TOP 30 OF '08 PART 2

Onward we go. Here's #20 through #11.

#20- She & Him- Volume One

A pleasant surprise. She is Zooey Deschanel, the actress from Almost Famous, Elf, and new Jim Carrey flick Yes Man among others. Him, or he I suppose, is M. Ward, indie folk troubadour and talented multi-instrumentalist. The album is an intensely pleasant trip through A.M. radio. Impressively, with the exception of a few covers (Smokey Robinson, Beatles) these are songs Deschanel penned herself. The magic would be missing without Ward's arrangements however. The acoustics let Zooey's voice command the attention it deserves (see Patsy Cline or Neko Case for a more contemporary comparison). Even more impressive perhaps is the fact that the originals far outshine the duo's takes on the older tunes. A record dripping with nostalgia, this is nuanced, beautiful music that harks back to a simpler time like a grainy projector cycling through slides of summer. Or something like that. Make sure to stick around at the end to hear her belt out "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

Highlights: "Sentimental Heart" "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" "Got Me"

#19- Little Joy- Little Joy 

The name of the band evokes this self-titled disc pretty perfectly. Fabrizio Morretti, drummer of The Strokes, got together with Rodrigo Amarante, formerly of Brazilian band Los Hermanos, to record this simple and relentlessly pleasant offering. Bossa Nova influences play a major role, but there's plenty of laid-back Strokes cool complete with the razor sharp pop sense that made that band so huge in the first place. Amarante's crooning more than makes up for an absence of Casablancas, and there's some saccharine-sweet vocal turns by Binki Shapiro (real name, check the breezy waltz of "Don't Watch Me Dancing"). This record sounds like it was a blast to make, and the comfort of their environment and the camaraderie it fostered shines through perfectly. It's early sunset cocktail music (Little Joy is actually the name of the local dive where they hung out while working on the album.) You don't have to peel back layers to enjoy this stuff. Although seek out a warmer climate for optimum enjoyment.

Favorites: "Brand New Start" "No One's Better Sake" "Don't Watch Me Dancing" 

#18- The Dodos- Visiter 

Think Animal Collective as a virtuosic acoustic duo. Sort of. They appreciate that band's animalistic tribal clatter to be certain. This is often frantic and thrilling stuff. Epic offerings like "Red and Purple" or "Joe's Waltz," the latter of which clocks in at seven minutes plus, manage to engage throughout. There are also some shorter, poppier endeavors that the duo play closer to the belt. In an album this ambitious and, well, long, such moments of brevity and simplicity are essential. The centerpiece of Visiter is undoubtedly "Fools." The tinny metronomic clacking of drumsticks and the low constant thud of a kickdrum opens as a brief swelling dissonance emerges only to give way to the franticly bright chime of a strummed acoustic. Complete with accentuated shouting and "Oh ohhh" harmonizing, it brings the full package. Reminds me of AC's "Fireworks." The album plays a bit long, hovering around the sixty minute mark, and there are times where things grow a bit tedious, but the rewards are well worth your time.

Check Out: "Red and Purple" "Fools"

#17- M83- Saturday's = Youth

Shameless, hyper-cinematic 80's shoegaze. The cover, the album title, voice-over narrative lyrics with quotes like "I'm 15 years old and I feel it's already too late to live." Anthony Gonzalez bludgeons us over the head with enough new-wave emoting to satisfy an entire Donnie Darko trilogy. This is high-school montage music, fit for the big screen, just a couple generations back. Amazingly, it manages to sound concurrently relevant. This is an unapologetic tribute to a time and a music that obviously had a profound shaping in Gonzalez's makeup, an era he must look back on favorably. That doesn't mean those years weren't filled with their share of pain of course, and herein lies the universality of the thing. The hormonal precariousness and fragility of the teenage mind. They are perhaps the chief tenets of the adolescent experience. I mean, there's a reason they made, and make, so many movies about those years. They're saturated in dramatics, characterized by a perpetual absence of stasis. It is an ebb-and-flow unique and exclusive to the high school demographic. Saturdays=Youth captures this emotional fulcrum. 

Oh and the music's pretty good too.

Standouts: "Kim & Jessie" "Graveyard Girl" "Couleurs"

#16- Department Of Eagles- In Ear Park

Grizzly Bear side project that sounds an awful lot like Grizzly Bear. I'm not complaining. Another case where the aesthetics of the album art capture the feel of the record pretty damn accurately. What's that they say about pictures... they're worth a something something...

You can file it under psych-folk, only the songs feel more narcotic than psychedelic. Many of the tracks here come off more like compositions than tunes. These are pieces, nearly orchestral in their intricacy. From a songwriting perspective, it's some remarkable stuff. If you fail to recognize the symphonic grandiosity of it all, it's bluntly alluded to on "Classical Records":

"Do you listen to your classical records anymore? Or do you let them sleep in their sleeves where they weep?"

Well, personally I don't have any classical records, but I can appreciate the magnitude of those I hear, and I sure can appreciate this.

Standouts: "No One Does It Like You" "Phantom Other" "Balmy Night"

#15- Eagles Of Death Metal- Heart On 

Did I place the two bands with "Eagles" in the title back to back intentionally? Perhaps subconsciously. It does seem like an awful big coincidence.

Well they're pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum musically, so the similarities end with that most American of birds. This is dirty, scuzzed out, slut-loving rock music that brings people to the dance floor. Check your class at the door. The EODM make no secret of their love of the Rolling Stones, and the template works perfectly. They sing about L.A., and girls, and tight pants on girls, and with song names like "I'm Your Torpedo," "Cheap Thrills," and "Prissy Prancin," well, you get the idea. Compared with say first release Peace Love Death Metal, these songs are not only given some actual studio glossing, they're also just much better songs. Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and childhood friend Jesse "The Devil" Hughes (yes, that's his nickname) aspire to have a good time, and it's contagious. Put in on while cruising the highway. Drive really fast.

Highlights: "Anything 'Cept The Truth" "(I Used To Couldn't Dance) Tight Pants" "Cheap Thrills"

#14- Portishead- Third  

 

Those familiar with the trip-hop stylings the band made their name on in the 90's will be in for a surprise. Though groove and rhythm are still strong focal points of this offering, all traces of anything resembling funk are banished. I've always regarded vocalist Beth Gibbons as a feminine parallel to Thom Yorke, and in some senses, you can think of this as a lost Radiohead record... if Radiohead suddenly decided they hated pop music. That's not to say Third is entirely dense. Gibbons' voice alone is enough to earn listeners trust, and just when things begin to grow a trifle too unagreeable, a song like "The Rip" comes along. It begins modestly enough with a pleasant finger picked acoustic arpeggio, only it gradually fades out as that same melodic line is passed to a driving synth as the drums pick up and propel things forward. All the while Gibbons' voice simply floats above the mix, sustaining a single warm note for what seems like a minute before she returns to singing about "Wild, White Horses." If it sounds like heady stuff, well, it is. It's a must hear that requires some patience. Not for sunny days.

Highlights: "The Rip" "Machine Gun" "Magic Doors" 

#13- Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks- Real Emotional Trash 

Best guitar album of the year. Period. If you like big, fuzzed out, extended guitar theatrics paired with 60's throwback story songs then you've come to the right place. It's packed with the former Pavement front man's vague witticisms. Check the first line from album opener "Dragonfly Pie":

"Of all my stoned digressions, some have mutated into the truth."

Classic Malkmus. Are you entirely certain what it means? Nope. Does it sound cool as shit? Yes. Can you interpret it in a number of ways to fit your own personal experience? Absolutely.

This is jam rock for the indie set. The songs themselves are generally top-notch, packed with secret hooks that will have you humming for days whether you want to or not. There are six tunes over the five minute mark, but most of them stave off boredom thanks to some impeccable musicianship and a chemistry you can hear. The band makes a point never to venture too far from the golden pop structures that render the songs so likable in the first place. Malkmus tosses in a couple of shorter pop gems for good measure, making sure to appease just about everybody. The album's a bit frontloaded, but overall it's just fun as hell. Break out the air guitars.

Standouts: "Dragonfly Pie" "Cold Son" "Baltimore"

#12- Cut Copy- In Ghost Colours 

80's new wave meets Chicago house meets synth pop meets modern electro. I know that sounds like a lot, but really, at its core, In Ghost Colours is just a seamless dance record. With a heart. At a time when modern electronic records too often sound cold and over-mechanized, Cut Copy want to hear you to do a little whistling while you shake your ass. These Australians aren't necessarily breaking any new ground, but they take these disparate elements and write mind-numbingly infectious dance rock. This disc came out only a week prior to the previously reviewed M83 release, and I've pretty much paired them with one another all year long. Both capture a distinctly colored, nostalgic summery warmth that was unparalleled in 2008. Again, any contemporary act adopting 80's lyrical and or musical stylings stands a severe risk of conjuring up those cornier, cringe-inducing moments we often associate with the decade. In Ghost Colours is so damn catchy and well-sculpted however, you'll be too giddy to notice.

Highlights: "Feel the Love" "Hearts on Fire" "Far Away"

#11- Kanye West- 808's & Heartbreak 

Now if you'd told me several months back that Kanye would go bat shit and make a Phil Collins record, I would have confiscated your meth lab. Had you told me it would subsequently be one of my favorite albums of the year, I would have punched you right in the face. But here we are.

Of course, we're not really talking about a Phil Collins disc here, but Kanye himself has mentioned the man as an influence, and right off the bat, album opener "Say You Will" shares a striking similarity to Collins staple "In the Air Tonight." Obviously there's plenty to talk about with 808's, and for starters I find it necessary to touch on the sheer ballsiness of the thing. Arguably the largest pop star on planet Earth--a rap artist to boot--decides to make a emotionally revealing, spare electro pop record where he sings... despite of course, a complete inability to carry a tune. Say what you want about the man's mammoth ego, but it certainly acts as a perpetually innovative and fearless muse, driving him to take risks with his career that none of his peers dare attempt. In this case he has crafted yet another genre-buster; a record with top 40 appeal that will stand years down the line as a cohesive, artistic statement. This will undoubtedly act as the cult favorite in the West catalogue--a divisive offering that many fans will turn to first when rifling through the IPod.

Of course there are missteps along the way. The seemingly random contribution of an aggressive verse from Young Jeezy during the tail end of "Amazing," essentially the only traditional rap on the entire album, may seem out of place to some. Also, there is the sense that the ubiquitous presence of West chart-toppers "Heartless" and "Love Lockdown" during the recent months may have actually detracted from the overall effect of the album itself. This may say something about the tendency of billboard music purveyors to bombard the public with a shortlist of hits to the point where they lose their shine. More likely however these particular tracks simply don't fit within the overall framework of the album as well as others do.

But yes, they're still great singles.

The fact that 808's & Heartbreak has been able to stir up as much press as its received speaks to West's unparalleled ability as a self-marketer. It is also a testament to Kanye's incessant need to push the boundaries that confine him, and pop music is the better for it.

Standouts: "Welcome to Heartbreak" "Paranoid" "Bad News"

So there you have it. This concludes Part 2. Stay tuned for the top ten.