEM – King Night

22 Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern

21 Liars – Sisterworld

20 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today

19 Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

18 Abe Vigoda – Crush

17 Owen Pallett – Heartland

16 The National – High Violet

15 The-Dream – Love King

14 Yeasayer – Odd Blood

13 LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

12 Crystal Castles – II

11 Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

10 Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

09 Wild Nothing – Gemini

08 Antony & The Johnsons – Swanlights

07 Vampire Weekend – Contra

06 Sleigh Bells – Treats

05 Robyn – Body Talk

04 Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz

03 Beach House – Teen Dream

02 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

01 Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

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Here’s that list in more copy/paste friendly format so you can post on your LiveJournal:

50 Emeralds – Does It Look Like I Am Here?

49 Small Black – New Chain

48 Sharon Van Etten – Epic

47 Baths – Cerulean

46 Frank (Just Frank) – The Brutal Wave

45 Perfume Genius – Learning

44 Field Music – Field Music (Measure)

43 Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

42 Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement

41 Oneohtrix Point Never – Returnal

40 Glasser – Ring

39 Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner

38 Avey Tare – Down There

37 jj – jj nº3

36 the morning benders – Big Echo

35 Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

34 Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

33 MGMT – Congratulations

32 Twin Shadow – Forget

31 Warpaint – The Fool

30 Das Racist – Shut Up, Dude

29 Matthew Dear – Black City

28 Delorean – Subiza

27 Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid

26 Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

25 ceo – White Magic

24 Tamaryn – The Waves

23 SALEM – King Night

22 Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern

21 Liars – Sisterworld

20 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today

19 Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

18 Abe Vigoda – Crush

17 Owen Pallett – Heartland

16 The National – High Violet

15 The-Dream – Love King

14 Yeasayer – Odd Blood

13 LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

12 Crystal Castles – II

11 Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me

10 Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

09 Wild Nothing – Gemini

08 Antony & The Johnsons – Swanlights

07 Vampire Weekend – Contra

06 Sleigh Bells – Treats

05 Robyn – Body Talk

04 Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz

03 Beach House – Teen Dream

02 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

01 Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

//

Coming up with the Stereogum list meant leaving out some personal favorites of our four staff members, so here are each of our HONORABLE MENTIONS:

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And as mentioned in the intro, we decided to do EPs as a separate list — because, really, as we started compiling our individual staff lists we released 2010 generated more amazing EPs than any year in our collective recent memory.

STEREOGUM’S TOP 15 EPS OF 2010

15 Blondes – Touched

14 Laurel Halo – King Felix

13 Kingdom – Mind Reader

12 Gatekeeper – Giza

11 Janka Nabay – Bubu King

10 Lemonade – Pure Moods

09 Tanlines – Settings

08 oOoOO – oOoOO

07 Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People

06 Games – Everything Is Working

05 Balam Acab – See Birds

04 Girls – Broken Dreams Club

03 Twin Sister – Color Your Life

02 James Blake – CMYK

01 Zola Jesus – Stridulum



THE GUMMY AWARDS

Finally, remember the Gummy Awards? This would’ve been their fifth year, but we realized too late that the code to build it was swallowed when we moved to WordPress earlier this year. So this is a modified Gummys, because we still want to know what you think. Fill out these fields by Friday 12/17 at 6 PM EST and we’ll post the rankings soon after. We won’t use your e-mail address (no spam-o) to do anything other than pick one voter at random to receive a Wavves grinder (i.e., the perfect stocking stuffer).



