So here we go, list number 2. To be honest this isn’t a list of my top ten most played songs of the year, as that would mostly be made up with tracks from the Fever Ray album (honestly, I’ve been obsessed with that record this year), but all of these tracks have captured my attention and come highly recommended.
1. Animal Collective – My Girls
Somehow the band managed to take the least rock n roll subject matter imaginable - the joys of marriage and being a responsible parent - and turn them into the most exciting song of the year. So good that even Kanye West felt the urge to leak the track on his blog, which considering Animal Collective’s previously somewhat obscure nature was a fairly big surprise.
2. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
My main problem with the Veckatimest album is that nothing else on it could even come close to matching this song. Gloriously harmonised, sweet, romantic and kind of sad but also incredibly simple – who could ask for more?
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll
Would have made a much better lead single to It’s Blitz! than Zero, as it’s really where the album kicks off, and from the brash synth intro onwards is pretty irresistible.
4. The Horrors – Sea Within a Sea
Considering that a lot of people (including myself) had written them off as another all style and no substance band – like pretty much everyone covered in the NME – this song came as a huge shock, especially considering that it’s almost 8 minutes long and still seems too short. It does owe an obvious debt to Can, but frankly who cares.
5. The xx – Shelter
They do have catchier songs, particularly Crystalized which I also adore, but for me this is the highlight of their album. Quiet, intimate and desperately sad, it’s the sound of lying awake heartbroken in the early hours of the morning.
6. Yeasayer – Tightrope
It’s been floating around for a couple of years in live versions, but the studio recording, finally included on the excellent Dark was the Night charity compilation was so much better than I hoped it would be.
7. Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons remix)
Well, she had to be on here somewhere. Whereas all of the other remixes connected to the Fever Ray project were really just a waste of time, not veering far from the originals or taking away what made them special, that isn’t true for Fuck Buttons’ effort, in which they kept the woozily creepy vocal from the original and made it far more aggressive by adding in their own brand of noisy electronica.
8. Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor
Although he’s a sickeningly talented musician, it’s fair to say that much of Patrick Wolf’s lyrical content strays into sixth form poetry territory, so without a doubt the highlight of his album of the same name is this cover of a traditional folk song, in which his youthful, confident voice is nicely offset by Eliza Carthy’s gravelly tones.
9. Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream
It’s nice to hear the return of the Sleepy Jacksons’ Luke Steele, even though it’s a cash-in on the current trend of guilty pleasure 80s pop, it’s one that’s done quite brilliantly, resulting in a track that always manages to raise a smile.
10. Rainbow Arabia – Kabukimono
This was an impulse purchase after hearing it being played in a record shop in Brighton, and although the act’s electro take on Arabian music wears thin even over the course of an EP, let alone a whole album, this is a fantastic track, largely thanks to a great bass-line and synth riff.
And a couple of honourable mentions for Mastodon – Divinations, which I really wanted to squeeze onto the list but couldn’t quite, and Lady Gaga – Bad Romance as, say what you like about her, no list of the year’s music is complete without reference to her somewhere (and it’s great to have a pop princess who is as smart, savvy and outrageous as she is).
And now over to you…
