My Favorites of 2008
#10 LAURA MARLING - Alas, I Cannot Swim
Virgin/EMI
This is a record I never saw coming. It’s just a lovely, lovely little album. Simple but strong, and perfectly executed. Much is made of Laura’s age, and it can all seem like a big media conspiracy, but it really is an amazing thing to hear these expansive, expressive, world weary tracks and then realize this commanding performer is a scant 18 years of age. At the same time, she’s full of an unmistakably youthful passion when she sings “”If they want you, then they’re gonna have to fight me”.
MP3: Laura Marling - Night Terror
Video: Mystery Jets feat Laura Marling - Young Love
#9 Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair
Mute
Dance record of the year, to be sure. While Justice took us back to the heyday of Daft Punk last year, H&LA bridged the gap between Disco & Yaz. But the record doesn’t suffer from the trappings of excessive retro clichè. It is very much a product of now. It’s also a lot more than a simple dance record - the songs here are absolutely drenched in emotional extremes, ranging from melancholy to joy to passion, sometimes in a single track. A lot of the recent dance revival has been sorely lacking in soul, and Hercules and Love Affair are the much-needed antidote.
MP3: Hercules & Love Affair - Blind
Video: H&LA - Blind
#8 M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Mute
I didn’t see this one coming, either. Sure, I loved M83’s previous efforts and was intriqued by his low-key Digital Shades Vol 1 that served as an appetizer of sorts for this, the main course. Oh, but I was unprepared for what a course it was! It’s pure nostalgia - coated from start to finish with a John Hughes sheen. I think it’s the sort of record that will undoubtedly be received with greater glee by those that lived in the decade it so perfectly celebrates, admittedly. It brings me right back to my pre-teen years when I was subject to my sister’s stereo and the sounds of The Cure, Depeche Mode and other 80’s standbys echoing through our shared wall. Saturdays=Youth essentially serves as a time capsule - listening is like sifting through a storage box of your past. The embarassing parts are in there too, but they’re more likely to bring on a wry smile than a cringe.
MP3: M83 - Graveyard Girl
Video: M83 - Graveyard Girl
#7 The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Vice Records
This one is tricky because it suffered from one of those goofy staggered release schedules that seem such a waste in the post-Napster era. Most of us likely had it last year (or at least a poorly encoded leaked version). Still, for we American bloggers, this fuzzed-out miracle didn’t officially arrive ’till 08, so it’s fair game I say. I’ve been a fan of The Raveonettes from the very start, and remember seeing them at a dinky little bar called The Mason Jar just after the release of their second album (if memory serves, they shared billing with stellastarr*). Lust Lust Lust sees them at the top of their game in every way. Gorgeous minimal melodies drenched in JAMC fuzz, it seems Sune Rose Wagner & Sharin Foo were born in a marriage of Suicide and Buddy Holly. A record I’ll undoubtedly visit again and again in my remaining years.
MP3: The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me
Video: The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me
#6 THE DUKE SPIRIT - Neptune
This is just good, old-fashioned indie rock n’ roll, with a dash of 60’s swagger. Lead singer Leila Moss has a commanding vocal style - she’s sort of a best-of-both-worlds combination of Marianne Faithful and Beth Ditto. Less shouting, and not quite so many cigarettes before showtime. I never feel inclined to skip any tracks on Neptune, and that’s probably the closest I can come to a reasonable objective criteria when picking ‘best’ albums. This came out back in February, so if I’m still listening with rapt attention in December, then they must have done something right.
MP3: The Duke Spirit - Lassoo
Video: The Duke Spirit - The Step and the Walk
#5 GOLDRAPP - Seventh Tree
Mute
I’m always impressed with artists that don’t do what you think they’re going to do. After two successful ‘dance’ albums, you’d think Alison Goldfrapp & Will Gregory would know who buttered their bread, but then they turn around and make an album of acoustic carnival music. Well, maybe that’s exaggerating the point just a little, but Seventh Tree certainly wasn’t what anyone was expecting after the one-two punch of Black Cherry/Supernature. Not quite a return to the full-on trippiness of Felt Mountain, Seventh Tree is nonetheless a course correction of sorts, and it’s lush and enveloping melodies pull you in straight away. Of course, none of this would work if Alison’s voice wasn’t so damned beautiful, and she’s certainly showing off her range here. No longer content to rely solely on her sexy coo or breathy whisper, she sounds here like she’s been completely freed up to stretch as far as she can imagine. The result is a gorgeous album that could work as the soundtrack to a summer picnic or a lullaby for a night under the stars.
MP3: Goldfrapp - Happiness
Video: Goldrapp - Happiness
#4 Darker My Love - 2
Dangerbird Records
I had never heard Darker My Love’s first album. I only ended up listening to them because I was intrigued by the band name, as that’s paid off for me in the past (I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness being the last band I listened to strictly based on the name). No one had to tell me they were California-based - 2 bears the indelible trademarks of the West Coast. Fuzzy, psychedelia-soaked guitars and in the case of single ‘Two Ways Out’, vocal harmonies reminiscent of the definitive coastal band, The Beach Boys. Other tracks such as ‘Northern Soul’ or ‘Blue Day’ take me back to the heyday of 60’s flavoured Britpop a la early Oasis, Verve & even Primal Scream. Yet, none of this feels like a boring trip down memory lane. Every track on 2 has an urgency and originality that help it rise about the din of all the other backward-facing bands we’re nearly drowning in these days.
MP3: Darker My Love - Northern Soul
Video: Darker My Love - Two Ways Out
#3 LADYTRON - Velocifero
Nettwerk
I will always have a soft spot in my heart (or is that my ears?) for Ladytron. I knew from the minute I first heard ‘Black Cat’ that this album would hold some treasures for me. Right I was! No one sounds quite so deliciously detached and icy as Helen Marnie, yet she still draws in the musically adrift with her siren’s call. You just can’t resist her. And of course, she couldn’t have asked for a better counterpart than Mira Aroyo, with her otherworldliness seeping into every verse. This record plays as though the first 3 were just practice runs. And given how much I love all their records, that’s very high praise, indeed.
MP3: Ladytron - Runaway
Video: Ladytron - Runaway
#2 THE SUBMARINES - Honeysuckle Weeks
Nettwerk
How could I not include the happiest little record I’ve heard all year long? The joy that John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard must have felt at getting back together as a couple seems to premeate every track here. The whole bunch is just love, love, love. And anyone that knows me well knows I’m a sentimental sucker for that kind of emotional manipulation. The songs here are cute without being precious, and can warm the cockles of even the most bitter of bitter hearts.
MP3: The Submarines - You, Me & The Bourgeoisie
Video: The Submarines - You, Me & The Bourgeoisie
#1 CUT COPY - In Ghost Colours
Modular
How could this album end up anywhere else but #1? I have to confess that I didn’t think it would place nearly so high when I initially heard about its release. After all, Bright Like Neon Love was a great album, but for reasons I can’t quite explain, it felt like a one-off, a terrific splash that wasn’t likely to be seen again. I was dead wrong on that one. IGC is an absolute joy from start to finish, and makes BLNL look like a collection of demos & b-sides. Despite being full of brilliant singles, it functions pefectly as an album, a cohesive whole, not just a series of singles interspersed between filler. Making albums can seem like a lost art these days, but Cut Copy remind you that someone out there still knows what they’re doing.
MP3: Cut Copy - Strangers in the Wind
Video: Lights & Music (Live on Rove)
And with that, I breathe a sigh of relief for another year. Stay tuned though, as I’ll be diving into the wayback machine for this year with a fine tooth comb over the coming weeks, and presenting more of my favorite music of 2008 by way of singles, etc. I just don’t feel like a ‘favorites’ list of 10 is going to cover it for me!
You did it! My top 10 is sooooo lazy compared to yours, I didn’t bother with any commentary haha.
I don’t think I’ve heard The Duke Spirit - better check em out!
>>Some have said this year has been less than stellar for music. I’m rather divided on that perspective, because on the one hand there are a number of releases this year that I have felt incredibly deep connections to; yet on the other I have to admit that there were far fewer ‘POW!’ sorts of records that were so universally accepted as to signal themselves as truly transcendent.
Please tell me this lazy, lumbering prose is intended as a parody of something. This is the problem with the internet: people think of themselves as incredible stylists, when their sentences crash with clichés & purple nonsense. It’s because you haven’t read widely or deeply that you can’t write. Spend time with some well crafted sentences, for your own sake.
I’m afraid my lumbering prose is intended as nothing else. I haven’t staked any claim to being a great or even satisfactory writer. This is a hobby, and I’m often in a hurry. My only goal here is to attempt to connect to others through music, as well as to enjoy myself (ya know, a hobby being an activity engaged in for pleasure or relaxation?). I appreciate your criticism, though it’s hardly constructive to wrap it in insults.
You’re very much mistaken in your assumption about my reading habits, however.
Your top 10 is so you! Great picks. I should do a top ten too! But maybe just a top 5. That’s a lot of work you did my friend. Maybe I’ll just link to yours now that I think about it.
Well thank you! You’re being too nice. I hated this the minute I posted it. I change my mind too often!
HA! My mood is constantly changing too. A lot of the songs I really wanted to put on my list weren’t from 2008. Also, I can’t figure out what the hell I was going on about in the beginning of my post. Yours makes much more sense, as always!