Top 50 Tracks of 2010: 10-1

10. Ariel Pink - "Round and Round"
Summarizing Pink's back story here wouldn't do it justice, but his obsession with 70's pop and his understanding of what makes/made it likable produced one of the most creative albums of the year. The highlight of "Round and round" comes two minutes in with a vintage "Hold on, I'm calling..." chorus that erupts as a perfectly retro-cool 70's pop rock imitation.

9. Keepaway - "100"
A lush synthy, track driven by popping bongo underneath shrill, androgynous vocals about being able to "break you off 100 times in a single day." Awesome in a weird way.

8. Sleigh Bells - "Rill Rill"
This song was the exception to the rule on Sleigh Bell's face melting album Treats. The instantly recognizable fuzzy, check-your-speakers-to-make-sure-they're-not-broken vocals are here, but the ear drum ruining noise-pop takes a back seat to the warm saloon piano sample from Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That."

7. Twin Shadow - "Slow"
It's almost too lame... "Don't put me out, just let me in / How many times did you let me win? / Give me one more, my ticket's in" The cheesy retro crooning is pushed to the limit and pulled off perfectly.

6. Local Natives - "Airplanes"
A warm, piano driven song about a dude who wishes he could have known his grandfather better. Lyrically, the story is delivered honestly and with with the concrete "I keep those chopsticks you had from when you taught abroad in Japan" that earns the repeated call "I want you back, back back..." delivered in the song's terrific conclusion.

5. The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
This track reminds me of one of my all time favorite songs The Walkmen's "The Rat." Both tracks are snare driven gut checks, looks back at life from ruined men, on edge and taking inventory of their wasted lives. But while the Walkmen's track is more rampaging catharsis, "Bloodbuzz Ohio" remains unsettling and hopeless, ending pretty much where it starts. In the hauntingly good video, front man Matt Beringer's lifeless stare could not be any more perfect.

4. Deerhunter - "Helicopter"
Inspired by a truly disturbing story, Deerhunter creates a loneliness in Helicopter's empty space that very few bands are capable of, and no one since Radiohead has done as gracefully. The song's underlying darkness and vague sense of tragedy culminate in the song's repeated final lines "Now they are through with me."

3. Gorillaz - "Rhinestone Eyes"
Their album Plastic Beach is essentially a concept album about an envisioned post-apocalyptic (or post-something) world. Images of beuaty and squalor are juxtaposed throughout the album and in the music itself, and on no other track is it done as well as "Rhinestone Eyes." In a muffled, monotone against what is essentially an electro-pop backdrop, Damon Albarn sings lyrics like "With the paralytic dreams that we all seem to keep, Drive on engines til they weep we're, Future pixels in factories far away." proving that even in a dystopic world, there will still be good music.

2. LCD Soundsystem - "I Can Change"
Alright... James Murphy is a genius. Nobody else produces songs like this, and there are few who can match his lyrical wit. Everybody loves him, everybody respects him, and it's easy to join the massive chorus singing the praises of LCDS's front man and leader. Refer to this track as justification for all of this.

1. Beach House - "Walk in the Park"
What makes their album Teenage Dream so incredible is not only the diversity between songs, but the ability for Beach House to pull the listener into a unique world in each song: consistently beautiful, intricate, and hypnotic. As I mentioned in an earlier comment Victoria LeGrand's voice is Beach House's obvious draw... it's an oddity, a powerful and unmistakable rasp, and while she's worth the price of admission alone, the songs on Teenage Dream are not hollow step asides solely designed to spotlight LeGrande. "Walk in the Park" is the most complete of these songs, and will probably go down as one of my favorite tracks of all time. The components are simple: a repeated keyboard waltz, a drum machine, and guitar, comprising the basis of the first four minutes as LeGrande weaves a vague story about a faded relationship. After four and half minutes the song blossoms as an orchestral layer accompanies Legrand's repeated "More, you want more, you tell me / More, only time can run me" to form the most gorgeous musical moment of 2010.