In the words of that Best Week Ever guy,  “Who had the best week?” Or in this case, year? I’d probably say ballerinas. And maybe this guy here. Well I hate to part of the bandwagon, but if you ask me, Kanye West knows how to sell it. ( Yeah I’ll admit it, I’m typing this from the bandwagon as you read this)  I had Beach House on the top of the list for some time, until I heard and saw that Runaway movie. Sold.

For some reason, there were not as many stand out albums for me this year, but a lot of albums that just grew and grew on me. You know that moment where you hear a song and it’s just so awesome that it’s on replay for weeks. And next thing you know, its the entire album is on replay for the rest of the month. It was like that for my favorite albums of the year.

FAVORITE ALBUMS 2010:::

1.       Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

2.       Beach House, Teen Dream

3.       Phantogram, Eyelid Movies

4.       Local Natives, Gorilla Manor (“Airplanes” made me swoon)

5.       The Roots, How I Got Over

6.       Robyn, Body Talk

7.       The Love Language, Libraries

Honorary mention:  Gorillaz, Plastic Beach and Broken Bells, Broken Bells ( I think these albums could have been Great with a capital G, but something was missing. Although, the combination of Mouse Mouse and The Shins’ frontman James Mercer is a hard thing not to like).

30 FAVORITE TRACKS 2010 (in no particular order):::

“Runaway” Kanye West (ft. Pusha T)

“Flying Overseas” Theophilus London (ft. Devonte Hynes & Solange Knowles)

“Old Fashioned” Cee-Lo Gree

“Teenage Dream” Katy Perry (yeah I went there)

“When I’m Small” Phantogram

“All of the Lights” Kanye West and crew

“Airplanes” Local Natives

“Dancing on my Own” Robyn

“Ghost in the Machine” B.O.B.

“Excuses” Morning Benders

“The Mall and Misery” Broken Bells

“Giving Up the Gun” Vampire Weekend

“Mouthful of Diamonds” Phanotgram

“Don’t Look Down” G.O.O.D. Fridays (ft. Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, & Big Sean)

“Right On” The Roots (Feat. Joanna Newsom & STS)

“Wilmont” The Love Language

“Communion” Maximum Balloon

“On Melancholy Hill” Gorillaz

“Somebody to Love Me” Mark Ronson & The Business Intl (ft. Rose Elinor Dougall, Andrew Wyatt)

“Half Light I” Arcade Fire

“Zebra” Beach House

“Silver Soul” Beach House

“Laura Palmer’s Prom” You say Party We Say Die!

“I Remember” Yeasayer

“Big Jet Plane” Angus & Julia Stone

“Impossible” Shontelle

“Right Behind You” Brandon Flowers

“Space Bound” Eminem

“Only Girl in the World” Rihanna

“Tell ‘Em” Sleigh Bells

FAVORITE MOVIES 2010:::

1.       Black Swan (This movie literally kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, and I DO love a good dramatic ending)

2.       Inception (Sooo good and worth the wait. Made even better with post-movie memes)

3.       Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 (I’m a big Harry Potter dork, but this really is the best movie of the franchise, so far until the next installment releases next year! )

4.       Valhalla Rising

5.       I Am Love (see dramatic ending comment above. Also. I saw a screening of this film at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival last year, but still loved it at a second screening this year. It really indulges all your visual senses.)

6.       Oxford Murders

7.       How to Train Your Dragon

WORST MOVIES 2010:::

1.       Salt (sighs. Over-hyped, Over produced. Too much lip)

2.       Eat, Pray, Love (I don’t know what’s worst, watching Julia Roberts mope around for two and a half hours whining about why she has everything in the world but still can’t be happy, or the fact that Julia Roberts goes on vacation to expensive and exotic places like Italy, India, and Bali to get her soul searching on.)

3.       Sex and the City 2 (Over-hyped, Over produced. Too much cheese. The real Carrie Bradshaw we all loved on HBO became an obnoxious whining bitch in the desert).

4.       Date Night

5.       Cop Out

6.       Alice in  Wonderland (Technicolor does not suit you Tim Burton. I miss those dark days).

7.       Human Centipede (OK the movie was actually not bad, but I cringed so much throughout the movie I had to walk away from some of the scenes. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I just can’t handle these realistic horror scenes anymore).