Dancing About Architecture 12.23.08
Posted by Ian Wright on 12.23.2008
No news this week because ... well there's no news. Instead here's my favorite albums of the year.
The bit at the start
Hey kids. It's that time of year again when it's time to think about the best stuff that was released in the last 12 months. So lets get to it.
11 albums and EP's that I liked this year but not enough to put them in my top 10.
These are in no particular order. In another year a couple of these might have jumped in my affections a little. I got to the first two albums here too late in the year to spend enough time with them to really figure out how good I think they are and with a little more time spent with them I'd probably put them in the top 10.
Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Modern Life
Wavves - Wavves
Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park
Deerhunter - Wierd Era Cont.
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Man Man - Rabbit Habits
Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
British Sea Power - Do You like Rock Music?
Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts(Tea Partying Through Tornadoes)
Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
Final Fantasy - Spectrum, 14th Century
Ian's top albums of '08
I got halfway through blurbing these albums before realised that I've written plenty about them all already in the past 12 months so I decided to go with an uncommented list instead. There's no Vampire Weekend in the list because I loath what they do, nor do Fleet Foxes appear because I find them to be really boring. And there's no mention of Bon Iver despite the fact that I've probably listened to For Emma, Forever Ago more than any other album this year because I covered it in the 2007 review of the year.
The thing I notice about this list of albums is that TVOTR (and that album, which I was sure was going to be my album of the ear when I first heard it but it didn't really have legs for me) and Hold Steady aside all of my top ten was made by musicians and bands that I'd never really listened to before. In some cases it was because the album is a debut, in some cases because the band's previous releases were only locally released in a small run and in some cases it's just because I can't, don't and won't pretend to be on top of every band putting out decent music as soon as they begin practicing in one of their garages, attics or basement.
Anyway, without further ado here's the 10 albums that I liked the most in 2008.
10:The Walkmen - You And Me
9: The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
8: TV On The Radio - Dear Science,
7: The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
6: Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
5: The Dodos - Visiter
4: Fuck Buttons - Street Horrsing
3: Why? - Alopecia
2: No Age - Nouns
1: Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements
The bit at the end
That's me done for the year. I hate Christmas so I'm going to try to keep my head down for the coming week and just get through it. See yez all in 2009.
Semi permanent plug for my blog. I think I'll be updating it from time to time in over the break.
