Most listened albums in 2008

Yesterday I posted a short list of my favorite albums that I listened to in 2008. In the name of scientific inquiry, I thought I'd post my 20 most played albums of 2008, by means of my Last.fm account, which tracks every play on my iTunes and iPod playlists. Though not completely accurate since it doesn't track listens outside of those sources (i.e. CD players), I found it quite interesting. After you peruse this list, check out Last.fm's Best of 2008 list, which tracks the most played albums/tracks/artists of 2008, purely by the numbers. Quite interesting. Happy Listening in 2009!

1		Andrew Peterson – Behold the Lamb of God		158
2		Sufjan Stevens – Illinois		155
3		Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days		149
4		The Weepies – Say I Am You		137
5		Nick Drake – Pink Moon		130
6		The Welcome Wagon – Welcome To The Welcome Wagon		109
7		Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago		103
8		Sandra McCracken – The Builder and the Architect		100
8		José González – In Our Nature		100
10		Death Cab for Cutie – Plans		99
11		Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs		97
12		Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities		90
13		Over the Rhine – The Darkest Night of the Year		88
13		John Fahey – The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album/Christmas With John…		88
13		Thao – We Brave Bee Stings And All		88
16		Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter		86
17		Cat Stevens – Gold		84
18		Hem – Rabbit Songs		79
19		Abigail Washburn – Song of the Traveling Daughter		78
19		Over the Rhine – Ohio		78

Favorite Albums in 2008

without much pomp or explanation, here are the records I liked in '08. not everything was released this year; to make the list, the album had to have come into my collection in the last 12 months.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season
Thao - We Brave Be Stings And All
The Dodos - Visiter
Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities
The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To...
Vampire Weekend
John Doyle & Liz Carroll - In Play
Sam Phillips - Fan Dance, A Boot and a Shoe
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (& T-Bone Burnett) - Raising Sand
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Hem - Rabbit Songs
The Avett Brothers - Gleam EPs 1 & 2
Ben Sollee - Learning To Bend
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs