Making a Top 10 list is practically a requirement when you have a music review blog, but it can also be a nuisance since people usually judge you based on your list. Regardless, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, chances are very high that you know exactly what albums I’m going to include. If not, here’s a hint: go to the sidebar and check out all the 2008 releases that I gave 4.5 stars or 5 stars.

So here’s the best of what I managed to review:

1. The New Frontiers – Mending
   indie, acoustic (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   I simply can’t say enough about this album. It’s not very inventive lyrically or musically, but it’s been compelling enough that I returned to this album time and time again. It doesn’t matter what mood I’m in or what song I just listened to – the minute something from Mending came up on my shuffle, I was swept away. The fact that The New Frontiers have broken up so soon after its release makes Mending almost iconic.

2. Copeland – You Are My Sunshine
   indie/alt pop (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   While I wasn’t so enthusiastic about this album when I first heard it, it’s certainly grown on me. Every time I hear something from it, I’m struck by a certain lyric or a nuance that I’d never heard before. While Copeland is certainly branching out into new directions, they do so very convincingly.

3. City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love
   folk (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   I’m convinced that Dallas Green is physically incapable of writing a truly upbeat song, but this album was a strange mixture of the ironic and the depressing. I still haven’t wrapped my mind around it completely.

4. Anberlin – New Surrender
   alternative rock (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   This album takes the prize of Surprise of the Year. I’m a self-proclaimed Anberlin fan, but even I didn’t expect the second half of this album. Interestingly enough, it works. I’d love to see where these guys go from this excellent start.

5. Thrice – The Alchemy Index Vol. 3 & 4
   alt rock, acoustic, folk (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   This album is a revelation when one considers its source: a post-hardcore band expanding its horizons. Lacking the insipid love songs that we’ve grown accustomed to on the radio, this album would have been more talked about than Radiohead’s In Rainbows had all four volumes been released at once. As it is, these last two volumes are simply brilliant.

6. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger
   piano rock (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   “The Resolution” is, and will always remain, the best anthem to come out of this decade. I also enjoyed the fact that McMahon returned to his roots in pop/punk, because too much acoustic just wasn’t good for him.

7. The Dodos – Visiter
   alternative, folk (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   As an eclectic mixture of the unexpected and the familiar, Visiter is the layman’s version of Portishead’s Third. Honestly, that fact alone makes me love this album even more. Portishead, take note.

8. Yoav – Charmed & Strange
   alternative/indie pop (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   Simplicity in lyrics and form haven’t failed the music scene yet, and here’s another prime example. Yoav’s voice is a bit too stretched at times, but the album as a whole is a noteworthy debut.

9. Tiger Lou – The Loyal
   indie-rock, alt pop (read review)
   Purchase: Amazon, website

   Although it was originally released in 2005, The Loyal was released in the U.S. via Eyeball Records this year, and gave me a newfound respect for that label. The songs here are repetitive but not at all tiring. I have to get my hands on some of their newer stuff.

10. Augustana – Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt
    roots rock/piano rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This country-tinged sophomore album by Augustana might not have garnered as much attention as it deserved but it’s getting its due here. Here’s a return to the basics in a laid-back California/Texas style. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but that’s what it is, isn’t it?

Here are some other releases (in alphabetical order) that you should check out:

Boris Smile’s Beartooth EP
Dido’s Safe Trip Home
Driver F’s Chase The White Whale
The Duke Spirit’s Neptune