I finally did it. After a year of listening to music and making predictions, I have finally picked my 18 favorite tracks of 2010 to make my annual mix CD. If you want a copy, I can send you the link.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists Bottled In Cork
Tokyo Police Club Wait Up (Boots Of Danger)
Jens Lekman The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love
The Like Release Me
Janelle Monae (Featuring Big Boi) Tightrope
Onra (Featuring Reggie B.) High Hopes
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. (Featuring Q-Tip and MNDR) Bang Bang Bang
Ke$ha Tik Tok
The-Dream Yamaha
Big Boi Shutterbugg
Robyn Dancing On My Own
Diamond Rings Show Me Your Stuff
Lemonade Lifted (Le Chev Reunion Tour Remix)
Warpaint Undertow
Vampire Weekend Horchata
Marina And The Diamonds I Am Not A Robot
Evelyn Evelyn My Space
Hooray For Earth Comfortable, Comparable

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AMONG THE SONGS THAT ALMOST MADE IT

• Best Coast Girlfriend
• The New Pornographers Moves
• The Vaselines I Hate The ’80s
• Crystal Castles (featuring Robert Smith) Not In Love
• Royksopp I Wanna Know
• Arcade Fire We Used To Wait
• The National Bloodbuzz Ohio
• Kylie Minogue Get Outta My Way
• Ciara Gimme Dat
• Ra Ra Riot Boy
• Nicki Minaj (featuring Kanye West) Blazin’

ABOUT THIS MIX

• These are in the order they appear on the playlist, not an order counting down or up.
• These are my favorite tracks of 2010, not my judgment of the “best.”
• The ones that didn’t make it were not inferior to the ones that did.
• These all were released in 2010 as either singles, on albums (or via Internet downloads). So, even though the Ke$ha single came out in 2009, it was on an album released in 2010.
• This was extremely difficult to narrow down to 18 tracks. Several good tracks didn’t make it.
• The ones that made it were the ones I didn’t fast-forwarding to the track, and sometimes listened to on loop.
• I’m like a John Hughes character: nostalgia and personal connections always influence me.