1: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
There was no definitive album release this year, no generational lightning rod such as the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am... from two years ago, or surprise bottling of the zeitgeist in the manner of the Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free from 2004. No rock act commanded the mainstream heights either, as even Coldplay rushed leftfield, hiring Brian Eno and some silly outfits. This is how things will be now that we are at the point, first suggested by David Bowie in 2002, where music is 'like running water or electricity'. It's all there for everyone, should they want it, making it nigh-on impossible for any single artist to capture the moment.
Nevertheless, music still has power: while not everyone heard For Emma, Forever Ago, anyone who did was seduced. Appropriately, the debut from Bon Iver, alias 27-year-old Justin Vernon, arrived from the middle of nowhere, Vernon's native Eau Claire, Wisconsin to be specific, where it was recorded in his dad's log cabin during the winter of 2006. A struggling indie musician, Vernon had retreated there to repair a broken heart, the result of splitting with the Emma of the title, emerging with nine affecting songs of love and catharsis. If that all sounds too perfect, the music itself was never less than true. An uncanny snapshot of its creator's turmoil patched together with a couple of guitars, basic drums and, crucially, an old laptop, it never resorted to cliché either. The pitch might've been backwoods primitive but the sound was contemporary, all magisterial drones and vocals tweaked until they became spectral choirs.
'There's always pain and joy to be explored, it's a matter of how willing you are to go there,' says Vernon, speaking exclusively to OMM. He admits to being baffled by the attention of the past 12 months: 'The record is out there doing its own thing and it's cool to watch. Everybody makes it their own thing. The idea of disappearing and dealing with your life is something some people want. Other people latch on to the relationship side.'
He still meets Emma from time to time. What does she think?
'She's fine with it,' he laughs. 'Now she just makes me pay for breakfast.' Gareth Grundy
2: Amadou and Mariam - Welcome to Mali
Should it have come as a surprise that the most exciting pop album of 2008 was made by a blind couple in their fifties from Mali? It didn't to those who had fallen in love with Dimanche à Bamako, OMM's 11th favourite album of 2005, nor to anyone who had caught the duo in concert. And Welcome to Mali couldn't have been more inviting.
Damon Albarn produced opener 'Sabali', pitching Mariam Doumbia's voice against noodling synths, but nothing else sounded quite so out there. Rather, the marriage of Mariam's childhood love of French pop with her husband's fondness for Jimmy Page, the influence of indigenous traditions and guest spots from the likes of 'East Coast' rapper (the Somalian) K'Naan all added up to a joyous, modern album that demanded to be blasted on stereos from Bamako to Birmingham. Caspar Llewellyn Smith
3: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
They did it on their own terms, in their own time, but after 18 years the Mercury-winning Seldom Seen Kid finally secured Elbow the wider acclaim they so richly deserve. More sure-footed, but more ambitious than ever, these were life-affirming songs of love and loss, from the enchanting 'Mirrorball' to the majestic 'Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver' and the sweeping strings and singalong coda of 'One Day Like This'. Success tastes sweeter the longer you wait, but nothing tastes sweeter than deserving success. One album like this a year would see me right. Luke Bainbridge
4: Glasvegas - Glasvegas
British pop music is a cynical place. By the time Dalmarnock's Glasvegas had released their extraordinary debut, the excitement surrounding them was being dismissed in some quarters as 'hype'. But if someone were going to design a hit guitar band for 2008, crossing Phil Spector, the Proclaimers, shoegazing and tear-inducing anthems about the heroism of social workers was one dumb-ass way to go about it. James Allan and co won our hearts because this was a debut every bit as brave and beautiful as The Smiths. It's so strong, sad and righteous that it made you want to go right out and love your fellow man. Cynicism never stood a chance. Garry Mulholland
5: Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
It was a year in which heavy rock returned with a vengeance, and Kings of Leon competed more than manfully with old-timers like AC/DC and Metallica (not forgetting Guns N' Roses). Cuckolding them all, lewd first single 'Sex On Fire' seized the nation by the groin, grabbing the No 1 spot from Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl'. But even this didn't tell the whole story.
The Followills claim to have put much of their fast-living behind them - and while there was no mistaking Only By the Night's thrill-seeking inner child, a certain maturity could be heard too. Some even identified a sense of tenderness in their humungous riffs. Over three previous albums, Kings of Leon established themselves as more than feisty pups; now they looked like real men. Sam Wolfson
6: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
On their debut set Brooklyn duo, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser offered post-nu rave slacker anthems ('Time to Pretend') alongside brilliantly freaky white-boy funk ('Electric Feel'). Their swoonsome brand of kaleidoscopic guitar wizardry saw them claim the title of 2008's indie pin-ups of choice. Jaimie Hodgson
7: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
At the forefront of US indie rock's sudden interest in Afrobeat, sharp-dressed Ivy League graduates Vampire Weekend wore the influence lightly, and with gentle humour. Best track 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' revealed their game plan: lyrics about the lifestyles of the rich and anxious, rhythms from sub-Saharan Africa. In all, sheer delight. GG
8: Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
He has always been more complex and unpredictable than his peers, but even by Kanye West's standards, 808s & Heartbreak was an unexpected curveball. Knocked completely sideways by the 'Shakespearean tragedy' of the death of his devoted mother following plastic surgery, and the split from his fiancée, West poured out his soul, showing glimpses of a hitherto unseen humility. In a complete departure from his preceding trilogy of albums, the rapper's fourth saw him barely rapping. Instead, half singing, half talking, his voice given a cracked, ethereal feel by hip-hop's gadget du jour, the Antares Auto-Tune, West laid himself bare, questioning the fame and materialism he had always coveted against a minimal backdrop of 808s and haunting strings. It's lonely at the top. LB
9: Portishead - Third
This time last year, Butlins in Minehead was bracing itself for an All Tomorrow's Parties line-up that bristled with doom-metal and left-field electronica. At that stage, no one realised how effectively festival curators Portishead were about to bind together these disparate musical strands on their long-awaited comeback. But in the euphoric melancholy of acid-folk/krautrock landmark 'The Rip' and the Joy Division tribute of 'We Carry On', they fashioned two of the most startling tracks of the decade, never mind the year. Ben Thompson
10: TV on the Radio - Dear Science
The multiracial Brooklyn quintet are now the world's most vital art rockers, thanks to a third album that was as evocative of America during the Bush/Obama transition as OK Computer was of Britain in Blair's pomp. The politics were by turns elliptical and confrontational ('Family' Tree alludes to a lynching, 'Red Dress' begins, 'Hey, jackal, f*ck your war!'), while the joins in their fusion of drone rock and danceable grooves were no longer visible. Even the title was perfect. At a time when all kinds of online release trickery attract more attention than the music itself, Dear Science felt like genuine progress. GG
11: The Bug - London Zoo
Could this record be the perfect soundtrack to the credit crunch and whatever worse may follow? Drawing on a stellar ensemble of vocal talent (Roll Deep's Flow Dan, Warrior Queen, Ricky Ranking), London Zoo was the most coherent work to date produced by underground mainstay Kevin Martin (avant-garde magus turned dubstep enthusiast). All righteous anger and bass-heavy production, it surveyed the crumbling edifice of capitalism, referencing George Bush and the Taliban, and even found room for a smart riff on Tears for Fears' 'Mad World'. Alex Denney
12: Duffy - Rockferry
The Welsh girl next door with the rich voice of a Sixties soul siren took her time finessing her songwriting skills with the help of Bernard Butler. The result: a remarkable album of classic, polished tear-jerkers and Motown stompers that became the only record this year to sell more than a million copies. Sarah Boden
13: The Garifuna Women's Project - Umalali
By working with Garifuna musicians, a minority group descended from African ex-slaves, producer Ivan Duran (who is based in Belize) could surely not have been pursuing airplay on pop stations. But the 10 female vocalists - most of them amateurs who had never recorded before - created an extraordinary album whose appeal reached far beyond Central America. Charlie Gillett
14: Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
To celebrate his 50th birthday came the Modfather's very own White Album, a wild, 21-track musical ride. The mainstream rock of recent albums was absent. Instead there was Weller the soul stylist, the psychedelicist, jazzer and experimentalist. What a don. Neil Spencer
15: EST - Leucocyte
It had taken since 1992, but this was the year that jazz trio EST were finally making the big time. Girls screaming at gigs, high-profile US and European dates lined up and this cracking album scheduled for October. Then in June, a week before their American tour, pianist/leader Esbjörn Svensson died in a diving accident, aged 44. Svensson had accomplished much, yet offered the promise of so much more, as this set showed. The trio had such confidence in each other that they were able to go into the studio and improvise brilliantly. Tracks such as 'Earth' or 'Ad Mortem' gained their immediacy through tension and release. They will be sorely missed. Stuart Nicholson
16: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
One of Cave's richest, funniest, sexiest albums, hollering filth and fury as the world goes to hell in a handcart. Excelling as the deranged, dark-eyed preacher, Cave bumped into Nubian princesses, Lolita, Charles Bukowski and, on the rollicking 'We Call Upon the Author', God himself, whom he takes to task for his plotting. Musically, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! was a vigorously rousing brew, thick and sticky as treacle, sometimes slow and serpentine, sometimes angry and clattering, never less than compelling. Graeme Thomson
17: Toumani Diabaté - The Mande Variations
Toumani Diabaté's lush and layered solo album emphasised his extraordinary ability with the 21-string harp-like kora. Like Hendrix or Ravi Shankar, he has rare authority over his instrument but while the virtuosity was astounding, Diabaté offered more than mere technical brilliance. The Mande Variations ventured into African classical terrain, though a playful quote from The Good, the Bad and the Queen betrayed a mischievous attitude mixed in with the meditative grooves and scintillating runs. Peter Culshaw
18: Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Her unaffected voice earned her spots on the year's two biggest indie singles, duetting with Mystery Jets on 'Young Love' and Noah and the Whale on '5 Years Time'. But it's 18-year-old Laura Marling's authenticity that made her own LP worthy of your time. From the fear she captured in 'Night Terror' to the bluegrass of the title track, there wasn't one false word, note or fiddle solo. So while Alas I Cannot Swim wasn't the most complex album of the year, its adolescent charm made it one of the most endearing. SW
19: Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III
Such was the anticipation for Lil Wayne's sixth solo album that Tha Carter III was the fastest seller in America this year. Not wholly perfect (lead single 'Lollipop' could have slipped off the 50 Cent production line), it retained the unpredictability of his regular mixtapes, but with a deal more polish. Whether donning his robot voice, bemoaning the death of his New Orleans, or accepting the crown from Jay-Z, Tha Carter III finds rap's versatile tyro revelling in his self-made legend. Steve Yates
20: Foals - Antidotes
Nothing in Foals' math rock background suggested their convulsive debut would be among the highlights of the year. But, like PiL circa Metal Box backed by Fela Kuti at a particularly rowdy freshers' week knees-up, the Oxford quintet's album was both abstruse and fun. So 'The French Open', naturally, featured bursts of French, thus underscoring their standing as pop swots, while 'Red Socks Pugie' was as quirky and ambitious as its head-scratching title implied. But every track, however odd, was lithe and danceable, emphasising Foals' attachment to the 'funk' half of punk-funk. And while the lyrics, by and large, were laughably opaque ('She dreams of empty swings around/We communicate, vampires and their guns'), few songs this year were as electric as 'Balloons', on which singer Yannis Philippakis proved himself the owner of the most impressive yelp since David Byrne in his heyday. Paul Mardles
21: Monkey - Journey to the West
Damon Albarn took on the last frontier of world music - China - and came out on top, cleverly mixing retro electronics, oriental strings and rock guitars, with lyrics sung, chanted or yelped in Mandarin.
The Gorillaz star's 'circus opera' was based on Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century novel Journey to the West by way of the cult Seventies Japanese TV programme Monkey!. And while many people thought that this cultural magpie, had finally overstretched himself, his audaciousness, pleasingly, secured yet more results.
In spite of the exotic material, this was classic Albarn - melodic and whimsical, knowingly kitsch in its collision of the ancient and the modern. There were passages of dizzying invention and considerable beauty, even if, in truth, it didn't necessarily come together as a stand-alone album. Indeed without Jamie Hewlett's fizzy cartoon visuals, and, live at least, demons and acrobats, it may be worth waiting for the DVD, which should be astonishing. Either way, having conquered the globe, Albarn can only go interstellar next. PC
22: Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Enderlast
Like Björk, the Icelandic troupe can come across as contrived, but, like her, remain an exhilarating one-off. Their fifth album finds them shifting shape again, singing in Icelandic (rather than invented 'Hopelandic'), and introducing playful acoustic rock alongside their customary gothic grandeur. The centrepiece of the record, 'Ara Batur', is a nine-minute alt-classic anthem, setting the ethereal voice of Jónsi Birgisson (surely the most captivating pop falsetto since Jeff Buckley) against slow-build strings and massed choir. The title translates as With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly. Let's hope so. NS
23: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Part Beach Boys, part traditional English folk and part mysterious woodland on the edges of your imagination, the Seattle quintet's debut enjoyed that rare, wonderful quality: it was new yet felt instantly familiar. With church-like, choral harmonies and strange, shifting melodies, Robin Pecknold's songs dealt with family, friendship, loss, death and growing up, all couched in a language and music that wouldn't be out of place at a Renaissance fair. Suffused with autumnal warmth, finely crafted yet casual, Fleet Foxes proved a tonic for increasingly troubled times. Will Hodgkinson
24: The Killers - Day and Age
Honking sax. Drum breakdowns so totally Eighties you expect Simon Le Bon to hove into a view atop a yacht. Bass so slapped you'll spill your co*cktail. Bad grammar (sorry, we're still not having 'are we human or are we dancer?'). Where were the guitars? And was that a harp? On paper, much was wrong with the Killers' third album. But - the mortifying cod-funk of 'Joyride' aside - it emerged as a thrillingly adventurous collection.
After the mountainous riffs of 2006's Sam's Town, the Killers slalomed off-piste, but Day and Age was bonkers and brilliant. Craig McLean
25: Coldplay - Viva La Vida
As students of the U2 model of arena rock, Coldplay were likely at some point to employ Brian Eno, the producer who helped the Irishmen's music live up to their ambitions. While his presence here failed to generate the much-heralded radical shift in sound, he did point the band towards a more interesting future After years craving respect from the older boys in the playground - Bono and friends, Radiohead - they finally seem comfortable with the truth: they're better off as a pop band. So Viva La Vida.... was strongest in its lighter moments, especially the title track, which rode strings rather than ringing guitar or piano, and low-key nursery rhyme 'Strawberry Swing', which copped its loping stride from Saharan rockers Tinariwen. GG
26: Camille - Music Hole
No one else mixed mimicking cats with uproarious disco stompers to such witty effect this year.
27: The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
Alex Turner and Miles Kane worked through their Sixties pop obsession. Worked for us, too.
28: Adele - 19
No one can have wanted for solo female vocalists recently, but the 19-year-old carved her own space.
29: These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid
The Southend art school quartet went big on industrial clanging.
30: The Streets - Everything is Borrowed
Mike Skinner found there is more to life than birds, booze and drugs. There's philosophy too.
31: The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
The second album from Jack White's other band was a raggedy blues-rock jam.
32: Neon Neon - Stainless Style
This concept album about dodgy car mogul John DeLorean was an electro-pop riot.
33: Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Patchy, but with enough brilliance to maintain their status as poster boys for geeky electro-pop.
34: Niña de Fuego - Buika
She was born in Equatorial Guinea, raised in Majorca and hung around with gypsies: how could her modern flamenco be less than magical?
35: AC/DC - Black Ice
Of course it sounded like all their other albums. No one minded: it still sold in record numbers.
36: Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Not so much an album, more a jukebox made up entirely of very Eighties female artists: Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper, they're all here.
37: Dusk + Blackdown - Margins Music
Dubstep opus that documented the London people live in rather than the anodyne version shilled to tourists.
38: British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
The Brighton indie rockers managed big tunes without ever sacrificing the idiosyncrasy of their subject matter.
39: Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
Florida indie kids surfed a wave of hype, delivering a hit with 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend...'.
40: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
The first half's psych-rock was terrific, the rest not quite so hot.
41: Seu Jorge - America Brasil
The peak of Brazilian Jorge's stirring fusion of samba and almost everything else.
42: Roots Manuva - Slime and Reason
Rodney Smith's sixth album was equal parts party record and long, dark night of soul.
43: White Denim - Workout Holiday
Garage rock from Austin, Texas that zig-zagged between squalls of noise and quiet beauty.
44: The Week That Was - The Week That Was
Solo record proved that there's life after the adventurous pop of Field Music for singer Peter Brewis.
45: Bellowhead - Matachin
The 'folk' category still doesn't do them justice, there's big band in there, as well as jazz.
46: The Aliens - Luna
The ex-Beta Band members' freak beat got even freakier.
47: Kasai Allstars - In the 7th Moon...
Mighty Congolese ensemble, all dazzling drones and call and response vocals.
48: Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
Mixed the Klaxons' primary coloured flights of fantasy with bombast even Muse would balk at.
49: Dido - Safe Trip Home
Inevitably, there was nothing here to spook the horses, not even the recorder solo on 'Grafton Street'.
50: Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
In the 15 years this album took to make the rest of the original band quit, leaving Axl Rose at the head of a new seven-man line-up. The time and money spent showed in the production, 14 tracks of old school hard rock reflecting the grime and gleam of Sunset Strip. Rose's feral wail was intact, his aggression boiling over on 'Riad N' the Bedouins', while the band's glorious pomposity remained in the more-is-more guitar solos of 'Catcher in the Rye'.
But that very slickness was the record's downfall - too much of it was Guns N' Lloyd Webber. And hard though Rose tried to convince himself of his own genius, few listeners would have reached the same conclusion on the strength of a set that was bound to disappoint. Emma Johnston
