Lots of great music this year but I’ll try to hit some of my personal highlights.

• Concert – I saw several very good concerts this year. I’d say for me this was a tie between seeing Sharon Jones at Blueberry Hill and seeing Ani DiFranco at the Pageant. Sharon because she was amazing and grooving (although her band, while sounding fantastic, looked as bored as any band I’ve ever seen). Ani because she’s with a new band and instrumentation and played a few tunes I know well and have seen live before in ways that completely made them new to me again.
• New to me artist – Sloan was hands-down my favorite new-to-me artist. I gather this Canadian band is pretty much unknown down here in the US but is fairly popular in Canada. That’s a shame as they have done a lot of great stuff.
• Albums – Here are my most listened to albums in 2008 according to last.fm:
  1. Gomez – How We Operate
  2. Cake – Motorcade of Generosity
  3. Sloan – Never Hear The End Of It
  4. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
  5. The Weepies – Say I Am You
  6. Sloan – Action Pact
  7. JJ Grey & Mofro – Orange Blossoms
  8. Ben Folds – Way To Normal
  9. Mike Doughty – Golden Delicious
  10. The Weepies – Hideaway
  11. Sloan – Parallel Play
  12. Zero 7 – The Garden
  13. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
  14. Stanton Moore – Take It To The Street
  15. Lee Fields – Problems

  And some honorable mentions that don’t show up as high in the rankings but I wouldn’t want to forget:

  • Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
  • Brian Eno & David Byrne – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
  • Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
  • Little Jackie – The Stoop
• Song – A highly edited list of my most listened to songs from last.fm, all stuff that has some meaning for me from the year, presented with virtually no context whatsoever:
  1. Elbow – One Day Like This
  2. Diana Brown And The Brothers – Yes It’s You
  3. Gomez – Hamoa Beach
  4. Gomez – Girlshapedlovedrug
  5. Cake – Jolene
  6. Cake – Mr. Mastodon Farm
  7. Cake – Never, Never gonna give you Up
  8. The Weepies – Can’t Go Back Now
  9. Beck – The Golden Age
  10. Sloan – I Was Wrong
  11. Sloan – Ready For You
  12. Sloan – All I Am Is All You’re Not
  13. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?
  14. Nine Inch Nails – 1,000,000
  15. Nine Inch Nails – Discipline
  16. Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off
  17. JJ Grey & Mofro – On Fire
  18. Little Jackie – The Stoop
  19. Ani DiFranco – As Is
  20. Brian Eno & David Byrne – Strange Overtones
  21. Herbie Hancock – The Jungle Line Feat Leonard Cohen
• Podcast – Not really music, but by far and away my favorite podcast this year was RadioLab, a great public radio show out WNYC. Kind of like a science-oriented version of This American Life, telling stories about the world. Both entertaining and makes you think and wonder at the world. An honorable mention goes to the storytelling podcast from The Moth.