The Awkward World

God, I love making lists. Seriously. And this is the list I have thought the most about, a list I have been working on since January 1. It’s the list I would have made just for myself, even if I didn’t have a blog. Yes, it’s long, no, I don’t really care if you read it. But if you do, there will be a lot of free mp3’s for you, and you might just find an album or two you overlooked. And please feel free to share your own thoughts or year end lists in the comments section!

So, with lots and lots of further ado, The Awkward World presents

The Best Music of 2008

Best Albums

I’ve included ratings with these reviews from myself, Pitchfork, the A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, and MetaCritic. The abbreviations and scales are as follows:
Awkward World AW: (A-F); Pitchfork Media P: (1-10); The A.V. Club AVC: (A-F); Rolling Stone RS: (1-5 stars); Metacritic MC: (0-100)
NA means a site did not review this album. Also, Rolling Stone apparently really loves to give 3.5’s and 4’s.

10. Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
AW: B+; P: 8.8; AVC: A; RS: NA; MC: 84
Thanks, Fucked Up, for filling the gaping hole left in post-punk, post-hardcore, post-everything heavy-toned rock and roll left by the breakup of Bear Vs. Shark in 2006. BVS had more visceral energy in a 28-second song (“Seven Stop Hold Restart”) than most bands can muster in a whole catalogue, and Fucked Up takes a similar glass-gargling intensity (to borrow a phrase from Aaron Burgess) to a truly epic level, opening their new album with a cheerful, pastoral flute solo and than slamming you in the face with monster, textured metal and growling for the next 11 tracks, occasionally offset by sweet female harmonies. It’s a complex sound, and one difficult to classify. Just the way I like ‘em.

Son the Father
Days of Last
No Epiphany

9. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
AW: B+; P: 6.8; AVC: NA; RS: 3.5; MC: 76
I doubt that there are two douchier-looking dudes than the neon-and-feather-boa-festooned hipsters who make up MGMT (or “The Management”). They’re a band that’s easy to hate and easy to love, spinning one trashy psychedelia dance number after another. But they’re also frustratingly clever and insightful: every turn-off-your-brain-and-shake-it chorus like on “Time to Pretend” – “This is our decision, to live fast and die young / We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun” – is couched by a hundred darker, subtler lines providing context, like “Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do / Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?” from the same song. In the end, as hard as it is to swallow, “Oracular Spectacular” actually is pretty spectacular.

Time to Pretend
Kids
Electric Feel

8. Destroyer – Trouble in Dreams
AW: B+; P: 7.7; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 78
Is there any musician whose sound is harder to describe than Dan Bejar, a.k.a. Destroyer? You know that weird guy in the New Pornographers? That’s Dan Bejar. He’s been at the Destroyer gig longer than some of us have been aware of music that wasn’t sung by chipmunks, and his new album may be the best of his career. His lyrics and song titles are cryptic to the point of complete incomprehensibility, which leaves behind something like a Dadaist mantra. Like Sigur Rós (who sing in a made-up language), it doesn’t matter whether you can understand what the hell Bejar is talking about, the beauty of his music smacks you in the face and gets under your skin. I find myself thinking about Destroyer’s music far more than is probably healthy; like a surrealist painting or an art house film, feel free to assign your own meaning to this album, just be careful it doesn’t assign some meaning back to you.
BAM! Nietzsche reference! Take that, Pitchfork!

Blue Flower / Blue Flame
My Favorite Year
Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night’s Ape)

7. Santogold – Santogold
AW: B+; P: 7.1; AVC: A-; RS: 4; MC: 77
The obvious comparison is to say that Santogold is the M.I.A. of 2008, but there’s much more to her than that (which is not to discount the sheer badassery of M.I.A. – “Kala” was in my top five for 2007). Besides the drum-and-bass boogies and Euro gangster posturing, Santogold blends layers of reggae, hip hop, electronica, latin rhythms, and, surprisingly enough, pure pop, Madonna-esque ballads. It’s a delicious album, and I look forward to the many remixes to come.

Starstruck (Diplo Mix)
Lights Out
Creator

6. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
AW: A-; P: 9.0; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 87
Fleet Foxes’ jangly, harmonious, reverb-soaked folk songs make them sound (and I say this with full understanding of how ridiculous a statement like this is) exactly like the Beach Boys of Appalachia. This debut album is nothing short of miraculous, an enormous-yet-subtle rural landscape sounding alternately like a choir or Gregorian chanters and the soundtrack to a spaghetti western. I really can’t overstate the beauty in these songs, whether they’re a waterfall of unplugged instruments and harmonies building and breaking (“Ragged Wood”) or a simple sing-and-hum-along with minimalist acoustic guitar (“Meadowlarks”). There’s nothing truly new here, but no one in folk or indie music is doing it better.

Ragged Wood
Your Protector
White Winter Hymnal

5. Mike Doughty – Golden Delicious
AW: A-; P: 5.0; AVC: C; RS: NA; MC: 57
“Golden Delicious” is, at its heart, a party record. It wants to be played loudly in the background while people dance and drink. That’s a weird thing to say about a Mike Doughty album, since he’s gone from complex, spacey trip-hop with Soul Coughing to shoe-gazing acoustic EP’s to a near-perfect album of power pop called “Haughty Melodic” a few years ago. “Golden Delicious has the most in common with the Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing, offering a delectable assortment of nonsensical lyrical play, hypnotic repetitions, even a couple of honest to goodness mash-ups, borrowing from the musical Hair in “Fort Hood” and “Little Drummer Boy” in the unbelievably great “I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep On Dancing.” It’s not quite material of “Haughty Melodic” quality, but it’s more fun and more innovative than almost anything else released this year.

Fort Hood
Navigating By the Stars at Night
I Wrote a Song About Your Car

4. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
AW: A-; P: 8.4; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 85
Nobody but Bruce Springsteen unfolds a story through music quite like the Hold Steady. Despite the album title, the ballads seem darker this time around, chronicling descents into drug addiction, suicide, alcoholism, and the worst kind of heartbreak. The narratives, like the music that encompasses Craig Finn’s speak-singing, is multi-layered and complex, a tapestry of despair and lightness. But like the Boss before them, the Hold Steady is an extremely accessible, radio-friendly band, and their arena rock anthems are likely to age just as well.

Stay Positive

Lord, I’m Discouraged

Sequestered in Memphis

3. Drive-By Truckers – Brighter Than Creation’s Dark
AW: A; P: 8.2; AVC: A; RS: 4; MC: 83
Speaking of dark albums, DBT have released the best and most haunting album of their career. This release is the first since singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Isbell left the band, and the concerns of many fans have been relieved with the new vocals and songwriting from bassist Shondra Tucker. With or without Isbell, no other band is able to weave between whiskey-and-pickup-truck brawlers and devastating portraits of southern poverty and violence like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, and DBT’s latest is a record that bears repeat listening, unfolding a new layer with each heady spin.

The Monument Valley
Daddy Needs a Drink
Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife

2. Lupe Fiasco – The Cool
AW: A; P: 8.1; AVC: A-; RS: 4; MC: 77
No one has every accused Lupe Fiasco of being short on ambition. His 2006 debut, “Food & Liquor,” was supposed to save hip-hop from the current, unfortunate reign of crunk and gangster rap. It was (deservingly) showered with praise and Grammy’s, but troubles with his label and the subsequent imprisonment of his producer and longtime friend ensured that “Food & Liquor” wasn’t quite able to break out like its potential suggested. No longer fresh out of the box, Fiasco has one-upped himself this time around. “The Cool” is an abstract concept album about the lure of the streets, but really its the big, booming, messianic creation its predecessor should have been: its lyrics are smart and sharp, tackling everything from the saving power of music (“Hip-Hop Saved My Life”) to the joys of monogamy (“Go Baby”) to the temptation to dumb down your art for mass consumption (“Dumb It Down,” aptly titled), and everything in between. Its beats are almost serpentine at times, grungy and pounding at other, vibrant when Lupe’s endlessly expressive voice calls for it. Though I can’t say this record saved my life, it saved my love for hip-hop, and almost single-handedly renewed my interest in the genre.

Hip Hop Saved My Life
Hi-Definition (feat. Snoop Dogg)
The Coolest

1. TV On the Radio – Dear Science
AW: A; P: 9.2; AVC: A-; RS: 4; MC: 88
I thought it couldn’t get any better than 2006’s dingy, pounding opus “Return to Cookie Mountain.” Turns out it can get better, a whole lot better, and “Dear Science” is even more genre-bending than its predecessor, delivering doo-wop punk rock on the first track (“Halfway Home”), and everything from hip-hop (“Dancing Choose”) to acoustic ballads (“Family Tree”) before a grindcore Motown finale in “Lover’s Day.” Unlike “Cookie Mountain,” “Dear Science” is surprisingly slick while maintaining a staggering depth, instantly accessible, and instantly addicting.

DLZ
Stork & Owl
Shout Me Out

Honorable Mentions

11. Thao – We Brave Bee Stings and All
AW: B+; P: 7.7; AVC: NA; RS: NA; MC: NA
Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)
12. Old Crow Medicine Show – Tennessee Pusher
AW: B+; P: NA; AVC: B+; RS: NA; MC: 77
Caroline
13. Kathleen Edwards – Asking for Flowers
AW: B+; P: 7.9; AVC: NA; RS: 4; MC: 74
I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory
14. She & Him – Volume One
AW: B+; P: 7.4; AVC: A-; RS: 3.5; MC: 76
Sentimental Heart
15. Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts
AW: B+; P: 4.2; AVC: A; RS: NA; MC: NA
Everybody Here is a Cloud
16. The Weepies – Hideaway
AW: B; P: NA; AVC: NA; RS: NA; MC: NA
Antarctica
17. The Rosebuds – Life Like
AW: B; P: 7.2; AVC: NA; RS: NA; MC: 74
Bow to the Middle
18. Sigur Rós – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
AW: B; P: 7.5; AVC: A; RS: 4; MC: 87
Vid Spilum Endalaust
19. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
AW: B; P: 8.0; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 81
Don’t Stop
20. Tift Merritt – Another Country
AW: B; P: 5.0; AVC: NA; RS: NA; MC: 71
Keep You Happy
21. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
AW: B; P: 8.1; AVC: A-; RS: 3.5; MC: 88
Skinny Love
22. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
AW: B; P: 5.1; AVC: D+; RS: NA; MC: 71
You Are Free

Biggest Disappointments

Not necessarily the worst albums of the year, just the ones that didn’t live up to my expectations. Their order on this list isn’t by grade, but by how much they bummed me out.

1.Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
AW: C-; P: 6.0; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 75
It’s easy to overlook the Watson Twins’ contribution to 2006’s “Rabbit Fur Coat” – it was revelatory mostly as Jenny Lewis’ solo debut, shedding all the pretension that had been building around her increasingly commercial main act, Rilo Kiley, and as a pretty terrific, old-fashioned country album. But in Lewis’ second solo effort, the twins’ absence is like a black hole which no amount of guest stars (not even Elvis Costello and Zooey Deschanel) can fill; the show belongs squarely to the old Jenny Lewis we all know, love, and frequently resent. Congratulations: you’ve gone from pretension queen of indie rock to pretension queen of country.

2.Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
AW: C; P: 6.0; AVC: A; RS: 4; MC: 73

Death Cab and Modest Mouse have charted similar courses from indie rock darlings to mainstream staples without losing much integrity. Modest Mouse followed the breakout success of 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” with the freak show of 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”; both terrific albums, the second of which seemed to be a statement to old fans that they’re still the strangest guys in the room. Death Cab have never been the strangest guys in the room, and their follow-up to 2005’s commercially successful (and pretty great) “Plans” is an uneven, weird-for-weirdness’-sake hodgepodge of retro pop and experimental fuzziness. I doubt “Narrow Stairs” was intended to bring in any new fans, but it may well alienate old ones.

3.Murder By Death – Red of Tooth and Claw
AW: D; P: NA; AVC: C+; RS: NA; MC: 70
Seriously, guys? 2006’s “In Bocca al Lupo” ignited my love for the alt-country genre. “Red of Tooth and Claw” almost single-handedly killed it. In a year especially heavy with great alt-country releases, this is the least inspired outing from the usually-reliable Adam Turla and the boys to date. I’ll still buy their next record, but I will now do so with trepidation.

4.Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins
AW: D+; P: 8.0; AVC: B+; RS: 3; MC: 79
My relationship with Okkervil River is like the love story from a Cameron Crowe movie. They come on all seductive with their indie/country shyness and self-deprecation and I’m initially attracted, until I realize it’s all a shallow facade because Okkervil River just hates to be alone. After a period of resentment, we know we’re both ready to recommit, but we’re both too proud to admit it. And all of a sudden, in the middle of my divorced women’s group meeting, in stumbles Okkervil River with 2007’s “The Stage Names,” a giant of an album: dramatic, heartfelt, and sincere. But it wasn’t necessary. They had me at “Our Life is Just a Movie or Maybe.” Unfortunately, after the honeymoon, you’ve got Cameron Diaz trying to kill me and Susan Sarandon tap-dancing at her husband’s memorial service and “The Stand-Ins,” the other half of “Stage Names,” which makes it blindingly obvious why these tracks didn’t make the first cut. You see, there are failures, and there are fiascos. F-I-A-S-C-O.
5.Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
AW: C+; P: 8.8; AVC: B-; RS: 3.5; MC: 82
If John Lennon and George Harrison rose from the dead and reunited the Beatles, with special guest keyboardist Jesus of Nazareth, that album could not live up to the hype surrounding Vampire Weekend’s debut. It’s not that it’s a bad album — there are some pretty terrific string arrangements and a sense of retro fun throughout the whole thing — it’s just that it’s an average album. Expect big things from VW in the future, just not in 2008.

Best Songs

Admittedly, I don’t listen to a lot of radio. Regardless, these are my favorite single-type songs (I really and truly have no idea what’s popular) of the year.

10. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You – Black Kids
A catchy, smarmy, danceable indie ditty from an otherwise shallow and superficial debut. Come to think of it, this song is pretty shallow too. But it’s also pretty funny, and has a perfect chorus for jumping and shouting along to.
9. M79 – Vampire Weekend
Expect to see Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut album on a lot of year-end best-of lists. I found it fun but overrated, but the breezy summer strings on songs like this are endlessly endearing, no matter how you cut it.
8. I’m a Lady (Diplo Mix) – Santogold, feat. Amanda Blank
What a revelation these two women have been. On “I’m a Lady,” Amanda Blank finds her sweet and compassionate side (as opposed to her usual sexy and filthy side) while Santogold croons feminist truisms over perfect reggae beats. Yum.
7. Keep Yourself Warm – Frightened Rabbit
“It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep warm.” That’s the chorus. And it’s that kind of line that drove this song into my gut like a nail and twisted, slow-burning from artful indie folk to full-blown rock and roll mayhem and back again. Gorgeous, and sad, sad, sad.
6. SuperChrist – Smashing Pumpkins
Oh, my beloved Pumpkins, how everyone doubted you. Admittedly, “Zeitgeist” wasn’t a new classic, and your new single, “G.L.O.W.” kinda sucks, but all those doubters will be silenced with the b-side to “G.L.O.W.” the layered, supercharged prog-metal masterpiece that is “SuperChrist.” And as they shake their heads in wonder, I shall laugh in their faces.
5. Acid Tongue – Jenny Lewis
In an otherwise lackluster sophomore album, Jenny Lewis again finds her magical Patsy Cline-y place in the title track, “Acid Tongue.” The album as a whole could have used a lot less hubris and a lot more Watson Twins, but like the best of Rilo Kiley, this smartass lament hits just the right chords between sourness, loss, and twang.
4. That Man I Shot – Drive By Truckers
In the flood of Iraq War songs we’ve been drowning in since 2003, no other can match the steady, driving intensity of DBT’s excellent “That Man I Shot,” which is less a protest song than a steady descent into insanity through the guilt-stricken mind of a soldier who had to defend himself.
3. A&E – Goldfrapp
Allison Goldfrapp has come a long way since 2005, when her singles “Ooh La La” and “Fly Me Away” were forgettable – though catchy – club hits worldwide. She seems to have mellowed significantly. “A&E” is a gorgeous slow-dance complete with swelling strings and heart-tugging lyrics. Finally, she’s found a genre worthy of her amazing voice.
2. Go Go Gadget Flow – Lupe Fiasco
I would be lying if I said my love for Lupe Fiasco – this track in particular – didn’t play a part in my decision to come to Chicago. In “Go Go Gadget Flow,” Fiasco raps about my favorite old-school subject – how good of a rapper he is, and he shows us as much as he tells, spitting literate and unexpected lyrics at a dizzying clip.
1. Mercy – Duffy
Single of the year and beyond. In “Mercy,” Duffy shows us the soul of Amy Winehouse, the sass of Lily Allen, and the encompassing beats of 1960s Motown, and carries it all on her tiny Welsh shoulders. I defy you to listen to “Mercy” without getting it stuck in your head. Also, would someone explain to me why 20-something European chicks are the only people making good pop music anymore? (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Robyn, Adele)

Honorable Mentions

11. The Righteous Path – Drive By Truckers
12. I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing – Mike Doughty
13. Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!
14. Just Like Heaven – The Watson Twins
15. Swimming Pools – Thao
16. Mr. Carter – Lil’ Wayne, feat. Jay-Z
17. Get-Well-Cards – Conor Oberst
18. Broken – Tift Merritt
19. The Re-Arranger – Mates of State
20. Bon Iver – Skinny Love

Great-Sounding Albums I Missed (but I fully intend to catch up on in 2009)

Christmas presents, anyone?

1.American Music Club – The Golden Age
P: 7.7; AVC: A-; RS: NA; MC: 80
AVC says: “On The Golden Age, American Music Club more clearly defines what its recent reunion means; now fully relocated to a quiet world of directionless loners and crushed spirits, the band’s music is still as meaningful as anything from its original run. The Golden Age is a fascinating storybook of modern malaise: With atmospheric-yet-catchy songs such as “All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco,” Mark Eitzel’s vocals drift through anguish and empathy, finding truth in afflicted characters and their delicately painful lives. Though Eitzel isn’t completely devoid of hope, few can craft melancholy with such soft force.”
2.Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
P: NA; AVC: B; RS: 3.5; MC: 83
3.Beach House – Devotion
P: 8.5; AVC: B+; RS: 3.5; MC: 73
AVC says: “On its self-titled debut, Beach House stripped “autumnal” of its clichéd status. Devotion is something else entirely: From its opening sandpaper shuffle, Beach House channels brick-thick consistency in service of a bolder, brighter sound. When a song like “Heart Of Chambers” soars as epically high as any Flaming Lips epic, it’s easy to forget that the group is conjuring up space trips with little more than keyboard presets and gorgeous vocals.”
4.The Cool Kids – The Bake Sale
P: 7.8; AVC: B+; RS: 0 (!); MC: 78
5.The Dodos – Visiter
P: 8.5; AVC: B+; RS: NA; MC: 83
Saw them with Erin and they were excellent. Erin gives Visiter her seal of approval, and I trust that. Unfortunately, the 2008 release from the other band we saw that night, Au, isn’t all that great.
6.Portishead – Third
P: 8.8; AVC: A-; RS: 3.5; MC: 85
7.Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
P: 8.4; AVC: B+; RS: 4; MC: 87
8.DeVotchKa – A Mad and Faithful Telling
P: 7.7; AVC: A-; RS: 3; MC: 78
9.Daedelus – Love to Make Music To
P: NA; AVC: NA; RS: NA; MC: NA
10.Adele – 19
P: NA; AVC: NA; RS: 3; MC: 68

Best Concerts (that I personally attended)

One more quick list to close out this truly epic post. I went to a lot of great shows, especially at Cat’s Cradle, but here are the five I’ll never forget (the top 3 really were that close together):

1.Bruce Springsteen – 4-28-2008, Bobcat’s Arena, Charlotte, NC
2.Cloud Cult and Sweater Weather (final show) – 4-21-2008, Local 506, Carrboro, NC
3.Josh Ritter – 4-30-2008, Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
If anyone else was at that show or is just interested in a free Josh Ritter live album, you can download a very high quality audio file of this entire concert at archive.org.
4.Coheed & Cambria performing “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3” – 10-29-2008, Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL
5.Nicole Atkins and the Sea – 3-3-08, Local 506, Carrboro, NC

Thanks for being so patient everybody! Here’s to another year of great music in 2009!

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