The 20 Best Songs of 2008

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Whether embracing docile chamber pop or sampling gunshots, these songs racked up this year's highest play counts.

By Charles Aaron 12.12.08 10:36 AM

Best Songs: 20 - 11 | 10 - 1
Best Albums 2008 | Best Videos 2008


10.	Jamey Johnson, "High Cost of Living" Praying while getting high in a Southern Baptist parking lot, Johnson plays this country saga like Toby Keith's darkest night of the soul -- no beer for his horses or for anybody else.



9.	Black Kids, "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" There's no better way to spend a spring night than doot-dooting and spazzing out at this riot-grrrl (and boy) prom as the mirror-ball, indie-pop drama unfolds.



8.	TV on the Radio, "Golden Age" Post-election, this feels like prophecy, as Kyp Malone falsettos and shimmies to the promised land, amid strings, congas, horns, and synth-bass fuzz, "blowing up like a ghetto blaster."



7.	Duffy, "Rockferry" The Dusty-est of all Springfield pastiches builds a majestic pop-soul "house of sorrow," and Duffy's gale-force tremble of a voice blows it down.



6.	Lykke Li, "Little Bit" Backed by dabs of steel drum, wood block, and mandolin on a serenely bubbling bass line, Li coos the year's most openhearted romantic ditty.



5.	Santogold, "L.E.S. Artistes" A thirty-something vet of hipster warfare puts on her purple leotard and defiantly strides through this garage-pop anthem about the sacrifices of success.



4.	MGMT, "Time to Pretend" From wide-eyed to sarcastic to resigned in the space of a bong hit, the duo peer off their major-label sundeck and reminisce about Mom, Dad, and the dog through a gooey synth-rock haze.



3.	Lil Wayne, "A Milli" A Tourette's refrain, trash-can beat, and lyrics that equate the writing process to leaking menstrual blood on a tablet. Only in Weezyana!



2.	MGMT, "Kids" In the mid-'90s, the film Kids stoked fears of young people as drug-damaged, disease-carrying rapists who beat old people bloody with skateboards. MGMT's "Kids," however, is an irresistibly wistful, electropop rite of passage where boys and girls are advised to "take only what you need from it." Can it be that's it's all so simple now?



1.	M.I.A., "Paper Planes" Purring over a slinky sample of the Clash's "Straight to Hell," portraying third-world capitalism as a blunted Crip walk across the international date line, M.I.A. finally busts up the hip-hop locker room, snapping towels. On the remix, a basso profundo Bun B's got her back.