In chronological order, rather than in order of preference:
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
Why? – Alopecia
Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster
Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
The Baseball Project – Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer
TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Worst Album (disclaimer: I don’t think I heard any truly bad albums, at least not all the way through, so this is probably more like “most disappointing”)
Weezer – The Red Album
Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded (technically a re-release, but it deserves to chart just for “Disturbia”)
N.E.R.D. - Seeing Sounds
Nas & DJ Green Lantern - The Nigger Tape
*Edit: replace one of the albums on the above list with Then What Happened by J-Live.
Worst Album -
Like Meltdown, I don’t think I listened to the entirety of an album that I thought was truly bad. If I’m going to go for most disappointing, I’ll go with Hard Candy by Madonna.
Some catchy songs, but a lot of the lyrics are embarrassing, as is the whole hip-hop shtick she adopts.
Most Overrated -
I’ll agree with Fleet Foxes. Don’t really see the appeal.
Airbourne - Runnin’ Wild
Heaven Shall Burn - Iconoclast (Part 1: The Final Resistance)
Cataract - Cataract
Testament - The Formation of Damnation
Opeth - Watershed
The Haunted - Versus
Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring
Motörhead - Motörizer
Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh
I know that’s only a Nifty Nine, but my funds were more limited this year than last.
Oh, and any “best of” list that includes any of the following may be ignored (and the lister should prolly be flogged):
Metallica - Death Magnetic
AC/DC - Black Ice
Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy
Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown
I can’t really say that I bought ten great albums this year … I really liked Death Cab for Cutie’s “Narrow Stairs” but I liked them anyway so it was no big surprise. I liked the S/T Flight of the Conchords CD but I already knew all the songs from the show. The new Portishead wasn’t really that great. NIN’s “The Slip” didn’t grab me outside of one or two tracks. I did really like “Move Forward” by KLOQ.
All in all, I’d say my favorite album this year by a mile was “Seventh Tree” by Goldfrapp. Though I have to asterisk it since, while it was released in February, I had a copy in November 2007. Still, nothing topped it for me. I love that album to little bitty pieces.
These are in no order, and would almost certainly be different if I answered in a half hour.
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cardinology
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Margot & the Nuclear So + So’s - Not Animal
Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
Lil’ Wayne - Tha Carter III
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
N.E.R.D. - Seeing Sounds
Most utterly disappointing:
Islands - Arm’s Way
Most overrated:
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
Snow Patrol - One Million Suns (I think that’s the title)
Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads
I was a bit disappointed with the Kaiser Chiefs album; it was okay, but nowhere near as good as their first two.
SuntanTigerTamer, is Jenny Lewis the chick from Rilo Kiley? The girl who was in The Wizard? I used to have a big crush on her when I was about 11, when that movie came out. I heard she was in a band now, but I’ve never heard them (or her).
Yep. Personally, I think her collaboration with the Watson Twins - called Rabbit Fur Coat - is easily her best album, ever, with any line up. Acid Tongue is way better than Under the Blacklight and The Initial Friends EP is almost as good as Rabbit Fur Coat.
The last half of this year sucked for music. There’s simply not a lot happening and I’m not entirely sure why, no one can figure it out. Since most of the major indie releases have been mentioned, here are a few more that people should check out that should be in the discussion for “best of 2008”…
The Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
Beach House - Devotion
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplanes
David Karsten Daniels - Fear of Flying
James Pants
etc, etc, etc
I’d have to add some more props to Crystal Castles. Even if they became indie darlings overnight, that’s still a fucking awesome record.
Most Disappointing: My Morning Jacket, easily.
Most Overrated: Los Campensios, Eagles of Death Metal, Cut Copy, Girl Talk (+1000), No Age, and a lot of others I don’t care to name right now.
Wost: Too many to count.
Oh, and, I do enjoy Fleet Foxes a bit, but you have to understand that it’s yet another Brian Wilson/Beach Boys inspired harmonies derivative applied to southern/indie pop sensibilities a la My Morning Jacket. Just, less epic is all.
On preview: Yea, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head is one novelty-named band that is actually quite good. That one song is more infectious than almost anything else I’ve heard this year.
Yes, it is the girl from Rilo Kiley, a band I dislike a great deal. Her solo album is incredible though and a revelry in diverse musical styles. Definitely worth a listen.
I think I’m too big of a Unicorns fan to dislike anything Nick Thornburn touches. Did you listen to his album with Jim Guthrie under the name Human Highway? What were your thoughts on that?
What made the first Islands album and the only Unicorn album so great was that borderline psychotic energy that permeated every track. Every moment, even the slow times, seemed spontaneous, or at least were largely unexpected.
With Arm’s Way, it seems they knew this, that an album that’s a cornucopia of musical styles was expected, and so they stressed over it and produced the hell out of every last moment. Considering every single member (IIRC) went to music school of some sort, this is not a completely unexpected result, but it was definitely disappointing as an album. It was flat, dull, overworked, not at all catchy, and worst of all, it didn’t seem like fun at all. Definite disappointment, especially considering it’s some of the best album art of the year.
I agree with all of the above, but somehow had the opposite reaction to the album. I thought it was the perfect step forward for them; over-produced, maybe. Or maybe they finally attained the level of production that the complexity of thier music deserves.
And, IMHO, “Kids Dont Know Shit” could have fit right in on Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Are Gone.
