Top Ten Albums of 2008

[pamtar]

Its raining cats and dogs here today so no trabajo for me. Killing time, i decided to finally move my Itunes library into my external. The result is this thread.

My top ten (actually 12) is probably very biased so please share with me and others what we may have missed this year!

1. Okkervil River - The Sand Ins
2. Ming and Ping - Causeway Army (late '07 but whatever)
3. Ratatat - LP3
4. Able Baker Fox - Voices
5. Russian Circles - Station
6. Bloc Party - Intimacy
7. Avett Brothers - The Gleam II
8. The Roots - Rising Down
9. The Faint - Fasciinatiion
10. Shai Hulud - Misanthropy Pure
11. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
12. M83 - Saturdays = Youth

[willywoody]

so here's my top 10 for '08 (originally compiled for another music list) :

1-Black Mountain - In The Future
2-Cloudland Canyon - Lay In Light
3-Sian Alice Group - 59:59
4-Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
5-Retribution Gospel Choir- Retribution Gospel Choir
6-Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
7-Brightblack Morning Light- Motion To Rejoin
8-My Morning Jacket- Evil Urges
9-Jessica Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt
10-Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow

they all have myspace sites if anyone's interested.

[blazindw]

http://wordlifeblog.blogspot.com. I will post my Top 10 of 2008 here sometime later this week. It's one of my favorite posts every year. I'll post the direct link to the post once it's done.

[pfrduke]

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
B.B. King - One Kind Favor

[SlimSlowSlider]

True, I did not purchase any CDs in 2008, but I still am embarrassed to say that I have not heard of nearly all of these bands/performers. B.B. King and Kings of Leon I know, but the rest... I am lame.

[rthomas]

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Rockamoyva - Rockamoyva
The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol 8
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
Wood Brothers - Loaded
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep
The Iguanas - If you should ever fall on hard times

[wiscodevil]

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Rockamoyva - Rockamoyva
The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol 8
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
Wood Brothers - Loaded
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep
The Iguanas - If you should ever fall on hard times

I second The Felice Brothers - it's great.

Even better, although I'm not positive it is an 08 release - The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism.

[Jarhead]

True, I did not purchase any CDs in 2008, but I still am embarrassed to say that I have not heard of nearly all of these bands/performers. B.B. King and Kings of Leon I know, but the rest... I am lame.

I'm with you, SSS. I thought that these other folks in this thread were listing some sort of video games that I already knew nothing about. B. B. King should have been my clue that music is the subject, but sheesh... that guy's older than me by a few years.

[Acymetric]

I'm surprised and excited that 2 other people have already listed the Raconteurs, most people I know aren't familiar with them, but I think they're fantastic. Saw them live...incredible. Anyways, on to the list

...Ok, this'll take me longer than I thought. I've sort of been in a kick going through some older music that I hadn't really gotten into yet, and haven't been paying attention to whats been happening now. I'll also mention that most bands I like didn't do anything this year. I'll have a list after I go through wikipedia's list of albums from 2008 I guess.

[willywoody]

a lot of these bands are new or maybe you just don't recognize the person but would know their former band, like Steve Malkmus was the leader of the band Pavement from the 90's. The Raconteurs are Jack White from the White Stripes side project. If you have never heard of Pavement or the White Stripes then I can't help you.

[willywoody]

9-Jessica Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt

Fans of the Avetts and the Black Keys should check this out. Auerbach produced and played on it and one of the Avetts members is on it i think, iirc. (The Avetts get big shoutouts in the linernotes either which way.)

http://www.myspace.com/jlmayfield

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

Surprised not to see Vampire Weekend anywhere on here. Backlash, or just didn't have the staying power?

Anyway, here is my top 10:

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
The Walkmen - You & Me
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Nas - The N***er Tape (Green Lantern mix, not the commercial release)
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Deerhunter- Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
Portishead - Third
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP
Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

[willywoody]

Surprised not to see Vampire Weekend anywhere on here. Backlash, or just didn't have the staying power?

or just can't stand it. i vote for that one.

they did win the listeners album of the year on wxpn, right in front of coldplay.

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

Yeah, they didn't really grab me either, but I know a ton of people who loved them last spring. Meh. Just curious.

[SlimSlowSlider]

a lot of these bands are new or maybe you just don't recognize the person but would know their former band, like Steve Malkmus was the leader of the band Pavement from the 90's. The Raconteurs are Jack White from the White Stripes side project. If you have never heard of Pavement or the White Stripes then I can't help you.

Heard of them, but could not pick out a song from either.

Am listening to Jessica Lea Mayfield right now (from her MySpace page - thanks for the link). I like. Some of the songs have a Cowboy Junkies feel, only more somber.

[Jarhead]

If this is the Pavement sound, I'm glad I have never heard of them. A jack hammer on a musically tuned oil drum would sound better. You could soak toilet paper in paint, throw it out the window, and get a more artistic result.

[Acymetric]

If this is the Pavement sound, I'm glad I have never heard of them. A jack hammer on a musically tuned oil drum would sound better. You could soak toilet paper in paint, throw it out the window, and get a more artistic result.

Pretty sure thats the band "The Red Sun Band" doing a song called "Pavement." Though I didn't hate it as much as you did. Some of Pavement's songs are in the related links though. Try one that doesn't have "red sun band" in it.

[rthomas]

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
B.B. King - One Kind Favor

What do you think about the Ricky Skaggs/Raconteurs version of Old Enough? I like it.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--205690924

[willywoody]

If this is the Pavement sound, I'm glad I have never heard of them. A jack hammer on a musically tuned oil drum would sound better. You could soak toilet paper in paint, throw it out the window, and get a more artistic result.

http://www.matadorrecords.com/pavement/

this link might be better.

for what it's worth i didn't like pavement then and am still not much of a fan. the Jicks album Real Emotional Trash is different completely. For one, they have Janet Weiss on drums from Sleater-Kinney and she is one of the best rock drummers of the past 20 years. The songs rock more than Pavement and the recording quality is excellent, too.

"Panting like a pitbull minus the mean" has to be one of my favorite lines of the year.

[Jarhead]

Pretty sure thats the band "The Red Sun Band" doing a song called "Pavement." Though I didn't hate it as much as you did. Some of Pavement's songs are in the related links though. Try one that doesn't have "red sun band" in it.

You're serious, aren't you? I tried a few, and found them to be... well, pretty sorry attempts at musical creativity. The jack hammer still sounds better.