Top 20 songs of 2008
December 11th, 2008 by Wade Tatangelo in News- 12/19 Update: Top 10 albums of 2008.
- 12/17 Update: Check out “Honorable mentions: More best songs of 2008.”
OK, here’s my list. Look for the CL music team’s Top 10 album lists to be posted Dec. 22-24, to coincide with our Top 10 issue that streets Christmas Eve.
Also, I’ve been seeing M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” popping up on other best-of lists. The song topped my 2007 tally, so I decided to leave her off this year’s – or else the Sri Lankan sensation would have definitely given Weezy a run for his cash money.
1. “Mr. Carter,” Lil’ Wayne (pictured) w/Jay-Z
Lil’ Wayne, the self-proclaimed greatest rapper on earth, lives up to the claim on this amazing free-word association with a world-class hook. Weezy’s distinctive Nawlins locution is wonderfully raspy as he bounces from brilliantly wacky pop-culture references (”Hector Camacho Man Randy Savage”) to outstanding boasts like: “Two words you never hear, ‘Wayne Quit?’/ ‘Cause Wayne win, and they lose/ I call them April babies, ’cause they fools.” Jay-Z’s guest verse is boss, but it’s Weezy’s dramatic delivery and mad genius lyrics that make this song my top pick for ‘08.
2. “Highly Suspicious,” My Morning Jacket
Genre-hopping rockers My Morning Jacket’s foray into funk is a stone-cold winner. Frontman Jim James pulls a Prince, singing falsetto about sexy mysteries like “peanut butter pudding surprise” – without a discernible hint of irony. Oh, yeah, and the thumping, make-you-wanna-hump backbeat is irrepressible.
3. “Slapped Actress,” The Hold Steady
This isn’t the first song in which the indie rank’s fiercest bar band name-checks Ybor City, but it is The Hold Steady’s finest. And that’s saying something considering the gutter glory of “Killer Parties.” On “Slapped Actress,” the band has concocted a guitar-centric, articulate rush of adrenaline that rises and falls like a first-rate arena-rock offering – minus the gloss and lyrical goofiness.
4. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul?,” Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green has evolved from an ace rapper to one of the most talented soul singers of his generation. Green’s voice is ragged but right, his phrasing and expressiveness sublime. Credit Danger Mouse for draping Green’s raw vocal in subtle, plucked strings and restrained, hypnotic beats.
5. “Jailhouse Tears,” Lucinda Williams w/Elvis Costello
Williams is the trailer park gal with good sense scolding her “three-time loser” boyfriend (Elvis Costello) in this humorous white trash exchange that also manages to tug at the heartstrings.
6. “Bang! Bang!,” The Knux
The Knux brothers offer a super-catchy cautionary tale about life in their native New Orleans. Unlike Weezy, though, their jubilant sound is more indebted to Outkast – and New Wave – than anything from the Cash Money stable.
7. “White Winter Hymnal,” Fleet Foxes (pictured)
Not since the Beach Boys’ prime have vocal harmonies sounded this sweet. Like a church choir singing its way through an enchanted Pacific Northwest forest, this song is spirits-lifting escapism at its finest.
8. “You Stood Me Up,” Benji Hughes
Like Beck before he got all psychedelic and serious on us, Benji Hughes offers a detailed account of a chick ditching him for another dude. We feel ya, man. And dig those grabby, old-school synth runs.
9. “My Home Is Nowhere without You,” Herman Düne
Spanish guitar, delicate percussion, mariachi horn and angelic background singers frame this gorgeous valentine. It’s emotive, but not over-sung, in English by sharp-eyed Frenchman David-Ivar Herman Düne.
10. “I Got Mine,” The Black Keys
The song starts off as a crushing, garage-rock kiss-off then pulls the listeners into a delightfully trippy carnival tunnel (thanks Danger Mouse) before the guitar fury and raging vocals return with even more face-melting force.
11. “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” Randy Newman
Pop music’s crown prince of sarcasm sends up the Bush administration by arguing things could be worse. In doing so, he mentions “Hitler, Stalin, men who need no introduction.”
12. “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution,” The Black Crowes
Just when you thought the Crowes had lost their way on the jam-band circuit, the sibling act returns with a ballsy rocker bolstered by the slashing slide guitar playing of North Mississippi Allstar Luther Dickinson.
13. “Red River Shore,” Bob Dylan
An outtake from Dylan’s 1997 Grammy-winning masterstroke Time Out of Mind, this lovesick epic finds the singer searching the world over for the one fair maiden who brought him solace. On the final verse, he ponders the ways of Jesus, and salvation in general. “Well, I don’t know what kind of language he used,” Dylan somberly intones over mournful accordion. “Or if they do that kind of thing anymore.”
14. “Ur So Gay (And You Don’t Even Like Boys),” Katy Perry (pictured)
Girl-kissing Katy Perry gets sweet revenge with a hilariously savage attack on her indie-rock ex in this horn-enhanced pop ditty. Best line? “You walk around like you’re oh so debonair/ You pull ‘em down, and there’s really nothing there.”
15. “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,” Kathleen Edwards
In this breezy country-rock delight, the Canadian singer/songwriter bemoans playing second fiddle to her frontman boyfriend. In doing so, she manages to work formerly feared NHL enforcer Marty McSorley into the song. Very cool.
16. “Rock ‘N Roll Train,” AC/DC
Big, heavy riffs and taut rhythms that swing. It’s AC/DC, back near the top of their game, which means no other contemporary hard-rock act can touch ‘em.
17. “High Cost of Living,” Jamey Johnson
In the style of Waylon Jennings and George Jones, Nashville singer/songwriter Jamey Johnson confesses to a coke habit that nearly cost him everything. This is real country. The way God intended it.
18. “Smiling Underneath,” Ani DiFranco
The sonics are spooky and moody, but the message is one of pure love and devotion. DiFranco tells her man that with him by her side she can stand anything, even a “flaming Christmas wreath” around her neck. Hot stuff.
19. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” Vampire Weekend
What the hell was Paul Simon thinking when he left this off Graceland?
20. “She Left Me for Jesus,” Hayes Carll
A new twist on a timeworn country tradition: His woman left him … But not for Bubba, for Jesus! And now Carll’s gonna kick J.C.’s ass. Blasphemous? Sure. But funny. Very funny.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
So is this a clue-in to your top 10 albums? Or are these songs by people who didn’t quite make your top 10? Or a combo of both? I feel like this was the year of solid singles in not-so-solid albums. Prime example, MMJ’s Evil Urges. I like it, but I don’t love it, though there are a few really killer tracks.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Combo of both. I kept a working list fave albums all year and it’s at about 20. I haven’t whittled it down yet. This list came from a tally of 45 songs I put together from scratch the other night. It’s on my iTunes under “2008 singles” if you’re bored/curious. This list is saved as “2008 Top 20.” It took about the length of each song to write each blurb. I’m a geek like that. I prefer to hear what I’m writing about, when I’m writing about it.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Nice list…
I like the MMJ album,and I have to say, that I do get that song stuck in my head a lot. (you know pitchfork refered to highly suspicious as a “phish throw away track”, though obv. the folks at pf are morons)
I keep meaning to ask if you’ve listened to Langhorne Slim at all.
I think you would really dig him, one of my favorite albums of the year, if you don’t have it, I’ll get it to you. Sounds like dylan, but not a copy or a rip off, just a similar honesty and vocal qualities.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:47 am
You don’t deserve this but okay, here goes.
Since, as far as I know, Ben Folds and the Beastie Boys didn’t come out with anything this year, I’m going with “Acid Tongue” and “Worst Sex I Ever Had.”
If I had read your column about how not to act at office parties *before* attending a recent soiree, perhaps Death Cab for Cutie or something by She & Him would be on my mind.
Oh well. Live and learn.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Kate: So kind of you to comment. Our office party is Saturday. Chances are, I’ll break at least one of my rules, like the four-drink limit. And thanks for reminding me how much I liked Acid Tongue.
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2008/09/13/jenny-lewis-drops-acid-tongue/
Phil: Gracias. Every time I hear “Highly Suspicious” I get giddy, and I’ve played the shit out of the tune, although “Sec Walkin” is anotehr fave and the title-track is probably the “best,” most dynamic, song on the album. Yeah, I’m already second guessing my list. It happens. Slim sounds familiar but maybe I’m thinking of Slim Pickens, the dude who costarred with Dylan in “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid” and rode the nuke cowboy-style in “Dr. Strangelove.” Ok, I’m rambling. Please burn me a copy of the CD. And while you’re at it, how about one of those awesome Zep boots you have??!!
December 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Kate –
Sit down…get ready…you are about to be very excited. Not only did Ben Folds come out with one, but he came out with two new albums. It was actually one fake leak album, and one real album…just read about it…
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/22595157/why_i_leaked_it_ben_folds_comes_clean_about_his_fake_and_real_new_album_way_to_normal
Do you play wipe out on the drums?
December 12th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Ben Folds duet “You Don’t Know Me” with the adorable Regina Spektor is one of my top 20 songs..
Wade, are you counting Bon Iver’s album as 2007? “Flume” is gut-wrenchingly gorgeous, as is the whole album.
“Evil Urges” may be the most dynamic, but “Smokin From Shootin’” or “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2″ are my faves. Those two tracks are the best closing songs on any album this year. Unfortunately, the middle of Evil Urges just doesn’t hold up for me.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I dig “Evil Urges” from top to bottom, more than any of their past studio releases.
I just listened to the Ben Folds/Spektor duet. Hadn’t heard it before. Very nice. Spektor’s been one my faves for awhile. Her “Begin to Hope” cracked my 2006 tally. Here it is, from my days working for The Bradenton.
Getting my kicks in 2006
My highly subjective Top 10 Albums of 2006 article ran Dec. 31 in our A&E section. I was second-guessing myself right up to deadline. I failed to include Wolfmother’s retro-ly rad debut and I think that might have been a mistake. I’m also starting to wonder if I would have been kinder to the latest by Justin Timberlake and John Mayer if they would’ve been by anyone other than Justin Timberlake and John Mayer.
Anyway, here’s my list. Take a look and then post a comment about how I’m an idiot for not raving about the Arctic Monkeys or those punks My Chemical Romance. Click here to read the trenchant prose that accompanied each selection. Click here to read my pick for concert of the year.
1. “St. Elsewhere,” Gnarls Barkley (Downtown)
2. “Modern Times,” Bob Dylan (Columbia)
3. “Public Warning,” Lady Sovereign (Def Jam)
4. “Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers,” Lucero (Liberty & Lament)
5. “Back to the Basics,” Christina Aguilera (RCA)
6. “Begin to Hope,” Regina Spektor (Sire)
7. “We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions,” Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)
8. “Straight to Hell,” Hank Williams III (Curb)
9. “Broken Boy Soldiers,” The Raconteurs (Third Man Records)
10. “Bring it on Home . . . The Soul Classics,” Aaron Neville (Burgundy S)
Best reissue:
“Live at the Fillmore,” Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Reprise)
December 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
The new Bon Iver ep (blood bank) is pretty fantastic as well.
Only 4 songs and like 15 minutes, but I would let him (Jason) spit on me for 15 minutes if given the chance…he melts me.
December 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I just wanted to say that your taste in music is utterly contemporary and really, really boring. Reading your “Best of 2008” list was painful. Listening to it was even more tormenting. “Droopiest of 2008” would have been a more appropriate title. There’s no doubt ‘The Knux’ and ‘Vampire Weekend’ are indeed two exciting and unique groups. It’s the rest of your playlist’s woeful rhythms and clichéd song structures that left me annoyed and made me sleepy. At times I felt as drowsy as a 100-year-old great grandmother after she’s downed a bottle of NyQuil while watching a Lawrence Welk rerun. I must have yawned at least twenty times. It only takes one word to describe your list: “Grogginess”.
I’m downright fed up with this Indie/Americana/Folk genre. I’m surprised at how much imagery you can conjure up for the majority of the groups you write about. It’s always just another sucky bar band in the end. Then again, I suppose run-of-the-mill, 1970’s sounding stoner music is your forte. You should try listening to something other than what’s being played at the many SoHo taverns you inebriate yourself in. Perhaps you would find some extraordinary music that could inspire you to write an interesting article for once.