Top 10 Albums of 2008

here it is folks, my Top 10 Albums of 2008. for me it was a dry year, and i nearly wound up making this a short Top 5. but the gift of a fattened iTunes Gift Card (seriously, “luke-gift-buyers,” i don’t know why you’re all so averse to giving me this; its always a top/perfect gift for me) enabled a bit more insight into some stuff i missed. i’ve been listening to what i purchased like a maniac, and am able to present…

THE TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2008 

10. The Dark Knight Soundtrack- i’m not a big soundtrack person, at all. even for the movies i love, i rarely run out and buy soundtracks, as most of them seem filled with fluff and incidentals that just make for a “blah” album. but the scoring that was done for The Dark Knight was simply unparalleled in my book. if anything, its like the progressive rock albums of the ’70s: they require a sit-down listening experience, front to back, start to finish. its at once moving, dissonant, and emotional. Hans Zimmer and his team put together a brilliant set piece for the film. it has flourishes of Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial rock and sweeps into grandiose, gorgeous crescendoes that helped make the movie the masterpiece it is.

9. Accelerate- R.E.M.’s blazing return to the studio also marked a return to that “thing” that makes the band what it is. its a given that the era of pre-Monster will likely never make a return to the forefront, and that’s fine. if the boys continued trying to re-create the magic of Automatic for the People and Green, they would be ridiculed for sticking firmly inside a rut. there are bits of pieces of former R.E.M. here: “Houston” is a return to the ethereal soundscapes of New Adventures in Hi-Fi while “Until the Day is Done” harkens back to the simplicity of AFTP and it all meshes together for a great return to rock-dom.

8. Flight of the Conchords- i’m not entirely sure what to say about this album. its a difficult one to really pin as a “best” album of the year as it essentially comes from a novelty act called (unsurprisingly) Flight of the Conchords. a simple description would be: take Tenacious D, strip them of their expletives and metal rock leanings, and you get FOTC. what they do completely differently, though, is this: they don’t take themselves too seriously. the album is littered with send-ups of every genre of music as well as decades (“Inner City Pressure” is a great example of that). everytime i feel i’ve had just about enough of the album, something tells me to keep listening and i’m never sorry. for those with HBO, season 2 of their brilliant show is about to hit the airwaves.

7. Float- oh Flogging Molly. how i love thee. i first discovered you in my Montevallo days and have faithfully stuck with you as a fan. and as the years have passed, you’ve begun to… mellow. and quite honestly, its been a treat to hear. the sound and fury that enshrined FM, along with Dropkick Murphys, as America’s Irish punk treasure has given way to quite a bit more introspection. the loud guitars and drums are still there, but the traditional instruments seem to be making a bigger case for the front of the stage. i recently rediscovered this album after getting the title track stuck in my head, and subsequent listens have made it much stronger in my mind. initially one of this year’s biggest letdowns (given what i was expecting) has turned out to be a real gem.

6. The Odd Couple- speaking of growing up… Gnarls Barkley’s second effort completely stomped on the theory of the “sophomore slump.” first album: go balls to the wall and throw everything & the kitchen sink out there. second album: rein it back in and fine-tune what makes the band what it is. the melding of sounds from different decades and songwriting are much stronger. again, “introspection” is a key word here. track number 2, “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” was the killer song for me. its soulful, its gut/heart-wrenching, and speaks across so many divides, making GB a band for all people. i look forward to so much more from these two.

5. Ghosts I-IV- i’m a sucker for nearly all things Nine Inch Nails, even more now that Trent Reznor is single-handedly burning down the old system of the music business. this all-instrumental album is nothing but brooding, temperamental sound, all sliced and diced neatly into short tracks. Reznor is absolutely on top of his game right now, providing much for the music-starved this year. i know NIN isn’t for everyone (hell, i think i’m the only one i know who still listens on a regular basis) and that aforementioned “brooding” doesn’t do much for most people reading this blog. but its a beautifully constructed album from beginning to end and rightly deserves a spot on my Top 10.

4. Narrow Stairs- i’m surprised i’ve put a Death Cab for Cutie album on here, as my hopes weren’t too high. i have most of their albums thus far, and until now, they were interchangeable with one another (in my opinion); always enjoyable, but never great. but this changes everything. Death Cab hasn’t thrown out their formula for writing and music; rather, they’ve taken what made them good in the first place, and finally expounded on it to make a great rock album for the masses. this isn’t emo or shoe-gazing music. its rock and its damn good rock, too. there’s a bit of progressive exploration on here, and the ends aren’t all neatly tied up like they tend to be on a Death Cab record and to me, its made for a fine listening time.

3. Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust- sticking with the branching out theme, Iceland’s Sigur Rós created something different from what i am used to from them. its difficult to explain exactly what it is they do without falling into cliché phrases (that i’ve already used), but typically, one could expect a gorgeous, full album of soundscapes (there’s that word) that directly reflected the feeling of what it must be like to live in Iceland. i suppose, better put, its what one would expect to come from a land full of tundras and wide open spaces. but from the get-go, Sigur Rós declare this won’t be what you’re used to. i mean, its actual… music, with a meter and timing and instruments. its even fun at times. i’m in love with this album, and get more in-love with it on every listen.

2. Fleet Foxes- what do you get when you take My Morning Jacket’s electric guitars away? you would possibly get the debut album from the brilliant band Fleet Foxes. a gorgeous, sprawling acoustic romp through the forest, it pulls cues from the great folk music of the ’60s and ’70s and the Beach Boys (in their more un-surfy mode). i won’t say that the industry needs more bands like this, as the impending result would be a watered-down, tasteless nü-folk standard that would find its way to the Wal-Mart sales bin in quick fashion. but its refreshing to know that labels are still willing to take chances on bands like this and that the result is nothing short of a musical diamond.

1. Viva La Vida- call it a cop out, call it what you will, but Coldplay’s Viva La Vida was the one album that listened to incessantly and never got tired of. from start to finish, this album proved over and over again just why Coldplay remains, currently, Biggest Band In The World. all said, it was a distinct departure from past efforts with less in the way of bombastic arena ballads and more in the way of carefully crafted arrangements, artfully articulated throughout each track. strings are never used as a crutch; rather, they are played as integral parts of songs that, if stripped away, would cause the entirety of the music to fall apart. its telling that the biggest hit of the album, the title track, had a very sparse arrangement for guitars, whilst the remainder of the track was founded on a bedrock of strings, a large drum, and a very pronounced bell. while we were in London this past summer, it was the one album i wished was available as it would have made a perfect music backdrop to our travels. Viva La Vida exudes English-ness and, as we all know, i am a huge sucker for anything Brit. it was a beauty of an album when i first got my hands on it, and it continues to grow even more beautiful with each subsequent listen.

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and now… your thoughts, if you’d like.