Whew, just made it in before midnight! Here’s my list of favorites of 2010. It’s been a helluva year, I’m very much looking forward to 2011 and what it might bring. It’s all up from here, baby!

In no particular order, they’re all my favorites, and I’ve not got through most of anything past September. So apologies to all you wonderful musical folk who have sent me stuff. I’ll slowly crawling out from under my rock. These few albums are very near and very dear to my heart. I couldn’t have got through the year without them.

Crank Resolutions mp3
All Creatures Will Make Merry – Meursault …. buy it!
This hit me at the beginning of the year and knocked me away with it’s ability to just reach in and grab the right phrase, the right note. When people talk about musicians “crafting” a song or an album, All Creatures Will Make Merry is what they mean. Meursault are coming into their own on this record, taking a seat on a rising ferris wheel and you’d best get to know All Creatures Will Make Merry before their next one hits the public.

You (Understood) - Samantha Crain …. buy it!
Yes, I was waiting by the inbox for this one. Samantha Crain is maybe one of the first artists I went to see and fell in love with as I was first beginning to write about music for this blog. I’ll let you in on a little secret. It was sorta difficult to get out there and go to shows and talk to musicians. More than difficult. I was terrified. But I loved her EP “The Confiscation” so much that nothing was going to stop me. So I just closed my eyes and threw myself outside and onto the bus and did it. And as she played to a very polite crowd at the Old Town School of Folk Music, I sat up in the balcony and just fell for it, for her music. This album had the same effect on me. And seeing her a few more times over the years has done nothing to turn me from her. She gets under your skin with these songs, these words and the way she puts them out there in the ether to chords and notes for you. Go listen. Fall for it, like I did. This album takes her in some new directions, well… a couple blocks down some roads not far from where she’s been before. And I like that.

islands mp3 Circles
Circles – Fisherking …. buy it!
I’ve been a fan of Fisherking for awhile now. They sent me their new, debut LP record, Circles, straight from Sydney. I had high hopes. I was more than relieved when it began to play. Sometimes I wish I could really have that teleporter now please. The songwriting is first-class, the instrumentation is simply beautiful and current and lovely. But it’s the delivery that dragged me in and kept me listening through the 15th and 30th repetitions. You might not get to hear Fisherking this year, I’m not sure when they’ll be touring, (gosh, make it soon guys!) but you really ought to get to hear this album.

Crystal Castles – s/t …. buy it!
What? You didn’t think I listened to quiet, tinkly, indie folk all day long did you? This Crystal Castles record is awesome! I highly recommend “Celestia” or “Baptism” and if those aren’t somebody’s songs for 2010 then there’s something seriously wrong with the world. Electronica is a genre that will never, ever die for one simple reason: you can fuck to it.

A Thousand Voices - My Gold Mask …. buy it!
This is it, darlings. Gretta and Jack have made it with this one and if you’ve not heard it yet, well then… you’re simply nobody. I put my hand over my mouth every time they play because I’m constantly astounded that I could possibly know anyone as talented as these two wonderful people. Full of bravado and teeming with absolute sincerity, My Gold Mask is a phenomenon that only Chicago could produce and the world is a better place for it. Get a copy of this now if you can. It’s gorgeous.

Deadmalls and Nightfalls – Frontier Ruckus …. buy it!
Probably one of my favorite lyricists of the year is Matthew Milia. Frontier Ruckus came through Chicago and sang most of the songs off Deadmalls and Nightfalls and just took my breath away. This album is Americana and nostalgia and longing and heartache. Spend a rainy night, wrapped in a blanket by the warm glow of the TV static with this on.

Elephee and Moth in the Motor – Rachel Dadd …. buy Moth in the Motor and buy Elephee

I wish I had spent more time with Elephee, but I’ve spent more than enough to know that it will feature highly in 2011′s listening pile. Moth in the Motor got plenty of rotation. Rachael Dadd has that ethereal quality in her voice that makes her a Joni Mitchell and a Tori Amos too. And her lyrics are poetry and her guitar is a magical harp. Listening to Elephee makes you believe in something again, something that you believed in back in the 70s when it was cool and you know it’s going to be cool again, thankfully. Moth in the Motor is eerie and intriguing. I’m just so glad people are making music like this again/still – that people are producing music like this (Thank you Broken Sound!!!). Go buy it, go to their gigs. This woman is beautiful, I can’t say much more.

Elf Power – s/t … buy it!
I was giddy to hear that Elf Power had a new album coming out in 2010. I was also not disappointed. It was the best I’ve heard them sound, the best of the sound of their old material put to new form, to my ears. This tenth (!) LP, simply self-titled Elf Power is something I turn to again and again, kinda my comfort album. I hope it becomes yours too. Elf Power were equally awesome when they came here and played much of it live for us. What. A. Band.

Fossils and Other Phantoms - Peggy Sue … buy it
Peggy Sue came to Schubas last summer and I was lucky to be there and hear them. This trio from Brighton won me over for good the moment I heard them play live. Harmonies that chill you coupled with a kind of dramatic (but not over the top) instrumentation that is coming out of the UK at the moment is just perfected in this band. Other groups try to do this, Peggy Sue excel at it and push it beyond the cliche back again to what is meaningful about folk music. This was a breath of fresh air, go get the album and see what I mean.

Peggy Sue – Watchman from Brittney Bean on Vimeo.

Hammer and Anvil - Pure Reason Revolution … buy it!
Perhaps one of my most anticipated albums of 2010, Pure Reason Revolution’s Hammer and Anvil was a complete and total smash! I adored it at first listen and it seems so did so many others. It was a real joy to share this with you and to follow along as the excitement built around the album. If you’ve not gotten to know this band, you’d best start now. So absolutely on point with what’s going on in a number of genres, PRR have captured fans from Europe, the US and around the world with incredible stage shows and most importantly, intricately, talented instrumentation and vocal talent. Hammer and Anvil show how much they continue to evolve. And yet, for as huge a band as they have become, they continue to be involved on a very personal level with their fans. This is what rock and roll should really be.

Solid Ground mp3
Perch Patchwork – Maps & Atlases …. buy it!
Well I can’t say enough about this Chicago band. I’ve loved them for awhile now and this was another really highly anticipated album for me for the year. It verged slightly to the right of the rest of their body of work and that was just fine with me. I love, love, love Perch Patchwork and couldn’t be more pleased for Maps & Atlases’ success. Watching these guys play, feeling their enthusiasm for their work, you can’t help but be sucked into it all. Their positivity comes across in the songwriting but the performance is really where it’s at, darlins. Go get this. Go see them.

Narrow With The Hall mp3
Public Strain – Women … buy it!
Women are a band (were a band?) that I’m not sure everyone “got.” And that’s a shame because there is so much going on in this music that I find to be incredibly interesting and stimulating. You don’t have to overthink it. I still listen to this album, it’s really cool how the repetitive, unexpectedness of it lets you think. Give this a try and if you didn’t get to see them live, I’m so sorry. They were incredible. Whatever they move on to next, go catch it!

Good Morning mp3
Shouting at Wildlife – buy it!
This Edinburgh band just has me wrapped around their little finger. Catchy, quirky, and at the same time, so accomplished and so just plain GOOD. I am smitten. One listen and you might be too. Kid Canaveral are a favorite of BBC radio’s Vic Galloway and for good reason. This is the new Britpop, kids. And coming from someone like me, that’s no insult.

Sugar – Dead Confederate … buy it!
While my friend Steve, of the great blog Baby You Got A Stew Goin’! might really like their older stuff, I think Dead Confederate’s new album, Sugar, just fine. And even if they didn’t play the title track at their show here in Chicago last winter, I forgive them. Honest, I do. Seriously, Dead Confederate are an amazing band to see live. Turn this up, put the headphones and let the noise just soak in. The emo-ish lyrics and sawing guitars will completely offer you an escape. Go there.

Suspicious Package – Earl Greyhound …. buy it!
I ran into Earl Greyhound as they opened for OK Go! this summer. They astounded me on a couple of levels: the combination of musical talent was boggling; the sex appeal was palatable, and I’ve not heard a drummer like that since… since, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a drummer like that live, to be honest. Their self-released debut LP, Suspicious Package is full of bluesy, rocking, hard-hitting songs that feature hard guitar solos and beautiful vocals. Did I mention the drummer? Wow. You gotta hear this shit. Seriously.

And a few more that I didn’t have time to write more about but wish I did (might add more later, but alas, have to be at work in a few short hours!)

Turning On – Cloud Nothings
The Fool – Warpaint
Epic – Sharon Van Etten
Before Lately - Cheyenne Marie Mize