Digital crate-diggers, HEAR YE!
In 2008, dost thou only listen to music released in 2008? (NO!*)
Dost thou listen to music issued in other decades, perhaps even The Nineteen Eighties? (YES!)
Dost thou discovereth music after yon peers hast discovered it, and you’re all embarrassed when they declareth it “so last year?” (SOMETIMES!)
BE NOT EMBARRASSED.
These are 30 albums that we discovered and freaked out about in 2008. Some are old. Some are new. Some are reissues, so they’re old *and* new. All are 100% wizard.
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We’re super excited to share this top 10 list from Trevor at the hip Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records. Not only do we love everything that Paper Bag has to offer, but we totally agree with Trevor about The Walkmen’s You & Me being one of the greatest records of 2008.
Here’s his full list (in no particular order):
GLASVEGAS - Glasvegas
WHY? – Alopecia
M83 – Saturdays = Youth
NACHTMYSTIUM - Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
CUT COPY- In Ghost Colours
THE WALKMEN – You & Me BUY
WOLF PARADE – At Mount Zoomer
SPIRITUALIZED - Songs In A&E
DEERHUNTER – Microcastle
BURIAL - Untrue
After originally printing only 500 copies of their self-titled debut, an 8.5 review on Pitchfork catapulted the Vivian Girls from the Brooklyn apartment the trio shares onto stages nationwide with Deerhunter, Jay Reatard, King Khan & the BBQ Show, Japanther and more in 2008.
It’s no surprise then that the Girls landed at #19 in Pitchfork’s Top Tracks of 2008, as previously noted on The ‘Rind, and were namechecked by Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox as one of his faves of 08 in XLR8R. But they ended up making more than a handful of year-end lists on top of that.
Aquarium Drunkard, Gorilla vs. Bear, All Music, and Baltimore’s City Paper all sang the Vivian Girls’ praises this year. The Windy City showed love with writers Greg Kot at The Chicago Tribune and Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun Times each placing the band in their #3 spots.
We’re glad that we’re not the only ones who’ve been spinning this record constantly!
When Pitchfork posted their favorite songs from last year (man it feels good to say that), we weren’t the least bit surprised that Vivian Girls’ “Where Do You Run To,” (off of their self-titled In The Red gem) scored high marks, coming in at #19. As they so aptly put it, “[when] the song’s rumbling thunder starts sucking face with the girls’ intermingled voices, it becomes pretty clear that these ladies are taking what’s not necessarily theirs, and making it their own.”
Another big hit of 2008 was The Walkmen’s “In The New Year,” off of their brilliant fifth LP, You & Me. At #26, this is the perfect track to ring in 2009, while offering just the slightest tinge of nostalgia for the year that gave us this amazing Gigantic debut.
Finally, we have a couple of Frenchkiss dudes who are very near and dear to our hearts here at the Rind. Weighing in at #59 with “Fools,” The Dodos won over the folks at Pitchfork enough to receive an honorable mention for Best Albums of 2008 as well. The rousing track off of their debut Visiter is fittingly described as “one of the most subtle and accomplished integrations of a global folk style in a year seemingly more indie bands than ever looked abroad for inspiration.”
Pitchfork’s Brandon Stosuy published his Top Twenty Metal Albums last month in his Show No Mercy column, and three of our favorite face-melters of the year made the cut! Weighing in at number six is Enslaved‘s Vertebrae on Nuclear Blast, brilliantly described as, “a smeary, tightly composed collection of progressive psychedelic post-black metal.”
At number ten we have Florida’s tech-minded prog metal elder statesmen, Cynic, with their first album in fifteen years, Traced In Air. Released via French powerhouse Season of Mist, this reunion album is “a jam-packed, carefully orchestrated King Crimson-style tone poem.”
Darkthrone‘s fourteenth long-player Dark Thrones and Black Flags is sitting pretty at lucky number thirteen. Stosuy calls the Peaceville release “one hell of a strange and compelling blackened punk collection.”
Check out the full list, along with many of the artists’ own picks, right here.
