My Favorite Albums of 2008

[Derek]

#5



El Guincho - Alegranza*

Alegranza is first and foremost a sunshine record, an album that shimmers alongside the ultraviolet rays as they pound your face and crackles like the sand between your toes. It's a record to move to, be it dancing, skipping or walking as it's energy cannot be contained by headphones. This is how Stella got her groove back, how Julia Stiles saved the last dance, how Hayden Panettiere brought it on: all or nothing. This is how tropical music should be updated for the 20th Century, how repetition can shake your bones and move your soul and still leaving room for the flurry of surprises M. Guincho doses out over the course of the album. This is how Panda Bear as MC would keep people out of their seats, forcing them to leave concert still doing the 2-step involuntarily as music and movement have become inseparable, indistinguishable, a celebration of life. And it's okay, I don't understand a word of it either.

Key Tracks: "Antillas", "Fata Morgana", "Buenos Matrimoios Ahi Fuera" (couldn't find this online, so here's a guy playing with a soccer ball to "Cuando Maravilla Fui" instead)

*2008 U.S. Release**

**Because I don't want keyin to scold me.

[keyinblack]

another fantastic choice.

part of me thinks that Animal Collective added all the bass to MPP because they knew El Guincho basically beat them to their new sound before they did, and they had to switch it up some.

[Acapelli]

love alegranza

[Derek]

Too many great picks in a row. Time to disappoint keyin, though who didn't see this one coming?

#4



TV on the Radio - Dear Science

I’ve never held much stock in the zeitgeist and its perpetual capturing. It is elusive by nature, it quickly escapes like a cockroach patiently waiting for you to lift your foot so it can scurry off under the fridge for another few weeks. So when the notions that Dear Science is either brilliant for catching the glimmer of hope the prospect of change ’08 finally offered us along with the frustration that preceded it or that it has stamped itself with an expiration date for the very same reason, I can’t help but shrug and say “So what?” When music is this creative, when a band hones their craft and tightens their sound, when Tunde and Kyp’s vocals meld so smoothly with Sitek’s crisp production, when a band so smoothly integrates funk, hip-hop and rock and when, as a whole, the follow-up to Return to Cookie Mountain is, I hate to admit, even more consistently great (though no, it doesn’t reach that album’s peaks), then I can’t help but find it one of the best, most thrilling and entertaining albums of the year. My spot on the bandwagon is still safe.

Key Tracks: “Golden Age”, “Crying”, “DLZ”

[Derek]

#3



Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

Like Alegranza, Saint Dymphna is an album to move to, but it is also an album in motion. Gang Gang Dance seem to be making it up as they go, not only bringing a fresh sound to each track, but finding ways to keep tracks transforming and moving forward. To pidgeonhole this as a dance album is doing it a disservice since it, first and foremost, seeks to break the shackles of genre and the confinement of setting and living up to expectations. From the !!!-ness of "First Communion" (topping anything that band's ever put out) and the haunting instrumental grooves of "Blue Nile" to the nod to MBV with "Vacuum", forcing the legend's sound into their own rather than bowing down and settling for something cheap and derivative, followed by the Jamaican hip-hop of "Princes", it seems there's nothing Gang Gang Dance can't do. It's all over the place, but that's what makes the years most purely exciting album. That and the fact that "Desert Storm" is the song I've been waiting for from Bjork for, what, 8 years now?

Key Tracks: "First Communion", "Desert Storm", "House Jam"

[Derek]

#2



Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Ah, the thin line between noise and melody, ugliness and beauty, pomposity and profundity. What a tangled web ye weave, Fuck Buttons, and like the spider, these guys are patient, allowing their songs to stew for a while before breaking wide open with streams of muted screaming or waves of noise that erupt from within, threatening to shatter the album, or your eardrums, into a million little pieces. As much as I love Gunpowder Temple of Heaven, Fuck Buttons bite-size noise melodies simply have more bang for the buck, creating various dense sonic worlds that, while not as grandiose, are still just as awe-inspiring, full of life and able to shake the ground beneath my feet. This is the kind of album that grabs you and doesn't let go.

Key Tracks: "Sweet Love for Planet Earth", "Race You to My Bedroom/Spirit Rise" (link to the individual song is dead, but if you scroll ~halfway down the page, you'll see it. Press play.), "Okay, Let's Talk About Music"

[keyinblack]

oohh, excited to see the no. 1!

re: tvotr, I will concede that Crying is one of the best songs of last year, like top 5.

[Boner M]

Hooray for GGD.

[keyinblack]

Hooray for GGD.

seriously. between me, you, and derek here I think match-cut is adequately exposed to this album.

[Derek]

seriously. between me, you, and derek here I think match-cut is adequately exposed to this album.

Our work here is done.

#1 up in a little bit.

[Derek]

#1

{{{Sunset}}} - The Glowing City & Bright Blue Dream

Consider this a late Christmas present – two for the price is one. Truth is, Bright Blue Dream was hovering around #15 and with The Glowing City as my pick for best album of the year, I figured I’d make the final entry a big, gushing tribute to Bill Baird’s brilliant sister albums rather than let him take up two spots. Bright Blue Dream is more downtrodden in tone, lovelorn and sorrowful – the pessimistic intro to the astounding, uncontainable joy found in The Glowing City. Both albums are touched by the ghostly presence of Sandy, the fictional lost love who haunts every inch of Baird’s music. It remains unclear whether she is based on real girl or an ideal created by and strived for through his music (sort of like Daniel Johnston’s Laurie), but it makes little difference when the results are so impassioned, sincere and touching on the full spectrum of emotions. Baird’s unique brand of psychedelic pop is perfectly suited for this, equally at home with sun-drenched love songs as it is for melancholy confrontations with reality. The Glowing City is not simply a tribute to Sandy, though she’s certainly at the center of it, but simply enough a coming to terms with all of life’s absurdities, never lingering too long in its highs or lows, but traversing through them all in a brilliant balancing act of musical diversity and thematic concerns. The fact that almost no one seemed to notice this album (Tiny Mix Tapes, god bless them as this is why I’m writing for them now, gave it a 4/5, Pitchfork didn’t bother with it after 5.6ing BBD and Cokemachineglow doesn’t note its existence) is fine with me as my experience with it is nearly as personal as Baird’s material is to him. For me, it is a celebration of life and a testament to the power of art to rise itself and ourselves above the mundanity existence, to reflect and force us to do the same. And I didn’t even mention all the crazy woodwind instruments, violins, drumming and piano/keyboard work that makes this one of the most ambitious albums I’ve heard in a while. Check them both out, but if you go for one, The Glowing City’s where it’s at.

Key Tracks (The Glowing City) These work better in the context of the album, but at least this’ll give you a taste: “Life is Rad (Just Say Yes)”, “New York Love” (could only find an older version online, but here’s a link to dl the song), “You’ve Never Lived a Day in Your Life”

Key Tracks (Bright Blue Dream): “Old Sandy Bull Lee”, “Man’s Heart Complaint”, “Dear Broken Friend”

[Derek]

And that's it. I'll be making a zip file (not today) with my 50 favorite tracks of the year, so I'll post the link here when it's ready.

Thanks for reading guys and please continue to comment when you get around to hearing more tracks/albums etc.

[keyinblack]

did not expect that. thanks for introducing me to this record, it seems like one of those very special albums that can become apart of you because of it's insular and powerful vision and scope. Kind of like The Microphones Glow Pt. 2. All around a fantastic list, one of the best I've seen.

what are your thoughts on the following albums:

in ghost colours - cut/copy
nouns - no age
women - women
crystal antlers - crystal antlers
the walkmen - you & me

[Derek]

did not expect that. thanks for introducing me to this record, it seems like one of those very special albums that can become apart of you because of it's insular and powerful vision and scope. Kind of like The Microphones Glow Pt. 2. All around a fantastic list, one of the best I've seen.

Thanks. I'm thrilled you checked it out and already like it - really makes doing a list like this worthwhile. I never would've thought to compare it to Glow, but that's a good comparison. It's as much in Baird's head as Glow is a reflection of Elverum.

what are your thoughts on the following albums:

in ghost colours - cut/copy
nouns - no age
women - women
crystal antlers - crystal antlers
the walkmen - you & me

Liked all of them and probably listened to Women the most of those 5. "Feel the Love" is one of my favorite tracks of the year, but the rest of In Ghost Colours just never grabbed me like that. Nouns is really solid, but like Weirdo Rippers half the album rocks my socks and the other half is lukewarm. Women is fascinating little album that I kept returning to, but mostly for "Black Rice" and "Upstairs" which are both fantastic. Only listened to Crystal Antlers and The Walkmen once and I have a feeling The Walkmen will grow on me when I return to it. I heard it fairly late in the year, so I know I didn't give it a fair shake. I really like their sound though - first I'd heard by them.

[Melville]

Wait, wait, wait. Where's the Portishead?

[Derek]

Wait, wait, wait. Where's the Portishead?

Riiiiight behind the honorable mentions. I like Third a lot, but it's my least favorite of their albums. There some undeniably great tracks, especially stuff like "We Carry On", but if I want to listen to Silver Apples, I'll listen to Silver Apples.

[Melville]

Riiiiight behind the honorable mentions. I like Third a lot, but it's my least favorite of their albums. There some undeniably great tracks, especially stuff like "We Carry On", but if I want to listen to Silver Apples, I'll listen to Silver Apples.

I think it might be my favorite of their albums. I guess the Silver Apples comparison is valid, with the buzzing, thumping background and soft vocals, but Third makes that background more doom-laden and heavy, the vocals more plaintive and soft. The contrapuntal (to steal a word from Boner) balance of the two is what makes the album so great. Plus, Third has Beth Gibbons' voice.

Anyway, great list. I'm loving Sunset.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah, Third is absolutely rockin'. Best album of the year by two-thousand country miles.

[Acapelli]

Yeah, Third is absolutely rockin'. Best album of the year by two-thousand country miles.

isn't third like the only 2008 album you listened to?

[/joke]

[Spaceman Spiff]

isn't third like the only 2008 album you listened to?

[/joke]

Joke or not, you happen to be pretty close to being right.

1. Third
2. Everything that Happens...
3. Dig, Lazarus Dig!

EDIT: Wait, forgot about In Rainbows. That would probably be 3, with Nick Cave dropping down.

[D_Davis]

#9



Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Glad this made it on your top 10. It was my #1 of 2008.