What other people thought of 2008

Yeah, 2009's only five days old, and while there is still an Animal Collective album to look forward to (more of that later), I'm still going to dwell in the past a little bit and take a look at what other people and websites said were the defining albums of the year 2008 AD...

Drowned In Sound
top 50
DIS' top 50, while devoid of Kings Of The Hill, sorry, Kings Of Leon's polished pop work of Only By The Night, that "one who is better than Winehouse, oh no wait chasing what?" Adele and just-simply-really-bloody-annoying Ting Tings, the list is still fairly predictable. A mixture of the highly popular (MGMT in at 38), the unknown (Shearwater at 16) and the critics choice that no one listened to (Gang Gang Dance). So here is the top 5:

1. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
3. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus!!! Dig!!!
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle
   

Oh and then they topped of the list with a distinctly average album that was made by a Frenchman. Crazy.

Fake DIY
top 10
Rather than the full-staff faffing of a top 50, instead, editor-in-chief Stephen Ackroyd simply lists his 10 favourites, reminding us that this is based on enjoyment rather than technical ability. Here's the top 5:

1. Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up 'Til It Was Light
2. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
3. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
4. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
5. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

If you are a regular reader of Fake DIY (and if you aren't, you should be) then you will know how refreshingly un-pretentious their approach to music is - they aren't there to "out-indie" anyone and know what they like when it comes to Indie-pop.

Pitchfork Media
top 50 staff picks
Benchmark for critical perfection and absolute pretention, Pitchfork combined both of the approaches of DiS and Fake DIY by having staffers do individual lists as well as an overall top 50. So I'm going to be lazy and look at their top 50. Here's the top 5:

1. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP/Fleet Foxes
2. Portishead - Third
3. No Age - Nouns
4. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

Somewhat predicatable perhaps? Although the entire top 50, if you are a regular reader, pretty much is. Except Hercules & Love Affair at 9. No one could have predicted that.

NME
top 10
Where Pitchfork could be the last word in serious music journalism, NME is surely the last word in embarassing indie "gossip" and tabloid style "build them up and knock them down" journalism. See: Doherty & Winehouse's indefinite inclusion in every NME article ever, until they release a new album when they'll be everywhere else, too. Once again, the list is somewhat predictable:

1. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
3. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. Foals - Antidotes

The way they went on about Glasvegas, the only shock is that NME didn't put them at every position in the top 10 and be done with it. I have yet to meet anyone who is a fan of any of their songs, let alone the album, but hey, I could be in the wrong, right? I mean, its not like the record companies give NME money to talk about their bands is it, that would be crazy.

Metacritic
best of 2008 list
A brilliant website for simply collating what all those dirty journos think and condensing their answers into a single number. I sound bitter, but I'm really not. Honest. Their "end of year" feature is therefore as mathematical and neutral and a swiss alarm clock, and simply lists all the albums of the year in order of their metacritic score. Of course, this leads to some, odd (?) results.

1. Amadou & Mariam - Welcome To Mali
2. The Bug - London Zoo
3. Plush - Fed
4. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
5. Shugo Tokumaru - Exit

50 indie points if you've even heard of all those albums (TVOTR aside). 5000 if you own them all.

Last.fm
best of 2008
Last.fm (or audioscrobbler to us veterans) is the opposite of metacritic's narrow journo-based critical maths and instead simply has the top 10 listened to albums, artists and tracks of 2008 by users of their website. If you are or have ever been a member, you'll probably know that everyone listens to Radiohead and Coldplay on this website. Even if you don't have them in your library, your scores will be tallied with everyone elses. So:

1. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
2. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
3. Portishead - Third
4. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
5. The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

Coldplay and MGMT shared the honours with most listened to track (Viva la Vida) and most listened to new artist respectively.


So, Cut Copy and TV On The Radio appeared 3 times each in these lists, and I suppose could be declared to be the "winners". Interesting. No, really, it is.

So thats what everyone else thought. I would ask for your opinion, but I probably wouldn't take it on board. Instead, read what I thought and disagree silently.

Or if you like to feel like part of one huge great slushy cloud of loveliness and oooh glasvegas b-sides wow they are like, almost as good as the kaiser chefs!!!111 i luv dem, stay clean pete!111

then NME.

SATISFACTORY ALBUMS OF TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT

The late late edition. I'm getting worse and worse at keeping up with this. I could blame many things for this. The current state of the Middle East, for example, distracting me from listening to new music and instead relying on my musical library to cheer me up. Everyone current excuse of "y'know, the credit crunch and all that" which, if I hear as a phrase one more time (even in the form of the BBC's cautiously optimistic "economic downturn" complete with mainly downward facing arrows) I'm gonna scream.

I could also blame the mountains of university which I have also clearly not completed, even a small amount, or the endless hours of shifting sportswear to the ironically overweight for pennys. But in reality, I'm just lazy. 2009 is ages away, I said to myself, why worry about it now? Erm...bugger.

So here it is, my Top 15 (extra 5 from last year!) especially for you jolly good people that I banged out in about 15 minutes between getting home, eating my dinner and procrastining until the red dawn light. Enjoy:

15: Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
14: No Age - Nouns
13: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
12: Portishead - Third
11: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend Review

10: Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue Review
9: Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
8: Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles Review
7: Santogold - Santogold
6: British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? Review

5: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Review
4: Beck - Modern Guilt

3:

Foals - Antidotes
While my review didnt take particularly kindly to this album back in April, it has worked its way back to my affections on repeat play alone. There is something to be said about an album that I could sit there and listen to quite comfortably on more than one occasion. For a while it was my "go to" album of choice - what you listen when you can't think of anything else and are too impatient to use the shuffle function.

In April I criticised it, rightly, for not featuring Foals' two best tracks. Namely "Hummer" and "Mathletics"

2:

Deerhunter - Microcastles/Weird Era Cont.
Bradford Cox's second entry on this list, and none more deserved than for this fantastic album of shoegaze, noise and lo-fi perfection, with Weird Era Cont. winning the prize for best bonus disc of any album, possibly ever. But don't just take my word for it, read the original review here for the thoughts of me just one month ago. (or scroll down a bit)

1:

Metronomy - Nights Out
Joseph Mount's follow up to wonky debut Pip Paine finds his former solo moniker now including live partners Oscar Cash and Gabriel Stebbing this time around. And while the album has failed to reach the chart success it should, tracks such as "My Heart Rate Rapid" and "Heartbreaker" have proved dancefloor hits of their own.

If nothing else, Nights Out has blended pop themes and sensibilities with minimalist beats and an aching, awkward dancefloor noise.
Album Preview

Reading/Leeds Festival Line-up reaction (NME/RADIO ONE STAGE)

READING FRIDAY/LEEDS SATURDAY
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
BABYSHAMBLES
Young scallywag Peter Doherty returns to Reading once again with the rest of Babyshambles. While some say he is a tragic genius, and others say he is a scrounging waster, their show will be interesting. Probably.

THE WOMBATS
While the only of their songs that I ever listened to and vaguely enjoyed was "Let's Dance To Joy Division", I was surprised to learn that they had previous released an album in Japan. Weird. I'll be on the main stage.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND
The latest in a long line of New York hype bands and the booking that will arguably fill out the NME tent.
Can't Wait To Hear: Walcott

MGMT
The duo bring their spaced-out stylings to Reading for the first time, and will hopefully be as electrifying as they have been on TV.
Can't Wait To Hear: Time To Pretend

READING SATURDAY/LEEDS SUNDAY
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
They may be past it even more than U2 and REM combined, but the majority of their set is well worth the headlining set they've earned, even if its in the tent rather than on the main stage.
Can't Wait To Hear: If You Tolerate This...

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
BFMV tour their new album Scream Aim Fire. Yes.

JUSTICE
French electro house duo try out their best Daft Punk impression in the NME tent. Let's hope they're a bit more spectacular than when I saw them, but a festival crowd may yet be more favourable for them.

FOALS
Having done the now typical "release-an-album in march then play Brixton in October" that has been exemplified in recent years by We Are Scientists, Kaiser Chiefs and Klaxons, its not a shock either for them to have been pushed up to the NME stage after their electrifying set on the Carling Stage last year. While they arguably won't be as big as Klaxons, the early signs are promising and it may well end up being one of those albums that hangs around in the top 20 for a while.
Can't Wait To Hear: Mathletics

READING SUNDAY/LEEDS FRIDAY
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
THE CRIBS
I have to say I've never really seen the appeal of the brothers Jarman and although their songs aren't unlistenable, and possibly even preferable to Metallica, I both don't know enough and don't want to know enough to make a judgement.

CONOR OBERST
Okay, this is a bit weird. Conor Oberst, who I always assumed was the only "real" member of Bright Eyes, is playing a solo set under his own name, with Rilo Kiley's drummer, amongst others. But Wikipedia tells me that Bright Eyes was always a group project. Either way, he'll probably chuck in a couple of Bright Eyes tracks anyway.

PENDULUM
When they first appeared, they were frequently referred to as being "the new Prodigy", probably by those who thought their remix of Voodoo People was an original song. To be honest, past Slam I'm not that familiar with anything of theirs, past the fact that people always seem to want to request some when they don't like a DJ at a club.

More bands announced soon...

The Unpronounceables

As none of you may know, I co-host a two-hour long radio show on an Internet station that no one ever listens to, that also happens to be part of the university where I am "studying". Although most of the time we try and play fairly radio-friendly mainstream-ish stuff, it did make me wonder about the pronunciation of certain band names, who seem to have made a conscious decision to not be able to be said on the radio.

I mean, obviously you can't swear. At all. Not even after 9pm really. So SHITDISCO and HOLY FUCK are out. As is ANAL CUNT, but that does without saying. Which is lucky because we aren't allowed to.

But, !!!, at least, when I first heard about them, were completely unpronounceable. Although now I know them as CHKCHKCHK as opposed to "that band that is spelt with 3 exclamation marks", technically speaking that isn't really right either. According to their website "!!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. Chk Chk Chk is the most common pronunciation, but they could just as easily be called Pow Pow Pow, Bam Bam Bam, Uh Uh Uh, etc". Riiiight.

In similar confusion, recent hype band MGMT, referred to most as their abbreviation suggests (i.e. emm gee emm tee), they used to be known as "The Management" and are still occasionally referred to as much by, well, me, in the same way that MSTRKRFT or that Primal Scream album XTRMNTR are spelt without vowels like a garbled text message from your 13 year old cousin.

Another petty annoyance is the pronunciation of toytronica duo PSAPP. Pronouncing it wrong makes it sound like the sound of a bottle of lemonade opening. Protip: drop the first and last letters.

But while these band's confusing names are somewhat self-inflicted, probably to confuse those "out of the loop", for some bands, their foreign names can be a problem. Case in point, absolutely awesome "slow-motion rock band" SIGUR ROS is more than often pronounced in the very English corruption "Sigger Ross", whereas in reality the pronunciation is closer to "See your rose". Their compatriots MUM are also pronounced differently . (actually "moom")

But I haven't got a clue how on earth to pronounce LES SAVY FAV.

COMING SOON: something more interesting.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Availiable on Import since January, and just out properly in the UK today, MGMT's David Fridmann-produced debut album is an epic work of electro-rock in the traditions of bands such as Grandaddy, The Flaming Lips and Of Montreal. In similar traditions, the duo make more than enough noise between to make up for their lack of members.

Opening with the bubbling and churning "Time To Pretend", with one of the most whistleable melodies since Young Folks, its not a big surprise that this is their biggest and most well known song. This scathing attack on the record industry and the stars within it, yet this cliche is well executed and stands them in good stead for the rest of the album.

While "Weekend Wars" is a half-hearted attempt to keep up the standard, "The Youth" definitely falls flat on its face. Luckily, by the time "Electric Feel" and "Kids" rolls out, all is forgetten and forgiven. "Kids" especially, is an epic mini-album in itself, full of reprising hooks, and an overall aura of melancholy and existential confusion.

Its annoying how much the notion of "Space-rock" is blasted about as if to describe some quasi-futuristic epic noise. Its a phrase that long dogged Grandaddy and has been attributed to Muse and The Flaming Lips in the past. But all it reminds me of is that terrible Babylon Zoo song that I thought had long since been confined to the bargain bin of eternity. But with MGMT, you do really get that sense of what it really is. Although in fairness, they owe more to more traditional American Indie, with a hint of Blur's Britpop years.

"Piece Of What" sounds as if they were making a late claim for triute album to Ziggy Stardust, while "Of Moons, Birds and Monsters" and "The Handshake" are interchangeable with anything off The Soft Bulletin.

Album closer "Future Reflections" starts as the closest American thing to "new rave" but soon fizzles into an organ driven slow burner that ends this weird trek across the unknown.

This is one of those albums that really depends upon what you bring to it as the listener. It's not simple background music, and if you treat it as much it will soon merge into a single mess of noise and beeps, and not in the good Crystal Castles way. Yet, take it too seriously and you can almost see straight through the delicate fabric that binds the whole album together. Certainly, it is unsurprising to know that David Fridmann has also worked with the Flaming Lips, nor is it a shock to know that they have toured with Of Montreal both as a duo and with their current 5-piece set up.

Certainly an interesting, if imperfect beginning.

Oracular Spectacular is out now in the UK on Sony BMG.