Top 20 tracks of 2011 : tracks 10 - 8

Welcome back to the countdown of the choicest cuts of 2011...

10. Riverside - AGNES OBEL
This year, Agnes Obel seemed to emerge onto the international music scene out of nowhere. In fact, she'd been noodling away in her native Denmark for a couple of years, concocting a heady brew that became her debut album Philharmonics. Opener 'Riverside' was nothing short of bewitching, with delicate vocal circling around Obel's deft piano playing. It was the sound of a skilled musician who knows exactly when to elaborate and when to leave space. Listen to it here

9. Jump Your Bones - LIAM FINN
He may look like a lost member of the Beach Boys circa-1975, but Liam Finn sure didn't sound like it on sophomore album FOMO (fear of missing out). The best moments of the record saw the prodigiously-gifted multi-instrumentalist push himself out of his comfort zone and into new, experimental territory. Case in point: 'Jump Your Bones' - a relentless, cacophonic jumble of distorted drums and demonic vocals. Completely fucked-up and completely brilliant. Listen to it here

8. Oh Well, That's What You Get For Falling In Love With A Cowbody - LANIE LANE
Root-tootin, rockabilly Lanie Lane was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her spiritual home is surely America's Deep South in the mid-20th Century, not Australia in the early 21st Century. But nobody around here is complaining. Not when she's serving up singles that are as damnably enjoyable as this. '...Falling In Love With A Cowboy' would, as its title suggests, be right at home on the soundtrack of a Spaghetti Western. Listen to it here