We've arrived now at the meat of the list. Read on to see if your favorites were mine as well.
25. The Ballad of Butter Beans
by Man Man
from Rabbit Habits
[Alternative]
Man Man’s Rabbit Habits was one of the weirdest and most disarming albums of the year. They invoke at different times acts as varied as Modest Mouse, They Might Be Giants and Tom Waits, but no one quite sounds like them. “The Ballad of Butter Beans” uses myriad instruments to create an eccentric and dizzy high that you won’t soon come down from. The xylophones alone will clutter your brain, but add to that the quirky lyrics, even quirkier vocals and the goofy funhouse melody, and you’re left with a song that’s tough to describe and even tougher to dislike.
24. Morning Sun
by the Ruby Suns
from Sea Lion
[Alternative/Pop]
“Wake up, I get the morning sun,” Ryan McPhun chants over and over again; at the outset, it’s eerie, but by the time he’s accompanied by falsetto back-ups, it’s like a looping dream. Certainly one of the odder great songs of the year, it unpredictably moves back and forth from one jumbled genre to the next. Creeping psychedelia eventually transforms into New Order/Depeche Mode dark synth pop. Both modes are gothic but neither is predictable. But no matter the amount of fascination the song derives, there’s no denying the emphatic pleasures both halves offer.
23. Sunday Bloody Sunday
by Saul Williams
from The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!
[Electronic/Rock]
Originally self-released at the end of 2007, Saul Williams’ collaboration with Trent Reznor could no longer be ignored when its physical release hit stores this summer. Amazingly, while Saul’s in-your-face rapping couples beautifully with Reznor’s pulsating production, the album’s highlight actually came in the form of a non-hip hop cover of a famous song. And in some regards, it’s a perfect cover song. It’s close enough to the original version so we can follow it like a map on the first listen but different enough to stand apart with its own identity. And the fact that they make it almost as potent as U2’s classic fiery anthem is nothing short of miraculous.
22. Downtown Chapel
by Super XX Man
from Volume XII: There’ll Be Diamonds
[Folk/Pop]
One of the year’s best ballads came in the form of “Downtown Chapel,” a song driven by a haunting piano melody and melancholy words. The narrator claims that the downtown chapel is his everything, but you never know exactly what secret pleasure is guarded there. “New new shoes to wear/New new thoughts to share/New new songs to sing aloud inside my head/I didn’t have anything/I didn’t have anything/I didn’t have anything going on up there.” Knowing its mental hospital roots makes this one especially poignant. [album review]
21. XX
by Sea Sick
from Sea Sick EP
[Alternative/Rock]
Few debuts impressed me as much as Sea Sick’s did this year, even if all they offered was a seven-song EP (and the growing buzz of electrifying live performances). But twenty-five minutes is all you need to realize how special this outfit could end up being. On the EP, the musicians cover their bases—a heady mix of spaced-out ambience and hard rock muscle—but it’s the voice of singer Jasmine Golestaneh that strikes deepest. Over a Hum-flies-to-the-Middle-East melody on “XX,” those alluring pipes are as seductive as the belly dancer image that appears in your mind’s eye—even though they sound on this cut as if shouted through a megaphone! But this one is dominated by the supple guitars and keyboards, leaving you breathless and wrung out by the final fade. [album review]
20. Blind
by Hercules and Love Affair
from Hercules and Love Affair
[Pop]
Dance songs didn’t get much better than “Blind” this year. It somehow strips away all the superficial camp burdens of the late 70s/early 80s “disco vs. new wave” common-ground inspiration without overemphasizing its own delicious hook. Antony Hegarty (of Antony & the Johnsons) gives us a finely-tuned but delicate vocal line to cling to, but the band, album and song all belong to Andrew Butler. Regardless, if Hegarty wasn’t around to give the beautiful melody the right amount of sincerity, it might have hamstrung the production to catchy-but-empty status. With him on board, “Blind” emerges as the highlight of a very good dance pop album. [album review]
19. Gila
by Beach House
from Devotion
[Alternative/Pop]
The first single from Devotion wound up being the best, finding an unnaturally effortless way to make the harmony both bleak and bright. I don’t know why the chorus features a trembling sigh of “Gila-a-a-a-a…” but there’s no doubting the serene simplicity of the lines, “Sure, you’ve got a handle on the past/It’s why you keep your little lovers in your lap/Give a little more than you like/Pick apart the past, you’re not going back.” The layered vocals melt this otherwise wintry tune; plus, you’ll be humming it for hours afterward.
18. Where Do You Run To?
by Vivian Girls
from Vivian Girls
[Alternative/Punk]
Mashing together punk, shoegaze and girl-group pop is an interesting combination, but Vivian Girls weren’t particularly high on originality. They just did what they did and did it well. Maybe that’s why a left field fuzzy, dream-like ballad such as “Where Do You Run To” emerged as the album’s most memorable moment. One of the few tracks to eclipse two minutes, this one actually took its time comparably and enriched its almost-goth drone with spry and harmonious vocals that lurched from disinterested sneer to an upper octave that sounded all heart. Those longing for the gauzy murmur of 80s indie/college rock will be comforted by this one. [album review]
17. We Fight/Love
by Q-Tip
from The Renaissance
[Trip Hop/Soul]
Q-Tip doesn’t confront a crisis with fire and fury. Instead, he delves inward to find what it means to him and then spins his tales universally. So when he takes up the issue of the current war, he doesn’t broadcast blame but instead paints a vivid picture of its effects both at home and abroad, and does so by engaging the heart and mind. No one is specifically mentioned in “We Fight/Love,” but they are feelings shared by many people. In fact, it’s so universal, that it may speak directly to someone who doesn’t know anyone who even is an overseas soldier. And, of course, he makes his point both lyrically and musically, and his flow is as silky and soulful as the beats. [album review]
16. Death to Los Campesinos!
by Los Campesinos
from Hold on Now, Youngster…
[Alternative/Pop]
Los Campesinos released two really good albums in 2008, the first among the best of the entire year. And as the leadoff track to that near-masterpiece, nothing sets up their adorably rambling-but-coiled sound better than “Death to Los Campesinos!” The chiming siren guitars are a racket of beautiful bliss and when the vocals first appear, I did a mental double take—she couldn’t sound more like Jenny Lewis if she tried (not a bad set of lungs to compare favorably to, either). The riffs and sparkles aim this song somewhere halfway between punk and twee pop, and if that seems like an impossibly wide gulf to fill, you underestimate the breadth and talent of this fine young band.
15. Bear Face
by Abe Vigoda
from Skeleton
[Alternative/Rock]
Full disclosure: I can’t understand a damn word Michael Vidal sings on this song or just about any other track off of Skeleton. Whether it was intentional to mix the vocals so far down that they’re little more than a muddled addition to the rhythms or if an inexpensive recording process forced them to be buried, I don’t know. What I do know is that not knowing anything being said doesn’t hamper the spastic success of “Bear Face.” Every instrument (including those yelping vocals) serve only one musical purpose: to keep the frantic beat going. It’s no dance song, but you sure could flail around recklessly to its overpowering energy.
14. Strange Overtones
by Brian Eno & David Byrne
from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
[Rock]
We fondly remember My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, but it was a tough album to warmly embrace. The second outing for Eno & Byrne is the opposite: an inviting and highly accessible pop record that avoids dulling both songwriters’ edges. As the first single, “Strange Overtones” was the perfect album representative, leaning this way and that towards the strengths of both men. It’s also a song about writing a song so you can warp your little head around it the way you did with Ghosts. But these two have rarely ever been as melodically gifted as they were when collaborating on this magnificent song. [album review]
13. DLZ
by TV on the Radio
from Dear Science
[Alternative/Rock]
Okay, there is no “Wolf Like Me” on Dear Science; no single track that will just blow you away on the first listen and just keep getting better. But there is “DLZ,” pretty much the opposite of their greatest assets on Cookie Mountain. Instead of being spacey, soulful and inviting, “DLZ” draws you in slowly before exposing its claws. What began as a pretty pop song has morphed into a stormy invective—and you get caught right up in the torrent. By the time the song reaches its stirring and terrifying climax, you’re gripped. Tunde Adebimpe’s register remains cool as ice, but you can feel the heat of his breath as he says, “Never you mind, death professor/Your structure's fine, my dust is better/Your victim flies so high/All to catch a bird's eye view of who's next.” That’s striking stuff. [album review]
12. Half Asleep
by School of Seven Bells
from Alpinisms
[Alternative/Pop]
The gauzy and gossamer dream pop of “Half Asleep” immediately summons up memories of Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. The way the drums repeat after each cycle and the guitar and keyboards lay a lush vibrating blanket over everything might seem to some to be outright theft. But SVIIB’s effortless performance makes them seem cut from the same cloth rather than burglars, and since they do it so well, there’s no room for complaint. If the melody doesn’t entrance you (and it better), the joint vocals of Alejandra and Claudia Deheza will. Each sing the same words at the same pace right on top of each other like a mesmerizing siren song. And like Odysseus’ poor sailors, resisting their sly advances is entirely futile. [album review]
11. Re: Stacks
by Bon Iver
from For Emma, Forever Ago
[Folk/Pop]
Like Saul’s take on U2, it’s debatable if this is an ’07 or ’08 song, but the album was self-released in November of last year and then released twice more during this one (and this song was released as the album’s third single this very month), so I tip the scales. Plus, who wants to refuse such a gorgeous song on mere technicality? Intimate folk pop of the highest order, it’s just an acoustic guitar and Justin Vernon’s honeyed voice singing, “This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization/It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away/Your love will be/Safe with me.” I defy anyone to hear this track once and not need to play it at least two more times right away.
