Favorite Albums of 2008
For the past eight years, my friends and I have gathered together at the end of the year to compare our picks for the top albums of year. Originally, since we all worked for the campus radio station,it was an on-air countdown. We’d take 3-4 hours to argue, laugh and listen to some great music. But since we all graduated and moved hither and yon, we’ve sent e-mails back and forth comparing our lists. Now, with the platform of Sodblog, we all get to come together digitally to make our case to the blog-reading public.
I post my picks today, my friend Chris posts tomorrow, and Kelly posts on Friday. I encourage you to head over to Sodblog to check out their lists in the coming days. I’m sure you’ll find something worth listening to or arguing about.
Without any further ado, here’s my list for the Top 10 albums of the year, a few runners-up and some of my favorite songs of the year.
10. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
Imagine every song you’ve ever heard, intentionally or otherwise, mashed into one album and 14 songs. Sounds like a headache, huh? Not quite. While this album isn’t up to the standard that Girl Talk set with the brilliant 2006 release, Night Ripper, it’s still just stunning to listen to. Hearing songs that I grew up listening to sampled, screwed up and set to hip hop beats is, well, it’s a head-trip, that’s for sure. You spend half of your time marveling at every riff or beat or lyric that you recognize, stunned that your music knowledge is actually much larger than you ever imagined. Hearing Twisted Sister and Temple of the Dog provide the backdrop for the same song, with snippets of ten other songs that you know but can’t quite place, it’s impressive in it’s scope.
9. Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
I’m not the biggest hip-hop fan, but for some reason, Atmosphere has always held a special spot in my playlist, with their compelling beats and insightful, real-life lyrics. This album, which I think features Slug’s most direct storytelling since Lucy Ford and some genuinely compelling beats. The realism that Slug dabbles in, instead of the extravagance of mainstream hip-hop, is so much more relatable. Atmosphere is the group that introduced me to the idea that I didn’t have to go back to old-school Public Enemy-type hip-hop to find music in the genre that didn’t focus only on booty, benjamins and booze. Atmosphere certainly does that, telling us stories about homeless men, men missing their dead fathers or even prostitutes with vibrancy and heart.
8. The Constantines – Kensington Heights
The Constantines are rock and roll in the same way that Creedence Clearwater Revival was rock and roll, Led Zepplin was rock and roll and Pearl Jam is rock and roll. Grunting, sweating and screaming, they pound through songs that are as elemental as dirt. Kensington Heights isn’t a departure, but a natural progression, as The Constantines have expounded upon their early reliance on Fugazi-ish silence and explosion with more driving beats, melodic departures and howling guitars. This is the sound of a band at the height of it’s power, at it’s apex. The only complaint I have with the record is that they still haven’t fully been able to capture the raw emotion and power of their live performances, but they’re getting close.
For a debut album, Army Navy’s self-titled, is a pretty damn good way to start. Combining elements of Apples in Stereo’s joyous, percussive, driving beat and Superchunk’s wide-eyed taking in of the world around them, they have managed to craft a fun, rollicking ride of an album. Kicking off with the excellent “My Thin Sides” and finishing with the 70′s pop cover, “Right Back Where We Started From,” they hit the right note over and over again. This is the kind of album that, while not necessarily full of deep meaning and music virtuosity, gets stuck in your head and will not leave.
6. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
Kicking off with the angelic “Get Better,” this new album by husband and wife duo Mates of State is easily their best so far. With their perfect harmonies, lighthearted and uplifting lyrics and simple organ, drum and vocal style, they wrap you in happiness and don’t let go. I can’t imagine a better album to cheer someone up with. They’re not exactly stretching themselves musically from their other releases, but it still feels like a step forward, like all of the elements that have always been their found a way to lock together in a more pleasing way. It’s not all that different, just better.
5. Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns
This album came out of nowhere, for me. Admit it, you’ve never heard of Rural Alberta Advantage, either. In fact, I just bought this record two weeks ago and it really threw a wrench into the assembly of my list. Fittingly enough, this album is one that sneaks up on you, as well. The songs aren’t necessarily slow-burners, like a National record, but they nonetheless gain flavor over repeated listens. The track, “Edmonton” is emblematic of this, with the nasal to the point of ridiculousness vocals and simple arrangement wrapped around a simple repeated line “what if I’m only satisfied when I’m at home?” and it’s variations. That simplicity is beautiful, and so is this album.
4. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
Sometimes, an album comes out and is so stunning in it’s brilliance that most people don’t fully know what to do with it. That was Dear Science for me, at first. Full of complex songs with influence drawn from very diverse sources, this album was almost too much to take, the first time I listened to it. Even now, there are songs like “Family Tree” that just leave me speechless. The more I listen to them and watch the progression of their amazing albums, it strikes me that TV on the Radio is our generation’s Steely Dan; they’re a band that everyone likes to appreciate and call genius, but their music is tossed aside, as if it is inconsequential to their success as a band. Basically, they’re the band that every hipster calls their own, even if they don’t own the album. They’re a stamp of cool.
3. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
Okkervil River started out in the heroin sheik shadow of Bright Eyes. For many, they were just another over-wrought, sprawling indie pop band. With their last few albums, they’ve emerged from that shadow fully-formed, a tight band with better songs than most of us gave them credit for. Will Sheff sings and howls with gusto and purpose still, but also manages to tone it down and create an album that stands out as better than their past triumph, Black Sheep Boy. With standout tracks like “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” and “Lost Coastlines,” this album hums with emotion.
2. Paul Westerberg – 49:00
If you missed this album, it’s too late and too bad. You missed a sloppy gem. 49:00 is one track with many songs pasted on top of, around and over each other. Songs start out of nowhere and end just as abruptly. It’s odd that a concept such as this record, had it been attempted by anyone other than Westerberg, would have fallen flat and seemed childish and trite. But in the hands of old Paul, it’s a masterpiece almost on the same level as his double album Stereo/Mono from 2002. The songs (and pieces of songs) are captivating and exciting, mimicking the unchecked possibility of skipping around the radio dial. Especially of note is the last 5-6 minutes, where Paul shotguns through a medly of classic songs and then rocks out on guitar while his young son takes the mic. 49:00 was pulled from circulation for unknown reasons, but the group of covers was probably it’s undoing, since you can almost bet that Paul didn’t ask for permission when he threw them in there.
1. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
If Springsteen and Alkaline Trio had a love-child, The Gaslight Anthem would be it. Growing through Boss-ish tunes like “Only Cowgirls Get the Blues,” “The High Lonesome,” and “Meet Me By The River’s Edge,” they make their intentions known early on. They are here for nostalgic reasons, to reimagine all those hours we spent as kids, sitting by the radio, waiting for that one song to come on so we could sing along at the top of our lungs. The ’59 Sound is replete with passages from Otis Redding, Bruce and even Counting Crows, that are evident upon second and third listen. But instead of sounding desperate or lazy, they sound familiar and comforting. Listening to this album is like being a child and re-discovering music all over again.
Runners-Up
DeVotchKa – A Mad & Faithful Telling
Brilliant, eccentric and comforting music from these Denver-based troubadors. Not quite up to the high-water mark that they set with How It Ends.
The Avett Brothers – The Second Gleam
Catchy and it has a banjo? I’m in. This one is good, but Emotionalism was better.
Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
Jenny has positioned herself as the heiress to Neko Case as the new indie chantouse. Her first solo record was dynamite and Acid Tongue is easily 10b on my list. She’s right on the verge of fully realizing her potential oustide of Rilo Kiley.
Songs of the Year
The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
Mates of State – Get Better
Okkervil River – Lost Coastline
TV On The Radio – Golden Age
Ghostland Observatory – Heavy Heart
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – We Call upon the Author
Tim Fite – Big Mistake
The Ravonettes – You Want the Candy
Ted Leo/Pharmacists – I Got Your Number
Paul Westerberg – 5:05
The French Kicks – Abandon
The Walkmen – In The New Year