I listened to a lot of music this year.  However, I didn't listen to everything, and consequently I'm not going to pretend that I know what the "best" albums of 2008 are.  However, below are my 10 favorite albums from 2008.  I've also included 10 additional "honorable mentions" a few albums that I think have been overrated, and a handful of awesome albums from previous years that I finally got around to listening to this year.

Favorite Albums of 2008

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago.  Hands down the album of the year for me, and it's not close, cementing its place in early summer during moonrise over the Guadalupe Mountains in far west Texas.  It's even better now that winter is here.  This is Ginhole Music at its finest.

2. Blitzen Trapper - Furr.  All over the map, yet somehow it still works.  The fact that this album has been excluded from many of the big boys' top albums lists is a crime against both you, music listener and PIIYF reader, and me, snarky music critic and internet darling.

3. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound.  I have a soft spot in my heart for goofy guys who try way too hard to rock out.  (See, e.g. Hold Steady, The.)  This album has the feel of a "growing pains" album, though, so I suspect that the magnum opus may yet be to come.

4. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping.  Kevin Barnes makes amazing, complex, sprawling music.  He also wears gold lamé better than any man I know.

5. Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue.  Fleet Foxes is good.  Plants and Animals is better.

6. Marching Band - Marching Band.  Take instantly catchy pop songs that don't lose their appeal with repeated listens and add in some of that new millennium Scandinavian cool, and you've got a solid record.

7. Horse Feathers - House with No Home.  I suppose this is my year for sad bastard music.  "House with No Home" is the languid Kentucky summer version of Bon Iver's shivering Wisconsin winter on "For Emma."  "Curs in the Weeds" might be the best song I heard in 2008.

8. She Keeps Bees - Nests.  This one was the biggest surprise of the year for me.  I thought I'd like it.  I didn't know I'd like it this much.

9. Army Navy - Army Navy.  Simple and clean pop.  The songs on this album flow into each other very well, making the record imminently listenable, reminiscent of "This Is It" - not that these guys sound like the Strokes.

10. The Black Keys - Attack and Release.  The more I listen to this record, the more I'm impressed that the Black Keys have successfully integrated their sick blues chops with more beat-oriented fare.  As a rule, transition albums don't pan out, but the Keys have succeeded on theirs.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):

The Black Crowes - Warpaint

Deer Tick - War Elephant

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

Jamie Lidell - Jim

The Kills - Midnight Boom

Shearwater - Rook

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

5 Overrated Albums (i.e. Pitchfork can suck it):

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Deerhunter - Microcastle

TV on the Radio - Dear Science (even bonus points for the kickass album name can't make this record as good as they say it is)

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E

10 Non-2008 Albums That I Thoroughly Enjoyed in 2008:

The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Pinback - Blue Screened Life

Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place

Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities

Rocky Votolato - Makers

Nick Drake - Pink Moon (yeah, not even close to recent)

The National - Alligator

The Mother Hips - Kiss the Crystal Flake

American Analog Set - Know by Heart