Top 10 songs

by MATT QUARTERMAINE

HERE are my favourite songs I've heard this year.

1. The Magic Position - Patrick Wolf.

Ridiculously upbeat and positive, this song never failed to make me smile. In a year when so many attempted to use Beach Boys harmonies and arrangements, this cat gave them all a lesson with more hooks than a Peter Pan convention. "I know how you've hurt & been dragged through the dirt/ but c'mon get back up, it's time to live..."

2. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem.

A single chord repetitive piano that must lead to a chorus... chorus must be coming soon... No chorus! Just a relentless pounding that drives your heartbeat into overload. If only my friends could hear this... "I wouldn't trade one stupid decision for another five years of life..."

3. You! Me! Dancing! - Los Campesinos!

From a huge crescendo to start, a song about the inability to dance to the catchiest dance tune. The simple genius of a female voice repeating one line" If there's one thing I can't confess is that I can't dance a single step" late in the song reveals there is someone for everyone. "If only there were clothes on the floor, I'd feel for certain I was bedroom dancing..."

4. Knocked Up - Kings of Leon.

Best road song I've heard in ages. A couple of kids in a car drive somewhere to have their baby. They don't know where there going, but they just keep driving and so does the song. "I don't care what nobody says/We're gonna have a baby/Taking off in a coupe De ville/She buckled up on navy..."

5. Lip Gloss - Lil Mama.

Love any song that starts with "I gotta axe him...". A huge drum beat and computer claps Lip Gloss is an acappella song about... lip gloss. But before you can judge the killer chorus comes "What chu know about me?". Steeped in the tradition of Motown girl groups, this girl think she's in trouble going to the Dean, but the Dean tells her to write down where she gets her lip gloss from... I ain't fontin'. "My lip gloss be poppy!"

6. Paper Planes - M.I.A

I'm ignorant enough not to have known this song samples the Clash when I first heard it. M.I.A has copped flack for lifting stuff from all over the shop, which reminds me of an old bloke called Bob. It's about a girl on a train who plays a game... "Some some some I some I murder/Some I some I let go/Some some some I some I murder/Some I some I let go..."

7. Sugar Assault Me - Pop Levi.

Part T-Rex and part Prince, if this doesn't get your foot tapping you're probably an amputee. "Honey, you talk too much/ Kicking me in to touch..."

8. Book Of Judges - Pharoahe Monch

A lot of angry songs came out about the war in Iraq this year. Book of Judges makes them sound ambivalent. I don't think I have any idea how dangerous his words are in the modern ultra religious ultra conservative U.S, but it rocks with some nasty guitar. "Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta..."

9. Say It Right - Nelly Furtado

That's right, Nelly Furtado. Exquisite production that builds to a ripper guitar solo that fades away, leaving you wanting more. "From my mouth I could sing you another brick that I laid/ From my body I could show you a place God knows..."

10. The Bouncer - Klaxons

Pissed chicks and blokes, pushing, shoving, arguing and fighting. All told with two minutes 15 seconds of frenetic music. It's over when the bouncer tells you it's over. "Your names not down, you're not coming in..."

3 January 2008

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