LPTJ Best of 2008 Thread

[davy]

let the record show that I edited my list.

1. Evangelista- Hello, Voyager
2. The Fall- Imperial Wax Solvent
3. Portishead- Third
4. The Bug- London Zoo
5. Birchville Cat Motel- Gunfire Temple of heaven
6. Beem- The Future
7. Autechre- Quaristice
8. Mincemeat or Tenspeed- All Critters
9. Billy Bao- Dialectics of Shit
10. Black Pus- All Aboard the Magic Pus
11. Ricardo Villalobos- Enfants
12. Black Milk- Tronic
13. Indian Jewelry- Free Gold!
14. Roots Manuva- Slime and Reason
15. Road to til the Casket Drops mixtape
16. Syclops- I've got my eye on you
17. Fennesz- Black Sea
18. Flying Lotus- Los Angeles

Black Pus, really?

[edison]

1. Birchville Cat Motel - Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (Pica Disk)
2. Kazuki Tomokawa - Blue Water, Red Water (PSF)
3. Sun Kil Moon - April (Caldo Verde)
4. Faruq Z. Bey & Dennis González with Northwoods Improvisers - Hymn for Tomasz Stańko (Qbico)
5. Scott Tuma - Not for Nobody (Digitalis)
6. Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)
7. Richard Skelton - Marking Time (Preservation)
8. Fire on Fire - The Orchard / 5 Song EP (Young God)
9. Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate - Cat vs. Frog (Palindrone)
10. Fred Eaglesmith - Tinderbox (Sonic Rendezvous)
11. Philip Jeck - Sand (Touch)
12. Micah Blue Smaldone - The Red River (Immune)
13. Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals (Type)
14. Lambchop - OH (Ohio) (City Slang)
15. Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (Type)
16. Toumani Diabaté - The Mandé Variations (Nonesuch)
17. Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
18. Scorch Trio - Brolt (Rune Grammofon)
19. Autistic Daughters - Uneasy Flowers (Kranky)
20. Brendan Murray - Commonwealth (23Five Incorporated)
21. Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness (Bo' Weavil)
22. Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel)
23. Death Vessel - Nothing is Precious Enough for Us (Sub Pop)
24. Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli - Yeraz (ECM)
25. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)

I should listen to that Birchville Cat Motel album sometime. Also, you should head over to the best live shows thread!

My own revised list should be ready in a few days - should be pretty different from my first draft.

[On Reflection]

Final list time:
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Jacaszek - Treny
Graham Lambkin + Jason Lescalleet - The Breadwinner
Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto
-
Lau Nau - Nukkuu
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now Youngster
Machinefabriek - Dauw
Jim Noir - s/t
Julie Ocean - Long Gone And Nearly There
Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til It Was Dark
The Wave Pictures - Instant Coffee Baby
Minisnap - Bounce Around
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
Murcof - The Versailles Sessions
Sun Kil Moon - April
The Lodger - Life Is Sweet
Mount Eerie - Dawn
Jay Reatard - Matador Singles Comp.
Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Songs From The Beehive

Machinefabriek, Minisnap and The Tallest Man On Earth made for some great December finds, but it's pretty much unchanged from the first list.

[YojimboMonkey]

There will be a revision coming in the next day or two, I'm going to have to find room on the list for that Harvey Milk album.

[jebreject]

Fuck yes, that record is fantastic. Jim, have you listened to Helms Alee? I think you'd dig them a lot too.

[martin_van_buren]

Gonna throw in a vote for Portishead's "Third". I may add more.

I did add more.

[YojimboMonkey]

OK, my final revision of 2008, I promise. 

01. Murder by Death - Red of Tooth and Claw
02. Akimbo - Jersey Shores
03. Tyr - Land
04. Guillotine - Blood Money
05. Cynic - Traced in Air
06. Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
07. Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
08. Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town
09. Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
10. Spiritualized - Songs in A & E
11. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
12. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
13. Clutchy Hopkins - Walking Backwards
14. Neuraxis - The Thin Line Between
15. Kiuas - The New Dark Age
16. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down in the Light
17. Darkestrah - The Great Silk Road
18. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
19. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
20. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

[mountmccabe]

Edited, slightly shifted list:

I need to listen more and to more but I don't know if enough of that is going to happen!

01. Deerhunter - Microcastle
02. Shearwater - Rook
03. Portishead - Third
04. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
05. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
06. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster
07. The Dodos - Visiter
08. Islands - Arm's Way
09. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
10. Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
11. The Gaslight Anthem - the '59 Sound
12. No Age - Nouns
13. Son Lux - At War With Walls & Mazes
14. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
15. This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You
16. Why? - Alopecia
17. Spiritualized - Songs in A & E
18. The Kills - Midnight Boom
19. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls
20. Magnetic Fields - Distortion

EDIT: Nice call, VJH.  It's not the best every but it's really good.

[VJHStarr]

No Songs in A&E Mountmccabe?! I e-stand before you, shocked.

Every time I make this list it changes.

[Ignatius]

Oh, the Shearwater album! You guys convinced me to buy it way back when... I enjoyed it. That record is my list.

[YojimboMonkey]

try harder ignatius. 





please?

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

FINAL list w/ links

1. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak (Say You Will)
2. Cynic - Traced in Air (Integral Birth)
3. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Twice Born)
4. Sun Kil Moon - April (Tonight the Sky)
5. Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Receive the World)
6. The Mountain Goats - Satanic Messiah
7. Paul Westerberg - 49:00
8. Machinefrabriek - Dauw (Engineer)
9. ZAZEN BOYS - ZAZEN BOYS 4 (Weekend)
10. John Zorn - The Crucible (Maleficia)
11. Thursday/Envy Split (As He Climbed the Dark Mountain)
12. Boris - Smile (Japanese version) (BUZZ-IN)
13. Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux ((Coffee's for Closers))
14. Enslaved - Vertebrae (The Watcher)
15. John Zorn - The Dreamers (Anulikwutsayl)
16. Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game in Town (After All I've Done for You, This is How You Repay Me?)
17. Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger (Caves)
18. Ne-Yo - Year of the Gentleman (So You Can Cry)
19. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Slapped Actress)
20. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Part 1 (4th World War) (Soldier)
21. Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation (Emergency Broadcast :: The End is Near)
22. Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing (The Kramer)
23. Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws (Treason)
24. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound (Miles Davis & the Cool)
25. Solange - Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams (I Decided Pt. II)
26. Clipse - Road to Til the Casket Drops (S.L.U.)
27. Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd (When the Day Met the Night)
28. Autechre - Quaristice (Simmm)
29. Q-Tip - The Renaissance (Move)
30. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III (Dr. Carter)

[davy]

Ok, my deluxe list is coming today. Promise.

[elpollodiablo]

I made my list!

1) BPB - Lie Down in the Light
2) Gaslight Anthem - That One That Blucas Recommended

[Haish]

mine mine mine

1) TV On the Radio - Dear Science
2) Man Man - Rabbit Habits
3) The Dodos – Visiter
4) Fuck buttons - Street Horrrsing
5) Animal Collective – Water Curses EP
6) Beach house – devotion
7) The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
8) Sunn O))) – Domkirke
9) Melvins - Nude With Boots
10) Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
11) Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
12) Boduf Songs - How Shadows Chase the Balance
13) Abe Vigoda – Skeleton
14) Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy against All Life
15) High Places – High Places
16) Grouper - dragging a dead deer up a hill
17) Deerhoof - offend Maggie
18) The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Graves
19) Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward
20) Meshuggah - ObZen

[sashwap]

1. boston spaceships - brown submarine
2. the music tapes - music tapes for clouds and tornadoes
3. marnie stern - this is it...
4. the capstan shafts - fixation protocols
5. robert pollard - robert pollard is off to business
6. stephen malkmus & the jicks - real emotional trash
7. chad vangaalen - soft airplane
8. r.e.m. - accelerate
9. sigur ros - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
10. women - women
11. blitzen trapper - furr
12. times new viking - rip it off
13. singer - unhistories

[davy]

No top 10 for B. Trapp?! Curses!

[davy]

Anybody else find room in their list for December discoveries? There are no fewer than five albums on my list that I didn't hear until this month. No wonder I thought it was such a sorry year.

(I still think it hasn't been the best year, but at least now I have 13-15 albums I really like instead of 8-10.)

[wes]

I don't think anyone's mentioned these good albums from 2008 (in no particular order):
Department of Eagles- In Ear Park
Bellafea- Cavalcade
Devin Hoff- Solo Bass
Annuals- Such Fun
Mercury Rev- Snowflake Midnight
The Rosebuds- Life Like
NERD- Seeing Sounds
The Fireman- Electric Argument
Butterflies- Nothing's Personal
Emily Wells- The Symphonies: Dreams Memories and Parties
The Physics of Meaning- The Snake Charmer and Destiny at the Stroke of Midnight
Pattern is Movement- All Together

I'd like to amplify the muted enthusiasm for these great releases as well:
WRNLRD- Oneiromantical War
Max Tundra Parallax Error

I know there are a lot of North Carolinian releases on my list, but that's where I live.

[davy]

Butterflies- Nothing's Personal

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Their self-titled 2nd album is one of my favorite albums EVER. I thought they'd been gone for YEARS!

 

I'm checking up on this pronto.

[davy]

Fuck, wrong/new Butterflies.

What a buzzkill.

 



(These guys do sound pretty good, though.)

[edison]

Here we go - final list

MP3 for 1-10

1. Kazuki Tomokawa Blue Water, Red Water (PSF)
2. A Weather Cove (Team Love)
3. The Dodos Visiter (Frenchkiss)
4. The Mountain Goats Heretic Pride (4AD)
5. Machinefabriek Dauw (Dekorder)
6. Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (Drag City)
7. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Real Emotional Trash (Matador)
8. Shugo Tokumaru Exit (Almost Gold)
9. Parenthetical Girls Entanglements (Tomlab)
10. Fennesz Black Sea (Touch)

MP3 for 11-20

11. She & Him Volume One (Merge)
12. Blitzen Trapper Furr (Sub Pop)
13. Beach House Devotion (Bella Union)
14. Paavoharju Laulu Laakson Kukista (Fonal)
15. Destroyer Trouble In Dreams (Merge)
16. Baby Dee Safe Inside The Day (Drag City)
17. Toumani Diabaté The Mande Variations (World Circuit)
18. Matt Elliott Howling Songs (Ici d'Ailleurs)
19. The Magnetic Fields Distortion (Nonesuch)
20. David Grubbs An Optimist Notes The Dusk (Drag City)

Honorable mentions:
Death Sentence: Panda! Insects Awaken (Upset The Rhythm)
The Fall Imperial Wax Solvent (Sanctuary)
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
The Notwist The Devil, You + Me (City Slang)
Sun Kil Moon April (Caldo Verde)

[alex]

I decided that this is my top 15:

1. Kazuki Tomokawa - Blue Water, Red Water
2. De Kift - Hoofdkaas
3. A Weather - Cove
4. Toumani Diabaté - The Mandé Variations
5. Machinefabriek - Dauw
6. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
7. Neil Halstead - Oh! Mighty Engine
8. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
9. Sun Kil Moon - April
10. Elephant Micah - Exiled Magicians
11. Vikki Jackman - Whispering Pages
12. John Zorn - The Dreamers
13. Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion
14. John Terrill - Frowny Frown
15. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull

Basically, the first 8 are the ones I'm more-or-less confident about in their placement, while the remaining 7 (with the exception of Elephant Micah and John Terrill, which just seemed more or less appropriate at those places in the list) are the albums that I am most confident in believing that I should have spent more time with them. There's plenty of other stuff that I've heard a handful of times and enjoyed, but just do not feel sufficiently familiar with to really rank. And there's a whole bunch of things that I'm intrigued by but have heard only once or not at all. But this seems to be the best I can come up with right now.

I should listen to that Birchville Cat Motel album sometime.

Yeah, I'm a bit bummed now that I only gave this one listen (though I have to say I wasn't thoroughly impressed upon that one listen - but it seemed like something that might only reveal its charms after having gained some familiarity with it already). Also, why did I miss that Richard Skelton album (also mentioned by Bubbachups)? I should investigate that one.

[wes]

Yeah-different Butterflies. The other Butterflies second album should be on everyone's retroactive best-of 1997 list though.
Sorry to make you very very excited with no satisfying resolution. On a related note, has anyone heard the new Neutral Milk Hotel album?

[davy]

MP3 for 11-20

11. She & Him Volume One (Merge)

So what you're telling me is that I might actually like this album?! The song you drop.ped is the first thing I've heard off that album. It's great! It's not what I expected! Where's M. Ward's voice? Does he not sing so much on the album? I thought it was a straight-up folk-pop duet album or something...

And here I am, this whole time, a huge Zooey fan. Should've given her the benefit of the doubt!

(Still disappointing to see Blitzen Trapper near-miss another top 10!)