One of the most polarizing figures in entertainment silenced *most* of his critics when he released the almost perfect "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", once again proving that he might be an asshole but he still knows how to make good music.

By MizzBlaze

Admit it, it's only on this list because Pitchfork gave it a 10/10.

By sakunthala_pandi

This album and song make me love life.

By SemtexGirl

I just got this song free from Amazon mp3 app on my phone. It reminds me of old Blink 182.

By saunieindiego

Can't get better surf punk than this

By sakunthala_pandi

This is the album I listened to most this year, but there’s more to it than that. Like many great albums, Swim works in just about any situation. "Odessa" could easily soundtrack a J.Crew commercial. “Found Out” could be the backdrop to the break-up scene in a Sundance Film Festival favorite. “Leave House” sounds like a cover it’s so immediately familiar and catchy. “ But, for all that i... Moret achieves taken track by track, there is still the matter of the album as a whole. As a whole the album is as liquid as the songs themselves, flowing in and out of one another, peaks and troughs. I kept coming back to Swim this year to get that feeling of floating as the waves rock you back and forth, up and down, side to side. Swim doesn’t just sound like water–it is water, if that makes any sense.

By charliemorse

A little different than your average Gorillaz album; but awesome.

By cte

Catchy, lo-fi yet colorful, this album dives through the backwaters of yacht and garage rock, completely silly and sincere at the same time. Ariel Pink is a master melodicist, and the circuitous route one takes to the unforgettable chorus of a song like "Round and Round" - through bridges and breakdowns and the ringing of a telephone - feels natural and hard-earned.

By chrismolnar

Flying Lotus’ year was sort of a two for one deal, for he went down the whole “let’s release an amazing LP at the beginning of the year, then a slightly less amazing (but still very good) EP towards the end of the year” route. Cosmogramma is one of the year’s weirdest albums, filled with hands down the most insane bass lines you’ll ever hear. The record is so perfectly cohesive, its edges so smoot... Moreh, that it demanded everyone else involved in the LA beat scene to step their game up.

By charliemorse

Mournful, dreamy, and somehow lit with poppy shimmer, the alchemy never goes awry in Beach House's 3rd LP, even as each slowburning track is iced down by the stratospheric vocals of Victoria LeGrand. Hushed, epic, and aching. Somehow disparate, even contradictory sounds manage to blend into irrevocably memorable tunes. If you have not heard her voice, you must.

By gkruis

A very nice comeback from mediocrity.

By cte

In the first song, he sings a lullaby; lush as 'Seven Swans,' he adorns his voice with dreamy, sweeping piano. 2 precious minutes encapsulating a period. Then Sufjan crushes those 'Futile Devices' between the pixelated tectonic plates of 'Too Much.' Already a maximalist, 'Age of Adz' transmutes the trilling horns of 'Illinois' into spaceward rockets. He makes them cosmic. Yet, he maintains the 'st... Moreates album' ethic, only this time it's about a state of mind. A raw uninhibited altered state. Sufjan says it best: "When I die/I'll rot/but when I live/I'll give it all I've got." Or more succinctly: "I'm not fucking around."

That line alone signals 'Adz' as a phoenix album, and watching Sufjan destroy and recreate himself in his own image was the bizarre pinacle of creativity in 2010.

By gkruis

I hope their sophomore effort is half as good.

By SemtexGirl

At 2 hours, this marathon album doesn't give the uninitiated any head starts. Especially if they're looking to hear something familiar. The closest thing to a pop tune comes four songs in with "Good Intentions Paving Company," a bopping, piano driven Joni Mitchell-style ballad that never seems to settle in one place. And the wandering persists with flighty harp-strummed arpeggios, until ... Morecalamity strikes, until Joanna strikes the bass strings and the horns come crashing in. Every song is a journey, conveying the sojourner by harp, harpsichord, or piano, but in the end Joanna's way with words that crowns her queen of 2010: "I was tired of being drunk/my face cracked like a joke/so I swung through here like a brace of jackrabbits/with their necks all broke."

By gkruis

A hyperactive, insular trip through the musical styles that MGMT cares most about - prog, 60's pop, surf rock, 80's garage - that always manages to entertain and appeal without ever sounding like part of a trend, whether mainstream or underground.

By chrismolnar

From the beautiful lyrics to the catchy melodies, Ben Folds releases another masterpiece. I know you're probably thinking, "How can Ben Folds get any better?" Nick Hornby, that's how! Stand-out songs: Levi Johnston's Blues, Doc Pomus, Claire's Ninth, Picture Window, and A Working Day.

By TeaTimeWithPaul

As if they wrote and recorded an entire album under the Pacific, 'Candy Claws' debut is awash with sweeping pop tunes that clash and shimmer like the waves. 'Diving Knife' sets the scene with the murky, below-the-surface noises of breath-holding competitions, but upon reaching the surface the first wave of cymbal clap smacks you in the face and the album takes off. Like cuttle ink in water, the so... Morengs bleed together and so 'Lantern Fish' is still dripping with the tones of 'Diving Knife,' even if it picks up the pace. The album is tidal, from the inwash of sunny melodies to deepwater choruses - 'It takes a long time...' - and then back to sundrenched shoegaze. Regardless, listen to the album as a whole, submerge yourself, go for a dive, crack the shell, each song holds a pearl.

By gkruis

Rarely do electronic albums sound this orchestral and inventive. There are big beats, big orchestras, big everything, and with the kind of production sheen that one used to have to go to a big label to get. Pure pleasurable excess.

By chrismolnar

The quiet hiss of space, the acoustic resonances of living rooms and bedrooms, make for the unmatched quality of home-recordings, but what makes Perfume Genius different is that the home where 'Learning' was recorded is a haunted one, and by the end of this debut that hiss of space is populated with ghosts. Songwriter Mike Hadreas conjures the bewilderment and loss of Daniel Johnston, but imbues i... Moret with calm, somber piano and a heart-wrenching falsetto that cracks and climbs in turns. As each phantom is introduced, it's certain how dearly Perfume Genius knows them. Ghosts like Mr. Peterson who "let me smoke weed in his truck/If I could convince him I loved him enough," and Mary-Belle who lives in a bird-cage cell, don't make 'Learning' easy-listening, but they do make it a brave debut.

By gkruis

A very underrated band.

By cte

Gonja combines psychedelic samples with his own distorted vocals for a distinctive experience, at once impossibly old-sounding and brand new. Sometimes he speak-sings over a perfect garage rock tune, other times he haltingly sings over huge sounding beats. Always he sounds wise and warm.

By chrismolnar

Fun, loud, and truly a "treat" for the ears.

By MizzBlaze