The Clash Top 40 of 2008: numbers 20-11

We’re well and truly approaching the business end of out Top 40 countdown of the best tracks of 2008.

Parts one and two have presented to the fore a great number of underground successes, selling the various delicious delights of Dananananaykroyd, High Places, No Age, Deerhunter and Chairlift. But here we’re encountering a slew of recognised sorts, each of whom have delivered an effort you guys deem worthy of a top 20 slot.

Read our commentary on numbers 40 to 21 by clicking to part one HERE and part two HERE; alternatively catch up with what’s already run below…

21 Benga & Coki – ‘The Night’
22 Chairlift – ‘Bruises’
23 Late Of The Pier – ‘Heartbeat’
24 Dananananaykroyd – ‘Pink Sabbath’
25 Fuck Buttons – ‘Bright Tomorrow’
26 No Age – ‘Teen Creeps’
27 Foals – ‘Cassius’
28 Friendly Fires – ‘Paris’
29 Deerhunter – ‘Nothing Ever Happened’
30 Bon Iver – ‘Wolves’
31 Johnny Foreigner – ‘Salt, Peppa & Spinderella’
32 My Morning Jacket – ‘Highly Suspicious’
33 Roots Manuva – ‘Buff Nuff’
34 Coldplay – ‘Viva La Vida’
35 Black Lips – ‘Bad Kids’
36 High Places – ‘From Stardust To Sentience’
37 Fake Blood – ‘Mars’
38 Lovvers – ‘No Romantics’
39 Cats In Paris – ‘Foxes’
40 Mogwai – ‘BatCat’

Without further ado, onwards…

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20: Mystery Jets – ‘Young Love’

After muddling minds with their prog-pop debut ‘Making Dens’, London scamps Mystery Jets (pictured) returned in 2008 with an album blissfully indebted to the sweet sounds of the ‘80s, featuring its share of tender love songs set to a wickedly addictive beat. ‘Young Love’ was the heads-up single for its ‘Twenty One’ parent album, immediately informing admirers of how far the ambitious collective had flown from the nest: this was slick experimentation, always underpinned by sensibilities designed for the top of the charts. Guided by producer Erol Alkan, ‘Twenty One’ ranks among the year’s best albums (check issue 33 of Clash to see where it lands in our albums top 40!), and this Laura Marling-featuring number’s a highlight from it.
(Read our recent interview with Laura Marling HERE)

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19: Kid Cudi – ‘Night & Day’ (Crookers remix)

Debut single you say? Well Kid Cudi is out of the sonic blocks and (with the help of a diptych of Italian fidget house producers named Crookers) has forged one of the most clamoured-for club smashes of the year. Warblin’ and wonky, this bass beast rides high with Cudi’s call to 24-hour party people bobbing sveltely on the top… if you’ve not heard this yet then post us a card from the moon. Darkside! (Matthew Bennett)

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18: Oasis – ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’

Ol’ walking gobs the Gallaghers talked up their latest album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ in their tried and tested fashion – it’s as good as ‘Definitely Maybe’, of course it is – but in this lead single they had a bona-fide potential classic of their catalogue. ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’ finds the brothers and their reliable cohorts Gem and Andy operating on a new level of expression, sidelining the grunting terrace chant-along shtick to produce a real rollicking belter of a single, with Liam on some of the best vocal form of the band’s long career. The song rolls along at a rapid pace, ditching clichéd anthemics for a shock-and-awe undercut that caught many a critic unawares. It’s the organ that makes it that bit more special, bubbling just beneath the surface bombast.
(Read interviews with all four members HERE)

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17: DJ Mujava – ‘Township Funk’

Strange synth squeals and silky dance moves make this a contender for track of the year in the broad church of dance music. It’s been doing the rounds for a while – you may have heard it in 2007 – but in the past twelve months South African producer DJ Mujava’s ‘Township Funk’ has become such a fixture on DJ playlists that it simply can’t be ignored, and its rotation on the Clash stereo suggests we’ve fallen for its quirky charms. Expect its star to ascend higher still over the next six months as many a mix CD finds a place for it amongst rather less satisfying club bangers.
(Read our recent interview with DJ Mujava HERE)

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16: Kanye West – ‘Love Lockdown’

“I was put on Earth to make magic,” Kanye told us – read the interview in issue 33 of the magazine – and this lead single for his ‘808s & Heartbreak’ album certainly showcased the man’s golden touch – he doesn’t even need to rap on his tracks anymore, and still the crowds go crazy. Exhibiting almost tribal percussion, alongside heavily effect-laden vocals from West, the track’s departure from the man’s normal comfort zone confused certain fans, and West has actually re-recorded the song a couple of times to iron out the creases. The final, finished version is one of West’s best, deserving to rank alongside the likes of ‘Gold Digger’ and ‘Touch The Sky’ – different of approach it may be, but the impact’s as impressive.
(Read our review of ‘808s & Heartbreak’ HERE)

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15: Crystal Castles – ‘Courtship Dating’

Renowned rhythm thieves Crystal Castles mixed HEALTH-sourced screams with JT and Fiddy’s ‘AYO Technology’ to create one of the year’s most unlikely floor-fillers, a glitchy, yelping robo-stomper full of buzzes and bleeps and all manner of 8-bit trickery and sampling tomfoolery. Their self-titled album got on our tits after a while, truth be told, but standout picks like ‘Courtship Dating’ and the also-excellent ‘Vanished’ (find it on our issue 33 covermount CD) ensure it’s always in the record bag when Clash heads out on DJing duty. Come to think of it, so is ‘AYO Technology’…

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14: Dizzee Rascal, Calvin Harris, Chrome – ‘Dance Wiv Me’

Number one with a bullet on the UK singles chart this summer, ‘Dance Wiv Me’ is east London grime boy Dizzee’s greatest success yet on the short-play front, and a great part of the track’s appeal is Scottish retro-electro merchant Harris’ killer beat – it doesn’t so much stick in your head as bore a hole deep into your body and rest there, like a friendly tumour. That the track’s video was filmed at the Notting Hill Arts Club, home of Clash’s new Saturday Social events (kicking off on December 13 – details HERE), just makes us like it more. Aesthetics aside, the tracks catchiness is annoyingly well realised, and Harris’ devilishly deadpan rhymes complement Dizzee’s raspy raps superbly. A pop classic of the year.

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13: Elbow – ‘Grounds For Divorce’

With ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ impressing the Mercury Prize judges and their live shows selling out in record time, 2008’s been a great year for grizzly indie veterans Elbow. ‘Grounds For Divorce’ possesses a randy swagger, all crotch-thrusting cockiness one moment and sympathetic introspection the next. It’s the kind of track that could easily fit on the Grinderman album of last year, the product of creative minds rediscovering a raw spark to their songwriting and using their accumulated experience to execute its delivery with perfect harmony. Accessibly raucous, it’s not the most easy-on-the-ear effort on ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ given its boisterous bravado, but as an attention-grabbing single it’s pretty much faultless.

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12: Gang Gang Dance featuring Tinchy Stryder – ‘Princes’

When experimental Brooklyn rockers Gang Gang Dance revealed that they were to work with east London grime MC Tinchy Stryder – who’s also, oddly enough, collaborated with pop puppet Craig David – on a track for their ‘Saint Dymphna’ album, nobody really had the foggiest what the end result would be. Turns out it’s one of the best tracks of 2008, a weird mix of rapid-fire raps and otherworldly vocals beyond discernable identification, set to percussion that pounds away at the senses ‘til all resistance is bludgeoned into a bloody pulp. The song's a sore thumb on its parent LP, Stryder’s contributions ensuring it’s one to stick in the memory once playback’s complete, but it doesn’t lessen the record’s overall quality any, and works just as effectively as a standalone track.

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11: Hot Chip – ‘Ready For The Floor’

Solid-gold stuff from Alexis Taylor and company, and probably their biggest hit to date. Lifted from Hot Chip’s fourth album ‘Made In The Dark’, ‘Ready For The Floor’ was wrongly written about in some sections of the music press as being originally penned for Kylie Minogue; turns out that Taylor merely commented once that if he was ever to submit a song to the princess of pop, it’d be this one. It’s certainly among the group’s most instantaneous efforts, and would sound equally sweet in the hands of a megastar artist – but by keeping it to themselves Hot Chip have made become household names, even if fame and fortune ‘proper’ will probably always elude them. You can’t create perfect scatterbrain dance music without taking a few commercial dents, after all. The “number one guy” line, since you asked, is a reference to Tim Burton’s first Batman movie… like the video’s not a massive giveaway.

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Numbers 10 to 6 counted down tomorrow, here on ClashMusic.com.

read part one – 40-31 – HERE
Read part two – 30-21 – HERE