I haven't been as heavily into music discovery this year as past years, but I did hear some things I thought were great, and some things that were merely good (I'll leave out the stuff that I found to be nothing special). 1. Air France - No Way Down : Air France is a Swedish group that combines Balearic dance, pop and atmospherics into an incredibly evocative and gorgeous group of songs. A couple of years ago, they released an EP called On Trade Winds, which was perhaps the best EP I've ever heard. This album is only a bit longer, nearly as fantastic. It's swirling and dreamy yet still has a strong connection to dance music. 2. Amadou & Mariam - Welcome To Mali : A husband-wife group that fuses West African music with traditional pop elements, including ones that aren't common to African music, like piano. The music has both an exotic feel while being very grounded in a very clear pop aesthetic. 3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend : A New York group, but oddly the African theme continues. Like Paul Simon on Graceland, Vampire Weekend makes extensive use of African polyrhythms, as the underlying basis of their unique and extremely melodic indie rock. It's a very summer-y album, warm and bright. 4. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular : Another New York group, they combine '60s pop, disco, electronic and guitar pop into a very shimmering, glossy collection of songs that works as well as a great dance album or as a great pop album. 5. Tough Alliance - New Chance : One more Swedish group (coincidentally, they happen to be labelmates of Air France). There's a strong musical scene going on in Sweden (Gothenburg, specifically) based around Balearic dance, and Tough Alliance is another band in this vein. They are more guitar-driven than Air France, and make extremely memorable, hooky dance tunes. 6. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours : A pastiche group, they're very much in the vein of "Raid their record collection for ideas" as they meld a number of styles from throughout pop/rock history into a sound that has lots of influences but still sounds very fresh. Very hooky and, like most of the other things I've liked this year, very dance-y. 7. Deerhunter - Microcastle : A noise-pop group, they are clearly very influenced by '60s pop, but they aren't that clean, as they use guitar effects to distort the music. This is their most accessible album and I don't think it takes any effort to get into...it's enjoyable from the first listen. 8. Santogold - Santogold : Indie electronica artist, she makes songs that are engaging and catchy, but have an electronic edge and sheen to them. The first 5 albums I think are great and very addictive. The next three were all good and well worth hearing, but the next tier down, to me.
Those are two FANTASTIC albums. I would also strongly recommend the albums 'Furr' by Blitzen Trapper (from Oregon), 'Evil Urges' by My Morning Jacket, 'Only by the Night' by The Kings of Leon, and 'Modern Guilt' by Beck. Also, 'Attack and Release' by The Black Keys is quite good but lacks the gritty sound of their previous LPs Edit: and the TV on the Radio album, forget the name of it now
That is a pretty decent list. I don't like all of those albums, but The Deerhunter and MGMT albums are definately in my top ten of the year as well. I would definately add "Distortion" by The Magnetic Fields and "Lust Lust Lust" by the Raveonettes to the list. Two very fine albums. Of course, the best "album" of the year is probably my 4 track Tascam demos for my band Here Come Dots, but I wouldn't want to come across as vain voting for myself........hehehe prunetang ps. that was severe sarcasm
Dear Science. I liked it, but it wasn't great to me. That and Fleet Foxes' Ragged Wood were really popular albums this year that didn't work for me, though I found both pleasant. Just not memorable.
I haven't listened to the Vampire Weekend album, but their one video on MTV is pretty decent. Looking through my iTunes for 2008 I have: Kanye West - 80s and Heartbreak Katy Perry - One of the Boys The Killers - Day and Age Leona Lewis - Spirit The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing That is not good if that is all I have from 2008, given that I'm not too crazy about any of those albums.
Yeah, Return to Cookie Mountain was much better, but if I was making a top 20 list of albums this year Dear Science would certainly be on it (due to the lack of great albums this year)
