No more singles anymore, as Hugh Cornwall might now say. As we are well into the digital age it makes sense to fall into line with most others and honour the best individual tracks of the year from now on (Well until something supersedes downloads anyway). So as well as singles there can be album tracks, live tracks and B sides, though I’m aiming to choose mainly tracks that were released as singles. And speaking of singles does anyone else apart from me still refer to them from time to time as 45’s? It’s quite sad to think that in 1980 you almost had to sell a million of these to top the chart for even a couple of weeks, nowadays its way less than ten thousand, and Top of the Pops has long gone. Anyway I digress, otherwise I’ll soon be moaning about the fact that Wagon Wheels have got smaller over the years, and Jimmy Tarbuck isn’t as funny as he used to be. So in very best Fluff Freeman Style here are my top 20 tracks of 2009.

20. Placebo – For what its Worth (Single taken from the Battle for the Sun album)
19. Depeche Mode – Wrong (Lead single from the patchy Sounds of the Universe album)
18. The Cribs – We share the same Skies (Ignore the Ignorant album track used as a theme on Match of the Day)
17. Doves – Jetstream (Download only single from Kingdom of Rust album)
16. Muse – United States of Eurasia (Best track from the Resistance album)
15. Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (Single from the Richey written Journal for plague Lovers)
14. Florence and the Machine – Kiss with a Fist (So so album Lungs but great track)
13. Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning (Humbug is an average album by their standards but excellent first single)
12. The XX – VCR (Track from debut album rips off of Glasvegas’ Geraldine but features use of a xylophone)
11. White Lies – Farewell to the Fairground (Single from To lose my Life)

10. Mastodon – The Czar (Epic lengthy and completely bonkers track from Crack the Skye)
09. Blur – Tender (Wasn’t sure whether to include live stuff but this was the defining moment of Glastonbury 2009. Find it on the
Sunday Times Blur Live free CD)
08. Soulsavers – Unbalanced Pieces (Mike Patton and Mark Lanegan together, a marriage made in heaven. Track taken from the album Broken)
07. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero (The band put their guitars away and do disco. Single from Its Blitz album)
06. Alice in Chains – Black gives way to Blue (Stunning tribute to Layne Staley. Title track from comeback album)

05. Doves – Kingdom of Rust (Go on a journey through north west England. Single and title track from album)
04. White Lies – Death (Best tune and live set ending track taken from debut album To lose my life)
03. Alice in Chains – Check my Brain (Rock song of the year. Single from Black gives way to Blue)
02. Kasabian – Fire (This is the Door’s Roadhouse Blues on steroids, with added Gospel singers. Single taken from West ryder pauper lunatic Asylum)
01. The Horrors – Sea within a Sea (Eight minutes of dark brooding rock evoking all the best bands of the eighties. This is the shoegaze Stairway to Heaven. Single taken from Primary Colours)

And of course I have – Here are all the above on a Spotify Playlist

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