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Written by Joe Bowman Monday, 29 December 2008 07:53

1. Goldfrapp | Seventh Tree (Mute)

The term "don't quit your day job" would normally apply when an actor decides to release an album, but in the cases of Scarlett Johansson and Zooey Deschanel (under the moniker She & Him, alongside M. Ward), quit your day job and your feeble attempts to moonlight as a "singer" seems more appropriate. Unfortunately, and maybe this is due to the ever-shifting nature of the music industry, most of what I listened to from 2008 fall under the "mixtape" category: unstable (or just underwhelming) albums with a particularly excellent track or two. Don't let anyone tell you differently; Lykke Li's "Little Bit" and Youth Novels were the best pop song and album of the year. Perhaps my inclusion of Cat Power's Jukebox is me taking my love for Chan Marshall too far (a lot of people I know really dislike it), but it was more consistent than any other cover album I've heard in the past few years and much better than The Greatest. Also, I was finally able to shake my initial disappointment in Portishead's Third six months later. Unfortunately, I never got around to picking up Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! or the new albums from Tricky, Tindersticks, Jenny Lewis, Carla Bruni or Ryan Adams, so they were not considered when making this list.

1. Goldfrapp | Seventh Tree (Mute)

2. Sigur Rós | Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL Recordings)

3. Lykke Li | Youth Novels (Atlantic)

4. Grace Jones | Hurricane (Wall of Sound)

5. Portishead | Third (Mercury)

6. Sébastien Tellier | Sexuality (Phantom Sound & Vision)

7. TV on the Radio | Dear Science (Interscope)

8. Cat Power | Jukebox (Matador)

9. Poni Hoax | Images of Sigrid (Tigersushi)

10. M83 | Saturdays = Youth (Mute)

Runners-up: Bon Iver | For Emma, Forever Ago; Bonnie ‘Prince' Billy | Lie Down in the Light; Neil Halstead | Oh! Mighty Engine; Antony & the Johnsons | Another World EP; The Radio Dept. | Freddie & the Trojan Horse EP.