1. Intimacy - Bloc PartyBeating out the biggest band and biggest rapper of the year for the album of 2008 is Bloc Party with their ambitious Intimacy. It's an album about the heartbreak that comes from both love gone awry and death. Judging from the declaration of war that is opener "Ares" and the frantic drive of lead single "Mercury", it would seem that Kele Okereke doesn't handle loss so well. Juxtapose the record's more aggressive songs with the likes of "Biko" and "Signs", both highly moving tracks, and the entire gamut of human emotion is captured.
2. 808s & Heartbreak - Kanye West808s is the year's most controversial record. Combine that with its extremely late release date, and 808s & Heartbreak probably isn't going to score very high on Acclaimed Music despite deserving it more than any of his releases since Late Registration. No rapping, no parental guidance warning, no unusual collaborations -- this is new ground for Kanye. "Welcome To The Heartbreak" gives you the chills while "Heartless" and "Robocop" bring the thrills. You've put out another classic Mr. West. Well done.
3. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - ColdplayIt's 2008's great American rock album made by a British band with a Spanish title and a French lady too busy saving the world to cover her breasts. I'm not one for songs without words, but "Life In Technicolor" is absolutely gorgeous. Then of course you have the album's first three singles which all made the list for top 25 songs of the year. Viva La Vida is the most epic record Coldplay has ever crafted.
4. Santogold - Santogold
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5. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT
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6. Sam Sparro - Sam Sparro
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7. The Fame - Lady Gaga
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8. Out Of Control - Girls Aloud
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9. Day & Age - The Killers
10. Fearless - Taylor Swift
11. Narrow Stairs - Death Cab For Cutie
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12. Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
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13. Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams - Solange
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14. Fasciinatiion - The Faint
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15. Perfect Symmetry - Keane
"Blind" got an honorable mention in the 17 Tracks Year End List. It's a catchy indie-dance number, but what kept it from doing any better is the annoying vocals. It ended up at No. 1 on C.A.'s list. Let's be honest, if Antony Hegarty wasn't in Antony & the Johnsons which are already adored by critics, this song wouldn't have scored so high. The only actual list it topped in the United States was Pitchfork. It scored high on every other list, but, with Pitchfork and the massive amount of sway it holds, everyone else is going to feel obligated to put it somewhere on their list.
MGMT landed four singles in the top twenty ("Time To Pretend" at No. 4, "Kids" at No. 5 and "Electric Feel" at No. 12) while Oracular Spectacular was the No. 6 album. Domination.
I knew it when the album first came out and it was 
Madonna is a traditionally strong artist on these lists, combining pop sensibilities with credibility. Even though she made bank in '08, it wasn't her best year with the critics. None of her songs made the top 100, but plenty of publications felt obligated to at least mention that she made music last year. "Beat Goes On", "Give It 2 Me", "4 Minutes", and "She's Not Me" all made it onto the lower reaches of the honorable mentions, managing only a few points a piece. What makes this all the more ridiculous is that only two of those four songs were actually released as singles meaning that a handful of critics didn't like what she released so they picked a random album cut instead.