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Music: Music blog | guardian.co.uk
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Audio advent calendar: Download Jamie Lidell's A LiDELL LiDELL M.A.T.H.E.S. (Micachu remix)
20 December: As we near the end of our festive countdown, here's a Jamie Lidell track that's been mangled by Micachu
Jamie Lidell's I Can Love Again has fallen into the hands of Micachu, who's renamed it A LiDELL LiDELL M.A.T.H.E.S. It's a drastic reworking, that's for sure ...
Jamie Lidell's latest album, Compass, was released in May
guardian.co.uk/music

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Our best track of 2010: Robyn - Dancing On My Own
Guardian music critics voted in droves for Robyn's anthem to nightclub loneliness. But is there more to this track than first meets the ear? Peter Robinson thinks so ...
In 2010, the singles chart got officially up in The Club. For JLS, The Club was alive with the sound of music, while Flo Rida noted that The Club could not even handle him. It was The Club where Will.I.Am messed with the baddest chicks, and where the DJ kept Kelly Rowland safe – who, lest we forget, was partying ''till hella late". Beats dropped, shawtys pumped on dancefloors and "the VIP" was definitely a jolly place to be.
Club-based inanities became the top 10's new obsession but these songs, purchased by millions of schoolchildren too young to have even considered ordering fake IDs, were club tracks for people who have never been clubbing – bold, grotesque caricatures of a lowest common denominator nightlife that doesn't exist in the real world.
Robyn's own contribution to this genre was the odd one out – and it was a complete triumph. In Dancing On My Own, Robyn is not at The Club with a party-hard crew hell-bent on a night of booty and bodyshots; she is alone, drawn to the dancefloor by the masochistic need to see her ex with his new flame. As nights out go, it's a bit light on fun: "I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her," Robyn sings. "I'm right over here, why can't you see me? I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home."
With its air of subdued defiance Dancing On My Own seems like the perfect anthem for crap nights out and a classic example of what Neil Tennant (who knows a thing or two about this area of pop tuneage) refers to as "tears in the toilets" material. Dancing On My Own is the irresistible sound of heartbreak on the dancefloor, desolate solitude in a room of euphoric revellers.
Robyn is, of course, no stranger to this territory. There are echoes here of 2005's Be Mine!, with glance-at-the-ex lyrics that rivalled Abba's Angeleyes: "I saw you at the station/ You had your arm around what's her name/ She had on that scarf I gave you." Then in 2007 Robyn became the poster girl for emotronic pop misery via surprise No 1 With Every Heartbeat.
At least With Every Heartbeat was grimly optimistic. By contrast, despite its danceable BPM, Dancing On My Own is relentlessly downbeat, offering no hope that things may get better. In fact, as the song unfolds things get even worse with a middle eight that offers the perfect vignette of a bad night ending badly. "So far away, but still so near," Robyn sighs as the beats drop away. "The lights go on, the music dies, but you don't see me standing here." And then, the killer blow: "I just came to say goodbye."
But is that all there is to Dancing On My Own? Well, not quite – the Rex the Dog and Fred Falke mixes both took the electro-pop production in enjoyable new directions. But there's more to the lyrics than the first few hundred listens might let on.
The thing is, we all love Robyn: sad little disco robot Robyn with her wonky teeth and interesting hairdos; unlucky-in-love Robyn and her winsome hopes for true happiness. And because we love her and want to rescue her from The Club and give her a non-sexual cuddle and tell her everything will one day be OK, we conveniently ignore – as friends do – the fact that she is behaving like a total nightmare ex.
For a start – sound the psycho siren – consider the malevolent undertone of the first verse: "There's a big black sky over my town. I know where you're at, I bet she's around." Robyn has planned a night out purely around where her ex-boyfriend is heading with his new partner. Cut to verse two and picture yourself in that ex's shoes. You're having a fun evening with your new girlfriend but watch out – here comes Robyn, pissed and melodramatic. "I'm just gonna dance all night," she howls with the drunken determination of a thousand hen parties. "I'm all messed up, I'm so out of line. Stilettos and broken bottles, I'm spinning around in circles." Basically, she's off her head on Breezers, she's windmilling around the dancefloor and with every "why can't you see me?" she's being even more studiously ignored by everyone in the room. Security has been alerted.
The Robyn-as-nightmare reading seems even more tragic than the wronged-Robyn approach until you realise there's nothing to suggest that Robyn ever actually went out with this guy at all. She could simply be a stalker – a deranged fantasist who will one day cause severe harm.
At the start of the year Robyn explained that the song came from being out clubbing herself, seeing other people and wondering what had brought them out for the night. "All these people," she explained, "with their hopes and their dreams about their big nights out."
Whether a prelude to a restraining order or a heartwarming tale of love and loss, Dancing On My Own is an extraordinary addition to Robyn's canon of skewed love songs; thoughtful and romantic enough for stuck-on-repeat listening, but with a pop sensibility that makes you want to head out in search of a dancefloor. (See if any of your friends are around before you go out, though, it'll be rubbish by yourself.)
What was your favourite song of 2010? Vote below and we'll make a mixtape of the best choices
Peter Robinson

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Jedward: 'Who are Salem? And what's witch house?'
2010 was the year Jedward took over planet pop. But how much have they learned? Can they tell their chillwave from their xx? And can they sing along to Cee Lo Green without swearing?
Guardian: Ready?
Jedward: Ready! We're so excited about this music interview because we listen to a lot of music, we listen to so much …
G: We're going to play you five of the biggest songs of 2010 and we'd like you to name the band and the song. Then you can give us your critical opinion of their music ...
Song one: The xx – Islands
Jedward: We know this song … It's a very mellow song. It's very easy listening. We'd like to listen to this song when we fall asleep. The strings are very, very cool. When you're on your motorbike or you're in your car, you could be strumming along to this song.
G: Who is it then?
Jedward: I like the airy voice.
G: Do you know who it is?
Jedward: No.
G: Who do you think it is?
Jedward: It's a pop singer.
G: Who won the Mercury prize this year?
Jedward: Don't know.
G: It's the xx!
Jedward: I love those guys.
Song two: Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
Jedward: Oh my God! Florence and the Machine.
G: Yeeeah! Which song?
Jedward: Her album's called Lungs. And basically she's got lungs on the front of it. It's a cool song. Maybe in the mid-90s she wouldn't have made it because pop was all about looking really cool. Right now, she's quite country and she looks older than her age. She's got red hair.
G: Do you like her stuff? Do you think her cover of You've Got the Love deserves all the playtime and praise it has received?
Jedward: Yeah, she's good. We've got two signed albums at home. And yes, it's a really, really good song. Universal's really pushing her to be really big. To be this big global artist. Will she meet their expectations? No.
Song three: Cee Lo Green – Fuck You
[Jedward immediately start singing along …]
G: Who is it then?
Jedward: Cee Lo. Forget You. Or Freak You.
G: Well it's actually called Fuck You.
Jedward: Fuck You? Sorry, we don't say bad words.
G: What do you like about it?
Jedward: It's as if he's an older Sean Kingston.
Song four: Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed
Jedward: Ellie Goulding, Starry Eyed. She's very like Florence and the Machine. She came out around the same time as her. People should listen to more of her songs as everyone has listened to Starry Eyed a lot.
Song five: Salem – King Night
Jedward: It's like Justin Timberlake. It sounds like one of those songs you play on a catwalk.
G: Who do you think it is?
Jedward: Vampire Weekend.
G: Er, no. They're called Salem. Do you call the genre "drag" or "witch house"?
Jedward: What? We've never heard of Salem. Drag or witch house? No. It's a real moody song. A song to set a mood in a room.
G: What about other genres – who's your favourite chillwave artist?
Jedward: Chilled-out artist?
G: OK, let's wrap this up!
John and Edward Grimes (Jedward) star in Nintendo's new TV ad campaign and are ambassadors for Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS.
- Jedward
- Pop and rock
Sophie Robehmed

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