Best songs of 2008

16. The Pack AD, "All Damn Day Long"

There's nothing groundbreaking about "All Damn Day Long": it's a straight-up blues-rocker. But Becky Black is a very good guitarist and a great, Janis Joplin-esque singer, and both of those qualities are at their best on this song.

15. Bonjour Brumaire, "Brooklyn"

De La Nature, Des Foules may not have helped Bonjour Brumaire achieve a Malajube-like breakthrough (either into anglo-Canada or onto the Polaris list), but that doesn't mean it was lacking in great pop songs. And while there were certainly quite a few of those, "Brooklyn" was by far the best.

14. Relief Maps, "Young Typist"

Even by Ottawa's standards, 2008 was a pretty quiet year for music, but there were still one or two gems that came out this year. At the top of the (unfortunately very short) list has to be "Young Typist", the apex of Relief Maps' sophomore album, Graveyard Smash. The band didn't do much (or, possibly, anything) in the way of supporting it, but on this song, when the band brings together the best parts of Tokyo Police Club, Land of Talk and Wolf Parade, you could almost start believing that they didn't need to, that, for this one instance, the music was enough to speak for itself. It hasn't worked out that way -- at least not yet -- but that doesn't make the song any less powerful.

13. Land of Talk, "Ghost"

In part, this song is on here because I completely missed out on it last year when it was originally done by Wintersleep. And even while Land of Talk's take on it doesn't quite compare to the original (which was, of course, a mind-blowing work of art), the fact that the song still retains a lot of its majestic, world-weary power even after Liz Powell and co. strip it down to its bare, acoustic essentials says a lot about how great it is regardless of who's doing it.

12. The Wet Secrets, "Grow Your Own Fucking Moustache, Asshole"

A lot of bands would come up with a song title like "Grow Your Own Fucking Moustache, Asshole" and then call it a month, having exhausted a sustantial portion of their creativity with that one act of creation. Thankfully, The Wet Secrets are not one such band, since the song -- in all its dementedly catchy, marching band from hell madness -- more than lives up to the very high bar set by its name.

11. Born Ruffians, "Red, Yellow and Blue"

Totally inconsequently, yes. But also, as someone noted in this year's hottest bands poll, surprisingly catchy and impossible to resist.

10. The Discovery Channel, "The World Is Just Awesome"

What can I say? I'm a huge sap. But I was also humming this song...



...for several weeks, so it seems silly to leave it off a list like this.


9. Woodhands, "Dancer"

To fully appreciate Woodhands you need to see them live, but this song -- the opening track of the very excellent Heart Attack -- does a good job of capturing all the most important elements: it's sweaty, it's fun and it's energetic.


8. Wolf Parade, "Kissing The Beehive"

As excited as I was for At Mount Zoomer, I have to admit that it didn't quite live up to my expectations. For every amazing song by Dan Boeckner, there was one mediocre one from Spencer Krug, with the differences in style and qualities becoming more painfully obvious with every listen. Still, for this one track, the two showed they could work together better than almost anyone else you could name. Its epic in both its length and its ambitions, but it's strong enough to justify that epic-ness on both counts.


7. The Killers, "Human"

I'm generally not a fan of the concept of "guilty pleasures", but I have to say that, as far as I'm concerned, The Killers would probably qualify. After all, I feel horrendously guilty about liking them. And yet, for all the reasons not to like them (there are Duran Duran cover bands who spend less time immersed in the '80s, for example, and on top of that the Las Vegas quartet seem to be far more pretentious about what they do than they have any right to be), I'd be lying if I said I didn't listen to them for fun. I went into Day And Age hoping that this would be the album that broke the streak for me, but then I got to "Dancer" -- in all its '80s-tinged, horribly-lyriced glory -- and found that I'd lost the battle. I'm sure this probably negates everything else on this list for a lot of people, but if I'm talking about my favourite songs of the year, this song unquestionably has to be on it.


6. Ketch Harbour Wolves, "Animals"

The first time I ever heard Dead Calm Horizon, it didn't grab me instantly. In fact, five songs went by (of the seven on the album) before really started paying attention to what I was hearing. Once I got to that sixth song, though -- as frontman Jonathan Tyrell sings the first "Hallelujah" of the bridge -- I was hooked. Even as every track on the EP is exceptional, "Animals" stands out by virtue of being the very best song. Simply put, it's heartbreakingly gorgeous


5. Entire Cities, "Talkers"

The joy of Entire Cities lies in their ability to combine deeply poetic lyrics with raucously ragged music and singing. Nowhere is this more apparent on the band's full-length debut, Deep River, than on "Talkers", where the music and frontman Simon Borer's vocals constantly sound as if they're about to veer wildly off the rails, yet it somehow holds together long enough to build a lovely picture of creation and discovery.


4. Ruby Coast, "I Live With Monsters"

It's not often that a band chooses to leave their best song off their "official" debut, but that's exactly what Ruby Coast did with "I Live With Monsters". It was by far the highlight of the slapdash EP the band threw together back in the spring, but by the time they were ready to release something proper -- that is, this fall's Projectable Collections -- the song was nowhere to be found. (Which seems like a strange way to attract the kind of attention an EP re-release would seem to indicate he band is seeking...but I digress.) While the absence probably won't hurt the band's major label prospects, the difference in quality between the two EPs was marked by a hole that's roughly the size of this song. It's insanely fun and incredibly catchy, and if it doesn't make you bounce around the room, you probably aren't listening closely enough.


3. Bruce Peninsula, "Steamroller"

I said it a few weeks ago, and I'll say it again in a few days (when I write up my best albums of 2008 post): Bruce Peninsula's A Mountain Is A Mouth is amazing, and one of the most moving musical experiences I've ever had. The album's peak, though, has got to be "Steamroller", when Neil Haverty sounds as if he's bringing on the apocalypse (and all the other singers in the band sound as if that's where they're singing about). You wouldn't think that one of the best songs of the year would have words like "apocalyptic" and "moving" (not to mention "quasi-religious", which I couldn't find a way of working in here), and yet...here it is.


2. , "Swords"

One of my favourite moments of 2008 came during Black Hat Brigade's set at this year's i(heart)music fest: about three and a half minutes into "Swords", the whole crowd whooped right at the exact moment the music cuts out for a brief moment, and it sounded incredible, as if BHB were the biggest band in the world and everyone in the room had come just to see them (even though most were there for Handsome Furs and The D'Urbervilles, and probably hearing the song for the first time ever). It was one of those really amazing moments that can only happen during a concert. It couldn't have happened during a better song, either, since "Swords", in all its Wolf Parade-y, hordes-marching-off-a-cliff glory was the song that got me hooked on Black Hat Brigade way back in March. Even now, every time I listen to it, I get goosebumps and shivers up and down my neck.


1. Boxer The Horse, "Boxer The Horse"

For the past seven months, I've found myself going back to this song again and again (and again, and again, and again) and and not only never tiring of it, but actually enjoying it more each time. "Jackson Leftfield" is by far the catchiest song I heard all year.