Best of 2008
Dec. 15th, 2008 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingertroubleOK here they are! My favourites and not-so favourites of 2008...still got a week or so, so this could change. And I've probably forgotten something.
Kanye West - 808's and Heartbreaks - wow. Surprised this isn't in more lists - the late year release? Really great album, Kanye gets depressed and soulful and records sparse Martin Hannett style autotune album and unlike the many copies that will come (it will hopefully inspire rap and RnB to push the experimentation again rather than leaving it to Timberland!) - he makes it work. 'Paranoid' is one of my tracks of the year - pure pop, but with an evil underside. 'Street Lights' and 'Coldest Winter' are classics, and if this was Radiohead everyone would be all over it as an 'experimental classic'. Harrumph.
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - how can you NOT love an album with a song that says 'Fuck the bears in Provincetown' (yes that sort, not the sort that shits in the woods. Well not usually.) - and Peter Gabriel mentions that aren't cheesy? Love their Fleetwood Mac cover already, and heard some of these but the album is solid mix of african style guitar work, pop harmonies, stop-start tempos and silliness like Oxford Comma. Quirky in the right way, unlike the oft-compared Paul Simon is now...a very English album, done by Americans. Odd...and A-punk rocks. Works well in Brussels Royal Art galleries too.
Fleet foxes - Fleet foxes - already had this on the pile for 2 reasons - Breughel on the cover *check* and the harmonies of the strangely released White Winter Hymnal which was all over the radio and I loved...and the whole album is good. It could've fallen into that The Handsome Family alt-country style hole but somehow the slightly-medieval rural feel doesn't go all Circulus nor Wilco.Works well in Brussels Royal Art galleries also. Well it would with the Breughel connection....
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours - surprised by this one, more poppy and less spooky/ambience like the name and cover suggests - many times looked at this one in the record shop and thought 'Nah'. Shame it looks more 'Life in the Bush of Ghosts' rather than Blondie's 'Good Boys' which Nobody's lost, Nobody's Found reminds me of - good uptempo pop. And no, that's not an insult. 'Hearts on Fire' is good electro brilliance, but 'So Haunted' sounding more like Pixies or TV on the Radio happily surprised me...I think part of my mehness was that I feel that with some exceptions electro has been a bit played out this year. Yes Justice and Ed Banger peeps I'm looking sternly in your direction...
The Orb - The Dream (strictly end of 2007 but only just released in the UK & US this year) - wasn't expecting much from this, not a major fan of theirs since just after Pomme Fritz (but a massive one before) which is probably more due to Thrash leaving and Thomas 'Yawn' Fehlmann joining...and I have to say this is a return to form - non-fashionable ambience and dub bass and vocals well up in the mix, spoken word samples, the old Orb is back. Wow. Best track: 'Let the Music Set You Free'. Classic.
Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond - brilliant kuduro album mixing african beats, vocals and guitar with western techno production and doesn't become some worthy fusion, it's loud and proud and very very aggressive. Good counterpart to the slightly white Vampire Weekend.
Danny Byrd - Supersized - great classic drum and bass; dnb was in rude health in 2008 with Hospital and High Contrast and...
London Elektricity - Syncopated City - soulful, slightly downbeat and meaningful and shows that unlike Pendulum you can be serious, do 'serious' meaningful dnb songs and not resort to sounding like an acid-head Korn eaten by an Autotune Machine. Slowly...
Zombie Zombie - A Land For Renegades - spooky scary electro a la John carpenter was big this year, and was respite from those BIG DISTORTED basslines, bad DJ sets and not plugging in your controllers that made Justice such a joke this year.
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles - it may be ripping off Sage Francis, but doing it UK-style - and the music is far better than Sage's, and more inventive. UK hiphop spoken word sample splice oddness. WIN!
Kid Senor Coconut - Around the World - Mr ATOM comes back with covers of Daft Punk and more!
Matmos - 'Supreme Balloon' like Kanye, a change is a good as a rest. Matmos dumped the samples of bears shagging and plastic surgery, sampled only analogue synths and worked with the beautiful Terry Riley and created something that wasn't prog nor psych, totally Matmos but with those 70's sounds all cutup in some Walter Carlos meets Fennesz blender yet warm and not at all cold and standoffish as some previous tracks could be. Or something.
The surprise hits of this year (the ones that sneak up on you, and you can't get away from):
Neon Neon - Stainless Style - was this year's 'Von Sudenfed' - literally didn't leave my iPod for months. I mean an album about De Lorean? With Boom Bip and Gryf Rhys? And turns out to be the pop gem of the year? Who KNEW? Should've won the Mercury.
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark - after the last album's mehness (which strangely everyone loved? WTF?), nice to hear them on form, producing both dance tracks but also the soulful introspective tracks that made Coming on Strong so good...which is what they are good at. Don't listen to those stoopid electro DJs who want everything 4/4 130bpm boys. Do it your way.
Chase & Status - More than a lot - went from WHO? to album of the year in like 2 weeks - showing where drum and bass can go, via dubstep, grime and hiphop, really eclectic and inventive. Best tracks are the KANO collab and Eastern Jam - best dubstep track this year. In facr one of the best tracks, period.
Fujiya & Miyagi - Lightbulbs - again, just clicked. Pun not intended. Basically Krautrock for the Noughties. With very bizarre stream of consciousness lyrics. But good. They've done some excellent remixes this year, also.
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts - Trent in beautiful non-shouty shockah!
Meat Beat Manifesto - `Autoimmune` - only recently got this, but Jack Dangers always belongs in a top 10 list, even doing exactly the same thing as before. Except more dubstep-y.
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything that Happens...real surprise, wasn't expecting much (never was a big fan of 'Life in a Bush of Ghosts') but here is this pop album about being late 40's and doesn't fall into the usual AOR/MOR morass either. Strange Overtones is the track FTW.
Presets - Apocalypto - strangely missing out by being released nearly 2 months late, so all of the buzz was off the boil, a good album reminding me of a modernised Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget though which deserves to be in top of 2008 lists. Certainly one of those that didn't leave my iPod for ages. Kind of feel they dropped the ball though, which was sad. They should have owned 2008 - compared to the likes of Calvin frigging Harris or Sam Sparro (except the wonderful Black and Gold) they are far far better. Hmmm.
Comps:
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - showing us from the past how it should be done today. Classic hiphop and electro cutups.
Radiophonic re-releases and John Baker Tapes
You Could Have Done So Much Better:
Glasvegas - Glasvegas - don't get me wrong, not a BAD album, just not as great as could've been compared to the original demos. I thought that they'd just polished the sound; cos the singles haven't sounded much different if a little too polished. But the album doesn't do it for me like the singles nor the original demos did. Weird - even new tracks like Go Square Go don't have the 'hit' of Daddy's Gone or '..Cheating Heart' which both would be in my top tracks of 2008, if I could be bothered to compile one...
Beck - Modern Guilt - not bad, not great. Some nice songs on there, loved Volcano and Profanity Prayers, but didn't really stick in my head after listening.
M83 - Saturdays = Youth. Having a track that keeps the same chord for hours is not big nor clever, unless you are Brian Eno in 1983. It's just annoying. Not as good as previous M83. Couleurs makes a good (parody?) of early 80's Factory Benelux euro-electro pop though. Needs moar rollerskates. Maybe because of the New Order referencing I'll grow to love it. Dunno. Didn't strike me as brilliant like other M83.
Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook is one of my singles of this year. Shame they couldn't really translate that into an album that isn't more of the same from them. Which is still good, just not wow. Unlike other Sigur albums which rock, this is just meh.
MGMT - Oracular spectacular - Kids is good, so is Time To Pretend (one of the singles of the year for me) and Weekend Warriors which would all be in my top tracks - but the rest of the album sunk in a sort of Flaming Lips-esque indie corporate sub-psych quagmire. Quagmire, that's a very Wayne Coyne sort of word.
Teenagers - Reality Check - remember them? Nice tunes but...fade. Why did I buy that?
Overhyped shit:
Radiohead - In Rainbows - downloaded, one play and then got bored. Remixes were far better than this whiney shite. Strangely I quite like Nude or Reckoner in mashed form - in original form I just get bored.
Crystal Castles - hmm nice idea, annoyed the 8bit ppl - good - yet musically boring. Go see Boom Bip, CC to see how it's done
Pendulum - In Silico - sorry you are NOT Korn. Stop singing like them. Leave the autotune to Kanye, he knows how to use it and can write good pop songs using it. You write good dancefloor stormers, rather than pretending you are in some whiney sub-rate rap metal band. Stop it at once. And I'm speaking to you, Rob Swires. If I had an instrumental version of this album, it would be in the Top list. As it is I wouldn't even piss on it if it was on fire. Bad BAD pretentious 'woe is me' Vocals and far too slow tempos, in dnb, (unlike hiphop) = SHIT. And leave all the sub Dr Who psytrance wittering about aliens to people who've spent too much time in Goa will you? Or the Orb who at least believe that shit...
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals . Words cannot express how shit this album is, so I won't bother.
That Portishead Album - After the yawnsome second LP and becoming the Sound of Annoying Ad Executives on Coke I was happy when they went away. Not happy they came back...more of the same, yet less tunes and more annoying, and with her blackboard/nail vocals. Gladly avoided it past checking out a few tunes on YouTube.
Animal Collective/Polar Bear - I just. don't. get. it.
Kanye West - 808's and Heartbreaks - wow. Surprised this isn't in more lists - the late year release? Really great album, Kanye gets depressed and soulful and records sparse Martin Hannett style autotune album and unlike the many copies that will come (it will hopefully inspire rap and RnB to push the experimentation again rather than leaving it to Timberland!) - he makes it work. 'Paranoid' is one of my tracks of the year - pure pop, but with an evil underside. 'Street Lights' and 'Coldest Winter' are classics, and if this was Radiohead everyone would be all over it as an 'experimental classic'. Harrumph.
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - how can you NOT love an album with a song that says 'Fuck the bears in Provincetown' (yes that sort, not the sort that shits in the woods. Well not usually.) - and Peter Gabriel mentions that aren't cheesy? Love their Fleetwood Mac cover already, and heard some of these but the album is solid mix of african style guitar work, pop harmonies, stop-start tempos and silliness like Oxford Comma. Quirky in the right way, unlike the oft-compared Paul Simon is now...a very English album, done by Americans. Odd...and A-punk rocks. Works well in Brussels Royal Art galleries too.
Fleet foxes - Fleet foxes - already had this on the pile for 2 reasons - Breughel on the cover *check* and the harmonies of the strangely released White Winter Hymnal which was all over the radio and I loved...and the whole album is good. It could've fallen into that The Handsome Family alt-country style hole but somehow the slightly-medieval rural feel doesn't go all Circulus nor Wilco.Works well in Brussels Royal Art galleries also. Well it would with the Breughel connection....
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours - surprised by this one, more poppy and less spooky/ambience like the name and cover suggests - many times looked at this one in the record shop and thought 'Nah'. Shame it looks more 'Life in the Bush of Ghosts' rather than Blondie's 'Good Boys' which Nobody's lost, Nobody's Found reminds me of - good uptempo pop. And no, that's not an insult. 'Hearts on Fire' is good electro brilliance, but 'So Haunted' sounding more like Pixies or TV on the Radio happily surprised me...I think part of my mehness was that I feel that with some exceptions electro has been a bit played out this year. Yes Justice and Ed Banger peeps I'm looking sternly in your direction...
The Orb - The Dream (strictly end of 2007 but only just released in the UK & US this year) - wasn't expecting much from this, not a major fan of theirs since just after Pomme Fritz (but a massive one before) which is probably more due to Thrash leaving and Thomas 'Yawn' Fehlmann joining...and I have to say this is a return to form - non-fashionable ambience and dub bass and vocals well up in the mix, spoken word samples, the old Orb is back. Wow. Best track: 'Let the Music Set You Free'. Classic.
Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond - brilliant kuduro album mixing african beats, vocals and guitar with western techno production and doesn't become some worthy fusion, it's loud and proud and very very aggressive. Good counterpart to the slightly white Vampire Weekend.
Danny Byrd - Supersized - great classic drum and bass; dnb was in rude health in 2008 with Hospital and High Contrast and...
London Elektricity - Syncopated City - soulful, slightly downbeat and meaningful and shows that unlike Pendulum you can be serious, do 'serious' meaningful dnb songs and not resort to sounding like an acid-head Korn eaten by an Autotune Machine. Slowly...
Zombie Zombie - A Land For Renegades - spooky scary electro a la John carpenter was big this year, and was respite from those BIG DISTORTED basslines, bad DJ sets and not plugging in your controllers that made Justice such a joke this year.
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles - it may be ripping off Sage Francis, but doing it UK-style - and the music is far better than Sage's, and more inventive. UK hiphop spoken word sample splice oddness. WIN!
Matmos - 'Supreme Balloon' like Kanye, a change is a good as a rest. Matmos dumped the samples of bears shagging and plastic surgery, sampled only analogue synths and worked with the beautiful Terry Riley and created something that wasn't prog nor psych, totally Matmos but with those 70's sounds all cutup in some Walter Carlos meets Fennesz blender yet warm and not at all cold and standoffish as some previous tracks could be. Or something.
The surprise hits of this year (the ones that sneak up on you, and you can't get away from):
Neon Neon - Stainless Style - was this year's 'Von Sudenfed' - literally didn't leave my iPod for months. I mean an album about De Lorean? With Boom Bip and Gryf Rhys? And turns out to be the pop gem of the year? Who KNEW? Should've won the Mercury.
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark - after the last album's mehness (which strangely everyone loved? WTF?), nice to hear them on form, producing both dance tracks but also the soulful introspective tracks that made Coming on Strong so good...which is what they are good at. Don't listen to those stoopid electro DJs who want everything 4/4 130bpm boys. Do it your way.
Chase & Status - More than a lot - went from WHO? to album of the year in like 2 weeks - showing where drum and bass can go, via dubstep, grime and hiphop, really eclectic and inventive. Best tracks are the KANO collab and Eastern Jam - best dubstep track this year. In facr one of the best tracks, period.
Fujiya & Miyagi - Lightbulbs - again, just clicked. Pun not intended. Basically Krautrock for the Noughties. With very bizarre stream of consciousness lyrics. But good. They've done some excellent remixes this year, also.
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts - Trent in beautiful non-shouty shockah!
Meat Beat Manifesto - `Autoimmune` - only recently got this, but Jack Dangers always belongs in a top 10 list, even doing exactly the same thing as before. Except more dubstep-y.
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything that Happens...real surprise, wasn't expecting much (never was a big fan of 'Life in a Bush of Ghosts') but here is this pop album about being late 40's and doesn't fall into the usual AOR/MOR morass either. Strange Overtones is the track FTW.
Presets - Apocalypto - strangely missing out by being released nearly 2 months late, so all of the buzz was off the boil, a good album reminding me of a modernised Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget though which deserves to be in top of 2008 lists. Certainly one of those that didn't leave my iPod for ages. Kind of feel they dropped the ball though, which was sad. They should have owned 2008 - compared to the likes of Calvin frigging Harris or Sam Sparro (except the wonderful Black and Gold) they are far far better. Hmmm.
Comps:
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - showing us from the past how it should be done today. Classic hiphop and electro cutups.
Radiophonic re-releases and John Baker Tapes
You Could Have Done So Much Better:
Glasvegas - Glasvegas - don't get me wrong, not a BAD album, just not as great as could've been compared to the original demos. I thought that they'd just polished the sound; cos the singles haven't sounded much different if a little too polished. But the album doesn't do it for me like the singles nor the original demos did. Weird - even new tracks like Go Square Go don't have the 'hit' of Daddy's Gone or '..Cheating Heart' which both would be in my top tracks of 2008, if I could be bothered to compile one...
Beck - Modern Guilt - not bad, not great. Some nice songs on there, loved Volcano and Profanity Prayers, but didn't really stick in my head after listening.
M83 - Saturdays = Youth. Having a track that keeps the same chord for hours is not big nor clever, unless you are Brian Eno in 1983. It's just annoying. Not as good as previous M83. Couleurs makes a good (parody?) of early 80's Factory Benelux euro-electro pop though. Needs moar rollerskates. Maybe because of the New Order referencing I'll grow to love it. Dunno. Didn't strike me as brilliant like other M83.
Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook is one of my singles of this year. Shame they couldn't really translate that into an album that isn't more of the same from them. Which is still good, just not wow. Unlike other Sigur albums which rock, this is just meh.
MGMT - Oracular spectacular - Kids is good, so is Time To Pretend (one of the singles of the year for me) and Weekend Warriors which would all be in my top tracks - but the rest of the album sunk in a sort of Flaming Lips-esque indie corporate sub-psych quagmire. Quagmire, that's a very Wayne Coyne sort of word.
Teenagers - Reality Check - remember them? Nice tunes but...fade. Why did I buy that?
Overhyped shit:
Radiohead - In Rainbows - downloaded, one play and then got bored. Remixes were far better than this whiney shite. Strangely I quite like Nude or Reckoner in mashed form - in original form I just get bored.
Crystal Castles - hmm nice idea, annoyed the 8bit ppl - good - yet musically boring. Go see Boom Bip, CC to see how it's done
Pendulum - In Silico - sorry you are NOT Korn. Stop singing like them. Leave the autotune to Kanye, he knows how to use it and can write good pop songs using it. You write good dancefloor stormers, rather than pretending you are in some whiney sub-rate rap metal band. Stop it at once. And I'm speaking to you, Rob Swires. If I had an instrumental version of this album, it would be in the Top list. As it is I wouldn't even piss on it if it was on fire. Bad BAD pretentious 'woe is me' Vocals and far too slow tempos, in dnb, (unlike hiphop) = SHIT. And leave all the sub Dr Who psytrance wittering about aliens to people who've spent too much time in Goa will you? Or the Orb who at least believe that shit...
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals . Words cannot express how shit this album is, so I won't bother.
That Portishead Album - After the yawnsome second LP and becoming the Sound of Annoying Ad Executives on Coke I was happy when they went away. Not happy they came back...more of the same, yet less tunes and more annoying, and with her blackboard/nail vocals. Gladly avoided it past checking out a few tunes on YouTube.
Animal Collective/Polar Bear - I just. don't. get. it.
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Date: 2008-12-15 11:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-16 12:10 am (UTC)Kanye hasn't really impressed me in the past, but the new album drops most of the bluster and bling stuff that put me off. His production skills are second to none, especially on the likes of Stronger - if Daft Punk can be impressed by what he did to their song, well it doesn't get better than that.
I thought he was too sample-based - so the new album proves that he has some talent, rather relying on samples, really.