Slowly Going Bald

Total albums purchased/acquired in 2008: 78
Of those, albums released since 2000: 53
Albums from before 2000: 25

The number of albums I got this year bumped my total collection to somewhere in the neighborhood of 370 records, meaning that something like 20% of my total collection came from 2008. Weirdly, I wound up with the same ratio of acquired albums to total library last year, which I didn't think would happen and would be impossible to continue to repeat unless I bought a storage unit and started stockpiling CDs like a madman. But if anything, it's a reminder that the collector in me still enjoys keeping track of the numbers and seeing what I've got, where it came from, what the trends are, etc.

And because I still feel the same way, here's what I wrote last year:

"I do know that the sheer amount of music released last (and every) year, combined with the atemporal and personal-discovery nature of music, means that my list of the top albums of the year almost never looks like the ones compiled by the aging critics at Rolling Stone or the hipsters over at Pitchfork. My best albums of the year were quite literally my best albums of the year, the ones I bought and listened to and couldn't take out of my car stereo without just one more listen. Music is personal like that, and this was what last year was for me. I can't even really make a top 10 list or anything; all I could hope to do would be to trim a few disappointments and leave the many good albums I came up with. But since I can't do that, here's a selection of tracks from my year in music."

And I still hold to that. It would be impossible to list here all the songs I loved last year, but these are some of the best. (Instead of embedding the clips, I've linked to them where available. It saves space and load time, so deal.)

Gary Louris, "She Only Calls Me on Sundays"

Billy Bragg, "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key"

Justin Townes Earle, "South Georgia Sugar Babe"

Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, "Two Different Things"

Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, "Something Less Than Something More"

Willie Nelson, "Time of the Preacher"

Muddy Waters, "She's Nineteen Years Old"

Gin Blossoms, "Cajun Song"

Blind Boys of Alabama,"Way Down in the Hole"

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, "Once in a While"

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, "Sweetest Waste of Time"

Ben Folds Five, "Song for the Dumped"

Eytan Mirsky, "(I Just Wanna Be) Your Steve McQueen"

Hank Williams III, "Broke, Lovesick & Driftin'"

Old 97's, "Here's to the Halcyon"

Tift Merritt, "Broken"

Tres Chicas, "Foot of the Bed"