Stav Tunes Top 10 Albums of 2008
I hope you’re all having a nice and lazy and indulgent Christmas break. It is 2009 in a day, so it seems an apt time to write this. Under some slightly unexpected pressure, here it is. I have compiled my ten favourite albums of the year. It wasn’t particularly easy neither, I was happy with the top seven or so, but couldn’t fit six into the last three places no matter how much I tried to bend the rules of maths.
10. The Walkmen - You & Me
I’ve always found this lot an inconsistant band, but this is their strongest album for a long time, and probably their best. The slower, latin rhythms frame the singer’s distinctive voice very well with vintage piano and moody horns. They still make a noise at times, but it’s a much better class of noise these days.
[MP3] I Lost You
9. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster…
A fun album with a bite. Smart-arse lyrics yelped over infectious tunes like Architecture in Helsinki playing Pavement tracks on glockenspiels. They also released a second album this year too, which although short is more than worth a spin.
[MP3] Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
The Icelanders returned with their fifth record (which translates as “With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly” factfans). I’m not sure if it’s as impressive as Takk…, but it does have some of their finest moments on it. Great live too.
[MP3] Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
7. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Following from the great “The Warning”, this soulful and playful album is a great listen. You’ll have heard “Ready For The Floor”, maybe even danced dodgily to it, also standing out is “Wrestlers” which is easily the best love song I’ve heard that refers to cage matches and half nelsons.
[MP3] One Pure Thought
6. El Guincho - Alegranza
Here comes the curveball. All the way from the Canary Islands and dripping in sangria. With a parrot on the cover! Balearic beats, Afrobeats, curious samples crash into each other like rubber rings in a water park. Production wise it is reminiscent of Panda Bear and The Avalanches blah blah… turn it on, turn it up and dance like a lobster-hued Englishman on a Spanish beach.
[MP3] Palmitos Park
5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Recorded in a cabin in the woody depths of Wisconsin on vintage equipment and anything he could get his hands on, after splitting up with his missus, this folksy record is a thing of rare tender beauty. Would it be selfish to hope he never finds love and produces another album of this quality?!
[MP3] Skinny Love
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White American college boys doing Afrobeat styled indie pop, sounds awful doesn’t it? It’s not, it’s unashamedly poppy and catchy and never falls foul of pretension. The world might be going to shit, and we might all be living in poorhouses by 2009’s out, but this album will still be able to draw a smile from my face and get stuck in my head as I collect my lunch from the soup kitchen!
[MP3] M79
3. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
From the same label as New Young Pony Club and fellow Aussies The Avalanches, comes this year’s great indie-dance album. There’s nothing particularly new here, a lot of it sounds like missing Electronic recordings with hints of The Cure and Coming Up-era Suede, track after track flavoured with 60’s psychedelia, 80’s synths and 00’s sweaty indie-disco. Joyous nonetheless.
[MP3] Far Away
2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The second folk-ly album in this list. That’s quite worrying for someone who can’t grow a very good beard! This is a rich mix of West Coast harmonies and Appalachian pre-pop folk with lilting tunes and warm full vocals capable of transporting the listener to a dozen different times and places, even when listening to in a cold flat in Telford with the darts on the telly. And for that reason it makes it this high!
[MP3] White Winter Hymnal
1. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Art-rock you can dance to? From the heart-pounding beats on the album opener “Halfway Home”, to the last distorted horns on the closer “Lover’s Day”, this is a remarkable record. It’s harder to pick a genre that it doesn’t include on it’s way to the climax And it’s all delivered in a fierce but soulful falsetto. This is twice the record of Return to Cookie Mountain, and that was fucking good. Play loud.
[MP3] Dancing Choose
The shortlist included Deerhunter, The Dodos, Ruby Suns, No Age, Beach House, Mogwai, Wolf Parade, Death Cab For Cutie, M83, Los Campesinos!, Sons & Daughters, Glasvegas, This Will Destroy You, The Hold Steady, Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit. But it didn’t include the brilliant No Way Down by Air France, because that’s an EP and… well, you’ve got to have a code haven’t you? By the way all these great cds and more might be even cheaper soon at Zavvi! Thanks to an army of mp3 bloggers: Zýrður rjómi, Sand is Overrated, AW Music and Minneapolis Fucking Rocks for some of the mp3 links.
Have a great New Year, I’ll be in The Crown! See you in 2009.
Working the Monday after the Christmas Party is odd too, there’s more elephants in the room than there are on the Masai Mara national reserve. Saturday night at Shifnal’s Haughton Hall, and I’m typecast like Hugh Grant (less fop more pop, less dandy more shandy… BOOOM!) and ended up in my usual role as spare drinks minesweeper. Which led via white wine, red wine, champaigne, wifebeaters and a catholic whiskey, predictibly to oblivion and to a rather delicate Sunday. But I don’t think I embarrassed myself any more than can be expected. I have no recollection of falling over, I have no leg injuries or mysterious scars or bite marks, no tears in my clothes, I don’t think I inapporpriately felt anybody up and I didn’t throw up over anybody. No marks for effort, must do better next time.
