We’ve spent the last two days unveiling numbers 50-11 in our top 50 songs of 2011, and now the time has come to unveil what Muso’s Guide’s hefty panel of writers nominated as their top 10 songs released this year. It’s been a pretty diverse selection thus far, and the top end of the chart is no different.

10. Wild Beasts – Reach a Bit Further

9. Ghostpoet – Cash and Carry Me Home

8. PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

7. Radiohead – Lotus Flower

6. The Horrors - Endless Blue

5. Metronomy – The Bay

4. Yuck - Get Away

3. Metronomy - The Look

2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

1. Lana Del Rey - Video Games

It got so buried in the sea of ‘is she real, OMG her real name isn’t Lana’ sideshow, that it’s easy to forget how great a song Video Games is. True, it might already have become an albatross around her name, bringing about expectations of her debut album that simply can’t be lived up to, but that doesn’t matter for now. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present to you Muso’s Guide’s official favourite song of 2011…

Last week we unveiled our top 50 albums of the year, but as regular Muso’s readers will know, we get just as excitable about the good old song as we do about full length albums. So with that in mind, over the next three days we’re going to be unveiling which songs our writers have voted their top picks of the year. Enormous thanks are due to Mitchell Sterling who did us proud in fulfilling his annual chore sifted through the emails from the Muso’s Guide staff, compiling them into something resembling a logical order.

Without further ado, here are picks 50 through to 21. Check back tomorrow for 20-11 and then on Thursday we’ll be unveiling our top 10 songs of the year.

50. The Leisure Society – You Could Keep Me Talking
49. St. Vincent – Cruel
48. Friendly Fires – Hawaiian Air
47. Hannah Peel – The Almond Tree
46. Jamie xx – Far Nearer
45. James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream
44. Radiohead – Codex
43. Jessie Ware – Strangest Feeling
42. Drake – Headlines
41. The Horrors – Still Life
40. Slow Club – Where I’m Waking
39. Telekinesis – Please Ask For Help
38. Arctic Monkeys – The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
37. The National – Think You Can Wait
36. Nicki Minaj – Super Bass
35. Bjork – Crystalline
34. Death Cab For Cutie – You Are a Tourist
33. Coldplay – Paradise
32. SBTRKT – Wildfire
31. Junior Boys – Banana Ripple
30. British Sea Power – Who’s in Control
29. Beyonce – Run the World (Girls)
28. The National – Exile Vilify
27. Active Child ft. How to Dress Well – Playing House
26. Azealia Banks – 212
25. Beyonce – Countdown
24. Lady Gaga – Marry the Night
23. Bon Iver – Holocene
22. Girls – Honey Bunny
21. The Saturdays – All Fired Up

Numbers 20-11 will be up tomorrow, and the top 10 will be posted on Thursday.

PJ Harvey

Welcome to the fifth and final part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41, 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year next week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

10. Friendly Fires – Pala

After the sleeper success of their debut, Friendly Fires’ return was anticipated by many, and they didn’t disappoint. Pala is pure escapism – a carnival for a year when you might just have needed some distraction from the real world. The songs came in the colours of the parrot’s feathers on the LP cover – ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ and ‘Hawaiian Air’ in particular sounded like colour and sunshine and, briefly, forgetting everything else.

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9. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise

“Just like space is a vacuum – except for the hulking great lumps of stuff within it, this planet being one of them – Space Is Only Noise is minimal techno in the sense that it’s actually constructed from a chattering web of disparate genres and influences, from Tom Waits to Panda Bear. If nothing else, the Chilean ex-pat should be commended for out Lynching David Lynch.” Jim Merrett

“There’s something about midnight that heightens ones senses, isn’t there? In previous years I have often picked the album I defer to when on the midnight commute to my little ol’ home for the top spot. This album just has that midnight, distant vibe all over it. Emotion through a sense of disconnect, like you are watching events unfold in life as opposed to being part of it. Or maybe I’m just thinking this for the French cinema bits thrown in there. Jaar has this very rare sense of knowing when to use what kind of sound. And in music, that is a gift, and an important one at that. Not to mention that the actual songs that come out of it are tremendous, especially that killer combo smack down in the middle of the album. The songs ‘Problems with the Sun’ and ‘Space is Only Noise If You Can See’ are such great examples of not only Jaar’s musical skills, but also how they can be turned into good songs.” Stef Siepel

“Dance music for people who don’t feel like dancing, would prefer to listen to musique concrete, but aren’t averse to beats that bounce like a giant rubber band. De la bombe!” Tom Bolton

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8. Metronomy – The English Riviera

Joe Mount, with the help of his band of musician, re-imagined his hometown in the south west of England on The English Riviera – it became a place of romantic possibility and summer escape. The appeal came not just from Mount’s tender imagination, but also his band’s patience with a number of elements that could have derailed the whole thing – those liquid basslines are inviting rather than cheesy, and the textures and attention to detail gesture towards ‘70s soft rock without getting mired in pastiche. The English Riviera seems genuinely thoughtful and sincere, as well as featuring the best songs of Metronomy’s career.

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7. The Horrors – Skying

“The Horrors finally find their sound, a great psychedelic album and one that restored my faith in the band.” Antonio Tzikas

“While not the quantum leap forward that 2009′s Primary Colours represented, Skying saw The Horrors consolidate their sonic progression with another fine collection of songs – as well as finally earning a deserved chart breakthrough, (on their own terms, no less). From the driving, look-laiden likes of ‘I Can See Through You’ and ‘Still Life’ to sprawling, brilliant epics ‘Moving Further Away’ and ‘Oceans Burning’, Skying moulds The Horrors’ myriad influences into a sound that is very much their own.” Paul Faller

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6. Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam

“Probably one of the most addictive albums of the year, this took over my life for a little while. A nocturnal soundtrack that had the ability to seep into your mind.” Jane Corcoran

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5. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

While the release came out of nowhere, the content didn’t. Sitting somewhere between the tenderness of In Rainbows and the crunchy electronica of Kid A, The King Of Limbs was at once a futurology lecture and a Radiohead history lesson. Colder than its immediate predecessor and not the massive paradigm shift of the band’s mid-career albums, this was no less a joy to actually listen to and the only real complaint is its all too brief length. And since when is being left wanting more a bad thing?” Jim Merrett

“Not to everyone’s taste, Radiohead continue to defy expectations. A darker, shorter and more brooding album than In Rainbows, it continues Thom Yorke’s fascination with electronica while keeping a firm grip on their signature sound.” Alex Kavanagh

“A lot was said about Radiohead’s previous album to this, In Rainbows. Was it a return to form after their more experimental phase? While everyone was still figuring this out, along came The King of Limbs. Now nobody was thinking about it as this was most definitely a brilliant Radiohead album – this was Radiohead back to their glorious best.” Steve McGillivray

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4. Wild Beasts – Smother

“The baffling omission of Smother from the Mercury Prize shortlist turned out to be but a minor blip in the continued ascent of Wild Beasts. The band adopted a more pared down, less-is-more aesthetic than on previous records, which has been exquisitely combined with their thought-provoking, intimate lyricism to produce one of the year’s most stunningly beautiful records.” Paul Faller

“The clue’s in the title: smooth, insinuating, sinister, replete with thinly veiled threats sung in unsettling falsetto. Wild Beasts make seriously complex music, but resistance is futile.” Tom Bolton

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3. James Blake – James Blake

“The fact that the record is self titled ought to have provided a clue to the ‘where are the fucking beats?’ naysayers. This isn’t a quasi-sequel to ‘CMYK’ – it’s a standalone artistic statement; an invitation from James Blake for us to re-evaluate his craft with completely fresh ears. Still laced with an incredible – if sparing – sense of rhythm, the album is a fabulous exercise in restraint, of doing more with less, and the possibilities of subtle build and release. Incredibly simple-but-effective shifts in texture frequently push these songs into unduly emotive territories, even when (or especially when) Blake’s vocal is accompanied only by piano, or nothing at all. To get angry that the record didn’t meet preconceived notions of what it would (or should) have sounded like is ridiculous. He can go back to proving himself as an unparalleled dance producer in due course. But for the moment, we’ve been happily introduced to a second Blake – one with an abundance of soulful atmospherics and a keen ear for vocal harmony. There’s more than enough room on my iPod for both Blakes.” Rusell Warfield

“An interesting and at times haunting album that pushes sound in new directions. Blake’s cover of ‘Limit To Your Love’ is undoubtedly a highlight.”  Rosie Duffield

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2. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

“SBTRKT’s debut album was worth the wait – paring down and smoothing out element of grime, techno, dubstep, garage, jungle and, yes, pop, he produced one of the most listenable and coherent album of the year. For a debut, this is no mean feat. Meanwhile the guests shone – Yukimi Nagano makes ‘Wildfire’ her own, Roses Gabor relishes the spotlight on second half highlight ‘Pharoahs’ and Sampha brings a sense of melancholy and sense of self awareness that wins you over from the off. Stunning while also intimate, I’m genuinely excited to see where SBTRKT takes us next.” Greg Salter

“After a string of remixes, the bedroom producer reveals himself, sort of. A tight, poppy debut that owes as much to Detroit techno and Chicago house as it does to south London dubstep. But not even the bassline wobbles are enough to shake off that mask.” Jim Merrett

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1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

“Believe the hype. PJ Harvey makes what many consider to be her best record yet, a profoundly moving ode to an England that exists only in our imaginations, at once desperately sad and romantic.” Alex Kavanagh

“Clearly deserved (though totally pointless) winner of this year’s Mercury Music Prize, another artist still producing excellent work in her prime.” Kenny McMurtrie

“Objectively speaking, Let England Shake is one of the year’s most outstanding artistic achievements, and I’d personally rank it as the best thing PJ Harvey has ever put her name to. To take on the subject of war without resorting to “WAR IZ BAD” tubthumping is commendable in itself – Harvey takes the far more restrained approach of narrating the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of the soldiers who were there. In doing so, however, she paints a more damning portrait of war than any protest song could ever hope to – and that’s the true genius of Let England Shake.” Paul Faller

“Polly Harvey’s songs are entirely original but sound as though they’ve existed for ever, or at the very least since the 17^th century. Weighed down by history, buoyed up by melody, England all over.” Tom Bolton

Words by Natalie Shaw

We went to Leeds Festival, and wrote about seven things of note. Here they are:

1) Tom Vek is the best

Tom Vek stole Leeds Festival from under the rest of the line-up’s noses. His performance was a million miles from what I’d entirely unjustifiably imagined – a shy man in the corner hiding behind a laptop. Instead, we were presented with a supremely confident performer who continually switched up his moves as bold and bright as a gawky, obnoxious Beyonce. The monotone of his vocal was the only one-dimensional element of his performance.

While the new songs aren’t as fresh, with years of amazing music having come between them and Vek’s first mini-bout of fame, they’re in perfect context here at Leeds – whose bill has essentially been nabbed from the mid-00s. He takes us back to another micro-generation where we were twattishly precious, still learning – so much so that attendance feels like an ambition fulfilled; the sighting of a rare bird.

A voice that sounds so obscure – almost flooded by oddball beats and slides on We Have Sound – feels so rich and triumphant here that it’s almost implausible to think of where he’s been during that six-year hiatus. A venture into DnB on ‘A.P.O.L.O.G.Y.’, from the new album Leisure Seizure, sounds absolutely glorious – and opener ‘CC (You Set The Fire In Me)’ leaves a packed-to-the-brim Radio 1/NME tent beaming.

2) Leeds festival is a lot of fun

While it mightn’t be the most forward-thinking of festivals, Leeds’ audience are here for the music. It’s easy to presume that this must surely be the case at a music festival, but in this day and age of easy transportation between the city and the field, festivals are often over-run with people more interested in photographing themselves with a chilled Gaymers. NB: I don’t mean to be prattish, and I’m sure Glastonbury is different.

As likely as it is that touring acts judge a festival on its catering, the younger and louder front rows will have had an impact – on both the bands, and the middling middle rows, who were essentially shoehorned into having the best time of their flipping lives.

3) The Strokes should really just stop

The Strokes emerged with ‘Is This It?’ over 10 years ago – and sitting in the comfort of Leeds’ nostalgic bill, the gap becomes even more compressed.

In 2011, The Strokes are a spectacle rather than spectacular. Watching an aloof, leather-clad Julian Casablancas still trying so hard to retail his insouciant sense of cool is painful. It gets worse still – such is the lack of gravitas and default towards cruise control that it might as well have been a karaoke night…

4) Henna dolphin tattoos are a fashion ‘must’

When attending music festivals such as Leeds, there are stalls all over the place which offer the shopping equivalent of a pub crawl – you can become a fun-times festival reveller for probably about 20 of your English pounds, in the space of about 10 minutes. Speed shopping! An attractive prospect.

And so, out of my purse falls a tenner, into the arms of a fine young gent who gives me one (of these) (below); I will give it a good life for its swift 15 days, I promise.

Addendum: the neon face-paint and flowers in my hair (out of shot) only made it to the end of the festival.

5) Drinking too much gin makes a person unwillingly go and see Beady Eye

On day two, after a night comprising about seven different spirits and a sizeable period of overheating, I found myself departing an excellent Digitalism set for ‘a wee’. Unfortunately for me, ‘a wee’ ends up comprising a 10-minute stumble around (and a wee – in a toilet – don’t worry) until I feel stable again, which just happens to be in the tent where Beady Eye are playing. Graces.

And so to Liam Gallagher’s new band, who sound – remarkably – just like anything he’s ever done before. He even somehow misplaces his one trick – the gold-medal for waffling nonsense. Surely he still needn’t eye up the microphone like it’s about to knock him out, after years of familiarisation?

The music itself is unambitious and stale, apart from a shuffling, anachronistic ‘Bring The Light’, but the ultimate badness of someone so unashamedly self-mocking doesn’t exactly instil the highest of highs. This is Liam Gallagher squeezing out the last drips of his origins, to what presumably is a similarly slow-dripping quotient of people who believe that ‘Rock & Roll’ is the only saviour for ‘broken Britain’.

6) There are some bands who just aren’t designed for their time-slots/stages…

While not wishing to harp on Beady Eye for too long, it would’ve seemed fairer for them to play a mid-afternoon set on the main stage instead of headlining one of the tents. And worse still was The Horrors’ positioning as Festival Republic tent headliners on the Saturday night of the festival – not exactly the most charismatic of bands, even after trying to recover from a mid-set power cut. While others may have become openly nervous or at least acknowledged the problem, instead they simply resumed ‘Still Life’ from where it left off – which was, loosely, pretty special, but a mood-killer to kill all mood-killers. And just another blow in a flat, lifeless set.

Elbow are another band who kill the buzz, on Friday night on the main stage before proper festival headliners (and rightfully so) Muse. Guy Garvey’s tones are bland rather than rich, and it’s not because I’m from London that I’m so cynical – they’re just not “lovely” or “beautiful” or “everyman”, they’re just reasonably good at wisecracking while their fans sway.

7) And there were some bands who were brilliant

Three Trapped Tigers’ brutal noise, Gold Panda’s deranged revamp of ‘You’ which whizzes it into infinite-time before collapse, Fixers’ bizarre mix that looks and sounds awkward and messy and deliriously falsetto – and Bombay Biycle Club’s new son, seemingly Jens Lekman inspired. These were all absolutely spectacular.

Muso’s Guide is working with Vodafone VIP across festival season, be it live-blogging, video-interviewing artists, Tweeting (we’re at @musosguide) or reviewing weekends in handy snapshot form.

Vodafone VIP is part of the VIP programme for customers, and Muso’s Guide is taking on official music blogger status at some of the summer’s hottest festivals. There are currently competitions running to win tickets to Latitude, T in the Park and Wireless, with more to come over the summer.

The Vodafone VIP experience extends further too – there’s a Vodafone VIP area across fashion, festivals and Formula 1 over the summer, a viewing platform giving customers shelter and brilliant views, a recharging truck capable of charging 2,000 phones at once and selected apps allowing festival-goers to see what’s on and where, locate their tent via GPS and plan schedules for their weekends.

Visit http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vip to find out more.

It’s only a few days until 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize, now entering a third decade of awards and with Mystic Meg’s News of The World hotline not being picked up we call upon Mitchell Stirling to gaze into a crystal ball or hack into the judges phones to find out who come Tuesday could be celebrating too.

The sure things.

Adele - 21

Adele – 21

Nominated in 2008 for her debut when everyone was deciding if there was room for both Adele and Duffy that year, there’s no such issue this time round, even we had to check Wikipedia to confirm there actually was a second Duffy album that was eligible. It won’t be on the list. Adele’s mega-selling 21 will be though. While we struggle to see the award going to it, it’s hardly needing the sales boost – it sold a three millionth copy at the start of this month and will surely pass James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam to become the biggest seller of the last 15 years. (More than The Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Dido, The Corrs or anyone has with one album since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?) She does not really need the coverage and the £20,000 cheque we would argue.

Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi

Releasing her self-titled album early in the year so fresh after a BBC Sound of 2011 nomination (and not forgetting being tipped here in May last year) has seen her garner plenty of critical praise in the vacuum that can be January album releases. With the likes of BBC Radio, Uncut, NME, Mojo, Pitchfork, Rough Trade, Brian Eno, Nick Cave and others behind its spiky intensity, it’s also got the obvious leg-up of being a debut (seven out of last nine winners were first albums) alongside her growing profile after her well received Glastonbury set last month.

James Blake - James Blake

James Blake – James Blake

By now a more polarising album than we’d anticipated it being, with fierce defenders and attackers lambasting and praising it not following the work Blake was doing in 2009 and early 2010. Regardless, it’s an album that people have been talking about the past six months and its inclusion would be bound to raise the ire of the haters again. In not sounding as ground-breaking or other-worldly as say Burial’s Untrue, it puts itself in a stronger position to win as a more middle-ground, BBC Radio 2, dinner-party stable.

Katy B - On A Mission

Katy B – On A Mission

On A Mission ticks a few boxes for nomination in that it is a slightly more pop look at a the margins of the dubstep / R&B divide, is it slightly too popular to do well? (#2 in the album charts, three top ten singles) We’d wager no, as that never held some far more popular acts off the list, even in recent years; Adele, Radiohead, Amy Winehouse, Paul Weller and others who are far more household names. We’d also suggest her as one who could win the whole thing; certainly odds of 16/1 looked quite appealing. It would also be nice to see a more positive role model for young flame-haired girls on the front of the Guardian for a change.

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

For us, this is without doubt one of the best albums of the year and it should be nailed on to be shortlisted and as one of the favourites. However Stories from The City, Stories From The Sea won in 2001 and although this is as strong (stronger even?) as that album, the gong has never been given to a previous winner. In fact in 2008 when Portishead’s outstanding Third was talked as a potential winner it didn’t even make the cut, there previous win surely counting against them. We’ll stick with calling Let England Shake a sure thing as some ex-winners (Arctic, Dizzee Rascal) have made it but we won’t be completely shocked if it doesn’t make it either.

Wild Beasts - Smother

Wild Beasts – Smother

The band that brought us Muso’s Guide’s 2009 Album of the year have made another strong contender for the Mercury Prize and while a lot the albums mentioned so far have had impressive chart positions, due to Smother’s #17 peak it is the kind of record that would benefit from the exposure of the nomination. Missing it off would certainly seem a perverse thing to do given the amount of love that has been poured out toward it from devotees as well as newcomers to the band’s sound.

Other contenders.

As always we’ll throw up some albums we would love to see on the list personally, even if some of them might be wishful thinking. First up would be The Phantom Band’s The Wants which while not the kind of record that is quick in revealing its knotty charms, its sprawling ambition is exactly what the shortlist should be celebrating. Likewise Esben & The Witch’s cavernous sound deserves more ears to appreciate it. On a quieter note, ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall’s charming solo debut and Smoke Fairies’ chilly, haunted folk have hopefully made the judges’ ears prick up.

Moving to some previously nominated acts who have albums up for potential selection; not many people are seeing a nomination for Radiohead as their The King of Limbs seems curiously unloved and taken for granted. We do think that it would be bizarre for them to win for that, having not won with some of the most important releases of the last twenty years. Domino don’t seem to be pushing previous winners Arctic Monkeys that much and I’m sure they aren’t all that fussed having appeared before and of course winning in 2006. Likewise Elbow’s Build A Rocket Boys could easily not make it if there’s no desire to have two previous winners on the list (assuming PJ Harvey is). British Sea Power’s Valhalla Dancehall doesn’t seem to be as popular as their shortlisted album from 2008 and we’d be surprised to see them make the twelve this time.

It’s much more likely that a further nomination will go to the very recent released album from The Horrors (released on the deadline day) as well as Friendly Fires and serial nominee Eliza Carthy. Less likely are nods for Guillemots, The Go! Team, Glasvegas and The Streets, acts that have made stronger albums in the past and which have previously made the list.

After a barren couple of years the token urban/ R&B nod(s) section is quite competitive. Ghostpoet and Tinie Tempah seem the most likely but don’t rule out the likes of Dels too. Though we feel James Blake is a shoe-in, Jamie Woon, Mt. Kimbie, Darkstar or even SBTRKT from the dubstep world could get a look in. Golden Panda, Magnetic Man and Zomby we feel are a little more unlikely.

In the “old bloke that’s still got it, never going to win” slot there’s no Paul Weller, Morrissey, Robert Wyatt or anything else that Uncut and Mojo readers will know inside out to make up that demographic so thoughts have settled on Kate Bush. However, given the re-worked nature of her Director’s Cut, a nomination seems a non starter so that probably puts Brian Eno’s Small Craft on a Milk Sea (or even the more recent Drums Between the Bells) in the driver’s seat.

The remaining indie slots will likely divide into one each from pools we like to call BBC3 indie (Beady Eye, Noah and The Whale, The Vaccines, Frankie and The Heart Strings) and BBC4 indie (Everything Everything, Metronomy, The Joy Formidable, Stricken City, The Chapman Family, Yuck, Pete and The Pirates, Let’s Wrestle and Wu Lyf) one pool more broad/popular, the other more niche/unknown. Pop wise, Chase & Status and Jessie J have been talked up but it’s more likely Hurts will be the only further bone to the poptimist crowd that makes it as Adele and Katy B are very likely to be included and the days where The Spice Girls and Take That made the list seem to be long gone.

There’s no Marling or Mumford to take an obvious folk slot so despite the strong albums from Admiral Fallow, Alessi’s Ark, Bellowhead, Emmy The Great, The Unthanks and King Crimson we’ll go with The Leisure Society. The tricky to predict jazz slot could go to Kit Downes Trio or Led Bib again or Karios 4tet. We think it’ll be Sebastian Rochford and Pamelia Kurstin though.

One thing we can say with absolute confidence. No Gorillaz on the list.

Predictions:

Adele, Anna Calvi, PJ Harvey, James Blake, Katy B, Wild Beasts, The Horrors, Metronomy, Tinie Tempah, Sebastian Rochford and Pamelia, Ghostpoet and The Leisure Society.

Half a dozen to cover our tracks; Brian Eno, Yuck, The Vaccines, SBTRKT, Eliza Carthy and Friendly Fires.

We’ve also created a Mercury playlist over on Spotify – go here for an hour of tracks from previous winners to get you in the mood before the announcement tomorrow at 11.30am.

If you’re not a fan of The Horrors, turn away now. What follows is only likely to upset you; having likely had enough of the dangerously tight trousers and near hysteric levels of hype this album’s generating. It’s fair enough: the trousers are worryingly tight. However, for a band that courts a wide range of influences, it’s difficult to find much to disagree with on Skying.

The Horrors - Skying

What irked people about The Horrors was the fact that they looked and sounded suspiciously like such a Vice gimmick. NME lapped them up and reams of young trendoids flocked to their gigs. What they knew that Johnny come lately didn’t was that there was a lot more to The Horrors that met the eye. Behind the skinny jeans, gothic attire and bob haircuts were a gang of young men with extensive musical knowledge between them. For their second album, Primary Colours, their pilfering of musical influences was clear, and put to quite astonishing effect.

So Skying has a lot to live up to. With their first album garnering disdain from the indie fraternity, their second was everyone’s not so guilty psychedelic secret. With broad production creating vast soundscapes, Primary Colours signalled a turning point in opinion for the young band. Now, Skying acts as the indicator of whether The Horrors shtick is gimmick or genuine. Luckily it’s the latter.

What’s immediately evident on Skying is its composure. The rough edges have been smoothed off, debiting the lustre of abrasion and youthful immediacy. While this makes for a much softer listen, it’s slightly lacking some of that raucous garage punk that once made The Horrors such an intriguing band. Skying features a well-rounded collection of pop songs from the offset. Opener ‘Changing The Rain’ rolls along on a rhythm previously unheard with The Horrors, handclaps and plodding bass aplenty. This could prove to be a little exasperating for those of you who’ve enjoyed the coarse tones carved out on earlier albums. There’s nothing to dislike. Songs are more considered, existing in floods of bubbling synth from fantasy films of the ’80s as they do in ‘Still Life’.

What underlines what made Primary Colours great – the functional drumming, broad soundscapes and rasping Farris baritone – are still here. Songs such as ‘Dive In’ wrap these three elements perfectly around excellent song structure. Immediate, retrospective and ominous.

On some levels, this mellowing of style has the effect of slightly passing over the listener. There’s not much to take umbrage with – no bad thing – and marks a more mature sound for the band. It’s this languid accessibility that many diehard fans might take issue with. The songs on Skying are perfectly formed, and The Horrors have moved away from the elektronische homage perhaps encouraged by Geoff Barrow. An overwhelmingly richer, warmer sound adorns the tracks on Skying.

Skying marks a clear progression for the band. Where previous albums were dark, Skying is light. Is it the best album around at the moment? Probably.

2009′s Primary Colours was something of a left turn for The Horrors, and we voted it the 7th best album of that year. Next week, on Monday 11th July, they release their follow up – Skying. Click below to stream the album in full.

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

We’re into the top ten! Is your favourite here? Are you shocked it’s not been placed higher? Are you outraged by some of our writers’ choices? Tell us. Don’t be a closet whiner.

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!