Robyn takes Manhattan

As you may know, Robyn is a Radio V2.0 preferred artist and she's making something of a North American comeback behind a self-titled disc due out stateside in April.

The Swedish pop diva performed her first live show in New York City EVER on Tuesday and Radio V2.0 has the video. This is a clip of her performing her smash UK No. 1 hit "With Every Heartbeat."

BONUS: Robyn performs the single that propelled her back into Radio V2.0's favor after a long absence, 2002's R&B-leaning "Keep This Fire Burning"

Radio V Classic - Bran Van 3000 "Montreal"

The music business can be a rather cold, fickle world, so it's always heartening to see one of our favorite bands (who hasn't sold a bucketload of records) returning to active duty.

It's been more than a hot minute--in fact six years plus--since the last time Montreal's greatest export since the lap dance threw it down on wax. In honor of Bran Van 3000's third album, "Rosé" getting released on Tuesday, we honor a Radio V Classic from their prior album, Discosis, "Montreal."

Discosis saw the Bran Clan returning with a sophomore album that went miles beyond the almost in-crowd feel of their debut record, Glee. Discosis was Bran Van leader Jamie DiSalvio using the social capital of his UK No. 1 single "Drinking In LA" to turn his heroes into comrades. The album featured the last vocal of Curtis Mayfield's life; a rap from long dormant 80s rapper Big Daddy Kane and legendary reggae artist Eek-A-Mouse.

In a strange twist, the newly deepened pockets and bigger little black book didn't destroy the music. In fact (since we in all honesty joined the party late) Discosis was the best pop album we heard in 2002.

Three tracks deep lies the album's masterpiece, "Montreal." Though never plucked as a single, perhaps due to the eventual closure of their label (the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal imprint), the track had all the earmarks of a massive summer hit. "Montreal" is a sun-saturated, electro-kissed, slice of hip-pop that blasts out of the speakers and hooks itself right into the brain. Kermit The Frog even gets a shout out! The slick, somewhat propulsive groove is the constant that guides you from DiSalvio's relaxed flow to his interplay with the sugary female vocals, to the Youssou N'Dour led tribal singalong that closes the proceedings. As Jamie sings later on the record "Ain't no party like a Bran Van party, cuz a Bran Van party don't stop." The beauty of this band is that you really never know exactly where you're going, but it's always a helluva ride.

Discosis takes a little work to find, but it is more than worth the effort. Rosé gets a Canadian release October 30.

Darren Hayes - Who Would Have Thought

In the late 90s, there were few voices more ubiquitious on the radio than that of Darren Hayes. In the span of just two albums. his band--Savage Garden--managed to sell 10 million records in the US alone (double that globally) and record the two-longest running hit singles in Billboard chart history. Then, the band broke up, Darren's first solo record, a largely pop-by-numbers exercise called Spin failed to generate much interest and Hayes was yesterday's news.

In the ensuing years Hayes issued a f*ing brilliant, but criminally under-heard electro-pop opus The Tension And The Spark, a contract closing Savage Garden greatest hits record for Sony and now, a new indie released double-album This Delicate Thing We've Made following the musical path laid down on Tension.

In short, "Who Would Have Thought" is no "Truly Madly Deeply."

In fact, the track harkens most back to a maturing of the artist who recorded "To The Moon And Back," arguably the Garden's best single, whose sound was abandonned in the hunt for soft rock platinum. Hayes' latest work is an ethereal, propulsive, moody five minutes of electro-pop that reaches lyrical and sonic depths far more profound than anything typically embraced by drivetime radio.

Material like this doesn't sit comfortably next to a booty shaker like "Umbrella" and that's OK. "Who Would Have Thought" is definitely a headphones record. Pensive and yet thoroughly accessible, this is the kind of record Coldplay, Justin Timberlake or George Michael could sign their name to and change the course of the pop genre. But frankly, it's Darren Hayes who may be operating, thoroughly under the radar, as the most interesting male voice in pop.

FYI, even without the machinations of the big label machine, this guy remains a serious live performer and with material like this, we urge you to stop, look and listen.

Continuing Clairvoyance

The hallmark of the old Radio V was discovering hits and the artists yet to break for the masses. In fact, our previous incarnation on college radio led to some of the first American exposure for Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, and Dido among others. This, frankly, pissed off a lot of college radio purists, but set us apart in a landscape that celebrated its uniqueness by being rather samey.

Thus, we were happy (though not at all surprised) when we notched an early mention of a recent UK No. 1, Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat." That track made our 2006 Year-End singles chart at No. 10 and is a stark reminder of the talent of the Swede whose sterling "Do You Know (What It Takes)" opened the floodgates for the *NSync/Britney/Christina teen pop explosion.

Those potentially dubious credentials aside, much like Timberlake, Robyn has followed her muse beyond the sticky choruses and keyboard stabs that defined the 90s Stockholm sound. Opting here to trade her often R&B rooted soundscape for a squirming, electro-pop bassline and moody strings, she makes the third landmark single of her career, (the second being 2002's Radio V Classic "Keep This Fire Burning")

Mark it down, this is the best pop song you'll hear for weeks.

No US release is set, but take note, Robyn is back and so is Radio V 2.0.

Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow

When V2 Records shuttered as a new music outpost, among the bands left homeless was Welsh rock trio Stereophonics. Despite only pocketing one UK number 1 single ("Dakota"), they've released a steady stream of top-shelf singles and even have two albums among the UK's Top 100 all-time best sellers...but alas, so do the Spice Girls.

Stereophonics' biggest moment stateside, aside from opening a cache of dates on U2's Vertigo tour was this track, "Maybe Tomorrow," playing over the credits of Oscar-winner Crash. It's however, criminal, that this sparkling single (and frankly, this band) didn't have more than that one shining moment.

As with every Stereophonics track, so much of the heft is carried by singer Kelly Jones' bourbon-soaked vocals. His gravelly tone is so pivotal to carrying off the record, it's truly an instrument in itself. Kelly's voice paints a battered, world-weary contrast to the faint sunshine through the stained glass optimism of the gospel-inflected instrumentation and backing vocals. The entire 4½ minutes works so cohesively from the lyrics to the music to the backing vocals to Kelly's yearning lead vocal that you have to wonder if, for all their output, this wasn't the song Stereophonics existed to record.

Not only their finest work, but perhaps one of the finest recordings of this entire decade.

Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around... (Junkie XL Remix)

Let's be honest, "Dick In A Box" was better than half the music that hit pop radio last year, and that has made it really tough to hate Justin Timberlake. Not only can this guy shake up the radio status quo, or jump from hairy-period Britney, to Charlie's Angels era Cameron, to Scarlett, but he can also laugh at himself, and what made him, cloying pop records. Yeah, you remember "God Must Have Spent (A Little More Time On You)," no hypnotist in the world could make you forget that mess.

Well, this is not that, in fact, it's as far away from it as you can get. "What Goes Around..." started its life as a proto-Justin, sleek, midtempo R&B/pop record. In a genre where only a few singles tend to stand out over the also-rans, Justin has managed to turn the trick three times in a row and in its original form, it's a great pop record, period. If you hate pop though, or the neighbors have threatened your life for having the original on perpetual loop, read on.

It seems Junkie XL (best known for helping Elvis spin in his grave thanks to his "A Little Less Conversation" remix) has remixed the R&B original into a first class, Bloc Party-etched dance/rock workout. Yeah, you read that right and we're almost as shocked as you are. The Dutch DJ/remixer slips JT's re-rubbed vocals into a bed of squirming synths and keyboard stabs that would make New Order proud. In short, the Junkie XL version is all but an entirely different song, and still a hot one.

Before FutureSex/LoveSounds was released, JT said he was thinking of recording a rock record. If mainstream pop's heaviest hitter goes that route and it sounds like this one, I doubt anyone's going to find much fault, except the haters, for giving them one more reason they'd need to move on.

Check out the JT What Goes Small Room Mix on Junkie XL's MySpace

Mark Ronson f. Daniel Merriweather - Stop Me (Allido/Columbia)

There's been a very short list of singles that have stopped me in my tracks, (or in the middle of a spreadsheet as the case may be) leaving me to remember the first time moment I heard it; and inevitably scouring the world for any trace its origins. Considering it's a rare day that goes by that I'm not listening to music for hours on end, I can only remember Everything But The Girl's "Missing," Madonna's "Music," Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," and Hard-Fi's "Cash Machine" pulling that off. Turns out this time it was Mark Ronson turning my productivity at the office to nil.

This isn't the "celebrity DJ's" first fruitful trip to the other side of the needle. Back in '04, his Nate Dogg-featuring single "Ooh Wee" did some serious dancefloor damage and he's bringing it to the tables again.

First comes the voice of Aussie blue-eyed soul singer Daniel Merriweather, not sounding far removed from Timberlake or UK-based namesake Daniel Bedingfield (before he went to shit). Then Ronson's deft production hand drops us into a sonic past/present splitscreen of breakbeats and string-laden Motown-kissed soul. The melody and lyrics do the same, mashing up The Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This Before" and the Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On." You've got a sonic collision of the 60s, 80s, 90s, and every major outpost of the English-speaking world and yet it's never an iota as burdened by its ambitions as the listing of its parts would have you believe.

This is simply a groove-laden hip-hop jam of the first order. One so damned good that we forgive him, despite his being responsible for all the hipsters telling us how much they love Lily Allen.

Radio V2.0's 2006 Year-End Countdown

My internet was down a few days, but now we're back to business. We're going to forge ahead by looking back at 2006 with the annual Radio V2.0 year-end Top 20 singles list.

**Disclaimer** Songs NEVER make the list for being cool, sometimes a cool song makes it, but we're not looking for blogger props here, just saying, this is what we liked, check it out if you think we're on the same wavelength, that's all.

Songs DO make the year-end Top 20 for sounding as good to me at the end of the year as they did the first time I heard them. In other words, hipsters beware: TV On The Radio will not be on this list.

Without further justifying, here's the Top 20:

20. Mobile - Out Of My Head (Interscope Canada) - Montreal's Mobile unleashed a full-fledged stormer of a dance/rock track this summer with "Out Of My Head." The searing guitar riff is almost as hot as the big, sticky chorus. Playing both sides of the pop/rock divide the guys keeps the record cool enough to keep you interested, and hot enough to make you surrender to the sound unconditionally. Check it out.

19. K-Os - Sunday Morning (Virgin Canada) - In a land far away, in a time long ago, R&B music wasn't afraid of tempo. People didn't just nod their heads, they danced. In that world, this Canadian rapper's single (which recalls Kenna's deplorably underpromoted New Sacred Cow in all the best possible ways) would have been a massive hit. Either way, it's all big-beat drums, an almost too-cool for the room verse, a made for NFL-highlights chorus ("Every day is Saturday night, but I can't wait for Sunday morning"), and frankly, it should own any dancefloor that it graces. Strangely enough, this year, it was just barely the second hottest record by Canadian act last year.

18. Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On (Universal UK) - While first single "I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor" set the stage for their breakthrough (which never really happened stateside anyway), it was this late-summer single about the moments leading to the "walk of shame" that proved emphatically that the Arctic Monkeys, fat drummer or no fat drummer, were here to stay. The best part about this band's success is that their songwriting chops are so strong no one has yet dared unleash a soundalike project.


17. The Streets ft. Pete Doherty - Prangin' Out (679/Vice UK) - Two guys who obviously know a lot about a bit of blow team up on one of the realest rap singles in a moon or two. Free of gimmicks, ego and zircon-crusted artifice, The Streets, long heralded as the Great British Hope in the hip-hop world finally delivers on the hype. He turns the genre on its ear filling the wax with frailties instead of bravado and has the bookie's odds-on favorite for the next celebrity OD in tow for good measure. Eminem and Elton, this is not.


16. The Kooks - Naive (Virgin UK) - When rock decided to go whole hog for the cool factor, it lost a bit of soul, a bit of pure songcraft, and a lot of what makes music click to begin with. The Kooks eschew any pretense here, and we love them for it. It's a simple equation musically, guitar, drum, bass and a hook-heavy emotive vocal. Sonically, it's the love child of the Beatles and Jack Johnson. Lovely, carefree Brit-rock.


15. Justin Timberlake ft. T.I. - My Love (Jive USA) - Justin's second solo album is a single factory as this taut, space-age, hip-pop jam proved. A man who is finding it tough to make a misstep right now, brought SexyBack and then flipped to Love with equal aplomb. JT managed to deliver a home run of a single that sounds at once different from the rest of the airwaves and exactly like the best R&B you've heard in years. Give Timbaland the credit if it makes you feel better, but you don't need a guitar to be an artist.


14. Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Oooh (Fascination/Polydor UK) - Well, this is a cred killer. A single by a group of British talent show winners that were essentially manufactured to fill the hole in the market left by the Spice Girls...oy vey! The fact that it's listed at all says how undeniably brilliant a pop song this is. This single, Girls Aloud's 13th UK Top 10 hit by the way, is grimy electro-synth pop at its best. Resisting the urge pop often has to go sickeningly sweet, the five vocalists snarl, stomp and shoot the aural equivalent of bitchy/come-hither looks across the dancefloor for 3½ minutes. Let's just say if Britney Spears dared to return with something this hot, we'd forget all about that night out with Paris.



13. Editors - Munich (Kitchenware UK) - With spiraling, towering guitars, a paradoxically passionate, yet deadpan vocal and enough juice to pack any rock dancefloor, Editors' breakthrough single is the perfect soundtrack for a car chase scene through old Europe. In a year when most dance-rock pioneers traded their dancing shoes for a little more credibility, Editors refined the formula and had it both ways, delivering one of the year's most exciting singles in the process.

12. The Feeling - Sewn (Island UK) - The Feeling came seemingly out of nowhere and were immediately heralded as the crusaders behind a 70s AM-radio pop revival. Their debut single "Sewn" was a welcome breath of fresh air in the world of overproduced, dying-to-be-cool, mediocre hip-hop singles dominating radio over the past couple years. The backing vocals are like a gentle ocean tide pulling in and out as the lead vocal and guitar work their way to a controlled, yet energetic climax. Sounding not entirely dissimilar to peak-form Keane or Athlete, this was a gem that should have popped up on more radar screens.


11. Rihanna - S.O.S. (Def Jam USA) - With a paean to the 80s a seeming prerequisite for every pop album, Rihanna upped the ante with her finest single by a mile, the saucy "S.O.S." The girl manages to squeeze every ounce of pop genius out of that Soft Cell sample, and then actually putting a stormer of a song and vocal on top of it, where so many of her contemporaries would've lazily cooed along and let the sample do all the work. Probably the best single of the summer and now a huge hit in its own right.



10. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (Konichiwa Sweden) - Fast becoming one of my favorite artists, this is the same Swedish singer who had a US top ten hit with "Do You Know (What It Takes)" a decade ago. Since then, she has blazed her own trail, keeping the fires burning in Europe. This single, to be officially released in '07, but on the web for months already is a classic "long past the breakup, but you're still on my mind" track. Slow-burning, slightly claustrophobic electro pop dominated by anxious synths, string flourishes and an expertly-delivered vocal, "With Every Heartbeat" could as easily be the song that gives Robyn a chance to prove that initial flush of fame was no fluke a'tall.

9. Tracey Thorn - It's All True (Virgin UK) - Though "It's All True" isn't scheduled to be released until 2007, considering it's been all over the blogosphere since November, it makes my 2006 list. It's the return of the voice that launched a thousand ships, the singer of Everything But The Girl's house classic "Missing" and Massive Attack's genre-defining "Protection." Here she returns as a solo artist with a true love letter to the 80s. All authentic sounding synths, drum machines and that voice sounding more ebullient than we've heard her in years--perhaps ever, it's hard not to hit repeat on this one. Lyrically, Tracey's on peak form, as she is vocally, look for this HIGHLY anticipated solo project to launch in February.

8. Orson - "No Tomorrow" (Universal UK) - California band goes to the UK, gets a record deal, releases as quintessential a sun-drenched, Pacific Coast Highway single as there ever was, and goes straight to No. 1 in the perhaps greyest country on the planet. "No Tomorrow" is that "best Saturday night we've ever had" song, all fuzzy guitars, wailing harmonies and (presumably) beer-fueled guitar-pop optimism, and we love it. In fact, it is the natural successor to New Radicals' 1997 classic "You Get What You Give" and considering that track's a Radio V Classic, I can give Orson no higher compliment.

7. Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On (EMI UK) - Sneaking in the side door with a jazz-inflected soul voice, a groove as languid as a springtime Sunday afternoon and a song that roots itself in your brain and refuses to let go, Corinne Bailey Rae's single was one of the most pleasant surprises in 2006. As chill as ice-cold lemonade, but as hot as the burgers on the grill, Corinne's "Records" deserves to be put on over and over and over.

6. Madonna - Jump (Warner Bros. USA) - The powers that be have been trying to pin a sell-by date on the Queen of Pop since the first time she put voice to record. That said, 24 years after her first single, she closes her Confessions era with the vital, and sorely underappreciated "Jump." The bassline might have been stolen from classic Pet Shop Boys, but that's neither here, nor there. Equal parts electrifying and icy-cool, this urgent, pulsating houser is arguably her finest single since "Music," and another entry on an insanely long list of great tracks from the Queen of Pop.

5. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (Downtown/Atlantic USA) - It's hard not to be suspicious of a song that everyone likes, but considering every artist has covered it, every critic has dissected it and no one's found a flaw yet, I'll just say it, "Great record." Thanks to Zane Lowe, I've been hearing this since late 2005, but I'm not sick of it yet. At once languid and manic, Danger & Cee managed to create a record that sounded like a classic the first time you heard it. Frankly, over the last 14 months, it's all but acheived that status.



4. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (Jive USA) - Justin Timberlake may be the next Madonna. With "SexyBack," JT erased the Mousekeeter stint, the boyband, the trashy, superstar ex and the lingering stench of Nipplegate. He simultaneously reinvented himself successfully and raised the bar for pop music all over the course of a 4 minute funk/pop workout that channels Prince so well you'd think his next move would be changing his name to a symbol. While "SexyBack" split popular opinion all year, especially after becoming a pop culture catchphrase (Al Gore, leave Sexy where you found it), it still did what it was supposed to. It proved this guy has the potential to be around for a long, long time. If Alpha Dog is as good as Swept Away, I'll change that opener to Justin Timberlake is the new Madonna.

3. The Killers - When You Were Young (Island USA) - Vegas' greatest export may have returned with a spotty second album, but there's no denying Sam's Town's anthemic first single. This is a glittering, scream-it-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-while-driving-100mph-down-the-highway-in-a-convertible-with-the-state-troopers-chasing piece of 80s-evoking rock n' roll, and who knew that could ever sound so friggin' good. Simply epic.

2. Nelly Furtado - Maneater (Geffen Records Canada) - Timberlake has been hogging the credit, but it was La Furtado's turn at Timbaland's mic that brought the real heat this year. Cribbing the omnipresent drumline sound, adding a zombie chorus and some quasi-ominous synths, if Nelly's like a bird, it's a badass hawk and not some chirping sparrow. "Maneater" not becoming as big as "Promiscuous" was one of the biggest disappointments of the year, because on this club banger, the girl brought the goods

1. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole (Warner Bros. UK) - The greatest rock band on the planet kicked off the international campaign for their latest album Black Holes and Revelations with the hands-down, hottest single of 2006. This 3½ minute groove-laden slice of purely electric, funky, dance-rock is a showcase for Matt Bellamy's shimmering falsetto, a submerged, but potent kick drum and a guitar riff that the Edge would cream himself over.

The Killers - Read My Mind (Island Records 2007)

The thing about "great albums" nowadays is that you only need four singles to convince the public that your slab of plasti-coated binary code is in fact, great. In fact, the Killers' first album Hot Fuss was great, top to bottom. Singles and album tracks alike shone like neon in the desert and it seemed the boys from Bugsy's town, a.k.a.Vegas would battle U2 for the rights to the biggest band in the world mantle.

Fast forward two years to sophomore set Sam's Town, which, on the other hand, is a thoroughly forgettable piece of rock wallpaper that has sold a couple million copies (globally) on the back of Hot Fuss' reputation and a truly killer first single in "When You Were Young.

Now it's make-or-break time for both the album and the band. Following the crappy excuse for Tim Burton to crawl out of a hole and back behind a camera known as "Bones" and the throwaway Christmas single "A Great Big Sled," Brandon and his buds regroup with "Read My Mind."

Just their luck, they managed to pluck the only other memorable track on the album as its third single. It'd be even bigger/better if the song had a big, sticky, singalong hook like early hits "Somebody Told Me" or "Mr. Brightside," but there's no room for complaints here. "Read My Mind" is a sleek, mature, yet-still passionate piece of pop/rock songcraft that leaves the band's new-new wave roots pleasantly on display. Best of all, it's the kind of anthemic, sing-it-at-the-top-of-your-lungs track that will sound great on your stereo or SoundDock from now until whenever. Rumors of Pet Shop Boys remixes only up the ante on an already fine addition to their canon.

While we're welcoming the Killers back to our good graces, maybe they could do us a favor and head back to the studio. If it's all as strong as "Read My Mind" we'll forget about this little rest stop and that mojo-killing hitchhiker Sam.

Madonna - Confessions Tour Live At Glendale Arena Bootleg

While she'll drop an official DVD and live album at the end of January, it’s a high quality bootleg from this summer’s Confessions Tour that has Madonna-philes in a lather. You may need to be a bit crafty to find it, but the Live At Glendale (Phoenix) Arena MP3s have been disco-fying the internet since the summer.

Featuring her infamous potty mouth, inspired live mashups (“Music/Disco Inferno,” "Future Lovers/I Feel Love," " “Lucky Star/Hung Up,”) and megahits (“Like A Virgin,” "Live To Tell, " “Ray of Light”) it’s just like being there, but with that $350 still in your checking account.

Courtesy of The Hype Machine, here's a taster, check out the friggin awesome live re-working of "Like A Virgin"

Radio V2.0 Rewind: 2005's Best Singles

As you can probably guess from my earlier comments, Radio V2.0 isn't my first stab at writing a music blog. In fact, this has been a recurring project over recent years. Usually, it ends up going on hiatus for important life events (like when I got an XBox 360) and then it withers on the vine.

As I realize you probably have ZERO idea of what to expect when you show up at this outpost, here's a clue in the form of my Top 20 singles of 2005 dug up from my last crack at writing this thing regularly. Consider this both your chance to figure out whether it's worth sticking around, and a chance to gaze into a crystal ball into my top singles of 2006 post that will probably make an appearance in the next two weeks.

Radio V2.0's 20 BEST OF 2005

This list will not be most popular singles of the last year, but a thoroughly subjective (and therefore correct) list of the twenty best singles of 2005. I'm sure a couple times you'll nod in agreement and a couple times, you'll shudder in pain, but to answer a couple FAQs quickly:

1. Level of cool is not considered. The list has songs that have yet to be released in the US, and songs from albums that have sold upwards of 5 million. This is not the top 20 songs that you would've known if you were cool enough, but you're not-- so there, it's a straight up top twenty best of.

2. The track had to have been released in 2005. No greatest hits, no reissues, no oldies. The song had to be from an album actively being promoted in 2005. The album may have been released in 2004, but if the SINGLE was released in 2005 (meaning a commercial release or a radio one), it's been considered for this list.

3. As the blog is Radio V2.0, the list is weighted toward "popular" songs. We considered everything that made a dent in the greater consciousness, but sorry, really indie stuff didn't crack the list, neither did hardcore anything or clone acts. Sorry, Jessica Simpson. Without further ado....

20 from 2005:

20. James Blunt - "You're Beautiful" (Custard/Atlantic UK) Ex-Army officer makes 2005's most beautiful pop ballad in a year utterly devoid of them. In fact, an album full. Powerful for its borderline obsessive lyrics and lilting vocal, this is top-shelf stuff.

19. Arctic Monkeys "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" (Domino UK) 3 minutes of crunching guitar driven dance-rock from the band scheduled to break bad in about 5 minutes. A thoroughly manic, yet engaging, escapist and shockingly excellent single.

18. Robyn - Be Mine (Konichiwa Sweden) Shamefully forgotten for her 1997 run of pre-Britney pop hits and the platinum album from hence they came, Robyn returns a decade later with a catchy thoroughly modern, thoroughly grown-up, upbeat, string laden tale of unrequited love. If this whets the appetite for more, check out 2003's even hotter "Keep This Fire Burning"

17. Stereophonics - Dakota (V2 UK) Toiling in the shadows of England's Coldplay and Ireland's U2 is Wales' greatest musical export, Stereophonics. Retooling their sound by adding heavier guitars and submerging Kelly Jones' vocals in the mix a bit more than usual, "Dakota," is a triumph of a kiss-off record blanketed by an irresistible wall of sound.

16. Coldplay - Talk (Parlophone UK) Once more to the podium for the Princes of Rock. While latest collection X&Y was buried under the weight of world-beating expectations, this singular moment shows the boys still have it, even if the album didn't deliver. Riding a Kraftwerk riff for all it's worth, they deliver the energy and vitality you rarely capture on a Coldplay record but is so evident live.

15. Kasabian - Club Foot (RCA UK) All swagger and cojones, this brilliant single shows dance rock less light on its feet as when the Brothers Franz serve it up. Gritty, grimy and primal, maybe the most aurally sexual three and a half minutes to show up in years. From their excellent, sadly overlooked self-titled debut

14. White Stripes - My Doorbell (V2 USA) Every White Stripes album has a moment of utter transcendence that makes you realize they are frickin geniuses. This is it. All piano stomp, rudimentary drumming, bluesily howled vocals and crazy sticky chorus, the White Stripes continue to make a case for being America's best band.

13. Hard-Fi - Cash Machine (Necessary/Atlantic UK) A pop fable told by the light of the empty ATM, lyrically in the school of Mellencamp's regular guy down on his luck (they even use a little melodica on this one), but sonically right in the pocket of contemporary British post-punk. An excellent introduction to a first-rate band that should make big waves here any day now.

12. Bodyrockers - I Like The Way (Mercury UK) The best dance record of the year not to make a conscious bid to be anything but a club banger. Swarthy vocals that drip of intent, not to mention sweat, balance on top of the chugging guitars and a four-to-the-floor house backbone. So dirty, so fuckin' brilliant, even after it was in a Diet Coke commercial.

11. Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl (Interscope USA) On first listen this is one of the WORST records of the year, exempted because its drumline and overtime cheer-routine vocals are the most addictive thing since Coke (cola or otherwise). Thine mind doth protest, but thine ass shaketh. And really, that's the mark of a great pop record. The ability to invoke surrender in people who should know better.

10. The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Island USA) Another excellent salvo from the most promising American band to debut in ages. Lyrically engrossing, sonically undeniable and delivered with Brandon Flowers' trademark evocative wail, "Mr. Brightside" is a latter-day classic, growing more vital with every listen.

9. Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends (Warner Bros. USA) The most important album of the decade so far is such because it is full of songs like this one. Alternating between seeming navel-gazing and aggression, Green Day sparkles when their songs say something, and this is one of their best moments. (Editor's Note: "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" was considered a late 2004 release)

8. Gorillaz f. Shaun Ryder - Dare (Virgin UK) Perhaps one of the best ass-shakers to come out of the pipeline in ages, almost no one would recognize Damon Albarn's pitched up vocals here. Almost nonsensical in a way that only a band without a human face would be allowed to be, but undeniable for sheer catchiness alone.

7. Madonna - Hung Up (Warner Bros. USA) Even I get 'em wrong. Late last year I reviewed this track and basically, I did not think it a fitting return for the Queen of Pop. The first time I heard the album version instead of the castrated radio edit, I realized how wrong I was. Maybe it's the fact that in the context of its parent album Confessions On A Dancefloor it sounds infinitely better, or maybe (as I suspect) the breakdown that starts at about 4:02 in the album version and the build-up back toward the final chorus make the whole record worth it. A true hands-in-the-air moment of pop transcendence.

6. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (RCA USA) One of the few galvanizing moments of 2005, and hopefully a slap upside the head to the people who A&R American Idol winners' records. "This is what happens when you give one a good song!" There are so few people who dislike this record, that you start thinking maybe the key to world peace doesn't go through Baghdad or the West Bank, maybe it goes through a 3-minute pop/rock throwdown that Avril is killing herself for not snapping up first.

5. Kanye West f. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger (Interscope USA) Every now and then a hip-hop record shows up that not only doesn't fall into self-parody, but is equal parts of the moment and game changing. This time we can thank Kanye. The lyric rings true, the hallmark of a great rap record; the beats are typically club hot and the use of Jamie Foxx channeling Ray Charles is awe-inspiring. Yes, it may have been played into the ground, but unlike other records with a similar fate (the thoroughly mindless and grooveless "My Humps, anyone?) Kanye delivered a record that people will reference five years from now when realizing music back then (today) wasn't as bad as we thought at the time.

4. Robbie Williams - Tripping (Chrysalis UK) For the sake of argument, the (British) King of Pop returned to active duty in '05 with this ska-inflected piece of experimental pop that while being borderline too cool for the room is undeniably catchy and a blueprint for state of the art pop. Cribbing shamelessly from prior works and the music world in general, Robbie throws strings, woodblocks, background harmonies and horns together while alternating between sing-song verses, a falsetto chorus and rapping in the bridge to create a richly textured recording that took him to places no one would have expected him to go. A more than worthy, challenging four-minute escape from the banal, repetitive world of pop by numbers.

3. Mariah Carey - We Belong Together (Island) Within three and a half minutes this spring, Mariah Carey managed to erase four years of jokes; four years of believing her career was over and about ten years of mediocre recordings. This was a veritable sea change for one of the greatest voices in pop and all it took was returning to the secret of her success. The formula. A good song, squarely in the pocket of radio trends, plus that voice equals a hit. Echoing her 1995 hit, "Always Be My Baby," "We Belong Together" was so much more than a great single, but at its essence that's exactly what it was. A yearning plea for her own celebrity or a lover, we'll never know, but we know it's an undeniable record.

2. Athlete - Wires (Parlophone UK) While we were busy lauding Snow Patrol in 2004 as the band most likely to steal Coldplay's mantle as the kings of brainy rock, Athlete were busy refashioning themselves into worthy challengers who would open 2005 and the campaign behind their second album Tourist with "Wires." The lyric is an elegant rumination on a father's reaction to seeing his newborn hospitalized at Christmas. The gentle, emotional vocal backed by a minimialist piano line, shimmering guitars and seemingly fragile drums reaches an emotional climax with a whisper rather than a wallop. A fine piece of songcraft from a woefully underappreciated act.

1. Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat (Necessary/Atlantic UK) While Hard-Fi's debut album Stars Of CCTV has a solid cache of singles, "Hard To Beat" is everything a great pop record needs to be. The lyric is a universal boy meets girl tale with a chorus catchier than bird flu (in a good way). The vocal (on which singer Richard Archer swaggers like a young Jagger) rides a rump-shaker of a disco-rock backing track that recalls at turns Chic, the Stones, Martha & the Vandellas and Stuart Price. It's a record that grabs you, shakes you and makes you hit the repeat button without breaking a sweat. Best described as the love child of Franz Ferdinand and Madonna, I would be shocked not to find this record topping many 2006 lists following its US release.

Amerie - "Take Control" (Single) Columbia Records 2007

Amerie's one of those artists who keeps doing just well enough to get another record released, but never quite well enough for the masses to take notice. The last time we heard her--on the storming "1 Thing"--we said the exact same thing we're saying now: "She made the record Beyoncé should have made."

Amerie kicks off the campaign behind her third album Because I Love It with yet another club banger in "Take Control." Riding a dirty little guitar lick and insistent percussion, Amerie (with co-production assistance from Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo) doesn't break new ground here, but she offers a top shelf ass-shaker and a sad reminder that if she could've found (or written) 3 or 4 tracks of this caliber every album, she'd have knocked Beyoncé, her alter ego Sasha and Daddy Knowles right off the tip of everyone's tongues by now.