Department of Eagles
"No One Does It Like You"
(4AD)

In Ear Park was not a pick on our final poll, but this song as set-piece could rival every album on the list. Grizzly Bear's prismatic mystery-pop is almost too ominous and shrouded for its own good, which is why the Department of Eagle's refinement of baroque pop tropes quietly becomes so easy to love. All I imagine is a music box standing six feet tall, wound by a carnival soothsayer trying his best to eek Pet Sounds out of the thing. KJE

Kings of Leon
"Sex on Fire"
(RCA)

After an incredibly dull, but super-buzzed career start and a ton of photographs making them look much taller than they actually are, Kings of Leon actually squirted out a pearly cut of oozing groove and honest emotion. Now this isn't all tears and screaming. Mostly it's teeth-clenched growling, white-knuckled power chord banging, and the type of emotion that you can only get from repressing your teenage years. MPO

Cut Copy
"Lights and Music"
(Modular)

While this is not nearly the finest song on Cut Copy's excellent In Ghost Colours, it is the best representation of what sets them as a cut above the rest of the groups mining '80s electro-pop. I've seen the future and it looks like a place where the discothèques of Berlin merge with the arcades of Tokyo, where New Order is still in a heyday, just fitted with robotic limbs and dressed in the ruffles of the new romantics. KJE

Jay Reatard
"See Saw"
(Matador)

"See Saw" is three minutes of hook-filled garage-pop goodness. The repetition of "She creeps me out, she grabs me in again" could easily describe the prolific Jay Reatard himself. In fact, the whole song could easily be about Jay, or nothing at all—it's hard to say. TB

Crystal Castles
"Courtship Dating"
(Last Gang)

From the frenetic video game beats and blips surging through the song's intro, it's obvious this Toronto duo knows how to meld old and new to create something unexpected. Enter Alice Glass' echoed vocals and unlikely lyrics of "Eyes roll back around/When skulls hit the ground" and "Courtship Dating" becomes an irresistibly dark electro-dance tune. JR

Hercules and Love Affair
"Blind (Hercules Club Mix)"
(DFA)

Hercules and Love Affair have been hailed for their modern take on '70s disco. With the help of unlikely collaborator Antony Hegarty, "Blind (Hercules Club Mix)" ironically strips away the Saturday night feel for a tense minimalist take that's more Portishead than Salsoul Orchestra. Yet the slow build and release still captures the essence of a classic disco track. DSH

MGMT
"Time to Pretend"
(Columbia)

Yes, it's Arthur Russell and Suicide, but it's also Spacehog. MGMT embrace anthemic, non-ironic joy while somehow blending a heroin overdose with childhood longing and making it seem perfectly natural. The year's most strangely phosphorescent hit. MS

Unholy Two
"Kutter"
(Columbus Discount)

As one-time bassist for Columbus' El Jesus de Magico, Chris Lutzko came off like the group's clown prince of excess. Who knew then that he had such a ferocious sound lurking within him? However hackneyed his Unholy Two may seem at first glance, the glorious blast of white heat, pigfucked lacerations and rhythmic pummelling that emits from "Kutter" (and to a lesser extent, its B-side, "Porkys") eliminates any such notions and shows that Lutzko's sugarshit serious. SS

Lil Wayne
"A Milli"
(Cash Money)

Syrup drenched, slightly chopped, and screwed enough to satisfy the down-South bangers and not scare the up-North hipsters, Lil Wayne finally got it together enough to make a plain ol' hip hop track sans Auto-Tune or bad girly back-ups. Yes, it's full of diamonds and Maseratis, but he says it himself: "Look at that bastard Weezy, he's a beast, he's a dog, he's the mothafuckin problem." Golden goblin gratuity. MPO