SIS The Best of 2008 Guest List: Write-Ins, Part One

As much as I love to sit, flip some coins and balance chemical equations to determine my Top 30, there is nothing I love more than reading everyone else's Top 10 lists. I like to know what everyone is thinking, too -- not that I let it influence my list because it doesn't. What it does make me do is either question why I might have forgotten Album X, why I could not have put Album Y a bit higher, or just call people out and question the validity of their lists altogether. This year it's no different, and while no one record dominated the top spot for the people who sent in their top 10 lists, there were a few records that kept popping up repeatedly from list to list. Here is the first sampling of those readers who sent their Top 10 lists in to share with me and, in turn, the rest of you:

Melissa Bridi
1. Frightened Rabbit / The Midnight Organ Fight / Fat Cat
2. Bon Iver / For Emma, Forever Ago / Jagjaguwar
3. MGMT / Oracular Spectacular / Sony/Columbia
4. Sigur Ros / Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust / XL
5. Sebastian Tellier / Sexuality / Phantom Sound + Vision
6. M83 / Saturdays=Youth / Mute
7. Magnetic Fields / Distortion / Nonesuch
8. Death Cab For Cutie / Narrow Stairs / Barsuk/Atlantic
9. Radiohead / In Rainbows / TBD
10. Elbow / The Seldom Seen Kid / Geffen

Allie Fletcher, The Daily Collegian
1. Conor Oberst / Conor Oberst / Merge
2. Bon Iver / For Emma Forever Ago / Jagjaguwar
3. Butch Walker / Sycamore Meadows / Original Signal
4. Vampire Weekend / Vampire Weekend / XL
5. Coldplay / Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends / Capitol
6. TV On The Radio / Dear Science / Interscope
7. Kings of Leon / Only By The Night / RCA
8. Foals / Antidotes / Sub Pop
9. Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes / Sub Pop
10. MGMT / Oracular Spectacular / Columbia

Justin Habenstreit, Boston Spaceships "Space Crew"
1. Boston Spaceships / Brown Submarine / GBV Inc.
2. Ezra Furman & The Harpoons / Inside The Human Body / Minty Fresh
3. Robert Pollard / Robert Pollard Is Off To Business/ GBV Inc.
4. Drive-By Truckers / Brighter Than Creation’s Dark / New West
5. Nada Surf / Lucky / Barsuk
6. Of Montreal / Skeletal Lamping / Polyvinyl
7. The Wedding Present / El Rey / Manifesto
8. Foals / Antidotes / Sub Pop
9. Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes / Sub Pop
10. MGMT / Oracular Spectacular / Columbia

Bill Morgal, The Silent Ballet
1. Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes / Sub Pop
2. Cut Copy / In Ghost Colours / Modular
3. Giants / Old Stories / Cavity
4. Beach House / Devotion / Carpark
5. Pg. Lost / It’s Not You, It’s Me! / Black Star Foundation
6. Crystal Stilts / Alight of Night / Slumberland
7. Vampire Weekend / Vampire Weekend / XL
8. Upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start / Embers / Bad Moon
9. Russian Circles / Station / Suicide Squeeze
10. North / What You Were / Cavity

Want to share your Top 10 with me and the rest of our readers? Then send 'er on in.