Top 10 Singles of 2005 (with pictures!)

10. LCD Soundsystem: 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' (Ironically, this is probably preferable to Daft Punk playing at your house.)




9. Hard-Fi: 'Tied Up Too Tight' (Sounding like The Clash on crack - put that on the poster! - this is what you can reasonably expect from a walk through West London.)






8. Franz Ferdinand: 'Do You Want To' (If 'Take Me Out' was two songs in one then this upped the ante by giving you three for your money. But are they turning into The Monkeys? And if so, is this a good or bad development?)







7. Kelly Clarkson: 'Since U Been Gone' (The best pop song of the year, bar none. Blender magazine called her their woman of the year you know.)








6. John Legend: 'Ordinary People' (Good enough to be the first song at our wedding and the brightest new talent worthy of being called the new Stevie Wonder. That said, I hear the old Stevie Wonder released his best album in years so might have something yet to say on the matter.)





5. Gorillaz: 'DARE' (Urban legend - not to be confused with John above - has it that this sensational track was originally titled 'Rare' but vocalist Shaun Ryder couldn't pronounce it. Has that man ever let us down?!?)






4. KT Tunstall: 'Black Horse & The Cherry Tree' (To look at her, you wouldn't think she was capable of getting the words out, yet alone sing them with such ferocity. Amazing live, and we'll be going again next week. Sweetest anecdote of the year: after watching her in concert for an online mag, I asked her for her setlist...to which she laughed, said she hadn't bothered to do one and wrote it down on my notepad before rushing off for a curry. You wouldn't get that with Mariah Carey.)



3. Arcade Fire: 'Wake Up' (If you were lucky enough to see U2 live in 2005 and wondered what music they came onto the stage with then wonder no more. This achieves more in its 5 minutes than most bands manage in 5 years.)



2. Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx: 'Gold Digger' (Lyrically astute - it has the audacity to mention the insurance company Geico in its rap for Christ's sake - and good old fashioned fun to boot, this was guaranteed, as they say, to bring the house down whenever it was played. Which was seemingly every hour.)



1. Rilo Kiley: 'Portions For Foxes' (Of course, not nearly enough people heard this but it was pretty much the perfect single. 'Portions For Foxes' has an intro to die for, is brutally honest and when Jenny Lewis sings, "baby I'm bad news", well, put it like this, you ain't gonna stop listening.