Jason's Albums Of '08

Well, another year has passed, and although it was slow to get going music-wise, 2008 turned out to be a pretty good year, providing you dug deep enough to find the hidden gems. This is by no means definitive (even as I type this I'm listening to The Walkmen's You & Me for the first time, and will be moving onto Whys Alopecia later), but, for the time being at least, here are my top 20 albums of '08.

20. Volcano!: Paperwork

19. F*cked Up: The Chemistry Of Common Life

18. Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours

17. Deerhoof: Offend Maggie

16. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

15. Ponytail: Ice Cream Spiritual

14. Dodos: Visiter

13. The Whiskers: The Distorted Historian

12. Plants & Animals: Parc Avenue

11. Department Of Eagles: In Ear Park

10. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig Lazarus Dig!!!

Continuing a creative hot streak which began with 2004’s Abattoir Blues/Lyre Of Orpheus, the 50-plus Nick Cave continued to defy all expectations (nay, rules) with a rip-roaring collection of songs, which successfully directed the new-found energy from the Grinderman project into Cave’s usual musings on religion, life and death. The Bad Seeds themselves were on superb form, with Warren Ellis especially coming to the fore, and never has it sounded like the band have had so much fun. Nowhere was that more evident than on the title-track, relocating the biblical character’s revival to modern-day New York, whilst We Call Upon The Author (“Prolix, prolix, nothing a pair of scissors can’t fix) sits right amongst the very best of the Bad Seeds illustrious canon.

9. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra & Tra La La Band: 13 Blues For 13 Moons

Over the years, A Silver Mt Zion have developed (both in name and in sound) from a modest but serene three-piece, to a muscular and aggressive septet, increasingly disparate of the post-rock tag which they are so often dubbed with. 13 Blues For 13 MoonsBlack Waters Blowed/Broken Engine Blues and the genuinely uplifting refrain of “some hearts are true” for the closing BlindBlindBlind. The questionable singing abilities of Efrim Menuck, here more prominent than ever, remained key to this band’s enjoyment, but in many ways they embodied this album: ragged, earnest, impassioned.

8. Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping

Kevin Barnes and his alter-ego Georgie Fruit jumped aboard his/their Blueberry Boat for this wildly schizophrenic offering. Sounding simultaneously like everything and nothing Of Montreal have ever done, with song titles that were merely suggestive segmentation, and featuring a narrative that, aside from hilarious snippets about Crystal Meth-loving rivals and being “queered out forever”, was largely indecipherable, Skeletal Lamping was predictably divisive for old and new fans alike. Take one step back though and, providing this doesn’t become the template for all subsequent Of Montreal releases, it really was quite a marvellous individual achievement.

7. {{{SUNSET}}}: Bright Blue Dream

Forming from the ashes of The Sound Team, this Austin, Texas-based outfit received little to no fanfare, but in Bright Blue Dream provided an impressive breadth of styles, and subsequently one of the year’s most complex and intriguing albums. Opener Dear Broken Friend sounded like We Will Rock You whilst played on downers, whilst highlights/lowpoints entitled Diamond Studded Caskets and Man’s Heart Complaint suggested a band with a less than happy mindset. However, on I Love My Job, the band suggested that their outlook is more sardonic than glum, and the subsequent release of The Glowing City, a decidedly less difficult and more upbeat record, reaffirmed this.

6. No Age: Nouns

Matching youthful, but bratty energy with a suitably lo-fi sound, Nouns could merely have been an enjoyable but otherwise disposable collection of songs. Why it is, in fact, one of the year’s most enduring records owes to the band’s surprising versatility: the bolts of electricity such as Miner, Sleeper Hold and Brain Burner are awash in MBV-style guitar soundscapes, and unexpected moments of finesse such as Things I Did When I Was Dead. With the single Eraser, No Age offered the complete package, its patient and graceful build-up and its subsequent pay-off all somehow occurring within little more than two-and-a-half minutes.

5. The Ruby Suns: Sealion

New Zealand-based the Ruby Suns made one of the year’s most summery-sounding albums, all the more accomplished for being released back in February. The tribal drum patterns, hard acoustic strumming and all-round jubilance (Exhibit A: Tane Mahuta) was all very reminiscent of Animal Collective circa-Sung Tongs, as well as fellow Australasians Architecture In Helsinki, but other influences shone through too, from the Flaming Lips-esque digitised feel to Kenya Dig It (unofficial winner of the Best Song With An Awful Title award), to the transformation of the closing Morning Sun into a synthpop belter the Magnetic Fields would have been proud to have wrote.

4. Portishead: Third

A staggering return from a band that nobody expected to hear from again, Third was also a major deviation from the band’s perceived dinner-table music of old (though I would love to see somebody trying to serve drinks with Machine Gun as accompaniment). Embracing Kraftwerk-like electronics, industrial music and krautrock made for countless memorable moments; the tense opening sequence to Silence; the introduction of the synth arpeggio to The Rip; the Joy Division-aping riff of We Carry On to name but a few. Thanks to the fragile vocals of Beth Gibbons, however, there was never really any doubt as to who it was playing on Third. Let’s just hope the next album won’t take nearly so long (Guns ’N’ Roses, on the other hand, can take all the time they want).

3. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

Unquestionably the year’s most discussed new act, Fleet Foxes made good on their hype with a hauntingly beautiful debut that sounded loosely like early My Morning Jacket relocating from their barn to an enchanted forest. The beautifully layered vocal harmonies (which helped make White Winter Hymnal one of the songs of 2008 with the minimal use of wordage), combined with the perfect balance of Robin Pecknold’s acoustic work and Skye Skjelset’s sinewy electric guitar helped make it the one album this year that could transcend all tastes. But even when Robin Pecknold goes it alone (as on Oliver James and Tiger Mountain Peasant Song), he is able to conjure up something every bit as special.

2. Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

The second half of last year’s Cryptograms, along with the Flourescent Grey EP hinted at Deerhunter’s love for shoegazer-indie, but nobody could’ve anticipated at Microcastle’s blissed out dream-pop. In a busy year for Bradford Cox, the two halves of the title-track served as the perfect separating line between Deerhunter and Cox’s other project Atlas Sound. It would become even busier when Microcastle leaked almost half a year early: the band subsequently added Weird Era Cont. to the official release, a second disc of material which, with its darker edge, greater range of sounds, and looser feel, was arguably even better than Microcastle.

1. TV On The Radio: Dear Science

TV On The Radio have perhaps been a band that’s easier to admire than love in the past, but Dear Science set the record straight by being by far their most accessible effort to date, without trading in too much on the experimentation. Lyrically, the band were certainly more transparent than ever more in depicting a dysfunctional America, whilst getting down with tha funk made for some genuinely danceable songs (Red Dress, Golden Age and the Prince-like Crying). David Sitek ensures that the multitude of sounds (including horns, hand claps, flutes and much more) never becomes bogged down under its own weight, and helped ensure an album that cements TVOTR as one of the decade’s essential acts.