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.

Top 10 Tracks of June 2013.

10
You & I
Crystal Fighters

In characteristically chirpy form, "You & I" has "festival favourite" written all over it, as much as it sounds like there is moss growing on the instruments. A sunny synth hook lifts the track at its climax and it stays at that level of euphoria for its duration.

9
Music Is Life
Elliphant

Something a bit more commercial from our favourite eccentric rasta-Swedish female rapper. It's a bit Gwen Stefani, a bit Nicki Minaj, very 90s and very catchy. Elliphant is the very definition of an artist - she doesn't limit herself to one style of music, because she's lucky enough that whatever she touches will sound like her. Heir to M.I.A?

8
You Changed (feat. Beyonce & Michelle)
Kelly Rowland

"Ladies y'all wanna do it again?" chirps up Beyonce playfully as the ridiculously fun "You've Changed" kicks in. The answer is resolutely yes, and although the "Love On Top" soul/funk swagger of the song suits Ms Carter the best, hearing the three of them lampoon the same man, as three independent strong black woman, rather than the girls of their DC heyday, serves as a much better swansong than the dull "Nuclear".

7
Pendulum
Pure Bathing Culture

A lot of shoegazey dreampop makes the rounds every summer, but Pure Bathing Culture actually live up to their name. Unafraid to be anthemic, the song vaguely recalls Beach House's emotional last two records, but unlike that band, PBC aren't afraid to drop the melancholy altogether, and "Pendulum"'s tapestry of guitars is nothing less than euphoric.

6
Tongues feat. Kopps
Joywave

Bringing some swagger to a Hot Chip-esque disco sound, Joywave's "Tongues" has a jagged electropop beat and a quirky and instantly recognisable vocal hook that has "advert phenomenon" written all over it. There are only a handful of tracks that can boast "indie classic" before time has passed, but this is one track that instantly declares it's here to stay.

5
Help Me Lose My Mind feat. London Grammar
Disclosure

Say what you like about Disclosure, they've got their finger right on the zeitgeist's pulse. 2013 newcomers London Grammar are absurdly talented songwriters with an absurdly talented singer, Hannah Reid. The band released the time-stands-still-while-it-plays ballad "Hey Now" in January, built up a crazy amount of online and underground hype, but not enough to warrant having "made it" (but enough to suggest they probably will), and lo-and-behold, just 6 months later, men of the moment Disclosure have got that ethereal, haunting voice on the closing track of their record. It's a collaboration that luckily benefits them both. Hannah's voice is always wonderful, goes without saying, but Disclosure drop a silky yet subdued beat and liquid bassline that Ms Reid soars gently above, and the track is amoungst the best of both groups' catalogues.

4
Chasing Shadows
Frankmusik

After his tamer US-friendly sophomore effort, Frankmusik's third record "Between" is a glorious return to crazy. Back are the slightly unhinged Freddie Mercury excursions into ridiculously high falsetto, back are the hypertechnopop beats and burbling synths, and most importantly, back is the fun. Sporting a Passion Pit-esque cutesy vocal sample and probably the most joyous chorus of his since "Confusion Girl", "Did Love" is my personal favourite off the record, BUT the real emotional peak of the record comes with it's opening track, the melodramatic, thunderously over the top power ballad "Chasing Shadows", which is one of the most poignant tracks the man has ever written.

3
American Girl
Bonnie McKee

Singer/songwriter Bonnie McKee's cheesy powerpop anthem "American Girl" sounds a lot like Katy Perry and Ke$ha. And so it should. She's been writing for them for years. "American Girl", free to download by the way, unheard of for a song of this calibre (at least in terms of $$$), is a greatest hits of every hook she has (most likely) been behind over the last 5 years. "I'll never say that I'm sorry, I am an American Girl" she yells at the climax, and knowing how long the 29-year old has been working behind the scenes, it's impossible not to be won over. She's written so many big "Teenage Dream" style songs over the years, she deserves to keep one for herself. And it's a belter. And if that's not enough, check out the cameo-saturated video - she's certainly not short on popstar references.

2
Defeated No More feat. Ed Macfarlane
Disclosure

Something a little experimental but thoroughly brilliant from the Disclosure boys. Friendly Fires' Ed Macfarlane's performance on the slightly slower and lustrous "Defeated No More" is so distinct that the track feels like a full blown Friendly Fires collaboration. It's warm pulsating pads and tropical, soulful vibe meshes with the dance duo's deep house basslines and crisp beats like a match made in Ibiza heaven. The longest track on the album, and appropriately so, as its glorious "Pala" groove gets the time to breathe it deserves.

1
High Society
Betty Who

Hailing from Australia, who seem to be doing pretty well for themselves economically whilst the rest of us weep into our Poundland Rice Krispies, it's no wonder Betty Who sounds so elated. But the dramatic synthpop Ms Who brings overseas is downright infectious, and "High Society" has the euphoric energy to make even the most dreary of us feel high on life. But in fact, it's the burbling basslines taken from Robyn's best shouts, hooks the size of China and a rally for us all to drink "Chardonnay through the day". It's a joyous slice of pop heaven that'll make any europop fan's heart skip a beat, and there's plenty more where that came from on her FREE "The Movement" EP, available to download on her website.