The music is flowing as it has never flowed before. The era we are living is so overloaded with popular art in every form, no one should claim able to keep up. I certainly do not claim any such thing. The music I hear is a tiny slice of what is available, determined by my own habits. I listen to what I want to hear: records on display at my local record shops, records written about in a few favorite publications, something played and/or reviewed on N.P.R., something a friend recommends and very little else. I never hear much of the music most America is hearing. No doubt I miss great stuff. I could wait and check out the various lists as they are posted and published. I would rather my choices remain my own curious slant on what is good. I have already seen the Mojo Magazine “50 Best of 2010”. One of my choices, Gonjasufi’s “A Sufi and A Killer” is something I learned about from that list, checked out on the Internet, and picked up next day. I don’t want to allow my list to be corrupted. A year from today, my 2010 favorites will probably look different. These LPs and CDs are my favorites heard from the trenches of my own personal battle. As always, I list my choices in order of preference. Everything is subject to change within moments of being posted.

Best LPs & CDs 2010:

1. Swans: My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young Gods LP)
2. Circle Pit: Bruise Constellation (Siltbreeze LP)
3. Roky Erickson: True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti LP)
4. Fabulous Diamonds: Fabulous Diamonds II (Siltbreeze LP)
5. Brian Eno: Small Craft On a Milk Sea (Opal CD)
6. Getatchew Mekuria, The Ex & Guests: Moa Anbessa (Terp LP)
7. US Girls: Go Grey (Siltbreeze LP)
8. Kate Nash: My Best Friend Is You (Fiction CD)
9. Dead Weather: Sea of Cowards (Warner Brothers LP)
10. Massive Attack: Heligo Land (Virgin 2-LP)
11. The Roots: How I Got Over (Def Jam CD)
12. Z’s: New Slaves (Social Registry 2-LP)
13. The Thermals: More Parts Per Million (Subpop CD)
14. Various: Stroke, Songs For Chris Knox (Merge CD)
15. Lower Dens: Twin Hand Move Ment (Gnomsonsong LP)
16. Caribou: Swim (Merge LP)
17. Weekend: Sports (Slumberland 2-LP)
18. Barn Owl: Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey CD)
19. Martin Rev: Stigmata (Blastfirstpetite CD)
20. Johnny Cash: American VI: Ain’t No Grave (American Recordings CD)
21. Thee Oh Sees: Warm Slime (In the Red LP)
22. The Dead C: Patience (Ba Da Bing LP)
23. Liars: Sisterworld (Mute 2-LP)
24. Evan Caminiti: West Winds (Three Lobed LP)
25. Wild Nothing: Gemini (Captured Red LP)
26. Hole: Nobody’s Daughter (Mercury CD)
27. Trash Kit: Trash Kit!! (Upset the Rhythm LP)
28. Tape & Bill Wells: Fugue (Immune LP)
29. Grinderman: 2 (Anti LP)
30. Goldfrapp: Head First (Mute LP)
31. Indian Jewelry: Totaled (We Are Free LP)
32. Bryan Ferry: Olympia (Virgin CD)
33. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula (Sub Pop CD)
34. Wetdog: “Frauhaus!” (Captured Red LP)
35. Joanna Newsom: Have One On Me (Drag City 3-CD)
36. She & Him: Volume Two (Merge CD)
37. Laetitia Sadier: The Trip (Drag City LP)
38. Gonjasufi: A Sufi & A Killer (Warp CD)
39. Naked on the Vague: Heaps of Nothing (Siltbreeze LP)
40. Mathis Hunter: Soft Opening (Shakedown LP)
41. Brian Jonestown Massacre: Who Killed Sgt. Peppers (a LP)
42. Vaselines: Sex With An X (Sub Pop CD)
43. Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3: Propellor Time (Satorial LP)
44. Stereolab: Not Music (Drag City/Duophonic Ultra High 2-LP)
45. Pit Er Pat: The Flexible Entertainer (Thrill Jockey LP)
46. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh (CD)
47. Nice Face: Immer Etwas (Sacred Bones LP)
48. Psychic Ills: Astral Occurrence (Spring Press LP)
49. Psychic Ills: Catoptric (Social Registry LP)
50. Tandoori Knights: Curry Up It’s the Tandoori Knights (Norton LP)
51. Sleigh Bells: Treats (Mom & Pop CD)
52. Noot d’Noot: From Every Since (Shakedown LP)
53. A Frames/Climax Golden Twins: AFCGT LP + 7” (Sub Pop LP/7”)
54. Trans Am: Thing (Slumberland CD)
55. Various: Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa (Honest Jons 2-LP)
56. Effi Briest: Rhizomes (Sacred Bones LP)
57. Titus Andronicus: Monitor (XL CD)
58. Woven Bones: In and Out and Back Again (Hozac CD)

REISSUES/Compilations/Live/Oldies

1. The Velvet Underground: The Quine Tapes (Sundazed 6-LP)
2. Orange Juice: Coals to Newcastle (Domino 5 CD plus DVD)
3. Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series No. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962 – 1964 (Columbia 2-CD)
4. The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street (with Bonus disc) (2 CD)
5. Kleenex/Liliput: Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovie (Kill Rock Stars CD+DVD)
6. Various Artists: Worried Now, Won’t Be Worried Long: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
7. Various Artists: I’ll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
8. Various Artists: Wave The Ocean, Wave the Sea: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
9. Various Artists: I’ll Meet You on That Other Side: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
10. Various Artists: I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
11. Fucked Up: Couple Tracks (Matador 2-LP)
12. X: Aspirations (Rocknroll Blitzkrieg LP)
13. Various: Fanajana: A Collection of Recordings and Photograhy from Madagasikara (Mississippi LP)
14. Kebab: We Live in a System (Softspot LP)
15. Interference: Interference (The Social Registry 2-LP)
16. Black Tambourine: Black Tambourine (Slumberland LP)
17. Kevin Dunn: No Great Lost, Songs, 1979 – 1985 (Casa Nueva CD)
18. Z’ev: as/if/when (Sub Rosa LP)
19. Various Artists: Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Volume Two: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
20. Various Artists: Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Volume One: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
21. The Scrotum Poles: Auchmithie Forever (Dulc-I-Tone LP)
22. Mike Rep and the Quotas: Stupor Hiatus (Silt Breeze 2 LP)
23. Sweet Talks: The Kusum Beat (Sound Way LP)
24. Hedzoleh: Hedzoleh (Sound Way LP)
25. White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights (Third Man 2-LP)
26. Ozzie: The Parabolic Rock 1975 – 1982 (S.S. 2-LP)
27. Various Artists: Brazillian Guitar Fuzz Bananas (Tropicalia in Furs 2-LP)