Top 50 Singles of 2009: 15-11

15. Shakira - She-Wolf



A defining moment in a career filled with them, this strange, seductive dance track ushered in a new era for Shakira.

14. Miley Cyrus - Party In The USA



Proving she’s more than a (sometimes obnoxious) TV personality, this was the song of the Summer, even if you weren’t a Cyrus fan. Just try to resist that chorus.

13. Cinema Bizarre - I Came 2 Party



One of the more unusual RedOne productions of 2009, the former Tokio Hotel soundalikes recorded this booming club track and instantly gained a new fan.

12. Bodies Without Organs - Right Here, Right Now



The aural successor to Chariots Of Fire, this started off the new album with a bang and possesses one of the group’s catchiest, poppiest hooks yet.

11. Alexander Rybak - Fairytale



An oddball on the countdown, just as it was in Eurovision. Sometimes oddballs are good, and in this case a fiddle played with the vigor of an electric guitar is even better than good.

Top 20 Albums of 2009: 8-7

8. Alphabeat - The Spell



Alphabeat changed up their sound with this second album, which is always dangerous, especially when the first one was such a success. For the follow-up, they amped up the electronic elements and took inspiration from 90’s dance music. The result is a remarkably consistent album that, song-for-song, is probably better than their debut. It doesn’t have the staggering highs of the last one, but it’s a different kind of album and one that grows with time. Bottom line is that this group is one of the best pop bands out there, and they only cemented that fact in 2009.

Myspace

7. Bodies Without Organs - Big Science



What to say about BWO that hasn’t been said already? Four albums in and they remain as polished and immediate as ever. They’ve never released a bad album, so it’s easy to get complacent about their music and forget that compared to anything else in the genre, they are the ones to beat. Big Science might just be their best work yet. Though it didn’t possess the number of hit singles of albums past, it’s an excellent batch of songs that veer ever so slightly in the sci-fi direction, which is always a plus for me.

Myspace