My favorite 10 albums of 2008

OK, OK, this one has nothing whatsoever to do with Dahlia, at least not directly, but I figure (hope) that she'll want to know what sort of music Daddy was listening to the year she was born. And I know that at least Uncle Brennan and Uncle Chris will be interested in my picks.

For the rest of you, I promise to post more pictures and stories about Dahlia very soon. She had a doctor's checkup today and she's doing great, in the 75th percentile for height and weight for babies at 2 months, even though she's only 6 weeks. Huzzah.

Here's my list for 2008. I'm sure I forgot something, so tell me about it.

10. Tapes 'n Tapes - Walk It Off

I know these guys were waaay overhyped in the first half of 2008, but c'mon, with some good reason. If you heard the second coming of Echo and the Bunnymen (a comparison that comes up waaay too often these days), wouldn't you be jazzed? Plus, they wrote a song about my favorite "Arrested Development" character.

I found myself playing this album over and over quite a bit in the spring of 2008. Nothing perhaps matches the catchiness or intensity of "Insistor" from 2006's The Loon, but "Le Ruse," "Hang Them All," and "Conquest" were among my favorite songs of the year.

9. Islands - Arm's Way

Everybody was super sad when The Unicorns broke up, amirite? But then Jamie and Nick got back together as Islands with Return to the Sea," and we were all, "WTF," but in a good way. Return was weird dancey stuff that eventually grew on me, and Arm's Way is similar in that regard, i.e the growing and growing. Whereas Return was full of eclectic dance pop, Arm's is pure guitar pop, and extremely polished at that.

I remember the first few times I heard "Pieces of You," I thought, "Get this adult contemporary crap off my MP3 player!" The only song I really even liked at first was the last, "I Feel Evil Creeping In." But then my Sandisk shuffle feature fell in love with "Life in Jail," and so did I. Then Arm's Way and Pete lived 2008 happily ever after.

8. Vetiver - Thing of the Past

Cover album? WTF, Pete?! Well, how often do you hear an album of "standards" where every song is better than the original (apologies to Townes Van Zandt), with the possible exception of Bobby Charles' "I Must Be in a Good Place Now."

Not only that, but I'd never even heard of some of these songs before: "Houses," "To Baby," "The Road to Ronderlin," and "Lon Chaney" were all very welcome additions to my musical database. The songs are all incredibly restrained and moving performances. This album won't blow anyone away, but it will provide high-quality easy listening for years to come.

7. No Age - Nouns

How can two small vegans make a sound so big? With Randy Randall (is that his real name?) on guitar and Dean Allen Spunt on drums, No Age exploded into 2008 with their first full-length album. I hadn't heard "Weirdo Rippers" before, so listening to the first, short track "Miner," I was all, "Hmmm, pretty good," but then "Eraser" kicked in, and I was all, "Hey, this is really good," and then "Teen Creeps" starts a rocking, and I was all, "OMGGTFO, who are these guys?!"

I bought a ticket to their June 2008 show at The Independent, but I double booked myself into a poker game the same night. It's a hold 'em tournament game, so I figured I could go big or go home early, and then hit the show. Well, I did very well, and won the tournament in about an hour and a half, with plenty of time to make it down to Divisadero and Grove ... but because the tournament ended so quickly, everyone wanted to keep going with a table-limit game of hold 'em, and with $80 of their money in my pocket, how could I say no? I won another $25-30 in the cash game, and the No Age ticket was only $13, but I still think I made the wrong choice. TRUE STORY!

(My sucky Sandisk shuffle feature loves "Cappo" even more than I do.)

6. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

Less of an album per se than an hour of "Lunchtime Workout"-style mix, "Feed the Animals" rises from the sludge of FM radio to the heights of near sublime by the remarkable skills of 27-year-old mashup czar Gregg "I Pronounce it Greg-Guh" Gillis.

Mixing up OutKast, RATM, Butthole Surfers, Yo Majesty, Procol Harum, INXS, The Spinners, Donna Summer, BTO, The Cure, and oh, another 500 artists or so, Girl Talk improves on 2006's Night Ripper to become the greatest "hypermashup" of all time ... so far.

Plus, the album was released on Illegal Art in name-your-own-price fashion, and when users enter $0.00, the site asks you why. It may not be as artistically innovative as something like NIN's Ghosts I-IV (another quality "free" album released in 2008), but it's a heck of a lot more fun to listen to.

NB: If you "don't like rap music," then don't even bother.

5. The French Semester - Open Letter to the Disappeared

Every respectable Top 10 list of the year needs a from-left-field wild card, so here you go. I would have never heard of these guys if they hadn't toured with Built to Spill. And anyone who's A-OK with Dug and crew is A-OK with me. They don't even have a Wikipedia entry yet!

Every reference I find to this band online calls them "breezy lo-fi pop," and that's fairly spot on. Loaded with jangly guitar, hooks aplenty, and introspective, personal lyrics, this band sounds like everything you've heard before, but what's so wrong with that? Take GBV + Pavement + Big Star + The Monkees, and you're pretty much there. (How cool is a band that lists The Monkees as an influence?)

Another army passes by and I'm wondering why
People run and hide, seeking out the West Coast vibe
When in a heartbeat they are all gonna die
All gonna die
You know better than to let your internationalisms
Unleash the heart-attack dogs on your neighbor

4. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

I had heard a number of the songs on AMZ from live Wolf Parade performances in 2007, and since Apologies to the Queen Mary was probably my most favoritest album of 2005, and since I had no real new Wolf Parade stuff to devour since then, and since I'd fallen in love with Sunset Rubdown's Snake's Got a Leg and Shut Up I Am Dreaming in the years hence, the latest album from Wolf Parade was easily my most anticipated release of the year.

And it doesn't disappoint. Well, not really. Considering the amazingly high expectations I had for AMZ, anything less than a Purple Rain-quality album would have been slightly disappointing. And I'll admit that I could have used 1-2 more songs on Zoomer. However, repeated listens (probably 20-25 in the first week) bore out its greatness to me.

Everybody seems to like the epics best--"California Dreamer" (6:00), "Fine Young Cannibals" (6:31), and "Kissing the Beehive" (10:52)--and those are all great, but I was most captured by the understated "The Grey Estates," and the Dan Boeckner-penned frantic rocker "Language City," where "eyeballs float in space."

3. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light

There was a time (1995-1997?) when I listed to a heck of a lot of Palace, Palace Brothers, or whatever the heck it was that Will Oldham was calling himself those days. I durn near wore out the grooves of There is No-One What Will Take Care of You.

Then he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and, sure, I bought some of his albums and EPs, but ... I slowly and surely lost touch with the guy (aside from his very respectable acting turn in Old Joy). Somehow it seemed like the dark side of his soul had taking over, and songs were just, well, too dark. See: I See a Darkness.

All of a sudden, in 2008, out of nowhere, I hear his cover of R. Kelly's "World's Greatest," and I think, "wow, that's really good," so I check out Lie Down in the Light, and I'll be durned if it isn't one of the most inspiring albums I've heard in years. "I'll be Glad" is a jaw-dropping new hymn for the millennium:

When you get your flock together
Please take me along
Lord, I'm too weak to travel
I'll be glad you're strong
... And I'll lean on your arm

2. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

I can barely understand a single word sung (or screamed) on this album, and I certainly can't tell you what the hell "Horrrsing" with 3 R's means. I can tell you I couldn't stop listening to this album this summer. There's obviously a lot of noise rock out there these days, but there's something about Fuck Buttons that drags you in, lifts you up by the armpits, and refuses to let go until you've taken a look outside the universe.

At its best, Horrrsing sounds like giant computers from the 1950s having wild, passionate sex: a cacophony of whirs, blips, and kraangs that builds to a heavenly crescendo where inexplicable expletives pour out of the mouth of Skynet's John the Baptist. I don't know if this album is too cool for school or what, but I do know that if you like interesting and evocative yet engaging noise rock, it's definitely worth a listen.

1. Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

The biggest surprise of 2008 for me was this unsigned (?!?!) band from--you guessed it--Toronto, Canada (lead singer Nils Edenloff calls Alberta his hometown). Sure, the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison between "non-singers" Edenloff and Jeff Mangum is pretty obvious, but the addition of counterpart singer Amy Cole and especially drummer Paul Banwatt turns the trio into something much different and perhaps even better than NMH (gasp).

The first track, "The Ballad of the RAA," starts off with an electronic-esque beat and light cymbals, and, sure, you're all skeptical. It's like, "who do these guys think they are, the Canadian Postal Service?" and then Edenloff's plaintive wail kicks in and Cole is playing the ... xylophone? And then halfway through the song, Banwatt starts drumming like Stephen Morris on crack, abruptly stops, and lets Edenloff strum and croon, "And all these things will past; It's the good ones that will last; And right here what we've had; Is a good thing, it will last." Oh yes, it will. Then "Rush Apart" kicks in with its country beat and you're hooked. Or at least you should be.

If you like precision indie-rock drumming, Banwatt's stuff is the best I've heard since The National's Bryan Devendorf on Boxer. Just drop a listen to "Don't Haunt This Place," "Drain the Blood," or "Luciana," sit back, and enjoy. All of the songs weigh in at 2-3:45 minutes, and I just can't stop listening every time I start this album. The last song, "In the Summertime," is the best love song I've heard since, well, "Slow Show" from Boxer.

... But when we're middle-aged
Tell me I loved you like a renegade
And how I say the things that make you sway
Mostly told you you did the same

Since Hometown's release early in the year, the band has since been selected as part of the "eMusic Selects" program for November 2008, which means I don't know what, but I hope it means a record label deal and much money for these three fine musicians. Right now, you can only buy the album at live shows or via Paypal (ugh) on their Web site. I highly recommend it.

I've got two honorable mentions for albums that didn't come out in 2008 but that I listened the heck out of:

A. The Roadside Graves - No One Will Know Where You've Been

I first heard these guys on an older track, "Jesus is a Friend of the Family," featuring the classic lyric "Jesus Christ, yer pancakes are good" (the band's site even showcases an animated Jesus and dropping hotcakes), but the seven-piece outfit is no novelty act.

Their 2007 release is loaded with heartfelt alt-country smashes, including the plaintive "If California Didn't End," the incredibly addictive and earnest "West Coast," and the rollicking "Stranger." Frontman John Gleason even holds down a more-than-respectable day job as an elementary teacher. Even though it didn't come out this year, I found this album in 2008 and couldn't stop listening to it.

B. The Format - Dog Problems

I briefly listened to their first album and EP a few years ago, and I didn't think too much about them, or else I didn't give them enough of a chance. I glommed onto their 2006 sophomore album this year, and it quickly exploded into a daily listen. At first I thought they were the second coming of the Pooh Sticks, but I quickly realized they're much, much better.

From the soulful intro of "Matches," and the perfect pop of "Time Bomb," to the inimitably theatrical title track, the understated "Snails," the miserably jaunty "The Compromise," and the stunning final track "If Work Permits," Dog Problems may be simply the greatest breakup album of all time. Singer Nate Ruess bares pretty much his entire (failed) relationship, even spelling out the name of his ex-lover in the title track.

Can you hear me?
Are you listening?
This is the sound of my heart breaking
And I hope it's entertaining
Cause for me, it's a bitch

Why, yes. It is entertaining. Very, thanks. The band even gave away the album for free for a week during its first anniversary. That's when I picked it up, but I never listened to it until this year. My loss.

It's too bad that The Format broke up last year, but it looks like Ruess is in a new band called fun that supposedly already has a single out and an album to come in 2009. I'll be looking out for it ...