These are the records I would set aside as the ten best of 2008:
1. For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver
2. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
3. Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
4. Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust, Sigur Ros
5. Microcastle, Deerhunter
6. The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow
7. Volume One, She & Him
8. Nouns, No Age
9. Oracular Spectacular, MGMT
10. Attack and Release, The Black Keys
These would be my "honorable mentions" for the year, in order:
11. Fur, Blitzen Trapper
12. Dear Science, TV on the Radio
13. Modern Guilt, Beck
14. April, Sun Kil Moon
15. 13 Blues for 13 Moons, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
16. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
17. The Stand Ins, Okkervil River
18. Heretic Pride, The Mountain Goats
19. Consolers of the Lonely, The Raconteurs
20. Distortion, The Magnetic Fields
21. Brendan Canning's Something For All of Us, Broken Social Scene
I have not listened to the following records, but I really want to:
Saturdays = Youth, M83
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
You & Me, The Walkmen
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, Grouper
I listened to and didn't give too much of a shit about:
Re-Arrange Us, Mates of State
Third, Portishead
Let the Blind Lead Those Who..., Atlas Sound
Songs in A & E, Spiritualized
Partie Traumatic, Black Kids
Death Magnetic, Metallica
Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did, The Twilight Sad
Youth Novels, Lykke Li
Off With Their Heads, Kaiser Chiefs
Lastly:
People who talk up Stay Positive can go fuck themselves. That record is the definition of "wheel-spinning." I'd rather listen to Viva La Vida.
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2 comments:
Nice stuff. I forgot about Sigur Ros. I think I loved the first three songs on that album more than I loved the entire album though. She & Him would have made my honorable mention. So would Hercules & the Love Affair (my guess is you won't dig this) and TV on the Radio.
I think you WOULD dig Gaslight Anthem AND Land of Talk, another good, but not great album.
Did you listen to Welcome Wagon yet?
Do you think in terms of songs at all? Which ones stand out?
I forgot "Saved by Old Times" off that Deerhunter album which was also REALLY good.
I'm not thinking in terms of songs yet--usually, individual tracks have to sort of rise up over time for me...I can't call the 'great' ones off the bat. But you're right: "Saved by Old Times" is probably my favorite track off that record, and it is totally awesome. Also awesome: "Grounds for Divorce" off the Elbow record...that is one bad-ass riff, my friend. Bad ass. I need to listen to Gaslight Anthem, and if the Land of Talk record is the one you gave me (something about booing and hissing?), I just didn't know it came out this year--it's pretty good, and would have made my honorable mentions.
Hey, what do you think about putting together top 10 (or top 20) movie lists, by decade? We had those conversations about the 40s/50s a few weeks back, and they have stuck with me. I just went through my top 100 and there are 23 films from the '50s on the list. Why, you ask? You're right, American cinema isn't really better than the '40s in that decade, but holy shit, foreign cinema is off the chain: Kurosawa is up and going, so is Bergman, so is Fellini, so is Hitchcock...even Kubrick does _Paths of Glory_ in the '50s, and that movie is awesome. Definitely the first great, great decade for WORLD cinema...and the Americans aren't slacking, with some great revisionist Westerns (Searchers, High Noon), some nice noirs (Waterfront, Sunset Blvd), solid musicals (Singin' in the Rain) and solid war films (Paths of Glory, Bridge on the River Kwai). Anyway, decade best-ofs seem like a fun idea.
P.S.-I'm probably in (and Meredith is likely in) for a Super Bowl gathering. I'm also willing to offer my house/television for the event, if that works for people. If not, I'll still plan on coming.
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