2. Delta Goodrem feat Gizzle - Enough
3. Alan Walker - Sing Me To Sleep
4. The Veronicas - In My Blood
5. KT Tunstall - All Or Nothing
6. Real Lies - One Club Town
7. Christine And The Queens - Tilted
8. The Beach - Geronimo
9. Above & Beyond feat Alex Vargas - Blue Sky Action
10. Olivia - I'm Not Your Lady
11. KT Tunstall - Evil Eye
12. Jonas Blue feat JP Cooper - Perfect Strangers
13. Cilia - Hardcore Heartbreak
14. Celtic Woman feat Oognah - Tír na nÓg
15. Clean Bandit feat Louisa Johnson - Tears
16. Walking On Cars - Ship Goes Down
17. Scala & Kolacny Brothers - Barbie Girl
18. One Un1ted - The Animal Song
19. Kylie Minogue - This Wheel's On Fire
20. Drake feat Rihanna - Too Good
London electronic/rap trio Real Lies have been around for a few years but have only just come to my attention. North Circular is a stunning story about growing up in North London, set to an atmospheric backdrop that evokes Pet Shop Boys, New Order and The Streets. A really special song. One Club Town, meanwhile, which is also taken from the band's excellent debut album Real Life, is more catchy and bouncy with a chorus sampled from Bassomatic's early 90s hit Fascinating Rhythm.
Australian star Delta Goodrem continues the build-up to her new album, Wings Of The Wild - excitingly out in less than a week - with Enough, which features American female rapper Gizzle who raps the verses before Delta provides the bridge and chorus. Enough is a powerful string-laden beauty that could have fit on either the Mistaken Identity or Delta albums, with shades of songs like Nobody Listened and Believe Again, yet it also feels completely current and the album now sounds very promising indeed.
A great comeback this month from Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall, who was big in the mid-noughties, with two excellent tracks from her new EP The Golden State, All Or Nothing and Evil Eye. The songs hark back to the sound of her hit material and are already far better than her last album, which was incredibly forgettable. Also back are Australian twin sister duo The Veronicas with In My Blood, which could melodically have come from their debut album but has sparkling production reminiscent of Kylie Minogue's Light Years and Fever singles.
Dance entries this month include Norwegian producer Alan Walker's Sing Me To Sleep, the just-as-excellent follow up to recent huge hit Faded, Jonas Blue's Perfect Strangers, which is far better than his dull cover of Fast Car which was a hit earlier in the year, and Clean Bandit's collaboration with X Factor winner Louisa Johnson, Tears, which is already shaping up to be a bit of a nu-disco classic. Swedish duo One Un1ted have delivered a strong tropical house cover of Savage Garden's 1999 single The Animal Song while Above & Beyond's Blue Sky Action is a lush orchestral version of their excellent 2014 trance song of the same name.
Christine And The Queens has been huge in her native France for a few years and is now causing a stir in the UK ever since a Graham Norton performance of the brilliantly eccentric Tilted pushed her album Chaleur Humaine into the top ten here. Rising British male singer/songwriter The Beach could easily have a hit with the anthemic Geronimo, which sounds like an indie radio smash waiting to cross into the mainstream. Swedish teenager Olivia's debut single is a real statement of intent, a powerful pop track with an instant chorus and K-Pop meets turn of the century teen-pop production.
Otherwise unmentioned are fellow Swede Cilia's brilliantly emphatic Hardcore Heartbreak, Irish indie band Walking On Cars' Ship Goes Down (which reminds me of Artful Dodger's Twentyfourseven in the verses), Drake and Rihanna's latest duet, Too Good, and Tír na nÓg, a German/Irish collaboration by Celtic Woman and Oognah, which basically sounds as you would expect but is highly infectious nonetheless. Finally, there are two very different covers; This Wheel's On Fire by Australian icon Kylie Minogue - covering Bob Dylan for the soundtrack to the new Absolutely Fabulous film - and a haunting but great choral version of Aqua's Barbie Girl, by Belgian choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers.
