Top Albums Of 2008

20) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
19) Superfly - Superfly
18) The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
17) Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
16) Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux
15) GReeeeN - あっ、ども。おひさしぶりです。
14) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
13) Murs - Murs For President
12) いきものがかり - ライフアルバム
11) Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III


10) Perfume - GAME

check out:
ポリリズム
plastic smile
チョコレイト・ディスコ

Since arriving in Japan, I’ve tried my hardest to hate Perfume. Their songs are featured on what seems to be every other commercial on television, they give the most deliberately ditzy interviews that I’ve ever witnessed, and they can neither particularly sing nor dance. One of my students brought me a picture of the trio and asked me which one of the three was my type, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I could barely tell them apart. All that being said, I still find myself constantly revisiting the album, and have to admit that songs like 「チョコレイト・ディスコ」 are mainstays on most of my playlists. Overall, Perfume's brand of electropop is really, really fun to listen to, and even if GAME isn’t exactly your thing, it’s an album that’s much easier to dismiss than actively hate. Personally? I love the album in spite of myself, and coming from me, that's quite the endorsement.


9) NaS - Untitled

check out:
Sly Fox
Black President
N.I.*.*.E.R.

Although the pre-release hype to the album centered largely around the record’s controversial prospective title and its eventual absence of one, the album itself turned out to be Nas’ best set since God’s Son. Nas is as explicitly political as he ever has been here, and though his views on the war on terror or Barack Obama aren’t quite unique, Nas still comes across as sharp, informed, and calculatedly fierce throughout the duration of the record. To be fair, Nas’ songs are never quite as controversial as the names of his albums might imply (Hip Hop is Dead), but he is still arguably the greatest active MC left in the business, and definitely the one that’s the hardest to imagine the game without.


8) YUI - I Loved Yesterday

check out:
Laugh away
LOVE & TRUTH
My Generation

It was never my intent to become a helpless fan of YUI, but I’ve quietly become so, even making it a point to get a copy of her B-sides album that came out a couple of months back. YUI certainly possesses the aura of a phenom; the quiet, unassuming songstress who unfailingly tops the charts, yet appears as if she’d rather be at home penning a new song than giving an interview on national television. There’s a thick sincerity to all of the songs on I LOVED YESTERDAY, so much so that you can’t help but wonder if YUI’s music will ever outgrow that baby face of hers. YUI’s brilliance primarily lies in her ability to so effectively capture the vibrancy of youth, so although I LOVED YESTERDAY doesn’t denote a huge evolutionary step forward, it does again capture YUI doing what she unquestionably does best: write songs for her generation.


7) Robyn - Robyn

check out:
Konichiwa Bitches
Be Mine
Bum Like You

Technically a 07 release in the UK, Robyn’s self-entitled release made its way over to the states in 08 and turned out to be the best pop record on either shore. It’s still easy to associate Robyn with "Show Me Love," so the transition to “Konichiwa Bitches” Robyn can be a bit of a peculiar one. Critics have been embracing this new breed of edgy yet oddly endearing pop starlet in recent years, and Robyn, much like Lily Allen before her, puts out a record that exudes the type of carefree confidence that is mostly lacking in America’s pop scene. The production here is real slick, but Robyn as a character is a little rough around the edges, possessing just a pinch of undomesticated fire which leads you to believe that her songs will sooner pull hair and scratch than coo and cuddle.


6) Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

check out:
An Eluardian Instance
Plastis Wafers
Wicked Wisdom

Where to start here? In a way, the latest album from Of Montreal is the same gaudy, effervescent set that we’ve come to expect from the group. The capricious record is as erratic as it is entertaining, possessing the type of balls-out eccentricity that can only really be accurately conveyed through the nude folks being attacked by demons (or whatever) on the album’s cover. Of Montreal indiscriminately dips and dabbles in different hues, and the resulting experience is something akin to waking up in Candyland with lots and lots of naked people. Kevin Barnes is brilliant here, intermittently tiptoeing a tightrope of strange, but more frequently keeling over into a vast pool of bizarre.


5) 絢香 - Sing to the Sky

check out:
Why
WINDING ROAD (w/ コブクロ)
おかえり

On "WINDING ROAD," a collaboration with コブクロ, Ayaka nearly turns the duo into a sideshow with her potent performance, an episode mostly averted by the fact that there are two of them and merely one of her. Simply put, the girl has some serious pipes, and could make a case as the strongest vocalist on Japan’s pop scene. While it’ll take more than a big voice to sell records, songs like the towering “Why” will keep Ayaka’s releases at the top of the charts for a long, long time.


4) Q-Tip - The Renaissance

check out:
Gettin Up
You
Official

Q-Tip has unquestionably been away from the game for too long, but he thankfully hasn’t lost a step during the 8 years that have passed since his last album released. Fans of Amplified may be disappointed with the record’s lack of a “Vibrant Thing,” but the masterful “Gettin Up,” with its silky, piano-laced beat, is probably the dopest song to come out all year. The whole record maintains an intricate balance of retro and fresh, and there’s something to be said about a guy who can take an 8-year hiatus (we can blame Arista for that) and put out arguably the best hip-hop album of the year. Not sure when we’ll be seeing that new A Tribe Called Quest album, but a new Q-Tip joint is clearly the next best thing.


3) 木村カエラ - +1

check out:
Yellow
はやる気持ち的My World
ファミレド

While the majority of +1's strongest cuts are still rooted in rock, Kaela experiments with dance on tracks like "Jasper" and comes out the better for it. Though plenty eclectic, there was a subdued, almost ethereal quality to last year’s Scratch. With +1, we get a much more kinetic piece, chock-full of riffy hooks and shimmering mid-tempo ballads. Kaela isn’t above singing a love song, but you never get the feeling that she’s helplessly smitten with the object of her affection when she does so. Maybe it’s her somewhat tomboyish air, but one of Kaela’s defining characteristics is that she simply isn’t the head over heels type. I’ve said this before, but if there’s one drawback to the release, it’s the album’s horrible cover. Kaela has many marketable qualities about her, but being incredibly greasy simply isn’t one of them. Brutal cover aside, Kaela’s latest eclectic set is up to par (at least) with her last album, further cementing her status as my favorite solo artist.


2) She & Him - Volume One

check out:
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
This Is Not A Test
Swing Low Sweet Chariot

I’ve always been a fan of Zooey Deschanel, so my interest was naturally piqued when I heard that she would be teaming with M. Ward to put out an album. Ward brings his acclaimed resume to the table, but its Deschanel’s homely, warm voice that carries the record. Zooey's transition from big screen indie darling to indie music darling is a seamless one, and you almost wish that she would switch to making music full time. Deschanel’s delivery in the recording booth is in fact quite similar to her delivery on the silver screen: a little odd, always endearing, never presumptuous.


1) Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows

check out:
ATL
The Weight Of Her
Going Back / Going Home

Walker’s songs are vast, sprawling, and a little murky; a series of reflective confessions that are as epic as they are engaging. It’s a little hard to believe that Walker is responsible for producing pop ditties for the likes of Avril and Puffy, because everything on this record is just so wistful and wonderfully bittersweet. It’s not quite perfect; you can’t help but wonder how that, “We don’t get along anymore/You just take the bed/I’ll take the floor,” chorus made the album, but it’s a rare misstep on a record brimming with sagely soft rock, and at times, an almost gentle sadness. One of my favorite Walker ballads remains “Cigarette Lighter Love Song” from back when he was with Marvelous 3, but even that track seems a little two-dimensional when compared to some of the winding, multidirectional stories that Butch gives us here.