BEST OF 2010 ROUNDUP

So comes that time of the year that every critic secretly loves and dreads in equal measure - the year end list. We love it because to be a critic means that lying deep within our hearts is a desire to categorize and catalog everything and then rank it all on a list from best to worst. Year end lists naturally allow us to satiate this perversion. We hate it because of the fear that we have somehow forgotten something, missed something or are generally going to fuck it all up by listing some crap recording that no one, including ourselves, will remember a year from now. That is why the process of year-end lists should be taken soberly with the utmost thoughtfulness. One should write every possible ranking artist, album and song down and then ponder and evaluate every selection. One should not make rash decisions, and one should never ever reward a band as a result of trends or personal favor.

A serious critic begins the nomination process on January 1 of each year and keeps his or her ears open toward every release until December 31 to ensure that something is not going to be released late in the game that could upset the list that each must amass well before that final day of each year. I assure you, gentle reader that I have done the utmost to maintain the integrity of this list, including singles and albums from across the spectrum that I have mulled over throughout 2010. I am sure that there will be much disagreement with what appears here, but do note that I have been a musical obsessive going on 26 years now, and there is nothing I take more serious than the task at hand. I would also like to add a disclaimer that this list is mine, as in Jason Bunch, and mine alone. It does not represent the opinions of the rest of the Luna crew, so any invective should be directed at me only.