Records in 2010.

(cross-posted, but I just wanted this here)

TOP TEN ALBUMS of MMX:

10. The-Dream - Love King
09. Menomena - Mines
08. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
07. Perfume Genius - Learning
06. Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself
05. Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
04. The National - High Violet
03. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

01. Former Ghosts - New Love. / Best Coast - Crazy for You

Other good things listened to:

Caribou - Swim
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
How to Dress Well - Love Remains
Josiah Wolf - Jet Lag
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
Laurie Anderson - Homeland
Lightspeed Champion - Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Mark McGuire - Living with Yourself
Owen Pallett - Heartland
Salem - King Night
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Twin Shadow - Forget
Wavves - King of the Beach
Wolf Parade - Expo 86

TOP FIVE EPS of MMX:

05. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. I: On Death & Endearments
04. Felt Drawings - If You Only Knew
03. Los Campesinos - All's Well That Ends
02. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
01. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege pt. II: The Past, Imperfect

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And so by now you've probably noticed the two albums occupying one spot. And the number one spot, at that.

It's not even about the trouble in putting one over the other. It's about how difficult, maybe impossible, it is for me to imagine one without the other.

An album called "New Love." that might not actually be about new love at all, until the final track.

And an album called "Crazy for You" that might not actually be a document of feelings that are very crazy at all.

They come from very different places musically. Synths and programmed drums; sharp precision reverberating outwards forever. And guitars and fuzz & distortion pedals; what the ocean might sound like.

And somehow they, two albums that have nothing to do with one another, touch. The sound of an ending and of a beginning. Or what might be a beginning. Or should be. The sound of one album informing the other, forcing you to listen to it in a completely different way. To think about different things. Different times. People. What now? What next?

The answer isn't here, but people wondering the same thing are.

2010 has been kind of tough. And I think it would have been a lot tougher without all of the music I've mentioned here, but these two particularly have held incredibly large places in my heart for a while now. And will for a while to come.

Let's go.