You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
These are favourites; I do not view this as a definitive top 29 (!) of the year, because I’m fully aware that there’s a lot of stuff I should have listened to more. More on those at the foot of the list.
1. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
2. Fleet Foxes: Sun Giant EP
3. The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
4. Okkervil River: The Stand Ins
5. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
6. Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping
7. Bowerbirds: Hymns for a Dark Horse
8. Shearwater: Rook
9. Jay Reatard: Matador Singles 08
10. The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
11. Vetiver: Thing of the Past
12. Deerhunter: Microcastle
13. M83: Saturdays = Youth
14. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
15. The Sea and Cake: Car Alarm
16. Evangelicals: The Evening Descends
17. Wire: Object 47
18. Whatfor: Sooner Later Than Never
19. The Last Shadow Puppets: The Age of the Understatement
20. Ladyhawk: Shots
21. Circus Animals’ Desertion: Circus Animals’ Desertion
22. Dodos: Visiter
23. Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life
24. Magnetic Fields: Distortion
25. Melodium: My Mind Is Falling To Pieces
26. Pale Young Gentlemen: Black Forest (Tra La La)
27. Girl Talk: Feed The Animals
28. White Hinterland: Phylactery Factory
29. Bersarin Quartett: Bersarin Quartett
I really regret not being able to include the likes of Marnie Stern, Amadou and Mariam, Parts and Labor, Portishead, TV On The Radio, Atlas Sound and more – while I’ve heard very good things about all of these records, I simply haven’t been able to listen to them enough to forge an opinion either way. Oh well, there’s always next year.
Boasting a moniker that could easily be used to describe the majority of the No Ripcord staff, Madison, Wisconsin’s Pale Young Gentlemen is an indie band very much on the up.
When Alan Shulman reviewed its self-titled début a mere sixteen months ago, PYG was just another unsigned indie band, albeit it one with a pretty cool name and a cellist. Now, with a clutch of enthusiastic reviews and modest sales under its belt, PYG is back with a polished follow-up, an extended line-up and, crucially, the backing of Madison’s hottest independent label, Science of Sound.
Like many second albums, Black Forest (Tra La La) immediately sounds like a more grown up record than its predecessor. The off-kilter indie sound remains, as do the Eastern European folk influences, but the band’s sound is much richer now; alongside the distinctive cello, we are treated to violins, violas, glockenspiels, harps and horns. And mostly it pays off.
The frantic riffing of Coal/Ivory hints at a heightened sense of urgency; it’s as if PYG knows that this is its moment and, accordingly, there is an audible determination not to screw it up. More established contemporaries at the quirkier end of the indie-rock canon (Tapes ‘N Tapes, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!) have publicly stumbled at this stage in their careers, with costly results; a smaller band PYG might not have survived such a slip.
Fortunately, PYG remembered to write some great tunes: Marvellous Design, The Crook of My Good Arm and Kettle Drum (I Left a Note) are all worlds apart from anything on the aforementioned bands’ sluggish sophomore efforts. In fact, in terms of indie-rock music based chiefly around orchestral string instruments, there’s absolutely nothing in the same class as Pale Young Gentlemen in 2008.
Black Forest (Tra La La) is proof that growing up on record doesn’t have to sound boring. Those looking for a sombre accompaniment for the wintry evenings ahead could do a hell of a lot worse than pick up this superb record. (8/10)
Album review published on NORIPCORD.COM
No Ripcord’s Top 50 Albums of 2008
December 16, 2008 in Comment, Music | Tags: 2008, Best music, electronic, End of Year, End of year list, hip hop, indie, Music, new music, No Ripcord | Leave a comment
I’m particularly proud of this year’s list. I think its strength and diversity provides adequate proof that 2008 was as good a year for new music as any in recent memory. Well, maybe not for hip-hop, but every other genre seemed to come up with the goods.
http://www.noripcord.com/features/top-50-albums-2008-1
http://www.noripcord.com/features/top-50-albums-2008-2
Regarding my personal picks, having had the chance to do some serious listening while compiling the overall No Ripcord list, I’d definitely have to add Amadou & Mariam’s Welcome To Mali and Hercules and Love Affair’s self-titled album. I’m sure there will be more late additions; maybe I’ll re-publish an amended list in January?