Singles of 2013

Whaddaya mean, you’re sick of end-of-year Best Of lists?! Surely there’s time for a quick glimpse at the ten greatest songs of 2013? Especially as all the other lists are WRONG?

(For the record, the honour of worst song of 2013 is a toss-up between Gentleman by The Saturdays – for Christ’s sake, you dead-eyed mannequins, SPLIT UP ALREADY – and Eliza Doolittle’s Big When I Was Little, which rewrote the Official Rulebook of Clumsy Infantile Horse-Shit.)

10. Phoenix – Entertainment

While every gobshite with an MP3 player got all knotted up about Daft Punk returning in the form of a Harvester ad, French pop was far better represented by Phoenix, and this mighty serving of guitar goodness.

9. Little Green Cars – Big Red Dragon

One of the greatest riffs of the year – nay, the decade – came in Big Red Dragon, a highlight from the debut album of Dublin five-piece Little Green Cars. Sit back, relax and watch ‘em get all, like, mahoosive.

8. Jimmy Eat World – I Will Steal You Back

Look, it’s not The Middle, but nothing’s ever going to be. We’ve made peace with that.

7. Placebo – Too Many Friends

A pleasingly mental music video helped matters, but that’s not to detract from the song itself, which saw Placebo back at their darkly-melodic, astringent best.

6. Two Door Cinema Club – Changing of the Seasons

The very idea of Northern Irish indie-pop darlings Two Door Cinema Club hooking up with house tween Madeon was pearl-clutchingly horrifying. But oh, how wrong we were. Exquisite stuff.

5. Miley Cyrus – We Can’t Stop

Ignore the contrived smuttiness and clichéd lyrics briefly, and you’re left with a highly intriguing serving of space-age pop, thanks to the magic fingers of Mike Will Made It and a rather impressive vocal from Cyrus herself (something easily disregarded amidst all the femur-flashing).
 

4. We Are Scientists – Something About You

A FULL ALBUM coming in a little over two months, people. A FULL ALBUM.

3. Bastille – Pompeii

Like many a great song, Pompeii has been sacrificed to the Gods of Overkill (a huge thank you to unimaginative radio stations and promo producers the world over), but hey, they overplayed it for a reason.

2. Mutya Keisha Siobhan – Flatline

Its mere existence underlined the instability of the online fanbase and the stupidity of UK radio execs, but beneath the frothing frustration lay a magnificent, and sorely overlooked, track.

1. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

Third album Modern Vampires of The City may not have been up to the overall standards of its predecessors, but this addictive little gem was by far and away the star of the show. 2013’s greatest advocate of repeat-button abuse.