The Year In Music 2008

I don't follow music enough to have a truly definitive list, but there were several great releases this year and I don't think my numbering system is completely accurate since I got some releases much earlier in the year and others just recently. The selections are probably interchangeable at every spot.  A couple of releases that I got recently, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, might have been rated higher had I more chances to listen to them-so maybe they should be rated higher.  

Also I want to mention NPR's "All Songs Considered" Podcast- for all the music lovers. And I always enjoy reading the AV Club's end of the year overall definitive best music list and individual writers' lists, I suggest that you check them out.

Anyway, here's my list:

1) Death Cab For Cutie  "Narrow Stairs": this based mostly on the strength of three songs:"Cath...", "No Sunlight," and "You Can Do Better Than Me."

2) Vampire Weekend, "Vampire Weekend": perhaps a bit limited in the scope of their sunny afro-pop genre,but there was a time when I couldn't stop listening to it. "Oxford Comma" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

3) Drive By Truckers, "Brighter Than Creation's Dark": is pretty solid for a 17 song release. My two favorite tracks are: "The Home Front" and "Home Field Advantage."

4) Calexico, "Carried To Dust": these guys always have solid releases and "Slowness" is also on the list as one of my favorite songs of the year.

5) Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, "Cardinology": this one was a more of a grower for me, but Adams year in and year out can write worthy and memorable songs like "Born Into The Light" and "cobwebs."

6) Fleet Foxes, "Fleet Foxes": another standout Seattle band on Sub Pop is slowly becoming one of my favorite releases. "Ragged Wood" is one of the best songs of the year.

7) Bon Iver, "For Emma, For Ever Ago": recorded in the backwoods of Wisconsin this brooding album also has a brilliant song of the year candidate in "RE: Stacks."

8) Jenny Lewis, "Acid Tongue": not as good as her latest with Rilo Kiley or her first solo record, but this one still has some great tracks: "Acid Tongue," "Godspeed," and "Carpetbaggers."

9) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Dig!!!Lazarus Dig!!!: the man is still making music that matters.

10) The Walkmen, "You & Me": this one could rise up easily, but "Canadian Girl" is in running for song of the year as well.

Some other worthy releases include: TV on the Radio, "Dear Science," Old 97s "Blame It on Gravity," Robert Forester "The Evangelist," Elvis Costello "Momofuku," Portishead "Third," Cat Power "Jukebox," and Sun Kil Moon "April."

Comments

[Jon]

Pat,

Where is the 2008 release for My Morning Jacket? Come on man.

[Patrick McCoy]

Dude, I heard the title track on NPR's All Songs Considered and dug it, so I may have to seek it out...