Live Music News & Reviews

It’s the time of year when critics get to indulge their love of lists by compiling their top albums and singles of the year. We’re going to join in by listing our top 10 songs of the year, followed shortly by our top ten albums of the year and a summary of the critics’ choice. First, singles:

10. Hercules and Love Affair: Blind. guest vocals from Antony Hegarty and a great trumpet hook, this song stays just the right side of catchy/cheesy.

9. TV On The Radio: Golden Age. Not even the best song on the superb Dear Science album, but still a stunning piece of Prince-esque funk complete with strings and brass.

8. Radiohead: Jigsaw Falling Into Place. In Rainbows is a superb album and this track stands out as being more uptempo than its surrounding tracks. Great acoustic guitar intro.

7. Last Shadow Puppets: Standing Next To Me. Great acoustic guitar rhythm with a superb violin hook on this simple but very catchy song with great vocals. Some criticized The Last Shadow Puppets for being just too similar to Scott Walker, but they have never hidden their respect for Walker, and who cares anyway when the tunes are this good? Taken from the equally excellent Age of the Understatement album, the video is as rooted in the 60s as the song. Favourite Worst Nightmare bettered Whatever People Say I am That’s What I’m not, and now Alex Turner goes and does this. He gets better and better.

6. Oasis: I’m Outta Time. Oasis with a single of the year? In 2008? Whilst Dig Out Your Soul was hailed as a major return to form for Oasis, the album soon ran out of steam about five songs in. Pretty much after this song actually - a lovely Liam-penned ballad. Ok it sounds a bit like Real Life, the long lost Beatles song that was dug out for the Anthology series in the 90s (and which The Beatles didn’t even consider good enough to finish at the time), but to hear Liam actually recognise his own mortality is quite startling, and this song has something about it that makes listening to it very satisfying. It’s a groove.

5. Soul on Fire: Spiritualized. A great chorus combined with fragile vocals make this one of the most shameless heartstring-tugging songs of the year. This is the kind of song only Spiritualized can get away with (although Blur’s Tender was a good effort) and they do it brilliantly here, complete with Gospel choir. Singing along to this at Green Man was one of our highlights of the year.

4. Hot Chip: Ready for the Floor. A fine single from the slightly underwhelming Made in the Dark LP, which surpasses even Over and Over as a tune. Played live the song was beefed up but the studio version is nicely understated.  

3. MGMT: Time To Pretend: 2008 will go down as belonging to Brooklyn’s MGMT. From two triumphant shows at Glastonbury to the year’s most memorable singles in Kids, Electric Feel and Time To Pretend, to one of the most talked about albums in Oracular Spectacular and a unique double in best album and best single in the NME’s review of the year. This is the pick of their singles for me - the hook was at first annoying but it gets stuck in your head and becomes impossible to remove - luckily the lyrics actually mean something and what’s more they’re optimistic.

2. Neon Neon featuring Cate Le Bon: I Lust You. This single announced Neon Neon as a worthy side project. It sounds so 80’s you almost expect Roland Rat to pop up with a guest rap, so few points for originality, although the fact it came from a concept album based on the life of John DeLorean makes up for that. That and the fact it’s a great tune.

1. American Boy: Estelle featuring Kanye West. This year’s Hey Ya! This year’s Crazy. We couldn’t stop listening to this song. Cheesy lyrics maybe but a superb tune and a great rap break from Kanye “Dressed smart like a London bloke”. Guaranteed to make people get up and dance.