singles of the year: readers poll results (part IV of V)

Singles of the year: #10–6

10

Florence & The Machine
‘Dog Days Are Over’
Moshi Moshi 

‘Dog Days Are Over’ is all about dynamics, cresting over huge percussion that builds up from simple handclaps, tumbling in and out of spookily echoing vacuums, but above all resting on Florence’s swooping, thundering vocals. Inspired by a sign Florence saw on Waterloo Bridge by contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone, it’s a vivid little changeling of a song, a celebration of those times when we break out of stagnancy and yield to life’s wild ride. Or, y’know, join some freaky forest cult like in the video. From the 7″/download single ‘Dog Days Are Over’/'You Got The Love’ (Moshi Moshi, 2008).

 

9

Nina Nastasia
‘What She Doesn’t Know’
FatCat

Five albums into her career, Nina Nastasia finally issued her first ever single, and what a single it is. An outtake from the recording sessions for 2006’s On Leaving, ‘What She Doesn’t Know’ is yet another of Nina’s hushed but vivid character studies – this time of an ‘other woman’ coolly examining the predicament of her affair – and hums with a yearning to reveal the true force of her feelings. “I couldn’t think of what to say,” she sighs, resigning herself to keeping it secret. Poignant and quietly stunning. From the 7″/download single ‘What She Doesn’t Know’/'Your Red Nose’ (FatCat, 2008).

 

8

Jolie Holland
‘Mexico City’
Anti-

‘Mexico City’ is Jolie Holland at her best. Cleverly embodying the spirit of Beat Generation muse Joan Vollmer – before her shocking accidental death at the hands of her gay common-law husband William S Burroughs in the titular metropolis – she weaves a deceptively upbeat tale of drug-fuelled camaraderie with Edie Parker and Jack Kerouac, laced with regret and a sense of longing. From the album The Living & The Dead (Anti-, 2008).

FREE MP3: Jolie Holland, ‘Mexico City‘ [thanks to Stereogum]

 

7

Björk feat. Antony
‘The Dull Flame Of Desire’
One Little Indian

This slow-burning romantic epic with its shifting oceans of brass seemed an unlikely candidate for either a single release or a remix project when Volta first dropped last year, but it kind of made sense as the fifth single. (Who gets five singles from an album these days anyway?). The Modeselektor remixes (’For Girls’ and ‘For Boys’) are pretty good but Sinden’s reworking of the Timbaland collaboration ‘Innocence’ is a waste of vinyl/hard drive space. From the album Volta (One Little Indian, 2007).

 

6

Feist
‘I Feel It All’
Universal 

Yet another evergreen song choice from Feist’s all-conquering third album, ‘I Feel It All’ was always an obvious single and a chartworthy successor to the iPod-shifting megahit ‘1234′. Its strong showing in our poll is not really surprising. Feist’s label have been pushing The Reminder just as hard in 2008 as they did in 2007, too much, perhaps, for even Leslie herself. When she recently retreated to plot her next move the label’s response was to reissue the album with a bonus disc of remixes and other extras. Enjoy your rest Feist, we suspect you’re gonna need it. From the album The Reminder (Universal, 2007).

FREE MP3: Feist, ‘I Feel It All‘ [Gonzales remix]

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, antony, best of 2008, bjork, feist, florence and the machine, jolie holland, nina nastasia

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 1:42 pm and is filed under All A/V, feature, retrospective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.