Ordinarily I would publish all my year end lists on January 1st, but I just couldn’t wait around this year. I got so into reading everyone else’s lists that I wanted to join in on the fun. However, I couldn’t bring myself to number this list of my favorite songs of the year, so you’ll have to make due with just having the first one numbered and then an alphabetical list after that.

And surprise, surprise. My favorite song of 2008 wasn’t even released on a full-length studio album. It’s a recording from a radio session that was released on a charity compilation. I’m as surprised as you, honestly.

Enjoy!

You Ain’t No Picasso’s Favorite Songs of 2008

MP3: #1: Of Montreal – Feminine Effects
When Of Montreal were playing this song live in their concerts, it had almost no trace of the stirring emotional song it would shortly become. But when Kevin Barnes and the Late BP Helium sat down in MPR’s studios to record this piano/guitar version of the song, it cemented it in my mind as one of the finest songs by one of my favorite bands.

In my interview with Kevin he said that his brother David heard this recording and told him that it was too good to follow up with any other versions. And though I’d love to see it wind up on a studio album (which it apparently wont), I have to agree. Kevin has so much emotion in his voice in this song that it’s hard not to want to shut the world away for three minutes. It captures a naked kind of emotion that I can only compare to the introspective end-of-the-road nature of David Bowie’s “Rock and Roll Suicide” or the solitary feeling of being used that’s present in the serious side of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It’s a song that unfolds more as I listen to it and makes me empathize more with its singer each time.

MP3: Daniel Martin Moore – It’s You
I’ll be the first to admit it: the only reason I listened to Daniel Martin Moore in the first place was because he was from Kentucky. Any Kentuckian who winds up on Sub Pop will get my ear. But the reason I listened to him the second and third times — the reason I booked his first show in Lexington — is because his album is really beautiful. “It’s You” reminds me of the first time I heard Nat King Cole. It’s so clean, smooth and pure that I’d be hard-pressed to say something bad about it.

MP3: Department of Eagles – No One Does It Like You
What does it sound like when cowboys take ’shrooms? Oh, just one of the best songs of the year. Now I have no idea how Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear wrote a song that makes me want to ride into the sunset with Clint Eastwood and Hunter S. Thompson, but he did it. No one does it like Dan. Also if I’m not mistaken, this is the song Ed made Dan drunkenly play for me on the piano in Cincinnati after the MusicNOW festival because it was SO GOOD.

MP3: The Dodos – Fools
This was my jam for the first third of 2008. Now that I’d been sufficiently gateway-ed into digging Animal Collective’s work, the Dodo’s Visitor felt like an easy and pleasant pill to swallow. “Fools” is about as hard rockin’ as a two person folk outfit can get, and I love them for it.

MP3: Elbow – Grounds for Divorce
Like a slightly less ubiquitous version of MIA/Pineapple Express, Elbow’s “Grounds for Divorce” made Burn After Reading look awesome (it wasn’t really) and raised its own album’s profile at the same time. That post-chorus riff at the 1:14 mark… man, it just smothers me up like a blanket.

MP3: Fleet Foxes – Winter White Hymnal
Possibly the thing I love most about this song is how it lays everything out for you in the first few seconds before leading you through the next two and a half minutes. The line “I was following the…” is repeated seven times before launching into the full line on the eighth time through. It’s like Fleet Foxes are taking that opportunity to show you how they work their magic — layered harmonies and light but beautiful instrumentation — and then take off to start the song.

MP3: The Henry Clay People – Something in the Water
Maybe this is what Big Star would sound like if they started today? … You know, if they got to listen to #1 Record/Radio City growing up too. Henry Clay People are like a good version of the Hold Steady who show extraordinarily large amounts of talent.

MP4: Lykke Li – Dance Dance Dance
I never realized until now that “Dance Dance Dance’s” layered, yet simple instrumentation make it a perfect candidate to be covered by Final Fantasy. Think about it. Wouldn’t you go nuts to hear Owen cover this song? Yes, you would, but not as much as you might normally. Because even a voice as great as Owen Pallett’s would have to move mountains to displace Lykke Li’s breathy vocals.

MP3: Magnetic Fields – California Girls
Man, this song killed when I saw them in California. I saw them play it in San Francisco, where they explained that the song is clearly about girls from LA. Wild applause. Stephin Merritt is one of my all-time favorite songwriters and one of only two on my ipod with a playlist dedicated to him (the other is David Bowie). Songs like “California Girls” are why.

MP3: Man Man – Hurly/Burly
It was hard to pick one off Rabbit Habits. The whole album is impressive and a great example of what they have to offer the modern music fan. They’re absolutely wild on stage and they did a great job of wrapping that up into an album. “Hurly/Burly” is about as schizophrenic as Man Man’s songs get, which is to say that it goes a lot of different directions, but does it very well.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – I’m Amazed
Man, it’s such a shame that MMJ finally flubbed up their streak. They’ve been knocking them out of the park on the last few albums and Evil Urges really felt like a foul ball. I tried to defend the album to my co-workers at the record store by pointing out that there’s three or four great songs on there. I thought it was a great defense until they countered by reminding me that the last three or so MMJ albums had maybe one boring song on them. Touche. Still, “I’m Amazed” is a great studio tune and an even better addition to their live repertoire.

MP3: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Today’s Lesson
I really wanted to pick the title-ish track from Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, but this song is too great to pass up. The whole thing is like a slowly-escalating box of coiled sex that culminates into a few shouts of “We’re gonna have a real cool time tonight!” It makes me feel dirty, but glad to be so.

MP3: Noah and the Whale – 5 Years Time
“5 Years Time” is the best indie pop song of 2008. This is, for me, what Oh No! Oh My!’s “Walk in the Park” was for me in 2005 — it gives credence to pop music as a beautiful and legitimate form of expression all the while burrowing deeper and deeper in your head. It’s not all sugar, either; it’s a great song of uncertainty, love and nervousness.

MP3: Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
“Sigur Ros have gone Animal Collective!” cried the internets in late spring of 2008. This song hits in a completely different way than any of their other material, but strangely was the strongest hit on their new album.

MP3: Spiritualized – Soul on Fire
I don’t believe this song will every get the respect it deserves. It’s got some of the best lyrics of the year (“And all the angels singing / Just about got it right”) and manages to walk the thin line between chaos and beauty. Despite what your ears might tell you on the first listen, that screech of feedback that slides us into the chorus doesn’t go away amid all those bells and violins — it’s there through it all. And like a love that sets your soul aflame consumes your life to the point where your life might as well be defined by it, I can’t imagine this song without the chaos lurking just beyond the beauty.

MP3: Tilly & the Wall – Pot Kettle Black
I wish I could travel through time so I could put this song in Tina Fey’s hands for inclusion in Mean Girls. It’s the ultimate girl-gossip track that’s got a killer chorus and energy that spills out beyond your speakers.

MP3: White Denim – Sitting
Having seen White Denim live, I was sure Chris was pulling my leg when he sent me this song. I knew White Denim as the wild whirlwind of jams that stormed their way across SXSW. Who knew they had it in them to write a beautiful, mid-tempo pop song that uses a piano, saxophone and spooky background vocals?

MP3: Wolf Parade – Call It a Ritual
If ever there was an album I owed an apology to, Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer would rank high up in line. The album was initially a letdown for me, lacking some of the fire that made me fall for Wolf Parade after I heard a bootleg of their freshly-recorded CBC session. But it’s such a grower that I fall harder for it upon each listen. Then, once I saw the band play most of the record in Newport this year, I knew I’d been a fool for most of the year. It was hard to pick a favorite from the bunch, but Spencer’s work on “Call it a Ritual” makes me more impressed with each new discovery within its two minutes and forty-six seconds.

And I don’t have an MP3 of the last one (my desktop doesn’t seem to want to connect to the internet…). If anyone wants to leave a link to it in the comments, I’ll happily host it.

MP3: Elf Power – Spiral Stairs
Probably Elf Power’s best song in the past three albums for them. I saw them live three times this year and this song was always a highlight. It’s not quite up to overtaking “The Arrow Flies Close,” but it provides a welcome strong section to their set. It’s a song that is its own worst enemy: it makes you want to hop and dance when you should be listening to the lyrics…