This has been a banner year for San Francisco’s Fresh and Onlys: a U.K. tour with Deerhunter, an invitation (via Matt Groening) to play All Tomorrow’s Parties, festivals in New York and Big Sur, and a rapid succession of 7” records that have been selling out as fast as labels can release them. Ending the year with Play it Strange and a November tour with Clinic puts a fine feather on their 2010 hat.

Much like their synth guru forefathers, Hot Chip write and arrange music that was meant to be remixed by people who were born to make us dance. Although they’ve released three consecutive critically acclaimed records, Hot Chip albums as beginning-to-end complete musical statements are—frankly—overrated.

This volume collects the first couple of miniseries in which the Perhapanauts appeared, originally published by Dark Horse. The characters—which include a smart and spiritual bigfoot, a psychic, and a ghost—are agents of BEDLAM, an organization dedicated to keeping the world safe from weird creatures.

Swedish-born singer Robin Miriam Carisson, better known as Robyn, has a proven track record of making effortless, forward-thinking, and sophisticated pop music. She’s never made a bad album and since her 1995 debut Robyn has consistently kept critics and listeners on the edge of their seats always wanting more.

Revolution can spring from the least likely places. As detailed in the 1995 documentary Crumb, which covers the life and times of artist Robert Crumb, sometimes it begins at home.

There’s no reason to review the sixth season of Lost as a home video release for two reasons: if you’ve watched the first five seasons of Lost, you’ve already seen the sixth season and have probably already made up your mind about how you feel regarding the way things panned out. If you haven’t seen the first five seasons (and really, you should see all five if you’re in it for the long haul), then there’s absolutely no reason you should pick up this disc. Nothing will make sense. It barely does either way.

Tom Krell, the man behind How to Dress Well, has been strategically releasing snippets from his ethereal debut, Love Remains, for over a year and given the overwhelmingly positive response to those previews it comes as no surprise that the album has become one of 2010’s most hyped.

The Phantom Band released one of 2009’s truly underrated records in Checkmate Savage. A captivating hodgepodge of Tom Waits-like junkshop instrumentation, Krautish rhythms, and a Will Oldham-infused folk fascination, the record hopscotched dramatically stylistically, but still cohered into a satisfying whole.

Das Racist’s two 2010 mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man, (both free) are packed with music that’s at times complex and direct, and churlish and witty. Their first single, ”Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” was the definition of a novelty song, but those that dig deeper are rewarded with a smart hip-hop group swirling amongst the bong smoke.