Top 21 Favorite Albums of 2008
An odd year (2008) with many mixed feelings, paralleled here...
Added Parenthetical Girls because that album slipped my fucking mind somehow. Adjusted list to squeeze it in because it's really great and deserves to be where it should be.
25. Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those who Can See but Cannot Feel
24. Restiform Bodies - TV Loves You Back
23. Chairlift - Does You Inspire You
22. Apollo Sunshine - Shall Noise Upon
21. Borko - Celebrating Life
20. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
19. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista
18. Vast Aire - Deuces Wild
17. Wale - Mixtape About Nothing
16. Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
15. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
14. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
13. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
12. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down In The Light
11. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
9. Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
8. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
7. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
6. WHY? - Alopecia
5. The Dodos - Visiter
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
2. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
1. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
I usually do an in-depth analysis of each album on these lists but this year I really don't feel like words can do much justice. I'll just rant a little bit. Kind of a boring year for hip-hop. Wale's "Mixtape About Nothing" and Vast Aire's "Deuces Wild" barely gave me my fix, though they're great albums/compilations. I mean, a concept hip-hop mix with Seinfeld as one motifs is pretty hard to pass up. Bon Iver's album is of course a popular one; it was self-released in 2007 but didn't really receive widespread recognition until its proper release this year. And yeah, I like Chairlift. I don't give a fuck about the iPod commercial.
Oracular Spectacular's layering is thoroughly amazing. I think the production work on the album is the key component. You can easily hear Dave Fridmann's influence. In many ways it is his stylistic elements that I appreciate so much but they have never been emphasized as much as they are here with MGMT. It is a perfect sonic blend and I look forward to future releases by them, hopefully with Fridmann onboard with production. I'm not sure MGMT would be nearly as enticing without that.
The top 5 were all very close. Depending on the day and my mood I could easily choose any of those to be #1. But this order is just me trying to be objective as possible about my own tastes, if that's not paradoxical. The Dodos provide a potent, visceral yet intelligent music experience. Fleet Foxes are ethereal folk perfection. TV on the Radio caught me by surprise as I've never been the biggest fan of them in the past, but Dear Science is so much more accessible than their other albums.
Furr is great and a highly underrated album because of its variety and charm and silliness and sadness and Bob Dylan-ness (at least on Black River Killer) and a great balance of all of the above. Honestly I listened to Furr the most out of all of them.
Girl Talk represents something I can't quite explain about me. It's sort of an irony this is, in post-reflection, my favorite album to come out of 2008. I have always been a fan of great sound collage. The concept of a "mashup" isn't something decidedly new but it hasn't been handled with this much fun and finesse in quite some time. Artists like Negativland and John Oswald cut up clips with masterful precision while artists like People Like Us are sample fiends who compile crazy juxtapositions. But Girl Talk is more than a mash of pop songs. It's a mash of our culture. It's a whirlpool of the absurdity that is popular music. [Seemingly] effortlessly, Greg Gillis takes songs that I can't stand and makes them more than listenable -- he makes me move to them and find life I never knew was there. It's more than DJ culture. It's frantic fusion of our culture and all of its fashion, facetiousness, and fantasy.
***Playlist containing some tracks from the albums above***
Favorites of 2003
Favorites of 2004
Favorites of 2005
Favorites of 2006
Favorites of 2007
Added Parenthetical Girls because that album slipped my fucking mind somehow. Adjusted list to squeeze it in because it's really great and deserves to be where it should be.
25. Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those who Can See but Cannot Feel
24. Restiform Bodies - TV Loves You Back
23. Chairlift - Does You Inspire You
22. Apollo Sunshine - Shall Noise Upon
21. Borko - Celebrating Life
20. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
19. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista
18. Vast Aire - Deuces Wild
17. Wale - Mixtape About Nothing
16. Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
15. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
14. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
13. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
12. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down In The Light
11. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
9. Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
8. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
7. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
6. WHY? - Alopecia
5. The Dodos - Visiter
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
2. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
1. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
I usually do an in-depth analysis of each album on these lists but this year I really don't feel like words can do much justice. I'll just rant a little bit. Kind of a boring year for hip-hop. Wale's "Mixtape About Nothing" and Vast Aire's "Deuces Wild" barely gave me my fix, though they're great albums/compilations. I mean, a concept hip-hop mix with Seinfeld as one motifs is pretty hard to pass up. Bon Iver's album is of course a popular one; it was self-released in 2007 but didn't really receive widespread recognition until its proper release this year. And yeah, I like Chairlift. I don't give a fuck about the iPod commercial.
Oracular Spectacular's layering is thoroughly amazing. I think the production work on the album is the key component. You can easily hear Dave Fridmann's influence. In many ways it is his stylistic elements that I appreciate so much but they have never been emphasized as much as they are here with MGMT. It is a perfect sonic blend and I look forward to future releases by them, hopefully with Fridmann onboard with production. I'm not sure MGMT would be nearly as enticing without that.
The top 5 were all very close. Depending on the day and my mood I could easily choose any of those to be #1. But this order is just me trying to be objective as possible about my own tastes, if that's not paradoxical. The Dodos provide a potent, visceral yet intelligent music experience. Fleet Foxes are ethereal folk perfection. TV on the Radio caught me by surprise as I've never been the biggest fan of them in the past, but Dear Science is so much more accessible than their other albums.
Furr is great and a highly underrated album because of its variety and charm and silliness and sadness and Bob Dylan-ness (at least on Black River Killer) and a great balance of all of the above. Honestly I listened to Furr the most out of all of them.
Girl Talk represents something I can't quite explain about me. It's sort of an irony this is, in post-reflection, my favorite album to come out of 2008. I have always been a fan of great sound collage. The concept of a "mashup" isn't something decidedly new but it hasn't been handled with this much fun and finesse in quite some time. Artists like Negativland and John Oswald cut up clips with masterful precision while artists like People Like Us are sample fiends who compile crazy juxtapositions. But Girl Talk is more than a mash of pop songs. It's a mash of our culture. It's a whirlpool of the absurdity that is popular music. [Seemingly] effortlessly, Greg Gillis takes songs that I can't stand and makes them more than listenable -- he makes me move to them and find life I never knew was there. It's more than DJ culture. It's frantic fusion of our culture and all of its fashion, facetiousness, and fantasy.
***Playlist containing some tracks from the albums above***
Favorites of 2003
Favorites of 2004
Favorites of 2005
Favorites of 2006
Favorites of 2007