PART 3: THE TOP TEN ALBUMS OF '08

Without further ado...

#10- Fuck Buttons- Street Horrrsing 

Terrible band name, I know. Album title? Also not so great. Get over it.

You could probably label this the most "out there" of all the releases on this list. For some, that may be an instant turn off, and that's understandable. Others may be intrigued. I know that I've never enjoyed or despised music for such reasoning. For me music just is. Either it appeals to you, or it don't. Pleasant to the ears, or just a bunch of noise.

And that's a proper segue for this particular review, for many will group Fuck Buttons in with the "noise" category. By definition, it does share some characteristics with certain brands of electronic and post-rock that fall under the the genre of noise music, but Street Horrrsing is far more than that. It mixes elements of cathartic electro (think Stars of the Lid) with house music... and then there are the vocals, if you would call them that. Screamed, distorted and unintelligible, the shouts add a sense of foreboding creepiness to the mix that, when coupled with the more melodic moments of the disc, offer an interesting balance between pleasantry and horror. Perhaps I'm making this sound more inaccessible than it is, because the melodies are there. It's brilliantly produced with huge, bombastic waves of synth. The record plays like an extended suite; one long writhing, fluctuating piece. Street Horrrsing is an exercise in restrained precision, a testament to the power of subtle changes and alterations in electro-music. Put it this way: after listening to thirty second samples at the IStore, you'd think this would get boring. It doesn't.

Highlights: "Sweet Love for Planet Earth," "Bright Tomorrow"

#9- Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes 

Many will have heard of this one by now. I even saw it for sale at the counter of a Starbucks the other day. Go figure. Regardless, there's a reason this full-length debut has been at or near the top of most critical year-end lists this season. It deserves to be.

Pacific Northwest roots folk-rock with Beach Boy harmonies. Oh, those harmonies. Spellbinding. There's a fair share of echo and reverb a la Jim James on earlier My Morning Jacket albums, but Fleet Foxes are their own band. Pristinely clean electric guitar lines, the buzz of finger-picked acoustics. Some barebones offerings are nothing more than the voice of Sam Pecknold and an acoustic guitar, like on "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" where he convincingly laments: "I don't know what I have done, I'm turning myself, to a demon." The fact that the band can craft simple but captivating tunes like these speak to their precocious abilities as songwriters. It's damn refreshing to find an honest-to-God folk record at the top of indie "best of's" across the web. Truly a release that stands up to a barrage of critical hype. The Fleet Foxes are at the crest of an interesting and almost unimaginable new wave of bearded hippie folk in critically lauded indie rock. Finally some earthiness has come to a scene perpetually clogged with overly clever acts making difficult music for the sake of it.

The Best: "White Winter Hymnal" "Ragged Wood" "He Doesn't Know Why"

#8- Deerhunter- Microcastle 

Let me start by getting this out of the way. Most publications have grouped Microcastle with the bonus disc it ended up being released with, Weird Era Cont. I have not. There are several reasons for this:

1.) I does what I wants.

2.) I have not listened to Weird Era enough to pass judgment on it.

3.) I don't see them as one entity as some do. In my estimation, it was never intended that way. It's called Weird Era Cont. It's not disc 2 of Microcastle. Microcastle is its own, complete piece that is paced and arranged as a single, cohesive record. That's part of its beauty.

So that's where I stand on all that. This review pertains strictly to Microcastle, which is my 8th favorite album of the year. Let's move on.

Deerhunter's 2007 release Cryptograms was notable for its Jekyll and Hyde divisiveness. A lengthy album, the first half was sharp, ominous, morbid and often criticized for an abundance of sometimes directionless droning. The second half was decisively more pleasant. It was like stepping out of a cave. On Microcastle, the band has taken up permanent residence outside said cave. This is the "pretty" record people always knew Deerhunter were capable of making. There are still sections where the band indulge in their jammier, instrumental tendencies, but these instances are restrained and far more tasteful than on their previous effort. The three song mini-suite of "Calvary Scars," "Green Jacket," and "Activa" comes to mind. This stretch of the album fits perfectly within the overall framework of the disc, as does virtually every song on here. The cohesiveness and pacing of Microcastle is one of its chief selling points. Then you pick out some of the individual triumphs and realize the album succeeds from a singles standpoint as well. It's beautiful to hear Deerhunter embrace concise pop-rock with immediately catchy tracks like "Agoraphobia" and "Never Stops." Then you get the toe-tapping fuzzed guitar attack of "Nothing Ever Happened" or the distinctly 60's flavor of "Saved By Old Times." Call it shoegaze, dream-pop, or plain old indie rock. It's good. Real good. 

Highlights: "Agoraphobia" "Never Stops" "Nothing Ever Happened" 

#7- The Hold Steady- Stay Positive 

"In Bar light, she looked alright, in day light she looked desperate. That's alright I was desperate too. I'm getting pretty sick of this interview.

Subpoenaed, in Texas, sequestered, in Memphis..."

Oh Craig Finn. You say things good.

So yea, it's a Hold Steady record. It rocks. They sing about drinking. They sing about drugs. And they keep getting better. This is probably the most varied batch of songs they've ever crafted. The previously alluded to "Sequestered in Memphis" is packed with horns. "Lord I'm Discouraged" is essentially a glam-rock ballad. "One for the Cutters" prominently features some toy piano, and title track "Stay Positive" makes heavy use of an organ. Craig Finn continues to grow as a lyricist. The vignettes, the individual stories, and the characters that fill them are more vivid than ever. Hell, he even does a little more traditional "singing" on this record. Good song lyrics, for me, have always been more of a plus than a dealmaker. The writing on Stay Positive is one of the exceptions to that rule. On this album far more than efforts past, the band's subjects are more applicable to personal experience. The tales and the literate gold mines they contain are not as restricted to Finn's recurring cast of characters and the themes that engulf them. Though some of that does appear, and God knows I love it, more of these songs pertain to the everyman. It makes for a more rewarding, more personal listening experience.

Favorites: "Constructive Summer" "Lord I'm Discouraged" "Yea Sapphire" "Slapped Actress"

#6- Q-Tip- The Renaissance 

The hip-hop world is soooooo much better with Tip around. He proves it on the aptly titled Renaissance. Some of that mainstream stuff is enjoyable, sure. The man admits it himself. But at the end of the day, as he questions on album opener "Johnny is Dead," "What good is a' ear if a Q-Tip isn't in it?"

It is his refusal to beat his own realness into the ground that makes this all so enjoyable. How many one-trick "underground" hip-hop records have you heard over the years that were content to merely preach their "superior" emcee skills while tearing down ice-adorned gangster-posturing with uninspired and often recycled wordplay? Q-Tip isn't hear to tell you why he's so much better than anything you're listening to. He doesn't have to. This is realness of a different brand. A heartfelt, relatable document that studies relationships and the inevitable dramatics that accompany male and female interaction.

Songs like uber-optimistic single "Gettin' Up" ("Now look at our lives so colorful, a wonderful spectrum not 1 tone dull, full of excitement and not 1 lull"), or the somber bass funk of "You" with its tale of infidelity ("When I finally realized I couldn't swallow, I had a lump in my throat my stomach hollow"), offer insight into Tip's own personal experience; feelings and situations we've all been subjected to over the years. 

The record is the most soulful hip-hop release I've heard in years. The back-to-back duo of "Life is Better" and "Believe," featuring Norah Jones and D'Angelo on vocal duties respectively, are knockouts. Album closer "Shaka" urges listeners to "Raise your glasses for the lost ones in your life," while Tip gives tribute to his passed brother, father, and friend, J-Dilla.  The Renaissance is the sort of album where you find yourself violently bobbing your head in public places. The coolness and swagger of the thing is infectious and Tip is as liquid smooth as he ever was.

The Abstract is back.

Listen Immediately: "Gettin' Up" You" "Life is Better" "Believe"

#5- Shearwater- Rook 

Jonathan Meiburg has one of those voices. He possesses the sort of magnetic vocal gift that carries entire albums singlehandedly. Fortunately on Rook, he's got plenty of help.

Now whenever a hyper-emotive male vocalist comes along capable of hitting dramatically high notes, we feel obligated to make reference to that most hallowed template of pretty guy singing: Jeff Buckley. You can't help it. It's like trying not to bring up Loveless when writing about shoegaze. There's just nothing you can do to stop it. Of course there is some logical reasoning for the comparison.

Shearwater capture that same sort of moody, burgundy-tinged romanticism that Buckley purveyed on Grace over a decade before them. Rook succeeds largely due to its structure; its balance of soft/loud dynamics. Its ability to snarl one moment and purr the next. Sound familiar? Now in no way am I claiming Meiburg and his band have aped Buckley's work. It's more a case of two brilliant albums achieving a parallel vision in two separate decades while sounding completely unique... if that makes sense.

Rook is unapologetically beautiful, so if you don't do tender too well, then keep your distance. That'd be your loss of course, for it's a captivating record.

Highlights: "Leviathan Bound" "Lost Boys" "The Snow Leopard"

#4- TV On The Radio- Dear Science 

Whenever the most critically anticipated record of the year is able to deliver so thoroughly, it is something to be celebrated. Single "Golden Age" (which stands up to repeat listens as one of the best songs on the album) hinted at a more accessible, less dismal TVOTR record, which proved to be true. What you could not have guessed until listening to Dear Science several times through however is that they would manage to combine dirty New York art-rock with elements of doo-wop, neo-soul and downright funk in so seamless a fashion, that the final product would result in a surprisingly danceable pop album.

Now of course when I say pop, don't misconstrue that. This remains distinctly a TVOTR record. These songs sound exclusively theirs, like no one else could craft them. Still, on Dear Science the band indulges in a wide range of disparate influences, resulting in a more chameleon-like album than ever before. Opener "Halfway Home" starts off with a chorus of "Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah's" that wouldn't feel out of place on a Brian Wilson record. "Dancing Choose" offers an epic-catalogue style rap a la "It's the End of the World..." or "We Didn't Start the Fire." "Family Tree" is a fragile ballad filled with aching strings. "Red Dress" is peppered with horns and funk guitar. Check out the punchy drums throughout the menacing lockstep of "DLZ." It's all there, all in the right place. Co-frontmen Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone still pen some of the most thought provoking shit around: 

"This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never, this is beginning to feel like it's curling up slowly and finding a throat, to choke. This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never, barely controlled locomotive consuming the picture and blowing the crows, to smoke." (Read the rest here)

This is the sound of a band at the height of its powers, making thrillingly modern music that is distinctly 21st century.

Favorites: "Crying" "Golden Age" "Love Dog" "DLZ"

#3- The Walkmen- You & Me 

I would say that no other album this year captured a distinct mood as perfectly as The Walkmen do here. The jangle of that vintage gear, the church-like acoustics, Hamilton Leithauser's croon; it's a perfect storm of underdog optimism. This is the culmination of much time spent honing a sound and a dynamic to the point of perfection. And the more I listened, the more specific Leithauser passages began to jump out in the mix. I started to hear what he was lamenting. That most bemoaned of life's transitional points; the virtual limbo between those last threads of youth and the initial jolt of adulthood and its subsequent settle down. Where the late nights grow redundant and that looming obligation to dig in finally overwhelms. 

Personally, I'm not quite there yet. But we can all see it coming, that aforementioned purgatory between youthful exuberance and expected stability. You & Me tells the story of coming to terms with that point in life where paycheck becomes career, whether that's an impending or present reality. It offers hope for the future while bidding a nostalgic farewell to the past. It is ammo for those fearful of that next daunting step. Use it.

Highlights: "Donde Esta La Playa" "On the Water" "In the New Year" "I Lost You"

#2- Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer 

"Call it whatever you will."

Not sure what to call it. Wolf Parade's previous record and full-length debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary was probably what many not familiar with the trappings and commonalities of the indie genre would slap with a capital I. Well, they wouldn't necessarily be wrong. At all. However the word "indie" itself has come to signify so many fucking things, many annoying, that people lose sight of what in the hell it actually stands for. One of the definitions on dictionary.com describes indie as "a pop group not affiliated with a major record company." Fair enough. It is short for independent, no? However, with Sub Pop being home to bands like Nirvana, The White Stripes, Death Cab For Cutie, and Sonic Youth among many others, would any act associated with Sub Pop really fall all that far outside the mainstream? Maybe not. My point is this. Blog-rock constituents across the land developed a massive erection for Wolf Parade when they first came out of the cluttered Montreal music scene, and when they released Queen Mary in 2005 it was hailed as a massive triumph. So the band waits a few years and releases At Mount Zoomer, a record that may fall in with the prog-rock genre more than anything else.

Ballsy. Wolf Parade don't want to be indie poster-boys. They recognize the silly futility of labels in music. Hell, they recognize the frivolousness of virtually everything ("What you know can only mean one thing.") Call it nihilistic. Whatever. It's rock music, at times a bit yelpy, with plenty of synths to go along with plenty of guitar fireworks and more than a shred of negativity. The songs unfold in to multiple parts, turning in unexpected, thrilling different directions. The hooks are monstrous. It's only nine songs long, the last of which is an 11 minute epic. It, At Mount Zoomer, is awesome.

The Best: "Soldier's Grin" "Fine Young Cannibals" "An Animal in Your Care"

#1- Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago 

And then there was one. Quick note: the album was independently released in late '07 but not given the official treatment until '08. Many publications counted it as an '08 release for their lists, as will I considering I didn't get ahold of it until this year. So there.

The more I listened to this album, the more I decided that of all the releases on this list, For Emma was the one I would invariably return to more than any other. To me, this seemed like the perfect qualification for a #1 album. That and the fact that it's virtually flawless.

Bon Iver is Justin Vernon, the man who confined himself to a log cabin in Wisconsin for four months to record this hauntingly intimate snapshot of the Northwoods and the sense of brittle fragility it can mirror in the human spirit. The record drips with a sense of loneliness and longing that could only have been captured by embracing complete confinement. For the record's entirety, Vernon sounds like a man removed.

For a late season soundtrack, For Emma sounds awful warm. It's like watching others out there in all that snow and ice, their breath smoking, the branches of dead trees crystallized and sagging with winter weight while you sit comfortably indoors in front of a fire. There is a definite sense of voyeurism listening to an album that was recorded under such well-documented seclusion. Vernon's painstaking falsetto sounds heart-wrenchingly personal. His voice is the most vital instrument on the album, as its often multi-tracked to provide choral accompaniment to his leads. In a time where there exists a frustrating and even comical over-abundance of uninspiring male acoustic slingers attempting the sensitive songwriter approach, Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago points out how innocuous those lesser recordings have become. He demonstrates the unparalleled intimacy the medium has to offer when executed to perfection.

Highlights: "Flume" "The Wolves (Act I and II)" "For Emma" "re: Stacks"

So there you have it. 

Thus concludes my top 30 albums of 2008. Hope you enjoyed reading and found something new to listen to. 

Happy Holidays.