Too Early for Best Music of 2008?

Idolator‘s been snarky, which is cool, but when I check my iTunes library, here’s my top 5 of the year so far:

1. Vampire Weekend
Yes, a lot of hipster fuckwits latched onto them, and posers think they’re now wise to world music, but it’s a consistently well-written album and I’ve played the crap out of it this year. Anything that doesn’t devolve into playing “that one song I like” and ignoring the rest deserves attention.

2. Sam Roberts – Love at the End of the World
Oh, Canada! It’s diverse, it’s heartfelt, it’s a good time. Sam Roberts writes songs as if he doesn’t give a frack what anyone else thinks of his quirks, then keeps his stuff tight and tuneful.

3. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Feels as heavy as an ocean liner to listen to, but not style-wise. Rather, it’s just ambitious and epic, a real symphony of songs.

4. Fleet Foxes
If music was church, this would be a cathedral. Even though their beards are a little bit gay (not in a good way, sorry), they made harmony different enough that I couldn’t ignore them.

5. Old 97′s – Blame It on Gravity
I can play this for almost anyone and they will at least give it a shot. A little alt-country is good for the soul.

6. The Dodos
Ooh, ooh, one more! This is some serious lo-fi wonderfulness that makes me want to roll down the windows of the car and blast it so that I become one of THEM. But not in a macho “my subwoofer’s bigger than yours” douchebaggy way, rather those guys who love the tunes so much they can’t believe everyone else wouldn’t appreciate hearing a seconds-long snippet at the red light.

But lest I sequester myself in indie land forever, I also dig dance singles: the Madonna/JT collaboration (4 minutes), Katy Perry, Britney, Beyonce, Lady GaGa, and others. There are a few more I’d like if they weren’t assaulting my ears with that awful, squashed auto-tune nonsense. And I still hate Nickelback.