The 75 Best Albums of 2008
Based on charts published by: Blender, Mojo, NME, Paste, Q, Rolling Stone, Spin & Uncut
| Rank | High | Artist | Album |
Score | Lists | Single |
| 1 | 1 | TV On The Radio | Dear Science | 321 | 8 | DLZ |
| 2 | 1 | Fleet Foxes | Fleet Foxes | 317 | 7 | White Winter Hymnal |
| 3 | 3 | Vampire Weekend | Vampire Weekend | 308 | 7 | One |
| 4 | 4 | Bon Iver | For Emma, Forever Ago | 263 | 8 | Skinny Love |
| 5 | 5 | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! | 257 | 8 | Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! |
| 6 | 5 | Hot Chip | Made In The Dark | 214 | 7 | Ready for the Floor |
| 7 | 1 | MGMT | Oracular Spectacular | 211 | 7 | Time To Pretend |
| 8 | 1 | Lil Wayne | Tha Carter III | 205 | 5 | A Milli |
| 9 | 4 | My Morning Jacket | Evil Urges | 198 | 6 | I'm Amazed |
| 10 | 1 | Kings Of Leon | Only By The Night | 195 | 5 | Sex on Fire |
| 11 | 6 | Elbow | The Seldom Seen Kid | 190 | 5 | Grounds For Divorce |
| 11 | 6 | Santogold | Santogold | 190 | 6 | LES Artistes |
| 13 | 1 | Portishead | Third | 185 | 5 | Machine Gun |
| 14 | 3 | Coldplay | Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 183 | 5 | Viva La Vida |
| 15 | 3 | Glasvegas | Glasvegas | 165 | 4 | Geraldine |
| 16 | 8 | Beck | Modern Guilt | 164 | 6 | Gamma Ray |
| 17 | 6 | The Hold Steady | Stay Positive | 155 | 5 | Constructive Summer |
| 18 | 4 | Metallica | Death Magnetic | 153 | 6 | The Day That Never Comes |
| 19 | 8 | Randy Newman | Harps and Angels | 145 | 5 | Harps & Angels |
| 20 | 2 | Sigur Rós | Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust | 141 | 4 | Gobbledigook |
| 21 | 12 | Erykah Badu | New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War | 136 | 4 | The Healer |
| 22 | 9 | Lucinda Williams | Little Honey | 121 | 4 | Real Love |
| 23 | 2 | Girl Talk | Feed The Animals | 120 | 3 | Shut the Club Down |
| 24 | 6 | Duffy | Rockferry | 113 | 4 | Warwick Avenue |
| 25 | 3 | Paul Weller | 22 Dreams | 112 | 3 | All I Wanna Do |
- Neon Neon -- Stainless Style
- Fucked Up -- The Chemistry of Common Life
- Deerhunter -- Microcastle
- Death Cab For Cutie -- Narrow Stairs
- The Raconteurs -- Consolers of the Lonely
- British Sea Power -- Do You Like Rock Music?
- Conor Oberst -- Conor Oberst
- of Montreal -- Skeletal Lamping
- Goldfrapp -- Seventh Tree
- Drive by Truckers -- Brighter Than Creation's Dark
- Okkervil River -- The Stand Ins
- The Last Shadow Puppets -- The Age Of The Understatement
- Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks -- Real Emotional Trash
- No Age -- Nouns
- Kaiser Chiefs -- Off With Their Heads
- Jenny Lewis -- Acid Tongue
- Neil Diamond -- Home Before Dark
- Oasis -- Dig Out Your Soul
- The Roots -- Rising Down
- John Mellencamp -- Life, Death, Love and Freedom
- Gnarls Barkley -- The Odd Couple
- Guns N' Roses -- Chinese Democracy
- She & Him -- Volume One
- Bob Dylan -- Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
- Black Mountain -- In The Future
- The Black Keys -- Attack & Release
- Foals -- Antidotes
- Metronomy -- Nights Out
- Robyn -- Robyn
- Black Kids -- Partie Traumatic
- Mystery Jets -- Twenty One
- Sun Kil Moon -- April
- The Week That Was -- The Week That Was
- Hercules & Love Affair -- Hercules & Love Affair
- The Bug -- London Zoo
- Be Your Own Pet -- Get Awkward
- Fall Out Boy -- Folie A Deux
- Friendly Fires -- Friendly Fires
- Ida Maria -- Fortress Round My Heart
- Laura Marling -- Alas, I Cannot Swim
- Lykke Li -- Youth Novels
- R.E.M. -- Accelerate
- Crystal Castles -- Crystal Castles
- Don Cavalli -- Cryland
- Keane -- Perfect Symmetry
- Al Green -- Lay It Down
- Blitzen Trapper -- Furr
- James Blackshaw -- Litany of Echoes
- Langhorne Slim -- Langhorne Slim
- Ryan Adams & the Cardinals -- Cardinology
A little explanation:
- Rank: Rank on this overall chart
- High: Highest rank achieved on any of the eight individual charts
- Artist: Name of the artist/band
- Album: Name of the album
- Score: Number of points received by the album (1st place on a chart is worth 50pts, 2nd place is 49pts...)
- Lists: How many of the eight individual charts the album appeared on
- Single: If a single from the album appeared on a singles chart, it's listed here; otherwise, it's an
AMG recommended track on the album
Source: Stereogum's excellent
collection of "Best Of..." lists