Mix tapes used to occupy almost every December of my life. I've made a gazillion of 'em in my time, and spent untold hours meticulously placing needles on the grooves of record albums and pushing the Play and Record buttons at just the precise moment to avoid having to record the sound of the needle hitting the grooves.

Now I have that wondrous iPod, and creating mixes is a breeze. I do this every year, although I've now expanded the operations so that what started out as a single tape, and then became a single CD, is now a 3-CD set. And since I'm now receiving new music that will be released in January and February of 2009, it's probably a fairly safe time to compile the Best of 2008 edition. So here it is. If you'd like copies, send me an email message at whitmana (at) hotmail (dot) com with your snail mail address. I'll be happy to mail off the set to you, although it may take me a while to get around to doing so.

In no implied order other than alphabetical, this is my favorite music from 2008:

Disc 1

1. Adele – Hometown Glory
2. Alabama 3 – Mao Tse Tung Said
3. Amos Lee – Won’t Let Me Go
4. Anathallo – The River
5. Beaujolais – Contemptual You
6. Black Francis – When They Come to Murder Me
7. The Black Keys – I Got Mine
8. Blind Pilot – Ovieto
9. Bob Dylan -- Cross the Green Mountain
10. Bon Iver – Re: Stacks
11. The Botticellis – Up Against the Glass
12. Centro Matic – The Rat Patrol and DJs
13. Chris Knight – Crooked Road
14. Damien Dempsey and The Dubliners – Rainy Night in Soho
15. Darrell Scott – American Tune
16. Dewey Cox – Royal Jelly
17. Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – We Should Fight

Disc 2

1. Firewater -- Borneo
2. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
3. The Fleshtones – First Date (Are You Coming On To Me?)
4. Frightened Rabbit – Floating in the Forth
5. The Frontier Brothers – Technical Electronic Personic Robot (T.E.S.S.)
6. Gretel – Can I Still Come Over?
7. The Grip Weeds – Salad Days
8. Hacienda Brothers – A Lot of Days Are Gone
9. Hayes Carll – She Left Me For Jesus
10. Hayseed – God Shaped Hole
11. Headlights – Get Your Head Around It
12. Jacob Golden – Out Come the Wolves
13. Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit – Tickle Me Pink
14. Jolie Hollard – Palmyra
15. Josh Garrels – Jacaranda Tree
16. Kasey Anderson – Hometown Boys
17. Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson – Sweetest Waste of Time

Disc 3

1. Lambchop – National Talk Like a Pirate Day
2. Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello – Jailhouse Tears
3. Marco Benevento – Atari
4. Matthew Ryan – It Could’ve Been Worse
5. MGMT – Time to Pretend
6. Old 97’s – No Baby I
7. Ray LaMontagne – Let It Be Me
8. Scott Kempner – Beyond the Pale
9. Sloan – Emergency 911
10. The Spinto Band – Later On
11. Sun Kil Moon – Harper Road
12. The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
13. TV on the Radio – Halfway Home
14. Unbunny – Water and the Spanish Tongue
15. Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
16. Waco Brothers – Harm’s Way
17. Watermelon Slim – Archetypal Blues No. 2

I spent all my day on the net listening to samples of numerous 2008 releases recommended on music forums (and here). Especially, of course, of bands I didn't know well so far, or new ones from this year. I've heard a lot of good things, but nothing leaving me in rapture. I was kinda pleased with the folk rock of Fleet Fox and the celtic (? - I use to call "celtic" everything that makes me think of sea, salt and sail) one of Johnny Flynn, but that's it. So, 2008 will be the year of no great discovery for me, the year where I enjoyed the new offerings of artists and bands I already know and like/love.

I'll probably submit my comp at the very end of the year.

Because I'm not a professional music critic and have to buy my music like the rest of the rest of the poor drones out there, my final comp won't be available until December. Making my "Best Of" comp has become an annual Anderson tradition and our family and friends now come to expect it.

However, due to the magic of itunes I'm able to keep a continual working comp.

Here is how it stands as of today:

1. Music Go Music "Light of Love"
2. She & Him "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
3. Frightened Rabbit "Head Rolls Off"
4. Death Cab for Cutie "No Sunlight"
5. My Morning Jacket "I'm Amazed"
6. Ida "The Killers"
7. Damien Jurado "Best Dress"
8. Okkervil River "Calling and not Calling my Ex"
9. Cat Power "Silver Stallion"
10. Beach House "Wedding Bell"
11. Portishead "Nylon Smile"
12. Sun Kill Moon "Lost Verses"
13. Windsor for the Derby "Maladies"
14. Headlights "Cherry Tulips"
15. the Submarines "You, Me, & the Bourgeousie"
16. Tift Merritt "Broken"
17. Sam Phillips "Little Plastic Life"
18. Allison Moorer "Daddy, Goodbye Blues"

To be honest I'm not pleased with some of them and they will probably be replaced altogether (sorry: Death Cab for Cutie, Cat Power, Windsor for the Derby, the Submarines). They just didn't make a good enough album to deserve a coveted place on Kyle's "Best of 2008" mix.

THANK YOU, Andy! (I'll get your list next, Kyle!) Creating mix tapes used to be a big part of my life in college--my wife and I exchanged tapes while we were dating.

For those of you with Rhapsody service, I created a playlist with almost all of Andy's music. It's available here for quick access and to drop right into your music player or to run off your PC. (IIRC, even if you don't subscribe to Rhapsody, you can listen to 25 songs each month for free if you register.)

The few songs that I didn't find on Rhapsody were available for purchase on Amazon. Except for the Jacob Golden track, which I couldn't find. The Anathallo track is available for free, legally I think, here (320Kbps?!).

Here are the tracks in the playlist linked above, as Rhapsody lists them (or those it has):

1. Hometown Glory - Adele
2. Mao Tse Tung Said - A3
3. Won't Let Me Go - Amos Lee
4. When They Come to Murder Me - Black Francis
5. I Got Mine - Black Keys
6. Oviedo - Blind Pilot
7. Cross The Green Mountain - Bob Dylan
8. Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
9. Up Against The Glass - The Botticellis
10. The Rat Patrol And DJ's - Centro-Matic
11. Crooked Road - Chris Knight
12. Rainy Night In Soho - Damien Dempsey
13. American Tune - Darrell Scott
14. Royal Jelly - John C. Reilly
15. We Should Fight - Ezra Furman


16. Borneo - Firewater
17. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
18. First Date (Are You Coming On To Me) - The Fleshtones
19. Floating in the Forth - Frightened Rabbit
20. technicalelectronicsupersonicrobot (T.E.S.S) - The Frontier Brothers
21. Salad Days - The Grip Weeds
22. A Lot of Days Are Gone - Hacienda Brothers
23. She Left Me For Jesus - Hayes Carll
24. Get Your Head Around It (Cd) - Headlights
25. Tickle Me Pink - Johnny Flynn
26. Palmyra - Jolie Holland
27. Jacaranda Tree - Josh Garrels
28. Hometown Boys - Kasey Anderson


29. Sweetest Waste Of Time - Kasey Chambers
30. Jailhouse Tears - Lucinda Williams
31. Atari - Marco Benevento
32. It Could've Been Worse - Matthew Ryan
33. Time To Pretend - MGMT
34. No Baby I - Old 97's
35. Let It Be Me - Ray Lamontagne
36. Beyond the Pale - Scott Kempner
37. Emergency 911 - Sloan
38. Later On - The Spinto Band
39. Harper Road - Sun Kil Moon
40. That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
41. Halfway Home - TV On The Radio
42. Water and the Spanish Tongue - Unbunny
43. Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend
44. Harm's Way - Waco Brothers
45. Archetypal Blues No. 2 - Watermelon Slim

I just got done making an autumn mix that honestly might be the best mix I've ever made. (Feedback on it has been excellent too), so a full-fledged '08 mix might take some more thought. My list, though, as of now (in no order):

1) Matthew Sweet — "Time Machine"
2) Sun Kil Moon — "Lost Verses"
3) Tift Merritt — "Broken"
4) Frightened Rabbit — "The Modern Leper"
5) The New Year — "The Idea of You"
6) Okkervil River — "Lost Coastline"
7) Sam Phillips — "Can't Come Down"
8) Drive-By Truckers — "The Righteous Path"
9) Bon Iver — "Creature Fear" (w/ "Team," since they're basically one song)
10) TV on the Radio — "Dancing Choose"
11) Damien Jurado — "Predictive Living"


Again, this is off the top of my head. There are a dozen or so releases that I KNOW I need to listen to a few more times, plus a few I need to get to before the end of the year (the new Crooked Fingers, for instance, plus some jazz and country stuff I missed earlier).

Impeccable taste as always Jason.

You actually saved me a question. I was going to ask you for a potential representative from the New Year album. It's one of those albums that is great and deserves a representative on my "best of" mix but I've been finding it more as a cohesive album than ten singles. Placing "the Idea of You" in the middle of the album works well for your A-side/B-side mixing philosophy with its 20 minutes of silence that closes the song out. Serves as a natural end to the A-side.



I was the mix-tape maker during the wooing of my wife. I'd like to believe it was what sealed the deal. Now that we're married "we" get to make mix tapes together. I usually let her pick one or two songs. In the end I'll let her pick her choice of Damien Jurado, Allison Moorer, and Tift Merritt songs. She's listened to those albums an incredibly large amount of times.

Thanks Kyle! I knew we'd have a ton of overlap on our mixes before I even read your list. I was right...go figure.

For the New Year album, I was considering "MMV" (it might have the best line on the album) or "Seven Days and Seven Nights" (for the ridiculous guitar effect that sounds like someone leaving the phone off of the hook...what is that? A flanger on crack?)

I had the hardest time with a Frightened Rabbit song. There are so many stand-out tracks on that disc....

I think "MMV" is where I'm leading for the New Year. Either it or "The Company that I Get", which is odd because it didn't do too much for me until I heard it in the context of the whole album.

I hear you about Frightened Rabbit. It has far too many standouts. It was difficult to choose. In the end, its hard to argue with a song that begins with "Jesus. Is just a Spansih boys name." All the same, I like "Old Old Fashioned", "Modern Leper", and "Poke" a great deal. As far as the song that celebrates the fact "if we both have the same diseases its irrelevant" - I think that can be safely left off any of my mixes.

I agree that there are several equally valid choices from that Frightened Rabbit album, which still gets more play than any other album released this year. I've heard albums I admire more this year, and that represent more innovation. Then again, there's something to be said for simply acknowledging that the album you play the most might actually be your favorite. And I really, really, really like that song that states, "If we both have the same diseases it's irrelevant, girl." It's the first song that employs the F word, lo, something like 20 times, that I actually find somewhat profound. I don't think it's "celebrating" anything. I think it's a clear-eyed acknowledgement that sex without love is ugly and lifeless.

I should also note that two of my favorite albums released this year -- The Hold Steady's Stay Positive and Jamey Johnson's That Lonesome Song -- are not represented on my mix CDs. This is because when I insert the CDs into my iMac in a futile attempt to burn them to iTunes I am informed that I will be prosecuted and/or shot. So no Hold Steady or Jamey for you. No bullet for me.

Andy, did you not hear any good jazz this year, or did you just leave it off the mixtape for continuity's sake?

That's a good point, Andy, which is why I'm thinking of including "My Backwards Walk" on my '08 comp. It beats out the rest of the album in sheer listens. Man, this is hard. You think I'd be worried about economic stuff or writing songs for an upcoming coffee house show, but here I am freaking out over what Frightened Rabbit song to include.

And, I also realized that I completely, completely left off The Hold Steady. Because "Constructive Summer" and "Stacked Actresses" are BOTH going on my mix.

The Frightened Rabbit song in question is the one that features the chorus, "it takes more the f---ing someone to keep yourself warm/you won't find love in a hole", no? If so, I actually like that song. I'm not the biggest fan of swearing, but that is a song that uses it to great effect and would be a lesser song if not for the stark lyrics. They certainly highligh the futility (IMO) of serial promiscuity. Unfortunately too many of my friends/aka recipients of said mix have young impressionable children around the house and I don't think it would be very responsible of me to introduce such words into their vocabulary.

That's a drag about the Hold Steady's anti-piracy protection. Is that because you received an advanced copy? I downloaded mine via emusic and have the ability to make infinity copies.

I'm guessing so; I bought a copy on the release day in a record store and had no problem ripping it.

Kyle, yes, that's the one. And I certainly understand your motivation to leave it off your mix.

And re: the Hold Steady, yes, it's because of advance copies and anti-piracy protection.

Josh, I certainly have heard some great jazz this year (Brian Blade Fellowship, John Ellis, great re-issues from Ornette Coleman, the usual outstanding stuff from James Carter and Marc Ribot). But my mix is disjointed enough as it is, and it would have been even more so if I had included jazz and the occasional avant-garde track from, say, Nico Muhly, another great album that didn't easily fit within the mix.

I also probably need to find room in that mix for a track from Son Lux, who will still probably get my vote for Best Album of 2008. I keep forgetting that At War With Walls and Mazes was actually released in 2008. I think I've had this music for more than two years now.

Disable "autorun" on your computers...

And, even worse, I keep forgetting what might be my favorite song of 2008: Bottomless Pit's "Red Pen." I keep forgetting the EP it's on too, despite the fact that I listen to it daily.

The response to my brave/stupid offer to make a bunch of free CDs was overwhelming. So much so that I've had to choose between making fewer CDs or buying Christmas presents for the wife and kids. Guess which option won?

So, those of you who requested the official Andy Whitman Best of 2008 CDs, don't despair. I've got your requests, I've got your addresses, and you'll get your CD. Yes, I said CD. Out of necessity (it's only time and money, you know), the 3-CD set has become a solo CD. It was actually quite challenging trying to pare a lengthy list down to 20 songs. I suppose it should be noted that "Favorite Songs" doesn't necessarily translate to "Favorite Albums," and that some of the albums on which these songs appear (Ting Tings and Alabama 3, you know who you are) wouldn't appear anywhere near my "Best of 2008" albums lists. But these are all killer songs, and this is what I ended up with:

1. Head Rolls Off -- Frightened Rabbit
2. Crooked Road -- Chris Knight
3. The Rat Patrol and DJs -- Centro-Matic
4. American Tune -- Darrell Scott
5. The River -- Anathallo
6. We Should Fight -- Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
7. Stand -- Son Lux
8. Sweetest Waste of Time -- Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
9. Mao Tse Tung Said -- Alabama 3
10. When They Come to Murder Me -- Black Francis
11. Contemptual You -- Beaujolais
12. Tickle Me Pink -- Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit
13. Water and the Spanish Tongue -- Unbunny
14. Archetypal Blues No. 2 -- Watermelon Slim and the Workers
15. Out Come the Wolves -- Jacob Golden
16. That's Not My Name -- The Ting Tings
17. Emergency 911 -- Sloan
18. Borneo -- Firewater
19. Palmyra -- Jolie Holland
20. White Winter Hymnal -- Fleet Foxes

Working track list:

A Side
1. The Hold Steady — "Constructive Summer"
2. Tift Merritt — "Broken"
3. Black Francis — "Garbage Heap"
4. Sam Phillips — "Can't Come Down"
5. Frightened Rabbit — "Heads Roll Off"
6. Travis — "Something, Anything"
7. The New Year — "The Idea of You"

B Side
8. Sun Kil Moon — "Lost Verses"
9. Bottomless Pit — "Red Pen"
10. The Drive-By Truckers — "The Righteous Path"
11. Okkervil River — "Lost Coastline"
12. Damien Jurado — "Predictive Living"
13. Crooked Fingers — "Your Control"

I'm sure I'll fill in the remaining space soon.

This is my first shot at making a best-of compilation for this year. I'm probably forgetting something, or I'll hear something in the final two months of this year that totally rocks my socks off and I'll have to put it in the list, but here goes for now:

1. The Hold Steady - "Constructive Summer"
2. Ben Folds - "Dr. Yang"
3. Oh Darling - "Across the Skyline"
4. Devotchka - "The Clockwise Witness"
5. TV on the Radio - "Dancing Choose"
6. Sloan - "Emergency 911"
7. Fleshtones - "Going Back to School"
8. Bridges - "Pieces"
9. Thao - "Swimming Pools"
10. Sparks - "Lighten Up, Morrisey"
11. Woven Hand - "The Beautiful Axe"
12. Dengue Fever - "Seeing Hands"
13. Photoside Café - "Kill Your TV"
14. My Morning Jacket - "I'm Amazed"
15. Carbon/Silicon - "The News"
16. Tu Fawning - "Out Like Bats"
17. Goldfrapp - "Caravan Girl"
18. Lily Haydn - "Strawberry Street"
19. Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountains"
20. Okkervil River - "Lost Coastlines"
21. 77s - "I'm Gonna to Run to the City of Refuge"

By the Way...



Is this a new version of the song? Because it appears on the Alabama 3 Exile On Cold Harbour Lane as well.

No, it's that version. But since I hadn't heard it before, and since it appeared on the 2008 compilation Hits and Exit Wounds (where I heard it for the first time), I decided it qualified for a "Best of 2008" list on a technicality. And the truth is that it's such a great/funny/disturbing song that I would have found a way to sneak it in somehow anyway.

Here's my 2008 comp, though I'm still waiting for the Jill Sobule CD. Straight chronological order, as long as I could know the release dates of the singles and LPs.

1. Laura Marling : Ghosts
2. Laura Marling : Crawled Out of the Sea
3. Richard Julian : Brooklyn in the Morning
4. El Perro del Mar : Inside the Golden Egg
5. David Karsten Daniels : Martha Ann
6. Karine Polwart : Behind Our Eyes
7. Lonely Drifter Karen : The Angels Sigh
8. Lonely Drifter Karen : La Hierba canta
9. Johnny Flynn : Wayne Rooney
10. Prototypes : Un coup de langue
11. Mates of State : My Only Offer
12. Fleet Foxes : White Winter Hymnal
13. Sam Phillips : Don't Do Anything
14. Dr Dog : The Breeze
15. Matt Curreri & the Exfriends : Hope for the Future
16. Brazilian Girls : St Petersburg
17. The Walkmen : In the New Year
18. Moore + Sons : Season Workers
19. Jolie Holland : Mexico City
20. Dar Williams : Buzzer
21. Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby : A Taste of the Keys
22. The Ditty Bops : Next Best Thing
23. The Ditty Bops : Ten Strings

Here is the track-listing of my "Best of 2008 Compilation". I make one of these every year for friends and family. I am assuming I won't get too many requests, so I'm willing to mail a copy to anyone who wants one. My feelings will not be hurt if no one asks for one.

1. Club 8 "Jesus Walk With Me"
2. Frightened Rabbit - "Head Rolls Off"
3. She & Him - "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
4. Okkervil River - "Singer Songwriter"
5. Tift Merrit - "Broken"
6. Damien Jurado - "Best Dress"
7. Sun Kil Moon - "Unlit Hallway"
8. Ida - "The Pain of Loving You"
9. Department of Eagles - "No One Does It Like You"
10. Headlights - "Cherry Tulips"
11. Mates of State - "The Re-Arranger"
12. Music Go Music - "Light of Love"
13. the Postmarks - "7-11"
14. Mount Eerie - "Voice in Headphones"
15. Beach House - "Gilla"
16. Asobi Seksu - "Me & Mary"
17. the Submarines - "You, Me, and the Bougerouise"
18. Army Navy - "Saints"

I totally cheated on the opening song. "Jesus, Walk With Me" was featured on Club 8's 2007 album The Boy Who Couldn't Start Dreaming. That album has become one of my favorites from that year, but unfortunately I didn't hear it until this year. However, "Jesus, Walk With Me" was released as an EP this year so I felt justified in its inclusion. So there.

Well, for my Best of 2008 Compiliation CD, I've made a playlist for both a Best-of CD and my second disc for a 2-disc Extended Edition:

First Disc:

1. "Constructive Summer" - The Hold Steady
2. "Believe in Me" – Sloan
3. "Halfway Home" – TV on the Radio
4. "Against the Skyline" – Oh Darling
5. "The News" – Carbon/Silicon
6. "Swimming Pools" – Thao
7. "Two Silver Pools" – Calexico
8. "Going Back to School" – Fleshtones
9. "Lost Coastlines" – Okkervil River
10. "The Real Morning Party" – Marco Benevento
11. "Lighten Up, Morrisey" - Sparks
12. "Strange Overtones" – David Byrne and Brian Eno
13. "The Clockwise Witness" - Devotchka
14. "White Winter Hymnal" – Fleet Foxes
15. "Blood Like" – Lovedrug
16. "I’ll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers" – The 77s
17. "Absence" – Carrie Rodriguez
18. "A&E" – Goldfrapp
19. "Cathedrals" - Joan Osborne
20. "Out Like Bats" – Tu Fawning
21. "My Favorite Year" – Destroyer

Second Disc

1. "The Beautiful Axe" – Woven Hand
2. "First Date (Are You Coming on to Me)" – Fleshtones
3. "This is Not a Test" – She and Him
4. "Emergency 911" – Sloan
5. "Dancing Choose" – TV on the Radio
6. "Strawberry Street" – Lili Haydn
7. "Take Back the City" – Snow Patrol
8. "Cherry Tulips" – Headlights
9. "Sway Your Head" – We Shot the Moon
10. "Losing Touch" – The Killers
11. "I’m Amazed" – My Morning Jacket
12. "He Doesn’t Know Why" – Fleet Foxes
13. "Sunlight" – Reilly
14. "Chin Up" – Copeland
15. "Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night’s Ape)" – Destroyer
16. "Viva La Vida" - Coldplay
17. "Swim" – Jack’s Mannequin
18. "Caravan Girl" – Goldfrapp
19. "Laugh Track" – Dengue Fever
20. "I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge" – The 77s

I just posted my year-end mix, complete with commentary. If you don't care about the commentary, here are the songs (in no particular order, though #1 was probably my fave song of the year):

1. Portishead - "The Rip"
2. Sun Kil Moon - "Lost Verses"
3. Northern Portrait - "I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me"
4. Au Revoir Borealis - "The World Is Too Much With Us"
5. Cut Copy - "Out There On The Ice"
6. M83 - "Kim & Jessie"
7. The Radio Dept. - "Freddie and the Trojan Horse"
8. Park Avenue Music - "Tufts"
9. Lansing-Dreiden - "I Disappear"
10. Pallers - "Humdrum"
11. Starflyer 59 - "Concentrate"
12. This Is Ivy League - "London Bridges"
13. Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountains"
14. July Skies - "Skies For Nash"

How is the new Starflyer, Jason? I meant to pick it up when it was released and (sadly) completely forgot about it. I checked out a few tracks on Amazon and liked what I heard. I'm not a fan of yore, so to speak, but I did get Fashion Focus when it came out and loooooooved it. (I own a few others of Martin's albums too, and like most of them, especially the Can't Stop Eating EP.)

It's quite good. Starflyer 59's music has always had a bit of a retro feel to it, but it's especially pronounced on Dial M. Martin's guitarwork is still as solid as ever, but there's a lot more analog synthwork on it, giving it a bit of a new wave/post-punk sound. And while Martin's lyrics have never been the most effusive or complex, the lyrics are a little graver and more serious this time around -- most likely due to the recent death of Martin's father -- and deal with weighty matters of life, death, mortality, and family life.

My review is here, FYI.

1. Alive in Wild Paint - Ceilings
2. Amos the Transparent (w. Amy Milan) - After All That, It's Come To This
3. Anathallo - Northern Lights
4. The Avett Brothers - Tear Down the House
5. Beach House - Wedding Bell
6. The Bell - Do You Know How to Feel?
7. Black Mountain - Tyrants
8. Bon Iver - Flume
9. The Broken West - Ambuscade
10. Brooke Waggoner - Wonder-Dummied
11. Castle Project - Celebrate the End
12. Cold War Kids - I've Seen Enough
13. Damien Jurado - Coats of Ice
14. David Condos - Like Wolves
15. Deerhunter - Twilight at Carbon Lake
16. Denison Witmer - Carry the Weight
17. Elbow - The Bones of You
18. Eric Avery - All Remote and No Control
19. Fleet Foxes - Sun It Rises
20. Foals - Cassius
21. French Kicks - Said So What
22. Greg Laswell - Comes and Goes (In Waves)
23. Headlights - Get Your Head Around It
24. Hotel Lights - Firecracker People
25. John Mark McMillan - Ten Thousand
26. John Mayer - Free Fallin'
27. Jon Foreman - My Love Goes Free
28. Josh Garrels - Season of Rain
29. Kanye West - Say You Will
30. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
31. Matthew Perryman Jones - Swallow The Sea
32. Matthew Ryan Vs. The Silver State - Closing In
33. Merz - Presume Too Much
34. My Morning Jacket - Highly Suspicious
35. Obi Best - Origami
36. Okkervil River - Singer Songwriter
37. Paper Route - Are We All Forgotten
38. Ra Ra Riot - St. Peter's Day Festival
39. Rachael Yamagata - Elephants
40. The Raveonettes - Sad Transmission
41. Ray LaMontagne - Let It Be Me
42. The Republic Tigers - Building and Mountains
43. The Rescues - Shadows of Tall Buildings
44. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cobwebs
45. The Sailor Sequence - If I Break
46. Sandra McCracken - Guardian
47. Say Hi - Northwestern Girls
48. Sixpence None the Richer - Sooner Than Later
49. Snow & Voices - Something Good
50. Sun Kil Moon - Like the River
51. Teddy Thompson - The Things I Do
52. Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate
53. Trances Arc - Peace of Mind
54. Tyler Ramsey - A Long Dream
55. The Walkmen - In The New Year
56. The Weepies - Hideaway
57. Why? - The Hollows
58. Wintersleep - Dead Letter
59. Wolf Parade - Call It A Ritual

Ten great songs about being tired from 2008, with commentary: bam.

PS: If I had wanted to expand thematically I probably would have included Starflyer 59's "Minor Keys" -- theeeee best song of the year and this is coming from somebody who stopped paying attention to SF59 a long time ago -- and Mates of States' "the Re-Arranger."

EDIT: oh, crap, Sixpence None the Richer's "Sooner than Later" would have been great. Good call.