A Large List of Music I Enjoyed in 2008

Why so early with a Best Of list? I've still got a lot of albums to check out properly, and yet here we are, partially because my hand was forced leading me to post this elsewhere first (though without the lovely YouTube videos), and also because my piece of shit TyTn phone crashed yesterday meaning I lost absolutely everything on it, including yet another Week in TV post, so I've got to reconstruct that from scratch, something I could have spent today doing but instead I stupidly farted around trying to figure out how to append .srt files to .avi files (here's the short answer; you can't because vobsub_vd.vdf and textsub.vdf files are more slippery than the King of Eels and never seem to work even when added to VirtualDubMod plugin folders, meaning you waste hours and hours installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling programs and all you get is much misery).

Where was I? Oh yeah, music. As you can see from my top fifteen album list, it's been another good year (though there is much carping across the internet that dammit, those musicians didn't excel themselves this year, how selfish of them). There are several albums I'm still getting into, and many more I've not even heard at all. As usual, I expect to find more out as soon as I hit Publish (last year I damned The National with faint praise and then realised Boxer was a masterpiece), but for now, let this stand.

Albums of the Year:

1. Re-Arrange Us - Mates of State
2. April - Sun Kil Moon
3.= The Family Afloat - Bound Stems
3.= Lay Down In The Light - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4.= Real Emotional Trash - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
4.= Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. Microcastle - Deerhunter
6.= Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust - Sigur Rós
6.= Narrow Stairs - Death Cab For Cutie
7. This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That - Marnie Stern
8.= Gift of Screws - Lindsey Buckingham
8.= Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Amanda Palmer
9. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
10.= Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon
10.= Sea Lion - The Ruby Suns



Disappointments of the Year:

Heart On - Eagles of Death Metal
Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp
Caught In The Trees - Damien Jurado
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - David Byrne and Brian Eno (Yes, I know I blogged about it before, but it never got any better than the first listen.)

Possible Contenders That I've Not Yet Listened To Enough:

Something for All of Us... - Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning
Dear Science - TV On The Radio
The Stand Ins - Okkervil River
Untitled - Nas
Hold On Now, Youngster... - Los Campesinos



I know, that video's been around for a year and a half but it's so great it needs to be seen as often as possible.

Worst Album of the Year/Decade:

The Bedlam In Goliath - The Mars Volta (Having been forced to listen to a lot of Mars Volta this year, I have to ask: what the fuck is the appeal of this band? It makes me turn into an old fart complaining about the racket, which earns it extra hate points. HATE!)

Best Use of Autotune to Confound Squidbrains Album of the Year:

808s and Heartbreak - Kanye West

Best Posthumous Release of the Year:

Leucocyte - Esbjörn Svensson Trio



I Don't Get What The Big Deal Is Album of the Year:

In Ear Park - Department of Eagles (The hipsters love it but it reminds me of cloying 60s pop filtered through an Americana mindset and as such depresses me greatly.)

Why Isn't This More Popular Album of the Year:

This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That - Marnie Stern (The woman is a musical genius, and has the requisite cute-hipster look to appeal to all of the douchebags. She should PWN the world by now.)



Underrated Album of the Year:

Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon (Yes yes, stadium rock etc. But it's a grower, and even if it's not as good as Because of the Times, it's partially because that was the best rock album of the decade and it's hard to top. Two more albums like this and I might change my tune, though.)

Best Classical Music Album of the Year:

Video Games Live - Jack Wall/Slovak National Symphony Orchestra/Crouch End Festival Chorus/David Temple (I only just found out about it! Tron Medley? Halo? Civ 4? I never knew you cared enough to make this, world.)

Songwriter of the Year:

Amanda Palmer, whose commitment to brutal truthtelling shocked and thrilled me.



Lyrics of the Year:

Gardenia by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks



Richard Avedon. Richard Avedon would. Richard Avedon would surely approve.

Overrated Album of the Year:

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (While I love the first half of the album, the second half is just nothing. I cannot remember a single thing about it and I've heard it about 30 times.)

Best Soundtrack of the Year:

Lost Season Three OST - Michael Giacchino
Plus, I've not heard it on CD, but the soundtrack to Snow Angels was lovely, and would probably swipe this spot.

Best Comedy Album of the Year:

Flight of the Conchords OST - Flight of the Conchords



Most Overdue Return of the Year:

Harps and Angels - Randy Newman

Most Welcome Return of the Year:

Mountain Battles - The Breeders

Most Career-Rehabilitating Return of the Year:

Forth - The Verve (Not technically a good album, but even in semi-FAIL mode it's infinitely better than Richard Ashcroft's solo work.)

Most Reputation-Destroying Return of the Year:

Snowflake Midnight - Mercury Rev (They discovered technology! And made an embarrassing hash of it. Bring back David Baker and Suzanne Thorpe.)

More Videos

(Interstellar space orgy featuring Ron Jeremy! That's more like it. These days it's all neuroses and overthinking. Very disappointing.)

Most Surprising Return of the Year:

Third - Portishead

Most Underwhelming Return of the Year:

Songs in A&E - Spiritualized®

Most Frustrating Return of the Year:

The Hungry Moon - Tindersticks

Production of the Year:

Mark Nevers, traditionally tied to Lambchop, worked wonders on Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Lay Down In The Light, the best Will Oldham release since Master and Everyone. Whereas that was minimalist, and The Letting Go was dour, this is playful, funny, and even catchy. The addition of a few new and unusual instruments to the usual array of Americana staples unleashes Oldham's quirkiness, and the result is a pure joy. Of course, I can't find any online evidence of this, so here's Runs In The Family by Amanda Palmer, produced (brilliantly) by Ben Folds. A lot of work went into getting this terrifying and dizzying run-on rant together.



Albums From Previous Years That I Properly Fell In Love With This Year:

Boxer - The National
Kala - M.I.A. (Both of these albums would get on last year's list, pushing two others out)
Tusk - Fleetwood Mac
Bring It Back - Mates of State
Source Tags and Codes - ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Singles of the Year:

1. SEX ON FIYAH!!! - Kings of Leon
2. Get Better - Mates of State
3. Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyonce aka Sasha Fierce
4. Death Cab For Cutie - No Sunlight (Well, it's not out as a single yet, but it will be soon. If not this, then Cath...)
5. Time to Pretend - MGMT
6. That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
7. I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria



8. Gardenia - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
9. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
10. Bruises - Chairlift

Synapse-Frying Hyper-Uplift Single of the Year:

Við Spilum Endalaust - Sigur Rós



You Upset My Cats And Have Thus Upset Me Single of the Year:

Creator - Santogold

EP of the Year:

Water Curses - Animal Collective



Album Tracks of the Year:

1. The Re-Arranger - Mates of State
2. Sugar City Magic - Bound Stems



3. Moorestown or Tonight In Bilbao (can't decide) - Sun Kil Moon
4. Wait For You - Lindsay Buckingham
5. Manhattan - Kings of Leon
6. Where Is The Puzzle? - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
7. Ruler - Marnie Stern
8. Never Stops - Deerhunter
9. Tane Mahuta - The Ruby Suns
10. Change is Hard - She and Him



Insanity-Generating Brainworm of the Year:

Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes

OMG Seriously WTF You Can't Say That Album Track of the Year:

Oasis - Amanda Palmer



Perplexing Omission of the Year:

Why is If You're Into It missing from the Flight of the Conchords OST?



Missed opportunity there.

I'm still working on a film list, which will come later this month, and Canyon is cooking something up something music-related. Stay tuned (and buy Amanda Palmer's album or, if you're a skinflint, check out the series of videos she made for it on YouTube).

Cop Rock Was the Awesomest Show Ever

I think we can all agree that Flight of the Conchords is a wonderful show -- sweet, hilarious, and 100% Australian-free. Sadly, though, its last episode of the season just aired -- we haven't watched it yet, but I'm already dreading it being over (at least for a few months). No more Hiphopopotamus, David Bowie, or Murray "Ginger Balls" Hewitt, the band's hapless manager/Derren Brown lookalike.

Luckily, we still have Cop Rock. Cop Rock, if you're not an aficianado of early-90s musical cop shows, didn't even last one season, but oh, what a legacy it has. It was basically Hill Street Blues meets Phantom of the Opera, with all the sublime ridiculousness that implies. Wheras Flight of the Conchords is a comedy interspersed with funny musical interludes, Cop Rock was a drama interspersed with criminals singing show tunes about how much they love smack. I'd heard about it for years, always as a punchline, but only a few weeks ago did I think to look it up on YouTube. Oh mighty YouTube, is there no long-buried crap that you cannot uncover in a four-minute clip? No. No, there is not.

This show really has to be seen to be believed. I give you: "Baby Merchant".



And: "Let's Be Careful Out There".



I don't even know what I could possibly say about these that could be funnier than actually watching them. All I know is that this show must come out on DVD immediately, so that I can own it and treasure it and play it anytime I'm feeling a little low and need an injection of baby merchandise. What idiot cancelled this show? It is one of the best things ever created.

The new TV season is making me sweat

Ain't It Cool has printed a list of the new shows for late 2007, and it's insane how many shows we're watching. Try 18 for now, with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica turning up later (as well as Big Love and Flight of the Conchords, though they're months away). It's just insane. How will we get through them all?

The interesting thing is that the UK buys TV shows from the US and hardly ever makes a big deal about it. Unless they become hits in the US, of course. When Heroes exploded the Beeb could hardly contain itself, bragging about their acquisition even though it took 9 months to get on BBC2, and that was after Sci-Fi milked it to death. I can understand the usual caution. For every Lost there's a Deadwood (a failure on Sky) or Boomtown (a failure in general). This year, however, Sandro Monetti of the Sunday Express (in their first interesting article ever) has revealed which show is going where. I'd link to the article, but it's the Express. Their website is, like, totally medieval. You'll have to make do with my interpretations and take my word for it.

C4 is getting Dirty Stupid Monkey (I swear to God, I made that stupid joke weeks ago and now I think it really is called that) and Back To You, the seemingly unwatchable archaic sitcom with Kelsey "Not Hank McCoy" Grammer and an actress I don't recognise. If DSM is even half as bad as is rumoured, that's not really a safe investment for C4, but I'll wager they're hoping it will be this year's Brothers and Sisters. As for Back To You, it shows a staggering lack of imagination on the part of the channel. It's blatantly obvious they're trying to chase the Frasier fans with another show that will feature jokes about high culture and wine as a veneer of sophistication while the majority of the comedy comes from laboured, smutty puns and hi-larious farcical misunderstandings, this time without the saving grace of David Hyde Pierce. Or Eddie the Dog. Cheers re-runs would be more welcome. ::grumble grumble::

The Beeb has splashed out for Damages, when it should have paid for Mad Men, which might be a tad overrated but still has a better shot at lasting more than one season. Five is buying the Duchovny sex-a-thon Californication, which seems shrewd, especially now Sky has pilfered Prison Break (at enormous expense; £500,000 an episode! For that shit?). Sky also has Journeyman, i.e. Quantum Leap with that junkie from Trainspotting, which sounds like this year's Standoff in terms of longevity. At least they didn't option the similarly named but actually completely different Traveler, which didn't actually go that far. ::pats self on back::

ITV1 has got Pushing Daisies, and would be well advised to make a huge deal about it. That's a brilliant move, landing a critical darling starring the fragrant Anna Friel, and will pay huge dividends. And oh, they've got Bionic Woman too, and have stuck that on ITV2. At first glance I thought that was a terrible mistake. It's not like ITV2 is the BBC2 to ITV1's BBC1 (oh God, what did I just write?). ITV2 is as much a ghetto channel as ITV3 or ITV4, which is where they shove good or great shows (ahem Friday Night Lights ahem) to die a terrible death, at least in the past. However, with the digital switchover right around the corner, and ITV2 being a free-to-air channel, it could work out. There's a chance it will bury the show, but it also might prove to be a stroke of genius. There must be millions of UK TV watchers who are fascinated to see how Michelle Ryan deals with the new show and her brand new cheekbones, so this could go well. It's rare that ITV do something smart, so kudos to them.

No information on when the shows will appear on our screens, but don't expect any of them in 2007. We can't have that now, can we? It's a particular bugbear of mine, and something I hope to find out more about in the near future. I'm sure there's a reason. I just doubt it will be a satisfying one.