Tim’s Top Ten Albums of 2008
September 1st, 2008 | 3:00 pm est |
Figuring it would be pretty easy to beat the rush and be the first with a list of 2008’s best albums, a mid-October post seemed be pretty safe. Sadly with the impending demise of the fine site Paper Thin Walls and their Best of 2008 post slated for tomorrow, the list had to happen now. Seriously though, it’ll be hard for any future release to bust into this Ten. It’s locked up tight! Here goes in no particular order and because of time constraints, no witty comments either.
Times New Viking - Rip It Off!
Best Song - “Drop Out” 
Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now, Youngster…
Best Song - “Death to Los Campesinos!”
Pacific! - Reveries
Best Song - “Sunset Blvd”
Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted
Best Song - “Lips Are Unhappy”
Eux Autres - Cold City (Yeah, it came out in December of last year, so what.)
Best Song - “When I’m Up”
Minisnap - Bounce Around
Best Song - “New Broom”
Cineplexx - Picnic
Best Song - “Tirados”
Alphabeat - This Is Alphabeat
Best Song - “Fascination”
The Absentee - Victory Shorts
Best Song - “Bitchstealer”
The New Year - The New Year
Hear “The Company I Get” on their MySpace page
Why do people continue to mislabel their posts? Top 10 Indie Rock Albums or Top 10 Obscure Albums is the proper title. Don’t attempt to pass this silliness off as the ten best albums in all of music over 2008.
Toche Cory. A website without bias would have chosen say… two of those titles and added them with albums of other genres. I know my fair share of Indie music but I have only heard a few of those (here come the posts where people say they know and love them all and they definately are the best albums of 2008!) I can’t hate on Allmusic for following the trend but I sorta expected more.
well to you 2 above, it is just opinion. so if the writer likes indie music the most then in their opinion this is a good list
I know at least one you missed:
No Age - Nouns
I dj at a college station & haven’t heard of these!
WTF!? It’s only September. Way too early for Best Of Lists, man.
~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/
What about Oceans Will Rise? Come on. You can’t leave that one out. Even if it might be a little less obscure than some of these others you’ve mentioned. Some of them are very good picks however.
Juliana Hatfield’s “How ro Walk Away” tops mine … gets better and better w/each listen. Same w/her “How to Walk Away” Demos CD (available thru her website). Tift Merritt’s “Another Country” is a close No. 2. Other contenders … the releases by Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Emmylou Harris, Duffy, Adele and Melody Gardot.
But, of course, it’s only Sept. 1st. Other albums could come along and knock my socks off.
your list does not coincide exactly with my own superior taste! damn you, all music guide!
Jeff G., you are right on target (for my tastes). I’d add Carrie Rodriguez’s new one (She Ain’t Me) to your list!
Los Campesinos! and Alphabeat aren’t indie bands, they’re pretty popular in Europe. I have a couple of songs by Pacific! and Cineplexx, I don’t really think those two are THAT obscure. The rest I’ve never heard of. So you can’t really call this an “indie only” list.
let’s all just go back to listening to Talulah Gosh, guys.
I loved the Pacific! album, and Hold on Now, Youngster by Campesinos is just way too much fun, I also liked Midnight Boom by the Kills, a lot.
Greetings.
Celebration by Thomas Function seems to have been left off the list. You’ve got a few months left to fix that though.
yay Los Campesinos! they’re having a new album out again this year.
but i think Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ Real Emotional Trash should be here, as well as Nas’s new album.
Also, the Lucky Soul album came out last year, unfortunately as it would’ve made my list as well.
i love elitist rock too, but most of these are pretty horrible, save that pacific album. times new viking is just noise. the rest of these, all i have to say is .. who?
This list reads like someone’s faves of the year, so let me tell you mine which will trump yours anyway (if we wanna be catty about the whole thing). In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy, Made In The Dark by Hot Chip, Saturdays = Youth by M83, Red by Guillemots, Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket, Hercules and Love Affair (self titled), Partie Traumatic by Black Kids, Trouble In Dreams by Destroyer, Walk It Off by Tapes N Tapes, and Mercy by Ours (with honorable mentions for Robyn’s Robyn, War on Drugs’ Wagonwheel Blues, The Roots’ Rising Down, Does It Offend You Yeah’s You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into, Sigur Ros’ album, The Mars Volta’s Bedlam in Goliath, The Dresden Dolls’ No…Virginia, and of course the great mashup of the decade - Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals; with the two best free standing songs from bands not mentioned above being Sam Sparro’s Black and Gold and Islands’ The Arm).
But yes, the year isn’t over as surely as Kings of Leon is yet to drop theirs (if “Sex on Fire” is any indication…it will be their best so far) and key albums by Okkervil River and Calexico will make it interesting…unlike your weak list…it’s all in good fun…everybody love everybody!
Damn, that’s a lot of indie-pop.
Re:Cory
He did call the post “Tim’s” Top Ten Albums of 2008. Meaning it is an opinionated list corresponding to the preferences of the author, Tim. So the post is not mislabeled in that respect, however, two of the albums came out in 2007 (Lucky Soul’s was released in April of last year). Therefore, the post is somewhat misleading, but still decent enough in quality.
Come on… too early for Bests Of… on the other hand, is like an Indie Compilation, not a Best Of.. what about mainstream bands? everybody loves indie and other music, but you’re forgeting about great artists!!! COLDPLAY…
um what about earth, religious knives, clinic, oneida and silver mt zion?
Hey MB - Lucky Soul’s album was reissued on Beatball Records in 2008 with 2 bonus tracks. So, technically, it works on the list. I can see your point though.
pathetic top ten, i know every band and they are not even obscure…boring and uneventful! have u even heard benji hughes, chairlift, we have band,endless courage, our broken garden or even zombie zombie! americans…1)either living in a blue state and loving euro bands to make up for living near a red state 2) putting euro bands in there because there are no good US bands! 3)writing for allmusic because they cant write for pitchfork hehe…sorry its just true!
One of the great things about our country (one of the things that makes it free…) is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and can voice it freely. This list is Tim’s opinion. You don’t have to agree with it or disagree with it, or even like it one tiny bit… you just have to live with it. My top ten would include none of the albums on this list, so what? Maybe I should check ‘em out…
Marcus - Thanks for the tip on Carrie Rodriguez. I just checked out her song samples - her CD’s next on my list of things to get.
Pitchfork? AllMusic is nothing like Pitchfork and doesn’t portend to be — the reviews aren’t the same at all.
Why? - Alopecia
The Wild Beasts - “The Devil’s Crayon”
Oh, and Deerhunter - Microcastle
duh
Wow, I really laughed at the guy who compared AMG to Pitchfork. Way to degrade this site.
Well, this music pretty much sucks. There’s Indie and then there’s a bunch of bands that poorly imitate “Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah” who were doing a good job of imitating “the Talking Heads”.
How much did you have to force yourself to listen to this junk to like it? There’s good Indie and there’s bad Indie - the good is sadly now mainstreamed and the bad just blows, like this, say.
Read some more reviews somewhere else to finalize your year end list - you’ll need the support.
I agree with posty mcposterton, there’re three months left, a quarter of the year. yet we have a bests of 2008 list?. Not reasonable
Well, it certainly looks like all the chest-thumping whiners are out in full force today.
Sendra’s list is what he likes. If you don’t like it, tell us what you DO like or start your own blog. This “OMG U FORGOT [BAND]” nonsense is tiresome.
This is one person’s top 10 list, HIS favorite albums. It’s not the end all, be all list of albums of 2008. Give the guy a break and pay attention to the title of the posting - TIM’S Top Ten Albums of 2008. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.
I know! Why don’t you complainers post YOUR top 10 of the year. That way all of you music experts that can’t appreciate someone else’s opinion outside of your own can have your voice heard and possibly get feedback that can help you realize what a self-centered, know-it-all you were being.
The comments on this are very interesting. I already have about half the albums on this list and some of those will likely also end up on my year end list (particularly The New Year, which is former members of Bedhead, and Cineplexx, which is likely my favorite album of the year so far - the Norman Blake connection alone should be warrant more attention.) But, instead of complaining about the ones I don’t know, I want to thank Tim for including them as he will hopefully be introducing me to even more great music.
Oh gee - I was wrong. My list is a bunch different now. I’ll be posting an update soon.
tim obviously has a bias towards female fronted indie acts
Some nice choices here. Esp. Cineplexx. And some … stuff that didn’t raise a single hair on my spine, but there goes taste. The best 2008 record I can’t blame you for missing - a self-release that barely came out in December.
The Movies - Based on a true story
Also great:
! Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls (growing on me a lot)
! Radar Brothers - Auditorium (took months but i’m hooked)
!… but not a great year overall. I can’t even name 5 albums.
saw your review of the Movies 1st… this one is also short (half hour, 8 songs) and there’s an 80s thing for sure but less derivitabe than the first. The guy from Mighty Lemon Drops produced. i think most of it beats the living crap out of almost anything I heard in 2008 and i’m still not over it. ‘missed opportunities’ ‘monumental life’ and “tired of being superstitious” are 4 of the best songs I’ve heard in the last 5 years.