Two-thousand eight didn't have the same pedigree of 2007 in its top 10 (only a couple of these albums are threats to my coveted top 50 of all time, unlike last year when at least six of the top ten are still in my monthly rotation), but there's a lot here worth hearing. As always, these are the 25 albums I enjoyed the most this year (not necessarily the best).

Update: I added a playlist at the end of the list so you can hear some of my favorites of 2008. I'll try to flesh it out on Tuesday. I also added a little bit to the #1 album comments.

25. Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
24. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
23. Rue Royale - Rue Royale
22. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
21. Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Chad VG had me thinking top five for a few weeks, but I mellowed on Soft Airplane too quickly to chart it any higher. TPC didn't do anything new on their follow-up LP, but it was a lot of fun and I've played it consistently all year. Rue Royale's hummable, uplifting songwriting made it a road trip go-to album for my wife & I. Frightened Rabbit make rock songs to drive faster to, and "The Modern Leper" was one of this year's best. "Keep Yourself Warm" is also an amazing song, but its lyrics, while noble, are probably too inappropriate to recommend. I've been back and forth on the merit of Coldplay's latest album, but "Death & All His Friends" guaranteed it a top 25 spot.

20. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
19. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah part one
18. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
17. Angil & the Hiddntracks - Oulipo Saliva
16. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Spiritualized tries a lot of styles, and succeeds nearly all the time. "Death Take Your Fiddle" always gets me. Erykah Badu's album is one of the very best of the year, although it takes some concentrated listening and therefore didn't end up in the rotation very often in 2008. If this were a top 25 best-of 2008, she'd be near the top. TV on the Radio found a nice sweet spot between experimental and pop on Dear Science, and I suspect I'll come back for more in 2009. Angil & the Hiddntracks made something so unique and quirky that I have to recommend it, even though most of you will hate it. It's weird, and the story behind it is more weird. Love it. MGMT created one of my top five songs of the year, "Time to Pretend", and that lands it at #16. There's other gems ("Electric Feel", "Kids"), but you can feel free to cherry pick it.

15. Adele - 19
14. Margot & the Nuclear So & So's - Not Animal
13. Beck - Modern Guilt
12. Port O'Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
11. Portishead - Third

Adele knocked my socks off with a commanding voice and lots of pop goodness to sing over. There are at least eight killer tracks here. Margot's label-approved album lacked the cohesion of its band-approved counterpart (that's coming in a little bit), but I loved each of the songs that didn't overlap, and it's worth its price tag (I secretly with "Pages Written on a Wall" had snuck onto Animal! - it might be my favorite track on either of their 2008 albums). Buy Animal! and cherry pick the rest. Beck's collaboration with Dangermouse took a long time to grow on me, and its a testament to his past work that I stuck with it, but in the end I was able to dig into his dusty grooves. It's worth the effort. Port O'Brien's folk-rock from an Alaskan fishing boat was one of my early favorites. There are a few songs here that point to something special down the road. Portishead's Third was, despite the 10+ years since their last studio effort, worth the wait. "The Rip" is as perfect a song as I heard in 2008.

10. DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling
9. Son Lux - At War with Walls & Mazes
8. Peter Broderick - Float
7. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
6. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

DeVotchKa's follow-up to How It Ends was amongst my most anticipated 2008 albums, and I was initially unimpressed. But their knock-out performance at Lollapalooza was enough reason to give it a second listen, and I'm glad I did. Son Lux is a late addition to the list. Its formula is tailor-made for me (spiritual lyrics, electronic beds, minimalist arrangements). Check out "Break". Peter Broderick's minimalist Float was part of my "classical ambient" binge, and it's extraordinarily beautiful. If you're looking for some music to breathe by, this is hopeful and stunning and gorgeous and plenty of other adjectives. Dangermouse expanded the Black Keys palette, but in the end the songwriting, crunch of the guitar, & the crash of the drums remained their best asset. Wolf Parade's sophomore effort is in many ways superior to their debut. Almost every song is epic, and it gets better and better with each listen. If you give it a spin, make sure to listen all the way through since many songs are arranged in several movements. Rock and roll at its finest.

5. The Kills - Midnight Boom

"Last Day of Magic" remains my favorite song of 2008, and the rest of Midnight Boom grew on me steadily all year. These are short, dirty old-school punk pop cuts, each with a unique swagger. They'll make you dance, they'll make you strut.

4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

I like music that makes me feel something. Bon Iver's music is haunting, longing and lovely. His falsetto is familiar and affected. And when he occasionally comes down from it, there's a power in his cry that's out-of-this-world. Check out "Skinny Love". It's perfect.

3. Apes & Androids - Blood Moon

Music doesn't have to make me feel something deep to make its way into my soul. Sometimes it can be ridiculously fun, over-the-top joy. Apes & Androids are wholly unique, wearing their influences on their sleeves, but turning them upside-down in the name of making you move. This is the soundtrack of me looking like a fool to the driver next to me as I sit in traffic. Check out "Nights of the Week" and download the whole thing on iTunes or on their site, where they independently released it.

2. Jacaszek - Treny

Jacaszek is not an easy listen. It's too minimalist to be background music, to sad to be something you just toss on. Treny is an ancient polish word for laments, and that's the broad theme here. Michal Jacaszek uses a violin, a cello, a soaring female voice, a piano, and some minimal atmospheric electronic elements to create his prayers. And while I use the word sad to label the prevalent mood, it's not entirely accurate. There's a sweet quality mixed in, hopelessly hopeful, and it sounds like it could move mountains. An album created for long autumn and winter walks with headphones, the sun setting or set, middle of the night prayers, days filled with longing, long road trips lost in thought, beautiful, hypnotic compositions that benefit from volume. This music moves me every time I hear it. It moves me to tears, it moves me to reflection, it stirs my soul. And on its final song, "Rytm To Niesmiertelnosc II" ("Rhythm is Immortality), it moves me towards joy. So, if you have the time and space to give Jacaszek a good listen, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

1. Margot & the Nuclear So & So's - Animal!

By the time this was released, I had already spent a year digesting it thanks to live tracks, demos, leaked songs, Daytrotter sessions and a couple concerts (I saw Margot live three times in less than 365 days). The follow-up to one of my all-time albums, The Dust of Retreat is a unique, highly stylized album filled with intimate moments and blistering rock-outs. It's film-noir lyrics and back alley music; Affected vocals and Die-Hard guitar riffs (see "A Children's Crusade on Acid": "Satan settle down, keep your trousers on / You can roam the globe but leave my wretched soul alone / I don't know you, and I don't owe you a thing / but the children lose their minds in such uncertain times"). The sounds they get out of that piano and that drum kit are marvelous (the unfortunately named third track is my favorite example of this). And I frankly I don't know how to talk about this Margot album without sinking into hyperbole.

They didn't get the respect I thought they would from the critics. It seems like this can largely be blamed on the weird circumstances of creating two albums, both published by a major label, but only one of which the band liked and one of which the label liked. Most critics reveiwed the less accomplished Not Animal (get it?) and ignored the more cohesive, more daring Animal!

Like Radiohead, they start with hummable, infectious melodies that are Gossip Girl-ready on their own. Then they mess them all up, adding movements, bringing in all of their eight+ musicians, and finding ways to turn the ideas upside down. They rarely stick with one idea for longer than a minute. Then it's often gone for good, or at least until you hit repeat (the middle section of "Mariel's Brazen Overture" tears the roof off the place, but it ends as suddenly as it begins: "Someone is bleeding the wall; the house is beginning to crumble... oh dear, The zebras are scaling the wall / the mice are beginning to scatter"). And the tracklisting brings out the best in each song, flowing from one idea to the next with grace and curiousity. Songs like "Junked Out German Motorcar" that are less accomplished on their own are given new weight based on where they fall in the concert. And it all climaxes with "As Tall As Cliffs", which they blissfully sing with all their might (If you need to start somewhere, start there). "As Tall As Cliffs" goes into other-worldly territory, taking everything to another level and compelling many happy listeners to hit repeat over and over and over and over again. This is the best 51 minutes of music created in 2008.

Update: I just realized that Animal! is now available on iTunes, and for $7.99 no less. You can get Animal! and cherry pick the other tracks from Not Animal for less than $15.


Best of 2008

Labels: music