Belatedly, 2008's top tunes

Is it too late for a retrospective post on 2008? Hope not, because this is the first of two or three.

According to the statmeisters of last.fm, the following songs are my 20 most-played of 2008:

20 Road to Somewhere – Goldfrapp
It was very much the year of Goldfrapp on my playlist. I first crossed paths with Goldfrapp via a free iTunes download of "Ooh La La" from Supernature, but it was 2008's folk-tronica release Seventh Tree that led to Goldfrapp scaling my artist chart. Easily my favorite release of the year, it propelled Goldfrapp from the lower reaches of my top 50 artists to number four.

19 Holiday Road – Lindsey Buckingham
Theme from the great National Lampoon's Vacation.

18 Nikita – Elton John
I tend to fixate on random '80s songs such as this, #17 and #15 for periods of time.

17 Hold Me – Fleetwood Mac

16 X-Files (UNKLE Remix) – UNKLE
The movie I Want to Believe, while not altogether bad, was certainly not what the franchise needed at this point. This new interpretation of Mark Snow's classic theme, however, is simply brilliant.

15 I'm Your Man – Wham!

14 You Never Know (Live in London) - Goldfrapp

13 So You Say – The Bird and the Bee
The retro-modern bliss of songs such as this, "Birthday" and "Polite Dance Song" made The Bird and the Bee my second-biggest breakout of the year.

12 Birthday – The Bird and the Bee

11 I Told Her on Alderaan (Richard X Andress Mix) – Neon Neon
I have no idea what this song means, but it's really catchy pop with a strange Star Wars reference.

10 Light Years – Kylie Minogue

9 Some People - Goldfrapp

8 Happiness - Goldfrapp

7 Underneath – Alanis Morissette
Alanis had steadily been losing me to the point that I never bought the last album, although "Everything" was a nice single. The new album is — dare I say it — a return to form.

6 Little Bird - Goldfrapp

5 4 Minutes - Madonna

4 Clowns - Goldfrapp

3 Number 1 - Goldfrapp

2 Give It 2 Me – Madonna
I had myself all psyched up to hate Hard Candy based on the stylings of Timbaland and Timberlake and the fact that Confessions on a Dancefloor was a creative peak, but I ended up really digging it. This, the second single, is a perfect example of why. The "get stupid" breakdown is killer. It's a shame that it has become so in vogue to dis Madonna.

1 A&E – Goldfrapp
Absolutely sublime. It's disheartening that a song this amazing gets completely ignored in the U.S.