30. Gone – Kanye West

From the 2005 album Late Registration.

29. Skinny Love – Bon Iver

From the 2008 album From Emma, Forever Ago.

28. Missing – Beck

Off the 2005 album Guero.

27. Boy with a Coin – Iron & Wine

From the 2007 album The Shepherd’s Dog.

26. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z

From the 2008 album Blueprint 3.

25. Big Bird in a Small Cage – Patrick Watson

Off the 2009 album Wooden Arms.

24. The Modern Age – The Strokes

From the 2001 album Is This It?.

23. Get Your Freak On – Missy Elliot

From the 2001 album Miss E… So Addictive.

22. Dance, Dance, Dance – Lykke Li

From her debut album Youth Novels, released in 2008.

21. Sky Starts Falling – Doves

From the 2005 album The Last Broadcast.

The Kings of Leon

Plus

Lykke Li

Equals

Knocked Up (Lykke Li Vs. Rodeo Mashup)

I cannot get enough of this mashup!

The three brothers and one cousin that make up  Kings of Leon released the original version of Knocked Up on their 2007 album, Because of the Times. It’s a good track, I’ll admit, despite it’s out of place rock out moments, but the mashup they put together with Lykke Li well surpasses the original. The track was released in the UK on the Kings of Leon single for Use Somebody late last year. The track has a very dreamy, almost Jesus and Mary Chain, feel to it. With excellent production bringing together the smooth, yet intriguing interplay of Lykke Li’s sweet and innocent vocals with Caleb Followill’s strong masculine, at times even rough, voice. The tune is beautifully addictive, and has me listening to it over and over.

Danielle over at Music is Art put is so well when she said: “Both vocals additively cascade and strengthen throughout the song, eerily creating a memorable duet that’s immersed in lyrics of chaotic masculinity, and melodic shades of pure uninhibited feminine vulnerability”. Beautiful!

For your reference, here is the original of  Kings of Leon’s Knocked Up.

And here is the cream of 2008… in my very humble opinion.

5. Dance, Dance, Dance – Lykke Li

The young and beautiful Lykke Li released her debut album Youth Novels early in 2008, which was met with great fanfare through the blogosphere, which had been primed with the early release of Dance, Dance, Dance. In the song Lykke Li claims that her dancing hips lie and she is actually terribly shy. I love how wonderfully unique, catchy and adorable this tune is.

4. Sleepy Head – Passion Pit

I wrote about this track as one of those fabulous crooked trees, those fabulous tracks that are both strange and wonderful. Passion Pit independently released Sleepy Head early in the year, which resulted in multiple labels vying for the artist to sign with them. In the end, Frenchkiss Records won out, and the album Chunk of Change was released in mid September.

3. Walking on a Dream – Empire of the Sun

The Empire of the Sun are a diversely talented pair from Australia. I posted about their haunting track Country earlier this year, but neglected to tell you about their ridiculously catchy, soon to be pop classic Walking on a Dream (I wouldn’t doubt that you heard about it anyways!). It took a couple of listens for this track to sink into my psyche, but it didn’t take long before I was searching through the tracks on my mp3 player so that I could hear this gem again.

2. Electric Feel – MGMT

The young pair from Brooklyn dropped an amazing album on the scene with help from The Flaming Lips producer, Dave Fridmann. Oracular Spectacular contains several stand out tracks that made MGMT one of the top bands of 2008. While I adore the majority of the album, Electric Feel is the stand out track that I listen to over and over. Sadly, I didn’t get around to posting about MGMT this year, but I’m excited to post about their future offerings.

1. Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi

This song isn’t even officially out yet, it’s set to hit the shelves January 13th, 2009. But, I have the satisfaction in knowing that I posted about it 8 months ago. This killer track earns my top spot in this year’s best of list with the fresh, thick sound that The Crookers bring to the up and coming rapper Kid Cudi, aka. The Man on the Moon.

Everybody But Me(diskJokke Remix) – Lykke Li

Young Novels (2008)

Lykke Li has been heating up the music blogsphere for a few months, since RCRD LBL released a couple of her choice tracks for our sampling pleasure. Today her debut full length album is available in both physical and digital music stores. I hope this is the beginning of a long career for the young Sweedish artist.

Dance, Dance, Dance was the song that first got my attention. It is an adorable ditty in which Li sings of her ironic love of dancing, because deep down she’s shy, shy, shy. I highly recommend you download a copy from RCRD LBL. I have included a copy of the diskJokke remix of Everybody But Me, which is a beautiful remix of her minimalistic track about those nights when you’re out on the town, but you just aren’t feelin’ it. Her unique sound combines an innocence of child-like wonderment with a musical mastery, layering . There’s even some cowbell on the new album for us all to enjoy!