Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 1

1. Goldfrapp - A&E

So, my favourite song of the year. I've loved it ever since I first heard it way back in January, and the Live Lounge version's even better.



Coming up - albums of the year.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 2

2. Johnny Foreigner - Salt, Pepper and Spinderella

Doot doot doot doot doot doot doot doot doot doot.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 3

3. Blood Red Shoes - This Is Not For You

Ha, surprised you, didn't I? How many of you regulars (both of you) thought this lot would be number one? An absolutely blinding, powerful song, with a great video in which you're never too sure whether Steve and Laura-Mary are going to kill each other or fuck each other. The second best single from the album, and if the original video for Say Something Say Anything had been released, that would probably have taken top spot. As it happens, click the link below, and enjoy this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z8nnZuRvrg

(Confident you know what my number one song will be? You're wrong.)

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 4

4. Los Campesinos! - My Year In Lists

The song which will lend its title to many a blog post over the coming fortnight. Give one minute and fifty seconds of your time to this song, and be cheery.

(As I heard Y!M!D! last year, it's ruled out of the countdown.)

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 5

So, we're into the top five. The final countdown. (Not, actually, The Final Countdown. Though that'd be cool too.)

5. Duke Spirit - The Step And The Walk

Leading single from Neptune, another "second album" that I'd been eagerly awaiting this year, and absolutely stonking live. a slow burner to start that suddenly explodes and races to a finish, filled with barely restrained fury.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 6

6. Amanda Palmer - Oasis

It's a song that sounds like the Beach Boys, and is about date rape, child molestation, abortion and Britpop groups. Naturally it was dedicated to Tina Fey Sarah Palin. What's not to like?

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 7

7. Alexa Vega & Tony Head - Seventeen

Second song from a musical in the top 20, and a bit of a cheat as this hasn't been released legally over here yet. But sod it. Yes, that is Giles from Buffy. Yes, that is the cute girl from Spy Kids. Yes, that is Joan Jett playing guitar in a cameo.

The musical is Repo: A Genetic Opera and it's like if Rocky Horror was directed by Tim Burton with music by Nine Inch Nails.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 8

8. Metallica - The Day That Never Comes

As fellow BRS boardie and blog follower James Ether commented on his review of Death Magnetic, "It was never going to be hard to make an album better than St Anger. Metallica could've recorded the sounds of the group collectively farting and it'd be better than their last album." (A line which I will steal for my end of year album list too.)

So yes, a return to the thrash metal basics. This song, if you know Metallica, starts off like Fade To Black and ends like One. The video fits it well, even if the subjects are different (the song's about domestic abuse, the second such song on this list after Florence and the Machine). If you can, watch the video without any distractions.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 9

9. Be Your Own PET! - Heart Throb

Sadly, this band split this year. It's quite emotional for me, as I've been into them since early 2005 when they were mentioned in a radio show about women in rock. I've followed them since the early days of the Damn Damn Leash EP, so they're the first band I've watched get bigger to split. The second album, released March this year, sounded exactly as expected - byoP with two more years worth of experience and maturity.

This song was included in a mix CD I made for a friend who had just split up with her very long term boyfriend, it's an absolutely cracking song about wanting something you can't have, and the video below is from the final ever gig at Dingwalls, which was just as mental as previous gigs have been :D

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 10

10. Florence and the Machine - Kiss With A Fist

I first heard this way way way back in February when Hannah sent me it. (She also sent me yesterday's song, so she's got a pretty good track record.) It was filed under "good" until the DJ happened to play it in the tent at Lounge on the Farm before Los Campesinos came on (yes, the same DJ who played song 12 in this list) which reminded me of how good it was.

Have Florence performing it live at Camden Crawl.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 11

11. Rosie and the Goldbug - Lover

You know how it is when you hear a song so amazing that it grabs you the first moment you hear it, and you want to do nothing but listen to it over and over and over again?

This is that song, the one I've been listening to on repeat over the last hour. I've had to rejig my top songs countdown to put it in. #12 was originally supposed to be Alphabeat - Fascination, but this has surpassed it. I only found out about it on Sunday!

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 12

12. AC/DC - Rock n Roll Train

When I was told that AC/DC were to be releasing new material this year I laughed with disbelief. "Pull the other one" I said, jokingly. "What, is it a joint release with Chinese Democracy?"

Egg, meet face. This is the lead off track from the album Black Ice, and is quite possibly the first ever music video created in Excel. Yes, the spreadsheet program.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 13

13. Kevin Tuffy - Oh Dearest Daughter

Bit of an unknown this. I first heard it while in a tent at Lounge on the Farm, two songs after Kiss with a Fist, and was taken by it straight away. After googling the lyrics I made a note to download it as soon as I could, finding this fella's Myspace and ripping it from that. The song itself features Laura Marling on vocals, and is more of a story than a song. This is the only song on my list that I won't have a video for, as there aren't any decent ones on YouTube. Instead, I implore you to listen to it (it's track 5 on his Myspace player) and read the lyrics below.

It all starts in a fast-food joint of Biblical proportion,
In a small toilet that makes love some kind of astounding contortion,
Although it isn't noisy
Oh the love it speaks volumes,
Kebabs and burgers a million miles away
Just four foot from the bathroom,
She's beautiful and radiant
There's two of her she's blurry,
He's nameless knight-in-shining-armour he said he's working early,
He said he'd walk her to the bus stop
Said she'd catch the N11
He said that the ladder in her tights was a stairway to heaven,
She threw up in the car park, oh her head it is a-pounding,
He held her hair from her face joked "shall I get another round in?"
She won't remember that he said that - won't remember much in the morning,
She'll be pregnant and nine months away from the hospital her daughter will be born in,

And she'll cry her little heart out
She'll curse the vodka lemonade conception,
She'll curse fast-food joints and alcohol
Her life and his erection
And she'll mutter hatred and regret directed at her newborn
She'll hate herself for not deciding to go with an abortion

She comfort-buys a pram a pop star had in the newspaper
She takes a photo of her daughter on her phone as the wallpaper,
And she names her after the supermodel who looked best this season
She plans out her christening, the priest asks why she has no reason,
Because she does not care for the God she heard about in conversation
There's no guardian angel leaving her signs in the time board at the train station
Her purpose for existence isn't etched into the tree outside her house
So her guardian angel doesn't do their job and should have been fired by now
Her daughter is angelic and nauseating at the same time
She personifies her big mistake and breaks her heart with a smile

Reluctant grandma says it's time for a break a night out with the girls
So it's hair straighteners and gloss and make-up squeezing into that short skirt

It's music lights and dancing,
Fake IDs, queues at the bar,
Rums and cokes, laughing fit blokes, and twenties from her bra
When her stare finds a familiar stranger, playing pool, potting a red
She knows that face those eyes but she can't remember from where

He walks over London Pride in hand gives her a grin a wink,
He drops her a cheesy "Don't I know you?" line and she's still trying to think,
She figures it out, she wants to die,
The room blacks out it's 10:07
The remnants of a "Is that a ladder in your tights or a stairway to heaven?"
10:08 and all the time she's lost because of the boy sitting next to her,
She reaches for her purse to take out the photo of her daughter,
He ponders, thinks, says: "Hey she's cute,
What is she, your sister?
You're cute, too" and he's away leaning in to kiss her,
10:09
"No, stop it! Can't you fucking remember
The drunk girl you slurred I love you to in West Kebab last December,
Like it or not you're this girl's dad,
This girl she's your daughter,
Get your hand off my shoulder
I need a glass of water"

And the parents of a young Londoner sit and have nothing to say,
Welcome to the world, would be a start.
We're ready to bring you up the right way...

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 14

14. The Subways - I Won't Let You Down

I've liked this song ever since a live version from Reading last year hit the web, and I was pleased that the studio hadn't lost anything in translation. Disagreements with band members aside, it's an absolutely cracking song, reminiscent of anything found on Young For Eternity.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 15

15. MGMT - Time To Pretend

You all know this one. It's been everywhere from Gossip Girl, Skins, various football highlights and Simon Pegg films. It's infectious, cheery, and poppy as hell.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 16

16. Dr Horrible - My Eyes
Before the middle of July, I thought of Neil Patrick Harris only as Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother, and Felicia Day as Vi from the last few episodes of Buffy. Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog (a web based musical experience) changed all that. Simply, NPH plays a supervillian who has simple aims - conquering the world, and winning the heart of Penny (Felicia Day) who happens to go to the same laundrette as him.

The song below kicks off Act II, just after Dr Horrible had inadvertantly introduced the love of his life to his arch-nemisis (played by Nathan Fillion) and the pair present contrasting views on the world at large. It's worth watching the video, to see
NPH in the soup kitchen background, and Fillion's fear of ducks!

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 17

17. Operator Please - Leave It Alone
Foolishly I missed the chance to see this band in Canterbury last year, but made the trek to see them at Koko in May. I was glad that I did, as I need a chirpy, impossibly young and cute (Taylor on violins appears in the dictionary under "jailbait") fun band in my life, especially now that be your own PET! have disbanded.

More bands need violins. Every band should have a string section, it really adds something to the music (see: Los Campesinos, Blood Red Shoes). As for this song, 3 minutes and 38 seconds of pure pop fun.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of 2008: 18

18. Jenny Lewis - Jack Killed Mom
Given my squeefulness at finally meeting her last year, you'd expect Jenny Lewis to at least be in the top ten, right? Well, Acid Tongue was part of a smattering of disappointing second albums released this year (see also: The Subways, Los Campesinos) and this was the best of a pretty poor bunch.

I've linked to a live version as it's far better than on record, it has much more life to it and is generally more stirring than the one committed to disc. Trivia: this is the second song on the list inspired by a biblical tale.

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of the year: 19

19. Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down
At the start of this year, Mystery Jets to me were just another faceless indie band interchangable with the Wombats, Automatic, Arctic Monkeys and We Are Scientists. Then I accidentally saw them live not once but twice over the summer, and found that they are actually quite enjoyable.

My rules for this list state no more than one appearance by any one artist. Because of this I can't post the duet "Young Love", as Laura Marling appears later on in a higher positioned song, so I've gone for the cheerful, catchier than syphilis, "Two Doors Down".

Blogvent Calendar: Top songs of the year: 20

To count down the year's top songs (in my own opinion) I've decided to release them day by day, in an advent calendar-y fashion.

20. Shirley Manson - Samson and Delilah
Despite Garbage being on indefinite hiatus, Shirley Manson's solo album was still supposed to surface around August of this year. Then, within two weeks in May, we first get the announcement that Shirley would be starring in the new series of Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was almost immediately followed by Warner announcing that the album wouldn't be released as it was "too dark" for their liking. No shit, she's not Katy Perry.

Imagine my surprise then, when the pre-credits teaser for the season opener had no dialogue, but a Shirley Manson cover of an old Gospel classic (made famous by Bruce Springsteen's cover). A fittingly awesome way to start a season which has gone from strength to strength. In fact, Garbage have released two other songs this year - a country-esque ballad which appeared on a "Free Tibet" charity CD, and a newly released song "Witness To Your Love" which cropped up on an urban outfitters compilation.