Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Best Singles Of 2008

Time to see off 2008 with our very own Festive Fifty - our 50 favorite tracks of the year released as Singles in any shape or format (seven-inch, cd, digital download - choose your poison). This means that we have excluded album tracks from this list, but you can easily find out what songs stand out in our opinion from the various albums of this year by revisiting older posts with the tags "Best albums" or "Killer Tracks". The other rule for compiling this list was to include only one Single per artist for maximum variety.

And now that the rules of this game are clear, let's get down to the business of 2008's Top 50 Singles. It has been a tough battle for that prestigious "Single Of The Year" title between hopeful, fresh-faced youngsters The Duke Spirit and seasoned veterans The Gutter Twins. In the end, experience prevailed: Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan have concocted a timeless rock classic with "Idle Hands", fusing the best sounds from their glorious past with grunge heavy-weights The Afghan Whigs and Screaming Trees respectively. I'm convinced that the ghost of Kurt Cobain not only approves, but he might be tempted to briefly leave whatever dimension he currently resides in and pop up for a sing-along at this verse-chorus-verse...

Top 50 Singles of 2008

1. Idle hands - THE GUTTER TWINS
2. The step and the walk - THE DUKE SPIRIT
3. To fix the gash in your head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
4. Courtship dating - CRYSTAL CASTLES
5. Machine gun - PORTISHEAD
6. Devil’s trident - TELEPATHE
7. Swords of truth - THESE NEW PURITANS
8. Cheap and cheerful - THE KILLS
9. Paper planes - M.I.A.
10. Time to pretend - MGMT
11. Salute your solution - THE RACONTEURS
12. Dig, Lazarus, dig!!! - NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
13. Cassius - FOALS
14. Can't go back - PRIMAL SCREAM
15. Jigsaw falling into place - RADIOHEAD
16. Nothing ever happened - DEERHUNTER
17. Hit the wall - BRENDAN CANNING
18. Rat is dead (Rage) - C.S.S.
19. L.E.S. artistes - SANTOGOLD
20. 88 - THE COOL KIDS
21. Knickerbocker - FUJIYA & MIYAGI
22. Mercury - BLOC PARTY
23. I will possess your heart - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
24. Sequestered in Memphis - THE HOLD STEADY
25. You lie you cheat - SPIRITUALIZED
26. You bring me down - BLOOD RED SHOES
27. A-Punk - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
28. In a cave - TOKYO POLICE CLUB
29. Something is not right with me - COLD WAR KIDS
30. Hang them all - TAPES ‘N TAPES
31. Golden age - TV ON THE RADIO
32. Sex on fire - KINGS OF LEON
33. White winter hymnal - FLEET FOXES
34. Hurricane Jane - BLACK KIDS
35. The witch (made to measure) - CLINIC
36. Puzzle - DAS WANDERLUST
37. Teen creeps - NO AGE
38. Souled out!!! - CONOR OBERST
39. Man sized wreath - R.E.M.
40. Love is noise - THE VERVE
41. The age of the understatement - THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
42. Half in love with Elizabeth - MYSTERY JETS
43. The devil - P.J. HARVEY
44. Gamma ray - BECK
45. Runaway - LADYTRON
46. Half asleep - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
47. Lovely Allen - HOLY FUCK
48. Council estate - TRICKY
49. Ready for the floor - HOT CHIP
50. Jump in the pool - FRIENDLY FIRES


Next up: the arrival of 2009 and the official unveiling of our Albums Of The Year... keep that champagne on ice!

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