The Best & Worst of 2008

The year that was: Our choices -- and yours -- for the highs and lows in pop culture

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Stephen King's Top Tunes of 2007

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3. Life in Cartoon Motion, MIKA
An incredibly accomplished debut, and a voice that bears an eerie resemblance to Freddie Mercury's. This one lived all summer on my car's CD player, especially ''Lollipop.''

2. Sky Blue Sky, Wilco
No audio tricks and/or experimentation this time, only a set of gorgeously simple tunes and class-A writing. Jeff Tweedy has never been sweeter, more controlled, or in better voice. Not a bad cut on the album. Even the cover art's beautiful.

1. Washington Square Serenade, Steve Earle
This is the prolific Earle's best album since he got out of jail (a statement that only seems perfectly rational when discussing rock & roll). It's what we called ''folk rock'' back in the day, but it's more than that; songs like ''City of Immigrants'' and ''Down Here Below'' (which concerns Manhattan's flying urban legend Pale Male) are paragraphs in Earle's love note to New York. On ''Tennessee Blues'' he bids a sad, not-so-fond farewell to the Guitar Town. (''Bound for New York City, and I won't be back no more.'') Of all the albums I heard this year, it's the only one that fulfilled my expectations on every level.

STEVE'S MIX '07
I don't think you need many explanations about this mix; the songs either explain themselves, or they don't. All I need tell you is that yes, they're all downloadable; yes, I heard them all for the first time in 2007, and most, but not all, are from this year; and yes, every one of them blissed me out. I played them over and over until my wife threatened to divorce me...or just stab me repeatedly with the kitchen scissors (and no jury in America would have convicted her). They are listed from the least played (about 12 times in the case of ''Radio Nowhere'') to the most played (which would be about 50, putting me squarely in stabbed-in-the-kitchen territory).

I know I'll get hazed about some selections (James Blunt?? Brad Paisley???), but my dear old mother also used to tell me that honesty's the best policy. This is as honest as I can be. So there. And let's hope next year is a little bit better.

18. ''Radio Nowhere''
Bruce Springsteen

17. ''1973''
James Blunt

16. ''Nothing Changes Around Here''
The Thrills

15. ''Girlfriend''
Avril Lavigne

14. ''Homo Erectus''
Ray Benson and Reckless Kelly

13. ''Bring It on Home to Me''
Tab Benoit

12. ''I'm Shipping Up to Boston''
Dropkick Murphys

11. ''Radar Gun''
The Bottle Rockets

10. ''Online''
Brad Paisley

9. ''Same Mistake''
James Blunt

8. ''Up in Indiana''
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band

7. ''Right Moves''
Josh Ritter