And so it begins. Here are the first 10 albums on the countdown, featuring a couple of the best Irish records of the year, some buzz-bands made good and at least one unreconstructed hippy…
40: Solar Bears – She Was Coloured In (Planet Mu)
The debut album from Dublin/Wicklow newcomers Solar Bears first crossed paths with our stereo in mid-September and, quite frankly, the two have hardly parted company since. She Was Coloured In proved to be an astonishingly accomplished example of blissed-out, languid, perfectly-executed electronica. The highlights? Try ‘Primary Colours At The Back Of My Mind’, or ‘Dolls’, or ‘Head Supernova’, or… well, take your pick, really. Suffice to say, it’s still on the stereo and still getting better with every listen. Neill Dougan
39: Not Squares – Yeah OK (Richter Collective)
Searing with jagged, thumping rhythms and warm synths, Yeah OK is a fast-paced explosion of punishing electronics solidified by a more traditional instrumental base, and a true triumph for NI’s premier thrash-dance-punk band. Off-kilter beats such those on ‘De Na Na’ collide with the bass-soaked riffs of ‘Asylum’ and the stop-start blips of party epic ‘Release the Bees’. Born of a drunken night they may be, but this intense sonic rollercoaster is truly one of the most exhilarating local debuts we’ve heard in some time. Louise McHenry
38: Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Mute)
With Odd Blood, Yeasayer took the leap from being underground avant-garde hipsters to a thoroughly accessible band – one that references diverse influences, but packs in a host of hooks, melodies, and fists-in-the-air choruses, too. A work of ingenuity that gave Animal Collective a run for their money (and produced some of the best tracks of the year), the album was bold, brave and beautiful, and cemented Yeasayer’s reputation as pioneers at the cutting edge of alternative modern music. Tara McEvoy
37: Surfer Blood – Astro Coast (Kanine)
This was the year where the Nineties stopped being passé and started being retro. Sounding like their formative years were spent watching those golden years of major label alt. rock videos on MTV, Surfer Blood arrived to distract Weezer fans from that band’s painful decline. Like Weezer, they don’t know how to make songs that aren’t singles. ‘Swim’ should be on Rockin’ Guitar Riffs compilations, and ‘Twin Peaks’’ bossa part surely made flannel shirts move like nothing recently seen. And they like reverb a lot too, which is cool. Karl McDonald
36: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today (4AD)
It wasn’t his first album, as he slyly suggested to interviewers earlier in 2010, but Before Today marks the melding of Ariel Rosenberg’s previous supremely inventive bedroom sonics with something approaching the production sheen of a proper recording studio. The results were gloriously scattergun as Pink’s filthily febrile imagination ran riot to create a kalaedoscopic collection that was sleazy, playful and downright gorgeous throughout. An eclectic but always blade-keen pop sensibility persisted in bubbling to the fore in tracks like Round And Round’ and ‘Little Wig’. Before Today will be remembered as the album that saw the mad, mad world of Ariel Rosenberg first collide with with the mainstream. Joe Nawaz
35: Field Music – Field Music (Measure) (Memphis Industries)
One of the first truly great albums of 2010 saw Sunderland’s Brewis brothers take on the frequently ill-advised task of recording a full double album – an explosion of fraternal creativity that followed a hiatus during which they scratched their solo project itches. In an interview with AU they rather prickly denied that they are an indie band, and of course they are correct. Field Music (Measure) is a tour de force of pop-rock songwriting that frequently touches the greatness of Fleetwood Mac, Prince and (whisper it) The Beatles. Magnificent. Chris Jones
34: Mimas – Lifejackets (Big Scary Monsters)
Who could have guessed that an improbable melding of Pavement’s angular quirkiness and the gentle, evocative ellipses of American Football, by a group of young Danes, would add up to one of 2010’s most absorbing releases? Surreal lyrics about moustaches, sock puppets and stalking girls at soft drink stalls abound on Lifejackets, augmenting music which constantly flits between mathy, danceable and haunting without ever losing its perverse flow. Lee Gorman
33: No Age – Everything In Between (Sub Pop)
For their second studio full-length, LA’s hardest working slackers put their faith in loops and samples, and yet managed to make their most accessible album yet. No Age records always walk the line between bloody-fingered energy and blissed-out passages of ambient noise, but Everything In Between also contains their best pop songwriting – the seasick lurch of ‘Glitter’, the breezy ‘Valley Hump Crash’ and the sweetly melodic closer ‘Chem Trails’ – one of two songs this year that attempted to rewrite Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ (the other being ‘All I Want’ by LCD Soundsystem). Chris Jones
32: Wavves – King Of The Beach (Bella Union)
2009 was the year Nathan Williams “melted down” and got dismissed as a drug-addled, irrelevant hype monster. 2010 was the year the people who dismissed him got told. Easily his most consistent record to date, King Of The Beach starts fast with the title track and doesn’t slow down. It’s guitar pop, raw and at its best, overloaded with what would be hit singles in a parallel universe where people do nothing but smoke weed, skate and hang out. Karl McDonald
31: Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms (Static Tongues)
‘Chillwave’ might be one of the most off-putting titles for an emerging genre since nu-rave, but Alan Palomo aka Neon Indian is proving there’s more to it than a naff name. Over a backdrop of wheezing synths and tape hiss, he churns out a collection of teen–romance ballads that harken back to a time when things were simpler, and the boy always got the girl at the end of the school prom. Yes, it’s a fake nostalgia trip, but when it’s as good as this, who cares? Steven Rainey
NB: This album was released in the US in 2009, but in the UK and Ireland in 2010, so qualifies for our list. So there.
TOMORROW: We count down from 30-21.
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