BRENDAN MACLEAN And The Boyfriends (Independent) Don’t tell him we know, but Brendan MacLean is way more sensitive than a man with that facial hair is meant to be. It may look like he’d deny it furiously, flamboyantly even. That’s the MacLean way surely, given his calling card is doing everything with a flourish that wouldn’t disgrace the end of a Tonya Harding routine. And that goes double for his pop songs which zing like those lollies that explode on your tongue (Pop Rocks

BRENDAN MACLEAN Solo (Independent) You could drive a truck - a long, articulated one with that comfy bed behind the driver’s seat and a stereo system to envy - a good portion of the way across Europe fuelled only by Inside Outerspace, the third track on Brendan Maclean’s new EP. Yes, you’d have to have it on repeat, for even at a tick under eight minutes it would not quite get you all the way, but that would be anything but a concern. If anything is wrong with this song it m

The best songs of the year were all over the shop as numbers 11-20 showed, and numbers 1 to 10 are no different. Brandy Clark tops the list with something sharp and punchy (and closes the list with something sad but potent, if you remember) which sounds nothing like the pulse-and-sooth of Underworld or the Indo-Australian hip hop melange of L-Fresh The Lion. Clark is not the only country act on the list but at this end of the table she’s sharing space with the liquid R&B of D