Who says you have to wait until December to trot out the Best Of Lists?  As my mind turns to the start of the festival season and I start to get thoroughly excited about getting into all manner of unbecoming states whilst catching some of the best bands under this sun, its impossible not to reflect on what has come so far and, though people with long (rose-tinted) memories will always bemoan that the past year hasn’t been ‘vintage’ (whatever that means), putting this list together has affirmed there’s been some damn fine stuff doing the rounds.   Obviously there are always tete-a-tete’s as to when a song actually came out, such as if a single released in 2009 but on a 2010 album counts, a la Frightened Rabbit (and yes, it does, because I want it to).  But all those on THE LIST have to have been released on an E.P/L.P out this year- therefore there’s no ‘Skeletons’, ‘VCR’ or any of that horrible (but unarguably compelling) noise by Bo Ningen. On a similar note, it’s a horrible shame ‘Spanish Sahara’ isn’t on Spotify as its one of the best songs I’ve heard in years.  Sorry Yannis, I tried...

Kicking off with Hot Chip and Yeasayer seems appropriate as they have made two of the finest, perhaps career-defining. albums this year- emotive electronics, simple lyrics, big fuck-off chorus’s.  My favourite Yeasayer song is actually ‘I Remember’ but you can’t put a song like that this early in a playlist, can you? 

Is Tropical might not quite live up to the hype but ‘When O When’, as I will say until my chops are blue and popping veins, is one of the most genuinely original tracks you’ll hear all year- when was the last time you heard a song that could be described as Sea-Shanty Electro?  The nautical vibe is continued by Efterklang whose Modern Drift album has the fresh air/rosy cheeked feel of a cruise down the fjords.  This watery triumvirate is this completed by Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, which has a claim to having the biggest folk-rolk chorus of the year, though The Tallest Man On Earth might argue this with his brilliantly aspirational ditty, ‘King Of Spain’.

Electro noises come back to the fore with LCD Soundsystem, and the terrifying, scratchy soundtrack-to-your-nightmares ‘Doe Deer’ by Crystal Castles.  It’s the music equivalent of mephedrone- it hurts, it’ll keep you up at night and it’s almost certainly very bad for you, yet somehow you can’t turn it down.

Going from that to ‘Do Wah Do’ may not win me any thumbs up from the in crowd, but we all need a bit of balance and too much ‘Doe Deer’ may be bad for your soul, and this slice of 50’s Motown-via-Harrow is the perfect antidote.  

The lo-fi ‘Apple Pie Bed’ is an ode to staying in bed, and for that reason alone-disregarding that it’s a funky chunk of lo-fi folk- it makes the list, before the glorious entrance of 50’s rock n’ roll throwbacks The Strange Boys and ‘Be Brave’, with its instantly recognisable lick and ear-worm chorus.

First Aid Kit take the lowkey vibe further with ‘Ghost Town’, a heartbreaker in every sense of the word,  before Asaf Avidan and the Mojos conjure up all sorts of Janis Joplin memories with ‘A Ghost Before The Wall’ and its climatic chorus that will put the shivers up the spine of the most ardent hipster. 


GO PLAY- Dave's Best Of 2010 (so far) Playlist


1: Hot Chip- I Feel Better
2: Yeasayer- Rome
3: Darwin Deez- Radar Detector
4: Is Tropical- When O When
5: Broken Bells- Vaporize
6: Efterklang- Modern Drift
7: Frightened Rabbit- Swim Until You Can't See Land
8: Tallest Man On Earth- King Of Spain
9: LCD Soundsystem- Drunk Girls
10: Crystal Castles- Doe Deer
11: Kate Nash- Do Wah Do
12: Lawrence Arabia- Apple Pie Bed
13: The Strange Boys- Be Brave
14: First Aid Kit- Ghost Town
15: Asaf Avidan and the Mojos- Ghost On The Wall

Posted In Gobify, Apr 30 2010. Words - David