Top 5 Albums: 2008

"Dig Out Your Soul" by Oasis.

Though I was also a fan of Mudhoney's "The Lucky Ones" and of course, Death Magnetic.

I'll compile a better 08 roundup later on, but those stood out for me.

1. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
3. White Denim – Workout Holiday
4. Fleet Foxes
5. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
6. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Real Emotional Trash
7. Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins
8. The Black Keys – Attack & Release
9. Woven Hand – Ten Stones
10. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – Cipher
11. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
12. Shearwater – Rooks
13. The Mojomatics – Don’t Pretend that you Know Me
14. The Black Angels – Directions to Seek a Ghost
15. DeVotchKa – A Mad and Faithful Telling
16. Kings of Leon – Only By the Night
17. Calexico – Carried to Dust
18. Crystal castles – s/t
19. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
20. Motorpsycho – Little Lucid Moments
21. No Age – Nouns
22. Spiritualized – Songs in A&E

I made this, consisting of the best and only the best albums I've listened to this year. I think I agree with it enough to post it.

10. Jex Thoth - s/t
9. The Wandering Midget - The Serpent Coven
8. Arckanum - Antikosmos
7. Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels
6. Arghoslent - Hornets of the Pogrom
5. Ereb Altor - By Honour
4. Fall of the Idols - The Séance
3. Manilla Road - Voyager
2. Apostle of Solitude - Sincerest Misery
1. The Lamp of Thoth - Portents, Omens and Dooms

Runners Up:
Revelation - Release
Valkyrie - Man of Two Visions
Heathendom - Nescience

Amazing year for doom metal.

I will never understand why Viva la Vida is so popular.

1. The Greatest Remixes - Good Charlotte
2. Greatest Hits Vol. 1 - Rascal Flatts
3. 666 - Billy Talent
4. Folie à Deux - Fall Out Boy
5. When the World Comes Down - The All-American Rejects

Coming from someone who has Fall Out Boy, The All American Rejects, Good Charlotte, and Rascal Flatts in their top I am confused as to how you are questioning why people like something. (Sue me people I like Billy Talent a lot.)

Originally Posted by CrushedHope

Coming from someone who has Fall Out Boy, The All American Rejects, Good Charlotte, and Rascal Flatts in their top I am confused as to how you are questioning why people like something. (Sue me people I like Billy Talent a lot.)

I'm not saying I don't like it, I just don't understand why it gets it's own commercials. No body else did. (That I can remember)

I assume it's because they are a platinum-selling band and therefor EMI is more than willing to drop some serious coin to market them.

Almost forgot about this one:




I've been listening to it non-stop the past couple days, it's pretty awesome. <3

Oddly enough, I've only actually bought five albums that came out this year, so my "top five" is more like my only five. Know that if I'd been able to get my hands on some other stuff, like the new albums from Thyrfing, Ásmegin and Slough Feg, the list would look different.

In no particular order:

Enslaved - Vertebrae


The only truly excellent album on this list, Enslaved have really defied their own boundaries and created something that can be adequately described as black metal combined with Pink Floyd. Although I'm a huge fan of progressive music, even I had trouble with this one until I'd given it five or more listens, but now that I've got it, I've had trouble not listening to it every couple of days.

Opeth - Watershed


With this release, Opeth have shown that they still haven't run out of ideas. A mostly-new line-up has resulted in simultaneously their most brutal and mellow compositions to date, and unfortunately, also one of their most inconsistent works. Although there are some excellent songs on here, a few of them are prone to instrumental wankery and general directionlessness. Take the two or three awkward tracks off of here and you'd probably have a great EP. It's a shame, too, because this is one of the first times where I can actually see where the band's detractors are right in some of their accusations. At least Mikael is as strong as ever in his playing and vocals, which leads me to...

Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery


This one is not going to be a candidate for album of the year, and not even in the running for death metal album of the year. Bloodbath started out as a resurrection of old-school Swedish death metal, but pretty quickly took on a more modern sound. For their newest release, however, they've adopted a good helping of mid-90s Morbid Angel influence, and it definitely shows on some of the more awesome songs here. This is not the most consistent album ever, as the second half is definitely less interesting and falls into a lot of death metal cliches without doing anything interesting with them, but the excellent first half mostly makes up for it. As an upside, Mikael has returned to do vocals on this album, and he has done a phenomenal job. While I've always considered him to be one of the best death metal vocalists around, here he really stretches and performs some of his deepest, most pissed-off-sounding grunts ever, some of which could even be compared to Glen Benton of Deicide in a few places. It helps that the rest of the band's performance is excellent, too, but the slightly stale production and occasionally bland songwriting keep this one from being a must-have (though still recommended).

Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God


Yeah, okay, so I like Amon Amarth. They're big, nearly as dumb as Cannibal Corpse, and have been playing the same stupid songs every album for the last ten-odd years. However, while I will never admit to calling them truly "good" music, it's undeniably fun and ridiculously catchy. For this release, the band have slowed down the tempo somewhat and have created some of the catchiest choruses in metal that I have ever heard - literally every song demands that you sing along to it. The song structures and riffs also strangely remind me of 1980s heavy metal, and Johan even attempts something resembling "clean" singing at one or two points. Musicianship is great as always (though the songs are simple as hell to play), production is clear and powerful (if lacking in contrast), and overall songwriting is good. My only major complaint is that some of the riffs on this album, especially song introductions, feel just damn uninspired and lame, like throwaway stuff left on the cutting room floor by Arch Enemy.

Korpiklaani - Korven Kuningas


I'm not going to lie: the only reason this album is on the list (as well as, probably, Opeth and Amon Amarth) is because I didn't get enough albums from this year to provide enough contest. That said, this is not at all a bad album. The issue is that Korpiklaani have been doing the same intelligence-void happy-go-lucky folk metal for as long as they've been going, and have shown very little interest in introducing any sort of variation. In some places it's hard to even call this a folk metal album, because the guitars seem so pushed back in the mix at times that they'd might as well background noise to the accordions, fiddles and other "ethnic" instruments that constantly screech away - not to say that this is such a bad thing, but at times the folk instrumentation and melodies definitely reach the point of garishness. Korpiklaani is good fun, but not smart music, and I will not be buying another album from them, simply because, similar to bands such as Bolt Thrower, one album is all you really need to fully experience the band, and new albums are not going to provide any new listening experiences.

With that said and done, I'd like to highlight some more albums I've bought in 2008 that stand out, even if they may not have been released that year. They deserve praise and credit, even if it's a bit out of date by now:

Negură Bunget - OM (2006)
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead (2007)
Decapitated - Winds of Creation (2000; 2008 re-release)
Anaal Nathrakh - Eschaton (2006)

Have 10 instead. In no order.




Bit of a mix for me.

Originally Posted by SheikahSage

5. Ultra Beatdown DragonForce
4. Indestructable Disturbed
3. Death Magnetic Metallica
2. Chinese Democracy Guns N Roses
1. Black Ice AC/DC

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHA.

Ahhh.

Originally Posted by Mini-Link

I will never understand why Viva la Vida is so popular.

1. The Greatest Remixes - Good Charlotte
2. Greatest Hits Vol. 1 - Rascal Flatts
3. 666 - Billy Talent
4. Folie à Deux - Fall Out Boy
5. When the World Comes Down - The All-American Rejects

Originally Posted by CrushedHope

Coming from someone who has Fall Out Boy, The All American Rejects, Good Charlotte, and Rascal Flatts in their top I am confused as to how you are questioning why people like something. (Sue me people I like Billy Talent a lot.)

I'm more concerned about the two 'Greatest' albums on there. It always bothers me when record companies squeeze out a Greatest Hits album during a band's period of hiatus to milk them for money. So it bothers me just as much when people support the habit. Please stop.

Anyway

3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. Panic At The Disco - Pretty. Odd.
2. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
4. Portishead - Third
1. Coldplay - Viva La Vida

Because I haven't listened to enough yet. Been on a budget.

Also Weezer's Red Album was a piece of ****.

Next year I look forward to Andrew Bird and Franz Ferdinand's new releases on the 20th and 26th respectively.

Short list.

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Portishead - Third
Shiny Toy Guns - Season Of Poison
Britney Spears - Circus
Filter - Anthems for the Damned

Hmm... Know what? I can't say I've actually listened to five albums that actually came out in 2008. I've bought plenty of albums in the last year, but they were all old classics, not new risks.

I've listened to
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely - I LOVED IT. Every second of it. They really do deserve to be called "The Raconteurs" (master storytellers) because they do tell some sweet stories. Standout tracks are "Salute Your Salution" "Old Enough" "The Switch and the Spur" "These Stones Will Shout" and "Carolina Drama". I love the country-rock feel throughout the album, even though I'm normally not a fan of genre-mixing or country at all, for that matter.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida (or Death and All His Friends) - I discovered Coldplay a year ago, loved them, then got kind of burnt from all their semi-wussy acoustic stuff. This album rolled around, I bought it, and was surprised at how good it actually was. I blame Brian Eno and all the atmospheric noises in the background. Standout tracks are "Cemeteries of London" "Lost!" "Strawberry Swing" and "Death and All His Friends" (no, "Viva La Vida" is not a standout track. It's kinda bland).

Weezer - The Red Album - After the "new car smell", so to speak, wore off of this album, I was left with kind of a funny taste in my mouth. Like I'd been let down once again by the Weez boys. That's not to say they didn't produce some pretty good little ditties throughout the course of the album. Standout tracks are "Dreamin'" "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" "Everybody Get Dangerous" (but only when in a car driving ten miles over the limit) "Automatic" (but only when in a car cruising five miles an hour under the limit) "Thought I Knew" and "Pig" (from the Deluxe Edition). "Pork and Beans" is like a less-crappy Beverly Hills: waaaay overplayed and not really all that great.

Flogging Molly - Float - This is a pretty decent album with solid music, but I must say that George Schwindt on drums totally ruined almost the entire album with his bass-snare-bass-snare-bass-snare roll-bass-snare crap throughout the entire album. It got old, even with good music behind the beats. 2006's "Within a Mile of Home" featured much more solid drumming, with some nice semi-shuffle stuff on "Factory Girls" and even a Cuban dance beat on "Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon". Sadly, this is not the case on "Float". Standout tracks are "Float" (which actually has a different drum beat than the rest of the album) and "Us of Lesser Gods"

...So yeah, I listened to four albums from 2008. All the rest of my purchases were older collection albums that I didn't have (Broken Boy Soldiers, Icky Thump, Elephant, Californication, etc) or old music from old artists (Scorpions, Bob Marley, The Doors, Elvis, Aaron Copland, etc).

Have 3 more.

Forgive Durden - Razia's Shadow: A Musical
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig! Lazarus, dig!!!
Tv on the Radio - Dear Science
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Honourable mentions: The Raconteurs, Madonna, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Kerli, Good Old War, Anthony Green, Death Cab for Cutie, Kanye West, Darker My Love, Vampire Weekend, Underoath, Innerpartysytem, The Presets, The Dresden Dolls, City & Colour...

1. Scars on Broadway (self titled)
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
3. Disturbed - Indestructable
4.
5.

...No System reunion.

1) Amon Amarth - Twilight of the thunder god
2) AC/DC - Black Ice
3) Edguy - Tinnitus Sanctus
4) Motörhead - Motörizer
5) Avantasia - The Scarecrow

Originally Posted by Itachi

1. Scars on Broadway (self titled)
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
3. Disturbed - Indestructable
4.
5.

...No System reunion.

I would have thought that would have produced the worst albums of the year. All five of them.

Pretty much every album I bought/owned/been given/listened too was before 2008.. even before the year 2000, I believe. However, there's been a few albums I listened to that are from 2008.

Divine Brown's Love Chronicles, and The Secret Life of the Captain of the Ship in the Bottle On The Mantle Piece by Caz Machina. Been listening too that album for the past few days straight.