Best Albums of 2008: 10-6

 10. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping is the most delightful example of avantgard-pop creativity. Keeping indie relevant and showing off the cheerful side of pop-music art, Kevin Barnes, at least we hope, has many many more songs and albums to give birth to from the womb of his musical imagination. (Don’t worry, gonna drop the metaphor now.) I just love the pretended innocence, the half-smiling happiness and the naive atmosphere that surrounds the record and makes it one of the bests this year.

Of Montreal - An Eluardian Instance [zshare] // [ysi]

9. Bloc Party - Intimacy

This must come off as a strange choice but Bloc Party’s Intimacy just grew on me. First listen, I thought it sucks, second, I felt there’s something interesting, third, I wanted to hear it more times. Not an album of originality and not even the best indie-pop around but there’s something in the sensitivity and the intimacy (ooops…sorry) of the band’s attitude. I mean, there something touching in how they work with concepts related to relationships, love, loss, etcetc and sometimes it’s aggressive in heavy songs, sometimes it’s beautiful and dressed in weird electronic compositions and perfect lyrics.

Bloc Party - Biko [zshare] // [ysi]

8. Van She - V

2008 was unquestionably the year of Australian music. Many many artists from the brilliant Modular label emerged and made cool tracks and made the world listen to them. On of them is Van She who’s been around for a while but this proper debut is full of their best songs. Combining shoegazing and electronic sound, V breaks your heart and makes you wanna dance at the same time. Among the many cool electronic artists, Van She is one who can really create songs like a real band. The start of Memory Man is so huge, it’ll give you chills.

Van She - Memory Man [zshare] // [ysi]

7. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Canadian duo, Crystal Castles are the pioneers of a sick 8-bit gameboy-disco that rules the clubs nowadays. Alice Glass, the girl vocalist, I guess already has some distortion in herself so she fits nicely with the over-distorted screaming-singing and the post-punk pseudo-robotic stuff. The whole album is a lsd-induced nightmare-trip in cyberpunk clubs of the dystopian future where everyone is perverted, every family is dysfunctional and drugs are like food.

Crystal Castles - Reckless [zshare] // [ysi]

6. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

UK’s Friendly Fires made an amazing debut this year. Why is it better than the Foals’ album? - you could ask. My answer is: it’s more elegant, more diverse, more beautiful and more touching. I usually compare and pair up Friendly Fires with Foals but in this respect they are rather like Van She. Mixture of dance music and shoegaze, atmospheric electronica and indie. These guys make such a great and soulful sound that their place in the list is hardly questionable. The songs reach for the sky and the stars.

Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool [zshare] // [ysi]

Hiya! Short explanation first. Kunk’s best albums of the year posts start now. Top 20 albums will be shared in 4 days and will be followed by the 40 best tracks+remixes on the last day. The list isn’t totally personal nor is an official list of our blog but balanced somewhere between it. It’s really hard to decide on the criteria of bestness: close to the heart, banging the dancefloor or both? Well, we don’t live in a perfect world. Nevertheless, I had to choose some things so I chose to mention some favourites in every aspect of the word. Take it as a list of artist that I thought deserved to be mentioned among the bests. Naturally, I had to leave out a lot of stuff.

Since I’m only capable of putting together a list from 20 to 1, I have to mention a few albums that are left out. During this great struggle, I felt like I have to regulate my chaotic music-listening habits. I could put together something like 40-21 but that’d be a pain in the ass. So I’m just gonna act like I was easy-going and casual and mention a couple of artists now. Many electronic stuff couldn’t make it to the top 20. Like The Presets. They made an awesome album, full of darkness and evil-evoking tribal-dance stuff, still, somehow it started to bore me. Or The Whip. Great singles and they are on the most loveable side of their genre. Their debut, unfortunately, isn’t that exciting after a couple listens. There’s Ladyhawke who is cute and bringing back the 80s as we like it but it seems it’s not enough for a superb album, only a great one. I’m not doing justice to Late of the Pier. Obviously, we really love them and nearly everything that came out from the guy is pure gold, only to listen to it for more than a couple songs in a row, it can’t keep up the energy. Hercules and Love Affair should’ve been on the list too, I don’t have a proper explanation for leaving them off, maybe personality disorders. Sebastien Tellier made one of the best ‘concept albums’ this year but it’s somehow too funny to give it a number and put it in a list. Or how do you put the playful electro-pop of Air France in a list? Also, The Black Ghosts album didn’t get in cause I realized it’s much better for a dancefloor than for listening at home but still, their debut is more than promising.

So as you can see, I left out a lot of stuff that we usually blog about or rule the HypeM charts. Of course, I had to rape my weirdo side too and leave some records out from the ‘weirder’ genres to make room for my pop-y choices. I really loved the No Age’s fresh dirty and experimental sound. Much like Times New Viking, they keep up the noise of the 90s and the spirit. Gang Gang Dance consistently keep up their accomplishments and reach for something interesting with every album. The Notwist’s melancholical charm is undeniable on The Devil, You + Me. Brooklyn’s Love as Laughter is very very close to my heart still and with every album. I don’t think I need to mention Stephen Malkmus and Real Emotional Trash to anyone with a little interest in US indie rock. And, staying in the US, this years Castanets album beautifully keeps your mind on the border of dream and nightmare sounds. Nine Inch Nails, one of the greatest stuff of all times, deserves a shout out too for the amazing The Slip. The Mae Shi and Forward, Russia! are somehow similar and somehow made great records on the experimental-shouting-screaming edge of indie music. The Young Knives are one of the bands who still have courage and balls to go on in the non-NME era, and Superabundance is worth a lot of listens.

Fleet Foxes are left out on a very determined purpose. That album is a theatrical piece of overhyped shit.

Best Albums of 2008: 20-16

20. The Teenagers - Reality Check

The severe criticism that hit the debut of The Teenagers is, of course, understandable. On the other hand, we think they made one of the funniest, wittiest and totally danceable weirdo/postmodern pop record of the year.

The Teenagers - Starlett Johansson [zshare] // [ysi]

19.  Does It Offend You, Yeah? - You Have Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

Underrated once again, DIOYY is heavy, fierce and full of energy. I don’t know, I kinda like when someone makes serious fun of electronic music by ridiculing it with making a banging electro-rock album. Screams and chainsaw guitars are the most enjoyable part of this electronic post-punk explosion.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? -  With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You) [zshare] // [ysi]

18. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom

A beautiful folk-pop record with infinite sadness and the desperate impression of “everything will be allright”. Mount Eerie originates from the legendary Microphones, Julie Doiron is a Canadian singer-songwriter with a haunted voice and her guitarist Fred Squire. Lost Wisdom is deep in mourning for something none of us totally gets but the music is evoking it in the most adequate way.

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom [zshare] // [ysi]

17. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

Hot Chip’s new album is better than the debut. Colourful and diverse, Made in the Dark set an awesome new direction for this band. Disco and melody, sometimes broken, sometimes smooth, perfect for clubbing. Slower songs are on the other hand create a great atmosphere and make the record enjoyable for a long time.

Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor [zshare] // [ysi]

16. The Sea and Cake - Car Alarm

Hailing from Chicago, The Sea and Cake are among the many post-rock bands of the 90s, like the legendary Tortoise. Their new one, Car Alarm is smooth indie-pop with underlying twists: experiments in rhythm, structure and noise. Surfing on the noisy guitars, vocals are like Thurston Moore and the whole record meant to be a river of sound that you could listen to all day long.

The Sea and Cake - Weekend [zshare] // [ysi]

Back tomorrow…

Back to London now and I’m (not so) slowly going around the world. My Tiger My Timing (era of strange band names) is from the south-eastern part of the giant capitol. Anna, the pretty vocal-synth girl has sent us their myspace-link from where you can download the songs. I have been posting about a new type of indie dance music which born with bands like Foals and Friendly Fires. Somehow I feel that MTMT (Soulwax remix on the way?) is on the same wave. Not exactly cause they make it much more eclectic with afro-beat which is not my thing but I can’t really spot it here. This is intelligent surreal-pop mixing up the elements of weird North-American indie and alternative dance to create something unique that vibrates and buzzes through the air, and if they are lucky, it’s gonna shape the future of UK’s indie.

My Tiger My Timing - This is not the Fire [zshare] // My Tiger My Timing - This is not the Fire [ysi]

My Tiger My Timing - I Can’t Stop [zshare] // My Tiger My Timing - I Can’t Stop [ysi]

My Tiger My Timing - Conversation Starter [zshare] // My Tiger My Timing - Conversation Starter [ysi]

I think we haven’t posted about Australia’s BMX yet although we were both into the Theme which is really cool mix of Aussie electro sound + CSS-like powergirl-y attitude. And one of them is a blogger! Yeah, what an interesting world where musicians blog about music that djs play and this is only one combination, you could try and reverse the order! ie. djs blog about music that musicians play…WOW, right? So, guy from the band called Jad is blogging at Bigstereo. Credit goes there for these tracks. Download & listen cause they rule. Not sure if it’s gonna be the next big thing from Australia cause a lot is going on there right now as you know so from this chaotic mess of remixes and sounds it’s hard to tell who’s gonna emerge… Nevermind, the tracks are awesome. Hear the sweet 80s and remember the scene from Karate Kid when Mr. Miyagi fixes the broken bike. Totally that kind of feeling: Cruel Summer 2008. The remix below by High School Prom is made by an Aussie blogger who’s responsible for the cool Hyperbole.

BMX - Theme to BMX [zshare] // BMX - Theme to BMX [ysi]

BMX - War [zshare] // BMX - War [ysi]

BMX - Refero Beach [zshare] // BMX - Refero Beach [ysi]

BMX - Theme to BMX (High School Prom mix) [zshare] // BMX - Theme to BMX (High School Prom mix) [ysi]