A decade ago as of this writing, and the year feels even further away. Whatever happened to The Ting Tings, Alphabeat, Nikka Costa and Duffy, anyway? Does anyone in the UK remember top twenty hit “The Journey Continues”, known to me only because it has the singer from Saint Etienne on it? Robert Forster and Brazilian Girls have since put out a single album each (the latter this year!); Portishead remains MIA to this day, suggesting Third might’ve been a fluke.
2008 had room for so much: an ‘80s pop star reinventing herself as an EDM diva (Cyndi Lauper), a Tony Award-winning musical from one of the decade’s best (and more obscure) rock singer/songwriters (Stew’s Passing Strange), a ‘90s Swedish teen-pop fixture coming into adulthood (Robyn), new wave icons getting the band back together for one last hurrah (The B-52’s), the first collaboration between two post-punk giants in 17 years (Byrne/Eno), plus some significant debuts: Vampire Weekend, Hercules & Love Affair, Lykki Li and Fleet Foxes.
If making room for weirdos such as The Dirtbombs doesn’t fully get me off the hook for going out on Coldplay (their greatest hit, how could I not include it?), so be it. The Goldfrapp song remains one of my all-time favorites, and even that’s eclipsed by Martha Wainwright’s caustic, uber-catchy gem—brother Rufus has never bested it.
Click here to listen to my 2008 playlist on Spotify.
- Goldfrapp, “A&E”
- Alphabeat, “Fascination”
- Martha Wainwright, “You Cheated Me”
- Sam Phillips, “Don’t Do Anything”
- Mark Brown feat. Sarah Cracknell, “The Journey Continues”
- Calexico, “Man Made Lake”
- The Ting Tings, “Shut Up and Let Me Go”
- Alison Moyet, “Can’t Say It Like I Mean It”
- The B-52’s, “Juliet of the Spirits”
- Aimee Mann, “Thirty-One Today”
- Marit Bergman, “Out On The Piers”
- Fleet Foxes, “White Winter Hymnal”
- Brazilian Girls, “Losing Myself”
- Portishead, “The Rip”
- Hercules & Love Affair, “Blind”
- Robert Forster, “Don’t Touch Anything”
- Stew, “Work The Wound”
- She & Him, “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”
- Vampire Weekend, “M79”
- David Byrne & Brian Eno, “Strange Overtones”
- Cut Copy, “Hearts On Fire”
- The Dirtbombs, “Wreck My Flow”
- Juliana Hatfield with Richard Butler, “This Lonely Love”
- Lykke Li, “Dance, Dance, Dance”
- Duffy, “Rockferry”
- Marianne Faithfull, “Down From Dover”
- Cyndi Lauper, “Into the Nightlife”
- Nikka Costa, “Can’t Please Everybody”
- The Radio Dept., “Freddie and The Trojan Horse”
- Stereolab, “Three Women”
- TV On The Radio, “Family Tree”
- Robyn with Kleerup, “With Every Heartbeat”
- Coldplay, “Viva La Vida”
Haunted Jukebox 