Top 55 albums of 2008

I’ve been looking over and reordering this list for a couple weeks, and I’m sure it would change a bit again after another couple weeks and some more re-listening, but at some point you gotta stop and go with what you got. Probably not too many surprises here for regular readers of this blog (all two of you). I’ll also give the usual disclaimer that there are plenty of albums I just never got around to. Oh, and looming deadlines are preventing me from adding any mp3s or (attempts at) pithy descriptions below each. Use the Hype Machine and your imagination, respectively.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
3. Shearwater - Rook
4. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
5. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
6. Deerhunter - Microcastle
7. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
9. The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon
10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
11. Gentleman Auction House - Alphabet Graveyard
12. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
13. The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
15. Anathallo - Canopy Glow
16. Man Man - Rabbit Habbits
17. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
18. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
19. Son Lux - At War with Walls and Mazes
20. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
21. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
22. Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s - Animal/Not Animal
23. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
24. Matt Bauer - The Island Moved in the Storm
25. Alina Simone - Everyone is Calling Out to Me, Beware
26. R.E.M. - Accelerate
27. Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
28. Dodos - Visiter
29. No Age - Nouns
30. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
31. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
32. The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam
33. Horse Feathers - House with No Home
34. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
35. Bodies of Water - A Certain Feeling
36. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks
37. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
38. Bowerbirds - Hymns for a Dark Horse
39. Sun Kil Moon - April
40. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
41. The Weepies - Hideaway
42. Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows
43. Ryan Adams - Cardinology
44. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
45. The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
46. Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz
47. Throw Me the Statue - Moonbeams
48. Dr. Dog - Fate
49. The Walkmen - You & Me
50. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings & All
51. Titles - Up with the Sun
52. Little Joy - Little Joy
53. Lambchop - OH (ohio)
54. Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
55. Love is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night