Runners-up

I've chosen my top 99 songs of the year, though I'm still tinkering with the order in advance of preparing the MP3 compilation coming at you soon. In the meantime, here are the nearly-made-its, all songs I love, but more like cousins than nuclear family. (Includes many songs from last year I missed or didn't listen to closely enough back then.)

• Akon, Lonely
• Amadou et Mariam, Djanfa
• Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Seik Kyu Ahla (first version)
• Beastie Boys, That's It That's All
• Ciara, Oh
• Ciara, 1 2 Step
• Daddy Yankee, La Gasolina
• Dizzee Rascal, Stand Up Tall
• El-P/The Blue Series Continuum, When the Moon Was Blue*
• Fieldwork, Transitions
• Franz Ferdinand, Take Me Out**
• Robbie Fulks, If They Could Only See Me Now
• Robbie Fulks, I'm Gonna Take You Home and Make You Like Me***
• The Futureheads, Hounds of Love
• Ghostface ft. Jadakiss, Run
• The Go-Betweens, Boundary Rider
• Gogol Bordello, Underdog World Strike
• Jerry Granelli, Nolan
• Gucci Mane ft. Young Jeezy & Boo, Icy****
• The Hold Steady, Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
• Miranda Lambert, Kerosene
• LCD Soundsystem, Yeah (Crass version)
• Living Things, I Owe
• Buddy Miller, Worry Too Much
• Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, Nutty
• Mos Def, Ghetto Rock
• The Mountain Goats, Dance Music
• Nas ft. Olu Dara, Bridging the Gap
• Nas, These Are Our Heroes
• New Order, Working Overtime
• Northern State, Girl for All Seasons
• Papa Wemba, Télégramme
• William Parker Quartet, Groove
• William Parker Quartet, Wood Flute Song
• The Perceptionists, Career Finders
• Chris Potter Quartet, 7.5
• Public Enemy, Hell No We Ain't All Right
• Amy Rigby, Dancing with Joey Ramone
• Roswell Rudd, Buryat Boogie
• William Shatner ft. Joe Jackson, Common People*****
• Ashlee Simpson, Boyfriend******
• Sileni, Twitchy Droid Leg
  
• SLK, Hype Hype
• Will Smith, Ms. Holy Roller
• Todd Snider, Conservative Christian Right Wing Republican Straight White American Males*******
• Gwen Stefani, Hollaback Girl
• Tinariwen, Alkah Dessouf
• Twista, Overnight Celebrity
• The Veronicas, 4Ever
• Yohimbe Brothers, More from Life
• Young Jeezy ft. Jay-Z, Go Crazy

* Sometimes this seems exceptionally beautiful. Other times it pisses me off that it's out of fucking key.
** It took me an age to get into this. Made me work harder at their new album, which I prefer even though no one song jumps out.
*** "Gemütlichkeit"!
**** Really thought hard about putting this in, but I couldn't in good conscience include a song with the lyric "I'm the shit bitch, I need toilet paper".
***** Yeah it's funny, but everybody hates a tourist.
****** I would point out the irony of Ashlee instructing us not to "put words up in my mouth", but I like her.
******* As opposed to "tree hugging, peace loving, pot smoking, porn watching lazy ass hippies like me".

RE-EDIT: OK, so I shouldn't claim to have finalised things until I really have. Will continue editing this for a few days.