Year in Music 2008 - My Tops

Favorite Albums

1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend - Sweet pure musical fun. Vampire Weekend are an Indie Pop band from New York. They describe their music as "Upper West Side Soweto", and that certainly makes sense.

2. Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Dresden Dolls singer-song-writer creates a phenomenal solo record with a little help from Ben Folds.

3. Miniature Tigers - Tell it To The Volcano - Phoenix/LA indie rock band create the most heart felt and vulnerable record since Weezer's Pinkerton, but while Pinkerton is painful in it's epic tragedy Tell it To The Volcano is fun retro camp.

4. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night - Nashville rockers create their best album yet. Only By The Night is a beautiful delicate album which still "rocks". The best atmospheric album since U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver (pronounced "bohn eevair") is an indie-folk singer-songwriter named Justin Vernon. On For Emma, Forever Ago Vernon chanels difficult personal situations to craft a haunting beautiful work of art all self-recorded and performed while secluded in a small cabin in northwestern Wisconsin.

6. Beck - Modern Guilt - Beck's best album since 2005's Guerro. Produced by Beck and mastermind producer Danger Mouse.

7. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip - Trent Reznor continues his internally sour powered misery machine with another catchy enjoyable album.

8. Lykke Li - Youth Novels - Swedish indie singer crafts a beautiful gem alluding to and moving within the Bildungsroman(coming of age) literary format. Produced by Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John

9. Black Mountain - In the Future - Canadian psychedelic rock-band channels all that is weird about Vancouver and all that is weird about psychedelic rock for a strange but thoroughly enjoyable album. That alone is cool, but by day, three members of the band work for an organization (Insite) that meets the basic living requirements of the chronically poor, drug addicted and mentally ill near Vancouver's infamous Main & Hastings intersection.

10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles - Toronto based group create one of the most interesting if not best electronic record this year. Full of visceral meticulously composed dirty electro dance.

11. Portishead - Third - Portishead reunites and continues their streak of creating wonderful trip-hop, a genre name which should just be renamed Portished.

12. The Bug - London Zoo - Enlgish recording artist Kevin Martin's third album under his alias of The Bug. Kevin Martin with Alec Empire also put together some of my favorite digital hardcore under the alias of Curse of the Golden Vampire. London Zoo mixes various popular British electronic genres (dancehall, garage, hip hop, dubstep, and techno) with wonderful intelligent results.

13. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely - Jack White backs off a bit to allow Brendan Benson more room to shine, even though the two frontmen's similar voices often blur into one another. It's full of hooks and guitar, and lots of instrumental power, and some of the most notable musicians in American music today.

14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes - Genteal orchestral baroque folk pop music. Full of sweet hushed songs recorded with a roomy delicate charm and feeling.

15. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? - Brighton England 4 piece Indie Rock band create their best album yet. Do You Like Rock Music is full of beautiful modern post-punk anthems.

16. Clinic - Do It! - This Liverpool band has a sound which initially may sound a bit like a throw back, but with it's unique thoughtful chord progressions and original use of often vintage gear, they create a sound which grows on the listener.

17. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust - Icelandic post-rock band trade-in epic minimalist soundscapes for a folk influenced sound of a fun summer day.

18. Cold Play - Viva La Vida or Death and All his Friends - Coldplay, the band I'd most like to go grab a pint with, have always, to me, been the band for other people. But on Viva, Brian Eno pushes Coldplay to create a less cliched sound for the most enjoyable Coldplay release since Parachutes.

19. TV on the Radio - Dear Science - TV on the Radio are a difficult band to listen to. Their relentless experimentation often hands you a lump of coal when you ask for gold, but this album is surprisingly accessible, and enjoyable to listen to.

20. Metallica - Death Magnetic - The Kings of metal return with their best album in 20 years. This album restores a bit of shine to their crown. The boring 4 on the floor arena crushers, are replaced with a return to their signature fast paced enigmatic complexity. Sure, this isn't as good as Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets, but most things aren't.


Honerable Mentions:

The Via Maris - The Bicentennial - I'm not sure what it was about this disc, but it never quite caught on with me like their previous album. There are a lot of cool moments. Chad Sundin leads his recording project turned band now back to recording project to exciting higher energy moments, and beautiful reflective quiet parts. It's only flaw is how thorghly it regects modern music. It's actually exciting when it teases with moments of 70's folk rock. The anti-new treatment of this music actually makes it feel old. It's not that fun youthfull 60's retro old, but that stodgy grandpa's attic old. Sure there are lots of cool peices and well crafted, but it's obscured by the dust of time. I feel that bringing in a quirky hip modern approach to Chad's gorgeous songs could be quite amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if his next album did just that, as he's been working with uber tallented and fun producer Back Ted-N-Ted.
Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings - A dazzlingly confusing record broken up into the sound of two different days. The album requires lots of patience, but pay offs in the end. This one is certainly only for fans.
Weezer - Weezer (RED) - I was hesitant to put this album on this list at all because it is not my favorite album. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it's something along the lines of the fact that this album is almost the anti-Pinkerton. Everytime their about to be vulnerable or geniune they throw up a weird snarky pose. It's like the geeky kid in class came to school one day in a suit straight out of a James Bond movie. However, Weezer is one of those bands which can pretty much get away with murder. Their singles are good, and their weak moments aren't that bad.
Smashing Pumpkins - American Gothic - EP/ G.L.O.W. - Single - Smashing Pumpkins ditch the album format to varying results. American Gothic is a nimble well crafted collection of acoustic songs, and the G.L.O.W. single shows them rocking with less words than ever before. However, none of these quite find the magic which propelled the Pumpkins through the 90's or even the song writing sweetness of Zeitgeist.

Albums I Wanted To, But Haven't listened to yet:
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
The Hush Sound - Goodbye Blues
The Presidents of The United States of America - These Are the Good Times People
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

Favorite Artists (according to Last.FM)
1 Radiohead
2 Elliott Smith
3 The Smashing Pumpkins
4 Echo & the Bunnymen
5 Counting Crows
6 Weezer
7 Red Hot Chili Peppers
8 Nine Inch Nails
9 U2
10 The Via Maris

The Death of the Album

I think, the idea of a collection of songs as expansive as an album is quickly becoming an archaic idea. And why not! It's time to take music back to the Single/E.P.? I know I've talked about this before, but I think since I last spoke on this the topic has advanced so quickly that I'd like to explore it again.

I feel that it is time that musicians started creating one song at a time or at the most a very small collection of songs at a time. This will provides the artist more flexibility to record in various manners with a natural progression of sound. Most people don't listen to albums anymore; they fill their iPod with a lots of songs from different artists. Since each piece is more than likely listened to separately it is better to treat each song as a separate thought. If a song has to be with another song you can merge the two together, and not separate them into separate tracks. At the end of the year bands and solo artists could reward fans with a boutique physical releases, and the lurkers/outsiders can simply enjoy the pieces they've already purchased or buy more.

For those who want/need the strong visuals that coincide with an album release there could still be visual tie ins to the recorded product. There could be micro-sites/blogs for each song. Since the focus is on the one song, more attention would be paid to creating the best works possible in the smallest amount of time. Since people's attention spans are shorter now artists can work at utilize every second possible. Artists could still create epic expansive albums if they want, but they would be more akin to a box sets. The album would be a collection of singles digital and/or 45's (two songs) and/or other interesting variants (3 or more songs).

I think this has a strong possibility of working well. By musicians accommodating the consumer I think they're will be some interesting harmonious effects. As the switch to the album format in the 70's created some beautiful and in the same way some less exciting music, this will without doubt create similar results.

Because I'm Just Trying To Be Free

In my head I fear that everybody who "loves" me, has "plans" for me in their head.

They want me to do or be something. Nobody is just content with what I am or what I provide. They either want more or less or something different...

All I really want is somebody who will love me with an unconditional love and acceptance.

But I try... I try to be good enough, but despite that effort I never actually meet anybody's standards. I'm still... just me

Everybody cares, everybody understands
Yes everybody cares about you
Yeah and whether or not you want them to
It's a chemical embrace that kicks you in the head
To a pure synthetic sympathy that infuriates you totally
And a quiet lie that makes you wanna scream and shout
...

- Elliott Smith from Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands

This isn't to say I don't want to make all those people happy. I really do. I want to give them all what they want, but sometimes I can't. That's why it tears me up so much. In fact, these days I'm continually baffled by people's kindness because I don't believe I deserve it. I question everything positive, but accept everything negative.

I delete the positive reviews in my head. I erase loyalty and magnify the critics...

I'm so worried about being naive that I've become even worse, I've become jaded.