Gorillaz :  Dare

Ten years on from that Britpop beef and still not sure who won? Take a look around. The Gallaghers may still prowl the stadium circuit slugging out the hits, but it’s Blur who’ve weighed in this decade with a great album (2003’s ‘Think Tank’), kick-started the Brit-rock fightback (with Coxo’s almighty ‘Freakin’ Out’) and spawned the Simian spin-off set to outsell both bands put together.

If ‘Feel Good Inc.’ sent the opposition reeling, ‘Dare’ is the killer blow. Snare drums rattle, synth-bass wriggles suggestively, Damon comes on like Donna Summer, Curtis Mayfield and Sparks’ Russell Mael, and to cap it all Madchester icon Shaun Ryder weighs in with his most demented vocal since ‘Reverend Black Grape’. The bloody cheek of it! “Hold it down/Coming up!” he bellows, trapped in a lift with a bag of MDMA while the sleaziest electro-disco imaginable throbs inside his head. Not just a knockout blow for those who’d, erm, dare dismiss Gorillaz as lightweight pop froth, but a devilishly clever way for Damon to settle old scores, as he sighs contentedly, “Work it out”. Consummate monkey business. Animal magic. King of the jungle.