1. Gorillaz - Stylo

Here we have the number one song of 2010. The most complete, catchy song that was made in the whole entirety of the year, and it is Gorillaz first single off their career best third album, ‘Plastic Beach.’ Fairly anticipated due to both the five year gap in between this album and their last and also the huge success they enjoyed with Feel Good Inc and Dare, this song came much as a surprise to fans. It wasn’t as catchy as the old stuff and it didn’t really have a chorus of sorts. From the opening riff and hip hop beat, it wasn’t so much a rap song as it was a whole new level of pop. I know it sounds crazy, but with this song, Gorillaz elevated the pop standard, creating a whole new boundary for musicians by combining everything that has been embodied in current pop music into one, showing it’s possible to create a song that embodies almost all genre’s but yet they make it work so perfectly, its utterly jaw dropping. From Mos Def’s opening rap, to Bobby Womack’s completely impromptu and unscripted chorus it brings together nearly fifty years of music into one song, whilst keeping it fresh and modern as if we’d never heard anything like it before.

The talent and bravery of Damon Albarn to completely abandon everything that’s made him what he is and to keep re-inventing himself is something that’s almost superhuman, showing that 10 years down the line, Blur are better than Oasis so to speak. But this isn’t about them, it’s about Gorillaz, and how 10 years into their career, this ‘cartoon’ album has released the most complete and utterly 3 dimensional song in such a long time. So here’s to Gorillaz and let’s hope that the next year brings out some more breathtaking and spellbinding tunes, they have a lot to live up to.

Thanks for reading.

2. Foals - Spanish Sahara

I talked in an earlier blog post about how Foal’s were the unexpected saviours of the indie movement. How they were talked up before they released anything from the new album, saying it was a brilliant and unexpected change. No-one really believed it until they heard it. This is a truly stunning 7 minute epic, which starts of so tenderly, with Yanis Phillapakis showing a falsetto that many of us thought he couldn’t have, after the main shouting with which Foals made their career. It both stunned people and brought them together in a truly unique moment that’s rarely ever captured, silence on the radio.


Inspired by a dead dog he saw floating in a river, they set out to create this epic, not only expelling everything they’ve done since in a way that only a few have before them. The song builds and builds for 4 minutes, building complete tension with the listener before releasing the explosion of utter euphoria for the last 3 minute which is reached with the refrain of’ I’m the fury in your head/I’m the fury in your bed/I’m the ghost in the back of your head,’ where the song whirls around you, like a temperamental ghost in a bad dream, refusing to let you it’s spell until you wake up in the middle of the night to the chilling ending synth sounds at the end and you realise, it’s just a dream, but one you won’t forget in a hurry. So here’s to Foals, creating something that is truly memorable, from the most unlikely of sources. Completely unforgettable.

3. Hurts - Wonderful Life

This song, was all that was evident of hurts existence until mid way through last year. A bleak, low quality video of the band standing still singing this song garnered enough attention that they created a career out it. This song alone launched their career into mainstream pop and that’s why it’s so important. It tells the tale of a suicidal man, getting ready to end his life when he is stopped by a woman who falls instantly in love with him. It’s pretty soppy romantic stuff but I can’t help but think it’s a brilliantly told story, both completely bleak but gloriously triumphant at the same time, showing you how the power of love, so to speak in the least pathetic of terms can change things for someone so massively. ‘Don’t let go/Never give up its such a wonderful life’ is not only one of the years catchiest chorus’s but one of the most heartbreaking, it comes from the depth of the heart, knowing that if this line doesn’t work then the man will surely kill himself. It rolls a 2 hour Hollywood film into a 4 minute song, creating the same emotion and intensity in a much shorter time period. Not only are Hurts brilliant song writers, they are brilliant story tellers, and songs that tell stories are always that much harder to create. Not only have they done this, but they’ve made it so amazingly catchy that they thoroughly deserve the attention they have received across the globe. Love them or hate them, this song is so good it hurts.

4. Arcade Fire - Ready To Start

After their triumphant best album win at the Grammy’s last night, which was probably one of the biggest shocks in the history of the event, Arcade Fire have now officially conquered the world of music, and what a relief they have. Not only did it open the part of the music loving world that had been living under a giant Lady GaGa shaped rock for the last few years but it re-installed my faith in the music industry as a whole. The first American single from “The Suburbs,” ‘Ready To Start’ was stomp rock which shows another level of depth in the album, adding the darkness that was so familiar in Neon Bible and was the first glimmer of synths which is something as yet unseen from them. The theme of the record, which is essentially exploring both the dullness and boredom of teenage suburban life whilst at the same time realising how much it’s missed when you return to find nothing left of it, split into two parts, with Ready To Start incorporating the former.



It screams teenage angst all the way through the chorus rallying ‘now i’m ready to start’ is a sign that their ready to forget their past and move on in a more exciting place, in life, which, coming from a suburban area myself, I find especially true. The way the song holds you in its grasp throughout, moving your feet and probing your mind at the same time is what makes it so incredible, with the thumping bassline where the song crashes in on you, to the Depeche Mode synths at the end where the song breaks down almost entirely, every part of it is SO AWESOME! The lyrical delivery of the song adds what is really the main catchy of the song, which is not only brilliantly singable, but poignant and thoughtful, my favourite lines ‘all the kids have always known/that the emperor wears no clothes/but they bow down to him anyway/cos it’s better than being alone’ is the typical playground scene where the biggest kid is idolised though he’s basically an idea and the forcefulness of having to go along with what he wants or facing isolation that so many people have felt. The catchiest, and deepest song on the album, will constantly be a fan favourite for many years to come, and that fan base will undoubtedly grow thankfully, for many years to come.

5. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You

Who would of thought that a song with the word “fuck” in the title would ever get to number one? Ok, so they changed it so that it said Forget you, but who is honestly going to remember that when the album version is so much more playful, and meaningful? Exactly, with this year’s most unlikely number one hit, Cee-Lo Green has now asserted himself on the main stage of pop once again after hitting number one with Gnarls Barkley’s awesomely cool and catchy hit “Crazy.” Here however, his soulful voice is best expressed in a mo-town style, which just reeks 50’s hit from the off. It’s unashamedly frank and here the confidence of the man to say what we all think in a catchy little number deserves applause, displaying himself comically where he pretty much cries the last verse of the song like a baby but he now knows how much better he is without her. This is undoubtedly perfect song for the single guy on Valentine’s Day.

6. The Black Keys - Tighten Up

Well there’s been a lot of blues news in both sense of the word in recently. From the saddening news that rock n roll icons the white stripes are breaking up, to the joyous findings that the black keys have been nominated for a grammy. It’s refreshing to see that a band that lived in relative obscurity (somehow) has come to fruition and it is more than fully deserved. The lead single of their 5th LP, Tighten Up is the baddest, coolest blues song in a long while. From the opening bars of instant catchy whistling through to the gut moving guitar solos this song really does have it all. Dan Auerbach, voice is so smooth and gruff at the same time it’s like someone’s massaging his throat whilst he smoked 40 cigarettes at the same time. Though there are only two of them, the amount of noise and sounds they throw in not only on this song, but on the whole album is quite incredible and there can be no qualms thrown up as to who are the rightful rulers of the blues scene now.

7. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

Yeasayer truly have had a phenomenal year. From oddball indie outsiders to pop princes, its all thanks to this landmark single and one that repeated round and round my ears and ipod especially during the early part of last year. The thudding tribal drums, the absolutely arse kicking bass solo at the end (WHAT THE FUCK A BASS SOLO!!) what isn’t there to love about this track. The way the song is delivered, in an agony aunt sort of tone “stick up for yourself son/never mind what anybody else done” is refreshing and totally aimed to be sung at the top of your lungs whether in your car home or in a crowded room, the band that soundtracked many a summer have definitely made an in print in the last year and hopefully will do for many more years to come. The video is a bit strange mind...

8. Twin Shadow - Slow

Twin Shadow is the Brooklynite who seems to have sprouted out of nowhere and is capturing the new 80’s movement’s hearts with every synthy step he duly takes. The lead single and the song that catapulted him into the eye of the public, slow is the best song not only on the album, but possible the best song to come out of the rejuvenated 80’s movement. The somewhat spacey beat that he creates sounds so otherworldly it seems like he’s singing it from another universe, with his voice soaring from the clouds while the guitars and synths fly around him creating something truly epic. The refrain of the chorus is also so fragile, adding lyrics worthy of the loneliness that Morrissey would feel ‘I don’t wanna be/believe in love’ whilst the delivery is so heartbreakingly convincing that even Jason Statham would have to squeeze a dagger shaped tear out of his stone eyes. A true calling to that sound of the 80’s which has never truly been done justice, until now.

9. Count & Sinden Feat Mystery Jets - After Dark

I was aimlessly browsing the endless stream of music channels on television one night, when I happened to stumble across this song. Wondering who the other guys in the video were I was intrigued to find out more. Needless to say I’m glad I did. This most definitely soundtrack many a party, night out and long car journey throughout the country. Brilliantly, it never really loses a sense of being a mystery jets song so to speak, it feels as though it would be perfectly comfortable on their new album which is an achievement to count and sinden, who never pull mystery jets out of their comfort zone. The song itself echoes the themes of many mystery jets songs which is again, adolescent love but with a theme of maturity “we’ve never had a heart to heart but you still call me up after dark’ is the unforgettable chorus which rings so true for many teenagers. The beat itself crosses a Caribbean feeling, crossing the familiar mystery jets song with that of a softer friendly fires sound. It couldn’t have been anything but a hit.

10. Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work

I must say now, I am not Two Door Cinema’s biggest fan. There’s something about them that for some reason, I always resort back to the Kaiser Chiefs. I don’t know why, but they kind of give off that sense of na na na na na, if you know what I mean. Anyway, that’s not to say that I think everything they’ve done is awful, proof being of this song’s entry into the top 10 of my countdown. This is a great summer anthem. Short, sweet and almost euphoric in itself, with a wonderful vocal rhythm, this makes it almost impossible not to sing along, no matter how much you don’t want to. It’s a song that gives TDCC a inkling of hope in my eyes, that they could grace a higher range of popularity, especially giving their roof raising performance at Reading festival this year which had the crowd screaming for them before they’d even set foot on stage and that is a sense of popularity which doesn’t hang around Hard Fi or the Kaiser Chiefs.

11. Mystery Jets - Show Me The Light

Serotonin is most definitely Mystery Jets most complete album. The level of maturity that has surrounded their still irresistible melodies of adolescence means that critical praise and a bigger fanbase came hand in hand for the Londoners. The 3rd single from their new album, ‘Show Me The Light’ practically screams 80’s pop at you from the open synth notes, and nails the sound to the ground throughout. This however, unlike most other Mystery Jets classics, seems to be aimed not specifically at the dance floor but for the calm, easy listeners as well. Drenched in vocal harmonies throughout that rival even Fleet Foxes in their beauty show that Mystery Jets truly are a multi talented band that are capable of changing their sound and look effortlessly comfortable doing it. This is their big step forward, a step that all knowingly will snowball continuously with everything they continue to release hereafter.

12. Plan B - Prayin

Plan B has made the transformation of the year. From potty mouthed little hell raiser to smartly clad soul man, his change is both remarkable and impressive. His concept album “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks” about the struggles of a innocent man put in prison and his attempts to survive on the inside was one of the year’s best, his falsetto croon wooing all that it listened so open mouthed in the disbelief that yes, this is the same Plan B who rapped so candidly about having sex with 14 year old girls. Prayin is the songs centrepiece, where he sings about himself in the grip of prison, proving himself as one of the harder prison men, where he inadvertedly kills a fellow convict only to be ‘rescued’ by another fellow in-mate who agrees to take the blame. Plan B still uses his words so well, describing his saviour as an ‘angel of a man,’ singing so emotively, knowing that what he’s done is so utterly wrong that he is looking for a miracle. It’s so Hollywood it hurts and there were hardly any raised eyebrows when it was revealed that he was making a film based on the album. He raises the roof like he’s never done before destroying party floors with drunken teenagers screaming and slurring the words across the country. Whether they remembered it or not when they were singing it the night before is another matter, but what we do know for sure is that there is certainly no turning back for one of the most exciting new talents to emerge from the depths of obscurity. Plan B, I salute you sir.

13. LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change

LCD Soundsytem are a somewhat of a unique musical beast. Everything about them shouldn’t work, but they do and thank God that this is the case. They have made us laugh, cry and dance our fucking arses off but here they are unfortunately making us cry. As you may or may not know, lead singer James Murphy divorced from his wife during the making of this third album after his wife tragically had a miscarriage (as written about brilliantly on Sound Of Silver's single Someone Great) and on this song as well as other moments in the album is a heartbroken ode to his beloved. I Can Change is more or less Murphy’s plead for her back telling her that “I Can Change/If it helps you fall in love.” Murphy is on top lyrical form once again etching out the post break up feelings of so many and the hardness that this time obviously had on his life. “Tell me a line/Make it easy for me/ Open your arms/Dance with me until I feel alright” The ability that LCD Soundsystem have of changing our mood as well as their own so frequently is so utterly spellbinding that you feel the whole journey with them, and hear, on the most personal of sentiments we feel so wrapped in his own life that we feel his pain first hand and we want to hold him and reassure that it’s going to be fine. The most personal song on the album and I think they deserve a round of applause for baring their souls so openly in front of us and creating a moment of sheer brilliance.

14. Chapel Club - All The Eastern Girls

As I basically said earlier, I really like Chapel Club. I am indeed very excited for their album that was released a couple of days ago. All The Eastern Girls, is a sky scraping epic that looks set to propel them to the top of many people’s bands to watch in the upcoming months, Lewis Bowman once again displays beautiful lyrical sentiments “ All the eastern girls/Are like stars as the night sharpens.” The song starts off hinting at the astronomical ambitions that this band clearly hope to achieve with crashing drums and siren like guitars before completely changing the mood to a star struck love song which sounds almost like a confessional. The tempo of the song continuously shifts and changes like a rollercoaster ride and finally explodes into life for the final minute or so when the band transform into a towering beast of an ensemble and creating a wonderfully powerful, atmospheric noise that feels like its destined to be echoed out of arenas across the country. It’s all of this but still beautifully heartfelt, something that is exceedingly hard to do and Chapel Club has managed this with such ease that it’s astounding that they are still to release an LP. Editors and Interpol have stepped down as the dark Kings of rock and Chapel Club will most certainly be clambering onto the throne for all to hear.

15. Delphic - Counterpoint

Counterpoint is the song that launched Delphic’s career at nearly break neck speed forwards and put them in and amongst the big indie dance slappers. Counterpoint is a near 7 minute long dance trip filled monumental synths that sounds like they’ve been plucked from the very top branch on the Indie Dance tree. This combined with a mountain shouting chorus “Tell me nothing’s wrong today.” It’s dance music with intelligence, like LCD Soundsystem’s slightly dorky, more serious younger brother, perfectly crafted to fill radio airwaves and dance-floors alike. Counterpoint gradually keeps you interested with its vocal distantly sounding like their coming from the room next whilst the synths sound like almost spacey, like stardust falling (I know slightly lame...)before exploding into the final couple of minutes of euphoric, out and out brilliance that almost lifts you off the floor with its sheer intensity. A truly great dance song.

16. Foals - Total Life Forever

For many, Foals had been written off as a run of the mill Indie pop group, mindlessly singing songs about Balloons and running across the stage like an actor with his hair on fire. They certainly aren’t the most charming of bands as many will agree. But there was something different about them, something that made us interested and excited for where they would go to next. Maybe it was the fact that they were all from Oxford like a certain other famous rock band and at that, Oxford University drop outs, or maybe it was the fact that we were generally lost in search of a indie band that could pull us out of the slump at the start of the year and we clung onto Foals hoping they’d see us through. We were right. Their second album was one of the year’s best and the title track was a fantastic mix of afro- Caribbean fuelled dance and experimentation. The irresistible beat glittered with sprinklings of different guitars, keyboards and a funky bass line made this an immediate summer hit at festivals and sweaty summer parties alike. Even better live.

17. Hurts - Sunday

Hurts have been split into a sort of marmite like existence, with people loving and hating them equally, I for one love them and seeing them live was a fantastic mix of a gig and a stage show which was something that I’ve never seen before and thoroughly enjoyed. Though their album didn’t quite live up to expectations all the way through, Hurts showed how good they were at producing brilliantly composed pop songs. Their future single, Sunday is Hurts on top form, yes its unnecessarily dramatic and soppy but lead singer Theo Hutchcraft’s ace vocal croon and a chorus the same size and power of Valuev’s fist, it’s impossible not to sing along. First the uber cool clubs of underground Germany, then the parent friendly music area that it Magic FM, where will they conquer next? You can’t escape them, and this isn’t by any means a bad thing.

18. Big Boi - Shutterbug

Big Boi has released a solo album! The arguably more talented member of Outkast has stopped the constant pleading of his fans to release a new record with Andre 3000 with this awesome track which is possibly this year’s best rap song. Big Boi immediately asserts his authority by laying down a seriously catchy, bad-ass groove which is so much more instantly attention grabbing than anything that I have heard from this genre in such a long time. It’s back to basics rap, it’s pretty much just Big Boi laying down some sick raps, but with the obvious influence of the modern music, therefore cleverly creating a bridge between old and new rap. The likes of Tinchy and Tinie have met their match in a true heavyweight of rap, Big Boi and they better watch their backs.

19. Arcade Fire - Rococo

This is Arcade Fire’s second appearance in my countdown and, by all accounts, a fully deserved one. Rococo is a powerful synth tinged rock anthem which comments on the new found pretentiousness of the hipster culture “They will eat right out of your hand/using great big words that they don’t understand” brilliant combined with the title which is a reference to 18th Century Art Houses. Its tone is extremely dark, starting sinisterly with an acoustic guitar and Win voices echoing down on the audience like a hated headmaster before exploding into its stomping chorus with its stomach turning synth lines and screeching electric guitars where the chorus is chanted over and over like a tribal ritual. Rococo is a nod to their previous record (and what a fine one it was!) but also a grand step forward in their career and a sure fire favourite for many years to come.

A little apology

Well, there's not much I can say by my own admition for not doing my blog other than

1. I have had a handful of deadlines recently
2. I am semi-retarded (this one applies predominately)

I do wanna finish this list though, due to already starting as I left it so anticlimatically in the middle of the list and the fact that I did genuinely enjoy writing this blog. So do read on if you like, I can understand if you don't want to any more as it isn't 2010 but if you do, than that's cool to and i'd like to thank you in advance for putting up with my absolute inability to follow up on what I started.

So, without further adure, here are the Top 20 songs of 2010.