And in conclusion…

So there you have it. That list was, to recap:

1. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
2. Why? – Alopecia
3. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
4. Beach House – Devotion
5. Times New Viking – Rip It Off
6. Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
7. So Cow – I’m Siding With My Captors
8. Jeremy Jay – A Place Where We Could Go
9. El Guincho – Alegranza
10. Xiu Xiu – Women As Lovers
11. No Age – Nouns
12. Wolf Parade At Mount Zoomer
13. Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash
14. Roots Manuva – Slime and Reason
15. Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion
16. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
17. The Mae Shi – Hlllyh
18. Santogold – Santogold
19. Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
20. Port O’Brien – All We Could Do Was Sing
21. Marnie Stern – This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
22. Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual
23. The Dodos – Visiter
24. Correcto – Correcto
25. This Is The Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

The figures:
Irish: 12%
By bands I was already into before 2008: 40%
Saw live: 48%
Reviewed for print: 32%
Interviewed for print: 12%
Owned on CD or vinyl: 40%

Might briefly review the Animal Collective gig I was at in the Koko in London in January, and the Of Montreal gig I was at in the Button Factory last week, for the sake of being complete. My main efforts, however, will primarily be going towards the study of dusty old books in the Ussher and Berkeley libraries of Trinity College Dublin for the next several weeks.

Like I said last year and probably this year before I embarked on that ridiculously overwrought top 25, I do it more for myself to look back on than for others to read. Let that explain the bits that got too obtuse, or the bits that weren’t really developed enough to make sense.

It also gives me an opportunity to go back and re-engage with albums that might have fallen by the wayside, which happens all too often when a set of mp3s falls out of my ‘recently added’ and off the 2GB mp3 player I carry around. I wouldn’t have thought nearly so hard about those albums if I hadn’t committed myself to actually reviewing them, rather than listing them. So I’m glad I did.

No album was as good as Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? No album was as good as Merriweather Post Pavillion. But it was about par for the course as a year. I’m looking forward to burying myself in comfortable, mostly older music for a while. At some stage I might take Merriweather out of my CD player (it’s been a month), or Wire off my turntable… but not till I’m ready.

Phew.

See you round.

Oh, thanks to Darragh and Dan for writing those interim posts, and to Bobby Duck Dispensary and Brian So Cow who so foolishly fell into the trap I laid for them to review each other’s albums. Wouldn’t have worked if I’d explained!