While we’ve given you plenty of editorial on our albums of the year (50-41, 40-31,30-21, 20-16, 15-11, 10-7. 6-4 3-1), we’re keeping it simple with this list of what releases our gaggle of writers collectively voted their singles of 2009. How did we reach this list, I hear you cry? May I hand over to our trusty friend, Excel Guru, who was last seen pre-ambling our top 50 albums end-of-year thingamejig:

“Everyone sent in a top 10 list and the 50 singles with the most nominations were collected; tie-breaks were decided by how high up those lists the songs were. Then everyone chose 10 ordered singles from the list of 50 and they were ranked using the same criteria as the album poll.”

Make no mistake either; these were all released as singles and not just hand-picked as our writers’ favourite tracks from albums. And it’s interesting to note that of these 50, 28 were from long-players (or not from LPs at all) that didn’t feature in our top 50 albums of the year, chosen by the very same gaggle of writers.

The radio-friendliness/commercial success of many of these singles forms an interesting near-dichotomy with our albums synopsis too. Are we spoon-fed by different channels when it comes to singles? Or does that awful notion of ‘guilty pleasure’ prevail (the amount of justification for some of our writers including Lady GaGa in their list said it all – and that’s honest), where it’s somehow more permissible to enjoy a Dizzee Rascal one-track than an album?

Of course it could just be that these tracks are stand-outs, but I fear a greater sub-text even within our own ranks. We’ll continue to cover singles because without that, there’s a great fear that the early falling-in-love-with stage of discovering an artist will dilute entirely.

And on that contemplative note, here’s our list:

1       Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
2       Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
3       Bat For Lashes – Daniel
4       Wild Beasts – All The Kings Men
5       The Horrors – Sea Within A Sea
6       Animal Collective – My Girls
7       HEALTH – Die Slow
8       The XX – Islands
9       Animal Collective – Brother Sport
10      Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone
11      The XX – Crystalised
12      Camera Obscura – French Navy
13      Phoenix – 1901
14      Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is In The Move
15      Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
16      Casiokids – Verdens Störste Land / Fot I Hose
17      Blue Roses – I Am Leaving  / Moments Before Sleep
18      La Roux – In For The Kill (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix)
19      Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
20      Lady Gaga – Paparazzi
21      The Big Pink – Velvet
22      Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
23      Muse – Uprising
24      Future of The Left – Arming Eritrea
25      The Cribs – Cheat On Me
26      Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers
27      Lily Allen – The Fear
28      Kasabian – Underdog
29      Brand New – At The Bottom
30      Burial/Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Club
31      Girls – Lust For Life
32      Regina Spektor – Laughing With / Blue Lips
33      The Prodigy – Omen
34      Sunset Rubdown – Idiot Heart
35      The Big Pink – Dominos
36      Noisettes – Never Forget You
37      Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
38      tUnE-yArDs – Hatari
39      Emmy The Great – First Love
40      Pulled Apart By Horses – I Punched A Lion In The Throat
41      Patrick Wolf – Hard Times
42      The Maccabees – No Kind Words
43      Jay-Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West – Run This Town
44      The Twilight Sad – I Became A Prostitute
45      Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule
46      Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer
47      Gold Panda – Quitters Raga
48      Editors – Papillon
49      O.Children – Dead Disco Dancer
50      Paramore – Decode

Here is a Spotify playlist featuring 41 of the 50 singles. Run along and have a listen, why don’t you.

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

As a companion piece to our 50-1 countdown that hit the internet gradually over the past couple of weeks (check the top three and work backwards), I’ve decided to do this piece on my own personal top 20. First person writing, the chance to eschew writing as voice of a consensus – my very own top albums of 2009 as some sort of deeper representation of what this here site’s all about.

The order is very loose, and I guess based on factors such as how and how much I enjoyed them. I could probably put these albums in a tombola, get them out re-ordered and still call it a fair representation of my year. That said, the top five would have to be the top five, and in that order. They are five incredible albums that have added a next-level fever to this year.

And a special mention should also go to the following, who just missed out on the list: Sian Alice Group’s Troubled, Shaken Etc, Tortoise’s Beacons Of Ancestorship, Bill Callahan’s Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, Extradition Order’s Since The Bomb Dropped, Annie’s Don’t Stop, Fuck Buttons‘ Tarot Sport.

In short, it’s been a phenomenal year. Now here they are…

20. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer: Spencer Krug’s genius knew no bounds as Sunset Rubdown’s third album loosened up and toned down the private narrative quota. Yet more of that layered-thought stuff Krug’d become such a master of mixed with deliberately child-like turns of phrase, AND we got given the most impossible not to dance to track of the year in ‘Idiot Heart’. An instructive triumph.
Position in writers’ top 50: #18

19. Fever Ray – Fever Ray: Karin Dreijer Andersson’s hermetic wall got strengthened further still as her Fever Ray persona all-out succeeded at creating an arcane cloud of vocal manipulation and dense electronica. So static was this self-titled record in its chimes and drones that the claustrophobia felt like a letting go. The sounds were plaintive and jarring, fitting the themes of disconnection and debilitation like hand-in-glove.
Position in writers’ top 50: #4

18. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains: The wildest experimentation hid deftly behind a heart of ’90s U.S. college rock on this impressively-developed debut album. Its variation never felt overblown as noises posed as hooks and dichotomies were linked together with lengthy passages of of arpeggial cacophony. Seamless ebb and flow between the gaps bridged this album into the mainstream, only briefly disguising Cymbals Eat Guitars’ world-sized ambition.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

17. The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love: Based on an interpretation of the title of an Anne Briggs (lost folk singer from the ’60s and ’70s) EP, this ruddy ridiculous 17-track extravaganza was put together as, yes, you heard: a concept rock opera. The homicidal rake, the choir for revenge-seeking undead kids, the psychotic queen – they were all here. I’m still playing catch up with their garrulous fantasy, happily revelling in its exulted pomp.
Position in writers’ top 50: #32

16. tUnE-yArDs – BiRd-BrAiNs: Recorded on a digital tape recorder but by no means lo-fi in scope, tribal drums and ukulele loops formed the backbone of a record hissing with charm and clattered snippets of tribal drumming. Merrill Garbus’ (approx.) 26-octave range combined with rhythms attacking from all corners and oddly, it felt like a giant cohesive whole. Relying heavily on looping imperfect takes of each part into the polyphony, BiRd-BrAiNs possessed an improbable, one-off charm.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

15. Blue Roses – Blue Roses: The perfect soprano of Laura Groves, the fragile melodies, the warm thumb piano, the rapturous passages of choral melisma, the occasional twinkling xylophone – these were the reasons why Blue Roses’ beauty didn’t feel trapped by conventional boundaries of structure and harmony. Uneasy suspensions built up, descending scales and ascending sequences were sung, and I became enraptured.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

14. The Horrors – Primary Colours: This was a remarkable album of pitch-bending darkness cutting iconoclastic outlines, with 2009’s finest out-and-out frontman at its core. The hype died down as Geoff Barrow came in to make The Horrors’ second album a revelation of whizzing keyboards, Germanic screaming, hypnotic basslines, spiralling rhythms and giant crescendos. And I’ve still not a clue what they’re on about. Do they? It’s a moot point.
Position in writers’ top 50: #7

13. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: There’s no wonder I fell so hard for a record combining the sounds of my favourite indiepop, C86 and dancefloor-bothering shoegaze bands. TPOBPAH danced through the mopery with such panache, bringing a sub-scene crashing into 2009 with an endless stream of precise and fuzzy twee anthems lucky enough to have Kip and Peggy’s sweet, nerdy vocals sat right at the heart.
Position in writers’ top 50: #8

12. The Clientele – Bonfires On The Heath: Capping off a period of almost exactly nine years after the release of Suburban Light, The Clientele’s breathy, ingratiating sound found its resolve with the addition of purring Spanish guitar lines, warm brass and a teasing sitar. The lyrics were as pictorial as ever, MacLean’s cogitative words conjuring up vivid imagery of clothes-stealing rhododendrons, characters solitarily traversing autumnal scenes. This was a great band doing what they do best: dreamy, romantic poesy with just the right amount of space to take it all in.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

11. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career: Whether jubilant to be sad or sad to be jubilant, the simple phrasing cut just where it hurt. The Glaswegians’ mix of indelible sadness and celebration was approached in a more poised fashion than their illustrious output had previously seen, making this LP their finest yet. Surging string arrangements and extravagantly lush production made each glorious catharsis all the more hard to take, only increasing my desire to be take the Traceyanne Campbell fangirling to a whole new level and do the obvious – give her a hug.
Position in writers’ top 50: #19

10. Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor: Funded by the fans, this record was an artistic ceremony. Each inch sounded so desperate to impress that it was a pass or fail mission – but fear not, for its perpetrator  concentrated so hard with such determined lyrics that it was to go no way other than a massive pass. The orchestral arrangements were pinpointed to each emotion, and Wolf’s interplay with interpretations of techno-pop and Celtic folk sounded like a homecoming, a personal revolution.
Position in writers’ top 50: #29

9. The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method: I’m not going to lie here: I’m no a cricket fan. It was the idea of this album that I loved, how sprightly and geeky it sounded. I temporarily became simple as the in-jokes rang out. “Always denied entry by the English gentry/now we’re riding Bentleys playing Twenty20″ they said, and I was filled with an untainted joy that led me to fleeting hour-long Wikipedia trails, teaching myself the idiosyncrasies of cricket. The idea of Hannon and Walsh spewing this gem out for jokes made it all the more addictive.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

8. Micachu and The Shapes – Jewellery: Mica Levi’s distinctive vocals and cohesive, fluff-free experimentation created an album of all-encompassing, neatly plastered together joy.  And I’ll bet my Spotify Premium subscription that Levi’s knowledge and desire to listen to everything was the background to her simultaneously attention-grabbing, attention-shirking debut. That it wasn’t a rumpus for its ambition goes by the wayside. Congratulations, Micachu.
Position in writers’ top 50: #17

7. YACHT – See Mystery Lights: Cryptic, skittering and even comical computer beats set the pace for this hedonistic record released on the ever-excellent DFA imprint. I’d never heard an album sound so wired yet chock-full of ridiculous hooks – the cabalistic minute-long build-up on ‘Summer Song’ offers the perfect snapshot. Simple basslines sat under disaffected vocals, and it sounded like an underwater party. Maybe if YACHT were around a few thousand years ago they’d now be as popular as religion?
Position in writers’ top 50: #48

6. The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules: Coming out too early in the year for it to be remembered (or so I choose to believe), Erlend Øye’s latest outing revelled in a fragile and introspective groove. With dance anthems waiting to escape (’High On The Heels’, ‘Courage’) playing equal part to in-a-corner think-outs (’Island’, ‘Intentions’), irresistibly smooth vamps symbolised the quietness craved in spite of Øye’s emotional turmoil. It sounded seasoned, like a weathered voice of self-absorption.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

5. The Puddle - The Shakespeare Monkey: New Zealand’s The Puddle have been making music for 25 years, this album again completely slipping by the wayside. It featured, as ever, a sweet, shambling and velvety delivery meandering a well-read path of topics including infinite probability and human frailty. The polite/angry dichotomy of the guitar-playing reminded me of bands not often recalled like Galaxie 500, The Go-Betweens and Sebadoh. This album was lyric art of the wonkiest indiepop variety, a perfect set of reedy, well-worn literacy.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

4. St Vincent – Actor: Annie Clark’s rowdy prog-pop songs travelled to unexpected places by creating distinct and developed characters. Their numbed emotions were accurately reflected in the sympathetic production, and as the actors’ façades piled on top of each other, their own insecurities came gleaming through. Heavy guitars interspersed the glimmer in between that uniquely plush drollness as the listener became Clark’s foil, a helpless bit-part in the affair.
Position in writers’ top 50: #16

3. The XX – XX: An uncertain record sung as a one-on-one confession or an awkward late-night reveal with probably as many silences as notes, it was unclear whether XX was as stripped-back as being about a sexless sex, an intangible resolve that never came, or something else entirely. We’ll never know. But should it have been monikered ‘brave’ for its starkness? Remarkably not, as the xx’s influences seemed to be so incidental. This band’s exploration happened right before our eyes, in the dark and through a tiny crack in the door. An oh so welcome addition to trendsetters’ Things To Tack Onto And Learn From.
Position in writers’ top 50: #2

2) Lights – Rites: Lights’ endearingly schizoid personality made for an astonishingly sexy stoner record with killer slap-bass, cathartic guitars, soaring triply-dubbed harmonies and fuzzed-up dual vocals from Sophia Knapp and Linnea Vedder. It was an intense listen for sure, ranging from heavy and woozy to escapist and Italo disco-evoking in parts, impossible to find a centre in. The vocals cracked and disappeared into ambiance sometimes before gloopy acid-rock took over, at other times a quiet funk. In spite of the lack of centre, the jubilation was just so euphoric; its knack for creating this real, multi-faceted persona left me baffled as to why it didn’t become more popular than the ultra-cult secret it shamefully became.
Position in writers’ top 50: did not chart

1) Wild Beasts – Two Dancers: With any luck, you’ll have read me gushing about this in our Top 50 countdown series, because it finished top of the writers’ list as well as my own. But just why it was my finest album of the year? Well, the way it snuck out from the realms of outsider-pop for starters, the drug-like nature of how I breathed it in. The way each note rung out leaving me longing for the next; the reverb and the sound of it being played back like it was evolving right before my eyes. And those lyrics, why of course; heavenly metaphors clothed the darkest words in the finest garb. Two Dancers was that album, the one that will be looked back on as an unrivalled masterpiece for years to come.
Position in writers’ top 50: #1

10) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! by Rob Hastings

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

It’s been a bumper year for fans of Karen O. Not only can they chirp about her band’s third album being yet another humdinger, but they can also indulge in a debate as to whether her freak-folk soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are is even better still. Those who plump for It’s Blitz!, however, have plenty of justification. While armies of pretenders continue to squeeze the life out the synth revival, this is an album showing how Korgs really should be used to complement Fenders.

From the moment ‘Zero’ first explodes into full-blown stomping, strobe-lit form, it’s clear Nick Zinner isn’t just lazily following a trend; as the lyric in ‘Heads Will Roll’ goes, the next nine tracks are truly “dripping in alchemy”.

By melding the neon elements of their new sound with their garage origins, YYYs have created an LP that is by turns breathlessly euphoric, profoundly delicate and downright barbaric.

9) Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca by Sean Clothier

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

When lead single ‘Stillness is the Move’ landed in April, the result was as expected: “ugh, the scenester kings are doing R&B.” This from the too-hip-to-be-hipster blog kids who are happy to slam Vampire Weekend for being preppy college kids who shoplift non-Western sounds, but wouldn’t recognise an African song themselves if it wasn’t produced by Radioclit, unironically listen to Queen and get together in awful Manhattan bars to laugh about how “some people still think Brooklyn is cool”.

My message to them? Grow a pair and stop reading the ‘best of’ lists on Pitchfork so you know what to rail against as “the exact symptom of what’s wrong with supposed independent music”.

Dirty Projectors’ (somewhat more eloquent) message? An LP-sized marvel of urgent polyrhythmnic-yet-perfect-pop craft, heartbreakingly wonderful melismatic voice-heroics and ridiculous freakouts that David Byrne would kill to own. Oh, and the absolute hands-down, balls on display greatest meaningless shoutalong chorus created this whole nascent millennium. “BITTE ORCA ORCA BITTE” indeed.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by Paul Brown

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - S/T

Plenty of artists have capitalised on the upsurge in popularity of the revival of 80s and 90s indie-pop. However, none have done so with quite as much aplomb of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. While some bands seem to spend years honing their sound, The Pains… appear to have just dropped out of the sky with a sound that is at once unique and zeitgeist-embracing.

Their debut album is a collection of upbeat and compelling songs, riddled with hooks and slathered in that wonderfully echoey dreaminess of C86. The songs are consistently strong, with particular highlights for me being ‘Come Saturday’ and ‘This Love is Fucking Right!’.

What is even more encouraging is that they have followed up this record with an EP which occasionally even surpasses parts of the album. So then, a wonderful debut record, with the tantalising promise of an even better follow-up to come.

Can this band do any wrong?

7) The Horrors – Primary Colours by Michael Cragg

The Horrors - Primary Colours

You know that bit in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy walks through the door and suddenly her monochrome existence is engulfed by swathes of glorious colour? That’s what Primary Colours is like when compared to The Horror’s 2007 album, Strange House. Whilst that debut may well have had its moments, Primary Colours works as an actual album, not just a collection of songs. From the creepy heartbeat of opener Mirror’s Image to the frantic, heart-swelling coda of the eight-minute classic, ‘Sea Within A Sea’, via the glorious stomp of ‘Who Can Say’, it’s an album that bristles with invention. Melding psychedelica with shoegaze with garage rock with bhangra (OK, perhaps not the latter), it’s helped of course by the production work of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, but the credit rests with the band themselves.

Apropos of nothing, I listened to this album for the first time whilst bleaching a deer’s skull my Auntie had given me. Does that make me a Goth? I hope so.

Tomorrow we reveal the albums that finished between 6th and 4th in the countdown as we get ever closer to revealing our top three LPs of 2009. If you’re not read more about the albums that finished below that lot, be sure to gander over to mathematical geekery on how we got this countdown, the 50-41, 40-31, 30-21,  20-16 and 15-11. You’ll be seeing us tomorrow!

Kinda different, right? Twitchy? Not epic-sounding? Sounds a bit Gorillaz really, which is no surprise given a certain Damon Albarn’s involvement with it…

Verdict?

Mercury Prize

Snippets! Gossips! Rumours? Things. We have them all, or rather we did, last night, from the red carpet and beyond.

Rab Allan of Glasvegas is a very nice chap, and he told us about their plans for next year: “The new album is basically finished, we’ve just got to record it.” This was all as singer (and cousin) James Allan disappeared – Rab told us he was ill but we heard from elsewhere that he’d “gone missing”. Odd. He continued: “We’ve been writing since the Christmas album. It’s being recorded with Rich Costey again, and James has actually just finished some demos. The new album’s a little bit more upbeat – it looks more towards the future, redemption as opposed to looking back.” Good stuff, should be nice.

Sweet Billy Pilgrim recognised us, that was also nice. We saw them at the Union Chapel a little while back so were extra-pleased when they received a nomination – in spite of henchman Tim Elsenburg still holding down his day-job as a service maintenance type man who famously found out about the nomination while fitting a toilet: “We’re going from immortal fear to massive excitement. The nerves have settled after the media run – it’s all so new and exciting to us. I think we’ve plateau’d! Our palms are less sweaty than they were at the beginning.” Bless them. “We got mistaken for our own road crew – we don’t have any. We’re the only band that don’t! The crew here found it hilarious – they said “where are your crew?”, and I said “gather round, lads”.

The Horrors‘ Spider Webb and Joshua Third also spoke to us about their performance at Offset on the weekend and the new track they’d just finished recording with Damon Albarn: “At Offset, everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong.” Yeah there were technical problems (45 minutes’ worth!) but we didn’t spot them – they played a great set, and were pleased when we told them this. “That’s good,” they said. Back to the new song… “We finished a new track yesterday which is going to be released soon, called ‘Whole New Way’. It doesn’t sound like anything on the last record, it just sounds like us. I don’t see the point of putting out more and more singles.”

Dave Okumu from The Invisible is a very lovely chap, who chatted to us for about 20 minutes on the balcony before we got the dictaphone out. When we did, we parodied the media run: “How do you feel about being nominated?”. Honestly, this is what happens on the media run. It’s astounding how bands’ ears prick up when you tell them you’ve seen them live, truly astonishing. Alas, The Invisible are doing great stuff: “We were asked to be in Covent Garden at about midday when the nominations were announced but we didn’t know whether we’d been nominated. We were just waiting nervously to hear the results, and then we just started getting an influx of texts from our friends saying “well done”. If I could’ve cartwheeled I would’ve done.”

Other gossip – a certain nichely famous TV presenter was eyeballing us all night, and even came across as a bit of a sleaze(o). Get that? 3AM girls, eat yo’ soulless hearts out. What does that even mean?

Strange news – just after Speech Debelle had been announced as the winner, Noel Fielding came stumbling past us with members of Kasabian either side, and kissed our Live Editor Catherine Wilson on the leg.

More coverage from Muso’s Towers will follow shortly such as a chat with Lauren Laverne where she talks about Kenickie, the judging panel and much more.

Setting the scene at London's Grosvenor House...

The first arrival - it's Muso's Guide's very own Catherine Wilson

Followed swiftly by, er, me

THERE WERE LOADS OF PEOPLE WITH CAMERAS

And even though the day was drawing close, they didn't need their flash for Beth Ditto

What the hell are you wearing, mate? (this is La Roux's Ellie Jackson)

A bit of bromance for Led Bib, who also had sexy backs

Cheer up, Kasabian. It might never happen! Oh, wait -

Look, it's Noel Fielding. Not nominated, don't you fret.

Speech Debelle. TEASER ALERT: she won.

The End. More coverage and quotes and gossip to come later, keep coming back!

Mercury Prize

Here we are at Grosvenor House, and they have just announced that the winner of the prize in 2009, and loads more album sales is… (HOLD THAT BREATH)

SPEECH DEBELLE!!!

That is a shocker and a half… keep refreshing for more….

A large section of the room erupts into cheers as Speech Debelle is announced as 2009’s winner. Everyone’s shouting “SPEECH” and for more than one reason. The feeling in the room and in the Muso’s camp was that The Invisible might be the chosen ones, and the crowd certainly agreed with their applause during the  video round-up.

Well done Speech!

Faris Badwan

We’ve got some exclusive news on The Horrors live from the Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2009!

Muso’s Guide chatted to the band on the red carpet outside the event at Grosvenor House Hotel in London. They told us that their show at this weekend’s Offset Festival was one of the hardest they’ve ever had to play, as they were riddled with technical difficulties. Obviously, they were pleased that everyone enjoyed it.

We also found out more about a new single release. The band have been recording and a new tune, ‘Who Can Say’, produced by Damon Albarn, will be out in the very near future. They’ve been recording and it’ll be out soon, or so they say…

In the meantime, they’re firm favourites to win the Mercury Prize tonight. Time will tell…