Top 11 Albums of 2008

I can't help myself - I really, really wanted to whittle this list down to a top ten. But I just can't do it. I debated, I hemmed and hawed. I gnashed my teeth and dressed in sack cloth. No matter what I did, I just couldn't bring myself to leave any of these albums off of my top list, so I can sit comfortably with eleven. I'm also including the other like eighteen or so that all got honorable mention from me this year. All in all, I'd say this was a pretty good year for music. Nothing earth-shattering, but no major disappointments unless you count the fact that Axl finally released "Chinese Democracy". Too bad it was lame (from all I heard, at least). So, with no further ado, I present to you my top eleven albums for 2008:


1) Brain Thrust Mastery - We Are Scientists

I just don't get it. No one, and I mean literally no one to this point has put this list on even put this album on their "honorable mention" or "in contention" lists. Did the U.S. just go to sleep on this one? I know that WAS are much, much more popular in Europe than over here. But still, this album is a top-to-bottom collection of great music. The guys are silly, the songs are catchy but don't slack on quality musicianship, and there is plenty of hipster cred to go around. And let's not forget that if you toss in a little extra cash, you could get the two-disc set which includes an amazing live set from Union Chapel in London. If you haven't heard it, go out and listen to this song.

2) Alopecia - Why?
I just discovered this band in the past year. Apparently they've been cranking out music since about '99 or 2000, and everything that I've heard from them has been good, but this album stands head and shoulders above the rest of the stuff I've heard from them. There's indie rock, there are ridiculously catchy loops and beats, there are absurdly good and clever lyrics. Again, it's a great disc from top to bottom, and I'm really hard-pressed to find an artist that I could compare to this band. Take a listen to the opening track here and see for yourself.

3) Moonbeams - Throw Me the Statue
I love multi-instrumentation. When you can have horns, strings, accordion, and even a glockenspiel to round out the sound of a band, it always makes me smile. These guys are new on the scene; though they're based in the Pacific NW, they have roots in San Francisco, and they put on one hell of a live show. I am always torn when I talk about this band - I love them and would love to see them blow up, but then I wouldn't be able to see them in smaller clubs and interact with members of the band after they've played. Eh, I think they'll blow up -- with songs this good, it's hard not to.

4) Walk it Off - Tapes 'n Tapes
I don't know exactly what it is about this band, but I can't get enough of them. It could be that they have what I think is the most underrated song of the year in "Say Back Something". It's so under-appreciated, in fact, that I can't find any reference of it on YouTube. These guys (or at least their producer) mastered that "this was recorded on tape, so it doesn't sound too perfect sound on this album.
They also have an appropriately absurd and hilarious video for the first single off this album.

5) Volume 1 - She & Him
Super cutie Zooey Deschanel and indie rock utility musician M. Ward come together to make one of the most perfect discs I've heard in a while. It's old-timey, but not in a hokey way, and it doesn't include much of that country twang that kept Jenny Lewis' album off my list. It's just a straightforward album that might be the greatest makeout album since MBV's "Loveless".
Also, their version of the old Smokey Robinson song "You Really Got A Hold On Me" is such an accomplishment it would melt my heart even if it weren't sung by the hands-down cutest girl in all of indie.

6) You & Me - The Walkmen
These guys caught me off guard. I had heard their name thrown around a lot by a number of people, but it wasn't until I heard this album that I really got it. They kind of capture that vintage sound that The Cold War Kids pulled off last year and had so much trouble replicating this year. The songs and instrumentation are somewhat sparse, and the singer has one of those voices you either get or don't, but these kids from Billyburg really pulled it all together on this album. Their song "In the New Year" is hands-down the crowning achievement of the album despite its peculiar video.

7) Innocent Ghosts - Geographer
This is my nod to complete and total Bay Area pride. Why? is from Berkeley, but they're fairly well known nationally. Geographer is a local band whom I was hipped to by a friend, and they really blew me away the first time I saw them. I picked up the CD (the show was the band's CD release party) and was every bit as pleased. Expect to hear a lot from them in the coming year(s) and expect to see me at their show with The Botticellis on January 14th. So far the only thing I don't really get about this band is their first video. Hipster interpretive dance?

8) Devotion - Beach House
This album is just chock full of Dream Pop goodness. The addition of slide guitar to a number of the songs really, really floats my boat. It's sparse enough to be tranquil, but there's enough there that you don't forget you're listening to music as can happen with some lesser achievements. Some argue that their debut self-titled album was really their better, but I have a soft spot for this disc. Plus, someone was cool enough to make a video with their song Gila over a video of Jayne Mansfield. Either way, it was one that I kept thinking "oh, I guess it doesn't have to make the top ten" but just didn't have the heart to give the axe to.

9) Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie
Another disc that almost didn't make it. I was debating with a co-worker a few weeks back whether or not this had the merit to make it on top ten lists, and that prompted me to go back and give it a few more listens. I will come out and say it - this is a phenomenal album. It doesn't have the amazing singles that "Plans" had, nor can it really compete with "We Have the Facts", but dammit, this album is yet another accomplishments from probably the biggest indie rock hit machine outside of Spoon. I just don't like the choice of singles, they really needed to hype "Cath" more than "I Will Possess Your Heart" with its four minute redundant intro.

10) LP3 - Ratatat
These guys do what they do better than anyone else. I don't even know how to describe what it is that they do. Instro-indie-beats? Electro-awesomeness? Whatever it is, I hope they manage to keep cranking out records like they are now. It's wonderfully melodic, it's catchy, and it makes me bob my head in approvement anytime I hear it. Basically, whenever these guys put out an album, it's got a great chance of making it on to my "best of" list for that year. It's the type of music I'd love to make if I knew a hell of a lot more about programming beats and loops. Check out the first single off this disc.

11) Hold On Now, Youngster... - Los Campesinos
These kids just seems like a good time no matter what. The album is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to, and they don't let hipster preoccupations keep them from rocking out and making some up-tempo overdriven music. I do have to question their releasing of two albums this year, but still I refuse to lump the two together for a single review. Plus, I don't have the latest release, so I can't speak one way or another about it. All I can say is that I liked this album way too much to keep it off of my "best of" list for this year. Their single "You! Me! Dancing!" also has a hearty dose of glockenspiel, which, as you know, always wins my heart over.


I will say that I was most disappointed to leave off "Some Racing, Some Stopping" by Headlights. I feel that it was a fantastic album, but when you have to stack ANYTHING up against their previous album "Kill them with Kindness", there's just no way you can stack up.

HONORABLE MENTION (aka "Albums in the Running")
(in no particular order)

Fleet Foxes (self-titled)
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping
The Rhumb Line - Ra Ra Riot
Minus the Bear - Acoustics
Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Does it Offend You, Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
Crystal Castles (self-titled)
Because of Ghosts - The Culture of Background Noise
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Murder By Death - Red of Tooth & Claw

And I close out this music posting by wishing my congratulations to Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel on their engagement. Some day she will finally come to her senses and realize that she actually loves me, she just doesn't know it yet.