What are you favorite albums for the year 2008?
What are you favorite albums for the year 2008?
It wasn't a great year for music for me. Actually, I struggled to come up with a list more than three albums long, so I just picked two albums with a couple of singles I liked. However, much of that blame could be laid at the fact I'm 18 years old and can still spend my time finding gems from the past I've never heard.
So anyways, here's my Top Five:
1. Appeal to Reason by Rise Against
2. Indestructible by Disturbed
3. Only by Night by Kings of Leon
4. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace by The Offspring
5. Weezer (Red Album) by Weezer
I thought it was a great year for music, I could extend this to 20 albums but I'll just limit it to five here.
5. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
4. Deerhunter - Microcastle
3. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!
2. of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
1. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
5. Animal Collective - Water Curses (EP)
4. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
3. Beach House - Devotion
2. Dr. Dog - Fate
1. Clinic - Do It!
1. Stephen Malkmus
Real Emotional Trash
In a year in which there were a lot of good and great albums, I think Malkmus put together the closest thing to a classic.
2. Calle 13
Los de Atras Vienen Conmigo
This was a great year for artists with Spanish lyrics. This is, by far, my favorite international rap CD.
3. Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
The music is just fun. It's hard not to like.
4. Girl Talk
Feed the Animals
I hate to give someone from Pittsburgh any credit, but this is the best set of mashup remixes you'll ever hear.
5. The Virgins
The Virgins
It's a shame this market of music is so over-saturated because if this band were around 10 years ago, they'd be absolutely huge right now.
6. Kaiser Chiefs
Off with Their Heads
I was fairly disappointed by their sophomore effort, but they made a huge comeback.
7. Los Campesinos!
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
It's another fun CD that is difficult not to enjoy. With all due respect to MilotheMayor, who put together a great list, Of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping is very good, but it would have been better if it were more similar to Los Campesinos!
8. Santogold
Santogold + Top Ranking - A Diplo Dub
The self-titled CD was great, but I was more impressed by the remix double-disc. It's nice to know that good music can still be made in the pop genre.
9. Beck
Modern Guilt
It's another great CD from Beck. Nothing more needs to said.
10. Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line
It's a less catchy but more creative version of Vampire Weekend. I was really impressed.
An Expensive Night in Red Bank (EV2 version)- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Here are my favorite albums for 2008:
We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things Jason Mraz - Beyond the radio hit "I'm Yours," the disc easily has an additional 7 great songs.
Evolver John Legend - Not quite as good as "Get Lifted," but a really great disc that makes good sue of the collaborating talent.
Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords - See the other thread about this.
Keep Color The Republic Tigers - Fantastic new sound, and probably the best free iTunes download of the year.
Electric Arguments The Fireman - Probably the best thing Paul McCartney has done since his Wings days, and easily one of the most creative albums of 2008. If I had to pick my overall favorite released this year, this would be it.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Disappointing year in music for me as well.
3 of my favorite artists released sub-par efforts - Beck, Counting Crows and Ben Harper.
The band that used to be my favorite, G. Love & Special Sauce, released an album that was so bad it was comical. I think I'm done with them. Jack Johnson is another one I used to love but I can't stomach anymore. His style went from beautiful simplicity to just freaking boring and repetitive.
Ryan Adams' new album is good but not great. However, he did re-release an old Whiskeytown album with a bunch of new cuts, unreleased songs and re-recorded stuff. I think that album was the highlight of the year for me, at least in terms of music.
I liked Radiohead's new CD - that was another highlight.
Damien Rice's new album was also very good.
Many have not heard of the guy but, a new artist that emerged this year who is very, very good is Ryan Bingham. Check him out if you're into alt-country (For those who do not know what alt-country is, think of it simply as country music that does not suck with furious passion).
Here's hoping for some better tunes in 2009.
“The crows seem to be calling my name,” thought Caw.
I thought the Ben Harper CD was okay but definitely not his best. I loved the Beck CD and thought the Counting Crows CD was terrible, though. I agree 100% about G. Love & Special Sauce--I wonder what happened to them. I also agree with you on Ryan Adams' newest CD, but I think I liked it a little more than you did. It took some time to grow on me, though. Radiohead's last CD was great, as expected, but I think it came out in 2007. I haven't heard Damien Rice's new CD yet, but I'll check that out and Ryan Bingham out, too.
Ben Harper is on a two album cold streak.
The Counting Crows album was their worst ever. Very disappointing. It made This Desert Life look like a work of genius.
Modern Guilt probably doesn't deserve to be mentioned with those two as it wasn't awful - my expectations were simply so high after The Information that maybe I was destined to be let down.
I did like Cardinology, just so I'm clear - I just didn't love it. I've listened to it tons of times and I think it's done all the growing on me it's going to be able to do. Course, with Adams, you know his style and songwriting are all cyclical so, hopefully, his next album will be more Cold Roses or Heartbreaker than Easy Tiger and Cardinology. BTW - Adams is going to be in Jax, FL on March 9th. Will be my first ever Ryan Adams concert and I am 3 rows from the stage. Can't wait.
Come to think of it, you're right about Radiohead. I think it was '07.
I don't know if The Fray released their album in 07 or 08 but I actually like them a lot. They're a bit "poppier" than I normally like but I have to admit I enjoyed their debut album.
“The crows seem to be calling my name,” thought Caw.
In order...
1. G n'f'n R-Chinese Democracy
2. Motley Crue-SOLA
3. Apocalyptica-Worlds Collide
4. AC/DC-Black Ice
5. Metallica-Death Magnetic
In random order:
Nickelback - Dark Horse
T.I. - Paper Trail
Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
Il Divo - The Promise
1. Oh My Heart - Mother Mother
2. In Ghose Colours - Cut Copy
3. The Red Album - Weezer
4. We Started Nothing - The Ting Tings
That's about all the obes that jumped out at me.
In Rainbows
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