‘Rolling Stone’ Awards Kanye West Top Honors For Album And Single Of The Year

Becky Bain | December 7, 2010 3:06 pm

Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sashays away with Rolling Stone‘s #1 album of the year on their list of the Best Albums of 2010, but the music mag’s toast for this reformed douchebag doesn’t end there. West’s epic track “Runaway” also tops their list of the year’s best singles, and his thumping throwdown jam “Monster”, in which Rick Ross, West, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj all one-up one another (in that order), comes in at #10. Find out what else had Rolling Stone humming along to this year below:

Rolling Stone‘s Top 10 Albums of 2010

10 LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening 9 Eminem – Recovery 8 Robert Plant – Band Of Joy 7 Drake – Thank Me Later 6 Vampire Weekend – Contra 5 Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song 4 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs 3 Elton John and Leon Russell – The Union 2 The Black Keys – Brothers 1 Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Though much their list leaned towards rock, Robyn’s Body Talk (#14) and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (#13) also made the cut. Joining Spin magazine (who also named West’s album as the year’s best), Rolling Stone counts M.I.A.’s much forgotten about /\/\/\Y/\ at #19, with the music publication calling it “the most abrasive protest music in recent memory.”

We’re honestly surprised to see M.I.A.’s divisive album pop up on any year-end best lists: with the amount of bad press Maya received this year, the mixed reviews, and the failure for any of the album’s singles to chart in the U.S., we’re shocked anybody remembered it.

Rolling Stone’s Top 10 Singles of 2010

10 Kanye West (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver) – “Monster” 9 Broken Bells – “The Ghost Inside” 8 Janelle Monáe (Feat. Big Boi) – “Tightrope” 7 Vampire Weekend – “White Sky” 6 Mavis Staples -”You Are Not Alone” 5 Arcade Fire – “We Used to Wait” 4 Katy Perry – “Teenage Dream” 3 Sade – “Soldier of Love” 2 Cee Lo Green – “Fuck You” 1 Kanye West (Feat. Pusha T) -”Runaway”

Cee Lo’s naughty-tongued ditty is pretty much a gimme on everybody’s lists for 2010’s best songs, but we’ll let Rolling Stone tell it in their own words why “Runaway” was the track to beat:

“Runaway” is Kanye’s musical response to the Taylor Swift affair, but it’s much more than that: a nine-minute meditation on romantic failure and public infamy. Kanye creates a huge, eerie beat out of thunderous drums and plinking piano, and he turns the phrase “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags” into a refrain nearly as catchy as “She loves you — yeah, yeah, yeah.” In 2010, no other song was so crazily epic or jaw-droppingly gorgeous — not on the radio, not anywhere.

Read Rolling Stone‘s full picks for the albums and songs that rocked your year over here.