Best of 2008: Part II

Yesterday I posted a piece of criticism so brilliant, so blindingly outstanding, that literally no one could say a word about it. You were all just left in stunned silence. So watch in awe as I attempt to provide that same level of baffling skill for a second day in a row.

The list goes on...

5. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night

Its detractors have said that this album strays too far from Kings of Leon's indie sensibility and reaches out to arena crowds too much, bordering on Adult Top 40. But John Mayer this album is not.

I'm sure the Tennessee band is upset about the fact that they can sell out London's O2 arena(20,000 seats) in a matter of hours but America couldn't care less about them. But the grit of their earlier albums has been replaced by big anthemic songs. What I find disappointing about this albums, and a lot of them on this list, the first song is the best and you feel like the rest of the album doesn't live up to it, regardless of how good the rest of the songs are. Only By The Night starts off with Closer, a haunting, atmospheric song with layers of delay that showcases Caleb Followill's voice where it works best.

So maybe they're going for mainstream success, but I still loved this one. On the other hand, my mother did too. I'll ignore that part.

Best Track(s): Closer, Sex on Fire

4. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound

When they played on Conan a while ago I thought "This band sounds like Springsteen playing Against Me! songs....wait, I've heard that before.' As it turns out, I read it in Rolling Stone months earlier and never bothered to check the band out, but it proves how spot on that observation was. In fact, AV Club said the same thing a few days ago.

Lyrically heartbreaking and musically ass kicking, The Gaslight Anthem are represents everything good about indie rock right now. Unpretentious, straight forward music that couldn't be less concerned with trends. You'll find no synth on this one.

And its not on The Pirate Bay, yet anyway. If you don't have it, you could do a lot worse with $10.

Best Track(s): Great Expectations

3. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

Two things that I don't care about. 1.) I don't feel bad at all for ranking this higher than people who actually wrote their own music, and 2.) I don't care about the people who say it sucks compared to Night Ripper. It's the same god damned thing.

Maybe I'm biased, I'm not one for clubs so it doesn't matter to me that this is more manic, and that you can't focus on partying because you're too busy playing 'spot the sample.' Isn't that part of its greatness? Maybe I'm too wide eyed and innocent because I was never into him(for those who aren't aware, Girl Talk is just one guy, Greg Gillis) before.

I don't know if I enjoyed any album more than this one this year. I thought he did just as good here as he did on the last album and there are some incredible moments. On Play Your Part(pt. 1) he mashes together T.I., Edwin Starr, Lil Wayne, and Sinead O'Connor into the same 12 seconds. So color me impressed.

Best Track(s): Set It Off, Like This(Set It Off's best moment is Jay-Z 'Roc Boys' over top of Paranoid Android,' 'Like This' has Lil Mama's 'Lip gloss' over top Metallica's 'One.' These standout about everything)

2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

The Hold Steady's songs feel like a story that Craig Finn told someone with certain sentences repeated for a chorus. This makes him my favorite lyricist ever. Their style is well established, 'bar band', 'Springsteen-esqe' and so forth. They didn't break any new ground with this album, they just did what they do better than they'd ever done it before.

'me and my friends are like, double whiskey, coke no ice,
we drink along in double time
might drink too much but we feel fine

we're gonna build something this summer
summer grant us all the power to drink on top of the water towers
with love and trust and shows all summer
let this be my annual reminder
that we can all be something bigger'

It really hits the theme of 'Stay Positive' without the heavy handed inspirational garbage you're used to and its just a great time to listen to. Best for drinking or driving. Never together of course, that would make me an irresponsible blogger.

Best Track(s): Constructive Summer, Sequestered in Memphis, Slapped Actress.

1. The Roots - Rising Down

Hip hop makes one appearance this year, and its at the top spot. The Roots hate the recording industry, and why not? This album is a 'fuck you' to Def Jam. They turned their backs on any commercial accessibility and made of their best records. I'm going to post a lot of lyrics now because there are some ridiculously good verses here.

The first one is from the title track, featuring Mos Def and this is among the best things he's ever done, and hes been around a long time.

'Tonight at noon watch a bad moon rising
Identities in crisis and conflict diamonds
Blinding staring at lights 'til they cryin'
Bone gristle popping from continuous grindin
Grapes of wrath in a shapely glass
Ingredients influential on your ways and acts
Zero tolerance to raise the tax
It don't matter how your gates is latched
You ain't safe from the danger jack
Made it way before they made the map
Or a GPS this is DEF leader.'

See? Amazing.

Better yet, 'I Will Not Apologize' is the best commentary on hip hop that I've ever heard. Lupe Fiasco did well with 'Dumb It Down' and of course theres 'Rap Superstar' and A Tribe Called Quest doing 'Show Business' but this is head and shoulders above all of that because of the anger and vitriol that Dice Raw delivers it with.

'For the statements I'm about to make I will not apologize
Niggas talk a lot of shit, really need to stop the lies
Jewels rented, cars rented, homie that ain't authentic
Acting tough on TV but to me you seem a little timid
Don't blame the nigga, blame America, it's all business
Acting like a monkey is the only way to sell tickets'

Those six lines say more about whats wrong with commercial hip hop than any number of Nas interviews ever could. And being the head of Def Jam, Jay-Z was upset with The Roots for not making a song he thought could be a single. Theres about five that would make good singles, but the audience is too stupid to appreciate it. This lead to the albums only bad song, 'Birthday Girl'. Its not even that bad, it just doesn't fit the rest of the album at all. They even recorded a version of it with Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. Mercifully, it was cut.

Best Track(s): Rising Down, @15, I Will Not Apologize

So thats the top 10. A pretty solid list if I do say so myself, but what would I know? I've never done this before. And here's the other random selections that are relevant to this discussion.

I sort of liked these.....

TV on the Radio - Dear Science

I'm sorry, TV on the Radio fans. I tried, I really did, and I just couldn't make myself care about this album. I only liked 'Dancing Choose,' which sounds nothing like any other song here.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

My favorite band of all time made a good effort here. Not top 10 worthy, but way, way better than 2003's St. Anger. The lyrics are still pretty bad, but I don't have to be ashamed of this one at all. I'm glad they held it together.

Weezer - Weezer

Good but not great, its hard to reclaim your past glory when it was as glorious as it was for Weezer(and the afore mentioned Metallica) and everyone will compare it to their old work. James actually wrong more about this so if you look at his blog and go back a few weeks you'll see a better breakdown. And I don't even compare it to the blue album, hell, I loved Maladroit. I would have settled for that.

Abject Failure....

Bloc Party - Intimacy

Extremely disappointing. I was told there would be a return to the rawness of Silent Alarm. Promises were not kept, it might be raw, but its a raw clusterfuck of electronica nonsense. Good for them, deciding that they didn't have to pander to the audience who didn't care for A Weekend In The City, but this was just awful.

Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads

Their albums were pretty hit of miss anyway, but at least they were enjoyable for the most part. A lot of good songs and just a few clunkers. This has one good song, a great one actually, with 'Can't Say What I Mean.' It was the first single, too. I hope no one bought it based off that.

It took a while, but we've reached the end. What a long, strange trip its been, to quote uncreative yearbook editors.

Back to the regular, boring grind tomorrow.