Robin Thicke, T.I., Pharrell Williams
Blurred Lines
A cowbell-clacking, falsetto-laced funk-pop strut from Robin Thicke, Pharrell and T.I. that owned the summer of 2013 and then the courtroom.
Instrument
bass guitar
23 tracks.
Queen, The Miami Project
Another One Bites The Dust (A Skillz Remix)
A Skillz chops John Deacon's immortal bassline into a strutting breakbeat workout, keeping Freddie Mercury's swagger front and centre while the drums hit like a b-boy battle.
Nils Ohrmann
In Ya Face (Original Mix)
Six and a half minutes of bumping Berlin house from Nils Ohrmann: a cheeky vocal taunt, a springy bassline and a groove that never lets go.
Michael Jackson
Billie Jean
One of pop's most recognisable bass lines carries Michael Jackson's paranoid tale of a paternity claim, a tight, shadowy groove that sounds as sharp now as it did on Thriller.
Joss Stone
Less Is More
A teenage Joss Stone leans into a lilting, reggae-kissed soul groove and sings about wanting less with the husky authority of a singer twice her age.
Jain
So Peaceful
Zanaka's gentle closer, a reggae-tinged sway where Jain lets the album's travels settle into calm, sunlit contentment.
Gin Wigmore
Man Like That
A stomping blues-soul strut in which Gin Wigmore's raspy, fearless voice lays out exactly the kind of man she wants, produced by Butch Walker for Gravel & Wine and later sung in a Heineken James Bond ad.
Gin Wigmore
Kill Of The Night
Gin Wigmore's smoky rasp prowls over stomping drums and a swaggering, bluesy strut, a midnight hunt sung by someone who fully intends to win.
Gin Wigmore
Black Sheep
Stomping drums, chanted backing vocals and a shout-along hook frame Gin Wigmore's gravel-edged voice in a proud anthem for everyone who never fit the flock.
Daft Punk
Give Life Back to Music
The curtain-raiser of Random Access Memories: live drums, Nile Rodgers' guitar and a vocoder mission statement announcing that Daft Punk came back to make music breathe again.
Daft Punk
Giorgio by Moroder
Giorgio Moroder tells his own origin story over a click track, then Daft Punk unfold nine minutes of arpeggiated disco, live drums and strings into a time-travelling tribute to the sound he invented.
Ayọ
Down On My Knees
Ayọ pleads for a lost love over acoustic guitar and a gentle reggae lilt: the 2006 debut single, recorded with a live band in five days in New York, that made a German-Nigerian singer a star in France.
Arctic Monkeys
Snap Out Of It
Alex Turner pleads with a lover to wake up from someone else's spell over a swaggering, hand-clapped shuffle and a chorus hook that sticks for days: the sixth single from AM.
Arctic Monkeys
R U Mine?
Arctic Monkeys turn a jealous late-night text into a riff-heavy stomp, with Alex Turner's rapid-fire wordplay riding a fuzzed-out, swaggering guitar line.
Arctic Monkeys
Do I Wanna Know?
A heavy, crawling riff, stomping handclaps and a late-night text that should never have been sent: Do I Wanna Know? turns romantic doubt into slow-burning swagger.
Aloe Blacc
I Need a Dollar (Live)
A hard-times plea set to a Brooklyn retro-soul jam: Aloe Blacc's 2010 hit, the theme of HBO's How to Make It in America, heard here live in Berlin in 2011, where a chorus about a job lost and a dollar borrowed is made for a room to sing.
Ultraísta
Smalltalk
'Smalltalk' is the 2012 lead single of Ultraísta, the trio of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker and singer Laura Bettinson: layered synthesizers and afrobeat-minded drums under a plea to stop the small talk, heard here in Four Tet's garage-shuffle remix.
The xx
Crystalised
'Crystalised', The xx's 2009 debut single, is minimal indie pop at its most intimate: a muted guitar riff, a sparse beat by Jamie xx, and two voices, Romy Madley Croft's and Oliver Sim's, answering each other verse by verse.
Klangkarussell
We Want Your Soul
'We Want Your Soul' is Klangkarussell's remix of Adam Freeland's 2003 anti-consumerist breakbeat single: the speech-synthesizer verses and Bill Hicks sample of the original, slowed into a long, hypnotic house groove on the album Netzwerk.
Groove Armada
Superstylin'
Groove Armada's 2001 single fuses house with dancehall, reggae and dub over a speed-garage bassline, with MC M.A.D. on vocals and a live horn section; a UK number 12 and a 2003 Grammy nominee.
Portugal. The Man
Feel It Still
Portugal. The Man's Grammy-winning sleeper hit: a quick, swinging slice of psychedelic funk-pop that borrows its melody from Motown's Please Mr. Postman and rides one of the decade's most recognisable basslines.
Ladytron
Seventeen
Ladytron's 2002 single: whirring synthesizers, two cool, interlocking voices and a minimal lyric that takes a swipe at an industry obsessed with youth, shiny and throwaway on the surface and dark underneath.