Tracks of the Year (Nat)

As promised in my now MIA Best Albums post I now present my top tracks of the year. Lets hope this one survives the blog wilderness. Please note that I'm feeling a little lazy and I have put all the tracks in one easy access ZIP file.

Tracks of the Year (Nat)

Young Love - Mystery Jets featuring Laura Marling



A quaint little English ditty about love made all that much sweeter with a cameo from Laura Marling and an inventive film clip.

Mr Carter - Lil' Wayne featuring Jay-Z


From an album full of standouts this one rises above the rest. Just Blaze lays down the best chipmunk soul since The College Dropout while Jay-Z pretends to pass the torch too his fiercest rival.

Hold On - Holy Ghost!


Nu/new/neu disco, or what ever the hell you want call it, exploded this year. Holy Ghost! were at the forefront with this pop space synth workout.

My Turn - Basement Jaxx


While the Jaxx have been knocking out interesting LP's for years now nothing has ever come close to their debut. Until now. My Turn captures is a more restrained side of the pair and uses the considerable talents of Devonte Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion to craft a tasty slice of emo electro.

Tear You Down - Brookes Brothers


Until recently High Contrast was the king of drum and bass single and remix. New comers Brookes Brothers have been kicking around for a while but it was this soul sampling banger which put them on the map and threatened to turn BW member Alex into a bonafide candy raver.

Pjanoo - Eric Prydz


Pjanoo was everywhere this year. With a huge showing at both Miami and Ibiza as well as remixes from Fred Falke and BW favourite High Contrast. All white noise, huge build ups and THAT piano line shit was guaranteed to get you reaching for the lasers.

Frayed - Hermitude/ Don't Mind - Calibre


These songs sit together as tracks that emit a certain mood. They both use dusty piano lines and muffled soul vocal to create beautiful emotive music. Deep.

Golden Cage - The Whitest Boy Alive (Fred Falke Remix)



Hands down my track of the year. Shimmering synths, clean drums and dash of french touch mixed with naked vocals of Erlend Oye. Audio bliss. Enjoy the amazing film clip for the original above.

Tracks of the Year (Nat)

Don't tell anyone what we've got going on

Easter saw the release of Mystery Jets second full-length: Twenty One. From the sirens at the beginning of the slamming opener Hideaway, until the last keys of 21 the proceedings will have you tooling around in your personal dance space. There's their massive single at the moment, Young Love, featuring the dulcet tones of Laura Marling, the Buckley-esque Flakes, which was an iTunes free download last year, and the entertaining tuneful kick of Two Doors Down (a live version of which can be found below).
Other highlights include MJ (which donates the post title), Umbrellahead and Half in Love with Elizabeth (guess you can see by now where this one is going since I've already acclaimed more than half the 12 songs on the album!)
Unfortunately, for mine, somewhere around the end of Hand Me Down (which is also a splendid listen), Twenty One loses a bit of its lustre. I'm not quite sure whether it's the lack of "franticity" that sits at the top of the album, but I do know that it is does little to dull what is an otherwise very strong showing.

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (BBC 6Music Session)
Mystery Jets - Young Love (BBC 6Music Session)

MySpace | Website