The Ten Best CDs of 2008.

Yes, this is the time of year where everyone gives you a list, and you usually disagree with it because none of your favorite bands (or movies or TV shows or whatever) are on it. This is my version of that list.

10. Beck - Modern Guilt

Can an album be considered a disappointment, the most lackadaisical record in an artist's catalogue, and still worthy of being heard? I don't entirely believe everything I just said about Beck's downright amazing Modern Guilt, though, Beck did seem bored with this record extremely quickly, as instead of the hour-long length of The Information, he barely gets to 33 minutes on Modern Guilt. On one hand, it feels like Beck wanted to be freed from a major label contract, which in comparison to final major-label swansongs like Mos Def's Geffen Records departure record True Magic, this seems like an insult. On the other, it's Beck and Beck always is intriguing just by the nature of being himself.

Video for "Modern Guilt".

9. Little Joy - Self-Titled

I guess the words "out of nowhere surprise" apply to this record, because the third most interesting member of the Strokes -- drummer Fab Moretti -- has made easily the most interesting side project out of the bunch. There wasn't much hype for the record, to the point that I remember fellow Strokes member Albert Hammond's two solo records earning more hype. And yet, it is a perfect mix of chilled out Strokes sound, and nice tropical elements. The only qualm here is that this is a perfect summer record, which of course means that it has to be released in November.

Video for "Next Time Around":


8. Portishead - Third

I feel really bad that it took me until this year to properly discover the pioneering trip-hop (read: electronic music) group Portishead, but they kind of made it hard for me not to. Third is the British collective's first release in 11 years of time, and yet there's nothing here that shows any rust between releases. Third opens with an amazing, haunting, and even depressing opening track called "Silence". Merging Beth Gibbons' beautiful voice with the sexy but scary background is exactly the perfect tone for Third. Third's not an easy listen. Those who want happy electronica with noises, beeps, and bloops should look elsewhere, but Third's an amazing music record, as in you'll be amazed by its quality and craftsmanship.

Video for "Machine Gun":


7. Sons and Daughters - This Gift

Sons and Daughters is probably the exact opposite of Portishead, in that instead of Portishead's slow, creepy rhythms, Sons and Daughters is insanely fast, rather peppy, and very catchy. And on This Gift, they create a collection of fine songs, all that accomplish the achievement of being catchy and damn near unskippable. I have ranted on the joys of this CD before, so look back through the blogs for why this record is so joyous. Just a needed catchy blast of indie rock.


Video for "Darling":


6. Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward

This is my honorary "it sucks that this band is broken up now" album pick, though Get Awkward is a great album in its own right. Something clicks about three semi-long haired guys and a cute blonde recording songs about dull life, murder, and zombie movie references. And doing this all in a quickie punk style totally works. Admittedly, vocalist Jemina Abegg happens to sound a lot like Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams, but Abegg's so much more ironic with her vocal style and subject matter. Both bands go through "high school stories", but Be Your Own Pet does it with the right amount of truthful snark about it. These guys didn't care about high school, either, nor did they care about popularity or anything of the sort. Hell, they talk about killing a student in a song, and yet it's done in a tone that says "just kidding, guys". (That being the song "Becky", which actually didn't make the US version of the album but probably can still be found on BYOP's MySpace page or something.)

So yes, maybe I'm ultimately saying that it sucks that Be Your Own Pet is broken up, while Paramore is still together.

Video for "Becky":


5. The Bronx - The Bronx (III)

For the longest time, punk rock's simply tried too hard to be punk. While I've been wowed by efforts from bands like The Gaslight Anthem -- who would so be 11th on this list -- I feel like that punk has something missing. While groups like Andrew Jackson Jihad earn their punk following by stripping down the music into a hard acoustic rhythm, there's not enough of the rock in punk rock. The Bronx totally has that covered.

This record sounds exactly like the first two eponymous records from The Bronx, and that is exactly why it is good. While change is great for most bands, change is exactly what would ruin The Bronx's sound. They have such an ability to write concise three-minute or so punk songs that are pure blasts of sound that I cannot imagine them doing anything else, even though their next record is a mariachi-based record. And on The Bronx (III), they simply create eleven kicking songs that are a perfect companion to the first Bronx record (the second's not as kicking). And thus, by simplicity and keeping with the formula, they create another fine release.

(By the way, the video is for a song from The Bronx's first record, but it's far too awesome to pass up putting in a blog, and plus it has the same sort of sound that everything on the third record does.)

Video for "False Alarm":


4. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak

While change isn't always good, I'm not against change. Though, in fairness, Kanye West has always leaned towards change in every single album he's created. He created a nice, slice-of-life hip-hop record with College Dropout, and then he found the musical charms of Shirley Bassey to be the perfect pick for a sample on Late Registration. Graduation saw him evolve into taking samples from Steely Dan, Can, and Daft Punk among others, but 808s and Heartbreak might just be his most evolved release.

A lot of criticism was layered immediately on Kanye for his use of auto-tune throughout the whole entirety of the record, and he got compared strangely to Britney Spears as far as having a lack of "musical integrity", despite that integrity means nothing in the era of Amy Winehouse. However, this record's a dissection of a man that's an egotist, that's selfish, and that's cocky. This man is also human, flawed, and lonely all the same. Just by the nature of 808s and Heartbreak being as revealing as it is, it is Kanye's most human release, ultimately proving that a man that once said he wanted to be put in the Bible might be as oddly human as the rest of us after all.

Video for "Heartless".

3. Nas - Untitled

Nas is a true elder statesman of hip-hop. This you already know.

He's also a man with a lot of controversial viewpoints. This you would know if you realized the original title for this record was going to be the N-word.

On Untitled, Nas dissects the unjust justification of racism, his own role in trying to unify the people, and in analyzing the meaning of one word. And he also tells white people that even if they like him, they wouldn't "ride" with him. And he's totally right. As much as white suburbia loves hip-hop, they wouldn't dare actually hang out with the people who write these songs. I mean, they would if it's a nice club. But in their day-to-day life, they'd be scared half to death.

Which is why I am a white suburban kid who likes Nas. Because I know what he's saying is right, and I know that he's willing to challenge his listeners, which is exactly what a good statesman does.

Video for "Make The World Go Round".
(I'd love to link to the video for "Sly Fox", but I'll just tell you to look it up on YouTube. It's a great video, but a bit too controversial for ye olde blog.)

2. Metallica - Death Magnetic

Seventeen years ago, Metallica released The Black Album on the heels of an amazing song called "Enter Sandman". You might have heard of it. This album wasn't the best album in the group's catalogue (Master of Puppets or And Justice For All are the proper answers.), but this record was easily the catchiest metal album that I had ever listened to. Mind you, when I finally heard this record in its entirety, I still thought Creed and Limp Bizkit were awesome, so to hear a band with a slight bit of craftsmanship was a shocking change.

Since that album's release, Metallica has tried and failed to capture the spirit that made them such an intriguing band. While millions bought Load, Reload, and St. Anger, all three were met with a wave of disappointment from fans. And it's pretty understandable why a band famous for its hard luck metal would get shunned for going in a country-sounding direction (or whatever they were trying on St. Anger, I don't think anyone figured that out yet).

So seventeen years later, the band releases Death Magnetic, over an hour of pure thrash. And it's really awesome. It has been brought up before that the main criticism this record gets is that James Hetfield is not an angry young man any more. Which seems silly because Death still rolls with the stories. There's no political criticism or criticism of war akin to the amazing "Disposable Heroes", though, the video for "The Day That Never Comes" leans in this direction. However, this is an hour of rock that brings back everything that fans didn't hate about Metallica. And if I hear one more person say that Rob Trujillo is not Cliff Burton, I'll slap them in the face. Because that's totally obvious, and because Trujillo doesn't actually suck here.

And after seventeen long years, I can say that once again Metallica made an album that didn't suck.

Video for "All Nightmare Long":


1. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

When I originally listened to this record back in late September, I thought it was a pretty solid record. Obviously nothing compared to Return to Cookie Mountain is what I thought to myself while glancing through the tracks. I mean, I really liked "Dancing Choose" and "Halfway Home", but I didn't see much hope in the rest of the CD. So for a couple of months, I kind of slept on it. I liked it, but I didn't like it like I had the others.

But then one day, I turned on my iPod and listened to the song after "Halfway Home" called "Crying". And effectively, my mind was blown. "Crying" is such an infectious song that it got played a million times on my iPod shortly after that day. This same process happened with "Stork and Owl", "Family Tree", "Love Dog", "Golden Age", and the album's best track, "DLZ". And this is how purely amazing Dear Science is as an album. All of the album's songs may not be tracks that stick with you on first listen, but oh my, they are amazing by the 40th listen, and this amazing record easily takes the cake as best of the year.

Video for "Golden Age".

And to close this out, here's some honorable mentions!

Deerhunter - Microcastle
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
Islands - Arm's Way
Ladytron - Velocifero
Pendulum - In Silico
Q-Tip - The Renaissance
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman - The Fabled City