Remember a couple days ago when I said Year End lists were wack? Do you also remember that I’m persistently contradictory? What can I say….I like lists. I’m actually skipping albums in favor of tracks, and ignoring most of the Big Name Indie and R&B (solly Best Coast and Ciara, luv u but I’ve chosen darkness) because most of the trve flavor has been coming from the weirdos. Just how we like it. 

2010 has been a weird year. Feel like every aspect of pop culture past and present has been eating itself and regurgitating something slicker, sleeker and sexier; a mutated version of self, a skewed, blackened look at the mainstream. Irony in place of emotion has thankfully died, replaced by something strange but real: love-out-of-context, a theft of the Mainstream from the Above-Grounders. True pop love, but from a monster’s point of view. These music choices reflect that; could you imagine something like Sleigh Bells or SALEM charting 10 years ago? The world is a very different place. It’s about time.

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66. Disclosure - Linstigator

65. Kelis - Home

64. High Places - On Giving Up

63. Scooter - Posse (ZOMBIE RAVE Remix)

62. Waka Flocka Flame - O Let’s Do It

61. Grimes - Weregild

60. Male Bonding - All Things This Way

59. Hype Williams - Ooovrrr

58. Lower Dens - A Dog’s Dick

57. Former Ghosts - New Orleans

56. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Revolution’s a Lie

55. Cosmetics - Black Leather Gloves (Premier Rang-Cosmetics Remake)

54. Robyn - Hang With Me

53. Gramophonedzie - Why Don’t You (Original Mix)

52. DJ Nate - Fade Da Black Trak

51. ButterClock - Alaska

50. Das Racist - Hahahaha JK

49. Katy B - Katy On A Mission

48. Wiz Khalifa - Black and Yellow

47. Indian Jewelry - Excessive Moonlight

46. alphabets - yahyahyah

45. Tearist - Repetition

44. Fan Death - When The Money’s Right

43. Crystal Castles - Celestica

42. Gayngs - The Gaudy Side of Town

41. Star Slinger - Elizabeth Fraser

40. Prince Rama - Storm Worship

39. Glasser - Apply

38. Kingdom - Bust Broke

37. Zola Jesus - Poor Animal

36. White Ring - Ixc999

35. Redlight - What You Talking About (Feat. Miss Dynamite)

34. Nero’s Day at Disneyland - Bent Chorals

33. Earl Sweatshirt - Earl

32. TEETH - See Spaces

31. Ayshay - Jemsheed

30. Keep Shelly In Athens - Fokios Negri Street

29. HEALTH - USA Boys

28. These Are Powers - Candyman

27. Azari & III - Into The Night

26. Brenmar - Paper Running

25. CocoRosie - Fairy Paradise

24. Sleigh Bells - Tell ‘Em

23. Robedoor - Exploited

22. iamamiwhoami - T

21. LA Vampires - Acid We

20. Canblaster - Jetpack Master

19. How To Dress Well - Ready For The World

18. Nicki Minaj - Monster (Total Freedom Refix)

17. Teengirl Fantasy - Cheaters

16. Light Asylum - Dark Allies

15. Twin Sister - All Around and Away We Go

14. Pocahaunted - Threshold

13. Washed Out - You & I (feat. Caroline Polachek)

12. Gatekeeper - Chains

11. oOoOO - Burnout Eyess

10. Kim Ann Foxman - Creature

Bringing an updated version of early ’90s house with an on-point sense of style and flair, Foxman is poised to become one of 2011’s icons. Keep your eyes and ears open; she’s going to do big things.

9. Creep - Days 

As much as we love The xx, Romy has never sounded better than in the long-awaited first single from NYC’s witchy duo Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard. After seeing the gorgeous video for ‘Days’ that was leaked last month, we know that we can expect these two to put the GOTH back in Gotham.

8. Alicia Keys - Unthinkable (PHYSICAL THERAPY’s Real Heavy Vibes Mix)

I normally wouldn’t put a remix in any top ten list, but what Daniel Fisher has done with this is nothing short of entrancing. What makes it even more perfect is its simplicity: skittery, echo-laden 808s provided most of the backdrop, but it turns Keys’ track into something soul-achingly beautiful. 

7. Lil B - The World’s Ending (feat. Elliot Smith)

Lil B has been one of the most perplexing things to happen to hip-hop in ages. Sampling Ariel Pink and How To Dress Well, throwing out random, improvised happy hardcore raptrax, and creating possibly the first ambient hip-hop album in mainstream history. His lyrics range from preteen goofy to deeply suicidal, and this track is a perfect example of how dark he can B. 

6. SALEM - Sick

Love or hate them, SALEM are responsible for shaping much of what’s audibly happening around us right now. They’re the perfect sound of Right Now: nihilistic and egotistic, drugged out, thugged out,  living in fog and darkness but never hiding from the light or wallowing in faux-mopiness, and impossible to pin down.

5. M.I.A. - Steppin’ Up

Fuck the haters. Maya has always done exactly what she wants, and her latest album is 100% her. No compromises, no rehashes, just a perfect combination of pop and noise. The industrial powertool ruckus of ‘Steppin’ Up’ is a chaotic tribute to a nightlife dominated by powerful women; a dancefloor destroyer that rapes ‘Paper Planes’ and sends it scurrying for cover.

4. Nguzunguzu - El Bebe Ambiente

Nguzunguzu came from seemingly out of nowhere this year; suddenly one day everyone was talking about them. And with good reason, as the LA duo have crafted some of the finest electronic music in recent memory. ‘El Bebe Ambiente’, the opening track from their free EP, is packed full of subtle bits of sound and has a monster build that nearly rivals Fuck Buttons’ epic ‘Surf Solar’.

3. Girl Unit - Wut

‘Wut’ is going to be the track that puts Night Slugs on the map. I’ve never know anything so beautiful to hit so hard. Chopped vocal fragments and twinkly synths play tag over bass and rave sirens, never quite overwhelming the listener with heaviness but guiding them instead into the euphoric, star-filled heavens. If music was a pill, this would be ecstasy.

2. Married In Berdichev - I Need The Sun

Here it can be told: I’m in love. I don’t mean with a person, or at least not a whole person. I’m in love with a voice, and it belongs to Brittany Gould. The Denver native has been putting sweet, angelface vocals together with noise and drone for a few years now, but with her latest album Readying she’s created something special, beyond anything she’s done thus far. Melding and multiplying her voice with echoing, noisy electronic loops and static, Gould has created one of the finest pieces of music I’ve ever heard.

1. Nike7UP - LUCKY Nike7UP ThiefInTheNightMix

This wasn’t easy. As much as I love Nike7UP, would I say his work is the apex of music in 2010? Probably not; in fact if I were asked to name the best pop song of the year I’d probably say it’s that Washed Out track I put at number 13. So why is Nike7UP here? Because as beautiful a track, as perfect a pop song as ‘You & I’ is, it’s not 2010. It’s not what the year has been about. Nike7Up’s ThiefInTheNightMix takes the on-the-surface cheeriness of Britney Spears’ ‘Lucky’ and turns it inside out, exposing the dark underbelly of the lyrics and warping its shiny pop facade into an Apocalypse Ballad. It’s Top 40 through a glass darkly, a theft of values, a signal of changed times. And that, babes, is 2010.