Staff Picks: Best of 2008

Rich McLaughlin - Content Director and Host, The Alternate Side

Albums, in alphabetical order:

* Bell X1 - Flock (Yep Roc)

* Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (Geffen)

* Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)

* Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat Records)

* Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking (Daptone Records)

* R.E.M. - Accelerate (WB)

* Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation (ESL)

* TV on the Radio - Dear Science (Interscope)

* Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)

* The Walkmen - You & Me (Gigantic Music)

Jeff Kuprycz - Technical Director and Host, The Alternate Side

Albums:

1. Calexico - Carried to Dust (Quarterstick)

2. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)

4. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (XL)

5. Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking (Daptone)

6. Portishead - Third (Island)

7. Santogold - Santogold (Downtown)

8. Nada Surf - Lucky (Barsuk)

9. The Black Keys - Attack and Release (Nonesuch)

10. Medeski, Martin and Wood - Let's Go Everywhere (Little Monster)

Alisa Ali - The Alternate Side Host and WFUV Weekday Morning Producer

The order of these might change depending on mood - but all of these are great albums from 2008:

* The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

* The Black Keys - Attack and Release

* DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling

* Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

* Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini

* Lykki Li - Youth Novels

* Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark

* MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

* Santogold - Santogold

* Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Rita Houston - WFUV Music Director/The Whole Wide World Host

* David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

* Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

* Duffy - Rockferry

* Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold

* Little Jackie - The Stoop

* Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

* Jaymay - See Green, Sea Blue

* Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis - Two Men with the Blues

* Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It

* The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

* Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain

I also loved: Q Tip, Rachel Yamagata, Alejandro Escovedo, TV on the Radio, The Heavy, The Heavy Circles

Laura Fedele - New Media Director

Hmm, how to put this... These are the albums that contained a lot of the songs I loved this year:

* Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal

* Amos Lee - Last Days at the Lodge

* Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year

* David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

* Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

* The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

* Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

* Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers

* My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

* Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart

* The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

* Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain

* Ryan Adams - Cardinology

* Santogold - Santogold

Note: If we can count Radiohead's In Rainbows as a 2008 release in some way, you can disregard everything I've said here and just repeat that one ten times.

Ben Guhin - Web Manager

Albums:

* Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

* Corey Chisel and the Wandering Sons - Cabin Ghosts

* Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos - Not Animal

* Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple

* John Mayer - Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles

* Beck - Modern Guilt

Songs:

* Conor Oberst - "Cape Canaveral" from Conor Oberst

* Kanye West - "Bad News" from Heartbreak and 808s

* She & Him - "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" from Volume One

* Ra Ra Riot - "Oh, La" from The Rhumb Line