Dear Ross,

Have you tried memrise.com? They have a lists for high frequency spoken words. Here are the first 1000: http://www.memrise.com/course/1224/chinese-words-by-spoken-frequency-0-1000-2/

However, I strongly recommend learning words in context. Every time you learn a new word, find at least 10 varied sentences incorporating that word.It is the only way to learn appropriate usage. Popup Chinese is indispensable in that respect as you get to see and hear how words are used in a useful dialogue format.The humour of the dialogues definitely helps with retention. Anyways, all the best!

Adam