Most music critics called it a down year for music after the avalanche of extraordinary music that was 2007. 2008 had plenty to offer, though, including Moby and R.E.M.'s best albums in roughly a decade; the emergence of new bands like Frightened Rabbit, Noah and the Whale, Los Campesinos, Fleet Foxes, and Vampire Weekend; and another strong showing from the Pacific Northwest.
Maybe the best gift of the year was Belle and Sebastian's The BBC Sessions. Their live recordings aren't included in my Top 20 list because most of the songs were previously released, but I still obsessed over every word and every note as the live versions of some of favorite songs brought back memories -- and I cherished the four "new" songs. We were also lucky enough to get a live Colin Meloy album, with him singing and playing some of my favorite Decemberists tunes.
But we're mostly concerned with this year's new music, so here we go: The Top 20 Albums of 2008.
01. Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
One of the best rock albums of the decade, Midnight Organ Fight delivers song after song, always building to something and always delivering with a catchy underpinning to its brutally honest and desperate songs. Built around a devastating and recurring use of warmth as a metaphor for love, this album offers some of the best lines in recent memory -- and in a Scottish accent, no less.
.:. Best Song: Keep Yourself Warm
02. Noah and the Whale - Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down
Noah and the Whale were the band that I fell in love with this year. Their debut album is full of the boy-girl harmonies, strings, and catchy choruses that send a shiver up my back and put a smile on my face all year long. Each time I listened to Peaceful, I felt like giving it a hug -- because I loved it and because it felt like it was made just for me.
.:. Best Song: Five Years Time
03. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Easily the most accomplished album of the year, Dear Science plays like a master class in modern American music and modern American life. Every song has a groove, a brain, and a heart. It's as great as everyone says, and then some -- the rare work of art that plays to the masses as well as the insiders.
.:. Best Song: Golden Age
04. Los Campesinos - Hold On Now, Youngster
Los Campesinos singing-yelling coed lyrics are both hyper-literate and just plain hyper. They throw in every instrument in the book, more energy than a kid full of sugar, and enough knowing winks to challenge anyone in indie pop to a cute and clever contest. The result is one of the most infectious debut albums in recent memory. And they've already successfully followed it up with We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.
.:. Best Song: Death to Los Campesinos
05. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
I liked Wild Mountain Nation well enough and thought that they were okay in concert after that album, but I didn't expect an Americana masterwork like Furr from Blitzen Trapper. They come through with an unexpectedly great album, though. Full of tuneful strumming and classic sounds, Furr is a summary of a genre of music and an exciting new sound at the same time.
.:. Best Song: Furr
06. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
Narrow Stairs is my favorite grad school band returning to form, even with the big budget. Death Cab have figured out how to do the major label thing, try new directions, and still make heartfelt, melodic music. They even threw in a few songs like "Cath..." and "Grapevine Fires" for old-timers like me.
.:. Best Song: I Will Possess Your Heart
07. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes and Sun Giant EP
Dripping with beauty, Fleet Foxes are the new pride of Seattle. Their famously four-part (and famously bearded) harmonies started to click for me during a sunny brunch at a vegetarian restaurant. The warmth of the music wrapping around me like the sun through the big picture window.
.:. Best Song: Your Protector
08. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
I got Vampire Weekend all wrong. When everyone hyped them as the greatest thing ever, I thought that they were Paul Simon rip-offs. When the inevitable backlash came with their wild success, my affections for their super poppy Afro-beat songs grew. Then I saw them in concert and was fully convinced that they were the real thing.
.:. Best Song: A-Punk
09. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons...
That's right, a rap album in my top 10. Atmosphere's Lemons transcends the genre with its short-story lyrics, laid-back rythms, and timeless-modern urgency. It might be too slowly paced for most rap fans, but it was the perfect album for for relaxing (and feeling cooler than I really was) while I drove around town.
.:. Best Song: You
10. Moby - Last Night
Moby stopped being cool with critics a decade ago when he followed Play's with a series of so-so albums. But the critics shouldn't have given up on him because Last Night is the perfect rave night send-up for indie kids.
.:. Best Song: Ooh Yeah
11. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Bon Iver is a ghost -- a voice that's almost not there, but unmissible and haunting. For Emma (which was released in 2007 and re-released in 2008) filled the background on many nights of reading in front of the fire, lodging its beautiful but lost urgency in my subconscious, forcing its way into the forefront of my mind in its amazing choruses.
.:. Best Song: Skinny Love
12. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Facing down the death of the album, Okkervil River released the best double album of the decade. Only they didn't. This follow-on to last year's transcendent The Stage Names was recorded at the same time and has the same big feel, but it was released on its own this year. It's not quite as great, but I'l never complain about more goodness.
.:. Best Song: Singer Songwriter
13. R.E.M. - Accelerate
Before releasing Accelerate, R.E.M. played SXSW, like a new band trying to make a name for themselves -- a smart move after falling into irrelevance over the last a decade. Also smart were the concise and catchy songs that filled the album with the urgency of a new band and the chops of the all-time great band that is R.E.M.
.:. Best Song: Houston
14. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
The Helio Sequence are a late addition to my list, as I somehow overlooked them for most of the year. It was an unfortunate oversight because they've made a beautifully produced, intricately layered college rock album with more hooks than you'd expect from that description. Dreamy and propulsive.
.:. Best Song: Hallelujah
15. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The best live band in America keeps treating us with excellent albums. While Stay Positive doesn't reach the heights of Boys and Girls, it feels more like The Hold Steady's Hold Steady album -- like what their stories and music have been building toward all these years. Whether or not the get their unified scene, they've given us another a fine album.
.:. Best Song: Sequestered in Memphis
16. The Lucksmiths - First Frost
The poor Lucksmiths. They've released very good albums every couple of years for more than a decade, critics have sung their praises (politely but not effusively), and then they have largely been forgotten outside of their small but devoted fan base. Too bad because they've got a diverse catalog that ranges from clever and catchy pop to the more subtle and quiet sounds of First Frost, maybe their most mature album.
.:. Best Song: Lament of the Chiming Wedgebill
17. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Taking a break from the Bright Eyes moniker and ostensibly a full-on album, Conor Oberst didn't take a break musically. These relaxed -- and even more countrified -- songs are up to the Bright Eyes standard, and refreshing for their informal feel.
.:. Best Song: Danny Callahan
18. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
At this point John Darnielle is one of the most reliable song writers in America. And if you like his acquired-taste singing voice like I do, he's also one of the best performers. On Heretic Pride, he sketches a series of short stories filled with details and darkness. I hope that he never stops telling us stories.
.:. Best Song: Sax Rohmer #1
19. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
The two geniuses behind Wolf Parade combine their talents to create head-bobbing indie pop goodness. At Mount Zoomer, while not as immediate as Apologies to the Queen Mary, tells us that, as long as Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner keep working together, we'll be getting good stuff from them for a long time -- and we'll start to hear their complementary sounds meld more completely together.
.:. Best Song: Soldier's Grin
20. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
Stephin Merritt and company buried their pop genius in a gimmicky wall of distortion, but the songs were still as gooey and cynically ironic as ever under the fuzz. And after a few listens the distortion fades away to a classic sounding album.
.:. Best Song: California Girls
Best Songs Not In Top 20
A number of albums just missed the cut for me or had one or two really great songs. Here are my favorite songs of 2008 that aren't not covered by the top album list. In alphabetical order:
- Black Kids - "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance" and "Look at Me (When I Rock Wichoo)"
- David Byrne and Brian Eno - "Home"
- Dr. Dog - "The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer"
- Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor"
- Mason Jennings - "Fighter Girl"
- M83 - "Kim & Jessie"
- MGMT - "Time to Pretend" and "Electric Feel"
- Nada Surf - "See These Bones"
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "We Call Upon the Author"
- Of Montreal - "Id Engager"
- Or, the Whale - "Call and Response"
- Santogold - "Lights Out" and "L.E.S. Artistes"
- The Ting Tings - "Shut Up and Let Me Go" and "Great DJ"
