Top 10 Tracks of July 2013.

10

Heartbeat Overdrive

Ballet School

"Heartbeat Overdrive", the debut single from Berlin new wavers Ballet School, is a triumphant and glorious track that sounds delirious and atmospheric enough to please shoegazers and funky and danceable enough to please synthpoppers. 

9

Airglow Fires

Lone

Lone brings his gorgeous slightly wonky ethereal sound to the house playground, and judging by it's swanky beats and sleek 90s chords, it's an area he was born to play in.

8
Martial Law
Venkman

The debut single by Midlands newcomers Venkman, "Martial Law", mixes jittery guitars and a fiddly rhythm section with the playful yet disarming dual vocal of band mastermind James Sutton and lead vocalist Kate McQuaide. Yet despite the chaos, the track restrains itself just enough to carry a masterful pop melody and a gorgeous tapestry of vocal and guitar-peggios at its climax.

7
Sinners
Lauren Aquilina

18 year old UK singer/songwriter Lauren Aquilina has a charm that more cryptic and pretentious songwriters could never hope to exhude. On latest single "Sinners", Lauren is lyrically very raw and sometimes charmingly clumsy - "let's be sinners to be saints" - but her earnest, youthful voice makes every awkward rhyming pair sound feasible and even as poignant as intended.

6
Thinking Of You
The Night VI

Melancholic and majestic indie lament from UK's The Night VI. Lying somewhere between the hooks of Haim and the sophisticated post rock tapestries of London Grammar, "Thinking Of You"'s heartbreaking yet incidental refrain "I lay low in my hotel room, thinking of you" is one that's hard to shift from your brain once you've had your heart broken by it.

5
I'll Be Around
Empire Of The Sun

Returning with a lush sophomore album, Empire Of The Sun nearly reach the peak of "Walking On A Dream" for a second time with the ethereal, Balearic "I'll Be Around". Slide guitars swoon and beats humbly shuffle in the background, as Luke Steele conversationally assures "I've made up my mind, I will be around for a while". As long as we get at least one song as gorgeous as this per album, let's hope he's true to his word.

4
Global Concepts
Robert Delong

The bubbly verses of Robert Delong's latest single "Global Concepts" seem relatively tame and full of self doubting questions, but when DeLong vows to "make you fucking dance" all hell breaks loose. An obnoxiously loud Moombahton synth lead squirms like an earthworm on the pavement, and a raw, tribal drum beat pounds until it causes cracks to form.

3
Sober
Elli Ingram

Elli Ingram would seem to tick a suspicious amount of boxes - the seductive brassy vocal stylings of Delilah, the ultra-cool sophistighetto demenour of Lana, and the honest and gritty lyrical flair of Adele - but still manages to come out on top with her own distinct identity. "Sober", and indeed the entire EP that this titular track leads, is light and casually soulful on the surface, with some charming brass licks here and there, but is undercut with dark subby bass and hip hop beats. Expect to hear much more from her in the coming 12 months.

2
Strong
London Grammar

On London Grammar's latest masterpiece (5 and counting) "Strong", singer Hannah Reid's voice carries the track much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I've never been so wrong" laments Reid, and we feel bit by bit, her and her band are gradually letting us into the flaws in their cautious but perfect world.

1
Wake Me Up
Avicii

If you were searching for this year's definitive dance anthem, you could do a lot worse than to stop your search here. Dropping the huge slamming chords in favour of happy-go-lucky strumming and deliriously cheery country melodies, "Wake Me Up" is where EDM meets Country, and the risk couldn't have paid off more perfectly. Aloe Blacc's voice is totally reinvented as a tool of country crooning, for which it couldn't be more suited.