The Juke of Earl: Top 100 of 2008

The last half of 2008 was spent knee deep in work and school. As a result, The Mixtape felt the full effect of my neglect. Even though it didn't make it into the blogosphere each week, I did track my personal musical habits with the tried-and-true ink and paper method that I started some 25-ish years ago. Old habits are hard to break. So as 2009 begins officially in a couple weeks with the new Animal Collective record, here are the Mixtape's favorite songs of last year.

1. Fine Young Cannibals / Wolf Parade

This track from the band's second album, "At Mount Zoomer," owned my iPod for the better part of the summer and fall, spending a year-best 12 weeks on top of the Mixtape. Critics generally gave a warm reception to the album upon its release while almost universally snubbing it on the year-end "best of" lists, a stark retreat from the collective critical gushings for the band's first album, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" in 2005. Keyboards and guitar slip in and out of each other, creating a sinewy background for singer/guitarist Dan Boeckner to plead for a romantic requiting upon.

2. Hurricane Jane / Black Kids

Loved by critics at the end of 2007 for their debut EP, “Wizard of Ahhs,” the band’s first full-length, “Partie Traumatic,” came out in 2008 to a reception of critical jeers. The biggest fault with the record, many claimed, was that it sounded too syrupy - imagine an amalgam of New Wave’s cheesiest moments as performed by a Robert Smith sound-alike. I fell in love with the EP version of this song and concur that much of “Traumatic’s” material felt over-produced in contrast to the rawer versions found on the EP. That being said, the album was still full of bouncy synth-driven pop songs that reveled in their catchiness and smarmy lyricism. A pleasure of the most non-guilty variety.

3. You on the Run / The Black Angels

A little band from Austin, TX that at once embodies the spirit and sound of late sixties bands like The Velvet Underground and The Doors, The Black Angels are unlike anything else out there right now. This song didn’t get to number one, but spent 30 weeks on the Mixtape with 11 of them at #2.

4. Nothing Ever Happened / Deerhunter

This was the #1 song as 2008 ended and looks to continue its reign well into this year. The song masquerades for the first 2:25 as an indie-rock single before blasting off into a spaced out, fuzzy jam for the final 3:25. It is as blissful it its noisiness as other Deerhunter and Atlas Sound (Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox’s other band) songs are in their quiet dreaminess.

5. Apartment Story / The National

This was on the band’s 2007 “Boxer,” but managed to spend five weeks on top of the ‘tape in the winter of 2008. Twenty-seven weeks on the chart in 2008 and 34 weeks total dating back to 2007, Apartment Story is a perfect example of The National’s aesthetic.

6. Evil Urges / My Morning Jacket

Jim James and crew continued to build on their legacy as the most successful jam band out there in 2008. The title track from their fifth album showcased James’ falsetto while proving Jacket hadn’t lost any of their desire to kick out the…well, jams.

7. My Drive Thru / NERD, Santogold, and Julian Casablancas

This musical ad campaign for Converse ended up being my “summer song” of the year. Not only did NERD sound better on this than any song on their most recent album, Santogold – who delivered a killer debut in her own right - and the Strokes’ lead singer were in top form as well. And to tell the truth, hearing Julian’s voice again made this song all that much better.

8. Time to Pretend / MGMT

The duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden produced a single that, like the Black Kids’ “Hurricane Jane,” was more appealing in its less-polished EP version than it was on the band’s second full-length album, Oracular Spectacular. Lyrically, the song plays on the textbook rock star creed of “live fast, die young, and get a model wife along the way” while sonically straddling synth pop and psychedelia. It’s catchy as hell and spent a ridiculous 33 weeks on the Mixtape in ’08.

9. The ’59 Sound / The Gaslight Anthem

New Jersey begat Springsteen. Springsteen begat Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi…well, let’s not go there. The Gaslight Anthem, like their Jersey brethren, makes music infused with and informed by the Jersey streets they rose from. Punk in spirit and pop in delivery, the title track of the group’s second album sounds as timeless as its subject matter. Emotional and anthemic, the chorus invites the toe-tapping sing-along, belying the story of untimely death unfolding around it.

10. Call it a Ritual / Wolf Parade

Three songs in the top 100; two in the top ten. That’s the kind of presence Wolf Parade had for me last year. This was the first new Wolf Parade since their 2005 debut, “Apologies to the Queen Mary” and it was long overdue. The song only reached #2, but spent nearly three months in the top five and five months on the chart.

11. L.E.S. Artistes / Santogold

She came, she saw, she kicked out a genre-busting, self-titled debut that included this verbal throwdown to the hipsters in New York’s Lower East Side. New wave and new school, Santi White proved she was a force in her own right after spending years in bands and writing songs for GZA, Lily Allen, and gasp…Ashlee Simpson.

12. The Modern Leper / Frightened Rabbit

It’s been proven through the years that some of the best albums result from a shattered heart. Frightened Rabbit’s break-up opus, “Midnight Organ Fight,” is no exception. The album’s first song, “Leper” sets the tone for lead singer Scott Hutchison’s 14-song cycle of wry lyricism and soul searching that ended up being the best album spawned from a failed relationship since Lenny Kravitz poured his soul into “Mama Said” – his 1991 sophomore release prompted by his breakup with Lisa Bonet. Lenny never regained the magic he had on that album. Here’s hoping Frightened Rabbit don’t suffer a similar fate.

13. Paper Planes / MIA

Ubiquity often breeds backlash. Not the case for MIA’s larger-than-life single from her 2007 album, “Kala.” “Paper Planes” was too good of a single to suffer a death via obscurity that most indie-esque artists’ best works are fated from a lack of major-label promotion. Mainstream pop radio picked up on MIA’s single after it was featured in the trailer for the Seth Rogen film, “Pineapple Express,” and the rest of the world finally got to hear Sri Lanka’s best musical export.

14. Love Dog / TV on the Radio

This is the highest charting of five TV songs on the list. Which means exactly two things. TV on the Radio is still brilliant and their album, “Dear Science” is the best album of the year. Guitarist and band co-founder Dave Sitek gets my vote for producer of the year, despite producing Scarlett Johansson’s universally-panned album of Tom Waits covers.

15. I Will Possess Your Heart / Death Cab For Cutie

16. The Heart Gently Weeps / Wu Tang Clan

WTF??? The Wu Tang entered the classic rock chamber with this “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” remake of sorts featuring George Harrison’s son, Dhani, Erykah Badu, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante, on rhythm and lead guitar respectively. It was such a merging of the Wu aesthetic with the spirit of the Beatles’ song that, instead of a train wreck, it was an admirable interpolation of an untouchable classic rock track.

17. Golden Age / TV on the Radio

18. Salute Your Solution / The Raconteurs

19. Oxford Comma / Vampire Weekend

20. Turn On Me / The Shins

21. Grounds for Divorce / Elbow

Guy Garvey and the rest of the boys from Manchester snagged the Mercury Prize and a bunch of new fans with their 2008 release, “The Seldom Seen Kid.” This song was the album’s first single and best choice for a sing-along after a few pints of strong English beer.

22. Unless it’s Kicks / Okkervil River

23. Heretic Pride / The Mountain Goats

24. Squalor Victoria / The National

25. On and On and On / Wilco

26. Sex On Fire / Kings of Leon

Band of brothers aim for the fences and shoot even higher. Album sounds like a premeditated (though according to the band it was more premedicated) attempt to become the next U2 instead of the “Southern Strokes.” This single was the album’s highest point and a bright spot in a disappointing effort.

27. White Winter Hymnal / Fleet Foxes

“Camp Rock.” That’s my personal genre nomenclature for Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Blitzen Trapper, etc... It refers to music that sounds tailor-made for campfires. Or growing out beards. Pretty much every cool indie-kid and rock critic’s best album and band and beard of 2008 had the Fleet Foxes attached to it. The first single from the Foxes' self-titled album was this song which evokes what the Beach Boys might have sounded like if they had spent more time in the mountains and less in the surf.

28. Last Believer, Drop Dead / Secret Machines

Much-loved band loses key member. Much-loved band recruits replacement. Cyncial fan (me) assumes band will never recover. Cynical fan eats crow. Much-loved band gets hug (and number 28 song of the year) from once cynical fan.

29. Lost Coastlines / Okkervil River

30. Shake a Fist / Hot Chip

Forget shaking a fist, this - and many other songs from “Made in the Dark” – made me shake that ass.

31. Eraser / No Age

Sonic Youth and Superchunk had a kid and named it No Age.

32. DLZ / TV on the Radio

33. Pot Kettle Black / Tilly and the Wall

34. Teen Creeps / No Age

35. Id Engager / of Montreal

On the band’s latest album, “Skeletal Lampings,” Kevin Barnes eschews cohesiveness for an exhauting pastiche of psychedelic funk and hyper-literate, hook-laden neuroticism…except for this, the album’s first single and best shot at reaching the masses.

36. Doves / The Black Angels

37. Torn Blue Foam Couch / Grand Archives

38. Ready For the Floor / Hot Chip

39. Lover’s Day / TV on the Radio

40. Dancing Choose / TV on the Radio

41. Someone Great / LCD Soundsystem

Yeah, it’s from 2007, but like some of the other songs on here, it seeped over from the end of ‘07 into the winter of ‘08. The rules can be blurred a bit and this song is good enough to warrant such fudging.

42. Furr / Blitzen Trapper

I live in Portland. They live in Portland. Life is good. More “camp rock” executed flawlessly.

43. Something is Not Right With Me / Cold War Kids

44. Mother Mary / Foxboro Hot Tubs

45. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You / Black Kids

46. Love Me Already / Black Kids

47. Trashcan / The Delta Spirit

48. Impossible Germany / Wilco

49. Love Lockdown / Kanye West

This generation’s self-proclaimed Elvis dropped an icy album, “808s and Heartbreak,” to chronicle both the loss of his mother and the end of a relationship. Auto-Tune may or may not reveal itself as a fading fad this year, and I hate the damn thing, but its presence on Kanye’s work is appreciated…the dude can’t sing and he knows it. Oh yeah, the drums on this are sick. You’re not Mr. Presley quite yet Mr. West, but you have more stones than most in the game.

50. California Girls / Magnetic Fields

51. No Social / The Shortwave Set

52. Discipline / Nine Inch Nails

53. Those Dancing Days / Those Dancing Days

54. No One’s Gonna Love You / Band of Horses

55. Sequestered In Memphis / The Hold Steady

56. Violet Hill / Coldplay

57. Each Year / Ra Ra Riot

58. I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You? / Dear and the Headlights

59. Sheffield / All The Saints

60. Crawl / Kings of Leon

61. Chemtrails / Beck

Sounding like something Pink Floyd recorded 40 years ago, Beck continued to prove himself as unpredictable as ever on the first single from “Modern Guilt.”

62. Blind / Hercules and Love Affair

Disco came back from the grave and Antony Hegarty was the perfect diva to give this track its soul.

63. The Old Days / Dr. Dog

64. Get Busy / The Roots

65. I Woke Up Today / Port O’Brien

66. Pork and Beans / Weezer

Toto, it’s not 1994 anymore.

67. The Ark / Dr. Dog

68. Leaving / Dirty on Purpose

69. Handlebars / Flobots

70. In The Hospital / Friendly Fires

71. Sugarbaby / Morningwood