Seattle Subsonic

My Year In Lists

December 31st, 2008

This is a list of my favorite albums of 2008. Obvious, right? Trite, but sincere. My list is not much cooler than anything you might find on Pitchfork, you have probably already heard it all before, and seen most of these albums all over all sorts of year-end lists, and well, here they are again. I’m not gonna talk about super cool low budget Swedish vampire movies, or the stark conviction of some Brooklyn Noise artist, I’m just going to lay out albums that I really enjoyed and that I think really defined the sound of 2008, you know stylistically, or some shit like that, but mostly I just liked them. So, here they are, and it’s not in any top ten order, but there is definitely an order about it all.

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5. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair

Here come the horn and violin stabs, and if they aren’t well placed, then how do you feel about the vocals scattered around these noveau disco jams? Anthony Hegarty lends his expressive voice to DJ Andy Butlers disco project “Hercules and Love Affair” to wondrous results. With an infatuation with Greek mythology and well… um, homo-eroticism, Hercules and Love Affair bring disco back to the dance floor, and boy do they. This music evokes every single scene that ever occurred in Studio 54, but also incorporates enough contemporary sequencing elements to make the sound fresh and able to withstand the gritty electro jams of the majority of today’s dance music. When/if you listen to this album just be ready to make evocative eyes at someone across the room okay, that’s really all I need to say, the bass will tell the rest of the story.
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Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules Theme

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1. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

This was the hardest album for me to review, because I just didn’t know where to start, that’s one of the many reasons that it is number one on the list. Now keep in mind that Dan Whitford is a master DJ with a penchant for the aesthetic of bands like Fleetwood Mac and ABBA, but also New Order and Roxy Music, these pop sensibilities shine through on Cut Copy’s sophomore album. Recorded with Tim Goldsworthy (DFA, The Loving hand), and implementing a great combination of vintage and modern synths, real and sampled drums, and sampled flourishes, Cut Copy has shined a light on the blue print for all of the intricate components of pop music mastery. Taking their cues from a wide array of dance, disco, pop and punk, and synthesizing them all together in such a potent concoction as to create the dance/pop sound of 1974, 1982, 1987, and most importantly 2008. And all of the shit that went along with all of these years is scraped away, and promptly thrown aside, allowing for the diamonds hidden beneath it all to shine bright. Now I think that there are a lot of talented bands out there, who could commit to tape a single that does all of this, but that’s not what Cut Copy did, they made a whole freakin album. With all of the tracks relative to one another, detailing a lifetime of doubt at a party, and a night of triumph all at one, short teasing tracks tie the album together, and hits bleed together in beautifully manipulated waves of sound bouncing off themselves just before the perfectly executed drum groove comes in and the pop starts it off once again.
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Cut Copy – Lights and Music

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8. No Age – Nouns

Now, I must say, complacent I may be, I still have some pent up aggression, I like to listen to garage rock abrasion, the idea of harnessing noise for a visceral reaction is pretty interesting, and in 2008, no one did it better than No Age. Enough said, maybe, but for starters buried beneath all of the distortion, and the bombast, there is an unmistakable sense of melodic sensitivity. For all its noise, and this duo sure does have enough at its disposal, this album has an absolutely acute sensitivity for emotion, this band can force you forward at a constant unerring speed, but still convey some very different messages from song to song. Until this album I was relatively certain that there were only so many types of distorted noise that a guitar could assault me with, since this album, I have decided that there are at lease twice as many as I guessed before, and that my estimate is still sadly lacking.
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No Age – Eraser

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3. M83 – Saturdays = Youth

Saturdays = Youth is more eighties than a lot of things from the 1980’s. But its also another pop speckled electronic album from M83’s Anthony Gonzalez. Certainly the gems here are the one-two punch of Kim and Jessie and Graveyard Girl, but for followers of M83’s early work a marked evolution is noticeable in the execution of the long form bubbling electro pop and ambient marches of teen angst. Recorded in Anthony Gonzalez’s home studio using only equipment from the 1980’s this album has a definite call back feel from the time period it seeks to emulate, but so much of what people seem to hate about the 80’s is implemented so perfectly on this album that no one can help but be endeared to these songs about teenage emotions sung in a broken, reverb drenched, French accent. Do you remember being 15, and god, you were pissed off and depressed about something, and you couldn’t express it to save your life, well this album is the way you would have expressed it if it were 1986 and you just happened to be a master musician who could write moody lyrics, and really stereotypical poetry. This would be it. This would be your song to play on your shitty stereo while you mourned all sorts of problems, and recalled all sorts of beautiful experiences.

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M83 – Graveyard Girl

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9. Air France – No Way Down

What does Balearic disco pop mean to you? Probably not much, it doesn’t mean much to me either, but Air France does, semi-ambient, but always well versed in the realms of pop, paying homage to the sunshine of the slightly twee disco that inspires them, but always remaining contemporary, never seeming to just recycle. And damn the intricacies, the slow builds, the vocal samples from old TV shows, and the filtered guitar riffs that tie it all together suddenly, the gentle summer vibes that this album emits, all coming from a Swedish Duo, slowly intertwining their samples as reverb washes over you like the waves that this album hints at. But these waves aren’t crashing onto any tropical wonderland, but surprisingly onto the shores of some forlorn beach outside of Gothenburg, a beach that, bleak it may be, will always remind you of beautiful summer mornings. No doubt, Air France translates all of this into some of the best sunny day music of the year.

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Air France – Collapsing at Your Doorstep

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7. Deerhunter – Microcastle

This is pop rock, except, damaged, burnt out, faded, emaciated almost to the point of incoherence, but grounded steadily in melody. Imagine some world where the sun doesn’t really shine so bright anymore and all the speakers are blown, what kind of music would you make with these influences? Trade pop production value for an extra reverb pedal, for the squall of a guitar, and whispering vocals reminding you that even if its not going to be okay, it will be okay. This record truly takes a lot of the pop production aesthetic, and sands it down, rubs it away leaving on the most worn out, but concise form of rock, the harnessing of all the destroyed amps sitting in basements, the swan songs of all the broken guitar strings, a hazy dream of rock music rattling around a room of inspired youth, wanting just to use what they have at their disposal.

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Deerhunter – Microcastle

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14. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals

Take all of the top 40 summer jams you told everyone you hated, but that were stuck in your head when you were 14, scramble them all up, drape them gently over each other, slam them together, change their key, pitch and speed, and suddenly you can like it honestly. Girl Talk is the pinnacle of the mash-up, Gregg Gillis may as well have monopolized this trade, but even if the whole idea of these hyper-DJ-on-crack style tracks fade out, I will always be able to thank Girl Talk for making it ok to listen to Lil’ Mama and Metallica in public. And you’ve got to believe that this album was being rocked at every party you went to this summer, and you loved every minute of it, eventually you said it got old (so did I) but really it didn’t. Girl talk made every effort to make all of the samples rock, never once letting off the gas, even when he was using The Velvet Underground, or AIR, and man did it rock, and this could change music for ever. When this album was being played at full volume through a blown out PA system at a Fraternity somewhere some Bro suddenly discovered of Montreal, or Yo La Tengo, now I’m no music elitist, I can still like these bands if everyone listens to ‘em, but wont it be weird when top 40 is sounding like these indie bands from, say 5 years ago because Girl Talk brought ‘em back to attention? See if it comes true.

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Girl Talk – In Step

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6. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

There is a real ethereal quality to these songs, the vocals really make the music here, they are the stand out performer, not the singers, the vocals, the way they all mesh and harmonize so perfectly. These songs are for rolling over the hills toward a sunset, these songs are for imagining folk rock triumphs in a baroque painting. Robin Peckhold’s voice holds such an incredible confidence in its complete dominance of the music, perfectly and harmoniously conveying a sense of immediacy over music that has such a haunting quality any other voice would seems so trite, and when the rest of the band all chime in, perfectly timed, right on key, the music becomes even more amazing. This is folk music in 2008.

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Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

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4. Starfucker – Starfucker

If you are from the Northwest then you should probably just let your guard down and your notions about pop music, put down your Elliott Smith affront and accept Starfucker as the current sound of Northwest pop music. These songs are about being off key with the world around you, being too young and stupid for your own good, and just longing for someone to share these problems with you. Get some German Love in your life, and let this music remind you of the few days of sunshine in a Northwest winter, those days where the sun is shinning and it looks great out, but you know its still cold and windy out, but god, could you care less, it looks beautiful out, and you’re gonna make it a good day. Simple pop melodies and layered vocals burnt out synthesizers and happy-go-lucky drums will draw you in, and they will keep you there for as long as they can, begging you to just accept them into you heart and love them as much as they love you.

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Starfucker – German Love

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2. Foals – Antidotes

I think, if I’m objective about all of it, this band may be the most modern band I can even imagine, I can’t really determine, or outline their influences, but they are obviously there, and obviously cooler than anything I’ll ever be part of. And that would have to be my only quarrel with this album, it’s layered guitars and horn and synth builds seem analogous in my mind to a house party that I’m just not cool enough to be at (and I’m pretty fuckin cool man, have you seen my record collection?). In spite of this, it is the most accessible math rock album that I have ever heard, and also the most, well, danceable. I think describing music as angular is kind of bullshit, what on earth does that even mean? But it does describe Foals’ sound, more explicitly, acute angles, musical keys of E and A run through these songs giving them almost a feel of menace while maintaining the almost unnatural brightness of the upper registers of a guitar. And after the frenetic shove forward the albums second half seems like the morning after the super cool house party, staggering forward, washed out, choppy, but somehow enjoyable nonetheless, as you’re trying to piece it all back together, and realizing, oh no, you can’t, but, it was epic right, just like the music. Right?

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Foals – Balloons

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15. School of Seven Bells – Alpinisms

Alpinisms is dreamy pop melodies sometimes completely realized, more often hinted at, while the beautiful whisper soft dueling vocals emerge from clouds of reverb and thick fogs of strange equalization. The synths sounds on this album really can’t be described or separated from the other sounds on this post Secret Machines effort from Benjamin Curtis and company. Leading lines suddenly become padding for another washed out sound to flow slowly over, while all the while off beat drums rattle around working off the sounds that cover their red-lining velocity. The programmed accuracy of these drums allow for an incredible amount of track bleeding and reverb from the rest of the instrumentation, while SVIIB’s female vocals cut a swath through the melodic ambience to tie the program all-together.

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SVIIB – Half Asleep

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16. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

I think including this album on here is kind of like an offense to a lot of people, I’m sure someone is going to read this, and think “really, I mean, really, you’re putting that on the same list as Deerhunter, who the fuck is this kid?” But really, I mean really, did these songs not get stuck in your head? Were they not so bright and poppy, did their unnecessary, contentious focus on Ivy League concerns not entice you even a little? I think in a few years along with an SAT score and a transcript an expository essay on the nature of Vampire Weekend will be required in an application to most universities. This album makes me want to think I’m better than you, to put on my sweater and go out on my sailboat, and fuck me if that’s not a cool feeling.

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Vampire Weekend – M79

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11. These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid
What’s your favorite number? You should ask yourself that before you let this album hand you a hundred riddles that are already answered in the music. I truly believe that this album is the most dangerous piece of music for people who really like to pick music apart and consider everything that’s going on. If you asked me what this album was all about I would say paranoia, and the number 4. What’s your favorite number? What does it mean? As cryptic vocals swirl over themselves and fall into the middle of your lap that British sneer will embed itself in the answer to all of the questions that These New Puritans pose. Do you really want to answer them? The drums and guitar will batter you sonically on this album, but it seems like these aural qualities are mere distractions to the really confounding qualities of this music: the questions, the statements, the riddles.

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These New Puritans – Swords of Truth

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10. Ratatat – LP3
LP3 has some obvious tribal attributes, you can feel it in the pounding drums, the jangling found sounds humming away in the background, and the melodies that follow, impeccably, the pulsating rhythms, that Ratatat lay down. More-so than the previous two LP’s this album strays away from the conventional rock standards that Ratatat have always hinted at, flirted with. The polyrhythms give way to synthesized washes that fade in and out over the various sounds littering the album’s instrumental landscape, and true, at times these passages of patterned found-sounds may seem taxing, but once they finally give way to the melody, some of the most interesting semi-tribal jams in Ratatat’s catalog occur, slight of hand guitar flourishes and sudden deep rooted bass appear, and before you know it are replaced by a new melody, or slowly vanish behind another rhythmic melody, that hint at such a wide array of influences you start to feel like you’re listening to a world music sampler on your ipod while standing at a rock concert.

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Ratatat – Shempi

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13. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping

Welcome back to Sunlandia, not much has changed since you were last here, Kevin Barnes can still play dress up, can still be a Ziggy Stardust. On this record of Montreal swaggers and struts about as a proud, aging, black transvestite, making one more album. It’s just another transformation, another exposition of misguided pop melodies, anther glimpse into the world of Kevin Barnes, into Sunlandia. On this effort the hooks are fired at you at world record pace, songs suddenly shift tone and time signatures with no warnings, analogous to the disjunctive nature of the character this album is all about. Pop hooks still rain down sunshine and smiles upon the listener, while the subject matter remains as strange and broken as any of Montreal Album to date. Truly though this is more of the same from of Montreal, another bend in the road, another trip down some Technicolor psychedelic lane, but I can’t say it isn’t a great trip, if a little self indulgent, in its whimsical-ity.

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of Montreal – An Eluardian Instance

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17. Hot Chip - Made in The Dark

This album starts of like you’ve just walked into the middle of some gigantic electro-pop battle royale and doesn’t let off the steam until well into the middle of the album, where it trades its jittery beats for a British take on 90’s R&B, sporadically hitting you in the face again and again with its, well, nerdy dance grooves, that can get even, maybe especially, the most pigeon-toes wallflowers into their dancing shoes.

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Hot Chip – Whistle For Will

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12. Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now Youngsters…

When was the last time an unhealthy dose of teen angst didn’t make a year end list. Los Campesinos 2008 debut is the sound of teen spirit for the year, its completely juvenile, each song forcing itself forward faster than it can handle, being overly-verbose, and completely immature, and all for its own sake. I know that sounds like a decrying of almost 90% of teenage indie bands, but it is anything but that. It is in fact a completely heart felt statement of endearment for Los Campesinos!, My Scottish Tweexcore heart beats at the same rate as these twinkly songs about broken teenage romance, confessions of complete inability and on-your-sleeve loner/loser anathema. If Los Campesinos! weren’t completely sincere about all of this, it wouldn’t work out at all, but the beautiful demise of their music is their stark conviction.

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Los Campesinos! – My Year in Lists