Because I love closure and because I’m self absorbed, I’ve decided to post my top 10 releases of 2010. There were some tough decisions to be made and some not so tough. Obviously there will be readers who disagree with some of these decisions but it’s important to remember that those people are wrong.

10. Sleigh Bells – Treats

Track: Run the Heart

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9. Isbells – Isbells

Track: Reunite

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

8. Mountain Man – Made the Harbor

Track: Soft Skin

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

7. Foals – Total Life Forever

Track: Spanish Sahara

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

6 . Valar – We Have a Home Among the Trees

Track: Wolf I

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

5. The Black Keys – Brothers

Track: Next Girl

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

4. The Walkmen – Lisbon

Track: Angela Surf City

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

3. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

Track: It Is Not Meant to Be

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

2. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Track: Vesuvius

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

1. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

Track: Burden of Tomorrow

http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf

Someone recently asked me if I posted about anything but Sufjan anymore and I said, “no.” In an effort to prove that true, here is yet ANOTHER song from Sufjan, this time featuring the vocals of Vesper Stamper. Another new song. For a guy who claimed to be on the verge of calling it quits (someone find me a link to this interview please) he’s had a damn prolific year. An EP, a full length, a Christmas record and now this, a Christmas single recorded for the folks over at Sounds Familyre Records. You can pick up the entire ‘A Familyre Christmas Volume 3′ for free over here.

Give this song the time it needs to ruminate, I’m in love with it. A sort of dirty interformat love between an organism and an mp3. It’s rare enough in nature but right now you’re seeing it in full effect on your computer screen. Let’s hope it doesn’t get messy. As is often the case with Sufjan, if you don’t listen to the full four minutes of this track you won’t hear what you need to hear.

Sufjan Stevens & Vesper Stamper – Up On The Housetop

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[FREE DOWNLOAD]

Up on the housetop, reindeer pause
Out jumps good ol’ Santa Claus
Down through the chimney with lots of toys
All for the little ones, Christmas joys

Merry Christmas.

The new Middle East track Jesus Came to my Birthday Party is now available to download on itunes. Alongside the new single are two other new tunes. Western is an upbeat toe tapping country rock number that reminds me a little of Graveyard Train (and sees Bree’s vocals once again on the sideline) while Sydney to Newcastle is an instrumental with some samples of moving trains and station announcements. I couldn’t tell you if they’ll be included on the upcoming record but my gut instinct tells me no. Download the three unreasonably priced mp3s here.

I have to be quick because I need to be at work in less time than it’ll take me to get this posted so here’s the short summary. Sufjan has five discs worth of Christmas songs, each recorded year by year. He’s just released a brand new Christmas album (he’s had a productive year huh?) that he’s made in collaboration with the Dessner brothers from the National. At the moment I don’t think it can be purchased but you can stream it in it’s entirety right here. Heck, I haven’t even had time to listen to it again so if it’s rubbish (impossible) then I’m sorry (improbable). Go.

[EDIT: This is no longer available. Apologies.]

If you’d like to download his 42 other Christmas tracks for only $12 then click here. I recommend having a listen to Holy, Holy, Holy at the very least.

In March 2011 Noah & the Whale will release their third full length record. The first, a masterpiece. The second? Quality, but they’d exchanged the upbeat folksy flavour of their debut album for something dark and melancholy. While I’m as prone to fits of pessimism as the next man, The Last Days of Spring was too much for me. It was like a funeral dirge. So that you can understand the levels of depressing we’re discussing here, have a quick look at the video to ‘Our Window’ from The Last Days of Spring

Having heard the second single ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ from their upcoming album Last Night On Earth I thought perhaps they were heading back to the, as Chloe Bickersteth would say, “Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding Happy Music” that blew me away on their debut.

So, knowing more than you needed to about Noah & the Whale’s back catalogue, you can now listen to ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’. SUPER BONUS! I’m also going to stream Jocasta from their first album Peaceful The World Lays Me Down. You don’t have to thank me, just sign the petition to stop the government shutting my blog down before I’m accused of a blown up rape charge and extradited to Sweden. I’m surely next.

Noah and the Whale – Jocasta

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