M83’s album Saturday = Youth really is, in its best parts, a revisit to the wistful romanticism of The Breakfast Club. Skin of the Night matches glacial blissed-out vocals from Morgan Kibby (unmatched this year, except by my No. 3 track) to a electronic tom-driven backing whilst managing to weave a tail of erotic horror, later joined by the shimmering haze that M83 is known for. It’s a masterpiece.

BatBox is probably the first of Miss Kittin’s releases that goes some way of fulfilling her potential. It’s full of sleek, distinctly European electro, exploiting Caroline Herve’s French accent. Pollution of the Mind motors through your brain, pummelling it with the simplest of rhythms and melodies, only to reveal its beauty in the chorus. And if you fail to be swooned by that, then you don’t love music.

Slow Show, from 2007’s Boxer, works because its tale of regret and longing is accompanied by such understated backing that when it evolves the emotion it releases is overwhelming. No more so than when their earlier song 29 Years is pinned to it as a coda. Remarkable.

Ah, pop music. Whilst Bertine Zetlitz may own my heart when it comes to the dark side, Margaret Berger’s impossibly shiny, but often poignant, Pretty Scary Silver Fairy, released in 2006 is a flawless creation. Pretty Things In Life bursts with self-proclaimed defiance borne from the angst of adolescence: “Get over yourself and take control. Believe that life is now.”

Many bands have taken over the mantle left by the shoegaze era. M83 and Asobi Seksu adhere more closely to its legacy. School of Seven Bells, fronted by twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza, have chosen a slightly different route, wholly embracing electronica to reach a serenity that few others can match. Face To Face On High Places may be based around the familiar looping queasiness, but the vocals – recalling the best of Mimi Goese’s work – when paired together form something incredible. And the line “One day I’ll tell you what you did for me” shatters me.

I may be the only person who thinks that Elbow’s latest album The Seldom Seen Kid is, even at 55 minutes, too short. This is down to its musical inventiveness and a set of songs that demand and reward attention. None more so than on this track which essentially iterates around the age old songwriting technique of Tension and Release, gradually turning its little fragments of unconditional, timeless love into something that transcends everything. Then it has the audacity to throw in a choir – and it works!

You can spot that this a Dash Berlin remix from a mile off by the bassline. Not that their trademark sound matters much here. But any song sung by US alt-folk singer Jaren and which launches with the words “Rejection’s like an ice cold bath / But the water’s feeling good this time” is a keeper, and it’s more complex and downbeat than you’d usually expect from vocal trance.

Martin Roth makes the original song darker and more club-oriented, with fierce snares and gated swept pads. And then there’s The Voice. Heather Pollack is one half of the Lo-Fi Sugar duo, who adds her sweet vocals to make this a 10 minute progressive trance barnstormer.

When you have two delicious voices to play with, what could be more sacrilegious than processing them? Chain economises on the instruments by turning Claudia and Alejandra’s voices into another one, interplaying them with the organic bassline, and round and round and round they go.

Three songwriters rocked my world this year: Bertine Zetlitz’s entire back catalogue is essential listening, and one day I hope she’ll release videos for all her songs. Jo Gabriel’s intuitive musicality embraces serendipity and weaves incredibly emotive songs from the unlikeliest of sources. Then there’s Amanda Palmer, who can scream and rant as much as she wants if she continues to come up with songs like this. Have to Drive begins like an Emily Haines song, with its simple piano progressions, then turns immeasurably darker, sadder and multi-layered, incorporating a fabulous choral and orchestral climax. And throughout it Amanda’s voice gets gradually more strained and emotional. Truth is, no other song I heard this year came close to matching this one.