Top 10 Albums of 2008

It’s that time of year again! Everyone is coming out with their Top Ten lists – why should I be any different?

Actually, I can think of a few reasons. For one thing, there are a lot of Top Ten lists out there, with more no doubt coming in the next few weeks. One more list, it could be argued, may only dilute their meaning and add to the general cacophony (yes, I said cacophony). You may disagree with me, but I think it’s actually kind of interesting to see how various sources rank the music. It gives you a better idea of who to trust, and there are usually a few albums that are good across the board that might actually be worth checking out.

Secondly, I have trouble making lists. Seriously. The last time I made a Top Ten Albums of the Year list must have been… three years ago. Sometimes I don’t have enough albums in the year to make a list of ten. Sometimes I have too many. Sometimes I just don’t feel like they ought to be on the same list. More importantly, my top albums of the year usually aren’t all from that particular year. This year wasn’t any different (I won’t say much except that, yes, it took me this long to listen to Elvis Costello), but there were enough new ones to make a list.

Finally…. am I a reliable news source? Hmm… That’s a scary thought. Answer that one how you may. I just figured that all of you reading this might be interested in what I actually listen to, not just what shows I can get a camera into.

Bottom line is this: It’s my blog and I’ll post what I want to. When you’re done with mine, I invite you to post your own in the comments.

The list begins below the fold:

1. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
While I had a little trouble ranking the rest of the albums on this list, MGMT was easy to put up top. This album was one of those I picked up almost on a whim that quickly turned into one of my favorites, possibly of all time. Honestly, these guys are not as good live as you’d like to think they are, but the recordings just kind of blew my mind. The catchiness and wit on “Time to Pretend” alone is enough to justify this album, but you get “Kids”, “Electric Feel”, and the line “If what they say is true / You are a shadow in the Fourth Dimension” as well. Normally, I don’t go in for anything that reminds me too much of electropop, but that’s because it so often feels like an excuse to not play real instruments or worry about actual songwriting just to get people to dance. This album feels like an art piece, which makes sense the more you learn about the band. Apparently MGMT’s very existence is kind of a fluke. It was intended as a liberal arts school joke and turned out really popular. I hope the band has figured out this year that they’ve actually got something here and don’t give up too soon. If this was the premiere, then we’ve got a lot more to look forward to.

2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
This year I decided that I had pretty much had way too much of “Brooklyn bands,” which were quickly becoming nothing but noise for the sake of noise. Bon Iver is the opposite end of the spectrum, and I think that’s why he and a few others like him (see below) sounded so great this year. The story of this album is as well worth listening to as the album itself: Dude has a terrible, terrible series of months as he watches his whole life collapse around him. Dude decides that he needs to go live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere by himself to recover. Dude starts making music and accidentally comes up with an excellent album. A friend told me just the other day that Justin Vernon didn’t actually write words to the songs – he wrote the songs first and just made noises, then decided what words they sounded like. I listen to this album whenever I need to relax, and it puts me in a very different state of mind than the one New York City constantly tries to put me in. It also inspires me, but I worry that me spending months alone in a cabin would end more like Into the Wild than Thoreau or the brilliance of Bon Iver. Give this album a spin on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

3. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
To be fair, pretty much any album that Death Cab puts out will probably wind up on a favorites list of mine somewhere. I think almost everything Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla do is gold. Narrow Stairs is no exception. If anything, I should be arguing here for why it didn’t make it to number one – but I won’t. When I first heard “Champagne From a Paper Cup” years and years ago, my musical life was changed forever, and I’ve been a Death Cab fan ever since. What I am not, though, is one of those fans who thinks that Death Cab pre-Transatlanticism (“old Death Cab,” if you will) was better than after that album came out. But I will contend that there are very, very good things about both periods in their history, and it has been great to watch them grow and develop as a band. Both Gibbard’s songwriting and Walla’s production have come a long way. What I like about this album is that it combines the lush sounds and detailed lyricism of the “new” Death Cab, but harks back to the much simpler music they started with. The simple bass line of “I Will Possess Your Heart” is straightforward in a way we haven’t seen since the passing of the “old,” but is just as epic as the piano build-up in “Transatlanticism”. And the joyful sounding “No Sunlight” (not at all ironic) could fit in with anything on The Photo Album were it not for the far more detailed storytelling and improved sound quality (and aforementioned irony). Interestingly, Narrow Stairs is a much darker album than any of their others. While Plans and Transatlanticism will tug at your heart strings because of lost loves and the hope of finding them again, none are quite as hopeless as “Your New Twin Sized Bed” or as disturbing as “Grapevine Fires”. While I can’t recommend that you listen closely to this album if you’re in need of cheering up, I can recommend that you look to it as an example of how far Death Cab for Cutie has come in these past years and, more importantly, an excellent work by one of the greatest lyricists of our time.

4. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Catchy pop tunes about WASPs. I really don’t need to say anything more… but I will. True, these guys are “indie blog darlings” who have yet to prove that they have staying power, but that doesn’t make them any less of a good band. The songs are witty and you don’t want them to leave your head. The subject matter is stuff that anyone who went to college on the East Coast can relate to. Overall, this album is pretty tongue-in-cheek; I’m still not certain how serious the band is, but they have the liberal elite credentials to be singing about this stuff. This album made the list because it makes me feel good and I don’t want to drop it from rotation completely. Check out “A-Punk”, then get back to me.

5. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Like Bon Iver above, Fleet Foxes are a more traditional melodic band. If you checked out their Take Away Show performance, you’ll know that they don’t need post-production help create their amazing vocal harmonies. Couple that with their album art, both for this self-titled album and the Sun Giant EP, and you will likely be reminded of some sort of sacred music mountain men. I think it’s safe to say that there is a retro-revolution going on at this point – something has got to change now that the coolsters are tiring of electronic noise. This is an extreme reaction to it, as if the Fleet Foxes decided to do the most opposite thing they could. I mean, medieval chorales? Folk music? Awesome! Expect to see this sort of thing incorporated in new music in the next couple of years.

6. Sigur Rós – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Ah, there’s nothing quite like Icelandic gobbledigook to get you out of bed in the morning… Seriously. Ever since hearing “Gobbledigook”, the first song on the album, my roommates and I have been plotting to wake each other up one day by blasting it on the house speakers, then banging a bass drum to it while jumping up and down on the bed wearing nothing but a loin cloth. Don’t tell me the thought hadn’t crossed your mind! (I also originally thought it was an Animal Collective song, but that’s another story…) Most Sigur Rós albums are sweeping soundscapes that make you want to tilt your head back and dream. This album is no exception, but the difference is that this epic will make you want to jump for joy. It is a lot more active than their other ones, and the songs are much more individual. For example, the songs off () don’t really work on their own; you need to listen to the whole thing because echoes of one song carry through the other. It’s much more of a symphony. “Gobbledigook” and “Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur”, on the other hand, work on their own, but you want to either listen to them over and over or hear the next movement – they create an expectation and a hope for more. Luckily, this album gives you what you want. You can listen to those singles on their own, but I would recommend giving the whole thing a good, long listen.

7. Jon Foreman – Spring and Summer EPs (Honorable Mention to the Fall and Winter EPs)

Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot (another one of my favorite bands), began to release solo material last year. He released four EPs, one for each season. MP3 versions were available first, with staggered dates, and then the EPs came out on CD at two different times, with cases that fit together to create one four-disc case. Jon’s solo work emphasizes what was evident all along: he’s a really great lyricist with the ability to create poignant, emotional songs. This gets missed a lot because Switchfoot’s music is so family-friendly and pop-sounding that many don’t give it a chance. Foreman’s EPs are stripped down and deal with much heavier subject matter – everything from appreciating family life (“Southbound Train”) to homelessness (“Somebody’s Baby”) to the problems of mainstream Christianity (“Instead of a Show”). The other wonderful thing about Jon working on his own is that it leaves him free to experiment, with both new sounds and new song structures. The result is an interesting one. Foreman’s voice is distinctive, and you can easily see the connection to Switchfoot. This is more mature. The experiment of having one EP for each season has worked as well; each one gives you the feelings you would expect… and it is notable that he chose to end with Summer rather than Winter. I would suggest listening to the EPs if you want to find out why.

8. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – Cardinology
Without a doubt, Ryan Adams is a character. The more I learn about him, through interviews, his music, or his writing (especially on his blog), the more I realize he’s crazy. But, as he once wrote, “Crazy is very good for art. Crazy is essential to the balance of life.” Damn right, RA! The man is ridiculously prolific. He can write a song at the drop of a hat. I think his method might be to just drop everything and see what sticks. Some of them are real duds, such as “Halloweenhead” off Easy Tiger, some of them are relatively neutral, and a few of them are absolutely amazing, like pretty much anything off Heartbreaker. Adams has also proven that he can write in a variety of genres, and on this most recent album we get to see him rock out in a way he hasn’t in a long time. I’m told that the performances have gone even more in that direction. You can’t get away from this album without talking about the Cardinals themselves, all of whom are extraordinarily talented musicians who play very well together. At a show, it becomes more evident than ever, and the audience has to go in prepared to watch a group of friends jam for quite a while, or you will be disappointed. The songs on Cardinology are well worth the listen, but I can’t promise they’ll blow your socks off. This album, like most by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, need to be listened to a couple of times before they can really be appreciated. They grow on you. After the disappointment of Easy Tiger, it’s refreshing to see these guys back on track.

9. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
This album surprised me. In fact, it surprises me still. It really surprises me that it made it onto my Top Ten list for the year. Normally, I don’t like hip-hop, dance, or mash-ups in general. It’s a personal thing. But one of my roommates convinced me to listen to it and I ended up really enjoying it. I mean, how could I resist anything that has “No Diggity” over “15 Step”? Like the rest of the record, it’s a pretty much brilliant combination of two songs you never thought would work together. Part of the joy of this album is the joy of recognition. You find yourself wondering, “Now where does that bass line come from? What about those lyrics?” It’s kind of new every time you listen to it. Also, this makes a pretty good stand-by for a party you haven’t prepared a playlist for, and it’s pretty good accompaniment at the gym.

10. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
This album was another pleasant surprise. When I was in high school, I liked Coldplay, mostly in small doses. Within a few years, it became pretty obvious that it was almost all the same thing. X&YM had a few pleasant surprises with a string of three or four upbeat songs, but it was enough to revive them. For Viva La Vida, the band decided they needed to try a new direction, then pushed it by oversaturating the market and continually releasing slightly altered versions of all the songs. Cut through that, though, and you have a legitimately good album. The lyrics are still in need of help, but they are supported by music that you wouldn’t expect from this band. It may be due to hiring celebrity producer Brian Eno, but who cares? “Viva La Vida” is the highlight, outlining the story of a king who loses love. “Violet Hill” is equally interesting, and “Lost!” has a great rhythm. Overall, there is an orchestral quality to this album that puts their previous stadium anthems to shame. If, in truth, this album is more than a PR move, I think we will have just witnessed the revival to Coldplay and the creation of the world’s next great arena band.

Honorable Mention: Thrice – The Alchemy Index

Once you start listening to hardcore music, I don’t think you ever really get out of it. Long ago I made the move to melodic hardcore, which I find far more interesting. Thrice lies somewhere on the fringes of that – and you may not even be able to count them as part of that anymore. Regardless, that’s how I ended up listening to them in the first place. Last year they started a project that struck me as very interesting; it’s actually some of their best work, too. Like Jon Foreman above, Thrice decided to create four EPs based on the four elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Each one has a distinctly different sound – Fire is heavy and distorted, Water has a wide-open feel, Air is similar to water but lighter, and Earth has a down-home country aspect. All are excellently executed, and all fit together excellently, sort of like completing a circle. There is experimentation here, too. “Come All You Weary” could easily be a gospel song. “Digital Sea” is a sonic portrait of exactly that. My favorite track, “Daedalus”, demonstrates superb storytelling skills. You can feel the heart-rending anguish of the father as Icarus is lost. Similarly so with “The Whaler”, which paints the daughter’s wonder in clear colors as you imagine her standing on the seashore looking for her father. These are truly great EPs which prove that the concept album – and the album in general – are far from dead.

So, there you have it. My top ten for the year.