Ye Wei Blog aka Wild Taste: 2010's Greatest Hits

Of course the order here is subject to whims that change minute by minute but I just wanted to share all the good music I could get my ears on this year.

For what it's worth, I've been mulling over the National's record since it came out (great live act though) and didn't list Fela Kuti's catalog since that's been available otherwise recently (though you should definitely own it one way or another). For whatever reason, this was a great year for reissues of other African music too.

And yeah, Kanye really did make the best record I heard this year even though it's probably not his best and also more of a sign that the second half of this year was pretty lean with quality music otherwise.

Also, what I had to say for last year's list still applies: "from this list below, I hope you find out about and enjoy an artist that you didn't know before or get some confirmation about something you liked already or maybe even wonder about my taste in music." Plus, part of the fun of this is that lists like these are never final and not just because the order changes but also because years later, we keep finding out about great albums that we missed out on now.

ALBUMS

Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Roc-A-Fella)
Codeine Velvet Club Codeine Velvet Club (Universal-Island)
Broken Bells Broken Bells (Columbia)
VV Brown Travelling Like the Light (Island)
Youssou N'Dour Music From the Motion Picture 'I Bring What I Love' (Nonesuch)
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Crazy Heart (New West)
The Upsidedown The Town With Bad Wiring (Reverb)
Nneka Concrete Jungle (Decon Inc)
Buddy Guy Living Proof (Silvertone)
Girl Talk All Day (Illegal Art)
Ghostface Killah Apollo Kids (Def Jam)
Quasi American Gong (Kill Rock Stars)
The Knux Fuck You EP (Rcrd Lbl)
Surfer Blood Astrocoast (Kanine)
Dum Dum Girls I Will Be (Sub Pop)
Patti Griffin Downtown Church (Credential Recordings)
Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Merge)
Johnny Cash American VI- Ain't No Grave (American)
Grupo Fantasma Existential (Ingrooves)
Magnetic Fields Realism (Nonesuch)
Maxilla Blue Volume 2 (Central Standard)
Smile Smile Truth on Tape (Kurtland)
More Or Les Brunch With a Vengeance (bandcamp.com)
Nick Curran and the Lowlifes Reform School Girl (Eclecto Groove)
Hole Nobody's Daughter (Mercury)
Jenny & Johnny I'm Having Fun Now (Warner Bros)
Free Energy Stuck on Nothing (Astralwerks)
Gold Motel Summer House (Gold Motel)
The Henry Clay People Somewhere on the Golden Coast (TBD)
Kristin Hirsh Crooked (Harper Collins)
Elizabeth Cook Welder (Thirty One Tigers)
Tokyo Police Club Champ (Mom and Pop Music)
Dead Weather Sea of Cowards (Warner Brothers)
Etran Finatawa Tarkat Tajje/Let's Go! (Riverboat)
Old 97's The Grand Theatre Volume One (New West)
Badly Drawn Boy It's What I'm Thinking (The End)
Kelley Stoltz To Dreamers (Sub Pop)
Mark Chesnutt Outlaw (Saguaro Road)
Parlovr Parlovr (Universal Can/Zoom)
Ty Segall Melted (Goner)
Shit Browne Every Single Penny Will Be Reinvested In the Party (Asphalt Duchess)
The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights (Warner Bros)
Quinn Marston Can You See Me Hear Me Now? (Ernest Jenning Co)
Bibi Tanga & the Selenites Dunya (National Geographic)
Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble In C Remixed (Innova)
Marco Benevento Between The Needles & Nightfall (The Royal Potato Family)
Mark Sultan $ (Last Gang)
Pantha Du Prince Black Noise (Rough Trade)
Caravan Palace Caravan Palace (Wagram Music)
Christian Scott Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (Concord)
William Tyler Behold the Spirit (Tompkins Square)
Peter Stampfel Dook of the Beats (PFAM)
Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son of Chico Dusty (Def Jam)
LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening (DFA)
Robyn Body Talk (Cherry Tree)
Shrag Life! Death! Prizes! (Where It's At Is Where You Are)
Ernest Gonzales Been Meaning (Moamoo/Artunion)
Nana Grizol Ruth (Orange Twin)
Sourpatch Crushin' (HHBTM)
Kode 9 DJ Kicks (!K7)
Titus Andronicus The Monitor (XL)
Reading Rainbow Prism Eyes (Hozac)
Wild Wild Geese Sorry, Earth (Odessa)
The Fugs Be Free! Final CD (Part 2) (Fugs)
Ebo Taylor Love and Death (Strut)
Madlib Medicine Show #1: Before the Verdict (MMS)
Seven Fields of Aphelion Periphery (Graveface)
The Rifles Romeo and Julie (Nettwerk)
Harlem Hippies (Matador)
Women Public Strain (Jagjaguwar)
The Candles Between the Sounds (The End)
Jason Boesel Hustler's Son (Team Love)
Len Price 3 Pictures (Wicked Cool)
Gigi Maintenant (Tomlab)
No Joy Ghost Blonde (Mexican Summer)
Andrew Chalk The Cable House (Faraway Press)
Robin Guthrie Sunflower Stories (soleil après minuit)

SINGLES

Freshlyground "Chicken To Change" (Sony)
Jesse Malin "All the Way From Moscow" (Side One/Dummy Recordings)
Janelle Monae "Tightrope" (featuring Big Boi) (Bad Boy/Wondaland)
A-Trak "Ray Ban Vision" (feat. CyHi Da Prynce) (Rcrd Lbl)
Pernice Brothers "Jacqueline Susann" (Ashmont)
DJ Topcat "Johnny Cash Mashed U" (bootiemashup.com)
Cee-Lo "Fuck You" (Topspin)
Nas & Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley "As We Enter" (Universal)
Ciara "Gimme Dat" (La Face)
Child Rebel Soldier "Don't Stop" (G.O.O.D. Friday)
Oceana "Pussycat on a Leash" (Ministry of Sound)
Dwele "I Wish" (E1)
Kanye West "Monster" (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver & Nicki Minaj) (Roc A Fella)
Omarion "I Get It In" (Musicworks)
Surfer Blood "Swim" (Kanine)
Big Boi "Fo Yo Sorrows" (featuring George Clinton and Too $hort) (Def Jam)
Everybody Was in the French Resistance... Now! "Hey, It's Jimmy Mack!" (Cooking Vinyl)
Wild Nothing "Summer Holiday" (Captured Tracks)
Fefe Dobson "Watch Me Move" (Island)
Jamey Johnson "California Riots" (Mercury Nashville)
The Soft Pack "Gagdad" (Rcrd Lbl)
The Hold Steady "Rock Problems" (Vagrant)
Chiddy Bang Featuring Q-Tip "Here We Go" (101 Distribution)
Best Coast "Boyfriend" (Mexican Summer)
The Roots "Radio Daze" (Def Jam)
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip "Great Britain" (Sunday Best)
Oh No Ono "Helplessly Young" (Friendly Fire)
Bettie Serveet "The Pharmacy" (Second Motion)
Shakira featuring Dizzee Rascal "Loca" (Sony)
Abdullah Ibrahim "Bombella" (Sunny Side)
Los Lobos "Yo Canto" (Shout! Factory)
Azealia Banks "L8R" (RCRD LBL)
Wu-Tang Clan "Assed Out" (Wu Music Group)
Lady Gaga "Telephone" (Streamline)
Daphne Willis "All I Know" (Vanguard)
Terje Rypdal "Don Rypero" (ECM)
Devo "Fresh" (Club Devo/Warner Brothers)
Macy Gray "Kissed It" (Concord)
Nellie McKay "¡Bodega!" (Verve Forecast)
Lupe Fiasco "Go To Sleep" (RCRD LBL)
Dum Dum Girls "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout" (Slumberland)
Telekinesis "Non-Toxic" (Merge)
Taylor Swift "Better Than Revenge" (Big Machine)
Japanther "Spread So Thin" (Menlo Park Recordings)
The Thermals "I Don't Believe You" (Kill Rock Stars)
J. Cole "Who Dat" (Roc Nation/Columbia)
Coati Mundi "No More Blues" (Rainbowphonic)
Larry Borden "Hank's Blues" (Larry Borden)
Mount Kimble "Ruby" (Hotflush)
Shamantis "J. Biebz- U Smile 800% Slower" (soundcloud.com)