Your favourite records of 2008

[djtrees]

Just having a look through my hard drive to see what jumps out at me (unfortunately I bought little music this year due to being skint as a bastard) and there isn't that much new, new music to be had. The ones that have stood out in the last couple of months are....

New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) - Erykah Badu (only got this a couple of weeks ago, but already loving it more than her debut I think)
Water Street - Sweatshop Union (Canadian political style Hop Hop)
The Gas - P Brothers (U.K. produced Hip Hop with Yankee rappers)
Black & White Mass - a.P.A.t.T. (Best band in the world bar none, honest)
La Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp - Album (This might have been out in 2007, but saw them a couple of times this year and got hold of their album which isn't anywhere near as good as their live show but still ace)
Electric Lazer - Giant Panda (good old skool party hip hop)
Infinite Ellipse and Head With Open Fontanel - Make A Rising (Some odd americans that reminded me slightly of a.P.A.t.T. or Black Moth Super Rainbow, whilst not really sounding like them)
Emily Lacy - some self recorded anti-folk(Blergh) from that America

The singer/shouter/guitarist in the stupid band that I make noise in mentioned the other week that we had played about 75-80 gigs last year (the majority in that foreign Europe), which is the most I've ever done in a year. I think that my lack of buying recorded stuff has stemmed from seeing quite a lot of different weird bands that I've never heard of before in place that I never thought I'd see anything interesting. So my musical highlights of the year haven't been record based as they might have been in other years. Or maybe I'm just getting old and lazy. Who knows.

[Marvin]

Fuck's sake, 85 listed and I forgot one of my favourites of the year:

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt

along with another couple of good 'uns:

The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Lambchop - OH (Ohio)
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
Dressy Bessy - HollerandStomp
Xiu Xiu - Women as Lovers
Nana Grizol - Love It Love It
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
Those Dancing Days - In Our Space Hero Suits

So there, that's my 95.

Add to this new material from Miles Kurosky from Beulah and the reawakening of Elephant 6, 2008 was a good year.

[trotsky assortment]

Basically a list of everything you listened to which came out in '08, then Marvin?!

[alan nagsworth]

I did finally check out Velella Velella which Alanags has been talking about for a while. I couldn't find their album but the EP, 'Flight Cub', is bloody brilliant! I dunno why (well, you can guess actually) but I thought they were going to be more of an IDM/breakcore thing (soz for stereotyping, Nadge) but nope, super melodic electronic funk, with a bit of the old ambient textures to wash your ears out when needed. Here's looking forward to their next album.

Haha, you crazy cats. People take note: Unless I use the word "spazzed", or the successive string of the words "abrasive unrelenting mentalism", I'm not reviewing breakcore! In fact I don't listen to it much these days apart from at gigs (where I go madferit) or on the bus on my way home to keep me awake.

Anyway, I'm really glad you like Velella Velella, Crabman. They're still the best new band of the past 3 years if you ask me. They might not be super-inventive and mega-eclectic which is what a lot of people seem to be after these days, but they are inventive enough to win my heart and their blends of funk, sweet melodies and clunky beats gets me every time. They're second-to-none and that Flight Cub EP, while it is indeed brilliant, ain't a patch on the debut! Look hard for it, it's well worth it. If not then I'll get it to you when I get the net back at home. Everyone else, take mine and TBC's advice and check out this fucking band.

(They have a new single on their MySpace too which is pretty by-the-numbers but still great, so here's to 2009!)

[Marvin]

Basically a list of everything you listened to which came out in '08, then Marvin?!

No, as I said in my previous post I excluded quite a lot of stuff that I listened to but didn't rate.

[Vitalstatistix]

Fugghedaboudit.

[Marvin]

If we want to be very technical, my very favourite records are Nick Cave, Jim Noir, of Montreal and a couple of others, but all those others are very good and should not be ignored on a technicality. My point is that I don't consider it a bad year for music when I can list nearly 100 albums that I really enjoyed, and no they're not just all the things I heard.

[niat]

The volume of music I listen to seems to have reduced dramatically over the last couple of years (2 young kids etc etc), so I wouldn't even be able to scrape together a top 10 for last year. My top 5 is:

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

[Abbie]

Wot no Jenny Lewis??!

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Went to see her at Koko this year, phenomenal in all senses and she was wearing a lovely hat!
The Long Blondes - Century
Not everyone's cup of tea I know but I found this album happy and catchy.
Seasick Steve - I Started out with Nothin and i Still Got Most of it Left
Caught this on spunk bag Zane Lowe's show one evening and liked it a lot.
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
If I play 'Top Yourself' backwards I can hear Jack White asking me to marry him.
Breeders - Mountain Battles
Only 3 out of 5 stars on Amazon - I think it deserves more!

Chez and the girls have done it again for me in 2008. Girls Aloud - Out of Control is probably my fave of 2008.

[Toad in the Hole]

Seconded on Jenny Lewis, Abbie - saw her at Manchester University earlier in the year, she was both gorgeous and on great musical form.

Good to see you back, too!  A bumper week along with Timmay's return...

[Abbie]

Good to see you back, too!  A bumper week along with Timmay's return...

Argh, i'm not stalking him, honest!

:-)

[Timmay]

Oh, hello, fancy seeing *you* (you missed those, didntcha) here. It's like walking into an office 5 minutes apart, so no one suspects anything. </rumour mill>

[Lee Van Cleef]

Only one album from 2008 has really connected with me:

Black Mountain - In the Future

"Tyrants" is probably one of the best songs I've heard in the last few years.

[Cack Hen]

i've just discovered ra ra riot - the rhumb line

if you liked that vampire weekend album you'll like this, it's pretty much the same thing. i really like it.

[trotsky assortment]

I really need to listen to 'Acid Tongue' by Jenny Lewis.

[Vitalstatistix]

i've just discovered ra ra riot - the rhumb line

if you liked that vampire weekend album you'll like this, it's pretty much the same thing. i really like it.

No fucking way! The fact you think these guys are 'the same thing' as Vampire Weekend suggests to me you haven't really grasped the joy of VW's music. I find Ra Ra Riot to be whiney, dreary, samey boringness. They couldn't write a decent pop tune if their life depended on it, whilst VW shit them out on a regular basis.

[ThickAndCreamy]

The more I search up about 2008 records lately the more I feel as if it has been a weaker year for music on the whole.

In the past week I've purchased Women - Women (technically a 2009 record in the UK however) and Spiritualized - Songs In A & E. Both need more listens from myself to fully judge them but overally I seem to like them both a lot. Women's record is lovely and shambolic, as if it's been recorded within a day and it has some clear standout songs so far. Spiritualized's record is morbidly delicious, very depressing in tone for the most part and well produced without it seeming as if they were trying desperately to create an "epic" record.

I still have about 20 CD's I need to purchase from 2008, so by the looks of things my favourite records list will be written down on CAB sometime in August.

[Cack Hen]

No fucking way! The fact you think these guys are 'the same thing' as Vampire Weekend suggests to me you haven't really grasped the joy of VW's music. I find Ra Ra Riot to be whiney, dreary, samey boringness. They couldn't write a decent pop tune if their life depended on it, whilst VW shit them out on a regular basis.

i love the vampire weekend album, they do what they do well. but for me there's no getting away from there being about 2/3 fairly boring songs on it.

and ra ra riot's sound isn't quite so distinctive, sometimes they can't tell if they want to be an electronic band or not

but that's about all that separates them, the songwriting style is very very similar and to me, of about the same quality.