ALBUMS (descending points)
1. Justice "Cross"
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Menomena - Friend Or Foe
5. No Age - Weirdo Rippers
6. Elliott Smith - New Moon
7. I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
8. Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
9. Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
10. Radiohead - In Rainbows

TRACKS
1. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
2. Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
3. Rihanna - Umbrella
4. Kanye West - Stronger
5. Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen
6. Stars - Midnight Coward
7. Feist - 1234
8. Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent
9. Bjork - Earth Intruders
10. Bright Eyes - Four Winds

REISSUES
1. Young Marble Giant - Colossal Youth
2. Joy Division - Closer
3. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
4. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
5. Fire Engines - Hungry Beat

ARTISTS
1. Radiohead
2. Justice
3. Kanye West
4. Mark Ronson
5. LCD Soundsystem

COMMENTS
Looking at my list it becomes apparent to me that this was the year I finally embraced my favorite instrument: the synthesizer. (Well, second favorite instrument, but there's not a lot of keytar out there right now.) There's hardly an album here that doesn't feature synths in some manner or another. And the different ways in which they are used—to make dance beats, create noise or goose guitar-based pop songs with alternately sexy or twee effects—just prove to me how enduring and essential this truly unessential instrument is. (If you include the bands I love that didn't squeak into my Top 10—Bonde Do Role, We Are Wolves, the Go! Team, Los Campesinos!, Holy Fuck, Blitzen Trapper—my synth obsession becomes even clearer.)

I've got to say, though, as someone who went to an all-girls school for 12 years, I'm disappointed by the dearth of women on my list. (The number of ladies on all my lists combined could barely have filled my 11th grade French class. And it only had five people in it!) I promise you, though, it's not for lack of trying to get them on there. Feist put out one great single, but the rest of her album is B-O-R-I-N-G. Celebration would certainly be in my Top 20, but I wasn't going to bump 'em up just for quotas' sake. Amy Winehouse was less a new musical find than a tabloid one, and everything I liked about her album can be attributed to Mark Ronson's production and the Dap Kings' playing. (Her voice? meh.) And sorry, I know I'm in the minority when it comes to M.I.A., but I just liked Arular better. (Aside from the remix of "Paper Planes" that features Bun B—that might be the best thing she's ever done!) So my resolution for 2008 is to be better at seeking out awesome musical talent by those of us with two X chromosomes. Well, that and learning to play keytar.