Trotter's Top Ten Singles of 2010

Unlike most years, I seriously think that singles have been far better this year than albums.  Now if you're in agreement with Radiohead you'll put that down to the bitesize nature of downloads killing off the long player as a format, or you might just think meh, just not a brilliant year.  Singles on the other hand have been glorious, and not in the traditional R&B and pop genres as such.  This was the first year where practically since January I haven't had a clue what was Number One in the charts and started to look at the names of artists and take on an elderly person's view 'What sort of name is Kesha?  Tinchy Stryder sounds like a personal trainer app,  Roll Deep?  Taio Cruz?'.  Even they much-hyped Lady Gaga is little more than a glorified clothes horse - if only her music was as innovative as she and her 'little monsters' think it is!

Anyway, that gripe aside, 2010 also saw a few well-established bands releasing some of the best stuff of their careers - The Futureheads 'Heartbeat Song' with its northeast inflected 'rhythm and the tone' and We Are Scientists 'Nice Guys' with one of the funniest vids of the year.  Then there was The Xx 'Islands' with definitely the best marriage of music and visuals in 2010 and new boys The Vaccines 'Wrecking Bar (Ra Ra Ra)' the most fun 1:22 any of us will have this year; Kings of Leon 'Radioactive' with its 'Cannonball' aping intro and er...video that has to been seen to be believed!  Biffy Clyro 'Many of Horror' making good use of Battersea Power Station and Plan B 'Stay Too Long' which to be honest he probably has, but still gave us the immortal line 'I go through a door and suddenly I find myself somewhere' - yes Benjamin, that's how they work.

Nods too to Delphic 'Doubt', Everything Everything 'MY KZ, UR BF', Yeasayer 'O.N.E.', Foals 'Spanish Sahara' and The National 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' all of whom made it easier for me by releasing cracking albums as well.

But those good tunes aren't in the Top Ten - these are.  Click on the name of the track for the video.  There's a Spotify playlist of these and more besides at the end if you want to skip all this verbiage and go straight to the tunage.

Number Ten

'Tenderoni' by Kele

UK Chart high : Number 31 in June

It was clear from where Bloc Party were heading that there was a frustrated dance music fiend bursting to get out, so much so that most of their recent output has been fairly poor - being neither Martha or Arthur.  Singers going solo and self-indilgently 'exploring new genres' can also rank up there in career decisions with Adrian Chiles moving to 'Daybreak'.  Thankfully Kele's first solo single escaped those pitfalls and was a very convincing effort challenging (and sounding similar to) Wiley in the grimey dance stakes.  It also gave Kele a chance to dance with his top off, a far cry from the shy, stuttering indie-kid of old and making him the second best Kele in chart history behind Kele Le Roc.

Number 9

'Radar Detector' by Darwin Deez

UK Chart high : Number 62 in April

Bizarrely this has just come on MTV2's 'Ultimate Tracks of 2010' as I write, which is quite a coincidence if you ask me, but doesn't really tell you much about the track.  'Radar Detector' is a slab of absolute sunshine, innocent, sweet, young and in love with a kookie, charming video to match from the title track cut out in waffle letters at the start, the camera hats, ice lolly/toothbrush to the boy and girl walking off into the 'sunset' at the end.  You can sum it up neatly with the line 'You and I go shopping and find exactly what we're looking for'.  Lo-fi in every respect this still has as big a heart as you're likely to find this year and you'll be singing the line 'you are a radar detector' over and over again.

Number 8

'Do Wah Doo' by Kate Nash

UK Chart high : Number 15 in April

I feel rather sorry for Mrs Cribs right now, being classic victim of the music industry's 'next big thing, let's rush-release your debut album...er, now we're tired of you and you don't fit the market' approach.  Now that the literal 'I'm sitting here having a cup of tea' lyrical school is out of favour she seems to be held completely responsible for it.  As a result this surefire number one didn't even get into the UK Top Ten.  That's a complete shame as you'll not find a better sounding Shangri-La mimicking single all year with its sorry tale of people's perceptions where 'everyone thinks she's a bit of alright, but I think that she's not so nice'.  The video shows Kate's also got an eye for comedy so expect her to appear on 'Miranda' soon if the music lark fails.

Number 7

'Five Trees' by Chapel Club

UK Chart high : Did not chart

Enough of these poppy soloists let's get back to noisy indie-kids shall we.  To be honest it was a toss up between including this track and another of Chapel Club's 2010 releases 'O Maybe I' both of which are equally fine and bode extremely well for their debut album in January that I'm already looking forward to muchly.  I went for 'Five Trees' purely on the basis that it was louder and a little less like The Smiths than the other one, but do check them both out.  Coming across like Ian McCulloch fronting MBV, lead singer Lewis is a frontman that uses the less-is-more technique - calmly standing amongst the chaos, leaving his bandmates to throw the rock-star (Suede-esque) shapes while he just stares into your soul.  I haven't a clue what 'Five trees with stars at their crown' actually refers to, but it sounds nice doesn't it.  Here's hoping for a much higher profile 2011.

Number 6

'1901' by Phoenix

UK Chart high : Did not chart 

Soooo, this had been around for a while apparently, released as a free download in 2009 prior to their album 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' which worked so well as an album title I kept referring to them as Wolfgang for most of the year.  Despite that, it was officially released in 2010 and was such a big hit in the States after being used in ads that if you bought a car in 2010 it was probably because this long-standing French band had subliminally told you to.  I've resisted the urge to buy a cadillac so far (other makes of car are available) but fell in love with this song from first seeing the video with its hypnotically effective light show.  From the opening buzzy keyboard intro to the spiky guitars through to the catchy as anything chorus you can see why this was an ad execs wet dream.  Now if you'll excuse me, I feel an urge to look through Exchange and Mart.

Number 5

'Bang Bang Bang' by Mark Ronson and The Business Intl

UK Chart high : Number 6 in July

Yes Mark Ronson gets a fair amount of stick, some deservedly - including his awful hosting on NMTBC this year complete with Margi Clarke hairstyle.  But that aside, 'Bang Bang Bang' is probably his finest moment.  No doubt Amy Winehouse is accessing her Twitter account right now.  I think it was the leap from 'big band covers of indie hits' to this that really took me by surprise and how well a job he does of fitting a space-age sounding, French folk song quoting, guest-rapping dance floor filler into four minutes.  That's an achievement by anyone's standards!  The star of the show is Q-Tip who oozes effortless cool with his laconic delivery and who really needs to run for President.  The folk song is even more bizarre considering it's about catching and plucking a chicken - 'Je te plumerai la tete' happily being sung in the chorus (i.e. 'I will cut off your head').  Strangely, nation's favourite (tm) Cheryl Cole also used these lyrics but not to quite the same effect - presumably she was referring to Ashley though.  Bonus points should also be given for managing to have a black rapper sing 'Bang Bang Bang' without making the front page of the Daily Mail.

Number 4

'Get Outta My Way' by Kylie Minogue

UK Chart high : Number 12 in September

We couldn't really have a Top Ten without a slice of shimmering gay-glo pop now could we?  Coming back on the scene with 'All the Lovers' was all well and good, even if the video did seem to infer that our Kyles had rather a full little black book!  'Get Outta My Way' is another Stuart Price production number that Kylie seems to strike gold with more often than not (Madge take note).  Its premise might be a tad flawed - Kylie's squeeze isn't paying her enough attention so she is threatening to go out and find someone else to make him jealous - so it's probably not based on experience.  But nevertheless you won't find as great a disco-fuelled anthem this year to threaten your better half with.  And I want a pair of those flourescent light gloves off Santa.

Number 3

'Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)' by The Wombats

UK Chart high : Number 23 in October

First off we'll excuse them for the shameless Twilight-tapping market ploy of having vampires and wolves in the song title.  I've had a soft spot for The Wombats ever since 'Moving to New York' as it's something wouldn't mind doing meself, so knowing their comeback tune was going to be called 'Tokyo' got me interested in exactly the same way.  If their next song is called 'Newcastle upon Tyne' they'll have bagged a hat-trick.  Quite often humourous bands seem the first to crack under the strain of the rockstar lifestyle (The Darkness anyone?) but never do they make such an upbeat corker of a tune whilst bemoaning the machinations of the record industry and the hedonistic grind of touring the world.  Until now that is.  Also they employ the underused 'ah-ah-ah' sound last heard on Pet Shop Boys' 'Heartbeat' and Nu Shooz' 'I Can't Wait' to great effect.  Warning: this vid contains scenes of club mascots rutting in a Japanese toilet.

Number 2

'It's Not War (Just the End of Love) by Manic Street Preachers

UK Chart high : Number 28 in September

Let's face it, serious bands of longstanding might well come up with a decent album or a good tune long into their careers, but they very rarely make great singles again - being far too mature and serious to go for that sort of gubbins.  Thankfully, the Manics are always keen to buck the trend and that they do on 'It's Not War...'.  They deliberately went for the mainstream jugular with this first single from their new album, following their previous effort which saw them use the last of Richie's lyrics on such daytime tv friendly tracks as 'Jackie Collins Existential Question Time' and 'She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach'...and now over to Alan Titchmarsh.  So this year we have 'Design for Life'-evoking strings and guitars on their best tune for ages.  Brilliant video too - I never would have put Anna Friel and Michael Sheen down as hot couple material, but their you go.  And genius Welsh flag placement at 2:58 too.

Number 1

'Acapella' by Kelis

UK Chart High : Number 5 in April

Stunning and quite possibly the best single since [the track I'm not giving away because that'll be Number One in my Top Fifty Singles of the Noughties countdown in the new year].  Whilst Gaga took all the headlines, Kelis slipped back into the limelight in a no-nonsense fashion with the best track in years - remarkably good considering David Guetta was the producer.  In parts Donna Summer and Grace Jones (and echoed in the bizarre costumes in the video) 'Acapella' demands you take notice from when the very first dirty beat kicks in.  It's one of those tunes you can see 'credible' rock bands ironically covering but actually making worse in years to come.  It has that trick of being universal and able to have meaning to anyone.  So the line 'Before you my whole life was acapella, now a symphony's the only song to sing' could be about God, her child, a partner, heck it could be about a cat or your love of chocolate for all it matters.  The point is that this is a damn classic and a great way to end 2010.  As the song explores - where would we be without decent music, eh?

Listen to the Top Ten Singles of 2010 and a few more besides on Spotify