Singles of 2009

So dear reader I give you my favourite 10 songs of 2009 taking in a variety of genres and styles, featuring 5 British artists, 4 duets, 2 songs from films and to start us off a set of twins.

1. Veronicas - Untouched
Aussie duo The Veronicas lingered in the charts for a couple of months with this pounding piece of electro pop. The string hook and a chorus so catchy you'll have to use cleaning gel after listen lift the song into something a little bit special. Certainly my favourite song of the past year, even with some horrific lyrics during the verses.

2. Pussycat Dolls ft A.R. Rahman - Jai Ho
The more cynical amongst us would say this is a shameless attempt to capitalise on the renewed interest in Indian culture thanks to the success of Slumdog Millionaire. Covering the main song for an English speaking audience is certainly a clever move. But they could have made this song to promote the NCPA (National Cat Punching Association) and it would still be a brilliant piece of pop music. One of the catchiest and joyous songs of the year, regardless of artistic integrity.

3. Chase and Status ft Plan B - End Credits
One of the surprise hits of 2009, this slice of drum n bass reached number 9 in the charts. Acoustic guitars give way to pulsing bass lines while Plan B's vocals bring an eerily calm human perspective to the manic noise unfurling around him. Spellbinding from start to finish it will leave you impressed by the technical prowess yet instilled with an odd sense of dread.

4. Marmaduke Duke - Rubber Lover
Another happy go lucky song about sordid secrets, this time the joys of a sex doll. One of the biggest catchiest choruses of the decade gave us 2009s most unlikely chart success. At under 2 minutes it is a little short making sure you leave wanting more.

5. Amanda Palmer - Oasis
The debut solo release from Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer, its predictably unpredictable. A amazingly upbeat chirpy "doo wop" piano number. Impressively upbeat for a song about date rape, abortions and Britpop. Tragically humourous.

6. Rolo Tomassi - I love Turbulence
A limited release to promote their 2009 tour, it's a great swirling mesh of guitars, odd time signatures, electronics and screams. Definitely not to everyone's taste but near perfect from a technical perspective. Even more amazing when you find out the screams are coming from a barely twenty year old woman. With a new album to be released in 2010 expect to see a lot more of Rolo Tomassi over the next few months.

7. Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden - Bonkers
The biggest dance hit of the year, by far, had Dizzee finally dropping his grimy nature for good. Great vocal hooks and melody take the place of gritty rhymes making this very simple song work well, you know it's a good song if you can picture the reaction in a club every time you hear it.

8. 3oh!3 ft Katy Perry - Starstrukk
This song should be horrible, whiney voiced American rappers spewing shallow childish one liners with the main hook being a swit swoo whistle. Somehow it turns out really well as a infectious bit of fun.

9. Little Boots - New In Town
BBC named her the artist to watch in 2009, she may not have humped the charts into submission as predicted but she released a couple of good singles. New In Town is just a big happy slice of electro pop which will get your feet tapping. The number of adverts and television shows this song has been featured in backs up my opinion.

10. In Case Of Fire - Parallels
Heart wrenching lyrics and guitars that smack you like choppy ocean waves are just two of the things about this song that appeal to me. This young British band are on the rise and with songs like this it isn't suprising.

It was not easy to narrow the year down to 10 songs. I originally had 50 of them so because I'm a cool kind of guy I made the original longer list into a Spotify play list. Just click the link right here to hear all fifty songs in full.