Best Albums of 2008

[NFBuck]

That time of the year. My 10 favorite from 2008 (In no particular order)...

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals- Cardinology
The Hold Steady- Stay Positive
The Airborne Toxic Event- The Airborne Toxic Event
Metallica- Death Magnetic
Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
Nine Inch Nails- The Slip
Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer
Flogging Molly- Float
Black Keys- Attack and Release
Juno- Motion Picture Soundtrack

 

[3074326]

I can't choose 10, I thought it was a pretty mediocre year in music.

The Parlor Mob - And You Were a Crow (best of the year, easily)
Opeth - Watershed
Meshuggah - obZen

...

Ugh.. that's it? God. Far worse than mediocre..

 

[DaytonBuck]

I do not give a god damn what anyone thinks but I like Chinese Democracy

 

[TresselForPrez]

I think the only CD I bought this year was Slipknot. Awesome album, but like 307 said, a mediocre year for music. You know there's something wrong when that faggot Lil Wayne gets 8 AMA nominations.

 

[Flocka]

You know there's something wrong when that faggot Lil Wayne gets 8 AMA nominations.

 

[OSUsushichic]

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Juno soundtrack
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

Honorable Mention:
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (mainly for exercising!)
Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson - Two Men with the Blues

 

[wadc45]

Agreed on Cardinology and Attack and Release...here are some of my other favorites:

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (easily my album of the year)
Wolfgang Parker - Room Nineteen
Santogold - Santogold
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
Foals - Antidotes
Dr. Dog - Fate
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue (remastered)
Calexico - Carried to Dust
Bloc Pary - Intimacy
Amos Lee - Last Days at the Lodge

 

[BayBuck]

The Raconteurs' "Consolers of the Lonely" was my favorite new album of '08. I also enjoyed Death Cab for Cutie's "Narrow Stairs" (though not as much as the previous one Plans) and Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", and Ben Taylor's "Legend of Kung Folk" and Ray LaMontagne's "Gossip in the Grain" were solid too. Fleet Foxes was definitely interesting.

 

[jlb1705]

I agree with those that think there wasn't that much great stuff going on this year.

I liked Fleet Foxes. I also liked She & Him, although there are some very forgettable songs to go along with about 6 of the better songs I heard all year.

My Morning Jacket was a huge disappointment for me. I respect that they maybe want to go in a different direction from the Skynard/Beach Boys thing they had going. They chose the wrong direction though. "Highly Suspicious" is easily one of the worst songs I've ever heard from an otherwise good band in or near their prime. These guys aren't Hasselhoff and they aren't 21st century Mick Jagger. They can do better than this.

Right now I'm listening to "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper. I've only been listening to it for a couple days now, but in a thin field, this one's starting to stand out.

Like it or hate it, everybody's gonna talk about Viva la Vida because of its ubiquity. Like most top-40 arena rock it is overblown and full of hack lyrics. I hear a lot of good songs on there though, and when I listen I think about how they could have been arranged or conceptualized better.

A lot of people seem to like Vampire Weekend too, and I recognize their charm, but I can't get past some of the themes in their music. I guess I just can't identify with a bunch of songs about the Old Money lifestyle. It's about as bad for me as all those self-referential songs out there about RockStar-dom. Gag.

 

[Dryden]

I don't listen to the radio and I don't watch too much TV outside of ESPN or the History Channel. I haven't "discovered" any new music in awhile, and haven't been current on my subscriptions to any entertainment/music mags in six or seven years. I think the last album I impulse purchased because of a song I heard on the radio was when I got a Joe Walsh disc after hearing Life's Been Good on QFM 96. That was recorded in what? 1978? :tongue2:

So when I read this thread, I fired up my iTunes and sorted my collection by year (and I have ~2,000 complete CDs). I have ONE album released in 2008: The Slip by NiN, which I only even knew about because somebody posted here on BP that it was free.

As it turns out, it looks like I've only got four or five albums (or fewer) recorded in each year since 2003, and I was tipped off to the bulk of them by video game or movie soundtracks, or through snippets out of TV commercials.

I guess that means my vote for album of the year is The Slip, seeing as its the only album I've heard this year. :tongue2:

 

[wadc45]

The album people have been falling all over themselves about this year that I didn't dig was The Hold Steady's "Stay Positive"...it's an okay album but certainly not worth the all the hype lauding them as one of the bands that will "save rock and roll" (I think I read that in either GQ or Maxim)...

EDIT: Just noticed it on NFBuck's list...

 

[3074326]

Like it or hate it, everybody's gonna talk about Viva la Vida because of its ubiquity. Like most top-40 arena rock it is overblown and full of hack lyrics. I hear a lot of good songs on there though, and when I listen I think about how they could have been arranged or conceptualized better.

Considering what and who it is, the album is not bad. There are a couple really good songs, and a whole lot of bland ones. It's the best major release of the year. But that isn't saying much..

 

[strohs]

I only bought 2 albums this year, so my list is pretty easy:
MetallicA - Death Magnetic
Disturbed - Indestructible

 

[TexasBuck]

Top 5:

The Verve - Forth
Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy (Agree W/Dayton Buck: This is good)
R.E.M. - Accelerate
Beck - Modern Guilt
Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

 

[BuckeyeTillIDie]

Muse - H.A.A.R.P. (live dvd/cd.. so it counts :p )
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
The Raconteurs - Consoler of the Lonely
Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
Dirty Pretty Things - Romance at Short Notice

Pretty weak album year, IMO. 2007 was much better. Hopefully 2009 is awesome.