The Best Fit Fifty: Tracks of 2011

But (and it’s a decent sized but, if you’ll excuse the crudity), the way in which we listen to music today is undeniably very different from the way in which we listened to music just a few years ago. Single sales might be collapsing, but with mp3 blogs still going strong and the cult of the DJ enjoying a resurgence, the stock of the individual track, as opposed to the album, seems to be on the rise.

That trend has been pretty well represented this year. While there have been dozens of albums deserving of your love, it seems like 2011 has been the year of the single – or, more accurately, of the single song. The last twelve months have seen some of our favourite artists honing the art of the discrete track to perfection, while a handful of newcomers have quietly birthed undeniable delights of their own. Some of the biggest albums of the year might have struggled to hold attention over the course of twelve songs – but the 50 beauties here have kept us rapt.

50. Kathleen Edwards – Sidecar

One for the lovers… or indeed, anyone with a penchant for glorious melodies smeared like butter over a power-pop backing. That’ll be anyone with a pulse, then. Forget its middle-of-the-road leanings and just enjoy it for what it is: Americana at its absolute finest. Guaranteed to stay floating around in the caverns of your brain for days on end.
-Richard Thane

49. Joe Goddard – Gabriel

Joe Goddard has enjoyed something of a creative burgeoning since Hot Chip went into hibernation. But if The 2 Bears provides a comedy outlet, his solo work is where the floor-fillers are made. A relentless, UK funky-indebted track that manages to simultaneously sound like an illicit pirate radio rip and the biggest pop song you’ve ever heard.
-Josh Hall

48. Kenton Slash Demon – Daemon

Future disco from one half of the Copenhagen based quartet When Saints Go Machine. Think of Kenton Slash Demon as the alter-ego of When Saints’ tightly wound electronica. With ‘Daemon’, they’ve created a sprawling, arms aloft floor filler with one of the greatest drops of 2011. Add to that an irresistible vocal line that sounds like the ghost of Arthur Russell and a bass line so fat you could feast off it for weeks – you’ve got yourself the perfect recipe. Dig in.
-Richard Thane

47. Kurt Vile – Puppet To The Man

“Sometimes I get stuck in a rut too, it’s ok girlfreeeeynd” – sneers Kurt Vile over one of the most irresistible guitar motif’s heard in the past twelve months. A highlight on a sure fire future classic album Smoke Ring For My Halo, ‘Puppet To The Man’ is a masterclass in lazy swagger and sees Vile at his nonchalant best. Also: Hands down the best haircut of 2011. There’s magic in them follicles, kids.
-Richard Thane

46. Nicola Roberts – Beat Of My Drum

The first fruits from a debut solo album that didn’t quite deliver, there’s no doubt that ‘Beat Of My Drum’ is an absolute beast and one that saw Miss Roberts glide effortlessly from the pages of HEAT magazine to the NME in one flawless swoop. She’s secretly always been everyone’s favourite Girls Aloud member and ‘Beat Of My Drum’ – for a short period of time at least – saw Nicola crowned as the UK’s princess of snotty-nosed pop music. Wherever your musical loyalties lie, there’s no doubt that this is a bonafide classic pop gem.
-Richard Thane

45. Seams – Focus Energy

If you’ve read The Line Of Best Fit more than a couple of times this year you’ll have noticed that Seams is basically our house producer (badum-tish). ‘Focus Energy’ seemed to foreshadow his eventual move to Berlin, with the focus shifted firmly towards the dancefloor. Has been referred to as a ‘banger’ by some people with less self-awareness than is strictly healthy.
-Josh Hall

44. AlunaGeorge – You Know You Like It

Great pure pop was a bit light on the ground in 2011. ‘You Know You Like It’ is, perhaps, rather too bass-inflected to be classed as truly ‘pure’, but it is a good indication of where we should be looking for the best pop music of 2012. Check out the predictably great Lapalux rework too.
-Josh Hall

43. And So I Watch You From Afar – 7 Billion People All Alive At Once

There really are no two ways about it: post-rock isn’t cool. It’s pretty difficult to make beards and odd time signatures seem like a desirable lifestyle choice, but ASIWYFA have somehow managed it. ‘7 Billion…’ is the sound of a gang at the height of their powers; the music of bittersweet camaraderie. My most-played track of the year by orders of magnitude.
-Josh Hall

42. Loney Dear – I Dreamed About You

The penultimate track on Loney Dear’s sixth full length Hall Music, ‘I Dreamed About You’ sees Emil Svanängen in usual heartbreak mode. Whilst the song is best heard within the context of the full album to appreciate its majesty, for the casual listener this is the perfect introduction to the magical world that Svanängen inhabits. Charming, earnest and utterly delightful - by the end of its three and a half short minutes, there’s not a dry eye in the house.
-Richard Thane

41. Dauwd – Shimmer

A favourite of the soon to be much-missed Gilles Peterson, ‘Shimmer’ is the best release to date from one of the most exciting producers in the country. Woozy, wide-eyed melancholia of the very highest order.
-Josh Hall

40. Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers

Before the pitiful misogyny, pre-teen immaturity, and try-hard photographer baiting, there was this. Fundamentally unsettling, totally gripping, and with the best video of the year.
-Josh Hall

39. Laura Marling – Sophia

For an artist still so young and seemingly timid in appearance, ‘Sophia’ was an absolute ball buster of a song and without question cemented Marling as one of the UK’s most cherished folk acts. Her voice infinitely more mature than her 21 years would ever suggest, the world weary introduction slowly builds into a towering kiss-off – a giant “fuck you” to the none believers (- me included). The world, it would seem, is hers for the taking. And who are we to argue?
-Richard Thane

38. WALLS – Sunporch

London duo WALLS outdid themselves with ‘Sunporch’, the first track to appear from their sophmore album Coracle. It’s a song which rises and falls in all the right places, with masterfully crafted processed noises and beats wrapped ingeniously around live instrumentation. It’s a complex, technically impressive tune with a beating heart and a throbbing soul – a much more dance orientated sound than we’ve previously come across from the duo, but one which we’re very excited about getting to know more intimately.
-Francine Gorman

37. When Saints Go Machine – Let Me Love You For Tonight

A cover of Kariya’s 80s synth-rave track, the apparition of ‘Let Me Love You For Tonight’ marked not only a prelude to the release of the Danish four-piece’s album Konkylie, but provided further affirmation of this collective’s ability to add their inimitable touch to whatever they please. With stunning vocal work, a complete revamp of the original track’s time signature and a trademark sense of melancholy thrown into the mix, this song perfectly demonstrates why 2011 has been the year of When Saints Go Machine.
-Francine Gorman

36. Fanzine – Roman Holiday

I make a lot of mix-tapes (read: iPod playlists). Sometimes, they see the light of day and are burned to CD, handed to friends and loved ones with pride and a genuine hope that they will too grow to love the music contained within. ‘Roman Holiday’ has probably appeared on every playlist that’s been dreamt up in my tiny little mind in the six or so months it’s been kicking around the internets. “I can make it through the day because of you” croons lead singer Jock over a blistering guitar line, just before a sing-a-long chorus so huge (“please just come back and stay at home / don’t trust those shady guys from Rome”) interjects and cements itself into the mix-tape of your mind. Like, totally man.
-Richard Thane

35. Young Dreams – Young Dreams

Featuring in our carefully selected Ones To Watch 2012 list, it was this self-titled track from Young Dreams that instantly captured everyone’s attention. Mixing light, fluttering guitar work with wavering synths and choir style choruses, Young Dreams, although a very young proposition, prove that they’re well on their way to perfecting their craft. It’s an energetic song, it’s bright and it’s an extremely exciting peep at the things to come from the collective’s debut album, due out in 2012.
-Francine Gorman

34. Apparat – Black Water

When we featured this track as a Song of the Day in June, we knew it’d go down well. ‘Black Water’ very quickly became one of the most listened to tracks in the history of the SOTD feature and it’s easy to see why. One of the softest, most melodic and downright sublime tracks to have been created by the Apparat camp to date, ‘Black Water’ is an intense crescendo of raindrops, ringing synths, reverberating percussion and of course, Sascha Ring’s stunning vocal. This track is tender, it’s delicate and it’s completely beautiful.
-Francine Gorman

33. Vanbot – Make Me, Break Me

Oh well here’s a slender anthem if ever there was one. On paper, Ester Ideskog may come across as a more ‘vulnerable Robyn’ but where ‘Make Me, Break Me’ is concerned there is nothing but absolute defiance and cocksure belief. Slinky synths cozy up to Ideskog’s sweeter than honey croon over a beatific track that – in a just world – would be a global smash of epic proportion. This Stockholm based lass is fast on the rise and after your affections. Starting from now…
-Richard Thane

32. Frank Ocean – Novacene

Whilst it might not be as shocking in subject matter as some Odd Future numbers – ie: nobody gets murdered, raped or called a faggot – the excellent ‘Novocane’ does at least see Frank Ocean getting extremely high with a porn star he meets at a Jay Z gig. What’s clever here though is his depiction of it all as a rather forlorn experience, suggesting a subtlety to the man that adds a whole new dimension to the OFWGKTA canon.
-Tom Hannan

31. Beat Connection – Silver Screen (Dreamtrak Diamond Sound remix)

One of only two remixes that ended up in the top fifty goes someway to describe the sheer magnitude of love we have for this track. London based producer Dreamtrak transforms the soft focus polaroid tones of the original into a technicolor delight and in turn creates the highlight of Beat Connection’s short career so far. Lovely.
-Richard Thane

30. The Weeknd – Wicked Games

If anyone’s going to change the ‘rap game’ over the next year then it’s definitely going to be The Weeknd and not Tyler, who shook things up a bit in 2011 releasing not one, but two brilliant mixtapes (expect a third quite soon) and warning off the sniff of record labels trying to rush a debut LP. This track ‘Wicked Games’, balancing perfectly along the line of sensual and seedy, is a great starter for anyone making a mixtape for a special someone this Christmas.
-Luke Morgan Britton

29. Bang On! – Got It

Scouse hip-hop mightn’t sound like the most likely success story – but Big Dada’s Bang On! is proof that the least probable of accents can birth fantastically exciting music. ‘Got It’ is the perfect summation of the rapper’s talents: it’s funny, it’s aggressive, and it’s fantastically well produced.
-Josh Hall

28. Psychologist – 1:1 (Best Fit Session)

In this stirring live session, Psychologist fluidly blend pulsing beats with the atmospheric elegance of a subtle string arrangement, before unleashing urgent vocals that gradually give way to soaring harmonies as the hypnotic song heads toward home. It’s a truly enthralling performance of a track that bristles with both insistence and inventiveness, and boldly reflects our agitated, disparate times.
-Erik Thompson

27. Wiley – Numbers In Action

Wiley’s a strange chap, no? When he’s not Ustreaming his shopping trips he seems to be either leaking his own records or starting interminable rows with people on Twitter. In his downtime, though, the original Eskiboy is still churning out perfectly formed pop gems like ‘Numbers In Action’ – a slightly uncanny track that combines bouncy-ball percussion with a delightfully nonchalant delivery.
-Josh Hall

26. Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)

The best single from the best pure pop record of the last five years, from one of the best pop stars in the world, supported by one of the most fucking ridiculous videos I’ve ever seen. It really doesn’t get better than this.
-Josh Hall

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25. Modeselektor ft Miss Platnum – Berlin

Party bands don’t get any bigger than Modeselektor. Monkeytown, their third record, was the final stop on a journey that’s seen them break down the walls of Berlin techno with an enormous bat made of fun. If ‘In Loving Memory’ was the sound of two Berghain acolytes, ‘Berlin’ is the sound of two big kids who refuse to grow up.
-Josh Hall

24. Zomby – Natalia’s Song

It’s a shame that Zomby is increasingly known better for cancelling shows than for making records. Dedication was one of the year’s best. Deconstructed almost to the point of collapse, it reached its unsettling peak early on with the stunning ‘Natalia’s Song’.
-Josh Hall

23. Connan Mockasin – Forever Dolphin Love

Connan Mockasin has an extraordinary talent. He manages to create whole worlds within his songs, filled to the brim with different textures, with beauty, adventure and sadness. The title track from his debut album Forever Dolphin Love is a perfect example of this. A ten minute venture through the colourful, bright mind of Mockasin, the song harbours bass lines as funky as his breakdowns are blissful. A truly original track.
-Francine Gorman

22. Azealia Banks – 212

One of my big regrets of 2011 was missing Azealia Banks’ show at Koko. How lovely it would, I imagine, have been to watch the crowd singing every word of a track laden with more tongue-in-cheek obscenity than any released this year. “Imma ruin you cunt” indeed.
-Josh Hall

21. Crushed Beaks – Sundogs

After the serrated-edge guitars of their early demos, Crushed Beaks’ debut single came as something of a surprise. Gone was the staccato, replaced with thick layers of swaddling reverb and arena sized drums. ‘Sun Dogs’ was written in a shed, recorded in a church, and mastered in Abbey Road – and fittingly, it sounds like the best garage band you’ve ever heard, playing in the biggest room you’ve ever seen.
-Josh Hall

20. Hudson Mohawke – Thunder Bay

If there’s one track that has defined our nights out in 2011, it must surely be ‘Thunder Bay’. It was virtually impossible to leave the house without hearing this for about six months – and with good reason. Brash, hilarious, arms-in-the-air fun.
-Josh Hall

19. Koreless – Up Down Up Down

Pictures did alright in 2011 then, eh? The South London label put out some of the most exciting dance music of the year – of which ‘Up Down Up Down’ was the standout. Built around the simplest of elements, this arpeggiated wonder is as intimidating as it is beautiful.
-Josh Hall

18. Caged Animals – Girls on Medication

A louche, sordid little number. An unnervingly frank confession of lust for an over-opiated young lady which also has one of the best choruses heard in 2011.
-Josh Hall

17. DELS – Shapeshift

‘Shapeshift’ was one of the highlights from an album chock full of hits. It’s everything that’s great about Dels in just under four minutes: it’s funny, charming, packed with lyrical flourishes and little adornments, and helped along by a completely unhinged Joe Goddard production – giving the Hot Chip man two entries in our list.
-Josh Hall

16. El Perro Del Mar – What Do You Expect

The August riots were political. The people on the streets during those extraordinary few days might not have been carrying placards, but make no mistake: those events were driven by politics, fuelled by poverty, and catalysed by the murder of a young black man – just one tragic event in a shameful litany of every-day degradation and oppression suffered by minority communities at the hands of the police. El Perro Del Mar did what so few others bothered to do, and took just a few minutes to listen to the people who live in those communities. When London starts to burn again next year, we’ll be wondering why politicians didn’t do the same.
-Josh Hall

15. Jessie Ware + Sampha – Valentine

There’s not much that could make up for the nauseating vulgarity of Valentine’s Day, but this pared-back bundle of unassuming keys and cute-but-not-cutesy harmonies gives it a good go. Lovely.
-Josh Hall

14. Icona Pop – Nights Like This

A call to arms so irresistible, where Icona Pop are concerned – resistance is futile. Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo craft a type of pop where sophistication and intelligence is delivered by the bucket load and hone enough natural sex appeal, flare and grace it’s borderline impossible not to be spellbound.
-Richard Thane

13. Wilco – Art Of Almost

The opening track of any new Wilco album is many a splendored thing. From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s ‘I Am Trying To Break Your Heart’ to A Ghost Is Born‘s ‘At Least That’s What You Said’ – this is a group that know how to make an entrance, and with ‘Art Of Almost’ they hands down created their finest work in over a decade. A tour-de-force of sonic density so intense and involving, come the end of its seven minutes (typically Nels Cline’s climatic ear bleeding, gut wrenching guitar solo) you’re left feeling battered, bruised and completely broken. The only thing that remains to do is suck it up and play the whole thing over (and over) again. Talk about a glutton for punishment.
-Richard Thane

12. Gwen Stefani – Luxurious

Well before everyone lost their shit over Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani was the ultimate 21st Century popstar. Here, her 2005 track is given a suitably luxurious sheen by Lapalux – unequivocally the remixer of 2011.
-Josh Hall

11. Girls – Alex

The San Fran duo’s second release Father, Son, Holy Ghost (third if you count their intermediary EP Broken Dreams Club, which you bloody well sure as it’s as great as the first) is an album that makes it rather hard work for lists such as it consists of nearly as many songs worthy enough of being featured as there are actual numbers on the tracklisting. But while single ‘Vomit’ illustrates a minor emotional turmoil and nearing schizophrenia domestic paranoia and successor ‘Honey Bunny’ contrasts it with a whip-crack of tongue-in-cheek sassiness, ‘Alex’ – cushioned between the two – balances these (bi)polar extremes perfectly, documenting Chris’ rather improbable pursuit of a girl in band who has lovely blue eyes, flowing brown hair and sadly but ever-so-predictably a boyfriend. Oh and I forgot that her name is also Alex, hence the title, meaning that no questions about the song has gone unanswered.
-Luke Morgan Britton

10. Peaking Lights – All The Sun That Shines

‘All The Sun That Shines’ the first single to be taken from the Wisconsin duo’s second album, 936, is a hypnotic and absorbing song, all the while retaining an endearing simplicity. It’s a track which perfectly represents its formative album – a song built on texture, and celebrating space. Masterfully combining live instruments with a carefully selected succession of electronic sounds and samples, this song is a mesmerising glimpse into the extraordinary and intense world of Peaking Lights.
-Francine Gorman

9. Bon Iver- Holocene

The delicate, mournful guitar melody hooks you before Justin Vernon even sings a note. And when he does, you’re done, game over – ‘Holocene’ has you completely. While Vernon’s inscrutable lyrics can guide you to a different emotional destination each time you listen, the fragile beauty of the song shines like an evocative beacon amidst the darker moments of the past year.
-Erik Thompson

8. Active Child – Hanging On

Pat Grossi has matured as a unique musical talent in a very short space of time. The promise of Active Child’s first EP – which was credible for its cute take on bedroom chillwave – bore ripe fruits on the breathtaking debut You Are All That I See.’ It was the standout track ‘Hanging On’ – tender, melancholy, heart-breaking – that signified Grossi’s in it for the long haul.
-Paul Bridgewater

7. Korallreven – As Young As Yesterday

The musical landscape of 2011 benefitted immensely from the sublime music of Korallreven. The expertly-crafted debut An Album by Korallreven was released nearly two years after their first single and marked Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjader as a solid force in forward-thinking Balearic-flavoured Scandi-dreampop.

The pre-lapserian ‘As Young As Yesterday’ was the second single to feature vocals from Taken By Trees’ Victoria Bergsman and its a playful high point of their musical output to date. More importantly, it’s the lynchpin that ties together the first side of the album.
-Paul Bridgewater

6. The War On Drugs – Come To The City

In an album as strong and consistently inspring as Slave Ambient, picking out a highlight is about as difficult as being forced to favour one of your own offspring. In fairness, Slave needs to be listened to as a complete work to fully appreciate the sonic density and widescreen euphoria that is contained within its 12 tracks. However, like most records, there is a centerpiece that holds everything together and in this instance it’s the sprawling ‘Come To The City’.

“Take me back to the place I’m from / past the farms and debris” proclaims WoD’s leader Adam Granduciel at the beginning of the track, offering a sort of ‘station approach’ setting to the song – a homecoming. Texture and heavily weighted atmospherics collide amongst the intertwined bass and drums whilst a droning synth gurgles underneath it all, bubbling away like a volcano about to erupt and, at the 1:45 mark does just that. An explosion of colour and noise; awe inspiring and completely brilliant.
-Richard Thane

5. Air France – It’s Good To Be Around You

Air France – whether intentionally or not – are born romantics; every word they write and every note they compose is fuelled by a soft-focused longing to feel loved, or be loved or, well, just love in general. Whether listened to in a packed out club or on the solitude of a nightbus, ‘It’s Good To Be Around’ you exudes a warmth so pure and real it kinda makes you believe anything is possible in life.
-Richard Thane

4. patten – Fire Dream

‘Fire Dream’ is the sound of the walls closing in on you. Thick, heavy, and dark, it’s like having your arteries slowly clogged with pseudo-house treacle. But, crucially, under the layers of gloom there’s one of the most oddly compulsive melodies of the year. Strange and beautiful.
-Josh Hall

3. Niki and The Dove – The Drummer

I would wager that the appeal of Scandinavian music is due in some part to a creative process that takes in a larger awareness of the organic world than most Western music. Just as Martin Hannett’s maverick production work with Joy Division or Happy Mondays was tinged by the urban, rust-coloured mood of an eighties northern city, it’s near-impossible to find a tune from the Nordic region that isn’t in some way affected by a heightened sense of the organic. After all, we’re all products of our surroundings, be they smog-stained skyscrapers or a stark, serene archipelago.

It’s the relationship between the organic and the synthetic that drives some of the best Swedish music and sits at the heart of what makes ‘The Drummer’ a definitive statement of intent for Niki and The Dove. Pulsating club-beats, a lyric dominated by themes of mortality, vulnerability and the the (wo)man-machine give birth within the sphere of pop-sensibility. And, of course, the statement was fleshed out with that wonderful video that captures some of the physical presence that Malin brings to Niki’s live shows.

It’s the song that probably represents the tipping point for Malin and Gustaf; the one that helped them make it onto the BBC Sound of 2012 list – as well as other numerous Ones to Watch lists (including our very own – two years in a row).
-Paul Bridgewater

2. I Break Horses – Hearts

‘Hearts’ gently eases its way toward eventual grandeur, as the measured, swelling number never once rushes towards its fitful destination but arrives on time nonetheless. The compelling Swedish duo layers a transfixing mix of keyboards over a rich, pulsating rhythm at the start, creating a heady calm before the song is flooded with spiraling guitars and Maria Lindén’s beguiling vocals, crafting an exultant wave of sound that washes over you completely as the spirited track takes you away.
-Erik Thompson

1. Friends – I’m His Girl

Who would have thought the most rudimentary of walking basslines – coupled with a triangle, no less – would be the lynchpin of arguably the best song this year? And by the most exciting band too.

Back in March, Friends’ debut single ‘Friend Crush’ only hinted at the depths of invention and sheer, balls-out fun, that the band would deliver in equal measures via the follow-up. ‘I’m His Girl’ distills the percussive inventiveness of the early eighties New York music scene – with added sass – into a neat three minute declaration of equal-opps monogomy. Stereogum called it ‘bubblefunk’, which is probably the best description we’ve read so far.

Their first show in the UK came soon after and fleshed out the band’s gang-like identity as well as establishing Samantha Urbani as a creative force to be reckoned with. The girl owned the room. We gasped. It was amazing.
-Paul Bridgewater