The problem with doing this so late in December is that no one really cares anymore but it was fun to put together so, whatever. In total I bought around 35 albums this year so making my top-20 isn't a huge accomplishment. As usual, my list contains nothing that hasn't been discussed on here already due in large part to the fact that Obner is my primary source for music to check out.

As a whole, I think 2010 was a bit of an odd year for me. Most years, I find there's a pretty huge drop off in quality after #5 or so but this year, I'd say there were 12 or 13 albums I enjoyed thoroughly but no single album or two really stood out/blew me away.

20. Stars - The Five Ghosts
Pretty much what you expect from Stars. I like this significantly better than In Our Bedroom After the War but it lacks the punch and stand-out tracks of earlier albums.

19. The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
Just when I was ready to write this off as a disappointment, a couple additional listens pulled me in. I don’t like it as much as the debut from a couple years ago but this band knows how to put together a really solid album.

18. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
I haven’t listened to much LCD Soundsystem in the past and I normally hate this kind of thing but find I frequently gravitate towards this album for some reason. There are a couple of songs I really can’t stand (Pow Pow, for example) but overall find this a surprisingly refreshing change from my otherwise predictable taste.

17. Dr. Dog - Shame Shame
The fact that this is ranked at #17 is actually disappointing for me. I loved Fate and was hoping for another step forward for Dr. Dog but instead got a step back. Shame Shame isn’t bad by any means but it’s far from great.

16. The Black Keys - Brothers
I find myself wishing there were a few more hooks on Brothers but I do like the shift towards a more R&B/Soul sound on some of the tracks. Overall, another solid release from these guys but nowhere near their best.

15. Spoon - Transference
This point has been beaten to death but I’m not sure there’s a more consistent band going.

14. Harlem - Hippies
A fun lo-fi punkish record and a strong follow-up to the bands debut, Free Drugs. There are no bad tracks but no stand-outs, either. I’ve enjoyed the first two albums from Harlem but for whatever reason I feel like they have the potential for better things.

13. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz
None of Sufjan’s previous releases really did it for me. I always felt like I should like him and really tried to force myself to but always found him exceptionally boring. I think the electronic style of Age Of Adz actually fits Stevens’ voice better than his earlier folkier stuff did which makes it much more enjoyable for me. This is easily my favorite of his releases so far and I can finally say I look forward to what he does next.

12. No Age - Everything In Between
This was a pleasant late-year pick up for me. I avoided buying it for a long time because their sound is so similar to a million other bands I’m already sick of. Somehow this album is different and shows why No Age is often considered among the best of this genre. ‘Sorts’ is the jam of the year.

11. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
Grower of the year for me. I never hated it but initially it didn’t really do anything for me. It probably took 10 listens before it really sank in and I actually wanted to hear it. Big Echo was also the most difficult album to rank for me. When I listen to it in the right mood, it’s close to a top-5 record for me.

10. The Old 97’s - The Grand Theater Vol. 1
One of my favorite bands releases its best record in at least nine years, possibly longer.

9. The National - High Violet
This was another difficult one for me to rank. When I first picked it up, it was all I wanted to listen to for about a week. Then, like with every other National album, it faded rapidly to the point where I could really only stand to hear two or three songs. I slotted this in at #9 because there are few albums I listened to more in 2010 but right now there are few albums I’d like to hear less.

8. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
One of my favorite new bands of 2010 and not a bad song in the bunch. They do a great job blending lo-fi noise into catchy tunes which makes them appeal to a wider audience than most bands of this ilk.

7. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
This and Spoon were my only new albums of 2010 for the first two months of the year and as I result, I burned myself out on both rather quickly. The great thing about Astro Coast is that I was able to come back to it a short time later and enjoy it all over again. This feels like the sort of “pinnacle” album a mature band would release after honing their sound over several albums, not a debut release.

6. J Roddy Walston & The Business - S/T
Despite cringe-inducing lyrics like, "I use to did, but now I didn't", this is the first southern-style rock album I’ve thoroughly enjoyed in several years. Nothing brilliant or new here and I can totally see hating this record but for me, it hits the spot. Caroline, I Don’t Want to Hear it, and Brave Man’s Death are great tunes.

5. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
When thinking about how to describe The Monitor, the words “angry,” “whiny,” “thematic,” and “indie-rock” come to mind which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. I’m a sucker for concept albums, though and somehow Titus Andronicus managed to make a tired sound work. The dude sounds like Bright Eyes which can be annoying but if you can get passed that, it’s a great listen.

4. The Walkmen - Lisbon
I swore after Bows + Arrows that I’d never buy another Walkmen album. I had the first two and, apart from a couple of songs on each one, really couldn’t stand them. When You & Me came out a couple of years ago I avoided it for months but eventually downloaded it from eMusic when I had some credits I needed to use up and ended up loving it. Lisbon picks up where You & Me left off and while I don’t think it’s as strong an album, The Walkmen seem to be hitting their stride (at least for my ears). Juveniles and Angela Surf City are two of the best songs they’ve ever recorded.

3. Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing
I totally get why Free Energy does nothing for some people and am a little embarrassed to rank this so high on my list but if I’m being honest, this was one of the few albums I found myself looking forward to hearing again and again. Great music for driving home at the end of a work day you want to forget. These guys would have fit right at home with Big Star and Cheap Trick in the late-70’s.

2. The Love Language - Libraries
I discovered The Love Languages’ debut from last year right at the end of 2009 and listened to it obsessively for the first several weeks of 2010 when interesting new releases were few and far between. Libraries came out in June right about the time I had finally made myself sick of their first album. I was expecting to be sorely disappointed after loving the self-titled album so much but wasn’t at all. If anything, Libraries is a step up as the songs are more thought out and interesting musically. Each song stands out on its own but the songs also all fit together beautifully which keeps Libraries from feeling like a collection of individual tracks.

1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
After the first couple of listens to The Suburbs, although I liked it, I thought it was going to be another Neon Bible for me and fade really quickly. Instead, it did exactly the opposite. As I listened to it more, I found the songs more interesting and relateable and strangely less dramatic than other Arcade Fire stuff. What may have kept this one especially fresh for me is that Regine Chassagne’s songs are among my favorite tracks and ones I found myself skipping ahead to hear. I really wanted to have a different #1 for this year and avoid my usual total predictability but wasn’t able to pull it off. Maybe next year...

I'm down with 6, 7, 11, 14, 17, and 20.