Review: Poliça - Give You The Ghost 
Tracks of the Week: Jack White goes solo, Air's best song in 14 years 
Review & Stream: Dr. Dog - Be the Void 
Review & Stream: Air - Le Voyage Dans La Lune 
Review: Die Antwoord - TEN$ION 
Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.
CONTEST: Turntable + PMA’s Top 40 Albums on Vinyl →
Artwork by Adam Sarpalius
If there’s anything positive to take from 2010, it’s the incontrovertible truth that music spoiled us rotten this year. We’ve tried to keep up with most of the interesting releases this year every weekday (and some weekends) here at Pretty Much Amazing, and after spending some time with the music (true story- I’ve listened to our #1 at least 60 times), we find ourselves reflecting on 2010′s greatest long-form musical moments. We’ve narrowed a year with a flurry of great releases to a list of forty albums that have stuck with us and flourish in an industry that has all but abandoned the format. We’re also throwing in a monster giveaway at the end, so go on and check out our list:
 | 40. Gorillaz Plastic Beach “On Melancholy Hill” |
 | 39. Broken Bells Broken Bells MP3: “The High Road” |
 | 38. Taylor Swift Speak Now “Back To December” |
 | 37. Jónsi Go “Tornado” |
 | 36. Brian Eno Small Craft on a Milk Sea “2 Forms of Anger” |
 | 35. Spoon Transference “Nobody Gets Me But You” |
 | 34. Delorean Subiza MP3: “Real Love” |
 | 33. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti Before Today MP3: “Round and Round” |
 | 32. Owen Pallett Heartland MP3: “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” |
 | 31. No Age Everything In Between MP3: “Fever Dreaming” |
 | 30. James Blake CMYK/Klavierwerke “I Only Know (What I Know Now)” |
 | 29. Crystal Castles Crystal Castles (II) “Baptism” |
 | 28. The Roots How I Got Over MP3: “Dear God 2.0″ f/ Monsters of Folk |
 | 27. Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer “Old Fashioned” |
 | 26. Vampire Weekend Contra “White Sky” |
by on December 31, 2010 ‡ 578 reactions
Two Playlists for Valentine's Day 
Full Stream: Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting 
PMA's 100 Best Songs of 2011 
MP3: The Knocks - "Midnight City" (M83 Cover) 
MP3: New Wild Nothing - "Nowhere" f/ Twin Sister 
PMACAST No.038 
MP3: Oberhofer - "HEART" 
REC'D: Rhye - "Open" 
Shabazz Palaces x Battles - "White Electric" 
REC'D: Willis Earl Beal - "Take Me Away" 
REC'D: F*cked Up - "Year of the Tiger" 
Review & Stream: Sharon Van Etten - Tramp 
Album Review: ScHoolboy Q - Habits & Contradictions 
PMACAST No.037 
PMACAST No.036 | Coachella 2011 
PMACAST No.035 by HARD MIX 
PMACAST No.034 | Everyone's Fucked and They Don't Even Know 
PMA’s Best Albums of 2010 
PMA’s Best Songs of 2010 
Best Songs of the 2000s 
Win: Florence + The Machine, Amy Winehouse vinyl 
CONTEST: Vertical Wall Turntable 
Win Two 3-Day Passes to Lollapalooza 2011 + $500 (ENDS TODAY) 
Win $150 in PLNDR Cash + Pair of WeSC Headphones 
Win a Pair of 4-Day Passes to (SOLD OUT) Bonnaroo 2011! 
{ 169 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
sleigh bells takes the cake. saw them the other night and it’s still blowing my mind. alexis and derek stole my heart on thursday <3
The National’s High Violet, Beach House’s Teen Dream and LCD’s This Is Happening are top 3 for me.
needs less noise/hipster babble and more queen kylie minogue.
“aphrodite” is prob the greatest pop album since britney’s ~blackout~ in ’07.
“best album since Britney’s blackout in 07″
yeah if the fame, the fame monster, katy perry’s one of the boys or music in general wasn’t released in the past 3 years.
but yeah i agree that it should be added.
katy perry and britney music is fake
there is no validity to your statement
@pmablog you forgot surfer blood. otherwise that’s a great list
@vittorioe lol i didn’t forget surfer blood. its just not there.
@pmablog ha! i loooove that record! i understand and respectfully disagree that you don’t. i see that contra has grown on you though
@vittorioe yes! yes it has
@pmablog GOOD
I agree with basically every album on this list. Especially Odd Blood. That album is pure gold.
I agree! I also tweeted about the contest. And I REALLY love that this is just in alphabetical form.
All I really don’t agree with is Broken Social Scene not being on the list — it should replace Joanna Newsom or jj jj in my opinion.
The most underrated album of the year…still discovering something new with each listen!
However, now that I think about it, what about Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club? That is probably the greatest debut album I’ve heard in a long, long time.
sleigh bells energy and creativity is just astonishing. My fave of the year for sure
This is probably the best list I’ve seen so far, and I like how it isn’t in ranking order. I pretty much agree with everything on here, but I noticed Fang Island wasn’t included. No big, just wonderin’.
my top 5 would be
local natives
Mumford and sons
sleigh bells
beach house
gorillaz
Hang on everyone, wasn’t Mumford & Sons 2009? (It made my list last year). Glaring omission = Foals’ Total Life Forever, imho. Also worth mentioning:
Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
Delta Spirit – History from Below
Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Antony and the Johnsons – Swan
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs lights
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Eels – Tomorrow Morning
Maps & Atlases – Perch Patchwork
The Books – The Way Out
I agree. Halycon Digest has to make any top 10 list that I’ll respect.
I haven’t heard everything on the list, but I can agree with most of it. The only thing that seems questionable is Contra, which isn’t a bad album, but it’s far from great. I can’t think of anything to replace it here, though.
I must disagree with you on Contra, as I felt the band took everything that was good about the first album and improved upon the formula ten-fold. Don’t tell me you didn’t shit yourself the first time you heard the Horchata instrumental drop.
Yeasayer
Mumford & Sons
Vampire Weekend
Gorillaz
Broken Bells
Those are the ones I’ve heard and that I agree wholeheartedly (sp?) with. Especially the first two.
Mumford & Sons blow whale ass. Possibly the worst new artist of the past 5 years.
I have to say I agree with most of these, but where is Gaga?! The Fame Monster has to be one of the best and most consistent pop albums I’ve heard since Robyn’s 2005 breakthrough.
LOL the fame monster… plz… the fame monster is what abortions all over the world sound like.
The Fame Monster was released last November. It was in our Best of 2009 list. http://prettymuchamazing.com/music/pretty-much-amazings-best-albums-of-2009
I have to give my top off of this list to Mumford & Sons… not for any particular reason – but just because. Works for me. Should work for you, right?
I am not too in love with Contra. Horchata especially makes me want to throw my radio out the window. I’m also not sold on the National. I am loving Sharon Jones, Beach House, Morning Benders, Mumford and Sons, and Broken Bells. And there are definitely others on this list that I want to explore further.
I’ll also add Brothers, great album
great list! I can’t think of any glaring omissions.
I love Beach House. Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and Broken Bells are amazing too.
Time is money because the outdated saying goes, and by reading this publish, I realized that I saved myself a lot of treasured time, which might have been in any other case spent on reading low consistency information all around the almighty web. Thanks for the straight to the point, helpful enter!
the morning benders. 100%. they are ~fabulous~
and let it be known that i don’t repost things on facebook. like, ever.
morning benders were fantastic live. Played with Freelance Whales at Hamilton College (where i go) in a very intimate concert.
This is Happening should be at the top of everyone’s list
Sleigh Bells blew my mind with Treats. Definitely my favorite album of the year so far.
Great List. I would have left off ratatat and Mumford and sons.
Owen Pallett?? Broken Social Scene?? These New Puritans???
http://twitter.com/KarrKarr/status/18314112032
I 100% agree with yeasayer as the #1, but ratatat being on the list not so sure.
Biggest omission for me would be either The Tallest Man on Earth’s “Wild Hunt” that album is just so beautiful, or The Radio Dept.’s “Clinging to A Scheme”
I also really like Tame Impala, Black Keys, Surfer Blood, Avi Buffalo, Tokyo Police Club, Free Energy, MGMT, Dirty Projectors + Björk, and Ariel Pink.
Great list though Luis!
I’m gonna have to finally check out Caribou now.
I second You on the Avi Buffalo. I believe this album was overlooked by many people but it is a great album from front to back.
It’s somehow frustrating that I know every album on this list. Am I getting too up to date or is this list too conventional? Pretty solid selection anyway!
Id love to win any of these Vinyls or cds! if not all of them! PLEASE PLEASE
I Blogged about this great list.
I agree Highly!
Mine:
The Morning Benders – Big Echo
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Steel Train – Steel Train
Gold Motel – Summer House
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Beach House – Teen Dream
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Sleigh Bells – Treats
The Young Veins – Take A Vacation!
The Black Keys – Brothers
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
My Blog Post about this:
http://www.thelionsmansion.com/post/799823026/pretty-much-amazings-best-albums-of-2010-so-far
I’m with you on Yeasayer, Robyn, and Sleigh Bells. Vampire Weekend is pretty good. But Janelle Monae, Gorillaz, and LCD are a bit overrated. I’d add Kele, Two Door Cinema Club, and Outputmessage. And Devo for honorable mention!
I’m happy to see local natives on that list, Every song on that album is amazing.
jj’s album was definitely my favorite from the list!
Have One On Me, Sigh No More, Archandroid, and Gorilla Manor are my favorites of the year. Contra’s pretty great too, though. Great list. But what about Jonsi’s Go and Jamie Lidell’s Compass? Also fantastic records that seem to be absent from the list
Sleigh Bells and Robyn were astounding. They should def be on this list. Amazing.
pretty solid/agreeable list. i’m hoping that the new Panda Bear album meets expectations. for me so far the best of 2k10 is probably between Odd Blood and Treats, but who knows what could happen in the next six months haha
I’d say somewhere on this list you have to include History from Below by Delta Spirit. Not only their best album to date, but a number of solid tracks, best of them being Bushwick Blues which is at least somewhere on my list of best songs for 2k10.
Otherwise, fantastic list and it’s pretty tough to choose between any of them.
(Also P.S. i reposted and would very much like a vinyl of any of those albums.) Just saying.
is surfer blood gonna feature later..
great list. definitely agree on mumford & sons. i would also mention grace potter & the nocturnals and despite the hating i may get, B.o.B.’s album too. it was a surprise to me too.
Body Talk, P1 and ArchAndroid are my favorite
There is so much good music coming out right now, its very hard to pick favorites. Probably what I have listened to the most is Sleigh Bells, The National, Mumford & Sons, Delorean, and Vampire Weekend.
Love the yeasayer album. Saw them play at coachella and it blew my mind away.
Contra and Have One On Me are my favorites.
I agree with most of this list, but there is one huge omission in my eyes: Hot Chip’s “One Life Stand.” Excellent album. Still listen to it all the time.
We weren’t HUGE fans of the album (our review: http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/albumreviews/hot-chip-one-life-stand-album-review)… but we showed love in our Best Songs of 2010 by putting “I Feel Better” in our Top 10!
@pmablog No Fang Island or Harlem? These New Puritans? My heart hurts.
@JustinTC i haven’t listened to those albums nearly enough to merit a position in my list
@pmablog Understandable. Still a very solid list regardless. I approve.
I love your list! I have 70% of the albums on it, and they are all my favourites. I can’t even decide which ones are the top 3 for me… maybe Odd Blood, TheArchAndroid and jj n°3. But then again…. Subiza is there too!! this is so tough!!!
Beach House, Local Natives, Mumford & Sons and Four Tet are three of my top favorites so far. Also on my list are Bonobo, Tokyo Police Club, Karen Elson and the Villagers.
That’s the most appealing looking list of albums I’ve seen in years. If I had to choose only one though (thank goodness I don’t!) Janelle Monae would be it, she blew me away this year – so refreshing!
Great list, i own and actually payed for most of these albums. Was wondering if you considered Gayngs”Relayetd”
Personally, I felt that while the GAYNGS album had some truly wonderful songs in it (“Faded High”, “Cry”, “The Gaudy Side of Town”, for example), it fell short for me as a whole album.
great list. somewhat surprised to see jj on here. felt their new album was too weak. wondering what you guys think of the new mia.
I’m loving Contra, Body Talk, Part 1, and Crystal Castles (II) right now. Really like this list. But “Cry When You Get Older” as the song from Body Talk? I think that album has better tracks.
I’d have to say the best album from this list is Odd Blood by Yeasayer. Seeing them live only increased my love for this band.
jj & Big Echo. Top 2
Top 3 from this list for me:
Sleigh Bells
The National
FlyLo
One that is missing:
The Black Keys – Brothers
Can’t argue with many on this list, although I’m not really feeling Crystal Castle (not because it’s bad, it just kinda makes me wanna die… hahah)
A few more that I’ve been loving:
Stars
The Radio Dept.
Baths
Foals
Delphic
Jonsi
Trentemoller
Scissor Sisters
Echospace
Scuba
Ost & Kjex
Onra
Mock & Toof
Ital Tek
I like morning benders the most
Where’s The Roots-How I Got Over, Reflection Eternal-RPM’s and Corrine Baily Rae-The Sea? Good list but those could replace a few on here very easily.
agreed about the roots, not seeing it on many 2010 lists at all and it deserves to be up there damn it!
I’ve got put the Hold Steady in my top 25, for sure.
Great list. Love this site — it’s the anti-Pitchfork.
Seriously? No Freelance Whales on this list?
Taking a trip from my gorilla manor in subiza down to the plastic beach for a relaxing afternoon of treats and teen dreams… if only I had my brothers with me…
My fav albums of 2010 to date include:
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Foals – Total Life Forever
The Chemical Brothers – Further
Freelance Whales – Weathervanes
The Beautiful Girls – Spooks
Ratatat – LP4
Massive Attack – Heligoland
Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Angus & Julia Stone – Down The Way
Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions (Not sure if this classifies as 2009 or 2010??)
Bring on the rest of 2010!!!
fine list – my favorites of this year in [very] approximate order:
Vampire Weekend// Contra
Janelle Monae // The ArchAndroid
Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot… The Son of Chico Dusty
Menomena // Mines (i guess it ‘technically’ hasn’t been released yet tho)
Beach House // Teen Dream
The Tallest Man On Earth // The Wild Hunt
Ceo // White Magic
Surfer Blood // Astro Coast
MGMT // Congratulations
Fang Island // Fang Island
Big K.R.I.T. // Wuz Here
Avi Buffalo // Avi Buffalo
The National // High Violet
Wild Nothing // Gemini
jj // jj n3
My Favorite albums of the year so far:
Teen Dream, Beach House
High Violet, The National
Big Echo, The Morning benders
Broken Bells, Broken Bells
Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene
the wolf parade new album expo 86 is a blast!!! definitly missing in this list
The National’s High Violet is my number one!!! Matt Berninger’s voice is like… warm honey… and heroin.
“What makes you think I’m enjoyin’ being left to the flood? We’ve got another thing comin’ undone… and it’s takin’ us over!”
I also have started to LOVE the Local Natives album over the past couple weeks. I can’t wait to check them out at Lollapalooza!!
1.Contra
2.Plastic Beach
3.Congratulations
4.This is Happening
but this is a great list!
Gonjasufi?
James Blake?
Pantha du Prince?
Wild Nothing?
The Knife?
Dirty Projectors/Bjork?
Radio Dept?
this list is way skewed for summer music
1. The Drums
2. Broken Bells
3. Plastic Beach
4. LP4
5. Contra
I’m still behind in listening to a lot of these, but based on what I’ve heard of each, we’re seeing about eye to eye. Needs more Maniac Meat and Innerspeaker though.
Everyone’s a critic.
Broken Bells has been a staple for me since it came out. Dr. Dog’s Shame, Shame album has not failed to amaze me as well this summer. Hot Chip’s One Life Stand gets better with each listen as well.
CONTRA CONTRA CONTRA!
Loved that album, that’s all i listened to for a month or so. Odd Blood def comes in second though, very good album.
also if i win give me a vinyl of contra!
I need these. So you can give them to me please. Thanks!
mumford & sons was released in 2009. it’s also formulaic. for more info:
http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/albumreviews/mumford-sons-sigh-no-more-album-review
I really like sharon Jones!
VIVA Morning Benders!!
The National’s High Violet is definitely the top of the list for me, but I also agree that Broken Social Scene belongs on the list.
Local Natives, The National and Sleigh Bells would make my list – However so would The Lions Rampant, “It’s Fun To Do Bad Things” is a great album.
I’d love to say that LCD Soundsystem is the best of this year, but the second half of that album draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags. The National have definitely made the best so far.
Yeah Plastic Beach! Good list guys!
Sleigh Bells – Treats by far, I’ve listened to it close to 20 times this week. Maybe more.
Great list, mumford & sons are a little overratted but you definitely need to either check out or reconsider Owen Pallett’s Heartland. Great Album.
i like your list but i think you should listen to The Black Keys, Brothers album. It Will end up on your list.
I agree with the list for the most part! My favorite albums of 2010 so far are definitely Janelle Monae’s and Local Natives, both on the list!
Personally I think Beach House’s album is the best on this list. But I’m actually enjoying Best Coast’s new album more.
Sign me up for all these albums! As for my list, here we go, enjoy.
Broken Bells
The Black Keys
Sharon Jones
Janelle Monae
Surfer Blood
Mumford and Sons
Pretty much an amazing prettymuchamazing list. So glad to see big boi and janelle monae in top mentions. Definitely looking forward to checking out the rest of this list.
Fav so far
1. Big Boi – Sir Lucious Leftfoot: the son Chico Dusty.
2. Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid (… The chase was also a good album. Fav track had to be “Many Moons”)
3. LCD System – This is happening
4. Ratatat – LP4
5. Yesayer – Odd Blood
Gonna hit up amazon with some of these soon.
Big Boi, Yeasayer and Broken Bells are my top 3 through July. Looking forward to some promising releases during the rest of 2010.
My votes are currently for the releases from Crystal Castles, Sharon Jones and Ratatat. I have high hopes for Menomena, Yeaysayer and Caribou though I haven’t bought them yet.
As much as I love Sleigh Bells most of what I’ve heard sounds the same. And doesn’t the deliberately poor sound quality seem less clever and more gimmicky after repeated listens? May get the album anyhow.
I love your selection, but where are Massive Attack’s last album tracks ? Where is Paradise Circus and Splitting The Atom ?
Solid list, I must say i prefer it when numerical ranking is foregone with. It leads to a lot less shit-talking imo.
Nonetheless the only major quibble I have is the omission of BSS”s Foregiveness Rock Record, as a couple others have mentioned.
It’s a brilliant record, and I can’t recommend it enough.
You like?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VuoC6qNozI
Whoever writes PRETTY MUCH AMAZING has the exact same taste in music that I do. Given that, it’s pretty broad. But it seems that emotion-charged indie, post-punk alternative, post-, almost always trumps in some way among your lists. It’s off the back of this observation that I desperately, desperately plead you not to neglect one of this years finest, finest albums. Not many blogs will know about it because it’s been an Australian local release, but MY GOD. It’s criminal if you don’t consider it among the top 5 of your albums. Because honestly, I’ve had to rate it higher than Broken Bells, higher than ‘This Is Happening’, higher than ‘Sigh No More’…
The album in question?
“Dear Darkly”
the 3rd album by Australian band
The Boat People.
Please do yourself the favour. Trust me it will be a gem among your list. It blew me away.
The most popular words in music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3HcGebnUcY
Great list. Would have replaced Robyn’s album with Congratulations by MGMT (it’s not my obsession with MGMT, it’s my burning hate for Robyn).
If Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More” isn’t the top Album for 2010, you should rename your website Pretty Much Wrong.
It is sweeping, epic, beautiful, crafted and well written. Inspiringly so. And it doesn’t get nearly enough talk on your site.
never have I agreed with something more in my life
Also,
The Black Keys-Brothers
Arcade Fire-The Suburbs
Matt & Kim-Sidewalks
gotta add those
My top 5:
High Violet – The National
Gorilla Manor – Local Natives
Contra – Vampire Weekend
The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
Treats – Sleigh Bells
I think Kanye should have been #2 for sure, but Arcade Fire should have been Number 1.
Great list….honorable mentions
mice parade – what it means to be left handed
gayngs – relayted
caribou – swim
Kanye, Gorillaz, The-Dream, Janelle Monae all made my top album of the year. But Favorite song has got to be “Christian Dior Denim Flow” by Kanye West (Feat. Pusha T, Ryan Leslie, Lloyd Banks, Kid Cudi, And John Legend)
Dude! Too bad that was left off the album, what a fucking shame.
It really is crazy how well PMA matches with my music tastes. Broken Bells, Gorilla Manor, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are definitely my top three. Love this blog!
No Frightened Rabbit or Tallest Man on Earth??? Plus I really thing Local Natives deserves to be much much higher. Overall though a really good list for a great year of music.
To be honest, I don’t think i’ve ever seen PMA cover Frightened Rabbit for Tallest Man On Earth at all. Probably not their cup o tea
simply amazing
I’d say good call on most these albums and where they are on the list. Big Boi’s album is soo good, I feel like no one really checked that record out. There was like nothing really it about besides what blogs were saying.
sadly, too true.
Hard to argue with anyone one here. Great list.
Pretty much the only list that has all my favorite albums this year (although I may not agree with the order…I think Vampire Weekend and Sujan could’ve placed been higher). I’m pleased with the inclusions. Nice job again PMA!
PMA should really check out Frightened Rabbit
Oh, I’ve heard that one before (from pretty much all of my friends & colleagues).
I have checked them out, dug ‘em… just not my top favorite, that’s all.
Next Comments →
{ 33 trackbacks }