Music Of 2010

I'm supposed to write a top ten list for my favorite albums that came out this year. However, there are two things that are going to stop me from doing this as thoroughly as I've done in past years:

1) I'm living in Turkey, where good record stores that sell up-to-date American rock and jazz (not to mention classical) simply don't exist. Back in New York, I'd stop by Other Music two or three times each month - I was totally addicted. Now I just don't have as wide a pool to choose from.

2) The music this year largely sucked. Case in point: take indie and rock hot website Pitchfork's choices for the top 20 records (or, if you're adventurous, look at the top 50). See what I mean? There were a ton of crappy indie bands that had debut or breakthrough records, that's for sure. But of their top 20, I'd put maybe - maybe - two of them in my top ten for this crappy year (that's How To Dress Well's "Love Remains" and - maybe - Sufjan Stevens's "Age Of Adz," maybe). And yes, I did listen to most of their picks (except Kanye West's newest creation, which they put at #1).

Looking at my top ten from last year, my current #1, The Tallest Man On Earth's "The Wild Hunt," would rank either 5 or 6. That's just sad.

Please use the comments feature to prove me wrong! Turn me on to the great music that was created in 2010, if it indeed exists! I'll try to make a top ten list, but it might end up being just a top 5, with maybe a track list as well, since we're living in the age of singles.