The Best Albums of 2008

Here is my take on the best albums released this year. It felt like the real gems were a little bit harder to find in 2008. It seems like there’s someone saying that every year, but in 2008 I couldn’t help but wonder if there was some truth to it. It has been a year with more than its fair share of disapointments and let-downs, but it also had plenty of slow-growers, pleasant surprises, and new discoveries. In fact, most of my favorite albums from this year were hardly on my radar before hearing them, and the most gratifying albums to fall in love with are the ones you never saw coming. So what were my favorite albums of 2008?

30.
The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely


Song Highlights: Salute Your Solution, Old Enough, Many Shades of Black
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29.
Cold War Kids – Loyalty to Loyalty


Song Highlights: I’ve Seen Enough, Something is Not Right With Me, Against Privacy
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28.
To-Mera – Delusions


Sounds like a mix between Evanescence and Dream Theatre, but more complex than the latter and less obtuse than the former. The production quality gives them away as newcomers, but I look forward to future releases.
Song Highlights: Temptation, The Glory of a New Day, The Lie
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27.
Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts


Song Highlights: No One Said It Would Be Easy, When Water Comes to Life, Everyone Here is a Cloud
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26.
Unjust – To Lose a Name


Song Highlights: The Cloud Collectors, Reactions, It’s Not Enough, Choose Nothing
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25.
Gavin Rossdale – Wanderlust


The first solo album by Gavin Rossdale after his career with Bush and an album with the band Institute.
Song Highlights: Forever May You Run, Drive, Another Night in the Hills, Lose Myself Tonight
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24.
Secret Machines – Secret Machines


Song Highlights: Atomic Heals, Now You’re Gone
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23.
Cog – Sharing Space


Song Highlights: Sharing Space, Are You Interested?
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22.
The Dears – Missiles


Song Highlights: Lights Off, Demons, Disclaimer, Meltdown in a Major City
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21.
The Stiletto Formal – ¡Fiesta Fiesta Fiesta Fiesta!


This debut album goes in many directions, to the extent that they often sound like several different bands performing on one disc.
Song Highlights: Sleeping Our Way to the Top, 6 p.m. Your Time, 50 CCs of Anything Potent
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20.
TV on the Radio – Dear Science


I have never like an album by TV on the Radio after the first listen, but as always it grew on me with every spin.
Song Highlights: DLZ, Family Tree, Red Dress, Golden Age
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19.
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular


The pop music debut of the year, a well deserved success.
Song Highlights: Time To Pretend, Electric Feel, Weekend Wars, Kids
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18.
Phantom Planet – Raise the Dead


My favorite Phantom Planet album to date.
Song Highlights: Geronimo, Do the Panic, Raise the Dead
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17.
10 Years – Divisions


Originally I didn’t think this album lived up to its predecessor, partly because it doesn’t do much of anything different. The songs however, are quite good and overall and at this point I would say that Divisions is the better of the two.
Song Highlights: Actions and Motives, Beautiful, Picture Perfect (In Your Eyes)
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16.
Adebisi Shank – This is the Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank


Adebisi Shank has packed 8 songs at only a half-hour full of energetic, experimental, challenging art-rock that pushes boundaries without ever losing the listener.
Song Highlights: Snakehips, I Answer to Doc, Mini Rockers, Colin Skehan
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15.
Blowing Trees – Blowing Trees


An impressive debut by this Austin, Texas group. They’ve got a sound reminiscent of late 90s alternative groups and a strong voice in singer Chris Maddin.
Song Highlights: Airplane Fixation, Goblins, The Day the World Left Me
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14.
The Out Circuit – Pierce the Empire With a Sound


This is a really interesting album, as it plays off ambience and low key electronica with a range of soothing and abrasive vocals.
Song Highlights: Across the Light, Come Out Shooting, The Contender
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13.
The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath


Not quite as good as Amputechture or De-loused, but having several top notch tracks. Also has a few of those overly dense songs, but not without redeeming features.
Song Highlights: Ilyena, Metatron, Goliath
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12.
People in Planes – Beyond the Horizon


I really never cared for their earlier work, but this album really clicked with me. It is radio friendly but interesting enough to hold the attention of more discerning listeners.
Song Highlights: Last Man Standing, Mayday (M’Aidez), Pretty Buildings, Tonight the Sun Will Rise
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11.
Tiger Lou – A Partial Print


Another great release by Tiger Lou.
Song Highlights: The Less You Have to Carry, A Partial Print, An Atlas of Those Our Own
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10.
Klimt 1918 – In Case We Never Meet Again


Initially I was a little disapointed that this might be a let-down from 2005’s Dopogeurra, but this album has grown on me a lot over the year.
Song Highlights: True Love is the Oldest Fear, Just An Interlude in Your Life, Suspense Music, Disco Awayness
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9.
Ours – Mercy… Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy


Another album that I thought might not live up to past releases, but Mercy… has also proven not only a great album, but a great return for Ours after being silent for nearly 6 years.
Song Highlights: Mercy, The Worst Things Beautiful, Ran Away to Tell the World, Black
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8.
Facing New York – Get Hot


After losing a pair of their original members, Facing New York reinvented themselves a bit for Get Hot. Their new album is a bit more laid back and light than their first self titled album, sounding a little like a groovy version of The Dismemberment Plan. Favorite song is a toss up between “Hardwood Floors” and their ode to twenty-something aimlessness, “Me ‘n My Friendz”.
Song Highlights: Hardwood Floors, Me ‘n My Friendz, Give Love, Get Hot
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7.
The Music – Strength In Numbers


Always a band that I had liked but never loved, Strength in Numbers is finally an album by The Music that I can really get into. Almost every track on the album is full of gloriously catchy brit-rock goodness.
Song Highlights: Drugs, The Spike, The Left Side, Fire
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6.
Woven – Designer Codes


It was a pleasant surprise to find out about a new album by Woven, who had not released anything since 2005. More pleasantly, Designer Codes turned out to be some of the best and most cohesive work these guys have done yet.
Song Highlights: Cosmonaut, Do You Feel the Same?, One, Prickly Pear
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5.
The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead


I’ve long felt that these guys are one of the most underrated groups out there, and Keep Your Eyes Ahead only adds to their excellent catolague. Hallelujia may have been the most addictive song of 2008.
Song Highlights: Hallelujia, The Captive Mind, Lately, Broken Afternoon
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4.
Ebu Gogo – Worlds


Anyone willing to give the unorthodox a try may want to look into Ebu Gogo, who released one of the most extraordinary albums of 2008. The music by this self-described action/adventure band is like a wonderfully bizare soundtrack to every movie and video game you’ve ever enjoyed.
Song Highlights: Late Due to Sweatpants Boner, Training Montage, DSurfNA, Waterworld Pt. 1, Neo-Uranium Matress, Marchinial Bahls, Camera Jenkins
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3.
Pitchblend – The Lines of Unreason


This debut album was probably the first truly great rock album I heard in 2008. The Lines of Unreason perfectly satisfies my fix for upbeat, intelligent, forward thinking progressive metal. Fans of dredg, My Vitriol, and Oceansize should consider this a must listen.
Song Highlights: Revelations, Foundation For Reason and Science, Sirens, Somewhere I Could Never Find, Balance Restored
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2.
Damiera – Quiet Mouth, Loud Hands


Their first album M(US)IC received some very good reviews and a lot of buzz, and despite some very significant lineup changes Damiera have concentrated on their strengths and grown to develop and improve their sound for Quiet Mouth Loud Hands. The band continue to focus their songs (and the album as a whole) into concise, intricate packages. The album is jam-packed with fast-paced, catchy hooks and riffs, and at only 31 minutes in length the prospect of listening to it multiple times end-to-end was usually irresistible.
Song Highlights: Teacher, Preacher; Weights for the Waiting, Nailbiter, Quiet Mouth Loud Hands
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1.
Idiot Pilot – Wolves


An album that I decided to check out on practically a whim, with almost no prior knowledge or reference, Wolves has been my favorite album and easily the most pleasant surprise of 2008. Their music draws a little something from a lot of different styles to make a very unique and refreshing sound, something that I can’t easily liken to anything else I’ve heard. There are elements of electronic rock, post-hardcore, and dreamscape ambience (in Cruel World Enterprise, particularly) overlayed with Michael Harris’s superb vocals. I was curios enough to check out their previous album Strange We Should Meet Here, and it’s obvious since then they’ve been able to refine that raw creativity and focus it with tremendously improved songwriting and cohesiveness on Wolves.
Song Highlights: Retina and the Sky, Last Chance, Red Museum, Cruel World Enterprise
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Tags: 2008

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