A Top 10 was not going to happen this year. Besides "Top 10" is hackneyed. If you think something should be here and is not, I can probably guarantee that I heard at least part of it. Or, it is not in my genre mix right now so I did not listen to it at all. So this is what I liked this year and you should find it in your soul to like it too! Why? It's good music. And there are only two kinds of music, good and bad. The following in is ascending order from better to best so read on.
Darker My Love – 2Yes this album is totally derivative of anything that Jesus and the Mary Chain did especially later in their career. But damned if that is not cool shit. This is a great album for fun, but with a decidedly psychedelic kind of grooviness that a band like The Dandy Warhols might deliver. It's an album lack lacks pretense and gets its groovy mojo from the wells of space and a tad of the discotheque. It's also one of a few on this list that went unnoticed by and large. Good albums that will stick around in my mind deserve props. And as I write that I have the track "Blue" from the album pounding in my brain. Nice touch.
Experimental Aircraft – Third TransmissionIt's both shoegazey and post-punk NYC style even though they are from Texas. Dream pop with an attitude, but they have established their own identity here unlike the Fleeting Joys who can't shake the mimicry they share with the late great My Bloody Valentine. They do a nice job of mixing the elements of punkish low-fi that the dinginess of the East Village is all about with some of the spaciness of London. Plus, the drum sound pounds clearly though everything similar to the big sound of Secret Machines. It makes for a nice synthesis of the purity of space and the grime of the wet city street.
Brad Sucks – Out of ItDude likes Beck. Dude also happens to enjoy a bit of Jack Johnson over a drink. What better way to celebrate than to splice the two together. Brad Sucks, a one man band with no fans, does exactly this in one of the catchiest albums of the year. If you don't enjoy this, your soul needs a rhythmic bypass. This is kind of what I was looking for Beck to do this year. But since Beck has kind of lost his sense of humor and irony and is now getting more and more melacholy, Brad gives an uplift. Good clean fun for all occasions!
Magnetic Morning – A.M.What could possibly go wrong in a collaboration between Swervedriver's Adam Franklin and Interpol's Sam Fogarino? Nothing really. Sure the audacious cover of a young girl in a very awkward "f me" position on a couch is attention grabbing, but the image almost betrays the transcendent shoegaze, dream pop flavor of the album. But rather than bore us with drone and ambiance, it's the melodic interplay that catches the ear. the chord progressions on the short but sweet opener "Spring Unseen" and especially "No Direction" fuse pop sensibility, but go somewhere so much better than expected.
David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen TodaySo what can get better than the legendary ambient sound-craft of Brian Eno with the uber-creative impulse of David Byrne? Not much else on this wonderful album where two creative minds click and meld together incredibly well in an amazing group of songs that blend very well together. The opening track Home takes you there, or someplace like it. One of the best songs of the year and the album does not disappoint from that point onward. Not a new collaboration for these two, but it certainly is their best. Fantastic addition to 2008.
Portishead – ThirdLike moth to flame, I pursued this abstract piece of artistry. It is hard to understand where this one starts and begins, but it is totally not what you expect from a record. the melodies are almost non existent, but there is some kind of Boards of Canada meets Laurie Anderson magic that happened with Portishead here. they came back after a long absence, but left a big dent in the music world with this piece. It is more to be appreciated and discovered than simply enjoyed. And it is worth the effort you have to put into it, in order to get the most out of it.
Spiritualized – Songs in A&EAfter a really disappointing foray into white man meets Gospel music in a secular suit with Amazing Grace, Jason Pearce gets back to business in a newly enlightened frame of mind. There is definitely a return to some of those Spaceman 3 days here, but it's a definitive look forward. Gone are the songs about having beer for breakfast or other musings on dark introspection. Rather, we hear the strength of the soul's ability to overcome the fragility of the body and human circumstance echo through strained vocal lines.
Meshuggah – ObZenThere is something very accessible and catchy to Meshuggah's latest set of tunes. After two drops into the bucket of the Devil's furnace of cryptic abstraction, they return to something of their pre-2000 brutality with grotesque flair. With clean chromaticism, poly-rhythmic delight, and endless pounding of their mega de-tuned 8 string guitars to burst through machine like drumming, it's all a metal fan could ask for. Actually it's probably too much for most metal fans, but Meshuggah does not cater well to poseurs or those with a soft disposition.
The Verve – ForthAfter a few albums alone that started out really well and then fizzled, Richard Ashcroft proves to us how much he needs Nick McCabe to make the music work. There is a real sense that this one picks up right where Urban Hymns left off. There are definitely post-shoegaze moments of pop here, but then songs like Valium Skies show how great songwriting is still beating in the hearts and dreamy brains of these blokes. It is a pleasure to hear that unique sound once again. Few albums are more cleanly produced. The production sounds kind of like the cover.
Deerhunter – MicrocastleIn many ways this is an album in three distinct parts. The first is a great homage to a psychadelic indie rock trip that carries clear if intricate melodies and enough groove to keep things moving Aquarian age style. The soft middle is as if the band took a tab of acid and went back to the recording studio for an late night of tripping. The album closes with a bookend of tunes more straight ahead in a distinct garage trajectory. It ends a little more post-punk than Aquarian but with an obligatory jam section in the fantastic "Nothing Ever Happens". It's overall a fantastic exploration of texture and sound that can't be missed.
Fleet Foxes – Fleet FoxesNot for those who are not fans of Brian Wilson. To say that this album is not scarily similar to something he would have written misses completely the most influential musician of the 20th century other than Elvis. Wilson is really why the Beatles are what they are to us today because he invented a sound with Pet Sounds that we heard afresh a few years ago with Smile!. Someone has to carry that torch and boy do the Fleet Foxes do that with flair and honesty. A simply gorgeous sounding album from start to finish that makes one yearn for some distant shore away from where-ever you are. It's another installment to something ca. 1969-1972 and done extremely well. College kids can share a new CD with their parents that their parents should be able to like just as much with a smile.
Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly)For their fifth album the Icelandic dream gazing fellows give us something a little more straight forward and accessible with great results. Yes, we can actually characterize most of the songs on this release as "catchy". The average listener in the world cannot understand a word, but it does not matter does it? With far more acoustic sounds, Sigur Rós finds a way to re-invent music. There is a sense that they trimmed this one down to deliver music with a little less aplomb and progressive exuberance. Again, they craft beauty out of soundscapes in places we can only expect just because we have heard them do it before.
M83 – Saturdays=YouthMany experiments with bringing back 80's new wave have come and gone in recent years. Most of them were boring after a short and steep peak if interest. M83 has staying power. They bring a dream-pop element and fuse it with dance pop electronica to give the 80's an update with edge. They are new wave of that by gone era mixed with the edge of the 90's goth moment and the recent nostalgic riffs on the past, but with their own somewhat gothic identity. In short this is an addicting album. If I was unsure what I wanted to hear, all year long this was kind of a default. It's so rich and yet does not require a lot of mental commitment to enjoy. Good for any kind of listening situation from the background to a cocktail party, to the restful descent into sleep it makes a nice environment to live in.
Annuals – Such FunThis is nothing short of abso-fucking-lutely brilliant. Few recordings pack as much arrangement and instrumentation without over crowding the flow and melody of the music than this album. Amazingly catchy songs spill out of atmospheric yet intimate production. "Hot Night Hounds" with its layered percussiveness has a reminiscence of Paul Simon's The Rhythm of the Saints but well-grounded in the indie music of right now. Yes they will be compared to Arcade Fire. But they have so much less pretense and self-importance with what they do. There is a simplicity that governs the structure of what are fantastically written songs that most people can find something to enjoy and appreciate which makes them a bit closer to the New Pornographers. But don't get caught up in the comparisons. Annuals have made their own name here and bring something fresh and unpredictable to the table.
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Animal!"Margot" actually released two albums this year. Not Animal! is in many ways a companion to Animal! as it includes alternate takes on five of the same tunes, and a modest sampling of b-sides. The production and arrangement on this release, the release the band wanted all along, is noticeably better. This is one of those December releases that virtually all lists must have missed. If they passed over it, they have lost their souls in preparation for the Grammy awards celebration of mediocrity along the way. "Margot" offers us a collection of tunes that easily hearkens back to some of the better days of Pink Floyd sprinkled with the OK Computer Radiohead, and a deliberate sprinkling of American folksiness to keep all indie fans content. It all comes with enough of the currency of postmodern mixing of grand instrumentation and texture to stab you a bit with post-punk alt vibes. If that sounds like both an interesting and anticipated merge of influences, it is. More than that, they pull it off with their own identity and execute it so, so well. It's a great trip that deserves some attention at the beginning of 2009 and will probably receive it. Look for a second printing (they have released it on vinyl and iTunes and will probably re-release in other formats later) and for this to wrongly appear on best of lists for 2009. But that's better than not appearing at all since it absolutely should. To my critical ears, it topped the offerings for 2008 and deserves a late push into the top spot this year.
Notables: Elbow, The Duke Spirit, Erykah Badu, Duffy (arguably the best classic soul album of the year), The Helio Sequence, Magnetic Fields, Beck, Oasis, Opeth (progressive juggernaut of death metal album of the year), Santogold, The Roots (with the best hip-hop album – again), The Kills, The Notwist, King's X, The Dears, Ladytron, R.E.M. (they found out how to rock again which is great), The Cure, and The Submarines all put out really good albums that you should check out. Nine Inch Nails also put out a fantastic instrumental set (Ghosts I-IV)along with the best NIN album (The Slip) since The Fragile. All good stuff. I just happened not to like them quite as much as the ones listed.
N.B. I don't like TV on the Radio. I was not a big fan of Return to Cookie Mountain and I am not a fan of Dear Science which is a bad dance album, a bad electronica album, and a bad R&B album which all waters down a poor indie offering. Not sure why people dig this at all! I tried, but I did not inhale.
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alright drew, way to make my list more difficult with a bunch of albums i haven't listened to! we have a few similar likes (portishead, deerhunter, sigur ros, fleet foxes), but i disagree with you about a few things. first, i don't like m83. i think they're melodically boring and unoriginal (more unoriginal than other ripoff artists, in fact). also, i think you miss out on a lot about tv on the radio if you try and categorize them as dance, electronica, r&b, indie, whatever. just sit back and let them take you where they're going, because it's a thrilling ride. they build sonic landscapes with all kinds of organic and inorganic effects, and then adebimpe is just a madman genius of a singer. anyway, well done on the list. hope you read mine when i finally finish it.
Didn't really like any other M83, but I really like this one. Maybe it's the nostalgia of it I don't know. It has a Boards of Canada kind of production and the ambiance of them as well in a lot of respects. I also like Aphex Twins' Selected Ambient Works as a must have in a collection. But…you can get a consistent sense that I tend towards the ambient and spacey anyway – even with the metal, jazz, and trip-hop I listen to (like DJ Shadow's Bombay the Hard Way which is awe-some). Can't go anywhere with TVOTR though. I really tried to get with the hype with Cookie Mountain. I listened to it over and over again and it just did not stick.
Hope you have stuff I have not consumed yet!
Good list. I just picked up Margot, and I'm liking it so far. This year has mostly consisted of acquiring older albums that I missed along the way, so I've got a lot of catching up to do.
Have you heard the new Bon Iver?
I have heard it, but I am not too keen on the folksier side of life unless it's alison krauss or neko case whose voices make me melt. not as fond of sufjan's earlier work either as a result.
I like your list. We have a few albums that share the top spots. I will check out a few of your tops. I am mourning the TVOTR no-likes. I think that Cookie Mountain is an amazing album. I will say I was sad that the entire album Dear Science did not totally melt my mind. I loved it no the less. Something cannot be for everyone. This is why we have an incarnational gospel, right?
I will put up mine in the next few days. I got a couple of new albums I want to give a go before I finalize the best of 2008.
good list. what you said about college kids telling their parents about fleet foxes and them liking it is exactly true! also, i completely agree with you about tv on the radio…i dont get the appeal either!
[...] Top 15 Albums of 2008 [...]
hey drew, if you get a chance, check out my list too: http://elispersonalstash.blogspot.com/2008/12/t...
hey drew, if you get a chance, check out my list too: http://elispersonalstash.blogspot.com/2008/12/t...