50. Ke$ha
"We R Who We R"
Over Dr. Luke's arena-electro beat, Ke$ha takes stupid-savvy pop to bombastic heights.
49. Elizabeth Cook
"El Camino"
48. Das Racist
"hahahaha jk?"
47. Kid Rock
"Born Free"
46. MGMT
"Congratulations"
45. The Rolling Stones
"Plundered My Soul"
44. Neil Young
"Love and War"
43. B.o.B. feat. Bruno Mars
"Nothing on You"
A nearly perfect pop-rap ballad, with the Atlanta MC telling his one and only, "You the whole package, plus you pay your taxes."
42. Surfer Blood
"Floating Vibes"
41. Junip
"In Every Direction"
40. Kanye West
"Power"
The first sign of how crazy Twisted Fantasy would be: 'Ye goes all schizoid while sampling King Crimson.
39. The Gaslight Anthem
"The Diamond Church Street Choir"
38. Spoon
"The Mystery Zone"
37. Lloyd Banks feat. Juelz Santana
"Beamer, Benz, or Bentley"
Two New York badasses team up over the year's rawest beat to celebrate paying way too much in car insurance.
36. Drake feat. Nicki Minaj
"Up All Night"
One of the year's great driving songs, with Minaj "doing doughnuts in a six-speed."
35. Massive Attack feat. Hope Sandoval
"Paradise Circus"
34. Gorillaz feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack
"Stylo"
33. Wavves
"Post Acid"
32. Die Antwoord
"Enter the Ninja"
31. Gil Scott-Heron
"I'm New Here"
30. Jakob Dylan
"Nothing but the Whole Wide World"
29. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"The Trip to Pirate's Cove"
28. Band of Horses
"Laredo"
27. The National
"Bloodbuzz Ohio"
26. Robyn
"Dancing on My Own"
The Swedish diva spots her beloved with another girl — then turns her sadness into sparkling pop, perfect for solo freakouts.
25. Nicki Minaj
"Did It On'em"
A hazy, synapse-butchering throwdown. Nicki: "If I had a dick, I would pull it out and piss on 'em."
24. Eminem
"Not Afraid"
Em opens up about sobriety, disses his last album and pledges to be a better dad. His most inspiring song ever.
23. Jamey Johnson
"Macon"
22. Rick Ross feat. Styles P
"B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)"
21. Sleigh Bells
"Infinity Guitars"
20. Best Coast
"Boyfriend"
19. The New Pornographers
"Your Hands (Together)"
18. Jenny and Johnny
"Scissor Runner"
17. LCD Soundsystem
"I Can Change"
16. Cold War Kids
"Coffee Spoon"
15. Drake
"Over"
Drake rhymes about how stardom is both terrifying and awesome. With a huge, clattering beat, it's also irresistible.
14. Big Boi feat. Cutty
"Shutterbugg"
13. The Dead Weather
"Hustle and Cuss"
12. Mark Ronson and the Business International feat. Q-Tip and MNDR
"Bang Bang Bang"
11. The Black Keys
"Everlasting Light"
10. Kanye West feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver
"Monster"
On this rumbling id-fest, Minaj delivers the cameo of the year, switching personae and voices like she's rap's Meryl Streep. Kanye has the good sense to let her go on for 31 thrilling bars.
9. Broken Bells
"The Ghost Inside"
8. Janelle Monáe feat. Big Boi
"Tightrope"
Sister-from-another-planet Monáe delivers a ferocious, horn-splashed burner that mashes up Cab Calloway, hip-hop, James Brown and art-pop wackiness.
7. Vampire Weekend
"White Sky"
6. Mavis Staples
"You Are Not Alone"
5. Arcade Fire
"We Used to Wait"
4. Katy Perry
"Teenage Dream"
Co-written by Max Martin and Dr. Luke, this buoyant electro-pop singalong is 2010's catchiest tune. As for that "teenage dream," Perry doesn't mince words: "Let's go all the way tonight."
3. Sade
"Soldier of Love"
Nobody knows where Sade disappears to for years at a time between hits, but "Soldier of Love" proves she knows how to make a hell of a re-entrance. She sings about emotional devastation over a beat that mixes quiet-storm synths with acid-damaged riffs straight out of TV on the Radio's playbook. It's as close as she's ever come to blowing her cool.
2. Cee Lo Green
"Fuck You"
The title alone would have guaranteed hundreds of thousands of Web clicks. But Cee Lo didn't just say "Fuck you" – he said it with humor and serious panache. Despite the bummed-out lyrics, the Motown-style beat is DayGlo-bright, and Cee Lo's lovelorn lament doubles as an anthem for lean times: "If I was richer/I'd still be with ya/Ha, now ain't that some shit?"
1. Kanye West feat. Pusha T
"Runaway"
It takes a special kind of dark, twisted genius to raise the white flag of surrender while raising a middle finger. Kanye West is that genius. "Runaway" is Kanye's musical response to the Taylor Swift affair, but it's much more than that: a nine-minute meditation on romantic failure and public infamy. Kanye creates a huge, eerie beat out of thunderous drums and plinking piano, and he turns the phrase "Let's have a toast for the douchebags" into a refrain nearly as catchy as "She loves you — yeah, yeah, yeah." In 2010, no other song was so crazily epic or jaw-droppingly gorgeous — not on the radio, not anywhere. Now, everyone raise your glasses.
Best Albums
30. Rick Ross
Teflon Don
29. The Roots
How I Got Over
28. My Chemical Romance
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
Reprise
Emo's reluctant princes follow The Black Parade with a magnificent album about vampires, rock stars, and rock-star vampires. It's a blazing, pissed-off record — but it's also MCR's poppiest disc yet. Amid synth bursts, Gerard Way slings glam-punk raps ("Planetary (Go!)" and mighty singalong hooks ("Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)"), sounding like Lady Gaga's goth-punk brother.
27. Peter Wolf
Midnight Souvenirs
26. Yeasayer
Odd Blood
25. Superchunk
Majesty Shredding
24. Maximum Balloon
Maximum Balloon
23. Elizabeth Cook
Welder
22. Spoon
Transference
21. Big Boi
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
20. Neil Young
Le Noise
19. M.I.A.
Maya
N.E.E.T./Interscope/XL
The backlash against M.I.A.'s high jinks — that graphic "Born Free" video and her beef with The New York Times — distracted everyone from the fact that her biggest provocations in 2010 were sonic. Maya's art-punk noise and electro beats made for the most abrasive protest music in recent memory.
18. Kings of Leon
Come Around Sundown
RCA
The best arena-rock album of the year. The backwoods doo-wop flair of "Mary" and country-U2 yearning in "Back Down South" catch the Kings at the perfect midpoint between pure pop and down-home. And the staccato "End," Sundown's first song, sounds like a new beginning.
17. Beach House
Teen Dream
16. Kid Rock
Born Free
.
15. The National
High Violet
14. Robyn
Body Talk
Cherrytree/Interscope
Body Talk began as two sugar- shot EPs; by the time the full-length dropped, it felt like a greatest-hits package. The Swedish diva's beats and tunes smoke her American competition. So does her wit: See "Fembot" and the secretly poignant "Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do."
13. Taylor Swift
Speak Now
Big Machine
Speak Now proves that Swift is more than the world's biggest country singer — at 21, she's a one-woman song factory with a rock & roll heart. There are tracks about celebrity studs, but what matters is how she can command a deep-freeze soft-soul ballad like "Enchanted" or a Phil Spector-style rocker like "Long Live."
12. John Mellencamp
No Better Than This
11. The Dead Weather
Sea of Cowards
10. LCD Soundsystem
This Is Happening
9. Eminem
Recovery
Aftermath/Interscope
"Let's be honest, that last Relapse CD was ehhh," Eminem rapped on Recovery, which turned out to be the post-rehab victory lap that the schlocky Relapse wasn't. Dominating radio, Eminem was back on top in 2010, but he was also older and wiser: a scared dad who'd been to drug-addict hell and made it back with his rhyme skills intact. When he pledges to stay sober on the hit "Not Afraid," you know the man is hellbent serious.
8. Robert Plant
Band of Joy
7. Drake
Thank Me Later
Cash Money/Universal
Arriving after three years of mixtapes, guest spots and merciless hype, the debut LP from the Canadian actor- turned-rapper delivered the goods with sumptuous beats, airtight rhymes and nuanced introspection. Drake's sleepy, soulful flow gave his morning-after reflections on the high life an undercurrent of irony. He's the definitive star of hip-hop's tortured post-Kanye era: a guy who can't quite decide if "I've been up for four days gettin' money" is a brag or a burden.
6. Vampire Weekend
Contra
5. Jamey Johnson
The Guitar Song
4. Arcade Fire
The Suburbs
3. Elton John and Leon Russell
The Union
2. The Black Keys
Brothers
1. Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam
With My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West made music as sprawlingly messy as his life. When he wasn't feuding with Matt Lauer or bugging out on Twitter, Kanye was building hip-hop epics, songs full of the kind of grandiose gestures that only the foolish attempt and only the wildly talented pull off. The more he piled on — string sections, Elton John piano solos, vocoder freakouts, Bon Iver cameos, King Crimson and Rick James samples — the better the music got. Never has Kanye rhymed so hilariously ("Have you ever had sex with a pharaoh?/I put the pussy in a sarcophagus") or been so insightful about his relationship-torpedoing faults. From the bracing prog-rock of "Power" to the spooky grandeur of "Runaway" to the shape-shifting "Hell of a Life," he made all other music seem dimmer and duller. Is the album dark? Sure. Twisted? Of course. But above all, it's beautiful.
