en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices dwupton1's Last.fm Journal http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal The Last.fm journal for dwupton1. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. Top 100 Songs of 2012 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2012/12/28/5phfea_top_100_songs_of_2012 Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:22:53 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2012/12/28/5phfea_top_100_songs_of_2012 100. Night Light - Jessie Ware
99. R.I.P. (feat. Tinie Tempah) - Rita Ora
98. I'm Addicted - Madonna
97. I Belong in Your Arms (Japanese version) - Chairlift
96. Sidewalk - Loreen
95. Speak in Rounds - Grizzly Bear
94. Flowers in May - Simone White
93. Five Seconds - Twin Shadow
92. Stormande hav - Timoteij
91. Said And Done - Amanda Mair
90. All That Matters (The Beautiful Life) - Ke$ha
89. I've Got Your Music - Saint Etienne
88. Swan Song - Jessie Ware
87. Valley of the Dolls - Marina & the Diamonds
86. Everything Is Embarrassing - Sky Ferreira
85. Bara för en natt - Timoteij
84. Loaded - Agnes
83. Liar Liar - Mollyhaus
82. Bad Girls - M.I.A.
81. Nobody Knows - Darin
80. Too Late - Thorunn Antonia
79. Never Stop Coming Back - Freja Loeb
78. Laura - Bat for Lashes
77. Disparate Youth - Santigold
76. Jamaica - Van She
75. Oblivion - Grimes
74. Lies - Marina & the Diamonds
73. Intro Intro - Little Nikki
72. Trust - Sin Cos Tan
71. Off to the Races - Lana Del Rey
70. Who's Gonna Love Me - Soso
69. Spectrum (Say My Name) (Calvin Harris Remix) - Florence + the Machine
68. Sun Goes Down (feat. The Knocks & St. Lucia) - Icona Pop
67. Keep You - Wild Belle
66. Devotion - Jessie Ware
65. Amnesia (feat. Timbaland & Brasco) - Ian Carey & Rosette
64. Genesis - Grimes
63. You're the One - Charli XCX
62. Esta Noche - Azealia Banks
61. drops - iamamiwhoami
60. Come Again (The Quetzal) - Soluna Samay
59. All the Rowboats - Regina Spektor
58. Inn i deg - Gabrielle
57. Pixelated People - Jess Mills
56. Got Paid - Katy B x Zinc x Wiley
55. One Last Time - Agnes
54. Everytime - Loreen
53. Flytta på dej - Alina Devecerski
52. Come Near - Lykke Li
51. Church And Law - When Saints Go Machine
50. Lies - CHVRCHES
49. Stimela - Wynter Gordon
48. Giddy Up - Dragonette
47. ill Manors - Plan B
46. Only the Horses - Scissor Sisters
45. Met Before - Chairlift
44. Lost - Frank Ocean
43. Aaliyah - Katy B x Geeneus x Jessie Ware
42. The Mother We Share - CHVRCHES
41. It's Gonna be Long - Amanda Mair
40. Where Have You Been - Rihanna
39. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
38. Feel It - Bright Light Bright Light
37. White Foxes - Susanne Sundfør
36. Leave The Lights On - Meiko
35. On the Metro - Girls Aloud
34. Bordet - Gabrielle
33. I Knew You Were Trouble. - Taylor Swift
32. Love in a Foreign Place - Gossip
31. DNA - Little Mix
30. Wildest Moments - Jessie Ware
29. goods - iamamiwhoami
28. Skinnarviksberget - Amanda Mair
27. King Of Hearts - Cassie
26. Something New - Girls Aloud
25. Running - Jessie Ware
24. Figure 8 - Ellie Goulding
23. Settle Down - No Doubt
22. Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey
21. Løkken - Gabrielle

20. Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware
"You can't be here / How long 'til you disappear"

From the louche, yet somehow menacing swing of those compressed synths to the chime of the gloomy beats that strike up next, 'Sweet Talk' is an intoxicating mixture of cautious sexuality and suspicious mysticism. When Jessie goes high - "just keep up with that TALKING" - it's a chilling surprise, for she's so soft and subtle, almost cowed, for the remainder of the song, crafting one of Devotion's most archly '90s songs and recasting the jaunty r'n'b sounds into a dark tale of forbidden attraction. 'Sweet Talk' is a tantalisingly sensual, confoundingly relaxing song, the apothesis of Jessie's subtle project of gentle intoxication.

19. kill - iamamiwhoami
"Come on / Just kill this"

'kill' is the masterpiece at the centre of kin. It seems the truest realisation of the vastness of imagination at work here, as well as the most musically representative of the mixture of propulsiveness and erratic trickery shown across the album. Jonna Lee's vocals pierce, less with menace than with detached madness, during the swirling pit of a chorus, deepening for the crisper black magic of the verses. But the song really flies from the 4:30 mark, when the instrumentation winds to a quicker pace, the vocals pile up and enhance each other's tones (frantic, morbid, ghostly) before dropping out altogether and leaving the synths to wear themselves out. In that, 'kill' becomes a song beyond the restrictions of Jonna's physicality and the truest realisation of the mystery of the entire outfit.

18. September - St. Lucia
"I just want you to remember / Before you get carried away"

First, the crisp, bell-like synth beat sets the base, before their deeper, rounder cousin joins it at the same pace and percussion begins to effervesce around them. Then the dreamier synths start to run across, like comets streaking over the sky. The keyboard melody strikes up, snatching at the melancholy undertow of the song, before the fiercer beat overwhelms again. Then, a full two minutes plus into the song, the vocals - the falsetto, and the shouted harmonies - arrive. For the chorus, they swing and sway with the synths, "carried away" with their continuing pulsation; for the middle-eight, the falsetto notes hold, turning the vocal into the strike of an instrument, almost. 'September' is quite simply a vibrant, dynamic, blistering piece of electronica - never clearer than the final minute of the song, where the vocals dissolve into a frenzy and the synths go euphoric, all peaking in a gambole of clattering glory.

17. Ghosts - Laura Welsh
"And there's a sadness / Deep down in my soul"

No song this year was more devastatingly simple than this haunting composition. The heavier piano notes feel painful, hit with venom or distress, or perhaps the rebellion of which Welsh sings - "I won't let them take me in". The loneliness and desolation of 'Ghosts' is a remarkable achievement - the soundscape feels barren even when more instruments and the taunting backing vocals tune in, and the ghosts pile up, harmonising behind Welsh's own voice. There's a fierce strength in her vocals to match the will of the lyrics, although the final break, the ghostly fade of a curtailed note, suggest a dark ending. But having experienced the cracking peaks of Welsh's vocals, you remember that she didn't go easily, and your heart clenches.

16. Belispeak - Purity Ring
"Drill little holes into my eyelids"

The darkest reach of Shrines, I feel, or at least the song that most vividly broke through my consciousness with the electrifying creep of the synths and alarming shock of the black magic lyrics. The reedy fragility of Megan James' vocals is alternately worrying and frightening - is she scared, wandering, lost in fear, or is she the agent of these morbid suggestions or bodily dissolution? This is a track to stalk your nightmares, but I am endlessly drawn into its skittish swirl of glassy synths and uneasy gloomwobble. You might even call it a drug.

15. I Love It (feat. Charli XCX) - Icona Pop
"You're from the '70s / But I'm a '90s bitch"

Your ears may never be assaulted as much as they are, constantly, throughout 'I Love It'. The duo yell, in chorus, every word of the song, a two-and-a-half-minute lasceration of an outdated ex, a sisterhood standing tall and rocking in solidarity. The vocals are some heavy metal shit, but the base is all pop - whirring, ceaseless synths and a thumping drumbeat that practically propels the listener off the dancefloor. It's impossible to resist the chant, to be carried away in the girls' rebellious youth, their reposte to a tired generation. It's almost a mockery of the 'YOLO' generation, circling through time and space but always returning to that proclamation of adoration. It's independence and camraderie, freedom, abandon, delirious energy.

14. Let's Have a Kiki - Scissor Sisters
"Kiki / So so / Oui oui / No no"

"What's up, it's Pickles. Leave a message." 'Let's Have a Kiki', is, like many of the finest Scissor Sisters songs, all about Ana, but it doesn't begin with her. That opening line also shows the complete game Jake sidelining himself, joining the audience for Ana's flamboyant narration and the backing singers for the remainder of the song. 'Kiki' is the novelty hit of the year that tragically never was - alive with a sense of joy and camp that most such ridiculous songs never are. It came complete with a dance routine that may have even prefigured the song, although it doesn't take much digging to get to a fully conceived musical base - the percussive shake, the rhythmic wildness, the eclectic instrumentation that makes the Scissors' inventiveness shine bright. And live? Well, you can't even imagine.

13. Terribly Dark - Frida Hyvönen
"I'll put myself on fire if I find a spark"

It starts terribly dark, here, heavy piano notes and a foreboding, reedy synth building pace to reach Hyvönen's first words. She moves quickly, a speed that soon betrays her fear and confusion ("I hear shots, shots from the forest") and lyrics that suggest an immersion in nature, but also a distance from it, a wariness of its mystical qualities. Shades of Echo Beach abound in the chorus, and the almost comedic strikes of the brass temper the overwhelming morbidity of the song, especially when she desperately, unexpectedly asks "Do you think we can dance?". But confusion overwhelms again, and when Hyvönen starts singing different lines at once, both at vivid, breakneck speed, the delirium marks its definitive rule: a woman taken into the darkness of the forest, never finding the fire she needs to escape.

12. Losing You - Solange
"I gave you everything / And now there's nothing left of me"

The snatches of an almost feline call that begin 'Losing You' instantly grab the attention, a wild samba beat that gets the hips moving immediately. When producer Dev Hynes then throws in the melancholy synth melody on top, and then follows it with a bubbling, effervescent companion, the effect is a vivid one of the lights somehow dimming - this is a song of the moonlight, a lament with a tapping toe. Solange's voice has always been smoother and more tactile than her sister, a whisper compared to B's commanding force, and on 'Losing You' the sensual qualities of it have never been more apparent. As she sings the chorus again, rising out of a slower den of noise, the effect is almost one of triumph, the same repeated words turning into a note of triumph as the ad libs dance in the background. The animal snatch and the handclaps keep jiving to the end, diving out on a final note of unqualified '80s darkness, despair and loss the final impression.

11. No Church In The Wild (feat. Frank Ocean) - Jay-Z & Kanye West
"And deception is the only felony / So never fuck nobody wit’out tellin’ me"

If not the finest beat of the year, then certainly the most instantly exhilirating and iconic - and certainly advert-ready. The gnarly guitar that runs throughout 'No Church in the Wild' gives it an instant baseline of menace and unrest, a rolling constant of the political violence and religious questioning that make up the subject of the lyrics. Ocean, one of the defining artists of the year, provides a harmonic counterpoint to Jay and Kanye's notably troubled rapping - their cockiness absents itself, the opening to an embossed album proving to be an unexpectedly preoccupied quagmire of drama. The compulsion to the song, primarily through that beat, but also through the wails and sirens and monkey cries and Ocean's soft concern, make for an unsettling experience.

10. Princess of China - Coldplay & Rihanna
"You're holding in your hands the two halves of my heart"

A song that doesn't lose the feeling of utter strangeness even after so, so many addictive listens. There isn't really a chorus, just peaks of screaming, both from synths and from Rihanna, whose often abrasive tones are used to their finest effect on the wailing, repetitive, echoing sections. It's a bewildering mixture of refrains, colliding in unexpected ways and creating a collage of mysticism, drawing on Orientalism, prog rock, modern synth-led pop music and god knows what else in the most peculiar of ways. There's some sort of inscrutable pain here, a majestic tragedy - lost castles, stolen stars, broken amour. It still seems like a song that should disgust the ears, but the power of it, in part due to the sheer starpower on display - familiar voices used in surprising ways - makes it an undeniable, endlessly fascinating, eerily engrossing masterstroke.

09. Pyramids - Frank Ocean
"What good is a jewel that ain't still precious?"

How to even begin with a song of this breadth, this muchness? Within the channel ORANGE album, this somehow doesn't overwhelm, with its many pieces conncting as parts of the larger, complex whole. Alone, though, overwhelm it does, announcing itself with the chiming synths before seguing into the deeply cool calls of Ocean's voice, more aggressively used here than on much of the album. The gliding segues are the thing - "we'll run to the future" - tumbling away from the melee of sounds into a different configuration, crashing together amongst the exotic flavour of the lyrics and the futuristic scapes of the instrumentation, tinged with '80s (that synth heyday once again) nostalgia. All over, 'Pyramids' mixes past and present, biblical tropes colliding with images of a dystopian future, all winding through the many strands of dark musical invention. Songs like this don't come along every day.

08. Euphoria - Loreen
"An everlasting piece of art"

It did come to the point where the reputation preceded the song, overloaded as it was with the duty to breakdown negative preconceptions of what a Eurovision song can be. Fact is, those clattering synths in the background are pure David Guetta, and even Loreen's trademark melancholy is transmuted into a more serene positivity geared towards what approaches a generic sense of club excitement. But it's still in her that the magic of 'Euphoria' lies. Quite apart from that dance routine - which I attempt to re-enact every time the song plays in a club, to everyone's embarrassment - the song itself moves in scattering, wildly free motion, with that build out the middle-eight a thing of true exhiliration. 'Euphoria' succeeds so beautifully because it doesn't overload itself with complexity, instead allowing Loreen's flying vocals to make the eponymous feeling one of pure musicality.

07. Teen Idle - Marina & the Diamonds
"The wasted years / The wasted youth / The pretty lies / The ugly truth"

'Teen Idle' captures, more than any song on Electra Heart, the album's mixture of self-effacement and performative bravado, in its fragile, wistful portrait of a regretful young woman. The absolute delicacy of the song is breathtaking, with Marina's vocals nearing falsetto, seemingly afraid to make too loud a noise lest she crack the lamented reflection in the mirror. The production builds to a trembling crescendo as the song climaxes, a whirring synth noise resembling a tragic music box, but it's in Marina's lyrics and her vocalisation of them that the song's true majesty really lies. She captures the precocity of life, the largess that miniscule failures become in our own heads, the ugliness of the realisation that adulthood is suddenly, horribly, unforgivably upon us. And yet in this, you sense that Marina recognises the beauty with which she delivers these feelings, the entire paradox of her self: the outward beauty, the inner disgust, the essential humanity of her entire charade.

06. Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey
"Kiss me hard before you go"

It was when I saw the video for this that everything clicked into place for me and Lana - specifically, when her body falls, in one held breath, over the cliff. The song hangs on these falls, with the notes in the chorus pausing, imperceptibly, for a moment, before the next comes along. The words "summertime sadness" sum up what Lana basically does - turns an essentially positive experience into a dour, painful one. But both she and this song are more complicated than that. 'Summertime Sadness' is a song alive with sadness, yes, but also with nostalgia, the glow of memory - there's a pleasure in the sadness, a romanticism that makes itself apparent in the echoing presence of Lana's vocals. Lana realises the completeness that melancholy brings to life, and the repeated emphasis on the title brings the lingering delight on her blue remembrances to the fore. The rhythmic movement of the beat never drives the song into the ground, but perhaps over a cliff - forever moving through the air, like Thelma and Louise, a triumphant defeat.

05. Running To The Sea (feat. Susanne Sundfør) - Röyksopp
"Like savage horses kept within"

The mournful, deliberate notes of a piano begin 'Running to the Sea', sounding more like the devastated finale to a song than its careful beginning. But as the synths and chimes build up on top, coupled with the smooth, ringing vocals of Sundfør - another ideal vocalist for Röyksopp, and one that sounds a darker note than the collection featured on Junior - the song takes shape as the oceanic epic that it is, an instant entry into Röyksopp's panthean of effortless beauties. The faintest touch of a ghostly choir make the pacey synths of Sundfør's absence almost the highlight, if it weren't for the restrained harmony of her efforts on the chorus. Röyksopp's trademark craftsmanship of turning familiar synths into unspeakable emotional weight is more in evidence than ever, with the song building into an overwhelming hatch of Sundfør's repeated confusion ("And the river grows inside of me") and the insistent thumping of the snare drum. This arrived late, but the majesty was immediate and undeniable.

04. Find a Boy (feat. Mic Righteous) - A*M*E
"No more sad / And no more lonely"

From the moment that beat starts rolling, punctuated by the increasingly loud crashes of a synth, I am hooked. You need the extended version for the full effect - the beat rising, unimpeded, for a full forty-five seconds before A*M*E's detached vocals finally chime in. The beat is a compulsion, a staccato, waving deliberation, but A*M*E's vocals smoothly roll over it until they join in the erraticism of the chorus, stalling on the search, the need for a boy. It sounds like the call of the dispossessed, a robotic search for a boy. If you go by Mic Righteous' fierce imposition of a rap, it might be exactly that - he chastises the modern performance of the search for a mate, the routine of maintaining an appearance and the requirement for the male and female to pair off. A*M*E isn't swayed, and her insistence on the title becomes almost hypnotic, a statement of desolation that she is willed so perpetually to this quest, repeating the impossible demand that the boy love her "all the time". The ceaseless roll of the beat makes this dubstep-tinged song embed itself in your memory, the ironic soundtrack to your own endless search for love.

03. Push and Shove (feat. Busy Signal & Major Lazer) - No Doubt
"On another level like we're doing yoga"

I gradually worked on perfecting the lyrics to this song, and, given a few more weeks, I think I'll be word perfect. Which, considering the speed with which Gwen and Busy Signal deliver the verses here, is quite an achievement. What 'Push and Shove' has in abandon is swagger. The ska rhythm swings beneath the rapid fire of the verses, seeming to quicken towards a chorus that never delivers. Delivers on energy, that is - instead, Gwen's voice grinds to a mournful resistence, a playfully hurt kiss-off. She's soon back on fire again, throwing out words and jibbering nonsense that works as a weapon of enforced delirium. 'Push and Shove' combines the slower timbre of much of the album with the skittish, vibrant energy that usually effervesces from Gwen. It's a five minutes that marches past, and before you know it the song is looking back at you with a taunting tongue sticking out of its mouth.

02. Fear and Loathing - Marina & the Diamonds
"I wanna feel completely weightless / I wanna touch the edge of greatness"

Weakness and desperation become one singular, epic masterpiece. Vast, sweeping and ethereal, 'Fear and Loathing' is more prominently an intimate, naked portrait of Marina, her performative tendencies left entirely to the production for Electra Heart's majestic closer. All the frequently elaborate backing vocals will deign to contribute is a taunting hum. Marina's voice echoes, but it doesn't float - her desolate vowels always fall back into the earth, grounded by the depth of her sadness. Few other singers can imbue the extension of a lingering syllable with such soft pain as Marina. Few other songwriters can interpolate such vast emptiness of their souls into such tactile, brief lyrics. 'Fear and Loathing' is a song few could dare to craft, because this takes an artist fearlessly leaving privacy at the door, throwing their every fear and weakness into their work. That it is delivered in such beautiful, majestic form is more than we could have ever asked for.

01. And I Will Kiss (feat. Dame Evelyn Glennie) - Underworld

The Olympics were, for most of us, a once in a lifetime experience. I attended none of the events, and was rather preoccupied with my own petty love life worries tied up with the opening ceremony, which I hardly had the greatest of expectations for in the first place, despite some friends involved who insisted on its awesome spectacle. The Olympics turned out rather well, as it happened (the love part less so), but never did I expect this to come along with them. Combined with the visual spectacle, this is quite simply on a level above most musical composition, a conception of literally epic scope that immediately legitimised Danny Boyle's creation as a truly magnificent piece of art. The synthwork here is truly electrifying, building the refrains across breathtaking minutes at a time, streaking sounds over the top and underneath and teasing with others so that their final delivery makes for even more delirious reception. There are, quite literally, no words, just the rush of tribal sounds and choral rushes, uniting people across the historical breadth of the visual story. The volume is immense - the music feels like it's filling an entire stadium. I feel myself inside this music, and that takes something very special, particularly when words are entirely absent. When the final whistling strikes up and the song begins to twirl down to a finish, I am lost.]]> Top 25 Albums of 2012 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2012/12/27/5pfy8f_top_25_albums_of_2012 Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:13:53 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2012/12/27/5pfy8f_top_25_albums_of_2012 25. Yeasayer - Fragrant World
24. Carly Rae Jepsen - Kiss
23. How to Dress Well - Total Loss
22. Lise Karlsnes - Dance Or Die
21. Grimes - Visions
20. Saint Etienne - Words and Music by Saint Etienne
19. Dragonette - Bodyparts
18. Agnes - Veritas
17. Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
16. Purity Ring - Shrines
15. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
14. Grizzly Bear - Shields
13. Ke$ha - Warrior
12. The Maccabees - Given To The Wild
11. Ellie Goulding - Halcyon

10. Timoteij - Tabu
Beginning with the bewildering shriek of a synth machine, Tabu has already settled into its default mode: the choral harmonic unity of four rather anonymous ladies underscored by the clattering of every instrument under the Swedish sun. It's an exhilirating, exhausting whirlwind of an album, finding euphoric choruses in the whimsical, sunny starter of Ta mig till sommaren to the melancholic accordion swirl of Faller, stumbling through the pulsating dubstep infatuations of Puls and Högre along the way. In terms of pure pop energy, Tabu is probably unmatchable this year - every song has been shaped, baked and packaged ready for singledom.
Essential track: Bara för en natt

09. Loreen - Heal
Already something of a deity amongst the scandipop fiends on the internet, the pressure was certainly on Loreen Talhaoui to deliver an album to match the gothic synthpop she'd already delivered in the pained throes of My Heart Is Refusing Me and the ecstatic beeps and crashes of Euphoria. Impossibly, she pulled it off, crafting a surprisingly diverse collection of heartbroken pop music, from erratic cries of Breaking Robot to the standout swooping majesty of Everytime. Most importantly, her voice, her killer instrument with its quivering immediacy of pain and melancholy, makes each instance of the repeated theme freshly affecting, flying and diving around across the shimmering, wailing synths.
Essential track: Euphoria

08. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (The Paradise Edition)
The vastness of material here, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of it is in the same key of miserable, louche melancholy, makes the fact that Lana Del Rey's confusion of albums remain so striking and impressive all the more remarkable. There is always the sense that it's a mode of performance, but Lana remains uniquely untouchable beneath, resurrecting the kind of unknowable glamour and mysterious allure that hasn't been seen since the days of Classic Hollywood. From the first string flourish of Born to Die to the floating lightness of Bel Air, Lana Del Rey immerses the listener in a sea of devastation, twisted tropes and exaggerated stereotypes that combine to tell a story that still, despite the volume of it, retains that quality of mysticism and perverse attraction.
Essential track: Summertime Sadness

07. Gabrielle - Mildt Sagt
Gabrielle Leithaug's striking debut is composed of crystalline synths and blackened, pulsating beats. Her voice is as much an instrument to be edited as any of the computer noises are - the latter half of the aggressively robotic Inn i deg repeats the titular lyric like a mantra, a stalled computer command. But, as her face sticks vividly through the messy collage of graffiti on her album cover, Gabrielle's warm, empathic vocals rest at the centre of Mildt Sagt, rarely doing any vocal acrobatics to accentuate the overwhelming, dynamic emotionality of the songs. It's an exceptionally crafted collation of immediate sounds, glittering with technological invention and emotional clarity.
Essential track: Løkken

06. iamamiwhoami - kin
From the opening, delicate, creeping moments of sever, it's clear than kin is a fairly singular experience. There's a ghostly majesty at work here, a crackle to the sounds, a crinkle to the synths, a wild inflection to the vocals. It's intoxicating. But it isn't without catchy, pulsating rhythms in the spirit of the finest scandipop, and in fact, what Jonna Lee et al prove here is that the stereotypical cheesiness of schlager instrumentation can be reconfigured and recontextualised into an emphatically artistic, singular and morbid experience. What else is the swirling jingle of drops if not a wicked twist on something like Jag ljuger så bra? That connection is perhaps too facile, but kin nonetheless seems informed by the same pulsatingly pure Swedish ethic to energise the soul of the music lover.
Essential track: kill

05. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
The lazy groove of Thinkin Bout You, underscored by that slow, menacingly sad wobble of synths, is only the curtain for Ocean's overwhelming theatrics on channel ORANGE. The sexuality thing - that's incidental. It's a welcome move to dissolving stereotypical objectivity in r'n'b music, but it barely scratches the record, let alone breaks it. What channel ORANGE proves to be is a smooth, intoxicating glide through some exceptional grooves, guided by the silky vocals of Ocean and peaking, undeniably, with the glory of Pyramids, an indelibly constructed track that overlaps and winds various magical soundbites into an instant classic. But the remainder of the record is not cowed by the largess of their neighbouring track, taking different tones of humour, melancholy, confusion, cockiness and serenity. Ocean looks beyond the moment to the eternal, from the Pyramids to the Pink Matter of the universe.
Essential track: Pyramids

04. Bright Light Bright Light - Make Me Believe In Hope
The wait was long and arduous, although it must be said that almost half of the songs on Make Me Believe In Hope had surfaced far in advance of the album's release. That it still feels, then, like a cohesive experience is testament to Rod Thomas' superb sense of emotional musicality and his propensity for utterly gorgeous choruses. He's informed by his extensive knowledge and love of pop music, particularly the '90s r'n'b-tinged pop music that is evidenced on the euphoric backing vocals of Feel It. The lyrics are the familiar love and heartbreak on the dancefloor, but the male voice, particularly one as soft and fluid as Thomas', reveals fresh dimensions to a universal conceit.
Essential track: Love, Pt. II

03. Amanda Mair - Amanda Mair
I was in Amanda Mair's presence just a few hours before she turned eighteen, as she played to a enraptured crowd somewhere in Hoxton, just a few buildings up the road from where she'd played a few months before, to a mostly apathetic crowd. Mair's audience blossomed as rapidly as she did. There's some magic in someone this young, with a voice that sounds this young, being able to pull off wistful, beautific lyrics such as the longing that makes up the sparse Skinnarviksberget. The album is as dominated by the luxurious piano chords as it is by Mair's voice - the two forming a relaxing, melancholy duet that craft an album of delicate, rhythmic beauty, bolstered by orchestral flourishes that are uncommonly lush and tender for music of this generation. I recently bemoaned that this album was self-titled - a rarer sight this year - but it maintains the purity and focus of a new, prodigiously talented star.
Essential track: Doubt

02. Marina & the Diamonds - Electra Heart
Marina Diamandis protested that she plays four different characters throughout the unfolding of Electra Heart, each one ringing with a different aspect of her personality. But the truths Marina uncovers on Electra Heart - breathtakingly, an advance from her perceptive debut The Family Jewels - are ones that thread through everyone, and she captures them with her trademark melancholy wit. She's self-effacing and self-aggrandising almost at the same time, a maddening figure of inconsistency. But all this just increases the relatability of the record, particularly (it must be said) for the anguished dramatics of the tortured gays who are probably most of her fanbase. The self-hatred, the glorious theatrics, the desolate desires and the utter confusion - it might not be a recipe for chart success, but it results in an explosive, intimate, astoundingly alive record.
Essential track: Fear and Loathing



01. Jessie Ware - Devotion
The stirs of Devotion strike up as if they've already been playing, somewhere out of your ear's vacinity. Stirring with rise of the moon, perhaps, because as it begins, Jessie Ware's debut feels like an album of the night, a bewitching spell where synths shimmer like stars. It was probably obvious, after Jamie Woon's Mirrorwriting ran away with my top honours last year, that the similar timbres of Ware's music might triumph here, but the finest pleasures of Devotion are of a warmer, cooler quality. Wildest Moments lifts with a gentle euphoria, the momentary reach of the chorus softening without reproach into the easy beats of the verses. "Maybe in our wildest moments / We could be the greatest," Ware softly wonders, but it seems neither a desperate desire nor a frightening imposition. The entire record flourishes with the smaller dreams and pitfalls of love and companionship - "who says no to love?", she queries, the ultimate answer being herself - delivered with her beautiful, warm tones, as at home in a whisper as in a pained cry. Devotion eschews bombast, allowing it to glide closer to the listener and envelop them in its mixture of soft vocals and nostalgic, vibrant instrumentation.
Essential track: Sweet Talk]]> Top 25 Albums of 2011 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2011/12/31/59odfj_top_25_albums_of_2011 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:10:30 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2011/12/31/59odfj_top_25_albums_of_2011 25. Nico Muhly - Seeing is Believing
24. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
23. Simon Curtis - R∆
22. Foster the People - Torches
21. Tom Vek - Leizure Seizure
20. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
19. Rebecca Ferguson - Heaven
18. Lady Gaga - Born This Way
17. Wynter Gordon - With the Music I Die
16. Neon Indian - Era Extraña
15. Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials
14. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
13. Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia
12. Sneaky Sound System - From Here To Anywhere
11. Friendly Fires - Pala

10. Penguin Prison - Penguin Prison
Penguin Prison had been trickling out material over what seemed like at least a couple of years, and probably remains even now better known as a remixer. So this is, perhaps, the unheralded triumph of the year. The gradual builds of synth beats and electronic percussion melodies isn't dissimilar from his style of remixing, but these tracks are perfectly crafted pop songs that peak, as they should, in choruses that are sharp and punchy. Penguin's vocals are sleek, smooth recall the likes of Prince and Phil Oakey of the 1980s, but the music here makes a thoroughly modern product of its shimmering funk.
Essential track: Pinocchio

09. The Weeknd - House of Balloons
The Weeknd's intoxicating mixture of eerie echo and explicit lyricism captured him a great deal of attention this year. Still the finest of his three mixtapes, House of Balloons, the first, had me fully ensnared from the moment Aaliyah made a ghostly appearance on the second track. Such a sample is emblematic of the album's overall feeling - a record that is lyrically simple and often rather crude, but that is constructed with such a deep, rhythmic soundscape that it reverberates throughout your entire body.
Essential track: House Of Balloons - Glass Table Girls

08. Will Young - Echoes
Echoes wasn't the storming dance classic that his collaboration with Groove Armada, History, set him up for, but it is perhaps a more realistic evocation of the man himself. Always, as you might expect from the winner of a vocal competition, an appealing vocalist, Young here finally couples it with a set of tracks that really spark into a winning combination of smooth, glimmering synth melodies. While it runs an emotional gamut, there's a strong sense of contentment in the confident style Young delivers these feelings - an artist, finally, who has found material to match him.
Essential track: Runaway

07. Cher Lloyd - Sticks + Stones
Short, and sweeter than you might imagine, Cher Lloyd managed to reap the very best of what SyCo had to offer. The infamous Swagger Jagger may have grated on nearly everyone, but Playa Boi swags Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance with such exuberant panache that suggests Lloyd is more clued-up that she gets credit for. Sticks + Stones incorporates all potshots at her public image and uses them as party tricks, playfully accepting them through buoyant pop melodies. Inexplicably, an X Factor act has delivered an album that embraces everything people appreciated them for, while also crafting a distinctive and lively pop career.
Essential track: Playa Boi

06. Washed Out - Within and Without
Chillwave is oddly named, as the better examples of it always effect me on a physical level that is anything but relaxed. The soundscapes of Washed Out's first full-length record do settle into the kind of otherworldly grooves that are easy to slide into, but the constant reverberations of the bouncing synths ultimately results in an unsettling vibration. There's some magic in Washed Out's mastery of these electronics, a kind of soundtrack to your unpopulated dreams, the images of beautiful vistas tinged in the sadness of memory.
Essential track: Before

05. Katy B - On a Mission
One of my favourite memories from the past year was clutching my miniscule umbrella over the heads of four complete strangers in torrential rain, jumping up and down with complete abandon to Katy B at the Lovebox festival. Katy B's combination of pop and dubstep seemed to crystallise the general movement of the chart music scene itself, even if she herself never took off as expected. But there's an emotional keenness to the ordinariness of the scenes Katy describes here, swerving between caustic romantic tangles to dancefloor abandonment, and the mood captured in one of a moonlit London street, the sound of revellers faded around the corner. Keep it loud, and carry on home.
Essential track: Go Away

04. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Kate Bush's eerie collection of songs inspired by frozen precipitation takes a while to dig into, not least because the shortest track here is almost seven minutes long. But soon, it overcomes you like a black cloak, as if Kate has progressed from the ghostly white young woman to a creeping old witch. Physically, maybe not, but her voice has deepened, cracked, and her contributions here are of a morbid, desolate quality. She throws herself into a strange concept with full force, from the hilariously sinister egging on of Stephen Fry as he names those fifty words, to the despairing trudge of the duet with Elton John. It may prove one of her most rewarding recordings to date.
Essential track: Snowed in at Wheeler Street

03. Active Child - You Are All I See
Active Child's full-length debut begins with a multitude of shimmering strings, what seems like a whole troupe of harps being strummed to no apparent melody. You Are All I See is an immersive experience in a world you imagine behind an ornate mirror, your every step accompanied by beautiful orchestrations and the thin, floating, haunting vocals. It feels Celtic, and Oriental, feeling inspired by the most exotic moods of those backgrounds without ever feeling derivative of them. This is the sound of your brain floating into other dimensions, the impossible attraction of your subconscious stirring.
Essential track: Johnny Belinda

02. Gotye - Making Mirrors
Somebody That I Used to Know, the spearhead of Gotye's incredible success this year, is not at all representative of the astonishing breadth of the artist's third album. That breathtaking tale of a bitter break-up may remain the highlight here, but it is challenged by a set of tracks that encompass a variety of styles and attitudes that are threaded together by Gotye's vibrant delivery. Making Mirrors feels at once steeped in pop history and pleasingly fresh, with a kind of louche swing to its pleasures that make the more devastating moments (Don't Worry We'll be Watching You hits hard from its shy dubstep crouch) even more powerful. Quite simply, this is the pop album of the year.
Essential track: State Of The Art



01. Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
When Mirrorwriting was released, it coincided with a job that required me to walk home after the midnight hour. The diffuse, ghostly soundscapes of Jamie Woon's heartfelt dubstep rang through my head as I trod down the bare streets, across the sodden leaves, looking out at the dewy grass and up at the vaguely visible stars. Great music is at its peak when it ties itself to your experiences, and so Mirrorwriting became the soundtrack to those walks, at its most vivid in that blue darkness, ghoulish sound effects vibrating through me. Who can tell if I would have fallen so hard for Mirrorwriting without those walks, although I suspect I might, as my propensity for dark, moody music has probably made itself clear across this list. Woon's vocals recall an unlikely counterpart, one Justin Timberlake, and often the beats of his music aren't too dissimilar from the dramatic Timbaland production of Justified. Woon is a great deal more sombre, but while the lingering mood of Mirrowriting is one of desolation, there is joy too, in the quiet genius of the enormous soundscapes and the sleek synth work. Every corner of this album contains new delights, and new emotions. Out of the finale, Waterfront, there emerges the faint glowing hope of dawn, reflecting on the still waters. After all, to write on the mirror, you have to carry on breathing.
Essential track: Night Air]]> Top 100 Singles of 2011 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2011/12/23/599yft_top_100_singles_of_2011 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:54:57 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2011/12/23/599yft_top_100_singles_of_2011 100. Aroused - Tom Vek
99. E.T. - E.T.
98. Sunday - Hurts
97. Rumour Has It - Adele
96. What About My Dreams? - Kati Wolf
95. Let Me Go - Maverick Sabre
94. Live Those Days Tonight - Friendly Fires
93. Midnight City - M83
92. Heaven - Emeli Sandé
91. Fighting Fire (feat. Jess Mills) - Breakage
90. Climbing Walls - Strange Talk
89. Easy Please Me - Katy B
88. Black Video - SX
87. Dirty Talk - Wynter Gordon
86. I'm in Love - Sanna Nielsen
85. Sophia - Laura Marling
84. Eyes Be Closed - Washed Out
83. Experimenting with Rugs - Florrie
82. Wonderman (feat. Ellie Goulding) - Tinie Tempah
81. Flesh - Simon Curtis
80. City With No Children - Arcade Fire
79. Fallout - Neon Indian
78. Hitz (feat. Tinie Tempah) - Chase & Status
77. Time (feat. Delilah) - Chase & Status
76. Live For What I'd Die For - Jess Mills
75. Better Off Without You - Summer Camp
74. Devil's Work - Miike Snow
73. Every Little Part of Me (feat. Jay Sean) - Alesha Dixon
72. Kidz - Take That
71. Glad You Came - The Wanted
70. The A Team - Ed Sheeran
69. Mr. Saxobeat - Alexandra Stan
68. What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
67. What the Water Gave Me - Florence + the Machine
66. Amor Fati - Washed Out
65. Brightside - The Knocks
64. All of the Lights - Kanye West
63. Don't Move - Phantogram
62. Vultures - Jess Mills
61. Paradise - Coldplay
60. Someone Like You - Adele
59. Judas - Lady Gaga
58. Video Games - Lana Del Rey
57. Popular - Eric Saade
56. Heart Skips a Beat (feat. Rizzle Kicks) - Olly Murs
55. Guilt - Nero
54. Rolling in the Deep - Adele
53. Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution - Cut Copy
52. Radioactive - Marina & the Diamonds
51. No Romance - Hands
50. Neon Black - Candy Coated Killahz
49. Laura Palmer - Bastille
48. Nuclear Seasons - Charli XCX
47. Disco Moment - Bright Light Bright Light
46. Beautiful People (feat. Benny Benassi) - Chris Brown
45. Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
44. Pharaohs - SBTRKT
43. Sober - Loreen
42. Something in Your Eyes - Jenny Silver
41. Call My Name - Tove Styrke
40. You'll Never Love Me - Elisabeth Carew
39. Lady Luck - Jamie Woon
38. Kicking and Screaming - Oh My!
37. Jealousy - Will Young
36. Put Your Hands Up - Nerina Pallot
35. The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga
34. Lonely Heart - Radio Killer
33. Love U More - Sunday Girl
32. Far Nearer - Jamie xx
31. Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez & the Scene
30. Titanium (feat. Sia) - David Guetta
29. Hello - Martin Solveig & Dragonette
28. On the Floor (feat. Pitbull) - Jennifer Lopez
27. Moves Like Jagger (feat. Christina Aguilera) - Maroon 5
26. The Bay - Metronomy
25. Called Out in the Dark - Snow Patrol
24. Someone Loves You - Tom Vek
23. The Birds Part 1 - The Weeknd
22. Don't Know Why - SoundGirl
21. All My Life - Chart Music

20. Doubt - Amanda Mair
"I wanna become what people become / But I know I'll stay here."

Amanda Mair's debut begins with the softest stir of a synth, a single note that reverberates beneath the rolling kickdrum beat that repeats, emotionlessly, under the stretch of the entire song. Doubt is a delicate, ghostly question of a song, ringing with the fear and nervousness of its sixteen-year-old writer and performer as she tries to launch herself into adulthood and success. The production astounds - gorgeous piano lines, echoing drum beats, gentle touches of swooping synths - but it's Mair's smooth, lamenting vocals and her searching, honest lyrics that make this so memorable.

19. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People
"You say your hair's on fire / Must have lost your wits, yeah"

You know this one. Pumped Up Kicks never really translated over to the UK as the hipster anthem it was in the US (despite what could be read as decidedly anti-hipster lyrics), but the riffled groove of it is perhaps too flagrantly American. The bubbling background of the lacksadaiscal chorus unsettles just as much as the hollow, distorted vocal effect on the verses, so that by the time you get to the mimicking whistle of the middle-8, it's as perturbing as it is enjoyable. Ultimately, though, the success of this was a plain victory for a rather good tune.

18. Polish Girl - Neon Indian
"But you fail to remember"

I do. I fail to remember the lyrics. But the shimmering magic of Polish Girl isn't about the words, it's about the distorted, spacial wonder of the sounds, less '80s than wildly futuristic, swirling and diverting all over the top of the echoing, detached vocals. It's as if receiving a message from space, only space isn't a distance but a maze of sounds. Propulsive, glittery, incomprehensible, Polish Girl makes about as much sense as the Polish sequences in David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE.. That is, absolutely none.

17. All Over the World - Ola
"You don't know me yet / But I don't care"

The most stomping piece of scandipop likely ever made by anyone, All Over The World whacks you over the head with the most aggressive violin crashes and it hasn't even started yet. The ferocity of the verses seems to be a challenge to the chorus, which it's all down to Ola to deliver because, if you listen closely, there really isn't much difference in the instrumentation after the dramatic pause that acts as a bridge. Luckily, the most vocally adaptable of those Scandiboys punches a glorious chorus with carefree abandon, wailing and piercing the vocals with pleading emotion to whoever the song is about. (Me.)

16. Broken Record - Katy B
"And I know that we make our mistakes / But you're holding every breath I take"

Diving down a bouncing round of synths, it immediately feels as if Broken Record has reached its depths, but just thirty seconds later the pace quickens, the clatter darkens, and the vocals heighten. It seems to be a song written in a split moment, between love given and not yet received, the frozen panic of raw emotion. Katy's vocals pitch as she strains for levels her voice can't reach, but the real kicker is the repetition at the song's climax - a pained recognition of her own desperation for an answer to a question we can't really be sure she's even really asked.

15. Shuffle - Bombay Bicycle Club
"Now it gets ethereal / Feet ain't on the floor"

Shuffle bursts straight into its discordant piano rhythm, a mash of notes that contradicts itself as it repeats perfectly across the track. The track lives up to its name in the melee of sounds it clashes together, but it also runs against it, particularly in the smooth vocal that crows over the instrumentation, creating a glorious chorus and a elongated, ghostly middle-8. This is a song about finding comfort in the unfamiliar, grooving to the feeling in the oddball rhythm; so that clash of noises, as it peaks, finally thrills.

14. Lights - Ellie Goulding
"And so I tell myself that I'll be strong / And dreaming when they're gone"

Rejigged for the re-release, and thrown out as a single onto an audience who weren't paying attention, it almost feels fradulent including Lights on a 2011 list, because by now you feel as if we should be in the next passage of Ellie's career. But Lights is a magical paean to the comforts of the past, and it seems right as a suggestion that her move forward won't forget from whence she came. Lyrically, it's the manifestation of her album covers - the frozen twinkling of lights, glowing around a figure in motion, the home "calling, calling, calling" merely the one in her head.

13. I Wrote the Book - Beth Ditto
"I wrote the book on it / Don't test me"

Usually heard screaming with her band The Gossip, Beth Ditto's EP saw her head further down the disco direction hinting at by the band's last album Music for Men and go all out with some soulful dance epics. I Wrote the Book is punctuated by some twisting, wounded synths, which gradually take over the background soundscape, but it's Ditto's softened vocals that bring alive the lyrical story of a woman whose past romantic woes have put her guard defiantly up.

12. Shake It Out - Florence + the Machine
"Every demon wants his pound of flesh"

Mournful organ notes slowly get higher. Tambourines jingle their way in. A woman starts bellowing like someone's pedalling on her right lung. Yes, the return proper of one Florence Welch was unrecognisably her, a whirligig concuction of chanting, wailing and medieval percussion. Sometimes the thing she seems to need shaking it out of is the ghostly hole the production has stuck her in, but, for this song at least, that dilemma speaks of the trap Florence is enconsed in with the devil, her hopeless wailing trapping her in the tribal dance of cymbals, drums, bells and so on. "It's always darkest before the dawn," she cries, and perhaps that shimmer at the end is indeed the sun rising.

11. Earthquake (feat. Tinie Tempah) - Labrinth
"Yo Labrinth / This one's feeling like a straight ten on the Richter scale"

Boasting the best production of any track released this year, you can't really disagree with Labrinth's early assertation that "this is something they call a groundbreaker". Rather than sounding like the future, Earthquake sounds like the peak of now - the apex of what all other pretenders attempt to create, but only Labrinth has made more than mere "illusion". The grinding, smashing, whirring clatter is still fiercely melodic, the chorus a vibrant stomp, Labrinth's louche vocal delivery pulling off wild Simon Cowell references. And so, it gets away with being all about being a groundbreaking tune because it feels like the earthquake we'll all be seeing the aftershock from come 2012.

10. Dirty Dancer (feat. Scrufizzer) - Oh My!
"I got a new pair of shoes / They'll be ruined in the morning"

Dirty Dancer kicks down the door to a new pop generation by turning up the volume on a rolling drum beat. The verses, delivered with scornful, lazy sing-talk style, are a derisory kiss-off to an unseen charmer, cutting him down to size with short, sharp lyrics before rising into the chanting chorus where they demand he show them his best moves. References to Patrick Swayze aren't only inevitable, they're necessary - Example's new protegees spin a new thread from old pop styles, in this case coming fully loaded with aggressive synth-lines and exclamatory synth lines. They're critical, but not cynical - the end game here is nothing more than a good night out. And if the world's going to end next year, what more do you need than a fantastic accompaniment to your weekly crack at performing the robot?

09. Shoulda - Jamie Woon
"The line under what's been / The line for what'll never be"

The lightness of the beat that runs throughout Shoulda should not be underestimated for the eerie feeling it adds to this desolate soundscape. The heavier beats seem to echo it, plodding deafeatedly through the chorus as Woon's softly tragic vocals reach their lowest, and deepest, point. The devastating simplicity of the song's central conceit - "I walked when I shoulda run / And I ran when I shoulda walked" - physicalises a doomed mentality, but as much as I've enjoyed wallowing in this song as I walked home in the summer darkness, what you picture instead is someone slumped in abject despair. Finally, the synths shimmer into a spinning horror, and a heartbreaking, lingering end.

08. 212 - Azealia Banks
"Imma ruin you, c**t"

Slick, sly and steadfast, Azealia Banks announces her arrival with an opening rap so quick you barely notice as it escalates into the foul-mouthed break into the main verse. The stunning propulsion of the song itself is such that it's almost halfway through before it feels like it's even begun. Then it stutters to an impasse with a echoing passage that rings as a soft denouncement, before it changes again, that vocal distortion crying as an angry, anguished disappointment. And then she's quickfire again, louche and dismissive and the swearing barely seems consequential because she unleashes it with such careless disregard. And I've not even mentioned the rhythmic bass of the production, punctuating the rap with sharp, hollow beats, pulling the disparate sections together into the disinterested statement of intent. Azealia's here, and ready for the end.

07. The Look - Metronomy
"This town's the oldest friend of mine"

The accordion stirs, and you're hooked. Helpfully, that fits the track's lyrical meaning - the memory of a flourishing attraction, embedded in the kind of airy, sunlit beachside town suggested by the cover of the song's parent album. The doubled lyrics give the song the same kind of shaking rhythm as the accordion's looping beat. When the heavier synths strike up, we've reached a darker point, an even stronger hint that the couple are in deep, alone, and perhaps adrift. Beautiful, but quaking with cautious darkness, The Look is a poignant, stirring pop song that drifts off again into echoing space.

06. Super Bass - Nicki Minaj
"And yes you'll get slapped if you're lookin', hoe"

This isn't what I expected from Nicki. This isn't what I wanted from Nicki. But this is what we got from Nicki, even if it was at swift insistence, and I'm bloody glad we got it. Super Bass is as pure a pop song as ever has been recorded; a joyful, shimmering blitz of a song, twinning Minaj's quickfire rapping with a smooth, bouncing chorus and even popping in a middle-8 of starry wonder to retain her badass pink edge. Super Bass is a love song to a man with rhythm, and we're all gonna sing it right back.

05. We Found Love - Rihanna
"We found love in a hopeless place"

I've resented giving Calvin a credit on this from the very beginning, as he contributes no vocals, but as I consider what to write here, I realised that his contribution might as well be vocal, because the euphoric beats Rihanna used to demonstrate her carefree, careering persona for this particular single (shown in both the superb video and her divisive X Factor performances) are entirely of his creation and are more emotional than any words he could speak. They're the ecstatic release that matches the vibrant squalor depicted in the video, both joyfully liberating and hopelessly impersonal, a place of loss both positive and disastrous. And it's Rihanna's vocal, reaching a crystalline peak of painful vulnerability on this track, that gives haunting life to the story behind the club masterpiece.

04. Together - Patrick Wolf
"And I can't do this alone / But we can do this so much better / Together"

Together spins you into its ethereal uplift straight away, the surprised strike of a harp suggesting this is Patrick Wolf as you know and love him. But then the electronic stomping begins, only underpinned by the distant strumming of some strings. This is next-level Wolf, a transcendent piece of musical glory that reads and feels a communal anthem, soldiers standing on a hill looking to the future with glistening hope. Wolf's arch, flying vocals bely as much past tragedy as winning victory, but the encompassing of darkness only bolsters the power of the filling orchestration as it peaks higher and higher, choral cries and spinning strings reverberating upwards and dissipating in a quiet note of quivering triumph.

03. My Heart Is Refusing Me - Loreen
"Although I've made up my mind / My heart is refusing me"

Like Florence, sort of, if she hunched over, restricted her vocal range and went a bit disco. But those all might be reasons to like Loreen more. Instead of flying off into the distance, Loreen's vocals fall and bounce off the floor around her, echoing around her and trapping her in her own desolate solace, someone emotionally reeling admist clueless revellers. It's the sort of song perfect for a silent disco, the kind of thing you could feel the pain from merely by seeing the singer emote. The vocal effects wind her increasingly pained cries into the pounding synths, wounds unseen and untended as pathetic loneliness turns in on her.

02. Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) - Gotye
"Told myself that you were right for me / But felt so lonely in your company"

The simple, rhythmic structure of Gotye's breakthrough hit is what makes it magical. It gently creeps, seeming an unassuming beat to underpin the tune, but as it continues, steady under the increasingly anguished vocals of Gotye and the bitter interjection of Kimbra, it reveals its menace, the ticking clock of continued life to counteract the characters' self-absorption. From it, too, spring those darker, heavier sounds, finally doubling up in the chorus to pack that devastated punch. It's the double-tracking of Gotye's vocals in the end, too, that gets me - so wounded by this break-up that he can only split into two to effectively convey his emotion. Add all these technically ingenious elements to a set of lyrics that so simply lay out the tragic hindsight and the keen anger of a spurned lover with soft realisations like the one quoted above, and you, somehow, have a #1 hit.

01. I Took a Little Something - Florrie
"I'm looking right behind me / And it's you I've found"

I Took A Little Something is pure, effervescent pop joy from the moment it begins, as that doubled synth beat strikes up and makes you do some sort of incredibly cheesy dance move where you roll your fists in the air. This is a song that moves, and its every step is alive with bounce, vitality, energy - all the things that hair products are supposed to give beautiful ladies, only they'd get there sooner if they soundtracked their lives with this. Even when it goes low, squashing its synths for the middle-8, it's only so they can spring back and renew their beauty. And why is all so beautiful? Well, it's another disco classic with sadness at its centre, as Florrie asks to stride purposefully away in time with the beat, "paper over the cracks". In the end, it might all be in her head, but that's where the best of us spend our time. Maybe we should all take a little lead from Florrie.]]> Top 25 Albums of 2010 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/12/28/44lgx8_top_25_albums_of_2010 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:27:45 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/12/28/44lgx8_top_25_albums_of_2010 I may add commentary to this at some point, but here it is, simple and easy.

25. Progress - Take That
24. Pink Friday - Nicki Minaj
23. Contra - Vampire Weekend
22. Subiza - Delorean
21. Sale el Sol - Shakira
20. The Entertainer - Alesha Dixon
19. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
18. The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens
17. Acolyte - Delphic
16. Body Talk Pt. 1, Body Talk Pt. 2 & Body Talk Pt. 3 - Robyn
15. Loud - Rihanna
14. The Family Jewels - Marina & the Diamonds
13. Swim - Caribou
12. Tourist History - Two Door Cinema Club
11. Bright Lights - Ellie Goulding

10. Night Work - Scissor Sisters
Essential track: Invisible Light

09. Light Me Up - The Pretty Reckless
Essential track: Goin' Down

08. Happiness - Hurts
Essential track: The Water

07. Black Light - Groove Armada
Essential track: History

06. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe
Essential track: Cold War

05. I Speak Because I Can - Laura Marling
Essential track: Alpha Shallows

04. Animal / Cannibal - Ke$ha
Essential track: Animal

03. Flesh Tone - Kelis
Essential track: 4th of July (Fireworks)

02. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Essential track: Suburban War

01. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
Essential track: Lost in the World (feat. Bon Iver)]]> Top 100 Singles of 2010 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/12/28/44j9f0_top_100_singles_of_2010 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:38:39 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/12/28/44j9f0_top_100_singles_of_2010 As usual, compiled using my own skewed sense of logic as to what constitutes a UK single release. And Gossip, because it was just too good not to include. They released in it Germany! It has a video! Fuck you.

[It's the 3rd of January and there are so many dreadful omissions - three additions to the top ten here. Bumped out:

Dirty Picture (feat. Ke$ha) - Taio Cruz
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) - Shakira
DJ (I Could be Dancing) - Alphabeat
California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg) - Katy Perry
Upside Down - Paloma Faith
Momma's Place - Róisín Murphy
Undercover Martyn - Two Door Cinema Club
What's My Name? (feat. Drake) - Rihanna
Dancing on My Own - Robyn
Scream - Kelis
Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding]

100. Miss Nothing - The Pretty Reckless
99. Won't Go Quietly - Example
98. Ambitions - Joe McElderry
97. Te Amo - Rihanna
96. Kickstarts - Example
95. Hollywood - Marina & the Diamonds
94. Do It Like a Dude - Jessie J
93. Time Of My Life - Patrick Wolf
92. Right Thru Me - Nicki Minaj
91. Loca (feat. Dizzee Rascal) - Shakira
90. Volcano - Dragonette
89. Indestructible - Robyn
---> 88. In the Sun - She & Him
87. Doncamatic (feat. Daley) - Gorillaz
86. Promise This - Cheryl Cole
85. I Walked - Sufjan Stevens
84. Massive Attack (feat. Sean Garrett) - Nicki Minaj
83. Get Outta My Way - Kylie Minogue
82. Rocket - Goldfrapp
81. The Bike Song (Feat. Kyle Falconer & Spank Rock) - Mark Ronson
80. MY KZ, UR BF - Everything Everything
79. XXXO - M.I.A.
78. Tenderoni - Kele
77. Born Free - M.I.A.
---> 76. Doubt - Delphic
75. Parachute - Cheryl Cole
74. Head Over Heels - BIM
73. One - Sky Ferreira
---> 72. The Flood - Take That
---> 71. Rambling Man - Laura Marling
70. You Used to Hold Me - Calvin Harris
69. Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) - Janelle Monáe
68. Ego - The Saturdays
67. Odessa - Caribou
66. Heartbeat (feat. Nicole Scherzinger) - Enrique Iglesisas
65. Lovesick - Lindstrøm & Christabelle
---> 64. Lies - Fenech-Soler
63. Alejandro - Lady Gaga
62. Miami - Foals
61. I'm Not Mad - Alex Gardner
60. Can't Be Tamed - Miley Cyrus
59. Easy - Dragonette
58. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
57. Who Wants to Be Alone (feat. Nelly Furtado) - Tiësto
56. One Touch - Mini Viva
55. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
54. Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas
53. Rude Boy - Rihanna
52. Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart - Alicia Keys
51. Best In The Class - Late of the Pier
---> 50. Thieves - She & Him
49. Runaway (feat. Pusha T) - Kanye West
48. Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever) - Muse
47. Devil's Spoke - Laura Marling
46. Pop Goes The World - Gossip
45. Halcyon - Delphic
44. Hole In My Heart - Alphabeat
43. All Night Long (feat. Pitbull) - Alexandra Burke
42. Bittersweet - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
41. Take It Off - Ke$ha
40. Power (feat. Dwele) - Kanye West
39. The Boy Who Murdered Love - Diana Vickers
---> 38. Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
37. Acapella - Kelis
36. Hot - Inna
35. Make Me Wanna Die - The Pretty Reckless
34. Amazing - Inna
33. I Feel Better - Hot Chip
32. Whip My Hair - Willow
31. Commander - Kelly Rowland
---> 30. Hurtful - Erik Hassle
29. Only Girl (In the World) - Rihanna
28. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
27. Soldier of Love - Sade
26. The Flood - Katie Melua
25. Paper Romance - Groove Armada
24. Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver) - Kanye West
23. I'm In Love (I Wanna Do It) - Alex Gaudino
22. Get Some - Lykke Li
21. Any Which Way - Scissor Sisters
20. Higher - The Saturdays
19. Wonderful Life - Hurts
18. Happiness - Alexis Jordan
17. Silvia - Miike Snow
16. Your Love Is My Drug - Ke$ha
15. Bang Bang Bang (Feat. Q-Tip & MNDR) - Mark Ronson
14. Poison - Nicole Scherzinger
---> 13. Telephone (feat. Beyoncé) - Lady Gaga (formerly #81)
12. Our Summer - Dragonette
11. We Used to Wait - Arcade Fire
10. O.N.E. - Yeasayer
---> 09. Stereo Love (feat. Vika Jigulina) - Edward Maya
08. Oh No! - Marina & the Diamonds
07. Cosmic Love - Florence + the Machine
06. Maniac - Girlicious
--> 05. Invisible Light - Scissor Sisters
04. History - Groove Armada
03. 4th of July (Fireworks) - Kelis
---> 02. Cold War - Janelle Monáe
01. On a Mission - Gabriella Cilmi

All this is, of course, basically irrelevant, because the best song of the year is Man Down by Rihanna, but you never know, maybe that'll win next year.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT (03/12/11):

Egregious omissions from this list, for a variety of reasons, in ascending order of favourability:

Lights On (feat. Ms. Dynamite) - Katy B
Riverside - Agnes Obel
Perfect Stranger - Katy B & Magnetic Man
Believer (feat. Wynter Gordon) - Freemasons
Katy on a Mission - Katy B
Love Part II - Bright Light Bright Light
White Light Moment - Tove Styrke
Night Air - Jamie Woon

The embarrassingly high quality of all these omissions shames me - the top five here would all challenge for the top twenty, and the top three would all beat down my original number one.]]> The Last Decade Tossed Off In Some Lists http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/01/08/3bogfb_the_last_decade_tossed_off_in_some_lists Fri, 8 Jan 2010 18:38:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/01/08/3bogfb_the_last_decade_tossed_off_in_some_lists Some of these are highly personal selections, some are critical. There's a lot I haven't heard... maybe I will, maybe I won't. At the end of the day, this is me in list form. What a decade of music.

TOP 25 ALBUMS FROM 2000-2009

25. Fantasy Black Channel - Late of the Pier
24. Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens
23. Revolution in Me - Siobhan Donaghy
22. Hopes and Fears - Keane
21. Folklore - Nelly Furtado
20. Lycanthropy - Patrick Wolf
19. Bright Like Neon Love - Cut Copy
18. Junior - Röyksopp
17. Aaliyah - Aaliyah
16. Chemistry - Girls Aloud
15. Rated R - Rihanna
14. Black Cherry - Goldfrapp
13. Confessions on a Dance Floor - Madonna
12. Overpowered - Róisín Murphy
11. Ghosts - Siobhan Donaghy

10. The Tension And The Spark - Darren Hayes
09. Funeral - Arcade Fire
08. Anniemal - Annie
07. American Life - Madonna
06. Lungs - Florence + the Machine

05. White Lilies Island - Natalie Imbruglia
04. Arular - M.I.A.
03. Tangled Up - Girls Aloud
02. Warm Strangers - Vienna Teng

01. Speak For Yourself - Imogen Heap

TOP 50 TRACKS FROM 2000-2009

50. Hairy Trees - Goldfrapp
49. It's Magic - Girls Aloud
48. Vision One - Röyksopp
47. Not Gonna Get Us - t.A.T.u.
46. Set the Fire to the Third Bar - Snow Patrol feat. Martha Wainwright
45. New World - Björk
44. La Tortura - Shakira
43. Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
42. I Want Your Soul - Armand van Helden
41. Memory of You - Girls Aloud
40. Hello Heartbreak - Michelle Williams
39. Spies - Coldplay
38. Zap Zap - Cut Copy
37. Don't Get You - Sneaky Sound System
36. My Medea - Vienna Teng
35. Overload - Sugababes
34. Black Coffee - All Saints
33. Let Me Know - Róisín Murphy
32. Shower Scene - Saint Etienne
31. We Need A Resolution - Aaliyah
30. Röyksopp's Night Out - Röyksopp
29. Sound of the Underground - Girls Aloud
28. Like a Boy - Ciara
27. This Boy's In Love - The Presets
26. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

25. Be Without You - Mary J. Blige
24. What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani
23. State of Mind - Holly Valance
22. Say It Right - Nelly Furtado
21. Cry Me a River - Justin Timberlake
20. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - Florence + the Machine
19. Hurt - Christina Aguilera
18. The Walk - Imogen Heap
17. Leave the Others Alone - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
16. Hope There's Someone - Antony and the Johnsons
15. Sophia - Nerina Pallot
14. Hung Up - Madonna
13. Irvine - Kelly Clarkson
12. Stan - Eminem feat. Dido
11. Our Velocity - Maximo Park

10. Empire - Kasabian
09. 1 Thing - Amerie
08. Being Nobody - Richard X vs Liberty X
07. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire
06. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys

05. Crazy in Love - Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z
04. Biology - Girls Aloud
03. Embrace - Pnau feat. Ladyhawke
02. Black and Gold - Sam Sparro

01. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse

And there you have it.]]> Top 25 Albums of 2009 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/01/03/3b6a80_top_25_albums_of_2009 Sun, 3 Jan 2010 23:42:37 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2010/01/03/3b6a80_top_25_albums_of_2009 25. Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
24. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
23. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
22. Dan Deacon - Bromst
21. Shakira - She Wolf
20. Paloma Faith - Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?
19. The Veronicas - Hook Me Up
18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
17. Datarock - Red
16. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
15. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
14. Jack Peñate - Everything Is New
13. The xx - xx
12. Annie - Don't Stop (and All Night EP)
11. Vienna Teng - Inland Territory

10. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
These French indiepop personages have been around for a fair few years, but 2009 seemed to be when they finally broke-through and hit the hype lists big time. And with good reason. The title makes sense when you get to the majestic Love Like a Sunset, the epically-constructed two-track centrepiece which uses computer bleeps and growling guitars to build into a delicate, powerful percussion piece, with a vocal and guitar finale which is hard to come down from. But the album flits between flourishing exuberance (those crowing vocals!) and heavier beats with robust ease, and it's really just a pleasure to have in your ears.
Essential track: Rome

09. Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill
From the violent, strident opening Dragonette make it clear that they've still got their attitude, and they've jazzed it up a bit with some headbanging, some banjo, some enormous eyewear. Martina's unmistakable vowels lord over the jagged electropop, swirling into some unexpectedly tender moments, especially in the album's final stretches, which take a while to match up to the stylistic bursts of the rest but eventually reveal themselves to be up to the pace. Thrilling stuff.
Essential track: Stupid Grin

08. Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure
Like, as the opening tracks says, swimming through a blue lagoon. Shapiro's thin vocals lilt over the gossamer italo-disco production as synths zoom around her head. At least that's the image produced here. It's music to listen to just before the dawn breaks, as ghostly tinges of light streak across a black sky. Oh, I'm being all romantic. It's what this does to me, makes me want to kiss on a heath below the twinkling stars.
Essential track: Moonlight Dance

07. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (and Fall Be Kind - EP)
The internet lost its shit over Animal Collective this year and their unpredictable, delightful merging of rock with synths, particularly potent on the singles My Girls and Summertime Clothes with their several enormously catchy hooks spread across some field of psychadelica. Add the Fall Be Kind EP to the mix and you see them step it up even further - perhaps a tad more impenetrable, but equally layered and textured in the smooth, enrapturing sounds.
Essential track: Summertime Clothes

06. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
The undispitable popstar of the year, Lady GaGa's reissue of her debut album was so good they ended up releasing it as it's own album. It's impossible not to see why. She retains the pop hooks of The Fame but embues them with a darker, denser feel - how many layers of sounds are there on these tracks? - that seems to have led from Paparazzi and its famous VMAs performance. It isn't flawless - sticking the ballad Speechless midway through rather disrupts the intensity - but as a collection of songs and a hint of what may be to come, it's immense.
Essential track: Dance in the Dark

05. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Rising like a ghostly apparition, Bat for Lashes' second album keeps the haunting, echoing feel of her debut but deepens it, becomes even more immersed in the dark recesses of the night. It's utterly compulsive, an album full of rich imagery and bewitching lyricism, all tied together with Natasha Khan's magnificently straining vocals that feel as much of an instrument as all the drums and bells and strings around her. Utterly gorgeous in its unnerving majesty.
Essential track: Two Planets

04. Antigone - Antigoneland
Like some kind of magnificent peacock, Antigone's feathers come to intoxicating, beguiling flourish from the very start of her ridiculously underheard debut album. Her voice is a rich well of different sounds, from the plaintive, playful self-reflection on Promiscuity to the deathly screaming middle-8 of Into Your Head. And the music... a dense variety of delicious pop hooks and electronic swizzling that twists in and out of the equally bizarre vocals. It sounds weird, and it is, but it's still hugely accessible, because it's very, very good.
Essential track: Mirror

03. Röyksopp - Junior
A majesty of electronica. From the joyful, bouncing opening it seagues into a dark, swirling world of heavy beats and light bleeps backed by flourishing orchestration, employing a variety of rich female vocalists to make the music really soar. On Vision One the lyrical depth makes itself apparent, but where the album's power lies truly seems to lie is in the fragility of Anneli Drecker's haunting vocals on three tracks, and in Röyksopp's innate sense of the beauty possible within a synth.
Essential track: Vision One

02. Rihanna - Rated R
Who expected this? Rihanna bounced back from that infamous incident neither obsessing over or ignoring it - it's there, in the background, infusing the tracklisting with an extra power, but it isn't strictly necessary. Rated R has Rihanna proving why she has become a global superstar. The feel shifts between fierce attitude and delicate fragility, but it all coheres somehow, feeling as if it all comes from this one woman, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, a woman we feel we know better but we really don't know at all. What's truth and what's pretence? Is this all a fiction, rated R? And does it even matter, really, when the songs on display are as ingenious in their melodies and lyrics as so many of these are? No, it isn't flawless. But neither is Rihanna, and that's why she has become the woman we see before us, no matter how true that image is.
Essential track: Cold Case Love

01. Florence + the Machine - Lungs
This year, Florence Welch swept me off my feet. How could she not, with that billowing yell of a voice? She could knock anyone over with a mere breath if it pleased her. It's most certainly the centrepiece of her stunning debut. It wails powerfully over the cacophony of harps and drums that create the bewitching world of Lungs. It's something that you can either buy into, her flourishing vocal tics, the flushing harp strings, the dancing tambourines, or push away, but Florence is one of those artists who seem to have been made especially for me. I immediately lost myself in the spacial beauty of Cosmic Love, the angry vitriol of Girl With One Eye, the frenetic angst of Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up). It feels intensely personal; both to Florence, and to me. I've lived this album this year, and so it could hardly fail to be my favourite album of the year.
Essential track: Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)]]> Top 100 Singles of 2009 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2009/12/23/39ptg4_top_100_singles_of_2009 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:15:07 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2009/12/23/39ptg4_top_100_singles_of_2009 As last year; done by British release date, plus probably some odd logic of my own that you'll never understand because I don't either.

100. Halo - Beyoncé
99. Heavy Cross - Gossip
98. Fire - Kasabian
97. Paddling Ghost - Dan Deacon
96. In for the Kill - La Roux
95. Pick Up the Phone - Dragonette
94. Too Fake - Hockey
93. Stone Cold Sober - Paloma Faith
92. Dressed to Kill - Preston
91. Hush Hush; Hush Hush - The Pussycat Dolls
90. Work (feat. Missy Elliott) - Ciara
89. Pull My Heart Away - Jack Peñate
88. When I Grow Up - Fever Ray
87. Revolver (feat. Lil Wayne) - Madonna
86. Happy Up Here - Röyksopp
85. Damaris - Patrick Wolf
84. Heartbreaker (feat. John Legend) - MSTRKRFT
83. One Month Off - Bloc Party
82. Brother Sport - Animal Collective
81. Crying Lightning - Arctic Monkeys
80. Skeleton Boy - Friendly Fires
79. Morning After Dark (Feat. SoShy & Nelly Furtado) - Timbaland
78. Drumming Song - Florence + the Machine
77. One More Chance - Bloc Party
76. Pearl's Dream - Bat for Lashes
75. Want - Natalie Imbruglia
74. Blue Skies - Noah and the Whale
73. Pump My Pumps - Dan Black
72. Tonight's Today - Jack Peñate
71. Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) - The Pussycat Dolls
70. Remedy - Little Boots
69. Dominos - The Big Pink
68. Heartless - Kanye West
67. Obsessions - Marina & the Diamonds
66. Bad Boys (feat. Flo Rida) - Alexandra Burke
65. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
64. S.O.S (Let The Music Play) - Jordin Sparks
63. I Wish - Mini Viva
62. To Kingdom Come - Passion Pit
61. Did It Again - Shakira
60. Get It Right - Yas
59. Hard Times - Patrick Wolf
58. Love In July - Sally Shapiro
57. Ghost 'n' Stuff (feat. Rob Swire) - deadmau5
56. Audacity Of Huge (feat. Chris Keating) - Simian Mobile Disco
55. Seven - Fever Ray
54. Untouched - The Veronicas
53. Bulletproof - La Roux
52. The Spell - Alphabeat
51. Honey in the Sun - Camera Obscura
50. Basic Space - The xx
49. Standing on the Shore - Empire of the Sun
48. Counterpoint - Delphic
47. Strawberry Swing - Coldplay
46. Anthonio - Annie
45. I'm Not Alone - Calvin Harris
44. Gold Digger - The Dolly Rockers
43. Kiss Of Life - Friendly Fires
42. Poker Face - Lady Gaga
41. Russian Roulette - Rihanna
40. Be The One - Jack Peñate
39. Give It Up - Datarock
38. Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
37. Miracle - Sally Shapiro
36. This Must Be It - Röyksopp
35. Shark in the Water - VV Brown
34. Crystalised - The xx
33. I Am Not a Robot - Marina & the Diamonds
32. The Pretender - Datarock
31. Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
30. New York - Paloma Faith
29. Bodies - Robbie Williams
28. 3 Words (feat. will.i.am) - Cheryl Cole
27. The Girl and the Robot (feat. Robyn) - Röyksopp
26. Method of Modern Love - Saint Etienne
25. When Love Takes Over (feat. Kelly Rowland) - David Guetta
24. Daniel - Bat for Lashes
23. Relator - Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
22. Left My Heart In Tokyo - Mini Viva
21. Promiscuity - Antigone
20. Sweet Dreams - Beyoncé
19. Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) - Jay-Z
18. My Girls - Animal Collective
17. Songs Remind Me of You - Annie
16. Under the Sheets - Ellie Goulding
15. Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) - Jay-Z
14. Flashback - Calvin Harris
13. Triangle Walks - Fever Ray
12. The Fear - Lily Allen
11. Magic - Ladyhawke
10. We Are the People - Empire of the Sun
09. Welcome To Heartbreak - Kanye West
08. Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
07. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
06. Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective
05. Fixin To Thrill - Dragonette
04. Release Me - Agnes
03. Mowgli's Road - Marina & the Diamonds
02. She Wolf - Shakira
01. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - Florence + the Machine

EDIT (09/04/10):
Egregious omissions from this list, for a variety of reasons, in ascending order of favourability:
Fight for This Love - Cheryl Cole
Battlefield - Jordin Sparks
Styfling (feat. Siobhan Donaghy) - Square 1
No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
Somebody to Love (feat. Robin Thicke) - Leighton Meester

And one other song which currently escapes me - I'm sure it will come to me just before I fall asleep.]]> My Top Ten Most-Played Albums (On My Laptops) http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2009/08/28/2z0ac0_my_top_ten_most-played_albums_(on_my_laptops) Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:51:17 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/dwupton1/journal/2009/08/28/2z0ac0_my_top_ten_most-played_albums_(on_my_laptops) Disclaimer: does not necessarily reflect my favourite albums (hence the lack of commentary other than this) and is inevitably heavily slanted towards recent years. However, as a reflection of those recent years, it's really quite accurate. As you might expect.

dwupton1's top albums (overall)
1. Girls Aloud - Tangled Up (1002)
2. Florence and The Machine - Lungs (576)
3. Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor (560)
4. Girls Aloud - Out of Control (497)
5. Girls Aloud - Chemistry (474)
6. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours (473)
7. Nelly Furtado - Loose (445)
8. Santogold - Santogold (437)
9. Röyksopp - Junior (437)
10. Róisín Murphy - Overpowered (405)

Top albums generator
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