Top 5 EP's/Splits of 2010 and runner-ups for Top 10 Albums

Assuming all goes right, later today I'm going to post my picks for the top ten albums of 2010 in two posts (one for 10 through 6, then one for 5 through 1). But I set strict guidelines for myself for that list, which caused me to exclude quite a few great releases (The Social Network Soundtrack, The Promise, 99 Sounds Of Revolution, Pretty Hate Machine, etc). Those guidelines also cut out any EP's or split releases, so before I share that list I wanted to share some picks for the top releases among those. (There were quite a few great digital releases through the Daytrotter Sessions, but I decided not to include those, only studio recordings with one exception).

#10 - Dan P./Toh Kay (Dan Potthast and Tomas Kalnoky) - You By Me, Vol 1

#9 - Bouncing Souls/Hot Water Music - Tour Split

#8 - John K. Samson - Provincial Road 222

#7 - Rust Belt Lights - The Truth About Us

#6 - Seahaven - Ghost 

#5 - Hot Water Music - Live In Chicago

#4 - Kelsey And The Chaos - Life Goes On

#3 - The Get Up Kids - Simple Science

#2 - Less Than Jake - TV/EP (check out my review here)

#1 - Dashboard Confessional/New Found Glory - Swiss Army Bromance

Runner-ups

Why I Hate's singles series with their alter egos, Why I Hope

Eight Ghosts - 3 Songs About Losing

Brendan Kelly/Joe McMahon - Wasted Potential

Now for the second part of this post. I took all the albums I listened to this year and trimmed the fat, cutting away the albums that didn't measure up by comparison to others until I had a list of 20 albums. From there I carefully selected the better 10 for my upcoming Top 10 posts. But the other 10 were still good albums that I feel deserve some recognition. So, in non-ranked order here are the runner-ups to my Top 10:

Alkaline Trio - This Addiction

Barenaked Ladies - All In Good Time

Coheed & Cambria - Year Of The Black Rainbow

The Damned Things - Ironiclast

Dan Padilla - As The Ox Plows

Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustle

The National - High Violet

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - The Wages

Tim Barry - 28th & Stonewall

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network