The Best Music of 2008

#11 THROUGH #25

25. Murs & 9th Wonder - 'Sweet Lord'
24. Little Joy - s/t
23. The Hold Steady - 'Stay Positive'
22. Matmos - 'Supreme Balloon'
21. Atlas Sound - 'Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel'
20. The Cinematic Orchestra - 'Live at Royal Albert Hall'
19. High Places - s/t
18. Frightened Rabbit - 'The Midnight Organ Fight'
17. Sleepercar - 'West Texas'
16. Hercules and Love Affair - s/t
15. DJ Shadow / Cut Chemist - 'The Hard Sell Encore'
14. Electric President - 'Sleep Well'
13. M83 - 'Saturdays = Youth'
12. GZA/The Genius - 'Pro Tools'
11. Air France - 'No Way Down' EP


TOP TEN

10. Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line
I was somewhat late to the game in hearing about this band, and once I finally sat down and listened to ‘The Rhumb Line’ my first reaction was that this sounds a lot like Vampire Weekend. While we will see later that this is not such a bad thing in and of itself, it does present the problem of how a band who has such a conglomerate sound – somewhere between Vampire Weekend and about a dozen indistinguishable college radio indie rock bands – is able to make a record that, quite frankly, and somewhat surprisingly, is so good. The answer is that this record doesn’t try to be what it is not, namely anything remotely avant-garde. While given the fact that the band employs two musicians devoted solely to strings, one might expect an attempt at something either more atmospheric or world-music-tinged, but the execution here are simple, effective arrangements that do much to enhance, but not compete with, classic indie rock hooks. The lyrical content isn’t exactly subtle and at times verges on very, very trite, but somehow, in the context of these songs, I don’t mind verses like “Oh baby, baby, baby please / My heart sinks to my feet / Oh what am I supposed to do? / I think about you nightly.” While much of the hype surrounding Ra Ra Riot centers around the tragic death of a former member just prior to the release of their debut EP, even that shouldn’t overshadow this record for accomplishing something that is rarely done: the crafting of songs that are easily listenable and repeatable, but which don’t too soon get stale.
Favorite track(s): Oh, La; Ghost Under Rocks; Can You Tell
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BK2EGE8V

9. Nomo
Ghost Rock
I have absolutely no referent for this band. I have no particular familiarity with African-inspired music, and really do not know what possessed me to download this record after reading about it from some unknown jazz blog at nearly 4 in the morning. From the research I have done (I.E. spending about eight minutes on Wikipedia) I’ve found that Nomo is heavily associated with the afrobeat resurgence, and are actually one of its forbearers as they have previously released three LPs and one EP dating back to 2004. I have also learned that the band traces its origins back to post University of Michigan graduation boredom, which makes a lot of sense insofar as ‘Ghost Rock’ just sounds like it was made for a whole new generation of angsty, early to mid twentysomethings who like the idea of jazz and experimental music, but listened to Third Eye Blind instead of John Coltrane growing up. Sounds like a good record for me. What is impressive is that while this album combines a wide range of influences – from ubiquitous African-style drumming, to free form jazz improvisation, to psychedelic and electronic interjections – it still cohesive enough to sound familiar. The album’s most rocking moments recall Soft Machine, while the furious brass arrangements and deep layering of percussion on “Round the Way” have undoubtedly inspired The Mars Volta’s most powerful breakdowns; and for all the haters, I really do mean that in a good way. In a year that was devoid of new material from some of my favorite, contemporary, jazz-influenced artists (Skalpel, Pink Freud, Cinematic Orchestra) this was not only a great find, but hopefully a doorway to a path of new styles of music. I’m betting there are other people who feel that way about this record.
Favorite track(s): Round the Way
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZOVNL70Q

8. Flying Lotus
Los Angeles
This will make me regret having already abused a Coltrane reference in my previous paragraph, but it does absolutely bear repeating that California DJ Steve Ellison’s (AKA Flying Lotus) great aunt is Alice Coltrane. Given those sorts of genetics, this guy had to be good, right? Well either way, someone at Warp Records (I.E. the best record label on the planet) had to have seen something, as, after jumping ship from Plug Research and releasing an EP, he has returned with a second full length LP to a fair bit of acclaim. Though in independent music, an artist signed to Warp hardly qualifies as ‘under the radar’ – through the label alone is how I came to hear of him - somehow each of Flying Lotus’ first two releases managed to do just that. Regardless, the release of ‘Los Angeles’ signifies the return to prominence of instrumental hip hop within the indie scene, much in the same tradition of DJ Shadow, but, as it is, this record shares much more in common with J Dilla (think ‘Donuts’ if each track was twice as long but even more interesting) and Madlib; which has been well documented by a hundred reviewers before me, but is such a strong analog it is still relevant to note. This also seems to be as much of an IDM record as hip hop, with the jazz tones of Amon Tobin and Greyboy hidden in amongst the beats, which is probably what makes this such a dynamic album. However, these songs still sound like something we’ve heard before, perhaps as background for an Adult Swim ‘bump’, which would make a lot of sense, as, in fact, Ellison used to produce music for Adult Swim commercials. The good thing for us is, unlike most of Adult Swim’s programming, your mind doesn’t have to be altered by chemicals to enjoy ‘Los Angeles’. Though let’s be honest, it doesn’t always hurt.
Favorite track(s): there is no standout track, just give it a listen
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KYJ2O26X

7. The War on Drugs
Wagonwheel Blues
Americana is cheap nowadays. And I mean that in two senses: the first is that (probably due to the ‘freak folk’ or ‘New Weird America’ wave from a couple of years ago, or that really overrated Fleet Foxes album) albums that purport to be “dripping with Americana” – or some other overwrought line out of a Pitchfork or pseudo-Pitchfork review – are everywhere, and most of them sound very, very similar to each other and aren’t very good, anyway. The second sense is that most of the ‘Americana’ on these records sounds forced, which just might be because a lot of these albums are created by people who come from middle-class suburban backgrounds (AKA: Portland) and wear double-breasted plaid shirts from American Apparel which are supposed to look like something from the Midwest. For all I know, The War on Drugs are exactly these kind of people. But they don’t sound like it. And not to make this an indictment of trend culture – even though I’ve done just that – but the point is that it is refreshing to hear something that sounds inspired from a genre of independent music which had so much potential but went so awry. As opposed to your Okkervill Rivers and Akron/Families, when in “Taking the Farm” the band sings “You can feel it in the dirt that’s going under your feet / You can feel it in the highways and the one way streets” you actually believe them, and it feels like this should be the soundtrack to a highway montage from a cheesy 80s movie like The Wizard; which might be more familiar if you’re a really big Jenny Lewis fan. The reason this album is so good is probably because it refuses to stick staunchly to the traditional freak folk ticket, taking as many cues from My Bloody Valentine as from The Mountain Goats. In the end, ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ uses many of the elements of freak folk and nostalgic Americana and combines them with rock sensibilities, and the result is something which makes me nostalgic for something I really can’t even name. Maybe just another listen to The War on Drugs.
Favorite track(s): Taking the Farm
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GIQ8KGKP

6. Ratatat
LP3
If you’ve never been much of a fan of Ratatat, force yourself to go back and listen to the song “Wildcat” from their album ‘Classics’. Make absolutely no mistake, this song is awful. One might be able to successfully make the argument that this song is ‘so bad it’s good,’ but, unlike Trapped in the Closet, I really don’t have a strong desire to go back and listen to this song. But I did, just for the sake of this experiment. There are a billion things which make this song bad: the clichéd beat, the completely uninteresting, repetitive guitarwork, or the sampled big-cat-snarl, which puts the song as a whole completely over the top and to the moon; assuming the moon actually is made of cheese. That all being said, it took a fair amount of convincing from a friend of mine, who ensured me that ‘LP3’ was nothing like Ratatat’s prior material, to get me to listen to this record. Good thing I did. The first thing that becomes immediately apparent about this record is that nothing here is put on too grand a scale. This is not overwrought dance music meant for arenas while hockey teams are doing their warmup skates. What this album does is takes beats reminiscent of IDM and create textures more similar to something like Danger Mouse, but complimented with distinctly Ratatat guitars which, for lack of a better description, are much better and more engaging than their old material. Opening track “Shiller” announces itself as very much traditional Ratatat fare before cooling off early, forcing the listener to pay closer attention, but ultimately rewarding that attention with something much more intricate and replayable than just dance music. Highlight track “Brulee” is far more Four Tet than Fatboy Slim, but its distinctly psychedelic guitars put it into another world entirely. What Ratatat have done is create an electronic record that eschews traditional subgenres under that tag - but that you can still dance to - making for one of the biggest surprises of 2008.
Favorite track(s): Brulee
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UZWRTMV3

5. Los Campesinos!
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Immediately upon listening to the first track I had ever heard by the oddly-named British act Los Campesinos!, one thing was immediately clear: this band does their work on Arts & Crafts. This is worth noting for two reasons, the first being that “The Field Workers” (as my Mexican roommate tells me their name translates to) are apparently only the second band to be signed to the label who does not share members with the Broken Social Scene collective. The second reason the A&C tag is worth noting is that Los Campesinos! fit so well into the existing homogeny of their roster. Whether it be the faux lo-fi-sounding recording techniques, the dense layers of brass and strings, or ever-present fuzzy guitars, every band in their brief back catalogue shares a great deal in common, and it’s getting easier to pick out their ‘sound.’ Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as most of this catalogue is very, very good, and we should all consider ourselves lucky to have Canada and the music of the BSS collective. So it should come as no surprise that their British labelmates have created a gem of an album. Los Campesinos! takes the most joyous and rapturous moments of BSS and The Most Serene Republic (the other A&C band not affiliated with BSS) and takes them into overdrive. The handclaps and gang vocals are not only razor sharp, but aren’t just meaningless tokens; they provide context and poignancy in moments of indie-rock epiphany. And while the lyrics, when read independently of the music, have little rhythm and at times fit their music like square pegs in a round hole, this is just part of the band’s pop-twee appeal. The lines are dripping with overwrought, twentysomething sexual angst, but they are also so unabashed and unapologetic you can’t get help but get swept up; just sit back and enjoy the soap opera. My favorite lines of 2008 come from the barstool wisdom of this album, and when the whole band starts shouting “Oh we kid ourselves there’s future in the fucking / But there is no fucking future” in beautiful unison, you can’t help but believe that the impending revolution is not political, social or anything actually meaningful like that, but sexual and trite. And that’s okay.
Favorite track(s): Ways to Make it Through the Wall; We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=44AZ77BC

4. School of Seven Bells
Alpinisms
The story of the formation of School of Seven Bells has already been told by many an indie-blog: Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis meets the identical twin sisters of On! Air! Library! while on tour together, starts working on the side with them on this future project, before ultimately getting more interested in his side project than fulltime band and ultimately quitting to focus on School of Seven Bells. The indie scene loves its supergroup collaborations. I heard about this band as the opener for M83, which makes a lot of sense insofar as M83 is about the only band with whom there is a clear analog in terms of sharing a sound. And despite the fact that Andrew Gonzalez probably wrote the year’s best song with “Kim and Jessie”, School of Seven Bells have created a far more listenable record top to bottom. There were a number of bands in 2008 who came completely out of nowhere to capture a fair bit of attention, and though S7B was not necessarily one of them, they have crafted an album which really should have garnered them more recognition considering the relative success of acts like M83 and DNTEL. What makes ‘Alpinisms’ so good is that while it presents such a homogenous sound, there are elements of influences from all over the electronica spectrum, not to mention its clear shoegaze and dream pop sensibilities. The cool thing is this album can function in many ways: get lost in the dreamy landscape of “Conjur”, get your DJ to give “Chain” a spin while everyone’s out on the dance floor, or imagine the 11-minute epic “Sempiternal Amaranth” as the soundtrack to the most tense moments of Tron. But ultimately the appeal of this album is that it takes you to the same kind of far away places that shoegaze normally does, but is ultimately too listenable and catchy to stop dancing and travel there.
Favorite track(s): Conjur, Chain, Half Asleep
Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/178384937/school_of_seven_bells_-_alpinisms.rar.html

3. Deerhunter
Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
So this is what happens when bands try to make their own statement in the ongoing war against internet piracy, but don’t have the financial resources of Radiohead. For those who don’t know the back story, after ‘Microcastle’ began making the rounds on the internet months before the actual release of the album, Deerhunter wanted to do something give fans an incentive to actually buy the album and set to work on creating a companion disc, which would become ‘Weird Era Cont.’, full of additional material. The great tragedy, of course, was that this music would too leak prior to the album’s release, making the whole episode an exercise in futility. Or was that actually the case? While Weird Era may not have necessarily done anything to boost Deerhunter’s album sales, it does manage to accomplish two other things: the first being presenting songs which capture the raw emotion of a specific window of time where the anxiety and frustration is palpable in the music. The second is that Weird Era serves as a near-perfect foil to Microcastle, making the entire product better by the inclusion of two contrasting records, a plan which doesn’t feel the least bit contrived. While the ‘main’ record takes after some of the Flaming Lips’ more spacey moments from the ‘Soft Bulletin’ era as well as the deep, crunchy guitar work of June of ’44, Weird Era is much more a minimalist record containing the kind of darker material which makes sense of the band serving as Nine Inch Nails’ main support on their last US tour. And while not to say Microcastle is overproduced by any means, the latter is still a much more raw album, with the rushed nature of the disc stamped all over it. Luckily for us, this only enhances its effectiveness, and together these two works conjure the kind of harmonious duo usually reserved for more established bands, such as Broken Social Scene’s ‘EP To Be You and Me’ and the bonus disc for Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’.
Favorite track(s): Agoraphobia
Download:
Microcastle: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q1148H7I
Weird Era Cont.: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4VC2DRB

2. TV on the Radio
Dear Science,
Back on November 9th I went to see TV on the Radio at the Warfield theater in San Francisco, a concert which I figured was going to rise up to the level of ‘event’ in this city given the relative popularity of the band, the acclaim over the recently released “Dear Science,” and the residual jubilation over the recent presidential election. And as much as this really should not be an issue today, TV on the Radio are known as ‘the black indie rock band’ much in the same way Mike Skinner of The Streets is known as ‘the white british rapper’. So given that fact, I made the mistake of assuming that this concert would have a particular importance in the wake of the election of the first black President in our nation’s history. But, in fact, during the course of their 75 minute set, the band never once even let on that such a historic event had even taken place, breaking about every credo I had ever believed about the politics of rock and roll, and made even more confusing due to the hip-hop-like soul apparent on their records. I thought about this long and hard after the fact, considering many reasons that none of TVOTR would so much of make mention of the election: they were just trying to be classy, they trying to simply not politicize their band, they were trying to distance themselves from any issues of race as a rock band, etc. But all of these sorts of answers seem too contrived, especially for a band which seems to celebrate the visceral so much. And after listening to ‘Dear Science,’ a couple more times, it all became clear: TVOTR is not a band which looks at the bigger picture, but is rather concerned with more tangible, everyday issues. And, let’s be honest, most everyday issues for men involve sex in one way or another.

‘Dear Science,’ has been one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, named as the very best of 2008 by some of the most circulated publications in the country. And if you read the Rolling Stone recap of the album (who ironically only gave it 4 of 5 stars initially, but a month later decided it was the best music of 2008) they would have you believe that the album is a celebration of the times, effectively reveling in the slow destruction of society. But what exactly about the record is political? While there is a general sense of OK-Computer-like paranoia strewn across songs like “Cryin’” and “Dancing Choose”, this comes across more as the tries and tribulations of trying to make a living rather than struggling with ‘the system’. The overwhelming subject of this album, quite simply, is sex. ‘Dear Science,’ practically smells of it. Whether it be the sad ode to loneliness of “Love Dog”, the beleaguered sexuality of “DLZ”, or “Lover’s Day”, a pure tribute to all of our animalistic urges, the album just begs to earn plays during our most intimate, or passionate moments. The tinges of disco and hip hop play into this general tone, but also give the record a unique dynamic; this album shrieks with a living soul not often found in modern records, but is conversely grounded enough so as to not fear sounding jubilant. Either way, Rolling Stone did have one thing right: that ‘Dear Science,’ is a celebration. While they believe it is a celebration in the face of impending doom, perhaps a sarcastic reaction to the world crumbling around us, their actions and lyrics prove otherwise. Being worried about politics seems like too big an issue for this band to take on, but sexuality seems right up their alley. Like the Los Campesinos! record, TVOTR seem to revel in the trite, but unlike the former, TVOTR legitimizes this subject as a genuine product, worthy of discussion, of the lives we lead day to day. So if you want a profound exploration of the sings of the times, this may not be the album for you. But if you’re looking for some good music to f**k to, then you have found our generation’s magnum opus.
Favorite track(s): Cryin', Love Dog, Family Tree
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WYAA9VHT

1. Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
There is an inherent problem with naming Vampire Weekend’s self titled album as the very best of 2008, but it is not the one that might be immediately obvious on the surface. During the latter part of 2007 when demos and alternate mixes of songs started circulating the internet, and continuing in 2008 with the actual leak and release of the full-length album, an incredible amount of blog chatter and indie rock zine news was devoted to this group of recent Columbia graduates. In fact, before the album had even hit the internet, the band had already risen to near-Radiohead levels of ubiquity, creating the sort of fervor and anticipation for the release of a record rarely seen within the independent music scene. And conversely, upon the release of that album VW was played continuously on college radio stations across the country, and even saw modest success via MTV and Clear Channel. Still, the amount this band was talked about seemed to outweigh the actual impact that they had on music as a whole (they played on a side stage with relatively small fanfare at Coachella) which is probably why they received the backlash they did. As quickly as the cardigan-wearing heroes rose to the tip of every ‘artsty’ 20something’s tongue, words of praise turned to criticism, mostly actually for wearing cardigans. While initially oozing over afro-beats and calls to early Paul Simon, the amateur internet blog-writing press eventually chose to focus more on the band's all-too-quick rise to fame, their ivy league education, and, yes, their Martha’s Vineyard fashion sense, as opposed to the music.

So all that being said, the problem with naming VW as the top album of 2008 is not in naming (possibly) the year’s most talked-about album as number one. The problem is in the indie conception of meta-cool, and can be posed in the question of whether I am tagging VW as such because, in fact, there has been such a fervent backlash against the band, and in doing so I am being ironic (or ahead of the curve) by naming (probably) the most hated album of 2008 as its best. While I feel somewhat silly for even bringing this up (and rightfully so), it is still a legitimate issue to note as part of the album’s context, which ultimately says something about the force of the emotions, both good and bad, that it invokes. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that the band has received an amount of press normally reserved for much more established bands, but it still has nothing to do with why I feel the album is the very best of 2008. What is interesting is the fact that perhaps the year’s most high-profile rock album is also its best, a rarity to say the least.

So why is Vampire Weekend’s self titled debut effort the best album of the year? The answer: because it is so damn catchy. Obviously this was a great year for afro-beats, and it is one of the most unique aspects of what VW has to offer, but ultimately the reason this record is so good is because just about every song on the record gets in your head and infects you with their infinitely replayable melodies. It would be all too easy to overanalyze the album, and while there are many facets of it that are unique in the overall context of the package it’s presented in, ultimately the sum of the parts are greater than the whole of the record. The aforementioned afro beats pervade the whole of the record, ska-like guitar work drives several tracks, and keystrokes that belong to a faraway tropical beach stick in the brain like flypaper. But again, these aren’t even the things which stand out most about this album. Ultimately what we will remember are too many catchy choruses which likely won’t leave our heads any time soon. This isn’t just the best record of 2008, this might be the best album released so far this decade.
Favorite track(s): Oxford Comma, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Walcott
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HS4IHCHP

Enjoy!