My Top 20 Albums Of 2008

I originally posted this to Facebook, but not everyone sees my Facebook. Also, as an added bonus, on Vox you can listen to songs from some of the albums I picked by going to my library:

http://dingle.vox.com/library/audio/

Anyway, this was not easy. Generally, I buy an album for two reasons:

a) I love the artist
b) I love a song (or a few) I've heard

There were a lot of artists who I love deeply that didn't make the Top 20 this year. The albums were good, but there were a surprising number of fantastic albums from bands I had never heard of before this year. Also, some of my lesser favourite bands put out solid albums this year. So Death Cab For Cutie, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Beck, Counting Crows, Conor Oberst, Hayden, Mercury Rev: try harder next time.

Then I had to decide my criteria. A greatest hits will never be included, because that's cheating... they're usually all the best bits of a band's career crammed into one and that's often hard to compete against. I was also unsure about letting the Au Revoir Simone album in as it's remixes, and the Flight Of The Conchords CD because it's a TV show soundtrack essentially. However, both were great little discs - and the Au Revoir Simone album opened me up to The Teenagers and James Yiull.

So this is my Top 20 Albums Of 2008 Assuming Nothing Else Comes Out That's As Good Between Now And Christmas. I do not apologise for any of them, but I do think you should buy them all at your earliest convenience.

1. Elephant Shell by Tokyo Police Club
From the second I heard 'Nursery, Academy' in the basement of a nearby Borders, I was hooked. Even if the Last.fm software is total arse and couldn't manage to scrobble every time I played this album, it spent a lot of time on rotation on my iPhone. 'Tessellate' is the sort of song I would dance to, if I could dance, and wasn't permanently embarrassed by myself.

2. The Hollow Of Morning by Gemma Hayes
The album came out in October, and has gotten a lot of plays since. It soundtracked both directions of a transatlantic flight and lots of journeys to work. That Gemma still isn't huge after three excellent albums is a huge disappointment, especially when this album stretches her sound to include more interesting arrangements, like the almost electro opening to 'At Constant Speed' - a song that somehow builds up to a Prince-esque synth riff. She's certainly my favourite female artist right now.

3. Oceans Will Rise by The Stills
While other members of the extended Broken Social Scene family came out to play this year (Brendan Canning, The Dears, Jason Collett), The Stills had them all beat with an album that straddled their first two while still veering off in its own direction - from the stately 'Everything I Build' to the hypnotic, driving 'Snakecharming The Masses'.

4. Volume One by She & Him
It's one thing for any band to produce an album that so perfectly captures the spirit of the past without being a tacky parody, but the fact it was a quirky young actress and a well-regarded but obscure indie troubadour made it seem even more out of left field. Zooey Deschanel's voice, as you may expect from brief singing bits in films like Elf and The Assassination Of Jesse James, is the star of the show - on both her own songs, such as the fantastic 'This Is Not A Test', to covers including 'I Should've Known Better' by The Beatles.

5. Turning Down Water For Air by James Yiull
Somehow performing the miraculous task of melding acoustic indie singer-songwriter material to thumping dance beats and fascinating electronic arrangements without it all going horribly wrong, this CD is the total meeting point of everything I am listening to at the moment, with some utterly gorgeous songs like 'This Sweet Love' - which does a lot with a very simple acoustic guitar motif and drum beat.

6. Field Manual by Chris Walla
His day job, Death Cab For Cutie, also put out an album, but it was Walla's solo CD that really got my love this year. 'Our Plans, Collapsing' is the highlight of the album, but it was great to hear how he sounds when he's not twiddling the knobs or plucking the strings on someone else's songs.

7. Some Racing, Some Stopping by Headlights
It took a while to sink its claws in, 'Market Girl' aside, but it slowly melted my heart... and I also managed to get some great remixes of some of the songs on an ultra-limited edition remix disc they put out, so there's now more of the songs to love. 'Cherry Tulips' is the sound of a beautiful daydream.

8. Reverse Migration by Au Revoir Simone
The remixes on this album are by and large among the best remixes I've heard. The robotic voice singing the chorus on 'Stars', the crazy campfire romp of one of two new versions of 'The Lucky One' (the other was provided by James Yiull and was so gorgeous, I bought his album), the fun electroclash-ish tweaking of 'Fallen Snow'... it's a great disc, and certainly worth inclusion here.

9. Devotion by Beach House
One of the most haunting and relaxing albums on this list, Devotion is the perfect soundtrack to cold winter evenings by the fire, breezy summer nights watching the sun set, and everything in between. It's an utterly bewitching album, with the sparse instruments drenched in so much reverb it sounds more like the memories of songs than songs themselves.

10. Hideaway by The Weepies
This was one of many albums that came out of nowhere but then spent a lot of time in my MP3 playing devices. Vocal duties are split between both members of this husband and wife duo. Steve Tannen sounds like Elliott Smith (without the penchant for stabbing himself in the gizzard) while Deb Talan has a very quirky, clearly Joni Mitchell-inspired delivery. Slightly folky, very catchy, with one song ('Antarctica') that you'd swear was a Fleetwood Mac out-take. A lovely album, and a great respite from some of my mopier choices.

11. In Ear Park by Department Of Eagles
It's hard to pin down everything I hear when I listen to Department Of Eagles. There's Nick Drake, later period Beatles, Tom Waits, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire (at least, the odd yelp that reminds me of Win Butler) and a ton more. It's a wonderful, eclectic, vintage-sounding album. 'Waves Of Rye', 'Phantom Other' and 'Floating On The Lehigh' are all contenders for my song of the year, too.

12. Keeper’s by Deastro
Deastro is basically just this kid in Michigan who is fucking insanely productive. As well as Deastro, he has at least three other projects that I know of, all putting out fantastic synth-based pop that sounds like a less polished splice of The Killers and Death Cab For Cutie. There are also some bizarre instrumental pieces to break things up. It's certain to put a spring in your step.

13. Lucky by Nada Surf
Don't get me wrong, my love for the Surf isn't waning; and this is still a great record (it grows on me more with every listen), but it's not their best. Still, it was great enough to make my top twenty, thanks in no small part to catchy, hummable songs such as 'I Like What You Say' and darker, more political tracks like 'The Fox'. And let me tell you, if you can get through 'Weightless' and not get your sappy gland well and truly done over, you are an impenetrable fortress.

14. Starfucker by Starfucker
This was recommended to me by Leslie (hi Leslie!). Sometimes I am so swamped at work, I can't listen to music at all, but for some reason I gave this one a chance and I'm very happy I did. It's insanely catchy indie with a liberal helping of synths. 'Pop Song' in particular delivers on its name with a nice, fat chorus and a runaway keyboard solo that makes me all giddy.

15. Saturdays = Youth by M83
It looks like France didn't get the memo that the '80s are over and there will be no more John Hughes movies starring a young Molly Ringwald. Really, that is exactly what every song on this album will make you think of... it's extremely retro, but like She & Him, it's an authentic tribute rather than a piss-take.

16. Chinese Democracy by Guns N’ Roses
My first ever CD was Use Your Illusion II. My second ever CD was Use Your Illusion I. I have been waiting for this album since I got those two. I don't care that it's basically an Axl Rose side project with Guns N' Roses being little more than an appropriated brand name, it's still a surprisingly decent collection of songs with some fantastic guitar work from Buckethead. 'Better' would be awesome no matter what the name on the box said.

17. Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright by Ashes Divide
This is the only CD put out by a bald dude called Billy who basically plays everything bar the drums on his CDs that I have been able to endorse for several years. The Billy is Howerdel, formerly of A Perfect Circle, and this really does sound like his former band without Maynard and, strangely, less upbeat... and considering how mopey APC could get, that's saying something.

18. Crystal Castles by Crystal Castles
They sound like a brain aneurysm run through the sound chip of a Commodore 64. In case you're confused, in this case, that's actually a positive comment, as I loved the Commodore 64, and I love electroclash and electronica with the odd manipulated, screamy vocal and obscure song titles.

19. Accelerate by REM
While it could be argued that the album (and its Automatic For The People-through-New Adventures In Hi-Fi-esque sound) was an intentional, calculated response to previous album Around The Sun bombing, that familiarity makes the songs on this album very easy to swallow. There was no growth period with me. And when we saw them live, there wasn't that jolt between old and new that you get at a lot of gigs (with the awkward crowd vs. band stand-off).

20. Flight Of The Conchords by Flight Of The Conchords
While this collection of parodies of everyone from Prince to the Pet Shop Boys will have you giggling, thanks in no small part to lyrics that talk about hermaphrodites, David Bowie's nipples and try desperately to make the routine, mundane sex life of a married couple sound like Barry White fodder, it's so well put together that you spend a lot of time just appreciating the songs. Yes, really. 'Ladies Of The World' (with serious lyrics) would provide the backing music to lots of late afternoon quickies.