Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town
It's been a big year for Harvey Milk, both the tragically slain politician and the crushingly heavy band that shares his name. Life... manages to combine the sheer mass of past albums like Courtesy And Good Will Towards Men with a twisted sense of catchiness that bands like Torche have taken to as of late. When people like to talk about "epic songs," they should be forced to listen to this album's title track, a nearly 8 minute suite of alternating angelic and punishing vocals that eventually decay into sheer madness and guitar squalls. I find myself gritting my teeth a lot while listening to this album- a sign of a visceral and uncompromising album.
Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
Is Dylan Carlson writing film scores? If not, he really should be. This album sounds like it could have easily been the alternate soundtrack to Kill Bill Vol. 2 if the movie's first half was about 2 hours longer and focused on every last detail of Beatrix Kiddo's day-to-day activities. In all seriousness, the sheer vastness of this album, coupled with its slow-burning repetitiveness result in one of the more hypnotizing albums of the year.
Kanye West - 808s And Heartbreak
Did the self-described "voice of the generation of the decade" have me sold when I first heard about the concepts behind this album? No. Did I think he was batshit crazy for attempting an entire album's worth of singing in AutoTune? Yes (I don't think we can really count the live freestyle tacked on at the end as being part of the album). But dammit, did Kanye West have the audacity to basically spit in the face of everything that has made him famous to this point and somehow make it work? Yes.
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The album that has now topped multiple "Best of 2008" lists and caused critics nation-wide to simultaneously shit themselves kind of lost some steam with me during the second half of the year, but it's still a damn solid recording, at times seeming like some lost Alan Lomax field recording remastered for the '00 decade. The only thing that kept this out of the Top 20 is how much their live experience overshadows their recorded output. Find me another band that could cause everyone at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival to stop talking and stare at the stage while flawless harmonies came flying out. I dare you.The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
Maybe it's because I was introduced to The Mountain Goats through The Sunset Tree and Get Lonely, John Darnielle's two albums of extreme personal purging, but for some reason, I thought Heretic Pride was a bit of a retreat into safety. It's almost as if he opened up too much and felt as if he may have said something he regretted. Either way, it doesn't take away from how solid of an album Heretic Pride is. It contains some of Darnielle's biggest sing-a-long moments, and his always amazing lyrics (I mean, honestly, it's kind of a moot point to keep on pointing out how awesome of a lyricist he is at this point). A solid album in a career chock full of them.M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Anthony Gonzalez has said many times in interviews how this album is his tribute to his teenage years. While I wouldn't say it wallows in nostalgia, there is still a feeling of it permeating this album that distracts it enough to keep it out of the top 20. That being said, there are some downright tremendous songs on this album that keep it in the honorable mentions category. "Teen Angst" may have been a song off of the last M83 album, but this album captures it so much better.
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Chad VanGaalen took the concept of an album and went completely apeshit with it on this release. I haven't heard an album since The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me that tries to cram so much into one CD. It's almost as if CDs are a totally new format again! Look at all this space we have for tunes! Despite its at times unfocused nature, VanGaalen's disturbing voice (which always sounds like it's on the verge of collapsing) and bizzare choices in instrumentation keep this album in high regard around these parts.Constantines - Kensington Heights
Much like The Mountain Goats album mentioned earlier, Kensington Heights is another entry in an already great catalog by the Constantines. The only drawback is that some of the tightly wound energy and tension from Tournement Of Hearts is lost this time around, replaced by restraint and nuance. Call it their "growing up" album if you must. The more fitting description is "another album of way above average indie rock in a musical landscape increasingly populated by filler and bands that are 'just ok'". Whew.
-Erik
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