10. M83 Saturdays=Youth
A grouping of disaffected teens grace the cover of M83's Saturday=Youth, one girl even looks eerily like Molly Ringwald. These teens probably look a lot like the kids Anthony Gonzalez hung out with growing up in the 80s. Saturdays=Youth is a tribute to Gonzalez's teenage years and the music is informed by the New Wave and pop music of the 80s. Big glossy anthems, Gothic poetry, M83 leaves behind the shoegazer tag so often associated with them for gorgeous and lush melodies and a perfectly captured sense of angst and hope. Irrepressible hormones tinge the impeccably crafted music [think the prom-ready "Graveyard Girl" or the aching "Kim and Jessie"] and Gonzalez has captured not only a frame of mind but a particular time frame as well.9. The Dodos Visiter
Visiter is unlike any folk album out there. It challenges all notions of what "folk" music should be, incorporating African beats, sharp guitar strums and altogether making it sound different from what we're used to. Often labeled as "experimental," The Dodos create music based around just three things: guitar, vocals and drums. Playing with arrangements and different textures yielded more interesting and thought provoking sounds and though the songwriting is essentially based around the singer-songwriter school of though, the music is dynamic and not altogether unlike bands like Animal Collective. Psych-folk can be one apt descriptor; Meric Long and Logan Kroeber juxtapose sweet harmonies with harsher elements, creating a varied and exiting texture in the sound. Fervored and sprawling, Visiter is nevertheless controlled and fascinating to listen to.8. Cut Copy In Ghost Colours
Australia's Cut Copy was a complete mystery to me despite them being wildly popular in their homeland. In Ghost Colours was more or less a shot in the dark and stateside, it seemed to garner little attention; feast or famine if you will. But what a record. Effortlessly blending rock, dance, pop, disco, house [!], In Ghost Colours is a hard record not to like. Recalling Depeche Mode and New Order, the songs are effervescent, vibrant and, dare I say it, colorful. Utilizing varied samples, synths, guitars, bass, etc., the songs wonderfully well honed and carefree. Blending and easing into each other, the tracks meld together forming a tight, cohesive album that is lively and danceable. It's hard to single out standout tracks when all the songs are pretty damn great. Just play this album at a party and you're set.7. Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
Hype, shympe. Sometimes a record gets a lot of attention because it's actually good. Not because a record company is throwing tons of money at promotion, or because people are overblowing their praise. Sometimes the record is actually pretty damn good. Remember a little band called The Strokes? All that fanfare and hype around Is This It, a really solid, good album but nonetheless the backlash hit.The backlash may have started for Vampire Weekend, a quartet of Ivy League misfits, but like The Strokes before them, they have a solid album to support them. Vampire Weekend's self-titled album came out in January and it's testament to the strength of that album that it's still going strong. The songs are crisp, endlessly playable and have a sense of carefree fun that can sometimes be missing in indie rock. Brazenly lifting Afro-pop sounds, Vampire Weekend's songs are fresh amidst the music scene. Yeah, the backlash is coming and you'll put that record down for a while, but it'll sound just as good and just as fresh when you come back to it in a year.
6. Deerhunter Microcastle
Paying close attention to the details of the music. The schisms the sometimes played out during their breakout Cryptograms have been settled in Microcastle. The melodies and hooks have been pushed forth unveiling gorgeous and evocative lyrics. The distortion and the effects were still there but scaled back enough to reveal stunning, complex arrangements. Unrestrained by genres, Microcastle explores different influences subtly leading to songs that are sonically complex and varied, with its base in pop shoegaze. Microcastle is an album with incredibly stunning songs, endlessly listenable yet fascinatingly complex.5. Portishead Third
Eleven years since Portishead, fourteen years since Dummy and countless groups aping their trip-hop sound. Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons have kept quite for long enough. Once Third was announced, fans waited with bated breath, wondering what exactly would the album sound like. Luckily for us, Third is not a re-hash of the same trip-hop sound that they helped create; this is no Dummy part two and nor should it have been. Third sounds like a band that has been re-energized, excited and invigorated. Shunning the pristine production values of their previous albums, Third is rough around the edges and sounds like a band relishing in the music and in the process. Swinging from sweet folk ditties to industrial tomes to electronic ballads, Third is varied, wildly creative, atmospheric and exciting to listen to. It's easy to call Third a return to form, but what it really is, is a great album.4. TV on the Radio Dear Science
Coming from a particular place and time [pre-election America], Dear Science is an album about all the big things: life, love, death, politics, sex, you name it. A smart, biting critique on Bush-era America, Dear Science careens into several genres in the process, ultimately with a vibrant sound like none TV on the Radio has come out with before. Never boring, TV on the Radio never disappoints and Dear Science is unapologetically experimental while still wildly catchy and listenable. From the funk of "Dancing Choose" to the elegiac "Family Tree" and the howling "Lover's Day," the songs are complex, messy and intricate at the same time. Dear Science is triumphant, unashamed, unafraid and simply put, awesome.3. Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
There are certain records that sound just fine on an iPod or on your laptop. Certain records can adapt to digital formats and don't beg to be played on a record player. Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut, however, is an album that almost demands to be played on a turntable. Though it is a fantastic album regardless of medium, the warm, homey tones of "White Winter Hymnal" and "Ragged Wood" are at home with the crackles of a sturdy record player. Lead singer Robin Pecknold grew up listening to his parents' Allman Brothers, Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills & Nash records and those familiar sounds ring through the album. Yet these songs don't sound redundant, but rather have a freshness that belies their amber-hued tones. Even the cold technology of an mp3 player can emit the real full-bodied warmth through Fleet Foxes' music.Originally written for Treble Zine's 50 Best Albums of 2008.
2. Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Technically, For Emma, Forever Ago was self-released last year, listmakers followed suit and didn't place this great album on year end lists [coughpitchforkcough]. With Jagjaguwar backing him, Justin Vernon's opus received the push it deserved. This lovely album has heartbreaking roots: reeling from the break-up of his band and from his girlfriend, Vernon retreated to his family's Wisconsin cabin to write and record. The result is an album full of heartache, loss, love and is completely relatable. With just himself and his guitar, Vernon crafted songs that were delicate yet emotionally brutal. Songs like "Skinny Love" hit you hard with the pain but are go lovingly written that they never become unlistenable. Justin Vernon poured his heart out into this album of heartfelt, heart wrenching songs and has proven to be a new and exciting voice in music.1. Beach House Devotion
As I was compiling my year-end lists, I held marathon listening sessions trying to remember, "what music was out in 2008?" Much of my year was dictated by my first semester in grad school. There was no time for listening to music, much less keep up with the new bands blogs are heralding. When I did have time to listen to music I found that I kept coming back to one album: Beach House's Devotion. Out of all the albums that came out in 2008, I listened this one to the most. I was trying to explain why I loved Devotion so much and why I made it my top album of the year. After failing several times to articulate what I felt, I uttered, "It touched my soul." Devotion is an album of intimate proportions, performed with great care by Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand. Each song carries an elegant and languid charm as Legand's ethereal vocals and Scally's steadfast guitars transport you to an island of calm. Perhaps it was the calming effect that had me returning to Devotion time and time again, but it is the gothic-romantic longing in the songs that make each listen an intimate and profound experience.Originally written for Treble Zine's 50 Best Albums of 2008.
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