Ok, so this hasn't quite gone to plan. New Year's Resolution! More frequent blogging! Starting now!
For the last few years I've felt increasingly like I don't get new music. I flatter myself that I'm an enthusiastic consumer of pop music, both underground and overground. In fact, I've always thought that I devour, rather than merely consume it. I suppose this is symptomatic of (or perhaps a contributory factor to) my ridiculously short attention span. The positive aspect of this is that I have a pretty decent record collection, if I do say so myself, and one of the most enjoyable things a guy can do, in my opinion, is research a band thoroughly - what they used to sound like, whether the members used to be in other bands and what they used to sound like, who their influences are and how much I'm gonna dig on them... great fun. Geeky, yeh, but what the hell.
So it came as a surprise to me a few years ago when I started to lose interest in contemporary stuff - there was just nothing exciting me. It was worrying. I mean, what do you do when your passion suddenly seems to hold no future for you? I suspect it kicked in with the arrival of what my friend Phil refers to as 'Top Man indie' - it was the first time music had made me feel too old. Without wanting to get all melodramatic, in your mid-20s that's a bizarre place to be.
Luckily, after a surge of xmas presents, vouchers and things, the end of 2008 helped me realise that there's still plenty of stuff out there that I love. It's not all over for me - thank fuck! Hooray for needless fretting! So with this in mind, I present my top records of 2008! Enjoy!
10. Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee - S/T
Imagine a record destined to make zero impact upon the public consciousness. This was surely it. Ex-Hefner frontman and current indie legend Darren Hayman teamed up with The Wave Pictures' David Tattersall to create a gorgeous piece of magical London bluegrass. But whatever your thoughts on the premise or its commercial viability, there were few records released this year that exuded such joy. Indiepop approaches to country music (and its various subgenres) have rarely scaled the heights of this album.
9. Times New Viking - Rip It Off
I'm fairly sure that, for a lot of people, TNV represent little more than an untamed, untalented and ultimately unlistenable indie rock trio. But from the first time i heard them (cruising Myspace for acts to watch at ATP) to the 3 times i got to see them in 2008, they've been sheer rock'n'roll excitement throughout. Yeh, it's sloppy and chaotic, and on record you have to search even harder for the bubblegum delight underneath the fuzz, but dammit, it's FUN! Like trying to catch early Pavement demos on a cheap long wave radio whilst pouring cherryade and sherbert into your mouth.
8. Mudhoney - The Lucky Ones
Earlier this year, John Robb reviewed this record for Plan B. Looking back on grunge, the Gold Blade ringmaster suggested that Mark Arm's garage rock veterans left the best and most important legacy. I'm not sure how far I agree with that statement, although I'd be pretty hard pushed to choose between Touch Me I'm Sick and Lounge Act if asked. In any case, this fine effort showed there's still bite behind their snappy bark; a sterling collection of hip-shakers and floor-stompers that added a delicious groove to their heady blues broth.
7. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
One of two artists what I managed to catch at this year's ATP and immediately write off. Note to self: when searching for party bands whilst horribly drunk in a badly-ventilated indoor festival, do not announce to all and sundry that an acoustic act is bad simply because they did not make you want to jump up and down. For Emma... is beautiful; constantly teetering on the edge of histrionic but somehow retaining its footing. Lush falsettos and subtle electronics only add to the sweetness on display.
6. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
If ever a hip-hop record had me sold from the concept alone, it was this album's sterling single Dr Carter, in which Wayne plays a consultant for rappers suffering from problems with their flow. It's brilliant, hilarious and addictive, not to mention big-headed. Although possibly not as big-headed as the self-aggrandising couplet of the year: "Take away the basketball, the football team / Now all we got is me to represent New Orleans" (from Tie My Hands). What, just you? Brilliant.
5. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
There was a lot of talk this year about Death Cab reinventing themselves, and when needlesly-long single I Will Possess Your Heart crashed into the 6music playlist, I couldn't help but feel like it may have been for the worse. Luckily, I needn't have worried. It's classic Death Cab really, and even the five minute Pink Floydian intro to the single makes perfect sense within the context of the full record's natural flow. If anything has changed, it's Ben Gibbard's new 'character study' approach to lyrics, which perfectly offset sunny collegiate indie-pop like No Sunlight; surely one of the best tracks to grace a DCFC record thus far.
4. Fleet Foxes - S/T
Sub Pop appears to have been on the hunt for a new Shins ever since New Slang's appearance on the Garden State soundtrack converted innumerable movie viewers into hardcore fans of literate, vaguely psychedelic, folk-tinged indiepop. Fleet Foxes are the latest pretenders to the Albequerque heroes' throne, and an album crammed with Beach Boys harmonies and 'baroque folk jams' can only encourage more listeners to jump on their heavily-crowded bandwagon. From rural American whimsy to pure sun-drenched pop, this is a record to be cherished; where each track drifts into the next with the gentle, natural glide of twigs in a stream.
3. Vivian Girls - S/T
Of all the hearts that Brooklyn's Vivian Girls have won, it's interesting that the resurgent C86/twee/indiepop/whatever scene seems to be claiming the trio as their own. This may be due to the reverb-heavy, borderline-shoegazey production of their album, or certain sonic similarities to the likes of the Shop Assistants. Either way, it does not take much probing to note that the girls are, to all intents and purposes, a pop-punk band along similar lines to Bratmobile, Onion Flavored Rings, Party Garbage or Cub, and this gloriously messy debut showcases every possible reason to love them in just over 20 minutes. What's not to devote oneself to utterly?
2. Deerhunter - Microcastle
Brandon Cox's Deerhunter are the aforementioned other band that I managed to cast aside in derision at ATP Vs Pitchfork. After months of reading about how amazing they supposedly are, I gave in and spent some vouchers on their latest opus. And good lord, it's magnificent. I'm quite, quite happy to withdraw any previous comments i may have made about this band. From its richly atmospheric production to its intricately-arranged, crack-level-addiction tunesmithery, Microcastle is an endlessly enjoyable record that leaves me breathless for more.
1. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
I love this band. It's been years since I've even come close to liking a contemporary band as much as I adore The Hold Steady. And this fourth effort only served to illustrate why. It's not so much a reinvention of their formula - Paul Westerberg and Bob Mould fighting over the mic amidst rippling Springsteen pianos and arena-sized choruses - as a refinement of it. Opening and closing with two of the finest songs of their career (Constructive Summer and Slapped Actress) doesn't detract from the stuff inbetween, as the band play around with new wave synths, stadium balladry and doom-laden psych-blues in what is surely their most complete album yet. It helps that Craig Finn is one of the finest lyricists in rock today, and the multi-faceted narrative he weaves throughout Stay Positive is utterly compelling. If they continue at this stunning rate of pace, lord only knows how immense their next record will be.
So there you go. My records of the year for 2008. New music's ace actually, isn't it?
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