We love a good challenge, we know you do too (you wonder why we’re always moving the sections around…to keep you on your toes.) Well, here’s another one for you, intrepid pure pop fans – guess the top 10 selling albums for 2010 here at Pure Pop Records in proper order, and win a 15$ gift certificate. It’s that simple. We’re even gonna make it easier for you and give you a pool of 30 potential artist/albums to choose from. Submit your numbered titled list on The facebook to be entered into the competition.

Choose your top 10 from the following 30

(these are in alphabetical order.)

Arcade Fire – Suburbs
Avett Brothers – I & Love & You
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
Beach House – Teen Dream
Black Keys – Brothers
Broken Bells – Self Titled
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
Deerhunter – Halycon Digest
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Go Go Bordello – Trans-continental Hustle
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – I learned the Hard Way
Ray Lamonagne – God Willin’ and the Creek don’t rise
LCD SoundSystem – This is Happening
MGMT – Congratulations
Anais Mitchell – Hades Town
Mumford & Sons – Sigh no More
The National – High Violet
New Pornographers – Together
Joanna Newsom – Have one on me
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – Self Titled
Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
The Roots – How i got over
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up from Below
She & Him – Vol. 2
Spoon – Transference
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
xx – Self Titled

local other music collective Aether Everywhere have issues their year end mixtape. have a listen below!

Black Keys – Brothers
Brothers finds Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney regaining some of the sweaty basement immediacy that characterized their best work. Rather than simply revisit their old records, however, they manage to balance the raw aesthetic of their earlier albums with a quest for new and interesting sounds. Take, for example, the distorted, echoing keyboards and snippets of female backing vocals lurking behind the pounding, skeletal groove of “Next Girl”. The basic track could be taken from The Big Come Up, but the arrangement details catapult it into newer territory. Some of those keyboard tones resurface on the menacing LA narrative “The Go-Getter”, which also explores some aggressive stereo separation Read the Full Review

LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
how does Murphy follow up his distinguished series of LCD Soundsystem releases? By introducing a new album with a single that wades in tight crunch-funk verses about drunk girls (and boys) before making the personal plea “Just ’cause I’m shallow doesn’t mean that I’m heartless/Just ’cause I’m heartless doesn’t mean that I’m mean.” But even though “Drunk Girls” is not the most obvious attempt at picking up where Silver left off, the single alludes to the general direction that This Is Happening takes: One that’s strikingly familiar despite still reflecting a sense of immediacy. It’s like 2007 all over again. Read the Full Review

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles are far more pop than before, too, which was probably an inevitable move, but hardly a bad one. Like “Celestica”, “Suffocation” and “Empathy” mix fanged distortion and sparkly synths, while tracks like “Vietnam”, “Not in Love”, “Intimate”, and the rave-tinged “Baptism” arm the record with loads of could-be singles. But despite this shift toward beauty and clarity, Crystal Castles still rip into some punishing, epileptic moments, like the distorted bass riff on “Birds” and the shredded brutality of “Doe Deer”. The fluidity of the music is matched by Alice Glass’ frequently manipulated vocals, a showcase for someone too often pigeonholed as a bratty screamer. She sounds at times like everything from a Leslie guitar (“Empathy”) to a Cloverfield-style monster (“I Am Made of Chalk”). The obvious comparison is the Knife’s Silent Shout, but where Karin Dreijer-Andersson often manipulates her voice to play characters, Glass is just as disturbing for her dehumanization. Read the Full Review

Widespread Panic – Dirty Side Down
Some of the best songs in Panic’s catalog are about life on the road, and “Shut Up And Drive” marks another worthy addition, marrying a propulsive, brushed beat to down-home guitars that break for shimmering solos. Then the gears catch and the song lurches back onto the highway. Dirty Side Down is an uneven record at times, but given that the band has been hard-pressed to reproduce the energy of its live performances in the studio, Down’s nimble rhythmic shifts and the playful lead-guitar work of Jimmy Herring provide a zip sorely lacking on the last two releases. Read the Full Review

I worked at Pure Pop for exactly a year.  My favorite part of the job was grading the condition of the used vinyl.  My least favorite was selling concert tickets.  Anyway, the music you hear when you shop there is an employee’s pick.  You get to pick one album and then you have wait for the other employee’s picks to run through before you get play another.  These days I’m a bartender at The OP, which means I can play whatever the fuck I want all day long.  Sometimes people will make suggestions or requests (one customer got really steamed when I skipped over Donna Summer‘s 18-minute rendition of “MacArthur Park.” Um, sorry…NO), but I usually ignore them.  Also, there are 10,000 songs on my iPod.  I have lots of music to choose from on any given day for any kind of shitty mood I might be in.  So, this is The OP top five.

1> The Rolling Stone 500 Songs playlist and The Pitchfork 500 Songs playlist.

People on the internet are crazy.  Somebody actually took these lists of great songs, spent time compiling them, and then put them on the internet as a bit torrent file.  The Rolling Stone one is great for the older patrons, who sometimes look very surprised that I know who Little Richard and Bill Haley are.  The Pitchfork one is for the younger folks.  Either way, all I have to do is open the playlist up, hit shuffle, and it’s great songs all day long.  Also, it’s like radio.  When a song you dig comes on the radio, it’s different than playing it at home.  It’s more fresh because it’s unexpected.  The Rolling Stone playlist will make you realize how many songs are about losing the one you love.  I’m gonna go with 98%.

2> LCD Soundsystem, “Sound Of Silver”

Whenever I put this on at least five people will come up and ask me who it is.  I’m pretty sure by the time they sit down they’ve already forgotten.  No matter.  I’ve watched old drunk people dance to it.  On multiple occasions.  Sounds like silver to me.  It’s a lot like the Beta Band scene in “High Fidelity” except nobody goes out and buys it.

3> Pavement, “Grounded”

I never get tired of this song, but every time I play it at the bar at least one person locks eyes with me and nods.  They know.  I know.

4> Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”

Playing this makes the girls in the bar very happy, especially when it’s late and they’re all drunk.  It makes me happy, too.

5> Silence.

The first example of silence I’ll use is its use at the end of the night when you want people to leave.  Lights bright, music off.  Usually effective.  The other example occurred yesterday, during Beatles Day.  When I worked at restaurants if the customers talked too loud (sometimes it’s deafening) I’d simply turn the music down a bit and they’d get a little quieter.  Yesterday, a few drunken patrons were shouting their opinions over horse racing at increasing volumes.  I tried the quiet trick.  It didn’t work.  Oh, well.