I’ve al­ways been more of a movie buff so this should be a list of the best movies I’ve seen in 2008. However, with the ex­or­bi­tant prices of the­atre tick­ets and my mis­an­thropic dis­like of the com­mon theatre-going pub­lic, I ei­ther wait for my movies to come on The Movie Network or I see them at the reper­a­tory cin­e­mas. That means my list of 2008 would trend heav­ily with movies that were re­leased in 2007. So, I de­cided to of­fer you my list of favourite al­bums and sin­gles of the year that took my breath away, made me dance like there’s no to­mor­row and re­newed my faith in an in­dus­try that gives the world Lady GaGa and calls Britney Spears a “comback.”

Here are my top eight mu­sic faves for 2008, in no par­tic­u­lar or­der. (That would take way too much time and ef­fort for my holiday-atrophied brain.) When com­pil­ing this list, I also no­ticed they pro­vide great back­ground mu­sic to ei­ther dance or make sweet, sweet love to — or both. Enjoy.

• Al Green, Lay It Down. He sure did.
• James Hunter, The Hard Way. A lit­tle story: I was in a Starbucks and heard a song I im­me­di­ately fell in love with. I thought it was from a com­pi­la­tion of rare 60s R&B I wasn’t aware of. It turned out to be a song by a blues mu­si­cian from Ireland. That song was “The Hard Way”, the ti­tle track.
• Hercules and Love Affair, self-titled. Vocal con­tri­bu­tions from Antony Hegarty. Listen to “Blind” and I chal­lenge you not to dance.
• Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It. Saadiq does it old, old school.
• Duffy, Rockferry. Girl’s def­i­nitely has a voice. She just has to work on her stage pres­ence and she can be a dynamo.
• Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree. Very chill.
• Johnny Pâté, Outrageous (reis­sue). Heard this whilst pe­rus­ing the wares at Soundscapes and bought it on the spot. I wish this was the sound­track of my life.
• Otis Redding, Live! In London and Paris and Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul — Collectors Edition (reis­sue). ‘Natch.

Honourable Mention:

MGMT, Oracular Spectacular.
Lykke Li, Youth Novels.
Q-Tip, Renaissance.
Santogold, self-titled.
ADELE, 19.

Singles:

• Estelle’s “American Boy” held the top sin­gles spot in my heart un­til I heard…
• “Say Hey (I Love You)” by Michael Franti & Spearhead. Such a happy song.
• John Legend with Andre 3000, “Green Light”. Tied with the nut­meg song.
• V.V. Bloom, “Crying Blood”. Watch out for this one.
• M.I.A., “Paper Planes”. I was sick of this song un­til I saw Slumdog Millionaire.
• Kings of Leon, “Sex On Fire”. Not a huge fan of the band, but I do like this song.
• Beyonce, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”. Growing on me like a bad rash. Really, what’s with the whole “Sasha Fierce” thing?
• The Kills, “Cheap and Cheerful”. “I want you to be crazy ’cause you’re bor­ing baby when you’re straight.”

What shook your tail this year?