Best Songs of 2008
Much like my Best of 2007, this mix evolved out of my of-its-time Best of 2008 mix for MC Squared. Well, that plus a couple other annual recaps, including one documenting 2007.
Why 2007? Well, a few of these songs—the first two and one close to the end—come from digital or limited releases from the that year. Which gets at something I do not think I have ever addressed in these preambles: the fluid nature of release dates. Often the problem has to do with the country of origin, and the music’s difficulty reaching U.S. ears in a timely manner. In other instances, the artist self- or locally releases a record in small quantities, only to see it get picked up later by a label (indie or major). Once we hit the mid-aughts, the confusion could be around a digital versus a physical release.
What is my rubric, then? In general, I try to stick with when the song was first released, but I make some exceptions, either to make sense of when the song or artist first rose to my attention, or to tie a lead single to its eventual release on a proper album, or to better fit it within my sense of time. Time is a bit of a construct, after all. Is a song released on December 31 all that different than one released on the following day? No, but my list-making mind might disagree.
Saying time is fluid may not be the best analogy. I think time is more like taffy: you can stretch it and spin it and put it back together, but in the end, what doesn’t stick to your fingers will melt away in your mouth. Which is a weird way of saying that this list did not feel that old when last year I began compiling it into its new 100-track form, but now, at the end of 2018, these songs definitely feel like they are a decade old.
The ones that feel oldest are the ones now lost to time. The 2000s were a decade when digital music wasn’t just illegally traded on file sharing sites and apps, or legally downloaded from iTunes and others. For me, a music fan, it was acquired from blogs, and as the decade wore on, those blogs, foreshadowing the content wars of today’s internet, began to generate original songs from the artists they covered.
So, like a handful of years that preceded this one, you cannot listen to the entirety of this mix on any streaming service, and you probably never will. Which means you cannot hear Mobius Band’s electropop version of Neil Young’s folksy “Razor Love,” or Santigold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D. bouncing through “My Drive Thru.” Nor can you enjoy mash-up pioneers The Hood Internet—remember mash-ups?—whose work broke too many laws.
For all I know, you can still find these songs out there somewhere, like how earlier this year I found the rest of a Huey Lewis tribute from which I had ever only heard the track featured here, but more than likely, you will just have to wait until I can share with you this mix in person one day. Maybe when I do, you will allow me also to share my memories associated with these songs, how ten years on I can still place myself in space and time when, where and why I first heard so many of them.
For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and Apple Music. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available—just 5 short!—but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.
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Kids
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular
Columbia
October 2007 digital release
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I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
Black Kids
Partie Traumatic
AlmostGold
Notes
-
Feel the Love
Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours
Modular
Notes
-
I’ve Got Your Number
Passion Pit
Chunk of Change
Frenchkiss
Notes
-
Toe Jam
BPA
Toe Jam
Southern Fried
digital-only release
-
My Drive Thru
Santogold, Julian Casablancas, N.E.R.D.
Converse Century
Converse
digital-only release
-
American Boy
Estelle featuring Kanye West
Shine
Atlantic
Notes
-
When Baby Mamas Collide (Qualo vs Chin Up Chin Up)
The Hood Internet
The Hood Internet vs Chicago
self-released
digital-only release
-
Kim & Jessie
M83
Saturdays = Youth
Mute
Notes
-
Last November
Lackthereof
Your Anchor
Barsuk
Notes
-
One Day Like This
Elbow
The Seldom Seen Kid
Fiction
Notes
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You’ll Need Those Fingers for Crossing
Los Campesinos!
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Arts & Crafts
Notes
-
Run to Your Grave
The Mae Shi
Hillyh
Moshi Moshi
Notes
-
Little Bit
Lykki Li
Youth Novels
LL Recordings
Notes
-
Little Black Sandals
Sia
Some People Have Real Problems
Hear Music
Notes
-
Shadows of Lies
Joseph Arthur
Could We Survive
Lonely Astronaut
Notes
-
Sweet Darlin’
She & Him
Volume One
Merge
Notes
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No One Does It Like You
Department of Eagles
In Ear Park
4AD
Notes
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Keep Your Eyes Ahead
The Helio Sequence
Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Sub Pop
Notes
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Good Lies
The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
Domino
Notes
-
Cath…
Death Cab for Cutie
Narrow Stairs
Atlantic
Notes
-
Mr. Richards
R.E.M.
Accelerate
Warner Bros.
Notes
-
Profanity Prayers
Beck
Modern Guilt
DGC
Notes
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Razor Love
Mobius Band
Love Will Reign Supreme
self-released
digital-only release
-
We’re Looking for a Lot of Love
Hot Chip
Made in the Dark
Astralwerks
Notes
-
Possibly Maybe
Final Fantasy & Ed Droste
Enjoyed: A Tribute to Björk’s Post
Stereogum
digital-only release
-
Poor Me
Eugene Francis Jnr
The Golden Beatle
Legion Presents
Notes
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The Devil’s Crayon
Wild Beasts
Limbo Panto
Domino
Notes
-
Young Love
Mystery Jets featuring Laura Marling
Twenty One
101
Notes
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The Smartest Man Alive
The Broken West
Now or Heaven
Merge
Notes
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Can You Tell
Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line
Barsuk
Notes
-
Said So What
French Kicks
Swimming
Vagrant
Notes
-
My Only Offer
Mates of State
Re-Arrange Us
Barsuk
Notes
-
Letters
Marching Band
Spark Large
U&L
Notes
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If This Is It
Throw Me the Statue
Are You Still With Me?!
self-released
digital-only release
-
We Didn’t Start the Fire
The Forms
Guilt By Association Vol. 2
Engine Room
digital-only release
-
Jump in the Pool
Friendly Fires
Friendly Fires
XL Recordings
Notes
-
Single Fins & Safety Pins
Japanese Motors
Japanese Motors
Vice
Notes
-
Every Summer
U.S. Royalty
Digital EP
self-released
digital-only release
-
Miles Davis & The Cool
The Gaslight Anthem
The ’59 Sound
SideOneDummy
Notes
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Use Somebody
Kings of Leon
Only By the Night
RCA
Notes
-
Viva la Vida
Coldplay
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Capitol
Notes
-
Set You Free
Frightened Rabbit
Guilt by Association Vol. 2
Engine Room
digital-only release
-
Punctual As Usual
The Parson Red Heads
King Giraffe
Yukon
Notes
-
Silvery Sleds
Army Navy
Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
Atlantic
Notes
-
In a Cave
Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell
Saddle Creek
Notes
-
The Grey Estates
Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer
Sub Pop
Notes
-
I’m Amazed
My Morning Jacket
Evil Urges
ATO
Notes
-
Sometimes
Langhorne Slim
Langhorne Slim
Kemado
Notes
-
Changing
The Moondoggies
Don’t Be a Stranger
Hardly Art
Notes
-
Right Hand on My Heart
The Whigs
Mission Control
ATO
Notes
-
I Woke Up Today
Port O’Brien
All We Could Do Was Sing
City Slang
Notes
-
Sitting
White Denim
Exposion
Transmission Entertainment
Notes
-
Little Tender Hearts
Listening Party
Who Are We Missing?
self-released
digital-only release
-
Fools
The Dodos
Visiter
Frenchkiss
Notes
-
Gobbledigook
Sigur Rós
Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
EMI
Notes
-
The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)
Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
Sub Pop
Notes
-
A-Punk
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
XL Recordings
Notes
-
Great DJ
The Ting Tings
We Started Nothing
Columbia
Notes
-
L.E.S. Artistes
Santogold
Santogold
Downtown
Notes
-
Golden Age
TV on the Radio
Dear Science
4AD
Notes
-
Yesterday
Atmosphere
When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
Rhymesayers Entertainment
Notes
-
Royal Flush
Big Boi
Royal Flush
LaFace
Notes
-
Fuck Shit Stack
Reggie Watts
Why S#!+ So Crazy?
Comedy Central
Notes
-
Machine Gun
Portishead
Third
Mercury
Notes
-
Sensual Seduction
Snoop Dogg
Sensual Seduction
Geffen
Notes
-
House Jam
Gang Gang Dance
Saint Dymphna
The Social Registry
Notes
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Alice
Pogo
Wonderland
self-released
digital-only release
-
I Need a Life (Four Tet Remix)
Born Ruffians
warp.rcrdlbl.com
rcrdlbl
digital-only release
-
Big Big Love (Fig. 2)
Foals
Antidote
Sub Pop
Notes
-
GfC
Albert Hammond, Jr.
¿Cómo te Llama?
Rough Trade
Notes
-
Strange Overtones
David Byrne & Brian Eno
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Redeye
Notes
-
The Golden State
John Doe featuring Kathleen Edwards
The Golden State
Yep Roc
Notes
-
Someone Like You
David Vandervelde
Waiting for the Sunrise
Secretly Canadian
Notes
-
Excelsior Lady
The Donkeys
Living on the Other Side
Dead Oceans
Notes
-
Somehow (Singlemalt Version)
Ben Kweller
How Ya Lookin’ Southbound? Come In…
ATO
Notes
-
I Buried a Bone
Blind Pilot
3 Rounds and a Sound
Expunged
Notes
-
A Burden
Horse Feathers
House With No Home
Kill Rock Stars
Notes
-
Ring That Bell
Shawn Smith
The Diamond Hand
Sound vs. Silence
Notes
-
Acid Tongue
Jenny Lewis
Acid Tongue
Warner Bros.
Notes
-
Give a Little Love
Noah and the Whale
Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down
Interscope
Notes
-
You’ve Got the Love I Need
Al Green
Lay It Down
Blue Note
Notes
-
Keep Marchin’
Raphael Saadiq
The Way I See It
Columbia
Notes
-
Phoenix
Valerie June
Mountain of Rose Quartz
self-released
limited release
-
Furr
Blitzen Trapper
Furr
Sub Pop
Notes
-
Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
We Brave Bee Stings and All
Kill Rock Stars
Notes
-
Write It All Down for You
Elliott Brood
Mountain Meadows
Six Shooter
Notes
-
Reservoir Park
The Dutchess and The Duke
She’s The Dutchess, He’s The Duke
Hardly Art
Notes
-
Champion Angel
The Low Anthem
Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Nonesuch
Notes
-
Canadian Girl
The Walkmen
You & Me
Gigantic
Notes
-
The Gardener
The Tallest Man on Earth
Shallow Grave
Mexican Summer
Notes
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Skinny Love
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago
Jagjaguwar
limited self-release in 2007
-
Another World
Antony & the Johnsons
Another World
Secretly Canadian
Notes
-
The Stations
The Gutter Twins
Saturnalia
Sub Pop
Notes
-
See These Bones
Nada Surf
Lucky
Barsuk
Notes
-
Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be
The Black Keys
Attack & Release
Nonesuch
Notes
-
Kiss Me Again
Jessica Lea Mayfield
With Blasphemy So Heartfelt
Polymer Sounds
Notes
-
Murder in the City
The Avett Brothers
The Second Gleam
Ramseur
Notes
-
Comfort You
Denison Witmer
Covers
self-released
digital-only release until 2011
-
Oliver James
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Sub Pop
Notes