Here we are, hours away from Christmas, and I am finally delivering you my best songs of 2010. I guess it can be considered my Christmas gift to all you guys. I heard more music in 2010 than ever before. It was hard to narrow it down, but these were the 100 songs that I thought were truly the best in my mind.
There’s not too much to say, other than I hope you discover something new here. If your a die hard reader, there shouldn’t be any surprises. If you can leave this list with one or two new songs that you enjoy, then I did my job.
Here are my favorite songs from the year that was, 2010:
100. Tamaryn – Love Fade
99. Ravens & Chimes – Division St.
98. The Chord And The Fawn – Love, Sex, And Rock ‘n Roll
97. Blake Mills – Hiroshima
96. The Bewitched Hands – Sea
95. Avi Buffalo – What’s In It For?
94. Gauntlet Hair – I Was Thinking…
93. The Tallest Man On Earth – King Of Spain
92. Wolf Parade – What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)
91. Vermilion Club – Odd
90. Corte Real – Bastards
88. Sports – To Catch A Thief
88. Old Smile – Swept Up With The Tide
87. Lissie – Record Collector
86. Hey Marseilles- Rio
85. The Coral – 1000 Years
84. Caribou – Odessa
83. Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill
82. Interpol – Barricade
81. The Soft Pack – Mexico
80. Korallreven – Loved Up
79. Young The Giant – My Body
78. Tame Impala – Solitude Is Bliss
77. Glass Vaults – Forget Me Not
76. Tanlines – Real Life
75. Seapony – Dreaming
74. Indian Rebound – Sitges
73. Crystal Castles – Not In Love (Feat. Robert Smith)
72. Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
71. All The Damn Kids – Echoes
70. Faded Paper Figures – Invent It All Again
69. Pantha Du Prince – Stick To My Side (Feat. Panda Bear)
68. Glasser – Apply
67. Great Lakes – Ghost Brother
66. Male Bonding – Weird Feelings
65. Broken Bells – The Mall & Misery
64. Panda Bear – Alsatian Darn
63. Gobble Gobble – Lawn Knives
62. Wild Nothing – Chinatown
61. Wavves – Green Eyes
60. Stepdad – My Leather, My Fur, My Nails
59. Spoon – Out Go The Lights
58. The Pass – Treatment Of The Sun
57. The Drums – Down By The Water
56. Belle And Sebastian – I Want The World To Stop
55. Arctic Monkeys – The Afternoon’s Hat
54. Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks
53. Delta Spirit – Bushwick Blues
52. The Gaslight Anthem – Stay Lucky
51. The Head and The Heart – Sounds Like Hallelujah
50. Free Energy – Bang Pop
49. Magic Kids – Candy
48. Tapes ‘n Tapes – Freak Out
47. Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work
46. Cults – Go Outside
45. Delorean – Grow
44. Hot Chip – One Life Stand
43. Donovan Woods – Lawren Harris
42. Miles Kane – Come Closer
41. Yellow Ostrich – WHALE
40. Larsen B – Marilyn
39. Stornoway – Zorbing
38. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round And Round
37. Beach Fossils – Daydream
36. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand
35. Foals – Spanish Sahara
34. MGMT – Siberian Breaks
33. Young Empires – Rain Of Gold
32. Little Comets – Joanna
31. Tennis – Marathon
30. Surfer Blood – Floating Vibes
29. Summer Fiction – Chandeliers
28. Yeasayer – O.N.E.
27. The Radio Dept. – Heaven’s On Fire
26. Wolf Gang – Lions In Cages
25. The Tins – Green Room
24. Ra Ra Riot – Boy
23. Big Boi – Shutterbugg (Feat. Cutty)
22. Smith Westerns – Weekend
21. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Sink/Let It Sway
20. The Vaccines- If You Wanna
19. Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
18. Deerhunter – Helicopter
17. The National – Conversation 16
16. Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
15. Chief – Night & Day
14. Beach House – 10 Mile Stereo
13. Cee-Lo Green – Fuck You
12. Deerhunter – Desire Lines
11. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change
10. Vampire Weekend – Giving Up The Gun
9. Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill
8. Cut Copy – Take Me Over
7. The Walkmen – Blue As Your Blood
6. Young Galaxy – Peripheral Visionaries
5. Sufjan Stevens – Futile Devices
4. Summer Fiction – Throw Your Arms Around Me
3. Kanye West – Runaway (Feat. Pusha T)
2. The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
1. The Morning Benders – Excuses










Mark — 24 Dec 10
Good work. A mighty list!
Castillo — 24 Dec 10
Will
Thank you for the great Christmas gift!!
Castillo
Logan — 24 Dec 10
Thought for sure you would have Conversation 16 at #1 and I am very disappointed with the very serious lack of any LCD Soundsystem on this list!
Jo — 24 Dec 10
Yes Excuses! Great choice
Jeff — 24 Dec 10
Well done, thanks again Will
Will — 24 Dec 10
Wow, thanks for pointing that out Logan. It should have been on the list. I compiled 112 songs and then chopped it down to 100. I must have accidentally chopped out LCD in the transfer over to here.
But yes, “I Can Change” did make the list, as you can now see.
Thanks!
Natalie — 24 Dec 10
With my bare-minimum knowledge of indie rock, I ALWAYS come away with a plethora of new stuff. Now I have heaps of it in one place. Thanks!
Will — 24 Dec 10
My pleasure, thanks for checking it out Natalie!
Nina — 24 Dec 10
awesome list! A lot of those songs would make it onto my own list if I were to make one, and some of them because of reading your blog. also, loving the morning benders at #1
ray ray — 24 Dec 10
It’s Christmas eve and I just stumbled into your site…This is going to be the best Christmas present I get this year. Thanks so much…this is fantastic.
Keegan Swenson — 25 Dec 10
Excuses is such a great pick for number one. The song is immediately accessible but is such staying power. I have put it on throughout the year and I hear different things in it with each new listen.
Great list for a great year, cannot wait for another year of musical coverage!
Kevin — 25 Dec 10
Yay for Villagers! let me tell you, if you liked Becoming A Jackal you should love some of the other Irish releases from this year. Best year to date! Ive a “Best of” list on my blog if you want to check some out.
Nikeisha — 25 Dec 10
WOO! Cant wait to go through it all
Merry Christmas!!
Rodrigo — 26 Dec 10
Great playlist, although i thought you missed a few songs from Broken Social Scene
matty — 26 Dec 10
Awesome! thanks for the well rounded list
Matt — 27 Dec 10
Great list! So many of my favorites for this year were found through you. Keep it up in 2011!
Sondre Lerche – Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (Owen Pallett Cover) | We All Want Someone To Shout For — 28 Dec 10
[...] Last year I really enjoyed Sondre Lerche’s cover of Animal Collective’s “Bluish”, my #1 song of 2009. He’s making it a tradition to cover one of his favorite songs of the year each December. This year he picked Owen Pallet’s “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”, a song that made my list for best songs of 2010. [...]
Cate — 28 Dec 10
Thanks for the amazing list, I found a lot of good artists I missed over the past year. Good music taste all around. Love this blog!
Miriam — 29 Dec 10
Really great christmas gift
thanks!
Natural Beardy — 29 Dec 10
This is a real top shelf list, sir. I just found your blog, and I’m looking forward to checking back soon!
-Dylan (Natural Beardy – Music Blogger)
Spencer — 29 Dec 10
Is there any way that you could put these into one zip file for us? Great list, by the way. I knew Excuses would be #1 which is exactly where it deserves to be. It blew me away the first time I heard it this year and I still love it
Maux — 30 Dec 10
Thank you SO much for such a comprehensive and, fankly, quite awesome list. I’ve been listening (and downloading) all day. I only know about a third of the stuff, but am loving so much more of it. Thank you thank you!!
Maux — 30 Dec 10
*frankly – oops.
sublet — 30 Dec 10
wahooooo!nice tune!!you did your job as you said!
Romy from Paris!;-)
rbtrn — 31 Dec 10
Awesome list ! This blog is great, it’s the only music related website that I visit on a daily basis and I have to say that I’ve always discovered great artists… Thank you so much
rbtrn from Paris too !
rpg — 1 Jan 11
Hey Will, some of your links – notably that Cee-Lo Green song – are already broken/won’t download. Could re-upload some of those songs?
Jessica — 1 Jan 11
Waouh , just perfect . Such great artists !
Thanks for the amazing band who are The National even if my favorite ” Anyone’s ghost ” & ” Afraid of everyone ” are not here .
My english is bad , and moreover I’m French !
I hope that 2011 will be as good as 2010 .
From Brittany =)
Jo the plumber — 2 Jan 11
Awesome list!Everything rocks!Thanks!
Sage — 2 Jan 11
Oh wow, this list is the best I’ve seen! I feel like Best Coast should be on here, though. They had a huge year!
Will — 7 Jan 11
Thanks for checking out the list guys. I’m glad that you all enjoyed it!
Uzair — 7 Jan 11
I actually thought that the alternate version of Terrible Love by the National was their best song and one of my favs but Bloodbuzz is excellent as well. I know Keane have a bad rep but they did a little EP and it had an excellent non-Keane sounding song on it called Clear Skies, catchy stuff.
But my two favourite songs were from the most popular band in Sweden, kent. Usually they sound fairly indie but these two are more electropop. They’re in Swedish so I don’t understand them but they’re so good that they’re my two fav 2010 songs. I can’t decide which one is better, Ismael:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gq57z1DKKA
or GLASÄPPLEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38AaYoyBQ_g
Will — 8 Jan 11
I’m actually a big fan of Keane’s earlier output. I haven’t really listened to them as much as before (didn’t check out the new EP), but I’ve been meaning to!
Under The Radar | Heartstrings Engaged — 8 Jan 11
[...] seeing Yellow Ostrich on countless Best of 2010 lists – I realized it was time to find out what this was all about. All it took was one visit to [...]
Beardo — 10 Jan 11
Will, this list is a thing of beauty!
A million thank you’s for all your relentless work!
[music video] Crystal Castles – Not In Love (Feat. Robert Smith) | We All Want Someone To Shout For — 14 Jan 11
[...] Posted below is the grainy music video for the Robert Smith featured Crystal Castles song “Not In Love”. It was included in my top 100 songs of 2010. [...]
rpg — 28 Jan 11
You need to reupload some of your mp3s again, they’re showing up as 663qja6tu7.mp3 (that’s “Helicopter” by Deerhunter) when I try to download them.
[music video] Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill | We All Want Someone To Shout For — 28 Jan 11
[...] MTV2 just premiered Sleigh Bells rad music video for “Rill Rill”, one of my fav’s of 2010. [...]
taylor — 29 Jan 11
Will – I don’t suppose this list exists as a .zip like the top 50 so far from last year; that was my fav mix last year!
chris Blasucci — 7 Feb 11
Killer list. GO Soft Pack!
Fake Plastic Tunes — 10 Mar 11
Fantastic list of songs. I have alot of simalar tunes on my best of 2010 as well. 2011 should bring us some more quality tunes as well. Great blog you have earned another follower.
[new] Gauntlet Hair – Top Bunk | We All Want Someone To Shout For — 29 Jul 11
[...] Hair scrapped their way onto my best songs of the year last year, and that was before even releasing an album. The band is releasing their s/t debut album via Dead [...]