I’ve waited right until the end of the year to unleash my lists – and they’ll be coming over the next few days.
- Top 40 tracks
- Top 40 albums
- Top 10 live shows
- Best Artwork
- Biggest letdowns
To kick off, here’s the first installment of the tracks countdown.
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40: The Ting Tings – Shut Up And Let Me Go
Columbia
I’m starting my 2008 countdown with a confession; I was wrong. Wrong to blast this Salford duo as force-fed music industry pap. I’ll still count my bile as valid againts the horrendous That’s Not My Name, but this and stablemate Great DJ are perfect pop songs.
MP3
Video |
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39: Foals – The Race For Radio Supremacy
Transgressive
Foals entered 2008 as media darlings, yet some of the hype faltered in the news that Antidotes would not include Hummer or Mathletics. Yet the record was still intriguing, and probably benefited from the lack of big-single syndrome. This is the pick of the LP for me.
MP3
Buy Antidotes |
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38: LCD Soundsystem – Big Ideas
DFA
After a blistering 2007 where James Murphy and co strode above end-of-year lists like a colossus, Big Ideas was a rare 2008 outing for LCD. The knowledge of pop-hook craft remained, and this cut from the soundtrack to 21 is no mere offcut from Sound Of Silver.
MP3
Buy Big Ideas |
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37: Madonna – 4 Minutes
Warner
A huge success from the otherwise disappointing Hard Candy LP. Surely it would be difficult to fail with a superstar team of Madge, Timberlake & Timbaland? One of the pop records of 2008.
MP3
Video
Buy 4 Minutes |
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36: The B-52s – Eyes Wide Open
Astralwerks
“I don’t want to clash, I don’t want to rehash the past” Kate sings, and it is no rehash – I never dared to think that the B-52s would sound this good, this up to date, yet so utterly them in 2008. A totally unexpected pleasure.
MP3
Buy Funplex |
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35: Mogwai – Batcat
Wall of Sound
There’s no following of the post-rock quiet-loud-quiet formula here, Batcat belts out of the speakers obliterating everything in it’s path. A highlight of their excellent 2008 live shows, where it sounded even louder and even more vital.
MP3
Video
Buy Batcat |
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34: The Kills – U.R.A. Fever
Domino
Scuzzy, short and superb. The Kills finally got some mainstream exposure for this record – and that was before Jamie Hince’s massively publicized on-off thing with super-stick Kate Moss.
MP3
Video
Buy U.R.A. Fever |
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33: Duffy – Rockferry
Polydor
Originally released at the back end of 2007, well before her media star began its rise, Rockferry is a rare treat, a blue-eyed soul classic and free of the Winehouse-isms that afflict the rest of her debut LP.
MP3
Video
Buy Rockferry |
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32: Errors – Cutlery Drawer
Rock Action
Signed to Mogwai’s Rock Action, Glaswegians Errors outshone their illustrious stablemates in 2008. Cutlery Drawer is slightly atypical of their output, featuring a stark spoken word vocal by Londoner George Pringle. Wonderful.
MP3
Buy It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever |
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31: Emiliana Torrini – Gun
Rough Trade
How had I never caught Ms Torrini before? It was only an Amazon recommendation that belatedly turned me on to Me And Armini. Housed within was this staggering track – dark, taut and twisted with a breathy vocal to die for.
MP3
Buy Me And Armini |
Categories: Best Of 2008, Chart Tags: Best Tracks of 2008, Duffy, Emiliana Torrini, Errors, Foals, LCD Soundsystem, Madonna, The B-52s, The Kills, The Ting Tings

Gig Of The Week: Genghis Tron, Behold The Arctopus, Rolo Tomassi, The Network – The Underworld
Prepare for supreme noise making at Underworld on Saturday as Americans Genghis Tron follow up their European stint with The Faint with a short UK tour. Backed by a multi-talented string of bands, not least Sheffield stars Rolo Tomassi (for the London show only), the potential of this night is stellar. This amazing line up is unbelievably not sold out – and under a tenner face value!
Tickets: See
Genghis Tron – Blow Back
Behold The Arctopus – Some Mist
Rolo Tomassi – Abraxas
Photo: Justina Villaneuva
Read more…
Categories: Best live show today..., London Live Tags: Absentee, Applicants, Attila The Stockbroker, AutoVaughn, Behold The Arctopus, Birdengine, Cage The Elephant, Captain Black, Carter USM, Cass McCombs, Chairlift, Clinic, Darren Hayman, Death Cab For Cutie, Dengue Fever, Dirty Harry, Dizzee Rascal, Emily Maguire, Enjoy Destroy, Fight Like Apes, Frightened Rabbit, Future Of The Left, Genghis Tron, Greg Weeks, Heartbreak, Heidi Mortenson, High Places, Holy Ghost Revival, Jay Jay Pistolet, Julian Cope, Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid, Kish Mauve, Kristin Hersch, La Shark, Ladyhawke, Ladytron, Little Boots, Little Comets, Little Death, Low, Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds, Mt Eerie, My Vitriol, Noah & The Whale, Opeth, Parenthical Girls, Peter & The Wolf, Planet Earth, Polka Party, Queen Of Swords, Radar Bros, Roddy Frame, Rolo Tomassi, Ruthie Phoenix, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Satanic Sluts, Sergeant, Shearwater, Sigur Rós, Soko, Speaker Bite Me, Spokes, The Chap, The Electric City, The Faint, The Fratellis, The Holloways, The Kills, The Network, The Notwist, The Rifles, The Spires, The View, The Whip, The Wombats, Threatmantics, Todd Rundgren, TV On The Radio, Vessels, Volcano!, VV Brown, White Denim, XX Teens, Yo Majesty
A great set of releases this week, the highlights for me are the Baltic Fleet album I blathered about last week, the Twilight Singers EP featuring Mark Lanegan on vocals, and the disco-fabulous Hercules & Love Affair, an LP picking up ‘Record Of The Week’ accolades everywhere. Elsewhere, MGMT have been generating hype amongst the press and Silver Mt Zion keep Constellation fans in sumptuous record packaging, and the tremendous U.R.A. Fever gets an LP release on The Kills’ Midnight Boom. Ex-Moldy Peaches annoyance Adam Green regurgitates would is likely to be another slab o’shite, and NME-darlings Young Knives attempt to better 2006’s patchy Voices of Animals and Men. Perhaps the most exciting thing, and album of the week is the Bleeding Heart Narrative CD, a limited sewn (!) edition of 200, outdoing Constellation in fancy sleeves is going some!
Hercules & Love Affair – Blind
MGMT – Electric Feel
The Kills – U.R.A. Fever
Categories: Releases Tags: A Silver Mt Zion, Adam Green, Baltic Fleet, Bleeding Heart Narrative, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Grand Archives, Hercules And Love Affair, Low Lows, MGMT, The Kills, Twilight Singers, Young Knives
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