The Top 25 Songs of 2010

Well, here we are on the last day of 2010. Another year, another buzzband, another blog's year-end list all come and gone.

2010's big hitters like Kanye West, The Arcade Fire and Beach House delivered as expected, but what I particularly found interesting about this year were two things: the lo-fi aesthetic and electronics that continued to reign over independent music and the renaissance, which has been brewing for a while, in underground hip-hop.

Releases by Caribou, Ariel Pink, Mac Miller and the LA hip-hop collective, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, proved to be worthy contenders of defining this year's sound. Each was a little familiar, but also really fucking weird. So without spoiling my #1 selection, read on to see what these, and the rest of the tracks on this list, did for my ears this year.

And here's to you, 2011 ... another year of blog abandonment? I think not. Follow Make-Out Music on Twitter or comment down below to let me know what you thought of the music released this year.

25. Glasser – “Home”

I first saw Glasser's name on a bill with Delorean this summer and then seemingly saw the name everywhere one day later. Without a doubt, LA native Cameron Mesirow blew up this year with her debut LP, Ring, and while it was an interesting first listen, Glasser's songs lacked the structure/catchiness of which I felt were lost opportunities. But that wasn't the case with "Home," which perfectly summarizes what Glasser is all about: songs that build to a blissful climax in world drums, cinematic synths and Mesirow's sweeping vocals.

24. Big Boi – “Daddy Fat Sax”

Outkast's Big Boi finally got his due this year. As the less notable half of the soon-to-be legendary Atlanta hip-hop duo, it was hard to pick just one track from his debut, Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son of Chico Dusty, but "Daddy Fat Sax" nails it: "With my ears to the streets and my eyes to the sky / I'm on another planet my nigga and you just fly"

23. Flight Facilities – “Crave You” (Bxentric Remix)

22. Jamiroquai - "White Knuckle Ride"

"White Knuckle Ride" was a grand return from Britain's Jamiroquai, who had seemingly went into hiding after their 2005 spacey disco LP, Dynamite. It's hard to believe that most Americans only know Jay Kay and Co. for 1996's "Virtual Insanity" when this track marks the band's quadrilogy of consistently funky and immaculately produced string of albums.

21. Mecanico - "Barcelona"

(Read #20-#1...)

Hoodie Allen: Happy people levels ahead like a cheat code

Turns out those week-long, in-your-face viral ads plastered all over the Hype Machine work. And with an album cover emitting such staged school spirit, it was hard to ignore Hoodie Allen's plea for my clicks.

Long Island's Hoodie Allen is a white rapper rhyming somewhere between Asher Roth's fetishized college days and Kid Cudi's fetishized sampling. Allen's eclectic sampling puts him more in Cudi's camp, where Allen takes nods from everyone from Flight Facilities to the Black Keys to Beach House.

"Words of Wisdom" uses the vocal hook from Two Door Cinema Club's "Undercover Martyn" and throws a big, live hip-hop beat behind it. The album, Pep Rally, which is available as a free download, is a bit too light and dumb for even my tastes, but its wide range of samples and production is impressive, making it worth at least one listen if you're a fan of those sampled.

New home

Welcome to the new Make-Out Music. With a new layout. A new host. And most exciting, new posts. Make-Out Music was previously hosted by tumblr, but after a year I found it to be too cumbersome: be it the comments, the posting or just my obsessive compulsive need to design everything myself. Put simply, it wasn't for me. So here we are at Blogger, the de-facto host for most bloggers, and for good reason. It's easy and quick and that means I'll be posting several times a week as long as Google doesn't erase me from existence.

Some things may eventually be carried over from the old location, but for now let's look to the future together. If tumblr was the experiment, then this is the research paper. If you've had enough metaphors, then rest assured that was the last one. New interviews, videos, a possible podcast and, of course, great pop music shall be quickly filling up these pages so please keep in touch (via RSS/Twitter/commenting/telepathy/etc.). Also, if you have any music of your own you'd like featured, please send it in to ryan.makeoutmusic@gmail.com. All submissions are welcome.