2008 has been an outstanding year for listening to new music.

This year I stopped trying to figure out which are indie labels and which aren't. In the past I'd pick one indie label and one major release each month. Turns out the major labels have cool ways of making us believe some of these are indie releases. Most of them are pretty transparent, but not all. So, I simply made a list of the albums that play all the way through every single time. Not single cuts that sound great every single time – that's what we specialize in here daily; but those few, really special complete albums that are fully worthy of your investment of time and $$$.

The statistics. Over 200 cds arrive here every month. Of those, I pick a song or two off 30 of them to feature on eartaste. About 2 a month (less than 1%) stay on my cd player a lot, months at a time, and are always within handy reach. There are many different styles – style isn't important. These are chosen because there is not one clunker on the album, and most of the time the songs add depth to each other by playing straight through.

So, here we go, in no particular order, the 24 best albums of 2008 – planned to give 24 hours of amazing music to listen to any day of the year.  

Echoes Therein Gale - Echoes Of Darkness
Jazz Side Of The Moon
Phil Keaggy - Phantasmagorical
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Ruthie Foster - Phenomenal
Heath Street – Heath Street
Songdog - Wretched Sinners Song
Dax Riggs - We Sing of Only Blood or Love
Soko - Not Sokute
Eli Paperboy Reed & The True Loves - Roll with You
REM – Accelerate
DigJelly – ParaNoize
Maggie Walters – Midwestern Hurricane
Bravo Johnson - The Crooked And The Straight
Batdorf & Rodney - Still Burnin'
The Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop And Roll
The Acorn Project - We'll Be Fine
John Mellencamp - Life Death Love and Freedom
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
BB King – One Kind Favor
Susan Tedeschi – Back To the River
Marianne Faithfull – Easy Come, Easy Go

Eartaste.com

This tool has started appearing within the reviews at eartaste.com - it makes the site more of a multimedia experience, and fulfills my belief that people are more bound to purchase music if they have heard it. At eartaste.com, go to the left hand side, near upper corner, and click on the taste now link. Very cool.

If you want your band included, let me know when you send your CD to:

Eartaste
PO Box 1257
Sabinal, TX 78881-1257

Note that your CD does not have to be "commercial", computer-burned CDs are fine. I'm listening to your current sounds, not your history. Indie bands, unsigned musicians are VERY welcome!

I will stand by every single I've reviewed at www.eartaste.com this past year. I still love listening to every song. Albums, though, are another whole animal. To be able to listen to a full set by one artist, well, they just have to be extremely special for me to enjoy them. I have many albums in my collection, of course, but end up bookmarking favorite cuts off albums and listening to them over and over. It's a rare pleasure to find an album that holds together listen after listen, and provides a full enjoyment for these ears. My plan was to select the best 24 albums of the year. I know, a bit corny, one indie release per month, and one major release per month. Also, I figured 24 albums would give approx 24 hours of pure pleasure. In the final run-through, I couldn't find more than 23. I had no desire to list an almost-ran, as that wouldn't be fair to the absolute best. 15 are indie (I couldn't decide if Tiny Masters was on a major label, so I decided to include them as major label), and 8 major label releases. I list them now because if you are looking for Christmas gifts for a friend or relative that loves music, I will stand by all of these.

These are listed in the order they appeared on eartaste. All are equal favorites, so give them all a 1, or 5 stars, or however you rate your albums.

The Histrioniks - About This Girl
Alex Arrowsmith - Applewine
Roy Davis - Grey Town
Talia Segal - Nonprophet
Ben Godwin - Skin And Bone
Koopa - Blag Steal and Borrow
Mooney Suzuki -Have Mercy
Rickie Lee Jones - The Sermon On Exposition Blvd
The Red Button - She's About To Cross My Mind
The Aggrolites - The Aggrolites
Threshold - Sum Blues
Swampdawamp - Swampdawamp
Kemp Harris - Edenton
Bowling For Soup - The Great Burrito Extortion Case
Noise626 - An Infinite Shade of Gray
Landonband - Defying The Stereotype
Smug - Freshly Stained
Evan Page (Screaming Mee-Mees) - No Ordinary Girl
Tiny Masters Of Today - Bang Bang Boom Cake
Olivea Watson - Way Down Deep
Patti Scialfa - Play It As It Lays
John Fogerty - Revival
Ray Davies - Working Mans Café

If your music-loving friend stays current with every new release they can get their hands on, chances are they'll have many of the above. If you want to buy a gift that'll last a lifetime of appreciation, you'll never stop hearing thanks if you gift wrap any one of these expensive box sets:

Motown Complete Singles Vol 1
Motown Complete Singles Vol 2
Motown Complete Singles Vol 3
Motown Complete Singles Vol 4
Motown Complete Singles Vol 5
Motown Complete Singles Vol 6
Motown Complete Singles Vol 7

Northern Soul Story Vol 1-4

Vol 1 Twisted Wheel
Vol 2 Golden Torch
Vol 3 Blackpool Mecca
Vol 4 Wigan Casino

Eartaste is a daily nibble of new music. We are always looking for new sources of music - and we would like you to share your music with our audience. That's easily accomplished by sending us your music. If you read our blog, you'll note we are interested in only your music - so there's no need to send a whole press kit here. If your music is available through the internet, let us know so we can be sure to direct people your way. If not, then send an e-mail link or postal address so people can contact you for when your music is available. We pick one song a day that makes our ears tingle with enjoyment, and really have no preference of style - just flavor.

Send your CD:
Eartaste
PO Box 1257
Sabinal, TX 78881

Notes:
No need to send a press-kit. We're not interested in your history, but your sounds.

If you do not have a CD yet, that's no problem. Send a self-burned CD. We do not download music.

Include ordering information so we can pass that on to consumers.

Visit the daily review at http://www.eartaste.com