Although I claim to be a holier than thou leftie, there are some conservative impulses I just can’t budge, one of them being a rather straightforward, no-frills list of 7 songs which encapsulate 2008 for me. Yeah, I’m a party pooper, so what? Christmas is for schmucks anyway…

So in order…

(1) Midnight’s Another Day - Brian Wilson

Having critics on your side isn’t always beneficial for creative geniuses, not least of all for those who’ve had to grin and bare some appalling saccharine muck from rock’s Big Kahuna in the last 20 years. That’s why Midnight’s Another Day and its parent album That Lucky Old Sun feel like the casting away of a terrible burden, for Wilson, who has at last justified himself as something more than a corroding sacred cow, and for everyone else. Now we can say “nice one Brian” without having to bite our lips.

(2) Invisible - Paul Weller

Another lost soul redeemed. Weller’s knack for separating himself from N.M.E./Q pleasing dirges and replacing the dreary karma with a collection of finely crafted adrenalin rush observations no 50 year has any right to conjure, puts him back to a pedestal the liggers and starfuckers of 1995 this time won’t be able to slither up. Invisible is the pick of an alarmingly good bunch.

(3) La Vida Callada - Natacha Atlas

David Hutcheon from The Times took this one to his heart during the summer, obviously hypnotised by its lilting strings, sweet, yet prompt and guttural harmonies. While not to be left standing, an acoustic heartbeat gently thumped away on the comforts of a cha’abi moderne lineage. As Hutcheon was swaying underneath a setting sun/rising moon combo, he wasn’t the only one with the swishing sounds of nocturnal sands brushing against his ears…

(4) Geography - Messiah J. And The Expert

Something has never been (nor is going to be) resolved in post-colonial academia. The question, just what makes something Irish, has become so tiresome that guys like Messiah J. And The Expert do so much to give the nation a well deserved kick in the genitals, it actually wouldn’t matter were they from Ireland, Iraq, or anywhere else the donkey’s tail is pinned on to. All that matters is that Geography moves like a rattlesnake in a tornado and Ireland may at last be finding a penchant for groups who don’t need sob stories, goatees, and the approval of 98FM.

(5) L’Africain - Tiken Jah Fakoly

I first saw this guy at the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures in August in the company of a woman I would now rather forget. As for Fakoly, well, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

(6) Out Of Our Hands - Gemma Hayes

She now negotiates an uncertain middle ground the hyperbole of 2002 couldn’t have possibly imagined. A shame really, as the Tipperary singer-songwriter has yet to even hit her peak if classy material like this is anything to go by.

(7) Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon

Because Of The Times is the album which preceded Only By The Night. Because this is by far the dirtiest pre/post-coital sonic frenzy you are likely to hear until Bon Scott stops being dead, you better accept that these hairy bums are here for the duration. In many ways they’re all the better for the abrupt end to critical idolatry, and a clearly visible media backlash, as without the frustrating binary to drive them, the hunger that sears right through Sex On Fire would surely have smoldered into dust.

Caught between the devil (Britney Spears) and Gordon Sumner, the idea that an artist can reflect their politics in music has become a largely discredited notion. When putting their minds towards defeating Thatcherism artists like Billy Bragg, Paul Weller, and the Communards produced arguably some of their worst material - they may have won your respect for actually working for change, but they didn’t necessarily make their way onto your mid-’80s turntable or proto-i-pod (walkman).

From the late ’80s onwards affiliation became the watch-word. Bono was committed to changing the world and played concerts left right and centre for organisations like Amnesty international, but after the success of Achtung Baby wouldn’t be caught dead actually singing about social issues (given some of his earlier attempts, it was no loss). Springsteen followed suit - though always slightly prone to falling off the wagon and on to his pedestal.

Springsteen is interesting, given his propensity to drop the big-band sound of the E-street band whenever he feels like getting serious. His rule of thumb being should you wish to tackle social issues head on, you need to don Woody Guthrie’s cap and stool yourself with an acoustic guitar.

Now, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that approach - but it ain’t gonna get you dancing, and we’re firmly with that famous Canadian anarchist Emma Goldman on this: if I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution.

Roy Paci’s Aretuska then is the musical equivalent of the holy grail of the snack industry - a slice of genuinely tasty sugar-free chocolate. It’s political (without shouting about it, a la Skunk Anansie), social, and committed without making your feet yawn.

In Roddy Doyle’s The Committments the theory was proposed that the Irish were the blacks of Europe, and hence the proud possesors of soul. An interesting proposition, and on face-value one that stands up, certainly when comparing the music that’s come out of Dublin compared to that of either London or Berlin. But put your average Irish band - say, for argument’s sake Bell X1 - up against this Sicilian outfit, and there’s no competition. Their ska/rock sound may come from the mediterranean, but it’s roots radical and real.

And what are the politics on display? SImple really. In an increasingly anti-immigration Europe, Paci and his pals remind us that the Southern Italians (and by extension Irish, and others) just a generation or two ago were considered the illegal immigrants that powered the German post-war industrial boom. Gastarbeiter or Guest-Worker was a term used for Italians first, and then later, after the establishment of the EU, for the Turks.

A timely and rythmic way to dance out of the anti-this, anti-that doldrums.

Of course, there’s no video available for this, the best song on the outstanding Parola d’onore album, so to give you a sample we’ll take a hop, skip, and shuffle to the also splendid Todo Joia from the Suonoglobal album (featuring Manu Chao - for whom Paci played trumpet in the Radio Bemba Soundsystem)