Top 10 Singles of 2010

The final 10 tracks of my best of 2010 list. You know how to Google if you want to listen. A zip containing all ten is here.

10. Mark Ronson And The Business Intl feat. Simon Le Bon and Wiley
Record Collection

Mark Ronson proved on his covers album a few years ago that he could reproduce genre melting pop like a pro. In 2010 he kept his address book, but composed his own melodies and proved they could be just as infectious.

9. Sia
Stop Trying

Adelaide born Sia, since moving overseas has made contacts with many talented people including Greg Kurstin - producer for Lily Allen and Kylie among others. Together they made Stop Trying, a brief but super catchy indie-pop single, cramming energy and grooves into a compact 160 seconds.

8. Sleigh Bells
Infinity Guitars
The first time you hear this song will be one of the best times you hear this song. Just make sure the speakers are turned up loud.

7. Rick Ross feat. Gucci Mane
MC Hammer

I was actually happy to find out Rick Ross lied about his criminal past and invented most of the stuff in his raps. It makes it easier to enjoy the testosterone and feather plumping without worrying that I'm advocating criminal activity.

6. Skrillex with Bare Noize & Foreign Beggars
Scatta

Scatta is pretty much the perfect blend of dubstep, aurally pleasing MCs and apocalyptical beats. It sounds a little cheesy from a distance, but if you crank it up and close your eyes you can truly believe you're piloting a MechWarrior through hordes of zombies or Zerglings.

5. Matt & Kim
Good For Great

Matt & Kim sound like an optimistic punk band with a keyboard instead of guitars - energetic melodies; rapid percussion and simple, bouncy grooves. Lately they've tried to mature into larger, more complex orchestrations (still with only the two instruments). When they pull it off it makes for some of the most catchy, fun songs of the year.

4. iSquare
Hey Sexy Lady (Skrillex Remix)

As mentioned above, electro inclined Skrillex doesn't mind dabbling in some dark beats. His work on iSquare's Hey Sexy Lady was something else though, converting a RnB piece of dancefloor fluff into a Jack Torrance-esque moment of psychopathy. The blending of saccharine vocals and the blindsiding, hulking electro beat is phenomenal.

3. The Tallest Man On Earth
The Dreamer

The Tallest Man on Earth gets featured twice this year because he put out two outstanding releases in the one year. After several albums of masterful acoustic folk he picks up an electric guitar for the first time ever on The Dreamer, and the result is predictably beautiful.

2. Hot Chip
I Feel Better
Hot Chip seem to have no problems coming up with killer singles. The loop of dramatic synth-strings, digitally enhanced vocals and steady percussion at just the right BPM make I Feel Better into an electropop time bomb. Its serious sounding chords and goofy lyrics are disarming enough to keep the listener baited until the final crescendo of synths, steel drum and endorphins.

1. Far East Movement feat. Dev and The Cataracs
Like a G6

Pop music has been obsessed with fidelity for the last few years, carving out micro-genres based on how much rhyming cloaks a group's songs. With their bedroom recording roots, Far East Movement have floated along this competition with grace, a threesome of producers skilled at conscripting the sonic demons hiding in the margins of amateur recording. But there's also beauty to be found in the places where unfiltered sunlight finds gaps in the clouds, and the embrace of that contrast gave Far East Movement a valuable new weapon on the haunting Like a G6.

LOLZ, Not Really..

1. Yeasayer
Madder Red

Half beautiful and half sad, this single from New York's Yeasayer blends a healthy batch of the digital '80s into their existing indie rock sound. Madder Red has a simple, haunting loop of keys and crooning, coupled with finely performed guitar work and - when you pay attention to it - some very suberb bass guitar. Smoother than smooth, this is a piece of pop bliss.