Wow, I actually own seven of those so far. Maybe I'm not as out of touch as I was afraid. Having that Amazon MP3 button on my Droid makes it way to easy to buy music. I'd kind of gotten out of the habit since there are no record stores left and iTunes is so terrible but lately I've been buying a new album every couple of weeks.

I'll have to check out some of the other stuff in Slack's list since I like all of the stuff that I've heard.

Absolutely! I bought that Nick Curran and the Lowlifes based strictly on that recommendation and holy crap, it's fantastic. Great pick up. There's at least three other albums I need to check out this weekend, (The Sadies, Jason & the Scorchers, the Loons). I've really dug the series, even if Slack's tastes run quite a bit poppier than mine.

Sorry, though, I can't do the Sleigh Bells. I guess they're a love/hate kind of group, but they do nothing for me.

The first thing I noticed was the words "almost 30 years ago" for '80s band The Alarm. I feel so old now I have to get off my own lawn.

Hoodoo Gurus are still making music? Whoa.

Holy crap - thanks for the plug BoPo. After two weeks of updates I finally posted the number one and was wrapping it up when I noticed the MeCha link on the "Links to this post" feature. What a damn nice surprise. Every year I start working on the year end list around October and still end up scrambling in mid December to get it finished. I've been doing these lists since 1984, but in the last few years made it a larger in scale with album art, links, and a bit more commentary. A lot of work, but I look forward to it every year. It sort of justifies me buying so much damn music every year (it was a LOT cheaper when I was in college radio and free access to eveything). Thanks again.

ufez - my tastes run VERY pop. I'm a die hard power pop nerd, so pop hooks are usually the first thing I look for in any genre. Although I have a pretty loose definition of pop.

oneswellfoop & gaspode - There are a bunch of records by bands from my younger days that made very good records this year. It made me feel old each time looking back on how long I've liked these bands. And for as much new music and new bands i check out, it's crazy how many things on my list are from the same artists I was listening to twenty or thirty years ago. I guess as much as I want to stay current I find great comfort in the old favorites.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean that as a dig. I've dug the hell out of your warp-up. I could list my, say, top five or seven for 2010, but those would be, well, probably all five-seven albums I've bought that actually came out this year.

yeah, this is awesome, Slack. And our taste in music is SUPER similar, so I'm pretty much looking at it as a buying guide :)

King of America is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I know that I should pick up American Ransom.

Just bought The Sadies album on your recommendation slack. Great stuff, which I'd heard of them before.