Welcome to the nedrichards.com christmas countdown. 10 exhaustively selected songs that have been in heavy rotation on my playlist this year relayed to you by the world of fun that is the internet.

• The New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno. There is only one line from this that means anything, “listening too long, to one song”, a perfect description of the best song of the year.
• The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies). The joy of this is in the half beat pauses between the driving drums and the lyrics, that space is the rebellion from indie rock. This year proved conclusively that the Canadians have all the best tunes.
• Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone. It would appear that TV talent shows are not the behinghted evil we had first thought. Girls Aloud and then this? Works for me.
• Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For. A very fine song for any procrastinator.; thus a very fine song for me. There was a point earlier this year, when I was waiting around for things to happen, that I would play this every time I arrived at the station as it lasts exactly as long as my walk home. Others may be somewhat disturbed by the total identification with any song that includes the line: “you’re a super hot female”, in retrospect so am I.
• MIA - 10 Dollar. I think the Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape is slightly better, or at least the versions of the album songs that are on it are better, but hot damn, I’ve never enjoyed a song about the evils of child prostitution so much.
• The Fiery Furnaces - Duffer St. George. The Fiery Furnaces tell stories in songs, this is a song about London. I like London. Also one of the few times any American will say ‘mobile’ rather than ‘cellphone’ and thus to be cherished.
• Jamie Lidell - Multiply. Who knew that white men could make soul? And other music too, I would never have listened to this without DRM free digital downloads from bleep.com, good work Warp.
• LCD Soundsystem - Movement. At first I thought that only their singles were any good and was vastly underwhelmed by the album. Then I changed my mind and realised how good it was. Genre’s are tricky things to adapt to.
• Stina Nordenstam - A Walk In The Park. This came out years ago but I only really heard it this year. Them nordics really do make good music that could be described as ‘haunting’.
• Vitalic - Poney Part 1. It was a tossup between this and ‘My Friend Dario’ from the same album, in the end this won purely becuase I like dancing to it better. Propulsive.