With thanks to the late Layne Staley I try not to plan the funeral before the body has died but there's only one Tuesday left in 2008 and there's nothing I'm in a hurry to go out and buy. Three years down the road I may come across a 2008 album I missed and want to amend this list, but for now, for better and worse these are my Top Songs of 2008.
The best thing about this list is no song from my Album of the Year appears on it. As odd as that may seem, it underscores my reason for naming it my Album of the Year (we'll get to that discussion soon enough).
What follows is a list of the best songs I heard this year. In some cases, they've come from albums I loved and in others they were the best thing on an album that disappointed. I've limited myself to one song per album in order to keep some sort of order here. These songs may not work for you, but they're a few of the ones that got me through.
“Consoler of the Lonely” - The Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely: This feels less like a song and more like a collage. Brendan Benson and Jack White trade lines over a start-stop riff with some squalls of Jack's lead guitar racket interspersed. Something this disjointed shouldn't be this catchy, but I'll be damned if it's not. This is a house favorite.
“So He Won't Break” - The Black Keys, Attack & Release: The Black Keys shouldn't make all future albums with Danger Mouse, but their work on Attack & Release came off much better than I'd have predicted. DM's sonic touchups reveal these guys are capable of executing their ideas with more than riffs and grit. “So He Won't Break” mixes some alt-pop with the blues and DM's tasty sonic accents.
“Birmingham” - The Bittersweets, Goodnight, San Francisco: I live 90 minutes from Birmingham and believe me when I say never imagined anything this lovely and wonderful could spring from there. This is one of Hannah Prater's best vocals and that is saying something.
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