Chris: Top 10 Songs of 2008

In April, scientists at Umeå University discovered the oldest living tree located in Sweden. At 9,550 years old and 13 feet the tree has been able to sustain such a long life by continually cloning itself. When a root stem dies, the tree immediately replicates that stem. Unlike the "tree of life" featured in my last sentence many of the artists featured in 2008 had singles that were not replications of their earlier "incarnations". Wanting to transcend the past and stay relevant, many artists worked with different musicians and utilized unorthodox techniques to ensure longevity in their music.

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#10: My President is Black - Young Jeezy feat. Nas

Def Jam Recordings

Buy (Amazon.com)

Atlanta native Young Jeezy begins his Pro-Obama anthem with, "Yeah, this is the realest shit I never wrote." Referring to his ability of not writing down rhymes, and being able to do it "off the dome", Jeezy and guest artist Nas inadvertently predict the 2008 election. "Mr. Black President, yo Obama for real, they gotta put your face on the five-thousand dollar bill." All the while flowing their rhymes like the Tigris River on a summer day, to the sound of horns fit for a heroic protagonist in a Michael Bay film.

With its tone and intensity, hands down best single about the 2008 election.

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#9: "Nothing Ever Happened" - Deerhunter

Kranky

4AD

Buy (Amazon.com)

When I first heard this song I was reminded of Sonic Youth's "Hey Joni". It was the initial soft opening, which led to 6 minutes of pure rock & roll that did it. Its one of those songs where the music enhances the singing, not the other way around.

I'd buy this as an instrumental.

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8. "Nine In The Afternoon" - Panic at the Disco

Fueled by Ramen

Decaydance Records

Buy (Amazon.com)

"And we know that is could be, and we know that it should be, and you know that you feel it too." I did feel it Panic at the Disco! I also felt much respect for their wanting to distance themselves from the pop-synth of your last album. This song not only is a stark contrast to their previous macabre singles like, "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" and "The Only Difference Between Martydom and Suicide is Press Coverage", but much of this year's singles. Paying tribute to bands like the Beatles and Kinks only reinforces my respect.

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7. "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You" - Black Kids

Columbia Records

AlmostGoldRecordings

Buy (Amazon.com)

I got a thing for sing-a-long bubble-gum pop songs. From Miley Cyrus' "See You Again" to Tony Basil's "Mickey" these songs ensure a positive mentality when living life, and driving on our freeways. For me, the Black Kid's single ensured much singing in the shower and on the road. Its the, counting chorus and the "Dance, Dance, Dance" that does it. Fall Out Boy did it a few years ago, and with great success they're repeating the formula that makes a great pop song.

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6. "Go Hard" - DJ Khaled

Koch Records

Buy (Amazon.com)

The 1981 film Chariots of Fire introduced the single, "Chariots of Fire" which became a staple in the running world as a must when running with an iPOD. With the acidic kicks, vitriolic tongue of Kanye West, and auto-tuned chorus, "GO HARD", DJ Khaled has made a new anthem for runners and Rudy-types everywhere!

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5. "Everyone Nose" - N.E.R.D.

Star Trak Entertainment

Buy (Amazon.com)

I had the privilege of seeing the band perform this single live. N.E.R.D. was able to maintain the same funk and smoothness, featured in their recorded single, but magnified it times five. Its the funnest song about cocaine since Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines".

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4. "Love Lockdown" - Kanye West

Roc-A-Fella Records

Buy (Amazon.com)

I once thought to myself, "Is this the year of Kanye West ?" I quickly dismissed this thought after realizing that Kanye thinks every year, is the year of Kanye West. This was before he gave his award to Lil' Wayne. A month or so ago Stephen Colbert created "Operation Humble Kanye", and according to iTUNES the mission was a success. Kanye has a heart and he puts much of it into this single.

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3. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" - Radiohead

TBD Records

Buy (Amazon.com)

"Before the night owl, before the animal noises, closed circuit cameras, before you're comatosed." I find this song to be haunting and beautiful at the same time. Sung with anyone else's voice, I'm sure that version would only be inferior to Yorke's. No one can drone like Yorke.

It's the high-hat cymbal too.

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2. "Lights Out" - Santogold

Downtown Records

Buy (Amazon.com)

Santogold's homage to 80s greats like Debbie Harry and New Wave in general, is gingerly executed in this song which is surely featured in every hipster's iTunes library. I can only think of one word to describe this song, "avant-garde".

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1. "Shut The Club Down" - Girl Talk

Illegal Art

Buy (Amazon.com)

Greg Gillis was at one point was a bio-medical engineer who saved lives and created hope for those within his community. Now Mr. Gillis is a DJ who goes by the name of Girl Talk, who electronically engineers creations like the single, "Shut The Club Down" which allows people to dance merrily to seventeen songs at one time! One Time!

He creates a concoction of 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s music, which defies the law and angers thousands--if not millions of other "musicians" with his brand of music. Did I fail to mention that it is damn good?

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I hope everyone enjoyed 2008. With its successes and failures anyway you think of it, its another year on Earth. Cherish it! Now let us move onto 2009.

The Top 20 Albums Of 2008: #'s 10-1

This the culmination of hundreds of artists making thousands of albums in one short year. So here they are, the 10 best records of 2008.

Please, enjoy.

(Read about albums 20 - 1 here.)

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10. Feed the Animals - Girl Talk (original review)
Illegal Art
Buy/Download

Feed The Animals, as told by Chris Sanders.

It was his pick for album of the year, so I'll let him tell you all about it.

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9. United Nations -United Nations (original review)
Eyeball Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

I guess if Glassjaw wasn't going to get off of its collective ass and release an album, United Nations was the next best thing. Daryl Palumbo, Geoff Rickly, and a few others who (literally) can't be named all got together, and U.N. was what they came up with. File under "violent", "scary", "abrasive", "obscure", and "inaccessible".

Fans of Circle Takes The Square, rejoice a noble birth. Or at least something to tide you over until Circle's next LP.

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8. Intimacy - Bloc Party (original review)
Vice Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

Oddly enough, I think I might be the only person quite this enamored of Intimacy. I don't really know why though. The material is some of Bloc Party's catchiest to date, and successfully blends Silent Alarm's rock with the electronic A Weekend In The City to craft a diverse whole which surpasses the sum of its parts.

Bloc Party was the indie darling of the world a few years back, and it seems that everyone's been moving on to each successive "next big thing". Fleet Foxes are fine, Portishead's pretty, and Vampire Weekend are...ah...very naiiice. But me? I still have some room in my library for Bloc Party.

Intimacy is 11 reasons why.

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7. Uphill City - I Am Robot And Proud
Darla
Buy (Amazon.com)

It's been a crowded race this year, and the whole electronic scene has been thriving, with outstanding records from outfits like No. 9 and Burning Star Core. Heavyhitter Squarepusher disappointed, and Kira Kira's Our Map To The Monster Olympics was (to me) nothing but hype.

Still, just listen to I Am Robot And Proud. Try to be bored. Try not to enjoy it.

Just try.

Best electronica of 2008? Best electronica of 2008.

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6. The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes - Deepset (original review)
Kitty Wu/Inspire

Read that review. It's all I have to say.

Beautiful music for a beautiful season - the soundtrack of my upstate New York autumn.

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5. Take Me To The Sea - Jaguar Love (original review)
Matador
Buy (Amazon.com)

I dearly miss The Blood Brothers and everything which they represented. But in the ten years before it becomes appropriate for a reunion show, this album certainly has the potential to tide me over.

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4. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst (original review)
Merge Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

Many artists release a self-titled album as a debut. Other times it signifies a reinvention or new direction for the music. Conor Oberst doesn't fall into either category.

Rather, this is the culmination of Oberst's career working under Bright Eyes, just without that moniker. His Mystic Valley Band provides an excellent backing to his introspective, off-beat lyrics, and the mood is decidedly loungy and alt-country.

You won't find this on any Country radio station, and that's a real shame. Oberst, much like Rocky Votolato, signifies a return to what made country and folk music so appealing years ago, with stark narratives juxtaposed against jangly, manic accompaniments. Songs such as "Danny Callahan" and "Cape Canaveral" are some of Oberst's strongest ever, making his self-titled effort required listening for 2008.

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3. Harmonic Motion Volume 1 - Gifts From Enola / you.may.die.in.the.desert
Differential Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

Deepset's beauty aside, the second best post-rock release of 2008 seems obvious to me. When two of the genre's biggest players get together on one record, how can it not be obvious? Gifts From Enola and you.may.die.in.the.desert are immensely talented groups that make immensely enjoyable music, and both bring their 'A' game to this split.

That being said, Gifts From Enola steals the show completely on their side of the album. There is an intensity present that was merely hinted at on Loyal Eyes Betrayed The Mind on songs such as "In The Company Of Others". I can easily envision a day when people talk about Gifts From Enola with the same reverence currently reserved for Godspeed and This Is Your Captain Speaking. Which isn't to say that you.may.die.in.the.desert is slacking - because they're not. But the you.may.die on Harmonic Motion is more or less the same band heard on Evergreens and Icicles. Gifts' growth is simply jaw-dropping.

I wish that I could offer a money back guarantee on the enjoyment of this album. That's how confident I am in its power.

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2. Tha Carter III - Lil' Wayne
Cash Money
Buy (Amazon.com)

"You can't fool me, I know what you watchin - me! You watch me!"
-Lil' Wayne, 3 Peat

I can only imagine how it must feel to be "The Best Rapper Alive". Self-aware, self-enamored, self-centered, self-aggrandizing, and - most of all - self concious; Lil' Wayne, in a nutshell. All eyes are on him, and he most certainly knows it. In fact, he feeds on the attention, thrives on the adversity, and loves every minute of it. That last part is key - Dwayne Carter, Jr. genuinely enjoys the act of rapping, and it is this quality that shines in his output more than anything else.

Through his impossible rasp, you can tell when he's having fun. One such moment occurs during his delivery of the quote above, where you can actually hear him beaming, smiling in delight at his own wit, his own success. Lil' Wayne probably doesn't need another fan like me, doesn't need somebody else gushing about his latest release, his record-breaking sales figures, his omnipresence in, more than just hip-hop, but all pop music. He doesn't need anyone else to inflate his ego. But I'll do it anyway.

Tha Carter III is a sprawling contradiction. The year's most challenging, vacuous, accessible, weird, affectionate, misogynistic, genuine, and just plain fucked up music is all somehow compressed into a span of 75 minutes. The strength of Wayne's mixtapes would have rendered almost any album superfluous and irrelevant. Lucky for him, Tha Carter III isn't just any other album.

Over ambitious? Yes. Over-hyped? Probably. Overrated? Never. What's more to say, except "Fuck Al Sharpton".

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1. Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles - A Boldogság Minden Reményét Elragadták (original review)

The first time that Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles graced my ears, I was sure that they were something special. At least, I thought so - after seeing them panned by The Silent Ballet, I began to have second thoughts.

Because, what really makes something the best album of a given year, anyway? Does it just have to be great, or does it have to also be groundbreaking? Must it captivate for as long as it plays, or does it have to haunt you all year and linger in the back of your mind? Or should it simply be the album you listened to the most? And the group, should they be catchy or unpredictable? Mainstream or obscure? Up-and-comers or seasoned veterans?

Or does it even matter?

A Boldogsag etc. is frankly not groundbreaking. It isn't new, it isn't catchy, and it's certainly not mainstream. Nor was it the album I listened to the most this year - according to my last.fm, the one released in 2008 with the most plays is Tha Carter III.

What it is, on the other hand, is monumental. It represents a return to form for a genre gone astray. Riding Alone are a sort of Godspeed after Godspeed, a post-rock band for a new decade. Samples, strings, and silence all collaborate for over an hour to create a brooding tension that sums up War like no other. It is my opinion that it is A Boldogsag, and not Return to Cookie Mountain or Dear Science (as many in the industry contend), which is the soundtrack of this Administration, the disc that successfully captures the air of frustration, terror, and hypocrisy that inhabits our "post-9/11" world.

So while that other website might not be so forgiving, I'm willing to spot the band on the sparse production and mixing. In exchange, they gave me the Album of the Year.

Chris' Pick For Best Album of 2008

I hate it when I or someone else sings a song from the 90s, or as early as nine months ago, and 7/10 times there is always that one person nearby who says in a derogatory fashion, "That song is old!" Enter Girl Talk's 2008 album "Feed the Animals", which is an amalgamation of those "old" and new songs. The first 30 seconds of track one combines Roy Orbinson, UGK, Spencer Davis Group, and TTC. Towards the end he goes onto combine the strings from Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 You" with Lil' Wayne's verse from "Stuntin Like My Daddy", founded on a solid drum beat. The album I feel is this year's best representation of our youth's future, as well as music's.

Most recently we elected a new president to office, one who happens to be bi-racial. 68, 882, 230 Americans voted for President-Elect Obama in the 2008 election. These Americans felt that it was the right time to create a new era within American history, to really let our nation live up to the acculturation, we constantly boast. Girl Talk is the prime example of acculturation within music, and general society. He's combining artists like Air, Jay-Z, Radiohead, and Rod Stewart to create coherent pieces of music which in turn is a metaphor for our world's intercultural bartering. Also, I'm sure you are all familiar with hipster culture, which is prevalent at most college campuses or art districts near you. This hispter culture has most recently procreated with hip-hop culture to produce artists like Amanda Blank, M.I.A., Santogold, The Cool Kids.

But does it sound good? Why, yes it does! The energy that is made from Girl Talk's music is strong enough to make any pidgeon-toed club-goer lean wit' it, then rock wit' it. For me the best way to judge anything, is to look at its true purpose. "Feed the Animals" purpose is to get you to play your part in shutting the club down! If God was benevolent enough to let you borrow his eyes on a Friday 20 minutes after my last class, you'd see me in my car driving with no hands dancing, making fellow drivers contemplate calling the police or follow me to the next red light to ask, "what's that song you're listening to?"

In the future our world will be akin to Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals." We will all have sampled.