Best Songs of 2008

I'll be writing commentary on these at a later date. I just wanted to get these posted. 

Picking songs is a whole different beast all together. Albums are easy b/c it's so easy to eliminate albums with great songs that have missteps here and there. I gave myself an hour to sort my iTunes by release date and pick out the songs that I enjoyed the most this year. So, needless to say this would probably change day to day...even hour to hour. But, you can drive yourself crazy trying to do this, so I thought it was best to try to be quick and painless.

One important thing to note is that I did not include more than one song from any artist in order to maximize the artist coverage. It's always fun to find new music, and if 3 of my top 10 were by Bon Iver (which would have been the case), it would make this a bit less interesting you the reader (i.e. Hayes---literally....the reader, as in the singular reader of this blog). So, in keeping with the Bon Iver example, while Re:Stacks was in my top 10, it fell under 'Lump Sum' (barely)---so it had to go. 

Again, I'll be writing commentary and maybe my first ever 2008 superlatives soon--but I wanted to get this out before I become influenced by the blogosphere...

1. The Re-Arranger Mates of State
   
2. Lump Sum Bon Iver
   
3. Strange Times The Black Keys
   
4. An Eluardian Instance of Montreal
   
5. San Francisco B.C. Silver Jews
   
6. Lost Verses Sun Kil Moon
   
7. Steel on Steel J. Tillman
   
8. Crossed Out Name Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
   
9. Some Are Lakes Land of Talk
   
10. Time To Pretend MGMT
    
11. Crying TV on the Radio
    
12. Inní mér syngur vitleysingur Sigur Ros
    
13. Curs In The Weeds Horse Feathers
    
14. The Wind The Tallest Man On Earth
    
15. The Old Days Dr. Dog
    
16. Touch Me And I'm Going To Scream Part II My Morning Jacket
    
17. Are You Lightning? Nada Surf
    
18. Graveyard Girl M83
    
19. The Rat Patrol And DJs Centro-Matic
    
20. Sleepyhead Passion Pit
    
21. On A Saturday Jacob Golden
    
22. Lights Out Santogold
    
23. Love Me Tenderly The Felice Brothers
    
24. Four Provinces The Walkmen
    
25. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here She & Him
    
26. It Could've Been Worse Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State
    
27. The '59 Sound The Gaslight Anthem
    
28. Kenya Dig It? Sea Lion
    
29. You Haven't Told Me Anything Keane
    
30. Waiting… City and Colour
    
31. Waiting For A War The Morning Benders
    
32. Emma Jane South San Gabriel
    
33. Whirring Arms
    
34. The Edge of a Cliff The Streets
    
35. Glide Jerry Douglas
    
36. No One Said It Would Be Easy Cloud Cult
    
37. Changing Your Mind Bob Schneider
    
38. Ships Tyler Ramsey
    
39. Use Somebody Kings of Leon
    
40. Dying Is Fine Ra Ra Riot
    
41. New Partner Mark Kozelek
    
42. Heaven With You Tonight Quinn Walker
    
43. Rabid Bits of Time Chad Van Gaalen
    
44. Head Rolls Off Frightened Rabbit
    
45. Language City Wolf Parade
    
46. Saro Sam Amidon
    
47. Life Being What It Is Kaki King
    
48. Get It Over With Andrew Lipke
    
49. Hit The Heartbreaks The Black Kids
    
50. She Smiles While She Sleeps Arliss Parker
    

*If you could include portions of songs, I'd have the last minute of '42' and last 3 minutes of 'Yes' by Coldplay in here---Brian Eno's work on that album should not be overlooked. He made a bunch of crappy songs palatable, and at times pretty great, no easy task.