2008 wasn't a bad year for music
download What Women Want dvd Update: I’ve made a virtual mix cd from albums mentioned in this post. Listen to it here.
The alternate title to this post could be, “Bon Iver makes things better”
Just in case people were wondering, here’s what I listened to a lot this year. I tried my best to keep up with all the great music that came out this year. Not sure if it was me but it felt like a year built for more introspective, yet emotionally-tense music. It’s probably because I was listening to far too much Bon Iver. Here they are in alphabetical order:
Bon Iver, For Emma Forever Ago
Born Ruffians, Red Yellow & Blue Dismal movie
Fleet Foxes, S/T
Islands, Arm’s Way
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
She & Him, Volume One The Little Shop of Horrors buy
TV on the Radio, Dear, Science
Vampire Weekend, S/T (I can hear the groans, boos, hisses and catcalls from here!)
Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer
Honourable mentions:
Elliott Brood, Mountain Meadows
the Constantines, Kensington Heights
Okkervil River, the Stand Ins Pokémon: The Movie 2000 on dvd
Shearwater, Rook
Cast Away dvdrip A couple of things to note. Interestingly there’s only one Toronto band on the list (the Constantines and Elliott Brood made the shortlist) and the She & Him album was probably the weakest out of that batch. Zooey Deschanel, well she’s just peachy keen and kinda had to be included on the list for that reason alone.
For some weird reason, as the year went on the Talking Heads got played more often (particularly this song). A sign of the times?
My good friend Mason Wright also has a list of 50 tracks that had him hooked in 2008. He listens to far more music than I do and I implicitly trust his musical judgment. Also, the man knows how to dance.
I’ve also resurrected my last.fm account, it had been neglected for far too long.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Born Ruffians = Toronto. There are some fantastic Toronto albums from 2008
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
That’s a pretty good list! I’ve only heard about half of those albums. This year I really enjoyed Mt. Eerie’s new album with Julie Doiron, it’s really fantastic. It’s called “Lost Wisom,” check it out if you haven’t already. I also liked the new Sun Kil Moon album, “April,” the new Final Fantasy EPs, One Hundred Dollars’ “Forest of Tears,” and the new albums from Andre Ethier, Snailhouse, and Chad VanGaalen!
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Get The Chase Suite by Janelle Monae! 25 minutes of futuristic concept EP amazingness! Best up-and-coming R&B vocalist of our generation!