As the Summer (or winter, depending on where you are geographically) season draws to a close, we inch closer and closer into the third month of 2008; it’s already going by so quickly.  It feels like just yesterday I was seeing in the New Year when in actual fact it was 55 days ago… oi vey!

I haven’t really popped up any sort of list containing the songs that have, thus far in, tickled my musical fancy, so I thought now was as good a time as ever.  In chart form, here are the 10 best songs 2008 - whether they be singles or album tracks - has brought us so far.

01.       Van She - Strangers
02.       Van She - Changes
03.       Axle Whitehead - I Don’t Do Surprises
04.       Róisín Murphy - You Know Me Better
05.       Pigeon Detectives - I’m Not Sorry
06.       Cut Copy - Lights & Music
07.       Ashlee Simpson - Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)
08.       Sam Sparro - Black & Gold
09.       Goldfrapp - Caravan Girl
10.       Duffy - Rockferry 

I cannot wait for people to hear Van She’s “Strangers” because it is so sublime.  The synths during the chorus are magnetic and fierce.  “Changes” is just as ace and is also single material (and now that I’ve realised how similar the words “strangers” and “changes” sound when said over the phone, I’m back to being unsure as to which of the two songs are going to be the NEXT Van She single. Boo!) - sounded exxxxcellent live on the weekend and the boys told me it was their favourite track from the new record.

Axle’s debut “I Don’t Do Surprises” still impresses me, as does the man himself.  I spoke to him on Friday afternoon and the interview will be online later this week; went really well and he was incredibly charming.  Miss Murphy’s “You Know Me Better” somehow manages to become a stronger song the more I listen to it; and I already loved it immensely.  I’m aware that the Pigeon Detectives song in my list was released in 2006 and then again last year, but I’ve only just discovered the guys in the last 2 months and that song is so brilliant, I just couldn’t leave it off.

Cut Copy’s new single is a delicious taste of what’s to come from their hotly anticipated sophomore album, and Ashlee Simpson’s bonkers “Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)” sounds like a stripped down homage to Madonna’s “Burning Up.”  I love it!  Both Sam Sparro’s “Black & Gold” and Duffy’s “Rockferry” were introduced to me by the lovely xolondon, who has just written a stellar review of the new Goldfrapp album, which the track “Caravan Girl” comes from.

Anyway, what are your favourite tracks of the year so far?

Here are numbers 11 - 20…

11.       Goldfrapp - A&E
12.       Van She - Talkin’
13.       Girls Aloud - Can’t Speak French (Jeremy Wheatley Radio Edit)
14.       Kylie Minogue - Carried Away
15.       Courtney Love - Never Go Hungry Again
16.       Duffy - Mercy
17.       Courtney Love - Happy Ending Story
18.       Lykke Li - Little Bit
19.       Utah Saints - Something Good ‘08 (Van She Radio Edit)
20.       Rihanna & Klaxons - Umbrella (Live @ The BRIT Awards)