2008 Albums ----------- When I look at my favorites I am struck by two things. First, almost the entire list is comprised of fairly new (at the time) indie acts, with only two "legacy" artists in **Portishead** and **Steven Wilson** (who was himself a newly minted solo artist after the end of **Porcupine Tree**). The second thing I notice is how almost all of these were discovered as they came out and represent what I was actually listening to in 2008. Only the **Metronomy** and **William Brittelle** records were retrospective discoveries, and only by a year or two each. It almost seems like this is the most aligned I would be with what was hot and "now". This year also has the distinction of being the year that I bought a turntable and started buying vinyl records (in November). It was here that I started the practice of buying my favorites on vinyl. Without streaming, new discoveries were often still made on CD, so I own no less than 11 of the albums below on both vinyl and CD. If it wasn't on eMusic, I was often getting new music on the small discs and making the upgrade when something became a favorite. .. image:: images/2008.jpg :width: 900 :alt: My 2008 favorite albums .. raw:: html - *Devotion* by **Beach House** - The second (and final) record in their original sound before moving to far bigger and more popular sonic territory. I do prefer what they would become, but there is a lot to love on these much smaller, and more acoustic early songs. They would keep going upwards from here, but they were always great. [*Memory*: I saw them on this album cycle playing a twin headline show with **The Walkmen** at the TLA in Philadelphia. I had a nice chat with Vicky Legrand at the merch booth and shared the memory of their issues at their first London show in 2007. She smiled and almost yelled: "You saw the worst show ever!" I bought of copy the "Used to Be" single as a 45 and when I got home from the 3 hour drive, I listened to the sound of what was to come.] - *Mohair Timewarp* by **William Brittelle** - My point of entry would be his concept 2010 concept album, but I would circle back to this weird art rock record not long after. A very strange album with extremely strange lyrics. I really wish New Amsterdam was releasing music like this. [*Memory*: This might end up being the last CD I ever buy. I realized it was one of the few albums I didn't own in any format and it wasn't streaming. So I bought a CD copy in early 2022.] - *Half Hours with the Lower Creatures* by **Rachel Taylor Brown** - I'm fairly certain 99% of the folks who know about this artist, were introduced via the appearance of "Stagg Field" on NPR's "All Songs Considered". I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I really have to credit those guys for shining a light on some very non-commercial music by an obscure artist who would otherwise get no attention. A terrific art rock album. [*Memory*: After hearing this amazing record and the follow up in 2009 that I liked even more, I ordered her entire back catalog from CD Baby. The rest wasn't that great.] - *In Ghost Colours* by **Cut Copy** - There were a bunch of bands that were making music that referenced an imaginary version of the 80s that never really existed, and then there were these guys. This is a wonderful modernization of **New Order** or **OMD** for the home recording era. [*Memory*: I totally held a vinyl copy of this in my hand at the Pitchfork music festival in 2009. I didn't realize how few of them they made, and that it would never get a re-issue. This kind of thing would go out of style, and I assume it will never be repressed.] - *Missiles* by **The Dears** - Another great Canadian husband/wife band (why are there so many of these?). If **The Arcade Fire** are too subtle for you, you can count on these guys. Super over the top, dramatic rock that manages to be both kinda stupid and very beautiful. [*Memory*: Around this time I was listening to the XM Canadian indie channel called "The Verge" where I discovered this band and many other favorites.] - *Offend Maggie* by **Deerhoof** - Simultaneously one of the heavier and quieter albums by one of the most unique acts to come out of millennial indie. [*Memory*: I regretted buying this on vinyl at the time, which feels odd to me now. It also happens to be one of the more valuable albums I own now.] - *Microcastle* by **Deerhunter** - This is where the formula came together. All the great psychedelic atmospherics were still there, but now we had moments of supreme pop songwriting spread throughout. [*Memory*: I was always very skeptical of Pitchfork, but man they were right to champion this amazing record.] - *In Ear Park* by **Department of Eagles** - One of those records I like way more than almost everyone else. I still like this slightly more than any of the albums by Dan Rosen's main band, **Grizzly Bear**. I've always been a sucker for this kind of fuzzy, layered production, and the spare piano based arrangements really work for this kind of music. [*Memory*: For some reason this became a favorite album to listen to while I ran around this time. Totally inappropriate to task, this was the soundtrack to many laps around the Penn State IM building track.] - *The Barbarians Move In* by **Duels** - A massive change-up after the UK Indie pop of the first record. A moody post-punk record, with moments of orchestral rock pomp. The title song is a striking, dirge-like record that makes me wonder what happened to these guys between releases [*Memory*: I didn't realize until the end of the year that this had come out. There were a few reviews on Amazon where folks were calling this a lost classic. They were right.] - *4* by **Dungen** - A return to the softer, more melodic side of things. Doesn't feature the flute like what came before and after, but still gorgeous stuff. [*Melody*: This was around the time the English language imitators **Tame Impala** appeared. It really bummed me out that this album was overshadowed by second class copycats.] - *The Seldom Seen Kid* by **Elbow** - The biggest band to come out of 2000s UK Indie. They came up with a sound that combined the best points of **Blur** style Britpop and classic **Peter Gabriel** style Art Rock. This was the album after which they became too big to be Indie any longer. [*Memory*: When this album first was getting press, I dismissed it as the next **Coldplay** but I'm glad they proved me wrong.] - *Sleep Well* by **Electric President** - This was the last record that I really enjoyed from the minimalist electro-indie pop that was big in the first decade of the millennium. Some really great shoegazey post-rocky guitar in this one that added a new texture to their sound. A very mellow record with a calm vibe that I really enjoy. [*Memory*: This reminds me of the walks that I would take during lunch break from work, listening to my latest music acquisitions on my old school Sansa 200 MP3 player. This was a nice calm record to put on in the middle of stressful day at a startup company.] - *The Midnight Organ Fight* by **Frightened Rabbit** - The most Scottish of the Scottish bands. Such a wonderful folk-punk band with enough UK Indie bombast to make a big sound without going over the top. They would never match this again, but most bands never make one almost this amazing. [*Memory*: I liked this record the first time I heard it, but I didn't really connect with it until a trip to LA in late 2008. This was a difficult trip for me, as I realized I was growing apart from the group of friends I was traveling with. I took the MetroLink train into the city solo to have a look around, and this was the soundtrack to my visit.] - *Into Your Lungs...* by **Hey Rosetta!** - This year was probably the peak of Canadian Indie and this was one of the most representative records of the scene. So big (but unpretentious), so elegantly produced (but still quaintly charming), a remarkable record. Americans can't make music this kind of music without sounding like cheeseballs. [*Memory*: This was another record that got a ton of play on XM The Verge. Canadian Indie was where it was at in 2008.] - *Made in the Dark* by **Hot Chip** - The start of a more "serious" turn from these guys. This still is slightly goofy dance-pop, but the humor was no longer the focus. Still charmingly self-recorded, but the more straight ahead themes makes for a more long lasting impact. [*Memory*: I forever get this mixed up with the record that would come next (they are both great!) I even included this record in the image for both years.] - *Feed the Animals* by **Girl Talk** - One of the last great outcomes of pop music's post modern era. It was also one of the most notable "pay what you want" downloads in the post-MP3 era. His best attempt at merging the classic rock and hip-hop eras. [*Memory*: Another running playlist regular for me. Hard to hear this without thinking about turning laps at Tudek Park in State College, PA.] - *Couples* by **The Long Blondes** - One of the most unjustifiably ignored follow up records out there. Just as good as their much loved debut, this record probably mostly suffered from a lack of promotion and tour support. My favorite band from the pop side of the post punk revival, this band blows away **The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs** in my opinion. It is very sad this would be the end. [*Memory*: I was amazed to buy an unopened back-stock original pressing of this in 2021, 13 years after release (on Amazon of all places!).] - *Saturdays = Youth* by **M83** - Looking back, it almost seems like this record is the genesis of the entire "imagined 80s" aesthetic that would predominate a wide swath of the indie over the next 3-4 years. The chillwave, the vaporwave, the other acts that seemed to be imitating a kind of 80s pop music that never actually quite existed. Look at that cover, and its characters from not quite a John Hughes film. It isn't actually that different from what this band had done in the record that preceded it, but it just found a focus that anticipated what was to come. [*Memory*: It is hard to think of this record without thinking of Hipster Runoff. Our boy Carles also understood how important this sound would be to the future direction of indie.] - *Rabbit Habits* by **Man Man** - This album feels like a straight up modernization of the **Captain Beefheart** formula. It is a complete anomaly in the indie scene of the day that works really well. [*Memory*: This is the last show I would ever see at the State Theater in State College, PA. A great venue that would bring a kind of indie show to the town for a short window in the last years of the aughts. They didn't have a liquor license at the time, but had a great coffee shop. I was so hyped up on caffeine for the show, and that was the right state for this music. The headliner was **Cursive**, who were awful, and I left after one song.] - *Nights Out* by **Metronomy** - Unlike most people, I prefer the more poppy records to come, but I like this as well. Much like **Hot Chip**, this band knows exactly where to find the line between joke band and serious music. [*Memory*: I was first attracted to this album by the amazing cover with the painting of the guy proudly in front of the first generation Honda Insight.] - *Oracular Spectacular* by **MGMT** - No band or album exemplifies the "mainstreaming of indie" more than what we have here. It deserved to be the thing that broke indie to the general public. Fun but smart electronic pop music, the kind of thing that appeals to teenagers and music collecting forty year olds in equal measure. This is the least weird record this group is likely to ever make, and likely the beginning and the end of any wide cultural significance. [*Memory*: These guys have always been a major label act, but it was the indie music fans who discovered them first. It was shocking to see a band like this get such massive attention, but in retrospect the whole thing felt calculated by Columbia. The birth of Mindie Rock.] - *A Thousand Shark's Teeth* by **My Brightest Diamond** - A transitionary record between the guitar centered songs she started with, and the very fancy chamber pop that was coming next. One of the greatest voices in indie, who often doesn't get enough credit for the range and quality of her songwriting. I do miss the occasional heaviness she worked into the first two records. [*Memory*: The first time I saw Shara live was at Bugjar in 2011, when she was still in the guitar focussed configuration of this album cycle. It was quietist I have ever seen an audience be while an artist performed at that venue.] - *Skeletal Lamping* by **Of Montreal** - My opinions of this record have evolved significantly over time: starting at disappointing mess, to flawed but partially listenable, and today as possibly the best record by one of my favorite acts from these days. This collection of micro-songs really needs to be listened to all at once. It is also best not to spend too much time thinking about the often cringeworthy lyrics, and instead focus on how interesting it all sounds. [*Memory*: When this came out, I really thought that fame had gone to Kevin Barnes head, and ruined him. It turns out fame did go to his head, and created something wonderfully over the top.] - *Third* by **Portishead** - [**2008 Favorite**] - It seems like this is going to be the last album by this legendary band, and I'm happy with this being their final and most important statement. There is no other album like this, and it arrived as wholely unique in music history. This haunting, uncomfortably minimalist electronic music only makes sense when listened to in a dark room. The way they deconstruct their own signature sound on "Machine Gun" is one of the most unique things a band has ever done. A top 5 favorite of mine forever. [*Memory*: This album made it painfully clear to me how bad the state of vinyl production was at the time. I bought three copies of it, until I was able to assemble a single reasonable copy from discs extracted from two different instances of the album.] - *Rook* by **Shearwater** - Such a beautiful voice, and so much instrumental talent in this band. That said, this is the only one of their records that doesn't bore me to tears. The significant use of the classic emo quiet/loud dynamic is what does it for me I guess. [*Memory*: This was the vinyl album that made me realize how good things could be when you got a good pressing. For some reason, I was able to get this for like 5 bucks on Overstock.com. It was an impulse buy that inspired me to buy my first proper Turntable. I can remember clearly hearing the crisp, surface noise free sounds in my tiny upstairs room in the Woodycest apartment I shared at the time. I had the record on the Technics SL-1200 I still use, and probably will use for the rest of my life.] - *At War With Walls & Mazes* by **Son Lux** - One of those acts that owes their career and fame to NPR music. This nerdy electo-hip hop is the kind of thing that is ready made for Public Radio. I prefer the proggy sounds that would come later with the full band incarnation, but this early recording still has much of the sounds that would be perfected in later work. [*Memory*: This record holds the distinction of being the first I owned and discovered exclusively on the vinyl format.] - *Soft Airplane* by **Chad Vangaalen** - The weirdest folk rock record I have ever heard, and one of the best. The lyrics and music are both completely off the wall. I don't feel that he has ever reached these heights again as an artist, and it seems like his best effort went into his production of other artists from here on out. [*Memory*: Hearing the classic Casio drum machine sounds on "TMNT Mask" really took me back to the old SK-1 days.] - *You & Me* by **The Walkmen** - By far my favorite band to come out of the Post Punk revival, they would rapidly transcend that genre and make amazing records like this. I love the warm textured sounds, and the over the top belting. I saw these guys twice on this tour. If I could go back in time to see any band, I would see the Walkmen at this point in their history. [*Memory*: I remember sitting in my tiny Rochester apartment as December 2009 became January 2010 listening to the song "In the New Year". I hatched a plan to make a list of my favorite records from the closing decade. I never did that properly, but it started the larger project this site represents.] - *Women* by **Women** - Angular, chaotic post-punk. They almost seem like the only band to follow on from **Wire's** late 70s trilogy. They even through in a slick pop song in "Black Rice". Stellar stuff, I wish they were able to make more than the two albums they left us. [*Memory*: This album was a complete impulse buy that I threw in on a vinyl order from the Simply Canadian website. I was intimidated by it at first, but the format made me stick with it, and I'm glad I did, wow!] - *Insurgentes* by **Steven Wilson** - Looking back now, his first solo record was the biggest deviation from the **Porcupine Tree** sound. It is hard to put a finger on exactly what is different, but this is clearly more a product of a single person working alone. I think his music has been well served by the changes, and alone his music has been more consistent than his band ever was. "Significant Other" with its layered ethereal vocals and creepy toy piano is probably still my favorite thing from his solo era. [*Memory*: I remember at the time reflecting on how this was the last vestiges of my musical past, with