2008 in music. • Page 5

I always liked that pun.

Btw I totally expected your third vote this year to be Zo and Tigallo. I could swear I got into that from you playing it during an ap.net Turntable

 

You are correct. I left three open because I didn’t know what it might be as there’s albums I discover are from a year down the line. That album is fun though.

 

I probably listen to it more than a lot of the albums I ranked higher than it

 

Well I don't know what tell you about that. I've listened to none of your top three so I can only assume it's better.

 

@williek311 my list had a bunch of shit I feel like you were responsible for. Namely Cold World, Grave Maker, Sabretooth Zombie, and Energy. If not you, Nard.

 

Damn I haven't listened to Grave Maker is a long time. Sabertooth Zombie is amazing though. I'd definitely say it was Nard though. But I still fuck with Cold World and STZ heavily and will champion them. Still missing one of the human performance ep's which is dumb.

 

1. The Gaslight Anthem - The ’59 Sound
2. Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows
3. Jack’s Mannequin - The Glass Passenger

I think my love for The ’59 Sound is pretty well-documented at this point. I’ve done two podcasts about this album, written a 10-year retrospective, and posted a lot about it on these forums. It rules. That is all.

Sycamore Meadows was my favorite album of 2008 in 2008, so that counts for a lot. Honestly, I’ve always thought of it and The ’59 Sound as the 1a and 1b for this year. Hard to choose one of them. This record meant so much to me then, and still does. I very fondly remember a weekend during my senior year of high school a few months after this album came out where my brother and I did two Butch shows on consecutive nights, Friday and Saturday. Ended up front row at the second one and helped Butch climb down into the crowd for the last song. His shows in this era were so special, kind of like what I’d imagine seeing a pre-fame Springsteen was like.

The Glass Passenger means so much to me. Got me through some tough times. Another album I've written a lot about over the years. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger

Excruciating cuts:

Safetysuit – Life Left to Go: One of the very finest mainstream pop-rock albums from this era. They had a few minor hits, but never got the attention they deserved. They had a talent for writing just massive, massive anthems – somewhere between pop-punk and U2. They never made an album ever an eighth as good as this one again, and as far as I know are no longer together. But man, this album still packs such a hefty emotional punch for me.

Augustana - Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt: Speaking of albums that never got the credit they deserved, this one is a goddamn masterpiece. Feels like the kind of record that would have gone multiplatinum in the ‘90s (it shares some DNA with August & Everything After, for sure) but went sadly overlooked when it actually did come out. “Hey Now” and “Twenty Years” are all-timers.

Chad Perrone – Wake: I still remember pushing play on this one for the first time, at the recommendation of cshadows, and being absolutely floored by the first track. That song, “Blinded,” ended up being the first song I ever put on a mix CD for the girl I married, and is a song I quoted in my speech at our rehearsal dinner. Getting to work with Chad on a few projects in the ensuing years was surreal.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida: I was “too cool” for Coldplay at the time, and even then I had to begrudgingly acknowledge that this record was pretty damn good. I go back and forth on whether or not this is my favorite Coldplay album, but I definitely think it’s their greatest. It just has the air of a masterpiece.

Taylor Swift – Fearless: The true start of the Taylor Swift journey. Maybe her sixth best record at most, but a pop-country masterpiece and such a clear encapsulation of the gravitational pull she had as a songwriter and pop culture figure.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago: Forgot to list this last year, because I didn’t get into it until the 2008 re-release came out. I have some very fond memories of playing it for weeks straight on morning drives to school in November and December of 2008 as the winter rolled in. It’s always sounded a bit like Christmas to me, as a result

The New Frontiers – Mending: One of the most overlooked and underrated albums of all time, period. Such a marvelous record, somewhere between roots rock and emo. Wish it weren’t impossible to find on vinyl

Also love:

The Promise of Redemption – When the Flowers Bloom
Valencia – We All Need a Reason to Believe

A pair of companion records, both from Shane Henderson, both about the same tragedy one utterly gutting and the other finding its way toward acceptance. I love them both so much.

Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings: After a six-year wait, the Crows return with their most conceptual record. Half angry, Recovering the Satellites rock ‘n’ roll; half downbeat This Desert Life-esque folk-pop. I loved it at the time, grew to view it as indulgent and overlong, and then fell back in love with it a few years ago.

The Killers – Day & Age: In the moment, maybe the most disappointed I’d ever been in an album up to that point. I really didn’t like this one at first, and viewed it as slapdash and undercooked. In retrospect, it’s definitely slapdash, but it’s also a lot of fun. Hearing The Killers not take themselves so seriously is kind of a blast.

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs: Another one I struggled with upon release, just because it lacks the emotional wallop that Transatlanticism and Plans had. I’ve come to love it over the years, particularly for how sharp the all-analog sound is. The last record where they sounded like a truly dynamite band playing together in a room.

Lydia – Illuminate: Gorgeous, haunting, entrancing, autumnal music. The first half especially is magic.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes: Fell in love with this one right around Christmastime that year, and it’s always sounded to me like an otherworldly, dreamlike version of winter. My favorite Fleet Foxes record.

Nada Surf – Lucky: Scored this one on vinyl pretty recently (it’s hard to find, but I got lucky, pun intended!) and I’m pretty sure it’s my second favorite Nada Surf record at this point. They were cranking out really solid pop songs here, like “Whose Authority,” “Beautiful Beat,” and “I Like What You Say.”

Honorables:

R.E.M. – Accelerate: What a fun late-career triumph from these guys. Loud, immediate, and gripping.

Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns: I didn’t care much for this record at the time. I remember being kind of surprised at how they traded their very anthemic, pop-heavy sound for something more atmospheric. I still think it’s a pretty sizable step down from the two albums that came before it, but with some big highlights (the first three tracks and “Please Just Take These Photos from My Hands” especially).

Keane – Perfect Symmetry: Half ill-advised funk-pop; half soaring U2-esque anthems. The former side of the band’s sound is hit or miss, but the latter they wear so well. I adore songs like “The Lovers Are Losing,” “Perfect Symmetry,” and “Black Burning Heart.”

City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love: Not quite the gut-punch Sometimes was, but a nice, sweet, sadly melancholy singer-songwriter record. “Waiting” kind of fucks me up.

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive: IMO, a slightly lesser retread of the Boys & Girls in America sound, but still a lot of fun. “Constructive Summer” is one of the all-time great roll-down-the-windows summer driving jams.

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul: A solid swansong from a great, great band.

Copeland - You Are My Sunshine: A rich, autumnal beauty. I’m realizing how many of my go-to fall or winter albums came out this year.

Matthew Perryman Jones – Swallow the Sea: Really strong Coldplay-esque power ballads, not dissimilar from the Cary Brothers album I went to bat for last week. “Save You” is a song that deserved more attention.

Ray LaMontagne – Gossip in the Grain: LaMontagne’s last really good album, IMO. The first three songs especially are him at his best.

1969 – Maya: A Butch Walker side project with Michael Guy Chislett of The Academy Is. Chislett wrote the music, Butch wrote the lyrics. I don’t love Chislett’s melodic ear most of the time, but his atmosphere Edge-esque guitar effects are a nice match with Butch’s voice, and the good songs (“Wreck Me,” “Save a Place,” “Am I Still On”) portray Butch in a stadium rock mode he never really explored on his own.

The Weepies – Hideaway: “Can’t Go Back” from this album is one of my favorite songs from 2008. A reliably gorgeous folk-pop album from The Weepies.

The Maine – Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: They’d find their way to greatness later (and will top one of my lists here eventually!) but were mostly just charmingly immature at this point. “Into Your Arms” and “Whoever She Is” are forever on my Maine best of, though.

 

Another significant year for me. I went to my first concert that summer (Foo Fighters, Minus the Bear, and Supergrass ) and went to my first “real show” that fall (Underoath, TDWP, Saosin, and The Famine). Also started high school that fall as well. So, yeah…some all timers here for sure.

1. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
2. La Dispute - Somewhere at the Bottom…
3. Pompeii - Nothing Happens for a Reason

Honorable Mentions (not all hold up):

Attack Attack!: Someday Came Suddenly
Bring Me the Horizon: Suicide Season
City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux
Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
Have Heart - Songs to Scream at the Sun
Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
Kid Cudi - A Kid Named Cudi
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
Lydia - Illuminate
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
Paper Rival - Dialog
Protest the Hero - Fortress
Rise Against - Appeal to Reason
Story Of The Year -The Black Swan
Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV
Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation
Weezer - The Red Album

 

Man I wish there were Vegas odds on predicting your top 3. I’d have even gotten the order! Seriously insane year

Maybe I have to go back to Day and Age. I love “Dustland Fairytale” but always found the rest very disappointing.

 

2009 is gonna be a hard year to pick.

We're gonna suffer.

 

Haha, I’ve flipped the Butch and Gaslight records in the past, but figured I’d give my top points to Gaslight, since they’ve got a shot at winning the year. Those albums really are 1a and 1b for me for 2008.

Day & Age is one of those albums that didn’t withstand the weight of expectations I put on it at the time, but which I find a lot more enjoyable in a discography that includes seven albums than a discography that included three. Just a fun little throwaway that spitballs in a bunch of different directions. I’m surprised at how often I find myself putting it on the turntable.

 

It’s funny how much better a detour record can seem once they’ve gotten a bunch of albums in after that. Streetlife Serenade would probably have disappointed me if I was there when it came out, but now it’s just this little unique pocket of his discography and I love it for that. People and Things is a decent recent example of that, too

 

i do love 59 sound and listening last week when the reunion was announced i was surprised how well it held up but it’s always surprised me how many people here have it in like their ten best albums ever

 

Yeah, People & Things is a good example of this, too. I never disliked that album, but it felt a little slight at the time. Reframing it as the end of the Jack's Mannequin trilogy, and hearing it in context of what he'd eventually do under the Wilderness moniker, gives it some extra heft.

The best example of this for me, though, is Reputation, an album I borderline hated when it came out. After folklore and evermore, knowing she'd eventually make more songwriter-centric records again, I've really warmed up to what she was doing in that era.

 

That's another perfect example yeah. Though I'll always wish the album started at "So It Goes".

 

I definitely prefer the second half. I'd have tweaked the tracklist a bit and cut 1-2 songs, but even the blaring pop stuff at the beginning grew on me.

 

Thought of another more deep-cut example:

John Forgety's Eye of the Zombie. It's kinda synthetic arena rock, so I'd probably have been bewildered when he put it out. But now as a one-off, it rules.

 

Not familiar with that one!

 

Y'all were talking about Weezer's Red Album earlier, and I remember being so "meh" on it when it came out, and in fact "Pork and Beans" is probably the only track I've kept in regular rotation for years.... today while shuffling my playlist, "Thought I Knew" came on - halfway through I had to look to see who it was, and was shocked to see it was the Brian Bell sang track from this album. I would've put money that it was Guster or Rooney, honestly, and in a good way.

Very cool track IMO, Rivers should let Brian sing more often hahaha

 

Thought I Knew is def the best different singer track on that album. I don't hate Automatic either. But woof... Cold Dark World is a special kind of hell.

 

please no.

 

King is hands down the best "different singer" Weezer song.

 

New debate! Lmao I truly do not remember ANY of the different singer tracks, I clearly was not in Weezer mode at the time. Gotta queue all of these up.

 

This is Weezer in full-on Trojan Single mode haha