Best Albums of 2008

- Charlatans: You Cross My Path
- Boys Noize - Bugged Out Suck My Deck
- Soulwax: Live at Fabric
- Friendly Fires: S/T
- The Whip: X-Marks Destination
- Digitalism: Kitsuné Tabloid
- Late of the Pier: Fantasy Black Channel
- The Last Shadow Puppets: Age of the Understatement
- Justice: A Cross the Universe
- Hot Chip: Made in the Dark
- The Delays - Everything's the Rush

best one-off album from the UK magazine Mixmag is Riton's mix album: The Warehouse Project

She & Him - Vol. 1

hands down.


other notables: tv on the radio, vampire weekend, the kills, hot chip, flight of the conchords

That's my wife's favorite, too. Must be a chick thing.

miss wrote:
She & Him - Vol. 1

hands down.


other notables: tv on the radio, vampire weekend, the kills, hot chip, flight of the conchords

Charlie wrote:
That's my wife's favorite, too. Must be a chick thing.

miss wrote:
She & Him - Vol. 1

hands down.


other notables: tv on the radio, vampire weekend, the kills, hot chip, flight of the conchords

I think so too, PASTE magazine lists it as their number 1 album of the year as well.

meh.  I can't stand Zooey's voice!  it makes me want to commit ear violence on myself.  I don't get it.  But whatever, people don't like the music I like…

I think it was an awful year for music and I have very few faves (but I haven't heard a lot of things that people rave about)

Nada Surf's Lucky is my favorite by far.  Neptune by The Duke Spirit is second on my list.  I think I only have two on my list.  Honorable mentions go to Hercules & Love Affair, Spiritualized and Ani Difranco.  Everything else was…alright I guess…even bands that I like put out only so-so albums.  meh.

I was just about to start the "bands I like that disappointed me this year" thread.

TVOTR
Boris (Japanese version of Smile got many listens from me but the American version was a watered down piece of crap)
Man Man
Wooden Wand aka James Jackson Toth (although he's been on the road to Jeff Tweedy wannabe land for a while now)

Bon Iver's voice bugs the hell out of me.

bellenseb wrote:


Incredibly overrated albums I'm tired of hearing about:
Bon Iver
Fleet Foxes

anything devendra did in 2008, whether it walking/talking/writing his bike.

me like me some of of that blitzen trapper disk.

but best of the best, is that four disk box set that the dead roy orbison put out.  awesome.  damn good awesome.

Actually a pretty weak music year all around.  My faves:

M83- Saturdays= Youth
Herbie Hancock- River
Goldfrapp- Seventh Tree
Killers- Day and Age
And OK I relent, Coldplay and TV on the Radio (which although good and I don't get the hype)

And the Cure 4:13 Dream, b/c they are the Cure.

Really dissapointed by the new Bloc Party, and very weak hip-hop offerings this year…

Hip-hop has pretty much been flatlined for all of '07 and '08, sadly.

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
&
The Living & the Dead - Jolie Holland

are both masterpieces.  Pretty much shoot everything else out of the water for me.

Also love Summer Rains - The Ditty Bops…especially the packaging.  They're up for a Grammy.  Hurrah for pop up boobs!

My top 15 of the year.
1. Cloud Cult ? Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
2. Mates of State ? Re-Arrange Us
3. Foals ? Antidotes
4. Deerhunter ? Microcastle
5. Blitzen Trapper ? Furr
6. Fujiya & Miyagi ? Lightbulbs
7. The Whigs ? Mission Control
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
9. Tim Fite ? Fair Aint Fair
10. My Morning Jacket ? Evil Urges
11. The Watson Twins ? Fire Songs
12. Flight of the Conchords ? S/T
13. Wolf Parade ? At Mount Zoomer
14. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
15. Sons and Daughters ? This Gift

1.) Cat Power - Jukebox
2.) The Black Keys - Attack & Release
3.) The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
4.) Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
5.) TV on the Radio - Dear Science
6.) Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
7.) She & Him - Volume One
8.) Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
9.) Nicole Atkins & The Sea - Digs Other People's Songs
10.) CSS - Donkey

Ah yes of course, Endalaust & Songs in A&E also belong in the second tier of favorites.  Both are albums I listen to while studying/napping so they get lodged in my unconscious brain.

Can't can't can't stop listening to the Little Joy s/t

others:
The Raconteurs
Vampire Weekend
Eagles of Death Metal
The Black Keys
Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains
Kings of Leon
Noah & The Whale
The Whip
CSS
The Presets
Cut Copy
Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Pitchfork should take a lesson from Dusted:


"We?ve decided yet again to not publish a definitive list of records that would rank the past year?s harvest. With a staff surpassing 40, our tastes differ to a degree that would reward the mediocre records among us. Instead, Dusted will feature individual year-end reviews from 20 of our writers, two features per day from Dec. 8-12 and Dec. 15-19. Click on the link in the headline above to see the growing list. We hope these prove more interesting, if less convenient, than a simple "best of" list."

Yeah I know Pitchfork posts their writers' lists separately but most of the emphasis is put on the site's list which does, more often than not, reward the mediocre albums.

Dusted's lists thus far

top 15:

Foals - Antidotes
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Ten Kens - s/t
Santogold - s/t
Ladyhawk - Shots
TV On the Radio - Dear Science,
The Knux - Remind Me In 3 Days…
The Black Ghosts - s/t
Black Affair - Pleasure Pressure Point
Hot Chip - Made In the Dark
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig
Black Milk - Tronic
Constantines - Kensington Heights
White Denim - Workout Holiday
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

azaghal1981 wrote:
Pitchfork should take a lesson from Dusted:


"We?ve decided yet again to not publish a definitive list of records that would rank the past year?s harvest. With a staff surpassing 40, our tastes differ to a degree that would reward the mediocre records among us. Instead, Dusted will feature individual year-end reviews from 20 of our writers, two features per day from Dec. 8-12 and Dec. 15-19. Click on the link in the headline above to see the growing list. We hope these prove more interesting, if less convenient, than a simple "best of" list."

I think that's pretty dumb. The only way a record makes it to the top of a group list is if a lot of people vote it high, meaning that it's not mediocre or at least that it had fans. That's the value of it. I don't consider the list from Joe Blow from Dusted or Magnet or Pitchfork or Popmatters to be any different than, say, someone on this board. But a collected group and ranking from a publication *is* interesting because it represents a collective of (somewhat) informed opinions. The most interesting end-of-year read for me is the final list of the Sound Opinions Message Board, which will be a grouping of around 50-60 music obsessives. I'll look at the individual lists, but the fun will be to see how the group voted, to see which titles fought their way to the top. And that is why college football needs a playoff format.

"Black Affair - Pleasure Pressure Point"


Oooooooooh I didn't even know this came out.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus! Dig!
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Nada Surf - Lucky
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Juana Molina - Un Dia (!!!!!!!!)
Arthur Russell - Love is Overtaking Me
Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
Hercules and Love Affair - s/t
Juliana Hatfield - How to Walk Away
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah, Part 1: 4th World War

That's my top 10 in no certain order.

(Did the Drive-By Truckers album come out this year? I just got into them this year, but I *really* think it's good.)