tisdag 30 Dec 2008, 20:53

My top albums of 2008

Number One: Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/InGhostColours.jpg

Let me direct your attention to my Last.fm Top Tracks of the past 12 months.
http://www.last.fm/user/aubr3y/charts?subtype=tracks

That could really speak for itself. It would be hilarious if I just left it at that. "Enough said! Let the numbers speak!"

I will gladly speak on behalf of the awesomeness that is In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy.

Admittedly I HATED the opening track on first listen. I didn't want to hear all the Oooooh oooh ooh ooh ooh oohs over and over again, it was annoying (however it grew on me, but it is my least favorite track on the album). This didn't put me off the album completely because the second track "Out There on the Ice" pulled me and my shaking ass in all the way. In fact this was my first favorite song on the album. It's since changed no less than six or seven times.

The transitions from track to track are seamless, first evident between "Out there on the Ice" and "Lights and Music". This album is best listened to as a whole. The side effects include random fits of dancing and foolery. I for one have been guilty of dancing with Mordecai!, my orange tabby cat. He seems to enjoy the music (but probably just the bouncing) just as much as I do.

Can I sidetrack, or is it side bar, for a moment here? This summer at the Pitchfork Music Festival this was the band I was most excited to see. Come to find out their flight was delayed and they weren't going to play their closing set while Spoon played the same old shit on the larger stage. Instead that Bradford Cox guy from Deerhunter and King Khan came out and adlibbed some terrible terrible stuff. All the scenesters were eating it up, being such a novel experience and all. I for one was having none of it. I left heartbroken and waited for my friends outside the gates, but one of them said that Cut Copy had just gotten there so I ran past security (whom I had a foible with earlier in the weekend) and allowed myself some reentry. Holy shit. The twenty minutes that Cut Copy played constituted the best show I saw all year. That's all it took. High energy, totally fun. I didn't realise they would put on such a charged show, I get disallusioned with dancey acts performing live, afraid that it's just not going to translate. I was proved wrong! When I saw them again a couple of months ago it was the same thing, but extended in length. I sweat and danced my ass off. I don't just let go like that for anyone. I'm sort of a dance prude. Frigid even sometimes. (For the record I wasn't even drunk in either case)

I love all of these songs.

My favorite span of the album is the span between songs 8-15. It's just a fucking party. The transition "Visions in Quartz" gives to "Hearts on Fire" is such a tease, you don't know what you're getting into. "Hearts on Fire" is SUCH (said slightly elongated and breathy) a good song. It's got a little eighties, a little Daft Punk, a little disco. "Far Away" is a cute song, that's how I would describe it. "Strangers in the Wind" takes a mellower tone, still electrofused though. My current reigning favorite would probably have to be "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found." I like how the keyboard drips up and down (I am describing this accurately I swear). The bass line is the thing your head bops to while the rest of your body follows the drums. You dig?

The album ends with "Eternity One Night Only" which is just atmospheric cool down from the high impact dance party you just experienced with the rest of the album.

This album has gotten me through all sorts of moods, it enhances happiness and helps dull down anger and sadness. Let me put it to you this way. I think this is an accessible upbeat dance fused album that anyone with a little heart or weak spot for fun and dancing can take a shining to.
Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours
Top Albums of 2008