Better late than never, so here’s my list of favorite 2008 albums.

The marvelous thing about being a music buff is that there’ll always be time later to pick up on the releases and groups that were neglected or omitted, Glasvegas and TV on the Radio among them. It’s also wonderful to know that whether I live three more years or thirty, it won’t be necessary to waste a moment’s time on the inanity of country music.

That’s right, so get used to it: I’m a rock-pop-oriented listener, and unapologetically mainstream.

No, I enjoy lots of jazz and classical, too. Sorry, but the “no depression” genre completely depresses me, and although snippets of Americana and roots music peep through (Polk Miller, anyone?), it isn’t very often.

My favorite local, live music of the year was at Fringe Fest. Thanks to John Campbell for arranging it, and I enjoyed each and every one.

Feel free to post your own choices. As I write, “Day & Age” by the Killers is playing. I doubt it would have made the list.

TOP TEN (IN ORDER)

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
I knew nothing about this British group before April, and now I can’t get one line from the song, “Grounds for Divorce” out of my head: “Soon we will be drinking with the seldom seen kid.” There’s a novel in that one solitary quotation, and more where it came from.

Counting Crows – Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Ever unfashionable group, and yet the “concept” moves me: The first half of the album chronicles how thoroughly you hate yourself for doing what it takes while on the prowl, and the other half how the behavior is even less excusable over hot coffee in the cold light of morning.

The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
Contending for “most listened to” disc of the year. Any songwriter who can use the words “subpoenaed” and “sequestered” in successive six-syllable, sing-along chorus lines deserves a vocabulary medal – and it makes sense. He “went there on business.”

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
Noisy guitars, the usual snarky attitude, Zak Starkey’s farewell on drums and ramped-up psychedelic ambience add up to only 60% of a classic album in spite of Noel Gallagher’s best songs in a decade, but that’s fine by me.

Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Let’s put it this way: In my world, “U2 soundalike” simply isn’t a pejorative.

Duffy – Rockferry
Welsh sprite with good pipes and an eerie Dusty Springfield vibe, whose atmospheric songs get played on television series promos far too often for my austere taste. I forgive her for it.

Johnny Dowd – A Drunkard’s Masterpiece
My soundtrack during transit to the beer fests during the month of May. A seamless montage of dysfunction, love, murder, betrayal and infidelity – but wait, isn’t he playing “Smoke on the Water” now?

Keane – Perfect Symmetry
Shameless, sugary melodic Brit-pop with meaningless verses and shimmering choruses that can be whistled in the shower. Doesn’t get any better than that. Another U2 opening act that I adore.

John Mellencamp –Life, Death, Love and Freedom
Love the man, and love the direction he’s been heading. Hint: Leftist, populist, bleak, and profoundly disturbed with the asinine legacy of W’s clueless exurban Amerika.

David Gilmour – Live in Gdansk
I’m only a casual Pink Floyd follower, and was not expecting to be enthralled by an album purchased primarily because of the Polish locale where the 2006 concert took place (the former Lenin Shipyards). But I was, and belatedly realize that Gilmour is a true giant.

HONORABLE MENTION (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

Radiohead – In Rainbows
This merits an asterisk: The album was placed on my 2007 list, although it was technically released in the US on January 1, 2008, and it is placed here again only because we saw the band live for the first time ever in Indianapolis on my 48th birthday, August 3, and the performance was transcendent.

Def Leppard – Songs from the Sparkle Lounge
The group continues to tour and record, and there are quality components on display each time out. Toby Keith’s cameo on the first track is not among them.

Supergrass – Diamond Hoo-Hah
The Brit aggregation’s previous album, “Road to Rouen,” is an all-time fave of mine, and expectations were tempered, correctly, for this follow-up.

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Granted, I don’t pay close enough attention, but where’d the Prince shtick come from? I love it.

Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
There’s something dangerous and spooky about these guys, and whatever it is, it’s growing on me. I liked the last album better, though, recalling how cool it was to listen while on serious painkillers following my shoulder surgery in ‘07.

REM – Accelerate
Had you forgotten what it’s like to devote multiple sessions to an REM album? Short, restorative, and providing future hope.

Lindsey Buckingham – Gift of Screws
He’s too eccentric to be included in the upper pantheon of creativity, even if fully deserving.

Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
I’m told that the earlier releases bear less of the acid-trip madrigal influence. No complaints here. Dreamy, spacey, damned English.

The Feeling – Join with Us
Not an improvement over the group’s hook-laden debut. Jury’s out.