Best of 2008
- filed under Music
Alina Simone — Everyone is Calling Out to Me, Beware
Just your standard album of modern Russian folk covers. You need not speak any of the language to understand every word.
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“Half My Kingdom”
Beach House — Devotion and Headless Heroes — The Silence of Love
The sounds of the carnival at night: hazy, gauzy, just over the ridge. Who knew Mazzy Star was going to be this influential?
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“Beach House — Darling”
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“Just One Time — Headless Heroes”
Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago
Justin Vernon’s retreat to a remote cabin in the Wisconsin woods resulted in the year’s best album: love’s lost powerfully plumbed with acoustic guitar. When Vernon asks again and again, “What might have been lost?” on The Wolves (Act I & II), he is seeking an answer for every man and woman who has ever wondered about the roads not taken, and the ones that were pursued. The production is lo-fi; but its simplicity only accentuates the sound of Vernon’s heart breaking. No album in recent memory captured the isolation of despair — and the possibility of repair — better.
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“The Wolves (Act I & II)”
The version of Sarah Siskind’s Lovin’s for Fools below sums it up nicely: a gorgeous song about the impossibility of love.
Bonnie Prince Billy — Is it the Sea?
The Bonnie Prince, live in the British isles, reinterpreting his own catalogue with the Scottish folk band Harem Scarem. It might not have been the sea, but it was definitely something in the water — the ballads are gentler and the traditional songs are given renewed power.
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“A Minor Place”
Elephant Micah — Exiled Magicians
Joe O’Connell is Elephant Micah, and you haven’t heard of him because he doesn’t have a myspace page, isn’t on a major label, and seems uninterested in garnering much attention for his music. Unlike Jandek, he isn’t even famous for not being famous. He’s just a guy with a guitar, making music that could tear your heart out. So make sure you don’t tell your friends how wonderful he is.
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“Exotic Criminals”
Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
Hazy, pastoral, voices like wind chimes on a lazy summer’s day. Like a cross between Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Beach Boys, and the Dead.
http://www.vimeo.com/2143576Glasvegas — Glasvegas
A decade after Cool Britannia, gritty tales from the modern U.K. — broken families, knifings, and social workers — doo-wopped in a thick Scottish accent and bathed in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound.
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“Go, Square, Go (demo)”
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“Geraldine”
Hayes and Cahill — Welcome Here Again
Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill spin wordless tales of depth and passion. A soundtrack to a timeless tradition.
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“The Clare Reel”
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“The High Jig”
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis — Soundtrack to the Assassination of Jesse James
It doesn’t sound particularly Western, unless the West is gorgeous, majestic, and haunting. In which case this soundtrack, my favorite since Eleni Karaindrou’s Ulysses Gaze, sounds exactly like the West.
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“Falling”
The Congregation — Congregation
Deep blues duo, from the other side of the pond. Victoria Yeulet’s voice is made for a victrola: big, brassy, and dramatic. Benjamin Prosser shadows her on guitar.
The Last Shadow Puppets — The Age of Understatement
A side project of Arctic Monkey Alex Turner, there is nothing understated about this bigscreened, orchestral homage to the swinging 60s and Scott Walker. Like an album full of James Bond theme songs.
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“The Age of Understatement”
TV on the Radio — Dear Science
Rolling Stone’s, Spin’s, and Entertainment Weekly’s album of the year? America’s best underground band finds mainstream success on its own terms. Attention grabbing for all the right reasons — smart, funky artrock that insists on you dancing along to the zeitgeist.
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“The Golden Age”
Wild Beasts — Limbo, Panto
An indie romp through dancehall Britain. Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto isn’t an acquired taste — either you will like it on first listen or turn it off immediately. I’ve had this disc on repeat from the moment I first heard it.
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“Brace Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants”
Discs I missed in 2007:
The Everybodyfields Nothing is Ok and Amir El Saffar’s Two Rivers.
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