lördag 20 Dec 2008, 6:42

*according to me.

Albums of 2008 that i listened to. Broken down into three sections, in alphabetical order.

LOVED (My Favourite Albums of 2008)

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Artist: Black Mountain
Album: In The Future

Highlight: Bright Lights

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Artist: Burst
Album: Lazarus Bird

Highlight: I Exterminate The I

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Artist: Calexico
Album: Carried to Dust

Possibly their best to date, in my opinion.

Highlight: Man Made Lake

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Artist: Children Collide
Album: The Long Now

I could've mistakenly lumped these Aussies in with all the other 80s revival indie dork bands, but a few cracker tunes have kept me interested, and i'm glad i grabbed the album. They sit more on the dirty side of music, i'd say they're a post grunge/post punk band, with pop tendencies. Any band that sings about science, space travel, evolution and outer space is a winner with me.

Highlight: Skeleton Dance

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Artist: Cog
Album: Sharing Space

Not as good as The New Normal. Although interesting subject matter, they need to stop with the conspiracy/David Icke shit and just make music. Saw them host Rage and they almost insinuated that the Queen was reptilian.

Highlight: Problem, Reaction, Solution

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Artist: Cult of Luna
Album: Eternal Kingdom

Highlight: Ghost Trail

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Artist: DeVotchKa
Album: A Mad & Faithful Telling

This is the kind of album Arcade Fire wish they made.

Highlight: New World

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Artist: Drive-By Truckers
Album: Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Highlight: That Man I Shot

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Artist: The Drones
Album: Havilah

One of the most important Australian bands currently. The Drones have been doing their own style of dark, country/folk inspired Australian rock n roll for years, never compromising on their own style or vision, and the result is another slice of some of the best music in the world. Australian music is great, however the market is so small here compared to other countries that most bands curb their aspirations to fit within a sound that will play well with radio and the youth channels. Although there is a huge market and audience, and the music is of world class calibre, it leads to a severe lack of experimental/avant garde type of music getting out of oz. This is what happens when a great band and songwriters just do their thing, and luckily they're being heard, not just here but around the world. It's albums like this that will inspire future generations of Australians to make internationally successful music that will stretch and create rules and genres, and not just safely abide by them.

Highlight: Nail It Down

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Artist: Earth
Album: The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

Ticks alot of boxes for me. Amazing stuff (if you're into this sort of thing).

Highlight: Omens And Portents I: The Driver

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Artist: Intronaut
Album: Prehistoricisms

Highlight: Australopithecus

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Artist: Jenny Lewis
Album: Acid Tongue

I love Rabbit Fur Coat. This is better.

Highlight: The Next Messiah

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Artist: Joan as Police Woman
Album: To Survive

Heavenly.

Highlight: To Be Lonely

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Artist: Little Red
Album: Listen To Little Red

White R&B/50s Rock n Roll revivalists Little Red bring the harmonies and the goods. All the songs are little pop rock golden nuggets.

Highlight: Witchdoctor

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Artist: Made Out Of Babies
Album: The Ruiner

Highlight: The Major

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Artist: Opeth
Album: Watershed

Highlight: The Lotus Eater

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Artist: Portishead
Album: Third

I think expectations from people who've been waiting 11 years for this album are different to those who haven't been waiting as long. It's definitely not disappointing considering they've been out of action for over a decade. It's actually unbelievable they managed to create not only a brilliant album, but a new work that sits apart from their other stuff whilst sounding like it belongs in 2008. Easily one of the best records of this year.

Highlight: The Rip

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Artist: She & Him
Album: Volume One

You can't argue with results.

Highlight: I Was Made For You

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Artist: Snowman
Album: The Horse, The Rat and The Swan

They've dropped a fair bit of the surf rock/psychobilly-ish-ness that made their last album so fun, but they've really hit their sound on this one. This is much much darker than the last record, more avant-garde, more post-rock experimentalist and more cohesive. Basically what i said about The Drones before, applies here. One of the most important Australian bands around.

Highlight: Our Mother (She Remembers)

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Artist: Sons and Daughters
Album: This Gift

Absolute indie pop rock perfection. Their Scottish accents and dark folk edge may not be for everyone, but i fucking love it. Is an all time favourite of mine for sure. I've read quite a number of best of 2008 music lists and i am failing to see this anywhere, so its obviously not getting the attention it deserves. These guys are so fucking underrated its unbelievable.

Highlight: This Gift

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Artist: Sparkadia
Album: Postcards

Easily one of the best Aussie releases of 2008. Smooth as. Love the dudes voice, like an Aussie Morrissey. I'm just glad to hear a singer that isn't trying to sound like fucking Robert Smith of The Cure.

Highlight: Morning Light

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Artist: These Arms Are Snakes
Album: Tail Swallower and Dove

Highlight: Ethric Double

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Artist: Torche
Album: Meanderthal

Cross Kyuss with heavy poppy Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins (sans Billy Corgan vocals) and you get this slugdey stoner poppy hard rock/metal gem. Near perfection.

Highlight: Healer

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Artist: Vampire Weekend
Album: Vampire Weekend

These guys and MGMT are easily the best of the over-hyped indie-pop/hipster/trendwhore bands of this year. However, i think this will turn out to be one of the standout records of this decade when people start looking back.

Highlight: A-Punk

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Artist: Wolf Parade
Album: At Mount Zoomer

Definitely a cut above the majority of indie rock bands saturating the music scene. Kind of remind me of The Shins. Great songwriting. Excellent album.

Highlight: California Dreamer

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Artist: Zodiak
Album: Sermons

Highlight: Sermons

LIKED (Excellent albums i enjoyed, but not quite favourites)

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Artist: Fleet Foxes
Album: Fleet Foxes

Good, but i don't quite get what all the fuss is about. If i want this type of thing i'm probably gonna go listen to Midlake.

Highlight: White Winter Hymnal

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Artist: Flight of The Conchords
Album: Flight of The Conchords

Highlight: Business Time

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Artist: Have a Nice Life
Album: Deathconsciousness

Highlight: Bloodhail

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Artist: Hot Chip
Album: Made In The Dark

Half Nelson. Full Nelson. Willie Nelson.

Highlight: Ready For The Floor

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Artist: Kings of Leon
Album: Only By The Night

Very little left of their southern rock sound, theres only 6 songs of 11 that i like. I have a feeling that percentage will drop on future albums, considering the massive success of this one. Because of the Times is much better than this.

Highlight: Manhattan

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Artist: Metallica
Album: Death Magnetic

The first two singles released before the album came out contained some really corny lyrics that i thought were going to dog all the songs, and deem it unlistenable. Thankfully the other songs escaped that cruel fate and the album as a whole is quite enjoyable (to me anyway).

Highlight: The Judas Kiss

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Artist: MGMT
Album: Oracular Spectacular

Here's a rare instance where excessive radio play actually increased my liking of an album. I shunned this album most of the year but now i think it really deserves the acclaim.

Highlight: Kids

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Artist: Misery Signals
Album: Controller

I'm not a fan of this post-hardcore/metalcore crossover stuff. The band really shines when it displays it hardcore roots, and the album wanes when it does all the metal stuff. Suffers from corny generic angsty lyrics. The result is another unremarkable metalcore record.

Highlight: Coma

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Artist: Mouth Of The Architect
Album: Quietly

I think this will grow on me a bit more.

Highlight: Rocking Chairs and Shotguns

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Artist: The Presets
Album: Apocalypso

Much better than their debut.

Highlight: Kicking & Screaming

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Artist: Psycroptic
Album: Ob(Servant)

Insanity from Tasmania.

Highlight: Horde In Devolution

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Artist: Russian Circles
Album: Station

This is great, I prefer this one over Enter.

Highlight: Youngblood

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Artist: Santogold
Album: Santogold

Highlight: Lights Out

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Artist: A Textbook Tragedy
Album: Intimidator

Chops.

Highlight: Stay Out Of Riverdale

DIDN'T LIKE (Not as good as i was expecting…)

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Artist: Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Album: Lie Down In The Light

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Artist: The Breeders
Album: Mountain Battles

I can't believe a band that can make Last Splash can make this rubbish.

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Artist: The Duke Spirit
Album: Neptune

Highlight: You Really Wake Up The Love In Me

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Artist: Genghis Tron
Album: Board Up The House

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Artist: Gyroscope
Album: Breed Obsession

I really dislike this album. Are You Involved? is such a great album, and was such a leap forward from their debut, and this is mostly really boring, showing only faint remnants of the songwriting of Are You Involved?. Too glossy, they were really aiming for commercial success with this, obviously it hasn't really taken off and I can't see myself interested in anything else they will do from here on. Horrible album cover also.

Highlight: 1981

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Artist: Laura Marling
Album: Alas I Cannot Swim

Highlight: Ghosts

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Artist: The Magnetic Fields
Album: Distortion

Highlight: Drive On, Driver

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Artist: One Day As A Lion
Album: One Day As A Lion

Highlight: One Day As A Lion

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Artist: Thisquietarmy
Album: Unconquered

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Artist: This Will Destroy You
Album: This Will Destroy You

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Artist: Trivium
Album: Shogun

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Artist: Van She
Album: V

Highlight: Changes

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Artist: The Watson Twins
Album: Fire Songs

Highlight: How Am I To Be

OTHER ALBUMS I wanted to check out - for future reference