As she laughed and danced through the field of graves

It's been eight years now since I started compiling my top tunes of the year as a substitute for a Christmas Card. Production values have improved somewhat, but the rules remain the same. All albums have to have been released in that year, and no more than one track per album, one album per band.

I think the idea originally came from Cameron Crowe, in an interview around the time Almost Famous came out, who said that he used to make mix tapes for each year so he could always remember what he had listened to.

That and the idea that some songs do 'soundtrack' salient moments in your life, whilst others just sit around and keep you company on your travels.

A quick scan of what's on offer will reveal that this year it's been mainly rock music or melodic indie Americana. And whilst I've listened to a great deal of 2008's musical offerings, with each passing year I'm less and less tempted by what's out there. Little of what I hear grabs me enough to warrant a second listen, most times I know if something's for me within the first few minutes. I no longer have the patience or desire to spend time with music I don't connect with (maybe better choice of phrase than like or dislike), and consequently what I have bought this year has been much more selective than in the past.

I tend to find that about 50% of the time, I hear a track and know it'll end up on the CD. And 50% of the time (for the statisticians amongst you), I don't. Some days I know where it'll sit in the order, or what it needs to sit next to. The flow seems to come easier each year.

Usually I add some brief sleeve notes, but not this year: a consequence of not having Photoshop to play with. So perhaps, now everything's in the post, it's time to reflect on my choices in as far as I can. So for 2008 these are the songs I liked most, this is the music I stop and listen to.

1) Bon Iver - Re: Stacks (from the album For Emma, Forever Ago). I'd been hearing about the Bon Iver album for months before I finally heard anything by him. When I did it was on Okkervil River's Stand Ins YouTube channel playing Blue Tulip, a track that will reappear later. I'm not a huge fan of For Emma..., even though I rushed out to buy it after watching the video, but I do love this song. It's the last track on the album and I had to chop about 45 seconds of footsteps off the end to make it work as the first track. So essentially it's an edit.

2) R.E.M. - Living Well Is The Best Revenge (from the album Accelerate). After a well documented run of decreasingly decent records I was well psyched when I heard Supernatural Superserious (or Supercilious as the Evening Standard so spectacularly called it, congratulating the band on getting supercilious into a song title). When I say psyched I mean jumping up and down in my chair, playing it to everyone who wandered by and playing it over and over and over again. I have a thing about new R.E.M. singles that I may have spoken about once.

When I first heard Living, a short clip off their website, it practically blew me off my chair. By the time the album came out I'd heard everything on it and seen them at the Royal Albert Hall. Rolling Stone said there were two post Bill Berry R.E.M.s. The touring version and the recording version and that Accelerate was the first album released by the touring band. I concur.

The Albert Hall show was good, not great, a warm up. By the time they rolled into Twickenham in August they were on fire, a whirlwind of staccato energy with a light show to match. Country Feedback, Perfect Circle, These Days, Orange Crush, End Of The World, hard to think anyone could have complained about the set list; except for the couple on the station platform complaining that they only knew two tracks?

The title is a quote from George Herbert (1593 - 1633), a poet, orator and priest (c./o Wikipedia). From what little I know he sounded like a decent human being. Accelerate came out whilst I was on holiday in Cyprus with my friend Annie. Cyprus was a much needed holiday, my first in years, and one of the high points of the year. It fell between me finally leaving publishing and three fairly soul destroying years in my previous haunt behind (a high point), and joining The National Archives, another high point! If I was feeling less than charitable I'd dedicate this to those in my previous life who so kindly reminded me on far too regular a basis that my project was considered less than important in the great scheme of things. But quite frankly they don't deserve the credit.

So yeah, this is one of the soundtrack songs, a memory of pivotal moments, new directions and swimming pools in the sun.

3) Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Albert Goes West (from the album Dig, Lazurus Dig!!!). No one does "na na na naaas" better than Nick Cave, and this world needs more of them. I saw him twice this year and he didn't play this at either show. Still, it was fun queuing up in the cold outside HMV to get to see him at an instore, along with grabbing myself a signed copy of the disc, and his Hammersmith show was stunning. This song cheers me up no end.

4) AC/DC - Rock 'n' Roll Train (from the album Black Ice). There are only two words that can describe this song: genius. Black Ice was a rare thing this year, a big release that didn't disappoint. The Angus and Malcolm Young guitar sound is one perhaps the most distinctive in rock music, and something that's led critics to snipe that AC/DC have been simply writing the same album every year since dot, a typically example of lazy condescending music-journo snobbery, or maybe just me being a fan. Still, knocking AC/DC for what they do is a bit like knocking banks for being greedy. Far better to accept that to not like this song is intensley pointless, and to bask in its wondrousnessness instead.

5) Death Cab For Cutie - Grapevine Fires (from the album Narrow Stairs). I'm not a massive DCFC fan but there are always a couple of tracks on each album I totally fall in love with. Narrow Stairs came out early in the year whilst I was still high on changing jobs and full of positivity for the road ahead. I remember someone (I'm not saying who) saying to me they thought that last year's CD was a bit depressing, and at the time I genuinely thought that this year it was going to be different, uplifting. So the refrain "everything is going to be alright" fit right in.

6) Okkervil River - Blue Tulip (from the album The Stand Ins). So, here's Blue Tulip again. Essentially part 2 of last year's The Stage Names, this has to be my least favourite Okkervil River album, and it took it's own sweet time for me to fall for it. It still ended up being a tough call between this and Calling And Not Calling My Ex as to which one would see it through the knock out stage of compilation. Blue Tulip won through after a stunning rendition at Shepherd's Bush.

They remain one of the best live bands I've ever seen, again, twice this year. Their Scala show back in January was up there with the best I've ever seen, despite my gig-buddy suffering from extended jet-lag. Along with Shearwater they're about all I've played for the last two months.

7) Mogwai - Scotland's Shame (from the album The Hawk Is Howling). Nothing to do with the behaviour at last year's Glastonbury. The more Mogwai go space rock, the more I like 'em.

8) Sigur Ros - Góðan Daginn (from the album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust). Some days there's nothing sweeter than the sounds of high pitched pixies ooooooohing in Icelandic.

9) Shearwater - Lost Boys (from the album Rooks). I found Okkervil River through Shearwater, and I found Shearwater by mistake. Both bands became instant favourites, and in their respective ways deliver what I love most about music. 2008 was the year I finally got to see Shearwater live and happily blew me away being everything I wanted them to be and more. Even though this track wasn't on the set list.

Rooks managed to slip out without me noticing, unsurprisingly. I should join a mailing list or something.

10) Kings X - Alright (from the album XV). The return of some old friends I've been away from since University, nine albums ago. They were the first band I saw at the Astoria and this is one of those songs that sat in the 'happy' frame.

11) Howlin' Rain - Lord Have Mercy (from the album Magnificent Fiend). They apparently do make 'em like this anymore.

12) The Gutter Twins - Idle Hands (from the album Saturnalia). I always thought that this would make a great soundtrack to the zombie apocalypse.

When it comes.

I'll be ready.

Or at least I'll have some great music to play.

13) Willard Grant Conspiracy - Phoebe (from the album Pilgrim Road). I'm not sure if this a happy song or not. But it is beautiful. I was going to make a gag about always finding space for WGC but I'm not sure how many of you would get it.

14) The Duke Spirit - Into The Fold (from the album Neptune's Call). Pretty much always a live favourite, even if this year's show didn't quite cut the mustard. I'd managed to avoid listening to this album to any great degree until I came to rebuild the kitchen and then it got some serious air time whilst I happily went insane trying to lift a washing machine two feet into the air on my own. Another one of those tracks I didn't get to hear live!

15) The Hold Steady - Lord, I'm Discouraged (from the album Stay Positive). You could say that the key points of the year so far had been leaving BMC, going on holiday, starting at TNA (sorry Natalie), and doing the kitchen. All brought great change for me. There were three more things waiting around the corner for me that would define 2008.

Despite being a miserable song, this was musically my favourite track on the album. Until we were sitting in the pub having lunch after seeing Mum in hospital for the first time and it came on the radio. The line about "sutures and bruises" suddenly grew a horrible visual relevance and I couldn't get it out of my head.

It was the first of the three occasions and it would come back to haunt me each time. The second was when Ed died, and the third when Annie's partner Martyn died; all within a month of each other. The end of the year has been an emotional clusterfuck of epic proportions.

I dedicated this collection to Ed and Martyn, although I spelled Martyn's name wrong, a mistake I've constantly made over the years. It's the second time I've dedicated one of these compilations to someone no longer here, and was nearly the third. I wonder if I should have really dedicated it to Amanda and Annie. In truth it's for those who've gone and those they've left behind. And to all those who've given me counsel these past few months - they have been many and their words and ears have been appreciated far beyond a batch of songs, no matter what they mean to me.

I should say that this slot was almost going to be one of the extra tracks, Two Handed Handshake, which would have been a much more positive ending. However the three extra tracks were all grouped as one which pissed me off no end and I couldn't be arsed splitting them all. And by then everything else had happened.

16) Elbow - One Day Like This (from the album The Seldom Seen Kid). This may seem like a cliche now, but when I heard it for the first time at Porchester Hall, ahead of the album release (cheers for the tickets Ken), it was another pivotal Elbow live moment, a communal sing-a-long, a huge shit eating grin, a warm musical hug, a smiley face, a lover's tender kiss on the cheek. A small moment turned into an epic sweep. If you haven't experienced Elbow in a large room full of people you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. If you have and you disagree then I don't want to talk to you anymore.

Elbow brought me light in dark times, tears when they were ready to fall, and a smile when needed.

17) The Wildhearts - Carmelita (from the album Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before Vol 1). You can't have enough Wildhearts in your life. You can't have enough Warren Zevon in your life. So what better way to round off than this?

So that's it. There were a couple of songs that fell off the end because of timing, principally Goldfrapp's Little Bird, Last Of The Outlaw Truckers from The Dandy Warhols, Black Mountain's Tyrants and Imperfect's S.O.S. Maybe one year I'll do an extended MP3 version so I can fit everything in. And by the way, the cover image is of mountains in Germany taken from the plane on the way back from Cyprus.

I haven't mentioned the friends I saw the gigs with, or played the tunes to at various times. But they're all in there somewhere.

And I know that not everyone likes the CDs, but then again, I don't like the pictures on every Christmas card I get. But I guess if one person buys a record off this, I'm happy.

So that's me almost done for Christmas. That's about all I'm going to say on what's happened this year now. I suspect I'll have my top tens up in a week or so, and then it's on with the nine.

Happy fucking Christmas everyone.