My Favorite Songs of 2008 (UPDATED)

I love year-end lists (musical and otherwise). First, it's fun to reminisce about what you liked. Second, it helps me pick up gems that somehow slipped through my various musical filters. I usually end up with a late start on the next year because I've accumulated a huge list of things I missed over the previous one. Which has happened here again. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it's always good to be able to argue with other people's lists.

So, I've created lists for my favorite songs of 2008, my favorite albums, and a couple of other things. My list of favorite albums should be up by the end of the day.

My Favorite Songs of 2008

Honorable Mentions (more coming here later):

1. Antony and the Johnsons: Shake that Devil
2. Cold War Kids: Something Is Not Right With Me
3. The Walkmen: The Blue Route
4. Kanye: Robocop, Bad News, Street Lights
   
5. Blitzen Trapper: Sleepytime in the Western World, Saturday Nite, Stolen Shoes & a Rifle
   
6. Starling Electric: Camp-fire
7. Dr. Dog: Hang On, 100 Years
8. The Annuals: Springtime, Hair Don't Grow
9. Department of Eagles: In Ear Park, Herring Bone
10. Okkervil River: Calling and Not Calling My Ex, On Tour with Zykos, Pop Lies
    
11. Little Joy: With Strangers, Keep Me in Mind
    
12. Beck: Chemtrails, Youthless, Orphans
13. The Black Keys: I'm Glad (Captain Beefheart cover), Lies, All You Ever Wanted, I Got Mine, Psychotic Girl
    
14. The Dodos: Red & Purple, Eyelids, Fools, Paint the Rust
15. Erykah Badu: The Healer (I may have fucked up not finding a place for this in the top 20)
16. Fleet Foxes: Oliver James, White Winter Hymnal, Quiet Houses, Ragged Wood
17. Man Man: Hurly Burly, The Ballad of Butter Beans, Doo Right, Harpoon Fever, Rabbit Habbits, Top Drawer
18. Randy Newman: A Few Words in Defense of our Country, Potholes, Korean Parents
19. The Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox, My Pillow is the Threshold
20. Tapes n Tapes: Le Ruse
21. Times New Viking: Teen Drama, My Head, The Wait, Mean God
22. TV on the Radio: Everything that's not in my top 20
23. Wolf Parade: Soldier's Grin
    

without further ado:

My top 20 songs of 2008

20. Nonpareil of Favor by Of Montreal: Fuck, this opening track had me hoping. Nonpareil means, generally, having no equal, but I would have settled for a followup anywhere near as good as Hissing Fauna. And my was I disappointed. But this is still a great song. Of Montreal opens up with the same brutal honesty and loneliness coated in bright music that they used so effectively in Hissing Fauna. The crazy thing is that even though this is one of the less schizophrenic tracks on the album, there are at least 4 different songs within this one cut. It's hard to talk about this song without going into the rest of the album, but I'm going to have to save it. Suffice it to say, if you're looking to start listening to some Of Montreal, don't start here (um, other than this song).

19. Say You Will by Kanye West: I'm going to get into this more when I start talking about my favorite albums of the year, but this song makes my list for a different reason than most. First, the musical aspects--there's not a lot here. Kanye singing through the auto-tune and a sparse beat, no rapping at all, and a bitter, biting chorus. But damn this is about as big of a Fuck You to open an album as I've ever heard. The former teddy-bear pop-star opens with a 6 minute (!) track, which closes with a 3 minute instrumental. All those expecting a normal Kanye album have now been warned. This is for him, and he's going to do whatever the fuck he wants with it. This is catharsis, not commercial. Fuck you, America. Damn right.

18. For Emma by Bon Iver: Ohhh he's picking the title track, what a copout. Fuck you. Bon Iver crafted the most albumish album, as opposed to the many collections of singles we saw this year. So sure, not as many tracks on this list, but there are still some standouts. This is one of the few tracks on the album bearing any sort of percussion beyond heavy guitar strumming, and it sounds like he's hitting a single drum here so don't go expecting too much. But here, as elsewhere, Bon Iver fits a few different elements into the music (guitar, drum, horns) without compromising any singular sound.

17. Red Dress by TV on the Radio: Dear G-dub : Hey jackal / fuck your war / cuz I'm fat and in love / and those bombs are falling on me for sure / and I'm scared that I'm living a life not worth dying for.

The guitar work here, as on the rest of the album, is well above par and sets the tone. I mean, when are the rest of the bands going to figure out that we want to hear all of the individual instruments, not some bombastic mix that just gives a single sound. Trust me, we can handle multiple parts. And, unlike most "protest" or anti-war songs, this one has some teeth, mainly because it doesn't come from some place of infallibility. Instead, TVOTR, at least in my mind, is not talking to G-dub, but perhaps to the rest of us. If we don't get our own shit together, our government's actions are really secondary. This call to arms, though a different kind of arms than usual, is both compelling and fun to listen to. Well done.

16. Randy Newman-Harps & Angels: Blast from the fucking past. Put this on and it sounds like you just invited Randy over and he took over the piano for a storytelling session. I grew up with Randy, so given some wine and imagination, it wouldn't be that weird. Randy's lessons:

1. I am still a biting, funny motherfucker
   
2. Better keep your business clean ("don't want no backstabbin'/assgrabbin'/you know exactly what I mean")
   
3. I wish I spoke French
4. I currently write more coherent songs than Dylan
5. "There really is an afterlife, and I hope to see all of you there." Thank god (God?). Better trust Randy on this one.

15. Furr by Blitzen Trapper: There's something to be said for simplicity in music. When you take away all of the gloss, effects, and general tomfoolery, your song better be good because everyone's going to know it right away. Because of this, many bands seem to hide behind these effects. Other bands should take note of Furr, a simple track whose clean vocals and acoustic guitar hide nothing. The song, unlike a lot of other cuts, has a timeless feel to it, one that cause my sister, from afar, to mistake it for Bob Dylan (it's actually much prettier than a Dylan song, though probably not as biting or clever). I have no idea what this song is about, but damn does it sound pretty.

14. Walking by the Dodos: Forgive me if I hear shots at G-dub in most of the stuff released, but maybe it's because I was just hoping that everyone was at least noticing what we've been going through. This song provides the perfect soundtrack to the year before he is finally ousted. "man's, been wasting so much time/sending the children out to fight/don't you think maybe it's about time?" Yes, yes I do. This is a great album by the Dodos, and I'm not sure this track itself is that much above anything else on there, but I'm trying to establish some themes here, so it's gonna have to do (otherwise, Red & Purple or Fools would be fine as well).

13. Touch me I'm Going to Scream Pt.1/Smokin From Shootin/Touch me I'm Going to Scream Pt.2 by My Morning Jacket: Right, so this is three songs, and it's not the order the appear on in the album. But, strike a match, take a hit, put these on, and sit back for 17 minutes of bliss. I am unapologetic in my support of MMJ, and that ain't gonna change here. Spooky, unrushed, but also detail-oriented. Makes me wish I could be a fly on the wall in their recording sessions.

12. Love Lockdown by Kanye West: Oh, you want a single? Here's your fucking single.

11. Drop-out by Times New Viking: 1:05 of pure unadulterated bliss, reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney at their best. Only a minute long because that's all they need.

10. Black Rice by Women: A haunting piece of 60s pop a la the Kinks, but not quite as good as No One Does it Like You. In an album that hides pure candy bliss tracks like this between denser noise pop, this song stands out as the release after three songs of near climax.

9. Halfway Home by TV on the Radio: The fifth opener on my list, and the best. I can't figure out if I'm writing less as I come to the top of the list because I'm burnt out or because the tracks really speak for themselves. This one takes almost 2 minutes to open up, so be patient. More plays on my Itunes than any other track released this year.

8. Blue Ridge Mountains by Fleet Foxes: Everyone else apparently likes White Winter Hymnal, and maybe I'm partial to the Blue Ridge Mountains themselves, but I really like this one. Not as consistently upbeat, and you're certainly not going to be playing this one at parties. Of course, if you've come here for your dance party playlist, you're in the wrong place. I saw them live earlier this year opening for Blitzen Trapper, and between this track and Oliver James, they blew Blitzen Trapper off the stage. And it's not just the voices kicking ass here (as they do on the whole record), but a piano riff which really makes this song.

7. Walls by Beck: I was reading the early reviews of Modern Guilt, and they all gushed about Gamma Ray and Youthless, then said that the last five tracks on the album, including Walls, were ostensibly filler material. This analysis misses the best track on the album, and one of the best tracks of the year. Sonically and lyrically Beck is able to create a collapsing world in under 2:30. It's not as repetitive as Gamma Ray or as slow-moving as Chemtrails, and is better for it. This is some heavy, depressing shit: "Some days we get a thrill in our brains/ Somedays in turns into malaise...Hey, what are you gonna do?/with those wall's fallin down on you?" That's just the start, and the end is probably worse "You're wearing all of the years on your face/ got the tombstone you want into place/And your heart only beats in a murmur/with your words screaming out just like murder." Quick to the point I guess, but the sound is not as depressing as the lyrics, and Dangermouse probably saves Beck here with a beatufiul tune backing this solemn song. The result is part conundrum, part brilliance, all good.

6. Golden Age by TV on the Radio: Pitchfork described this as the first TVOTR song you could "dance to," but, erm, that's not what it's on my list here. No, it's because of this moment, 2:12 in, when a reassuring female voice comes in and coos:

Love, don't you falter
Burning hearts
Dragged behind
The horses dancing on the altar
Hooves breaking Gods
To diamond dust and stars
And there you are...

And, maybe that doesn't do it justice, as the whole instrumentation behind the song shifts from as well. You just have to hear it. 2:12 in. Now.

I must mention also the chorus, which basically tells us the age of miracles, the age of sound, the Golden Age, is right around the corner. Assuming this was written last year, this was either a ridiculously prescient observation by TVOTR, or a bitterly sarcastic comment on G-dub. I'm saying the second is more likely, but the first is more fun.

5. Lost Coastlines by Okkervil River: It was always going to be hard to follow The Stage Names, their previous album, but for at least one track on The Stand Ins, Okkervil River succeeded. Lost Coastlines is not as emotionally taxing as the previous couple picks here, and definitely not as overtly sad as the rest of The Stand Ins. It's more subtle, hidden behind the insistent guitar and drums that make this 5 and a half minute song feel like 2. Instead: "Every night finds us rocking and rolling on waves wild and wide / well we have lost our way / and nobody's gonna say it outright" and then, um, 2 glorious minutes of la lah, la la la la, la la la la la la la lahhhhhhh. Not convincing in print, but certainly in song.

4. Skinny Love by Bon Iver: Prob the saddest song on the album. Jesus ("took my love to wreck it all/cut out all the ropes and let me fall"). But also the most beautiful. An NPR commentator said, more or less, that listening to this was "like being punched in the heart, but in a good way." I would probably go along with that. Head and shoulders above Elliot Smith or Sam Beam, though probably not as sad as the former. The next song's more fun, so let's move on.

3. Dancing Choose by TV on the Radio: I know that I'm supposed to hate rap/rock, and I do, but this is the exception (and almost certainly is the only one). So the exercise becomes distinguishing this from all of the other rap/rock, or at least why this is better than Kid Rock. First, the instrumentation is infinitely better. Killer bass and barely there drums before the trumpet comes in and carries the song. The rap is not overblown, but sarcastic and funny (sweaters for wamerainers?). And it's all over as quickly as it started. The rap really isn't the story here, it's how the words build up to everything else that TVOTR does so well. And it's not some shitty almost cover of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song that everyone has heard about 500 times too many.

2. No One Does it Like You by Department of Eagles: What really makes this song for me is the opening bass line, so distorted that it sounds like a horn. I've had more conversations about this bass line in the past month than I've had about a number of more important things (my future, what people want for christmas, world peace, etc). But beyond how this song has caused the derelection of my dutiess as a son, friend, or general citizen, it also helps me fill my quota of band names with animals in them (if you had told me the over/under of non-extinct animal band names for this list was 2, I would have taken the over). And, you know, it's a flawless piece of 1960s era pop that matches anything Grizzly Bear has done before.

1. In the New Year by the Walkmen: It's hard to tell what excited me most about this song, the actual brilliance of it, or the growth of the band/realization of their potential. I guess you could debate over whether In the New Year is as good as their past triumphs (The Rat, We've Been Had, Little House of Savages), but for me, it takes the best aspects of each one and comes close to being a perfect song. The Walkmen were able here to take the ferocity and immediateness of The Rat and combine it with the pure beauty of We've Been Had and come up with a rambling song that shows restraint, then lets loose at exactly the right moment. That, and, to quote a friend, I've always been a sucker for a good organ workout.

Unlike their previous effort, the hugely disappointing One Hundred Miles Off, this song finds the Walkmen playing to their strengths--the jangly guitars, the escalating lament of Hamilton Leithauser, and the organ, my god, the organ. The song takes it time, letting the organ fill the chorus, and showing the band's confidence of letting the song come to them, rather than rushing through it.

"I, I know that it's true, it's gonna be a good year
Out of the darkness
and into the fire
I'll tell you I love you
and my heart's in the strangest place
that's how it started."

The chorus arrives harder and stronger than in previous efforts, where the band tended to show their cards a bit earlier. Here they use the restraint to create a good contrast, and thus a bigger climax. And while the hard/soft dynamic is by no means a new revelation in music, it is especially effective here. Leithauser's ramblings are punctuated by his usual cries, and they somehow seem more honest and more legitimate than ever. Great fucking song. And when he tells us at the end of the song "You took your sweet time/finally I opened my eyes," it's hard not to be thankful that they did, in fact, take their sweet time. A perfect song to end one year and start a new one.