My Top Albums of 2008
Maybe I didn’t get exposed to enough great stuff this year, but it seemed like ‘08 was pretty devoid of obviously classic material. It seemed pretty dull top to bottom. That said, here’s the albums I thought stood out, in alphabetical order.
Black Mountain – In the Future
These guys fall into the Stoner Rock category. Though they exhibit the usual Black Sabbath influences, they also draw pretty heavily from more progressive sources like Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, Yes and others. This is their most accomplished disc to date and I think it goes a long way toward transcending the Stoner Rock genre.
Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
When it comes to mash-ups, Girl Talk is really pushing the boundaries. This whole album is composed of pieces of dozens of other songs. The individual tracks are very listenable and there’s an element of detective work as you pick out the riffs and break beats that you know.
The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia
Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan teamed up for this project and the results are far better than I expected it to be. You know how some albums end with an epoch song that sends the whole thing out on an apocalyptic high note? Every song on this album sounds like that.
Madvillain – Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix
MF Doom is easily my favorite “underground” hip-hop artist. His flows are unreal. He’s such a master of wordplay that I have to really devote all my attention to his songs when I listen to them. This is Madlib’s remix of the Madvillainy album and it’s fantastic. Madlib’s breakbeats and samples give the songs an entirely different, but equally excellent feel from the originals.
Wynton Marsalis – Standards & Ballads
Wynton takes a lot more shit than he deserves. It’s mainly because Miles Davis dissed him as being too unimaginative, but I think that had more to do with Miles’ ego than it did with Marsalis’ playing. Personally, I love what Marsalis does with his horn and his style is really showcased on this collection of Jazz standards.
Steinski - What Does It All Mean?
If you know anything about the history of hip-hop you know about Steinsky. This guy single handedly pioneered the art of sampling and break beat mixing. For decades his recordings have been available as bootlegs only because of rights issues over the samples. Now the “lessons” are available on a semi-official CD release. Awesome stuff.
Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha
Admittedly, this is far from Supergrass’ best album, but it is better than the last one and has a lot of tracks that I really love. In a better music year this probably wouldn’t have made my list, but don’t let that color your opinion. It’s well worth checking out.
The Sword – Gods of the Earth
On the one hand The Sword is kind of a joke, which is to say that they’re joking around when they go into the histrionics that typify their sound. On the other hand they’re incredibly accomplished musicians and the tracks on this album are some of the best modern metal you can hear. It’s their second album and I think their sound is really starting to come together. I like this one even more than their debut.
Venetian Snares – Detrimentalist
More crazy, CRAZY electronica from Venetian Snares. It’s kind of an acquired taste and most people probably won’t be able to make it through the album in one sitting because it’s so frantic and difficult to take at times, but if you can get with the approach and absorb the plethora of musical ideas he presents on this (and his other) disc(s) you’ll find a lot of rewarding stuff.
