BEST ALBUMS OF 2008

2008 has been an interesting and amazing year in music. Below are my favourite albums of the year. And when I say that they are my favourite, they really are. I hate the idea that there is this underlying idea of "hipster cool" in the blogsphere and that a lot of the albums that have received a lot of press only have because they are the cool bands to like. I really believe in the artists/bands below, they released fantastic albums this year. It's just as pretentious to dismiss these bands/artists because of the hype and ignore the fact that they have released great albums.

25. Santogold - S/T and Santogold & Diplo - Top Ranking - Santogold was really hyped in early 2008. She was called "the new M.I.A." more times than I can remember, but the comparison in my opinion is quite lazy. Unlike M.I.A., Santogold makes accessible pop music, music that could be really accessible pop a la Gwen Stefani but due to poor marketing, isn't. Santo's debut self-titled disc is a really consistent, varied record that covers multiple genres. Shove It has a pop-ska meets hip hop feel, Creator has M.I.A's refugee dancehall sound, I'm A Lady could be No Doubt/Gwen alternative rock. And though many styles bleeding into each other, all the tracks fit. Top Ranking, the mixtape created by Santo and Diplo is very similar to what Diplo did with M.I.A.'s Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1 mixtape. Instead of the mixtape being rooted in Brazilian favela dance music, Santo and Diplo splice amazing remixes of Santo's tunes with roots, dub and hip hop, a perfect contrast to her tunes. Check the mash up remix of Lights Out (Diplo's Panda Bear Mix) on Top Ranking probably one of my favourite tracks on both albums. Also check the bonus track on Santo's debut, it's a remix of You'll Find A Way by Switch (M.I.A's main producer on Kala).

24. Sigur Ros - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust - I had grown a bit tired of Sigur Ros. I had reached my threshold of their grandiose, epic post rock songs due to the fact that their entire creative output sounded relatively the same to me. Then this album literally came out of nowhere and renewed my love and faith in this band. Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust sounds like Sigur Ros having fun, gone is the doom and gloom, post-apocolyptic feeling to their music and in comes an Animal Collective-inspired hodge podge of uplifting, light and fun music. They still do their pretty ballad-like stuff too, and it's as gorgeous as ever. Favourite songs: lead single gobbledigook (which has an amazing video which I believe was directed by Ryan McGinley), við spilum endalaust and inní mér syngur vitleysingur .

23. Sam Sparro - S/T - Sam Sparro's debut, like Santogold's could have been massive in North American with the right marketing department behind him. Sparro looks (fashion-wise) and sounds like a smarter, more creative Lady Gaga (I know most would be surprised that I'm referencing her, but in terms of image/style, she really seems to know what she's doing, even though she's appropriating the modern day hipster club kid image and selling it to middle America). Sparro is a great songwriter and choose all the right producers to put his vision on disc. Check these tracks: Black and Gold, 21st Century Life and Sick. Black and Gold has been nominated in the category of Best Dance Song at the Grammys.

22. Little Wayne - The Carter III - Originally to be released in 2007, The Carter III was delayed multiple times due to many tracks being leaked onto the web prior to its release in the form of multiple mix tapes such as The Carter 3 Mixtape and Tha Drought Is Over Pt. 2. When it was finally released, The Carter III became one of 2008's biggest albums, selling over 1 millions copies in its first week, the first album to do so since 50 Cent's The Massacre (in 2005). I honestly don't know how one person can have such a huge creative output and still be able to release an album as solid and consistent as this. There are way too many great songs on this album to discuss. First single Lollipop, Wayne's auto-tuned ode to fellatio had people singling about dirtiness without even knowing it. A Milli was covered, rapped over and remixed billions of times, and for good reason, its freakin' genius. Other stand out tracks: Got Money (feat. T-Pain), Let The Beat Build, Comfortable (feat. Babyface), Playing with Fire (feat. Betty Wright), 3 Peat and Tie My Hands (feat. Robin Thicke). Lil' Wayne plays the ACC with T-Pain. Gym Class Heroes and others on January 15th. Tickets available here.

21. TV On The Radio - Dear Science - TVOR's most accomplished and commercial-sounding record to date. Dear Science reins in their experimentation to a level more viable for pop structure and in doing so, reveals the brilliance of their songwriting. Halfway Home contains some of the most epic sounding soaring guitars I have heard since the British shoegaze movement. Vocals on Crying are reminiscent of heartbreaking Motown downers (the horns help!) modernized for 2008. I love this band.
20. Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor - Another great album by Hot Chip. It seems like this came out so long ago, early 2008 seems ions ago. I like this album mainly because you can dance to it (Ready For The Floor, Hold On, Bendable Posable, Touch Too Much) but it also has some great slower, R&B-like jams to sing along to (Wrestlers, We're Looking for A Lot Of Love). Live, they are super good. Checked them out at the Phoenix back in the Spring and really enjoyed their show. Total house party feel. Tons of dancing and singing along.

19. The Middle East - The Recordings of the Middle East - Take the best parts of many of my favourite artists and you get this band. Sounding similar to Sigur Ros, Red House Painters, Arcade Fire and Low, their music is fragile and warm, something to curl up in on cold winter nights. The Middle East are from Townsville, Queensland, Australia and currently unsigned. I stumbled across them on a blog from South America. So their music is out there, it's just going to take someone listening to this beautiful album to get them noticed on a global scale.

18. The Presets - Apocalypso - Another great outing for Australia's The Presets. Follows the same format as their debut Beams, Daft Punk inspired electro with a bit of Pet Shop Boys added into the mix. Big sounding, chalk full of sing-a-long choruses, enough bass to keep your booty shaking. Favourite tracks: This Boys In Love, My People, If I Know You and Talk Like That. These guys seem to be finally gaining a larger audience here in Toronto, when they opened for Cut Copy back in September at Sound Academy, the bulk of the audience were seen singing along to their tunes. They are back in Toronto to headline their own show on April 6th at Mod Club.

17. The Teenagers - Reality Check - Here's another great album that flew under the radar this year. I realize that the type of music The Teenagers make (synth-heavy, tongue-in-cheek new wave inspired pop) is a bit passe with the tastemakers, but they do it so well it's impossible for me to ignore. Vocals are sung/spoken in a broken Parisian accent, and the music is super fun and danceable. The band are a pastiche of every hipster cliche, but again, like with M83, i find it irresistible. Favourite tracks: Feeling Better, Streets of Paris, French Kiss and Wheel of Fortune.

16. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - Another album that has been kicking around in my collection since its late 2007 release date, but that I didn't fully discover until 2008. I still have a hard time believing how popular MGMT got this year and it boggles my mind the "alternative" radio stations (Edge 102.1) have picked up on them. Their the new generation of music listener's Flaming Lips. It's not totally undeserved. Oracular Spectacular contains a large number of great songs including lead single and Billboard hit Time To Pretend, as well as The Youth, Electric Feel and my favourite Kids. The songwriting is fun and clever but not at all consistent as of yet. Let's see what they'll do with their momentum.

15. Hexes & Ohs - Bedroom Madness - I'm a total sucker for boy/girl vocals. Montreal's Hexes & Ohs debut Bedroom Madness seems to have been largely overlooked by Canadian blogs and the music press in general which is a total surprise to me. In the same vein as Postal Service and Hot Chip, the album features great track after track of bedroom dancing fun. Check lead single H-H-High School with its sing-along vocals, group chants and drum machine beats is the perfect tune to get the indie dance party started. Other stand out tracks: Little Bird, Wildlife and Seems So Elementary. Hexes & Ohs have two upcoming Toronto shows, January 3rd at the Silver Dollar and January 10th at The Tranzac.

14. The Dodos - Visiter - It's a travesty that Pitchfork left this album off their Top 50 albums of the year. It's far better than many of the albums that made the cut (Beach House and Crystal Slits I'm looking at you). Visiter is the perfect companion to many of the albums I loved this year. It fits perfectly next to Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver and The Tallest Man on Earth, yet stands on its own two feet as a really consistent, solid album. The Dodos influences are similar to many of the bands mentioned above but I also love that their acoustic guitar driven folk-pop pulls soooo heavily from experimental indie rock such as Animal Collective. The song structures of many songs on Visiter are a bit off and awkward, they are a little more free form and abstract which I love. Highlights for me are Fools, Red and Purple and Walking.

13. Fleet Foxes - S/T - Self described as "baroque harmonic pop jams", these was the year of Fleet Foxes. Just named album of the year by Pitchfork, their self-titled disc is stunning. It sounds like the California sun at dusk and contains beautifully arranged vocal harmonies and 70s-esque guitars. They have often been compared to a modern day Beach Boys but I also hear a bit of Animal Collective in their music. I love pretty much every song on the album but I think my favourites would have to be White Winter Hymnal, Quiet Houses and Ragged Wood. I'm anxiously awaiting seeing Fleet Foxes live.

12. Air France - No Way Down - Another freakin' amazing release from the label Sincerely Yours, owned and operated by Sweden's Tough Alliance. Air France hail from Gothenburg, Sweden and their music has been described as beach foam pop, a term that I feel is 100% accurate. Air France's music sounds like music that you'd hear in a dream, a dream about frolicking on the shore of some secluded beach on a tiny island in the Pacific, drinking coconut milk and soaking up the sun. Pitchfork said that these guys reminded them of The Avalanches and I feel that this comparison is accurate, but I much prefer Air France. Collapsing at your Doorstep has to be one of the greatest songs of the last couple years. I can't wait to hear more from this band.

11. Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge - What honestly attracted me to this album was the album cover. It looks old, but then you see Dev Hynes, in wig and Ronald McDonald-like clothing and you have to chuckle. But Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is nothing to laugh at. Reminiscent of Bright Eyes when they were great, Lightspeed Champion's debut is chalk full of swelling chamber pop tunes about all the emo cliches: romance, break-ups, and insecurity. The lyrical content is sometimes questionable (throwing up on others) but paired with Dev's songwriting it totally works. Stand out tracks: Midnight Surprise, Galaxy of the Lost, Tell Me What It's Worth and Devil Tricks for a Bitch.

10. Bloc Party - Intimacy - I find it really strange that this album got such mixed reviews from the mainstream press. Granted, I would probably call myself a massive Bloc Party fan, I really do feel that Intimacy is a great album. It's not immediate, I didn't love it at first. But over time, I grew to love it as much as their last effort (2007's A Weekend In The City). There are brilliant moments on the album, from the gorgeous Signs to heartbreaking Biko to the ferociousness of Trojan Horse, which could stand on its own two feet next to anything on Silent Alarm. The songwriting is as good as ever, the production can at times feel a little muddy due to the fact that it seems that they were trying to do everything and were not being critical enough to leave stuff out. And there are missteps. Mercury is not the greatest, and their choice for lead single is perplexing. Talons would have made much more sense. Bloc Party are back in Toronto March 14th at Kool Haus. Why the show is so expensive I don't understand and how the hell is Ticketmaster is getting away with over $18 is service charges. It's pretty retarded.

9. Passion Pit - Chunk Of Change - Cambridge, Massachusetts' Passion Pit is the brainchild of lead singer Michael Angelakos. Angelakos wrote and recorded Chunk of Change as a belated Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend, who loved it and convinced him to release to to family and friends around Emerson College. He put together a band to perform live and Passion Pit was born. Things have happened pretty fast for these guys, they have recently signed to Columbia in the UK for a retarded amount of money. BBC named them one of 15 rising stars of 2009. In terms of their music, think a menage a trois between Postal Service, MGMT and Hot Chip. Upbeat, dancey and fun. They play the Horseshoe on January 24th.

8. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals - Top five reasons why Girl Talk is the mash up king of kings: 01. Jay-z's Roc Boys (And The Winner Is) vs. Radiohead's Paranoid Android 02. Yo Majesty's Club Action vs. Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You 03. M.I.A.'s Boyz vs. The Cranberries Dreams 04. Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre's No Diggity vs. Kanye West feat. Dwele's Flashing Lights 05. Metalicca's One vs. Lil' Mama's Lip Gloss.

7. M83 - Saturdays = Youth - It's hard to believe that this is M83's 5th studio release. Anthony Gonzalez leans towards the early 90s dance scene with this album, but still manages incorporate elements of shoegaze in a way that still sounds fresh. There are things that I have to ignore here, overabundance of talking girl vocals (as in Graveyard Girl), the 80's female over-singing.....but I can ignore it due to the adorable "French-ness" of the album and the idea that maybe he doesn't see these a cheesy. Saturdays = Youth made me excited about this band again, I grew tired of hearing the same sound with each album, but here, Gonzalez found the perfect balance of dance and guitar music. Couleurs is nothing less than incredible. Same goes for Kim & Jessie and Skin of the Night. I love M83 again.

6. The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave - Another amazing voice. The Tallest Man on Earth is Kristian Matsson who hails from Dalarna, Sweden and comes as a fully formed Dylanesque singer/songwriter. He sounds like he's swallowed a hive full of bees and looks like he's sold all his worldly possessions for an acoustic guitar. I don't understand how someone like this can exist, a fully formed icon peddling a classic blues/folk album of songs that sound like they have been sung for centuries. Shallow Grave sounds like it could have been released 40 years ago but still manages to sound new and relevant. Stand out tracks: Where Do My Bluebirds Fly, Pistol Dreams, Into The Stream and Honey Won't You Let Me In.

5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - This is another album that has been floating around since 2007 but didn't gain steam until this year. How anyone can question the genius of Justin Vernon i don't know. This man has one of the strongest voices I have heard in a long time, it's a voice that is arresting and haunting, fragile yet incredibly strong. But it's not all about the voice, Justin's songwriting is brilliant. Striped down and simple, its the perfect compliment to his heartbreaking lyrics (and that voice!!!) Evidence of his genius, watch this video of Bon Iver on Jools Holland performing Skinny Love. I still get shivers. The band are just releasing a new EP titled Blood Bank, and will be touring Australia in the new year. Let's hope their road continues to Toronto again in the new future.
4. Vampire Weekend - S/T - Here's an example of a band that got steamrolled by pre-album hype. I first heard Vampire Weekend about a year ago when their demo leaked on the internet. From the get go, their clever mix of African rhythms, reinterpretation of Paul Simon's Graceland and love of all things Ivy League became an instant underground hit. By the time they released their debut on XL the backlash had already begun. This album is close to perfect in my opinion, each song could be a single and the band have created something that sounds familiar yet does not reference anything current in music. Songs such as Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa and Oxford Comma were perfect pop songs for summer 2008, light, fun and easy to singalong to. They gained a large audience quickly, played SNL and toured a good part of the world. Touring brought them to Toronto in late July on a soggy, rainy day to play Roger's Picnic. Their music would have been perfect for a sunny, summer day festival, but they were still able to engage the audience and play a great set. I'm really excited to see what they do next, their new song White Sky which has been played live is the bastard child of VW and Animal Collective. Really looking forward to new material from these guys.

3. Hercules & Love Affair - S/T - This album was bound to be a favourite of mine right from first listen. It's the involvment of Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons that sold me. His vocals on lead single Blind fit so perfectly with Hercules & Love Affair's music. The album was billed at DFA's first new disco release, and as much as old disco isn't really my bag, I really grew to love it. Although the album is electronic-based, it feels very organic and warm, and this is due to the use of real instruments (acoustic guitar appears in track Time Will). It's also really refreshing to hear non-distorted bass and dirty sounding beats (as heard on pretty much every electronic record this year). The album just sounds really clean and classic. Stand out tracks include Hercules Theme, You Belong, Raise Me Up and Blind. One of my biggest concert regrets this year is missing their debut Toronto show at Opera House. Hoping they'll be back in the near future.

2. Crystal Castles - S/T - I don't understand why Toronto hates Crystal Castles. Yes, singer Alice Glass and beat maker Ethan Kath come off as total douchebags in interviews (when they bother showing up). But their debut is so good that I can look past their somewhat childish behaviour. All the good tunes from their EPs are here, recorded (or maybe not, maybe its just nice to hear them in a decent MP3 bitrate quality) as well as a ton of new tracks that are even better than their earlier work (Vanished, Untrust Us, Magic Spells and Knights). Kath has a knack for creating such irresistable songs that pull influences from varied electronic sub-genres. Untrust Us reminds me of 90s freestyle (in a good way!), Alice Practice is reminiscent of the early 2000 electroclash and Good Time is the kid sister of The Knife. CC's live show is a different story, more a spectacle similar to a natural disaster than a concert. Maybe they are going for the "I don't give a shit" punk rock show feel, but the live show needs work. Alice's mic needs to be turned up and she needs to concentrate more on singing than throwing herself around the stage. When you have similar sounding artists like The Presets or Cut Copy touring and putting on amazing live shows, you'd think CC would put a bit more effort into their show. For now, definetely a band to appreciate recorded.

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours - This band came out of nowhere for me, I had heard their name prior to the release of this album, but didn't pay much attention. For some reason I always thought they were some terrible math rock band. Then I heard Feel The Love, lead track from the disc and I was instantly hooked. In my mind, In Ghost Colours encompasses everything about 2008, the 80's references showed up everywhere, in music (like here with their nods to New Order), fashion and film. Dan Whitford and the band were able to capture the best elements (lyrics, use of swelling synths) of the New Romantic movement and merry it with Daft Punk inspired electronic music. Songs on the album dabble in many different genres, Feel The Love is the perfect poppy summer song, Far Away and So Haunted are classic new wave, big beat floor fillers and Unforgettable Season is classic white noise shoegaze. Live, their show cannot be matched for its sheer energy and sexiness. The band will be back in Toronto in March at Circa.