In anticipation of the 2009 favorites list... and the decade list, here's a belated 2008 albums list, as I wrote it in december 2008... I'd throw
LI Jianhong and
Harvey Milk in there now, and maybe move up Departement of Eagles, since it has held up so well throughout 2009.
1.
of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Usually during the summer, I get into a particular genre of music, tropicalia, PSF bands, krautrock, but in 2008 all I can remember is just playing this record over and over. This plays like an extended Fodderstompf cry for love, hackin’ and wackin’ and smackin’ all over the place. Now I’m a simple jewelcase man, so I should probably get some sort of award for not having destroyed the completely menacing package it comes in. For heaven’s sake, my poor little heart can’t take this much harassment! “We are champions my friend” kept me in the race, and that’s more than you may expect from some explicit disco madness LP.
2.
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
I didn’t know it at the time(oh boy, here we go), but this was exactly the album I was looking for. The moment where the sparkly opening gets blown up by guitar and noise is so blissful, you won’t even notice that some 20 minutes in the middle of the album exists in stasis. It’s very soothing, I often put it on as background noise during reading.
3.
The Goslings - Occasion
You’ll see Occasion’s giant brother Grandeur of Hair in the best of the decade list, but this one packs plenty of punch on its own. Completely devastating
shoegaze with benefits to properly wake up in the morning. Those drizzly workday mornings where you know exactly what’s going to happen, and it’s a terrifying concept, but you have to go through with it, even though the next morni… Well I mean this is a great album ++ would listen again.
4.
No Age - Nouns
Lingering and pounding shouldn’t work well with each other, but here you go. An outstanding 30 minute blast of songs and sounds that surprisingly doesn’t get old. Teen Creeps is the obvious highlight here, the clearest bash to your head, but would it, and the other rockers, have had the impact they do if they weren’t surrounded by so much haze?
5.
Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too
I’m not sure it’s innovative or original, but Lindstrøm’s lush epic made night drives memorable journeys. Road and dark landscapes, endlessly stretching out… as endless and Holland gets anyway, you can probably reach any place you want to go within two hours. Nonetheless, the first track actually makes you feel you’re headed somewhere, which is an achievement for someone headed nowhere slowly. And I love the corny album cover, I’d smile too if I could grow a nice beard.
6.
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
So, there’s the terrible band name, and side-project status for this, which didn’t raise expectations very high, but I was blown away, as I like this much more than anything by Grizzly Bear. Rooibos tea used to be the only thing that could tame the savage beast that lurks right beneath the surface of this man who wants everyone to forget his birthday, but secretly hopes for a surpriiiise party. Ah dream on golden boy, and throw on In Ear Park again. Soothing. No one does it like you.
7.
Religious Knives - It's After Dark
This record worked very well on very warm days. Songs lamenting the sun and the affirming the fact that it is indeed hot really make you feel as though the band understands your predicament. At least the opener with its prospect of being in Brooklyn after dark works as a refreshment, in fact it sends shivers up and down my spine.
8.
Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
What a disappointment this was at first. Cryptograms was my number one the year before, only for me to hear they ditched whatever made me excited about the band, and proceeded to deliver a really straightforward album with just one clear monster jam. Nothing Ever Happens was really a tease, since it showed that they
could make with the rock ‘n roll all nite if they
wanted to. I shelved it for months, but when I started listening to Mircocastle again, I loved it. The last four tracks make for one of the best 20 minute sequences of songs ever, much like the second side of
Brian Eno’s Before and After Science. Bonus disc is just that, though Operation is worthy of single release.
9.
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Spencer Krug is the gift that keeps on giving. There’s so much good music coming from his many projects, and it doesn’t look like the well will run dry anytime soon. I feel people slept on Mount Zoomer, but not arriving in a mountain of praise doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially for an album with as much false modesty as this. All in a day’s work ‘ey lads? The extended last track pulls it over the horizon into the valley of immortals.
10.
Indian Jewelry - Free Gold
Nice eclectic set of songs collected for posterity here. Opener Swans makes it clear that they’ve been rocking
Soundtracks For The Blind a little, but this is not all the way hero worship. Indian Jewelry carve out their own little world where we walk on water, and actually welcome Africa instead of shooing it into some miserable abyss. Shine dazzle dazzle, and dissolve.
Brian Eno
