I haven’t posted much lately, but such is the holiday season.  Here are the final ten songs, and thank goodness I don’t have to do this again.  What a silly way to document our subjective impressions of music!  Is #7 really better than #10 or even #20?  Of course not.  While I appreciate the fun factor, I regret having made a generic top 50 list.  Next year, I’ll instead make multiple (and smaller), targeted lists…like, Favorite 2010 Songs To Tame One’s Rage After Stepping On Cat’s Puddle of Warm Vomit.

So in no particular order here are the ten songs that I listened to most while making the Top 50 list.  (I could have easily substituted at least three of the songs with another from their respective albums.)

Fables, The Dodos (from Time To Die – Buy Here).

Dominos, The Big Pink (from A Brief History of Love – Buy Here).

Set Sail Tomorrow, Montt Mardié (from Clocks/Pretender – Buy Here).

Lisztomania, Phoenix (from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Buy Here).

French Navy, Camera Obscura (from My Maudlin Career – Buy Here).

Two Weeks, Grizzly Bear (from Veckatimest – Buy Here).

No Intention, Dirty Projectors (from Bitte Orca – Buy Here).

So Far Around The Bend, The National (from Dark Was The Night Compilation – Buy Here).

Blood Bank, Bon Iver (from Blood Bank EP – Buy Here).

Laundry Room, The Avett Brothers (from I And Love And You – Buy Here).

20. Coast Of Carolina, Telekinesis (from Telekinesis! – Buy Here).  Do not resist – you will love this ridiculously infectious power pop song.

19. The Strangers, St. Vincent (from Actor – Buy Here).  I jumped on her bandwagon late, but what a lovely, richly-layered song that melds a potent melody with a kaleidoscope of sonic nuggets.

18. Beach Comber, Real Estate (from S/T – Buy Here).  While their band name is hardly Google-friendly, their dreamy pop is easily accessible.

17. Antenna, Sonic Youth (from Eternal Youth – Buy Here).  Ah Sonic Youth…I will never tire of your well-worn palette of melody and noise.

16. Funny Little Frog, God Help The Girl (from S/T – Buy Here).  God Help The Girl is essentially Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) with a stable of unknown of female singers.  This track is actually from B&S’ last studio release in 2006, but I love the new production and voice so much that I decided to include it in this year’s list.

15. Little Lion Man, Mumford & Sons (from Sigh No More – Buy Here).  A product of London’s re-emerging folk scene, Mumford & Sons’ debut album is one more evidence that sometimes foreigners do Americana better than Americans.

14. More of This, Vetiver (from Tight Knit – Buy Here).  Very few songs make me want to dance (I don’t dance), but there’s something inviting about the simple, retro-feel of this song.

13. Hellhole Ratrace, Girls (from Album – Buy Here).  Here’s what I wrote about this song a couple of months ago: Beautiful song.  The sing-along melody sets a serenely pastoral scene for the first half of the song, but it slowly and steadily builds with percussive elements and distorted, atmospheric guitars.  And believe it or not, the lyrics are rather life-affirming.  Wow, what a beautiful song.

12. Sick Muse, Metric (from Fantasies - Buy Here).  I love Emily Haines.  What, you want other reasons?  Ok, here’s one – crazy hooks.

11. My Girls, Animal Collective (from Merriweather Post Pavilion - Buy Here).  I didn’t buy into the annoyingly omnipresent hype upon the album’s release in January, but I relented a few months later and ok, ok, I was dead wrong.  This track alone is almost worth the hype.

Too much wine = Not focused enough to write descriptions.

30. Antonia Jane, Lightning Dust (from Infinite Light – Buy Here).

29. Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time, Fanfarlo (from Reservoir – Buy Here).

28. Nothing But Change Part II, Harlem Shakes (from Technicolor Health – Buy Here).

27. Corriander, Pomegranates (from Everybody, Come Outside! – Buy Here).

26. Make Light, Passion Pit (from Manners – Buy Here).

25. This Tornado Loves You, Neko Case (from Middle Cyclone – Buy Here).

24. VCR, The xx (from S/T – Buy Here).

23. Young Adult Friction, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (from S/T – Buy Here).

22. The Rake Song, The Decemberists (from The Hazards Of Love – Buy Here).

21. Rave On, M. Ward (from Hold Time – Buy Here).

40. The Relator, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson (from Break Up – Buy Here).  I know, I know, you’re wondering why Scarlett Johansson is on this list.  Well, it’s actually a Pete Yorn album on which she provides vocal support, but she does it surprisingly well.  There’s a warm, jazzy-twang to her voice on this record that was completely absent from her (well-intentioned, but mostly forgettable) debut album last year.

39. You Never Know, Wilco (from Wilco (The Album) – Buy Here).  I liked the album, but not as much as I wanted to like it.  Still, Wilco is one of only a handful of artists whose albums I’ll buy without any preview.  Nuff said.

38. Saddest Summer, The Drums (from Summertime! – Buy Here).  I have one word for you – fun!  It’s impossible to not smile listening to this Brooklyn band’s debut EP, and this song in particular.  If you want to hear what retro post-punk new wave sounds like, then just press play.  If the Ramones and Devo had a baby…

37. California On My Mind, Wild Night (from Adult Nights – Buy Here).  I just wrote about this band from New Hampshire a few weeks ago, but damn if this isn’t a catchy song.

36. Sentimental Tune, Tegan & Sara (from Sainthood – Buy Here).  These Canadian twin sisters manage to consistently output punchy rock and power pop songs with disarming lyrics.  Despite the near-universal acclaim their previous album gained, I hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon until their latest.  I get it now.

35. Too Much Freedom, Lou Barlow (from Goodnight Unknown – Buy Here).  Lou Barlow, the once former and now current bassist  in Dinosaur Jr., fronted two great bands (Sebadoh and Folk Implosion) of his own in between his two stints with J. Mascis.  Anyone familiar with Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh may be surprised to hear such gentle songs from Barlow’s two solo albums.  While this song may appear to be a simple acoustic guitar tune, it’s deceivingly complex in its instrumentation.

34. That Old Sun, Foreign Born (from Person To Person – Buy Here).  These L.A. boys sure know how to write pop songs.  There’s an anthemic, almost arena-rock (in a Supertramp/Cheap Trick not Peter Frampton way) exuberance to their music that’s completely infectious.

33. Lions, The Features (from Some Kind Of Salvation – Buy Here).  Speaking/writing of anthemic rock…that’s quite a hook from this Tennessee band, whose second album was released under the Kings of Leon label. There aren’t many male singers whose voice exude both masculinity and vulnerability at the same time.

32. One Part, Two Part, Buddy & Julie Miller (from Written In Chalk – Buy Here).  While I’m not as embedded in Americana as I once was, I still come across well-crafted, heartfelt folk/country/bluegrass music on occasion.  It’s a shame that Amanda has an heightened aversion to anything even remotely resembling twang for she misses out on wonderful songs like this little gem.

31. Oh No, Andrew Bird (from Noble Beast – Buy Here).  More often than not, I have absolutely no idea what Andrew Bird is singing about.  His cryptic (and occasionally pretentious) lyrics can be confounding, but his ability to evoke a mood with a wide sonic palette is impressive.  This song was apparently inspired by a little boy sitting in front of him on a plane who repeatedly said to his mom, “oh no, oh no, oh no”.