Best Tracks of 2008 #15-11

15: Fleet Foxes
"He Doesn't Know Why"
[Sub Pop]
Fleet Foxes invest their music with such emotion and grandeur that merely a whisper or a pluck is enough to make me shiver. Their debut is an epic canvas so awash with feeling it sometimes threatens to overwhelm, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this beautiful track. Like most of the album, it paints an abstract narrative without piling on unnecessary detail, the backbone provided by Pecknold's moving refrain, "I didn't understand". From the first verse, it builds and builds, until finally you feel cleansed and happy. Cathartic.

14: Bloc Party
"Ion Square"
[self-released]
It's ironic that, in an album where Bloc Party pushed both their musical and lyrical boundaries more than ever before, it is the track that sounds most like "old" Bloc Party that is also the best. Like most of their best songs, "Ion Square" is about love. This time though, it's the happy side. For over 6 minutes, Kele sings with palpable love and affection of a relationship that, oddly, appears to be going just fine. That may sound boring to you, but chances are if it does you wrote off Bloc Party a long time ago. Lyrically, this is as beautiful a song as Okereke has ever written, even if the most affecting line is cribbed from an E.E. Cummings poem.

13: Foals
"Big Big Love (Fig. 2)"
[Transgressive Records]
After being the British band to watch for at least a couple of years, everyone seemingly stopped caring about Foals the moment they released an album. A great shame, as they all missed out on gems such as this. Odd title aside, "Big Big Love" is a spare, hypnotic track. Yannis spins an abstract yarn of love and towers, of electric shocks and cracked hearts. His voice is distant, as if singing from another time. The instrumentation remains sparse throughout, only as clear as it needs to be. The result is a mesmerising song that will hold you in its thrall for far longer than its running time.

12: Kings of Leon
"Closer"
[RCA]
I shouldn't have been surprised by Only By The Night. In hindsight, the line from lo-fi southern kicks to stadium anthems is straight and clear as an arrow. All the same, Nathan Followill's opening drums - crisp and clean as a full moon - initially took me aback. Luckily, it also enthralled me, and combined with understated guitar and frankly epic lyrics made it into both a fine first track and a decent statement of intent. While I'm still not entirely sure about the Kings' new direction (for my money, their best work was on albums 2 and 3), if they continue to write songs like this then I'm behind them all the way.
Plus, it's about friggin' vampires. Need I say more?

11: MGMT
"Electric Feel"
[Columbia]
I don't believe MGMT are pioneers, saviours, geniuses, or any of those other hyperbolic terms the NME wheel out every five minutes. However, on occasion they can bust out a bloody fine song. While their epic, anthemic side is well-demonstrated on singles "Kids" and especially "Time to Pretend", second single "Electric Feel" was unfairly left on the wayside. A great shame, as it combines the widescreen quality of the rest of the album with a thoroughly danceable tune. Much like the video, it is beautifully hazy - the kind of song you would dance to in a dream - with enough kick to the percussion to be energetic. Finally, like all the best music, it sounds incredible when played as loud as possible.

Best Tracks of 2008 #20-16

Well hey lookit that, it's Xmas Eve already. Without further ado, I present my 20 favourite tracks of 2008. Hopefully I'll be done by New Year's Eve.

To ease my hands and head, this list will be split into three or four bite-size chunks. First up is numbers 20-16.

(Yes I did steal the list format from Pitchfork)

20: Islands
"Creeper"
[ANTI-]
It figures that Islands' first dance song would be about being stabbed in the night in your own home. Despite the macabre subject, "Creeper" is an agreeably catchy tune. Opening with menacing, thumping bass, the song quickly winds through several verses of brisk guitar lines with eerie half-whispered vocals. Like much of their discography, what initially appears to be uncomplicated pop soon reveals itself as a multi-layered track, forever unwinding and always revealing new depths.

19: Los Campesinos!
"Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats"
[Wichita/Arts & Crafts]
Of all the giddy sugar rushes on Los Campesinos!' debut album, this is surely the most exhilarating and fun. Shocking you into submission with an amusingly shouty opening (1!!2!3!!4!), you are dragged with breakneck speed through a maelstrom of angular guitars, pounding drums and earnest vocals. Beautifully loud and passionate on its own, in the context of the album its like eating a stick of pure youthful joy.

18: Santogold
"Lights Out"
[Atlantic Records]
On a debut where Santi White bent her distinctive voice around any number of genres, it is oddly fitting that the best track is also the most back-to-basics. Despite being licensed to advertise pretty much anything you care to mention, "Lights Out" is still pleasantly arresting, with nicely heavy-sounding bass and Santogold's multi-tracked vocals ooh-ing and ahh-ing in the background, while the central vocals stand up front clear as crystal. The song is a simple drums 'n' guitar affair, but it proves a very effective vehicle for this artist's many talents.

17: Autechre
"Tankakern"
[Warp Records]
An IDM track you can almost dance to? Well, not quite. Like most of Autechre's back catalogue, you'll likely end up a twisted mess on the floor if you try and bust a groove to this. That doesn't stop "Tankakern" being thoroughly fun to listen to, and increasingly so on every listen. Where this track (short by genre standards at just under 4 mins) succeeds is in evoking a palpable industrial atmosphere with little more than percussion. Muddied squelches of bass, skittering cymbals and a constantly wavering central drum line combine to do what IDM does best - immerse you in strange worlds for a few minutes at a time.

16: Laura Marling
"Failure"
[Virgin Records]
It wasn't at all easy to pick one best track from 18-year old Laura Marling's stellar debut. I eventually settled on "Failure" because it pretty much ticks all the boxes that make the entire album great. Delicate, simple and elegant guitar strumming? Check. Subtle but gorgeous backing instrumentation? Check. An abstract narrative that combines melancholy, loss and happiness? Check. Beautiful voice? Check. A brilliant song by one of the most promising young artists of the decade? CHECK.