Has 2008 been a good year for music?
I've got the new Mojo and Uncut, both of which have Best Albums of 2008 lists. It got me thinking about my favourite album of the year. And I struggled to think of any I was satisfied with. Looking over the lists in the magazines I had either not heard the albums (Elbow, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros, Paul Weller, Guns N'Roses, MGMT, Adele), or had heard it once or twice and thought it was alright but nothing great (REM, Nick Cave, Portishead, Vampire Weekend, Goldfrapp).
For a while I was thinking that "Couples" by The Long Blondes was the best album of 2008. A good album, and one that grows better with every listen, but surely not the best of the year? I eventually remembered Ladyhawke (the pop singer, not the Canadian rock band), and although the album is a bit samey, I think it's the best newly released album this year.
So two questions, was 2008 a good year for music, and what was your favourite album so far?
Personally I think rock sucked a little bit this year while pop has been pretty strong.
My favourites albums were probably:
5. Martha Wainwright's - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too (good but not amazing)
4. Those Dancing Days - In Our Space Hero Suits (Word so far has been the only magazine to review this album, and without that review I doubt I would have stumbled over them by now)
3. The Long Blondes - "Couples"
2. Lykke Li - Youth Novels (solid eccentric pop music)
1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
I've just discovered M83's Saturdays=Youth album which I've only heard once, but has the potential to be excellent (one of their songs was on the Word cover CD that came with the John Martyn cover).
The best music video of 2008 without a doubt was "Kim and Jessie" by M83 which I've watched about ten times in the space of only a few weeks.
A list of albums released in 2008:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_albums_released_in_2008
What about duds? I've not been too impressed with The Slip by Nine Inch Nails, Duffy's Rockferry album etc but they're not duds, just disappointing. Have any bands seriously let you down this year?
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I think it's been a pretty good year (so far). Geraint Watkins' album is very good indeed while The Felice Brothers released a storming record. Little Jackie's is excellent and Pete Molinari's latest is a real grower.
The Fleet Foxes is a bit Emperor's New Clothes in my mind but I can see why people would like it. Bon Iver just put me to sleep.
It's interesting that...
despite lots of positive reviews I've seen out and about, Elvis Costello's Fucyamama or whatever it's called seems to be on nobody's list of albums of the year (nor, from what I've seen, are any songs from it on anyone's list of proposals for the Festive Fifty).
And will everyone now be scrambling to get the Fireman's Electric Arguments included before the cut? (I've heard four tracks so far: two were great - as good as anything he's done for the last 30-odd years - and the other two, er, weren't.)
Elvis
I put a track from Momofuku in for the top fifty and the album would definitely be one of the best of the year.
Oops
Sorry, Pat, I missed that. So many threads, so little time.
You don't like Elvis much
do you, Archie? Do you want to talk about it?
I used to be a big fan. . .
sitting manfully without complaint through many a disgraceful performance during the Cocaine Years, but we parted company definitively about 20 years ago. Still, we'd had a good run.
I know what you mean
He often pops up on my ipod - half the time I find myself thinking 'this is a really good track', half the time I reach for the fwd button. I probably lost interest around the same time - the Spike album did for me, though I came back briefly for Brutal Youth and really liked a track he did with Lucinda Williams - the name of which escapes me.
Well I think 2008 has been alright
Elbow and Sigur Ros have both produced tremendous albums that stand repeated plays and compare well with great albums of previous years.
The Pete Molinari album is growing with every play (and our baby twins like it so it's getting a few plays).
The Chris Difford album is great as well but I think it suffers because it is about such normal things that people overlook just how well written and performed the songs are.
Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes are slowly growing. I think my problem with the Foxes is that I started with the proper album and struggled. Having sampled a few of the tracks on the smaller album, they are more accessible. Will download when my eMusic allowance kicks in.
Started well...
with the physical release of In Rainbows and then albums by Lightspeed Champion, British Sea Power and Los Campesinos! (I really must stop going on about that band). I continuously neglected to check out Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes and Foals despite liking what I'd heard, and bought very little 'new' beyond Santagold and Death Cab for Cutie during the summer. At the moment we seem to be caught up in 'third album territory' with a lot of bands who appeared around the same time (Bloc Party, Kaisers, Killers, Razorlight) following up disappointing second albums with not-much-better new releases. Have yet to here Costello's Fucyamama (Tee Hee) but it is unlikely to reverse the downward slide that has been This Year's Music.
Razorlight
I saw their new album in Woolworths for £5.
£5 in Woolies
Isn't everything £5 in Woolies these days?
Santogold is my album of the year, no question. Everything that's exciting about pop music in one small, perfectly-formed package.
The Devil's Crayon by Wild Beasts (who I'm seeing tonight) is properly my track of the year. Jeff Buckley meets The Blue Nile.
Just realised..
I spelt Santogold as Santagold in my original post. She would make a fine St Nick, eh? Great album.
I think the Razorlight thing is a law of diminishing returns. I saw them play a club night in Hull early on the tour of the first album and they were absolutely corking. The missus and I saw them a couple of times since, culminating in their headline slot at leeds festival last year which has to be once of the most god-awful live experiences I have ever had to grit my teeth through. They're not going to suddenly get any better, any chance of them stopping now?
Oh my good God...
I am officially 'past it'. I looked through that list of albums from 2008, and I realised that I have not bought one of them. In 2008, musically, I have lived entirely in the past.
I bought fewer records/cds/downloads
this year than I have since I was about 13.
One of these things first
It would have to be one of the following for me; Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, the Drive-By Truckers 'Brighter Than Creation's Dark' (criminally ignored by Word), or possibly the Olson-Louris album that I finally downloaded last night, having gone into a slight fury at the release date going back AGAIN (though I still have a proper copy on order, m'lud). Probably 'For Emma, Forever Ago' wins, after a quick consideration - a unique, atmospheric thing (though I perfectly understand it not being to everyone's taste).
I agree that it's been a poor year LOUD, but...
...I would suggest you need to listen to the Elbow, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Ros albums, which are being rated by a lot of people as their top albums.
Albums of year
would seem to be a bit a bit of redundant concept for anyone who's not a music journalist. It's their job to listen to anything new and they get sent it for free, when it's new. For the rest of us I imagine it just sort of filters through over time. Can't have bought more than 10 new 'new' albums all year - will probably buy more from 2008 next year..
Of them, Tindersticks was good but not great, as was Billy Bragg, I enjoyed the Eno and Byrne but again only good, as is Vampire Weekend.
I'll go for Chris Difford. Wonderful album, and I like the comment above about it being about such normal things it's easy to overlook. Very True.
Non-album of the year is easy, however - Elbow. Pah!
Done some (2008) new
I do like to keep in touch with what's new - sort of being involved with now, feels like a healthy, positive thing somehow. MGMT Oracular Spectacular is a recent purchase to which I succumbed after seeing all the FF votes and the irresistible low online price of £5. And am glad went for it. Bright, sparkling pop with psychedelic overtones and New Order like dance element on some songs. Excellent I think, though possibly not all tracks, but enough to make it well worth it.
Otherwise already put forward my selections via FF vote. Not that different from others and from what critics pick I don't suppose. Except for Elbow - kept at arm's length and seldom heard(see what I did...), a disappointment for me. Also not really drawn to Fleet Foxes. Although there's a lot of music that you don't really love until you own it and play it sufficiently often, so there's always a sense for me that it's hard to know if there's something worth getting - can't get it all. This means there is an arbitrary aspect to much of what you like. Always stuff gets missed that could just have been your favourite. But seemed an above average noughties year to me.
2008's been a great year for me!
my top ten albums of the year are -
10)The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
9)Sun Kil Moon - April
8)Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night
7)Ben Folds - Way To Normal
6)Billy Bragg - Mr Love And Justice
5)Murder By Death - Red Of Tooth And Claw
4)Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
3)Sigur Ros - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
2)Dear Science - TV On The Radio
1)Portishead - Third
then there were albums by conor oberst, last shadow puppets and Nine inch nails that didn't quite make the top ten, plus albums by amadou & mariam, fela kuti and Orbital that i've heard for the first time but weren't released this year.
Plus, i haven't even bought the new Amadou & Mariam album so the whole list could change by next week!
There is always good music around in any year
Maybe it's nostalgia or maybe it's true but there just doesn't seem to be as much good music around now as there was in say 1968.1978,1988, or 1998.
Maybe as an art form popular music has already peaked but there will always be good music, it's just that when will a new Beatles,Dylan or Bowie appear and startle us with their genius.
There was nothing new that really caught my attention in 2008 there have been good albums I thought Randy Newmans album was probably the best thing I have heard in terms of songwriting.
I am looking forward to 2009 more since there are probable albums by Franz Ferdinand, Prefab Sprout and Squeeze.
I couldn't name a single tune released in 2008
I'm probably missing out on some good music, but how about anything life changingly brilliant? I'm open to suggestions.
Personally
The Sigur Ros album is really very good indeed.
Fredo Viola
His new album The Turn isn't even out till December 15 - and then only on iTunes - but it's genuinely stunning. Here's a guy who knows his classic songwriters (Nilsson,Joni Mitchell), but has also inhaled the likes of Stravinsky, Delia Derbyshire, Tom Jobim and Miles Davies. He has a tremendous voice, which he layers to polyrhythmic effect, and he writes genuine melodies designed to lodge in your brain for more than a week. I'd confidently predict that by this time next year he'd be huge, were it not for the fact that he suffers from an Andy Partridge-style performance anxiety. But he also makes good videos which can be seen here: www.theturn.tv.
And yes, Fleet Foxes are pretty damn good, too . . .