Top 5 Albums of 2008!

Right, right, I realize we're over 3 months into 2009 and there's been so much great music that everybody's already forgotten all about 2008. However, I've never put together a top albums list and, to be honest, that's one of the main reasons I started this blog in the first place. So if you've already let all the great tunes we heard in '08 slip away, I'm hear to remind you. Favorite tracks are listed in bold following the review. No particular order.

TV on the Radio - Dear Science

First things first, I'll gladly admit that I was way behind the curve on TV on the Radio. Return to Cookie Mountain just never clicked with me, and didn't even pick this album up for months after it came out. That didn't, however, stop me from jumping all over this bandwagon once I heard it. The album spans several genres, and these guys can keep up with the pros in each. From pounding electronic beats ("Crying") to sparse acoustic ballads ("Family Tree"), breakneck-paced hip-hop ("Dancing Choose") to explosive slow builders ("Halfway Home"), what more could a guy ask for? Just one of their reputedly brilliant live shows. Thankfully I'll only have to wait until May. "Halfway Home","Crying", "Golden Age"


Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III


Go grab this album (if you don't own it, go buy it! Then continue reading). Put on the track "Playing with Fire". Toward the beginning of the song Wayne sings: "The bitch say I'm hot, and I say / 'No bitch, I'm blazing' / like what the fuck you expect? / I'm a motherfucking Cajun". You're probably asking what this proves, other than the fact that Lil Wayne writes silly lyrics and is a bit of a misogynist. Listen again. I just can't hear that tense, unstable beat and Wayne's strained, chaotic voice without thinking of a building (as the title suggests) up in flames. It's a shitstorm. People are running terrified. But Wayne? He's rapping. About bitches. "3 Peat", "A Milli", "Let the Beat Build"



Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

This is an album that, quite simply, you can't fully enjoy without dancing. This shouldn't suggest that you need to be at a party (though if you are that's just perfect). On the contrary, sometimes it's most fun to just dance your ass off by yourself. Cut Copy truly sets a new standard in electronic pop with this record. Their construction of beats is fresh and flawless throughout. The vocals are epic and haunting. The cautious listener is lured in by warm melodies and friendly pop hooks. As the beats begin to layer and build he might sense that something is amiss but is too intrigued to step back. By the climax he realizes there's no escape. He lives in a new world now. "Out There on the Ice", "Lights and Music", "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found"


Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

Up next is of Montreal's tragically under appreciated sexually confused schizophrenic glam rock masterpiece. If you've heard of Montreal's 2007 release, the universally lauded Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, you know that, on the latter half of said album, the protagonist begins a descent into pure madness. At some point, he ceases to be himself, instead becoming Georgie Fruit, a middle-aged transsexual funk singer. Skeletal Lamping is the result of this madness. The songs frequently jump from sterling pop bliss to lurching, ominous instrumentals faster than you can say "manic depression". While there are more funky hi-fi dance beats than you can shake a phallic symbol at, the album is perhaps at its most equisite during the stripped down, introspective moments. "Why am I so damaged? / Why am I so troubled, girl? / I don't know how long I can hold on / If it's gonna be like this forever," Kevin Barnes sings over nothing but piano on "Touched Something's Hollow" before launching into "An Eulardian Instance" a decidedly cheerful and sanguine song about the beginning of a relationship. Bottom line: don't let the unsettling jumps and sexually obsessed lyrics scare you. This is of Montreal's finest moment. "An Eulardian Instance", "Triphallus, to Punctuate!", "Beware Our Nubile Miscreants", "Id Engager"


The Zydepunks - Finisterre

If you aren't from New Orleans, odds are you've never heard of this band. They bills themselves as a "New Orleans Cajun Irish Breton Klezmer Slavic Zydeco" band, which of course neglects to mention the healthy dose of good old-fashioned punk thrown in. This clusterfuck of influences ultimately leads to a surprisingly coherent -- albeit unique -- and emninently enjoyable sound. The lineup centers around accordians and fiddle (imagine, a punk band with no electric guitar!) and the band is known to sing in English, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew. Though never explicitly mentioned, the ghost of Katrina hangs over the entire album. In the starkly gorgeous "Dear Molly", written while the band was evacuated for the storm, Juan Christian Kuffner sings "Don't tell me this is the end / We've been through worse and we'll be back again / We'll have a drink for eachother / In the Ninth Ward". The traditional Equadoran ballad "Por La Orilla Del Mar", featuring translated lyrics "I always leave my love / For the waves of the sea / I always leave my love / But I will never forget", fits so well in this context that it's hard to believe the song was written years before the storm. If you have any interest in bands like Gogol Bordello or Dropkick Murphys, if urge you to Google these guys ASAP. "Papirossen in Gan Eden", "Dear Molly", "Song for Mike", "La Vie Est Courte Et Cruelle"