Hype sHits '08

Top 5 Nods to the unquestionable greats already in the collective conscience:
Of Montreal Skeletal Lamping
Black Ghosts Black Ghosts
Crystal Castles Crystal Castles
Hercules and Love Affair Hercules and Love Affair
Cut Copy In Ghost Colours

Top 5 Noticeably Absent from others but rocked my socks
Bun B II Trill(!?!)
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
CSS Donkey
Cool Kids Bake Sale
Lupe Fiasco The Cool

Top 5 Heavy Rotation ignoring release date:
Against Me! New Wave
Never a fan before this year, having not listened to in months catch myself singing the choruses daily for no reason.
Yaz Upstairs at Eric's
Rich Boy Rich Boy
Pacific Division Sealed for Freshness Blendtape
Three 6 Mafia Most Known Unknowns
The awfulness that is Last 2 Walk revealed how great this one was.

Top 5 Juiced my buttons almost no one else here listened to:

Hatchback Colors of the Sun
80's synths, modern arrangements. At times a little bit Air, a little bit post-disco groove. All great.

Jetlag - Hatchback

Jaguar Love Take Me To The Sea
Schizzo as all hell. I'm 99% positive this is the only cd i actually bought this year.

Highways of Gold - Jaguar Love

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Lie Down In The Light
If you slipped past the summer blog, just effing get it. Simply beautiful.

You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes) - Bonnie Prince Billy

Raheem Devaughn Love Behind The Melody
This album's deceptive. First listen, pretty good contemporary r&b. Subsequent listens, awesome. Interesting lyrical perspectives, playful production, and enough traditional to balance it all out. THE r&b album of '08.

Customer - Raheem DeVaughn

awesome color electric aborigines

Eyes Of Light - Awesome Color

MF

She looked like Chantal Goya



but I never heard her sing
she only sang in the shower
and she was always clean
now she's gone
yeah she's gone gone gone gone gone
........
........
........
........
slow down and take it cool
slow down
slow down
one more drink, don't be a fool
slow down
slow down
........
........
........
........
she went with the weather
she left quick like a dream
like a dream, she is still with me
in a wilderness of mirrors no one sees

Chunk Albums '08 Pt 2 - Establilshed Artists and Breakthru Records

2008 has hardly belonged to new artists alone, as several old favorites returned with new records this year- my favorites after the jump.






GZA - Pro Tools
Beck - Modern Guilt
Al Green - Lay it Down
Black Keys - Attack and Release
Walkmen- You & Me
Girltalk- Feed the Animals
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Lil Wayne - Carter III
Portishead - Third

Though Al Green had been absent for longer (from secular or 'good' music), Portishead was by and far the most anticipated return. Third is a great record, and most definetly a Portishead record, but also an inscrutable, uneasy listen. Don't read this is as a pan- this one is a grower, and i'll need a few more years with it to really weigh in.I do miss the sexiness.

Modern Guilt and Attack & Release were both good records from great artists, and were thusly a bit of a let down to me. Also, both produced by Danger Mouse: coincidence? You'll notice the new Gnarls Barkley did not make my list.

You & Me and Dear Science were great records by great bands, and consequently were favored over the DM-produced crowd. You & Me might even be my favorite Walkmen record...debate.

GZA and Lil Wayne are basicly nothing alike, being bound together in the review by virtue of being in the same genere. Carter III's highlights rose far beyond anything from Pro-Tools, but Weezy could learn a thing or to about consistency from the GZA. 'A Milli' will stand the test of time though...that shit is from the future.

So that's just leaves me with Girltalk's 'Feed the Animals,' which i'm going to take as my favorite album by a returning artist. Greg Gillis is at the top of his game, and has delivered a record that shows he the the undisputed master of the mash-up, one upping even his own excellent Night Ripper record.

There were a couple of records that came out this year from marginally established artists that i felt deserved to be condsidered in there own catagory. These records represent, to me anyway, artists breakting thru from merely good to great-

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colors
Deerhunter - Microcastle

Cut Copy's first album Bright Like Neon Love seems like a mere warm-up for In Ghost Colors; all of the elemets are were there before, but they just didn't nail it until now. Deerhunter's Microcastle rises out of the ethereal fog of Cryptograms to deliver a record you can acutally listen to. I'm super-excited on future records from these two. Oh, and Cut Copy's record, while less orginal than Deerhunter's, is clearly supeiror....

....so much in fact, that it's going toe to toe with Crystal Castles for my favorite album of 2008. Next post i'll pick my winner and give my thoughts on the artists that left me cold in '08, as well as things i feel like i've missed.

Rick's Fav Albums 08

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2008 Best of the 'Best Of 2008' Lists December 12th 2008

I was gonna make a list of all the Best Of 2008 lists with links, but felt i'd rather actually make one too. This is my compromise.

These are the best albums I just found out about from the Best of 2008 list reading, with some bonus Worst of The Best Of at the end.


Tricky- Knowle West Boy

School Gates - Tricky
Never put thought into tricky beyond his additions to Massive Attack cause everything else was eh. This one's pretty good, with a minimum of focus on him vocally, from skittish freakout Gnarl's style, to a Bon Jovi esque soundtrack for a gun fight, it threw me, but if this is what he's been doing all along I should've been listening.

School of Seven Bells- Alpinisms

Connjur - School Of Seven Bells
Electro-Pop emphasis more to the pop, like indie pop, not pop pop. oh fuck it. Really solid effort that warrants repeat listening.


Blitzen Trapper- Furr (version with bonus tracks)

God + Suicide - Blitzen Trapper
Spanning from whatever the kinda country will oldham makes, psyche noise freakouts, to REM style jangly shit. “I can live with god and suicide”they sing, “I can live with Blitzen Trapper” I respond.

Absentee- Victory Shorts

We should never have children - Absentee
If the dude from Magnetic Fields had a side project. Maybe that's what this is i don't know.

The Gaslight Anthem- The '59 Sound

The Backseat - The Gaslight Anthem
Have you been thinking to yourself "I really like the killers but it's not cool to like them. If only there were an alternative!" These are your boys. Springsteeny, with other songs flogging molly Lite and radio friendly "punk" that's not cheesy.

Tindersticks-Hungry Saw

Yesterdays Tomorrows - Tindersticks
Don't fix what ain't broke. More melodrama from the crooniest of crooning men and his band of doom gloomers.

Butch Walker-Sycamore Meadows

The Weight of Her - Butch Walker
This dude rules it. Every album influences planted firmly on sleeve, but he does everything so well it doesn't matter. Witty lyrics and just solid pop rock. He's from Atlanta, and we all like liking things from near us. I think i stole that from Chunk.




Worst of the Best Of 2008
The Hold Steady? Again? WTF? I'm sick of hearing about this band more than I don't wanna listen to their tunes. I don't understand the appeal at all.

Both Crosses - The Hold Steady

Frightened Rabbit- Midnight Organ Fight

Twist - Frightened Rabbit
The lead dude manages to combine the whining of adam duritz with the throat warble of john popper . Nopers on this shit.