Chart of 2008
m posted in General moans, Music on January 24th, 2009
It’s taken a while, what with a holiday getting in the way, but here’s my chart of 2008. Podcast to follow in the next few days.
The top 25;
 1 Nada Surf - Lucky |
It was a very tough choice, this year. Not much separates the top 3 or 4 albums on this list. However, Nada Surf once again managed to sneak into my affections, after initially failing to impress. I was looking for a bit more energy when I first listened, and was disappointed to find a load of downbeat but lavish-sounding washes of sound. But every time I returned to Lucky, I heard something else that I liked. As with previous album “The weight is a gift”, the lyrical content of Lucky attempts to address some fundamental questions of life, death and the passage between the two. “See These Bones” stands out as a particularly good example, where a message from the departed is intended to encourage the living to make the most of their lives. It’s beautifully done.
It’s a very mellow album, and the handsome production from Death Cab For Cutie collaborator John Goodmanson (DCFC’s Ben Gibbard also guests on Lucky). Goodmanson also produced the Fight Like Apes album, which seems strange. Reviews frequently suggest that Nada Surf are no longer producing work that’s sufficiently attention-grabbing to win new fans. If this is true, then it’s a sad reflection of the pathetic attention span displayed by the record-downloading/buying public of 2008. This is a record that will keep you warm on a winter night, as long as you treat it nicely and play it through good speakers/’phones. It’s not going to start a new musical movement, or prompt thousands of teenagers to riot, but it is one of the most uplifting and luscious albums of the year, and almost certainly the best. |
 =2 Lightspeed Champion - Falling off the lavendar bridge |
 =2 Islands - Arm’s Way |
 4 Young Knives - Superabundance |
 5 Phantom Planet - Raise the dead |
 6 Jim Noir - Jim Noir |
 7 dEUS - Vantage Point |
 8 Ida Maria - Fortress around my heart |
 =9 Fight Like Apes - And the mystery of the golden medallion |
 =9 Oppenheimer - Take the whole midrange and boost it |
 11 British Sea Power - Do you like rock music? |
 12 Frank Turner - Love Ire and Song |
 =13 Glasvegas - Glasvegas |
 =13 The Dears - Missiles |
 =13 The Peth - Golden Mile |
 16 The Little Ones - Morning Tide |
 17 The Wedding Present - El Rey |
 18 Thomas Tantrum - Rage against the tantrum |
 19 The Raconteurs - Consolers of the lonely |
 20 Neon Neon - Stainless Style |
 21 Pendulum - In Silico |
 22 Ben Folds - Way to normal |
 23 Weezer - Weezer (The Red Album) |
 24 Dan le Sac v Scroobius Pip - Angles |
 25 The Whip - X marks destination |
Here are the rest;
|
26 Ginger - Market Harbour 27 The Offspring - Rise and fall, rage and grace 28 Spiritualized - Songs in A&E 29 Envelopes - Here comes the wind 30 TV on the Radio - Dear Science 31 The Ting Tings - We started nothing 32 The Aliens - Luna 33 Emiliana Torrini - Me & Armini 34 The Shortwave Set - Replica sun machine 35 Those Dancing Days - In our space hero suits 36 Bloc Party - Intimacy 37 Coldplay - Viva la vida or death and all his friends 38 Stephen Malkmus - Real emotional trash 39 The Killers - Day and Age 40 Los Campesinos! - We are beautiful, we are doomed 41 Sugarplum Fairy - The wild one 42 Johnny Flynn - A larum 43 MGMT - Oracular Spectacular 44 Mates of State - Re-arrange us 45 Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum end 46 Sons and Daughters - This Gift 47 Black Francis - Svn fngrs 48 Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow stairs 49 David Byrne - Everything that happens will happen today 50 The Spinto Band - Moonwink 51 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 52 We are Scientists - Brain thrust mastery 53 Matthew Sweet - Sunshine lies 54 Does it offend you, yeah? - You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into 55 Make Model - Products of kin 56 The Night Marchers - See you in magic 57 Destroyer - Trouble in dreams 58 The Duke Spirit - Neptune 59 Tilly and the Wall - O 60 The Teenagers - Reality check 61 I’m from Barcelona - Who killed Harry Houdini? 62 Black Kids - Partie traumatic 63 Max Tundra - Parallax error beheads you 64 Secret Machines - Secret Machines 65 Boy Kill Boy - Stars and the sea |
66 The Gaslight Anthem - The ‘59 Sound 67 The Fratellis - Here we stand 68 Albert Hammond Jr - ¿Cómo Te Llama? 69 Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires 70 Metallica - Death Magnetic 71 Cage the Elephant - Cage the elephant 72 Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong - Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong 73 Primal Scream - Beautiful future 74 Cut Copy - In ghost colours 75 Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now, Youngster… 76 Empire of the sun - Walking on a dream 77 Low vs Diamond - Low vs Diamond 78 M83 - Saturdays = Youth 79 James Yuill - Turning down water for air 80 We are the Physics - We Are The Physics Are OK At Music 81 Elbow - The seldom seen kid 82 Bob Mould - District line 83 The Pigeon Detectives - Emergency 84 Guns’n'Roses - Chinese Democracy 85 Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha 86 David Holmes - The holy pictures 87 Fleet Foxes - Fleet foxes 88 Late of the Pier - Fantasy black channel 89 Reefer - Reefer 90 Of Montreal - Skeletal lamping 91 Portishead - Third 92 Lykke Li - Youth novel 93 Hawksley Workman - Between the beautifuls 94 Santogold - Santogold 95 Semifinalists - 2 96 Beck - Modern Guilt 97 Nine Inch Nails - The slip 98 Fujiya & Miyagi - Lightbulbs 99 Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago 100 Land of Talk - Some are lakes 101 Pete and the Pirates - Pete and the pirates 102 The week that was - The week that was 103 The Breeders - Mountain battles 104 Chairlift - Does you inspire you |
… and the most hilariously dreadful album of the decade;
105 Wild Beasts - Limbo, Panto
Leave a Response