The penultimate part of our Tracks rundown today features bands such as The Gaslight Anthem, Dead Confederate and Hurts.
Once you’ve been through this part of our list, why not do us a favour and recommend your own stand-outs from 2010. Leave us a comment below telling us what has rocked your 2010 to be in with a chance of winning a selection of prizes from acts featured on our own rundown.
20: The Vaccines – Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
Whether they prove to warrant the current hysteria is open to debate, but anyone who isn’t a stranger to drunken singing in some dark indie nightclub won’t be able to resist this 90 second riot.
19: Pulled Apart By Horses – I Punched a Lion In The Throat
Another Leeds-spawned horde of crazy noise makers craft this heroically named mauler in the name of claustrophobic rooms housing broken bodies and snarling raw punk mayhem.
18: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Time Of The Season
Like ‘Fairytale Of New York’, this is a classic for any time of the year, and with more X Factor dominance due, if there was any sense in the current charts this would be the UK’s Christmas Number One.
17: The Gaslight Anthem – The Diamond Church Street Choir
With an ever-growing fanbase built largely around word of mouth acclaim, this single’s soul-tinged vibe and striking melody shows perfectly just what has got tongues wagging over the past few years.
16: Fang Island – Daisy
Taken from the US band’s self-titled debut album, the barely-intelligible vocals, handclaps and driving rhythm all adds up to a spaced out take on progressive rock.
15: Hurts – Wonderful Life
Manchester duo Hurts have achieved the holy grail of critical and commercial success this year, marrying new wave with electro to produce some sterling material.
14: Dead Confederate – Giving It All Away
The hazy guitars underpin a track which is as powerful as it is graceful and features a refrain which will be swimming around in your head long after the final notes have faded away.
13: The Joy Formidable – Popinjay
Right from the punchy opening guitars, ‘Popinjay’ builds at relentless pace into one of the most eye-catching singles of 2010, and is due to feature on the band’s debut full length album early next year.
12: Spirit Spine – Crashers
A stunning track which sounds as though David Byrne has locked himself away in a room under instruction to produce something great with nothing but a laptop and pro-tools.
11: Male Bonding – Year’s Not Long
It takes a lot to stand out from the crowd on Sub Pop records, but since ‘Year’s Not Long’ is only one of many tracks in Male Bonding’s arsenal of punk-inspired vehemence, they easily do just that.
Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2010 – The Tracks: 30-21