And then there were Ten

I have submitted my top ten songs for 2008 to JJJ Hottest 100 and can hope for the chance to win two tickets to every JJJ sponsored gig in 2009... sweet, never mind the odds.

In coming to the final ten, I amused myself by observing how I decided:

Step 1: The Trawl

In this step, I scrolled through each listed song by artist, stopping at an artist I recognised as liking in the past. The song had to live up to or exceed my expectations of the band or it was neglected (notice a distinct lack of Kings of Leon). 

If I couldn't recall the song by it's title, I searched for it in my playlists. If I didn't own it, I then went the iTunes Store and listened to a snippet. The output was;

Step 2: The Shortlist

I wrestled with some thoughts about censoring what would make my shortlist, in particular Muscles and Emiliana Torrini. I recognised this as an irrational thought and dismissed it... but I have to admit, it was this fear of judgement that incited me to post on this topic.

Step 3: The Cull

Over the past 24+ hours, I slowly cut songs down from the 50 in the Shortlist. The cull was based on the following factors;

1. Performance against expectation of the Band/Artist (is this their best work)
   
2. Ranking of songs by the same band (is this their best work in 2008?)
   
3. Origin (Australian?)
   

The cull resulted in:

 Bloc Party - One Month Off 
 Cold War Kids - Something Is Not Right With Me
 Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart 
 Faint, The - The Geeks Were Right
 Faker - Dumb Mistakes 
 Faker - Sleepwalking 
 Grates, The - Carve Your Name 
 Music, The - Strength In Numbers 
 Pendulum - The Other Side
 Pendulum - Propane Nightmares

In retrospect, I really hope my important decisions are made with more rigour, precision and accuracy...