Top 10 albums of 2008

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Music

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2008, albums, music, top 10

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8:27pm on Saturday 3rd January, 2009

As a part-time musician and full-time music lover, I’ve written precious little about music. And sometimes, when I notice that I’ve spent the entire day listening to albums that were released within six months of each other in mid-1991, I wonder if somehow I’ve lost touch with what makes discovering new music so exciting. Have I crossed an invisible line in my mid-thirties; is all I can expect from the future an inevitable downward spiral into dad-rock and easy listening?

So this year I have made a conscious effort to seek out new music. Last.fm throws up some reasonable recommendations from time-to-time, but word-of-mouth tips – from Twitter, mailing lists, or private forums – are generally more reliable and a great deal more eclectic. Peer-to-peer is a boon in this respect; I’ve got into the habit of downloading material as it is recommended by those whose taste I know matches my own, which has led to some great finds over the last twelve months. And as the year draws to an end, “Best Of” lists have also provided pointers to albums I would not have otherwise acquired.

All of which is by way of introduction to this – my top ten albums of 2008, as judged by the impartial Audioscrobbler over the last six months. (Why six months and not twelve? So as not to give too unfair an advantage to albums released earlier in the year, of course – and also to better align the final results with how my mental scoreboard figures the year.)

10. Viva La Vida (Coldplay) / Dear Science (TV On The Radio)

Tying for last place, both of these albums have featured heavily in end of year polls. Viva La Vida (Or Death And All His Friends) (to give it it’s full title) was #1 on Last.fm for 2008 despite not being as immediately catchy as 2005’s X&Y, of which I was a big fan, it definitely improves with each listen, and is a more mature and adventurous album than anything Coldplay have done to date.

TV On The Radio were a complete unknown when I came across their album on a Pownce-powered favourites list, but since first hearing Dear Science it’s been picked as album of the year by several notable publications, including Rolling Stone, MTV, and Spin Magazine. Think a synth-powered Interpol jamming with Scissor Sisters.

9. Brain Thrust Mastery (We Are Scientists)

New York trio (now duo) We Are Scientists’ first album, the awesomely catchy With Love And Squalor, would probably feature in my all-time top five, so I picked up their sophomore effort, Brain Thrust Mastery, as soon as it came out in March. It’s less riff-driven and more ambitious than their debut, but still guaranteed to have you dancing round the living room, straining to hit the pitch-perfect vocal harmonies. I was gutted to find out that they were playing here in Cambridge on the very day I was to fly out to Texas – definitely high on my list of bands to see live.

8. The Seldom Seen Kid (Elbow)

Despite almost unanimous thumbs-up recommendations from friends, I’d never paid any attention to Elbow (with the exception of their cover of Independent Woman, accompanied by Joel Veitch’s animated kittens), but when The Seldom Seen Kid won the Mercury Music Prize, I caved in and picked up a copy. I think it needs a few more listens to really grow on me – it’s one of those albums that demands concentration.

7. Glasvegas (Glasvegas)

I don’t remember where I first heard of Glasvegas – I think possibly they were featured on an early morning T4 special – but I was instantly struck by the singer’s broad Weegie accent giving their indie rock something of a “Proclaimers do Coldplay” feel.

6. Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes)

Another album with a good showing in the end of year charts was the debut self-titled album by Seattle folk band Fleet Foxes. Given a few more months’ listening, this would certainly be higher than #6; it’s difficult to categorise, but if you like your modern folk heavy on the vocal harmonies and light on instrumentation it’s definitely one to check out.

5. Death Magnetic (Metallica)

Into the top five now, and first up is a triumphant return to form for an old favourite. I’d not bought a Metallica album since 1991’s black album, but the generally positive comments Death Magnetic was attracting on music forums prompted me to give it a go – and I’m very glad I did.

As long ago as 2006, Lars Ulrich said that the band was working on new material reminiscent of “old school” Metallica, and the ghosts of classic early albums such as “Master of Puppets” and “…And Justice For All” can be heard in the high-speed thrash of tracks like “All Nightmare Long” and “That Was Just Your Life”. Unfortunately James Hetfield’s lyrics still have a tendency towards sixth-form angst – “Love is a four letter word!” he bellows on first single and weakest track, The Day That Never Comes – but despite the occasional clumsy wordplay, you can’t help but be swept along by the monstrous riffs and memorable lyrical hooks.

4. American Demo (The Indelicates)

For some reason I had it in my mind that I had picked up The Indelicates debut album, American Demo, after a Mercury Music Prize nomination, but on checking I find that that wasn’t actually the case. So call it fate, call it luck, karma, whatever – but I’ve been listening to their perfect indie-pop ever since. Of course, the relatively high showing for this one might have something to do with my daughters’ obsession with the track Sixteen, which made it my most listened track by quite a long way this year, thanks to multiple plays every time I drove them anywhere.

3. The Red Album (Weezer)

Aside from Buddy Holly with its great video, I’d not heard anything by Weezer until a friend bought their latest untitled-but-red album. I ripped it, assuming it might get a couple of listens – and then played the hell out of it for the rest of the year.

It’s likely that part of the affection I have for the album stems from The Greatest Video Of All Time™, the meme-laden Pork and Beans, but it’s full of great tracks. Singer and main songwriter Rivers Cuomo stated that he tried to move away from traditional song arrangements and try new approaches, as well as sharing songwriting duties with other band members; for me, it’s worked a little too well – despite loving this album, I’ve not developed an appreciation of their back catalogue.

2. The ’59 Sound (The Gaslight Anthem)

Now this choice I do know where it came from. A tweet from D Keith Robinson led me to The Gaslight Anthem’s second album, and their perfect mix of punk and Springsteen New Jersey attitude. I’ve since sought out their debut, Sink or Swim – a much rawer record, significantly closer to punk than Paramus – but it’s not as immediate as The ’59 Sound, which takes Springsteen-like tales of small-town dreams and wraps them in an up-tempo soundtrack that manages to sound both modern and classic at once.

I also love the borrowed lyrics, whether as blatant as the line from Counting Crows’ “Round Here” that kicks off the chorus to “High Lonesome”, or the other, more subtle, references that crop up in other tracks.

1. Chinese Democracy (Guns N’ Roses)

And so to my number one album of 2008, the long-awaited (and boy is that an understatement!) Chinese Democracy by Guns N’ Roses. Was it worth waiting seventeen years for? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. Is it really Guns N’ Roses? Well, not really; to all intents and purposes it’s The Axl Rose Show, supported by a revolving door of supporting musicians. But really there’s only one question that matters: Is it any good? Hell, yes!

Somewhat predictably, after waiting fifteen years for a new Guns album (seventeen since their last original material, 1991’s Use Your Illusion I & II), I was a little underwhelmed on first hearing Chinese Democracy; is this really what Axl has spent a third of his life, and over $13m, to create? iTunes was mostly two and three stars – it was passable rock music, but nothing special. But then circumstances conspired to make me re-assess the album.

In late November, our middle daughter was taken into hospital with pneumonia, from where she was swiftly transferred to a specialist heart and lung hospital for surgery. Two hours from home, my wife and I spent a fretful couple of weeks shuttling back and forth, alternating between dealing with our other two girls and sitting impotently in a hospital ward. Those journeys, driving alone in a dark December along the M1 and A14, gave me plenty of opportunity to listen to my new, unimpressive album… and something strange started to happen.

Without the looming shadow of Guns’ past successes, the new material started to impress on its own merit. Axl’s voice has not lost any of its strength (as one might have expected after so long out of the limelight); his range and power is still awe-inspiring, from the patented alley-cat scream that introduces the title track, through the growling vocals on techno-tinged singalong “Shackler’s Revenge”, to the purity of funk-pop faux-Bond anthem, “If The World”.

But does it sound like a Guns N’ Roses record? Surprisingly, it does; whether that is testament to Axl’s songwriting and arranging contributions (on both this and previous releases), or the ability of new contributors like Paul Tobias and Dizzy Reed to mould their songwriting to an existing blueprint, I really couldn’t say, but the album definitely slots neatly into the existing back catalogue. Stylistically, it’s heavy on non-traditional song structures – many of the tracks lack a clearly defined chorus, but still manage to stand up as coherent and cohesive numbers. Initially the lack of Slash felt like a glaring omission, but that feeling also passed with time; despite the confusing array of guitarists involved (up to five on a single song) the solos eventually came to feel like they belonged too.

“Chinese Democracy” is not just a great rock album, able to hold its own against most great records of the last ten years; it’s a great Guns N’ Roses album.