…though in my defence I lost three teeth in a bloody incident on Wednesday. Still, the other guy came off worse. That guy being the private health insurer. Japes…Then I got hit by this post-hospital flu that laid me out cold/hot for days.
All of which maudlin (or do we have to spell it magdalen here?) self-pity is my excuse for not reviewing sodding Christmas singles, but rather doing one of those self-indulgent list jobs that everyone puts out at this time of year.
Don’t worry – it’s not a ‘Best Albums of 2008′. This is a Singles’ Blog. I could go on about albums for ever and sound just like The Guardian. But I’d get cross about Yeasayer and Portico Quartet technically being released last year, I’d insist MGMT‘s ‘Time To Pretend EP’ is superior to Oracular Spectacular, and I’d generally go on forever. And TV On The Rado would still win at the end of it.
If you’re interested, the albums of this year that were really sodding disappointing came from Kings Of Leon (U2), Bloc Party (tried to go heavy, embarrassingly), Dirty Pretty Things (worst production in the world), Santogold (wildly inconsistent) and Damon Albarn’s Monkey (divorced from the action and visuals, it just didn’t hang together). The best 25 albums – feel free to buy any or all of these for appropriate relations now – were obviously:
25. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
24. Bellowhead – Matachin
23. Yeti – The Legend Of Yeti Gonzales
22. Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head
21. The Dears – Missiles
20. Lightspeed Champion – Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
19. The Mummers – Tale To Tell, Pt. 1
18. Metronomy – Nights Out
17. Guillemots – Red
16. Amadou & Mariam – Welcome To Mali
15. Black Kids – Partie Traumatic
14. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The Understatement
13. Wild Beasts – Limbo, Panto
12. Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
11. Dodos – Visiter
10. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
9. Mystery Jets – Twenty One
8. Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
7. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
6. Toumani Diabaté – The Mandé Variations
5. MGMT – Time To Pretend EP
4. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
3. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – A Larum
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
1. TVOTR – Dear Science
Ahem. The discerning reader may notice that I’ve actually just done a ‘Best Albums of 2008’, only without any kind of justification. Brilliant, isn’t it? Rest assured that in my next post, soon to follow, I’ll go back to actual singles: the best tracks of 2008, in a helpful playlist order that you can mix, burn and DJ away with at dreadful parties well into the new year. See you then.
