Top 10 Best Albums of 2008

Melophobe is continuing to be thrilled and delighted to have been around for over a full year. To close out the year with a little controversy, we asked many of our fifty or so contributors to send us their picks for top ten albums of 2008. We were a little surprised by some of the responses, but we took everyone’s top ten, assigned ten points for a first-place pick, nine points for a second-place pick, and so on. We added up the scores, and behold! A submissions-based, aggregate top ten untouched by editorial oversight and whimsy!

Please comment and let us know what you think. It’s a funny list, and we’re thrilled to have so many people with strong opinions sending us stuff. We’ll continue to be opinionated. You keep reading and commenting. And being opinionated yourself.

Fleet Foxes’ eponymous debut LP opens with a simple contemplation of a red squirrel. As the band sings their folksy, a cappella harmonies, the listener images these flannel-clad, bearded ones drinking beers on a porch, watching the critters frolic in the backyard. But “Sun It Rises” quickly changes course. The acoustic guitar, the organ and the now refined, echo-filled harmonized vocals transcend that pastoral setting. We are swept above the trees, into the mountains, overlooking the rivers, valleys and civilization below. This blend of the temporal and the sublime is what makes Seattle-based Fleet Foxes a breakout star of 2008. Employing the talents of the full band, Fleet Foxes crafts a rich, textured psych-folk sound, made unique by signature harmonies and vivid lyrics. At the same time, when principal songwriter Robin Pecknold performs a solo, acoustic piece like “Oliver James,” the simple narrative and passionate vocal are equally captivating. With the band now writing their second album, we expect more great things in 2009. -Beth Doreian

Bon Iver oozed into playlists and record collections this year, fronted by Justin Vernon of Eau Claire, WI. Vernon penned and recorded For Emma, Forever Ago last winter following the dissolution of a band and a romantic entanglement, largely confining himself to a makeshift studio in a woodland cabin.  Featuring significant overdubbing—Vernon sur Vernon—For Emma is ghostly and haunting without settling for being merely atmospheric. Each song has direction and, though not necessarily a story to tell, certainly a mood with a point to convey. The album sounds stripped down, but the overdubbing lends depth and thickness to its sparse lines. Simply Vernon and his acoustic guitar, For Emma is touching and heartfelt, without ever feeling too graphic, nor gorpy with too much information. No dirty laundry here: just clean meditations over a pristine blanket of snow. Perfect for the season. Un bon hiver, certainement. -Ari Sommer

Iceland’s Sigur Rós has been creating some of the world’s most atmospheric and stunningly beautiful music since 1994. Their latest release, með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, is a breathtaking album that translates to “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly.” Although known for singing in “hopelandic” - a blend of Icelandic and a language that jón þor (Jónsi) birgisson (vocals, guitars) made up - “All Alright,” marks the vocal track Sigur Rós has sung in English. And this isn’t the only change. Sigur Rós has loosened up a bit, and moved away from the dense productions that defined their previous works, in favor of accessible pop stylings. The bowed guitar is noticeably absent for much of the album, and most of the songs are shorter. But Jónsi’s beautiful high falsetto returns, and the band’s ability to create beautiful atmospheric backdrops has never been more evident. The best example is the epic “Ára Bátur,” which begins with Jonsi singing over a single piano, and swells into a euphoric high, with contributions from the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy’s Choir. -Todd Harrington

TV on the Radio’s 2006 album Return to Cookie Mountain was sprawling and eclectic and energetic in such an upfront way that their latest attempt could have been equally interesting without having to explore much new territory.  Instead, Dear Science, sounds like the perfect next step in the evolution of the kind of band you can call “artists” with a totally straight face.  The arrangements are both more expansive and more intricate; the vocal duties are shared so seamlessly that it can be difficult to pinpoint who is singing at any point; and while guitars are often pared back in favor of added production and new layers of vocal harmonies, the drums maintain an irresistible danciness on even the more gentle tracks.

It’s not a shy album.  From the ungentlemanly seduction of “Lover’s Day,” a duet with Katrina Ford of Celebration ("Swear to God it’ll get so hot / it’ll melt our faces off") to the cheeky pun in the title of “Dancing Choose” and its unabashedly catchy handclaps, Dear Science, takes its chances so often and with such confidence that they almost always pay off.  If you don’t believe it, check out the video for “Golden Age.” “Oh here it comes like a natural disaster,” that song cheerfully warns.  In other words, listen to this album - and brace yourself. -Samuel Anderson

Vampire Weekend’s self-titled first album shot out of their Columbia dorm rooms like a Wellfleet matriarch to the nearest wine spritzer.  Despite their stodgy, academic roots, Vampire Weekend’s sound is a bouncy amalgamation of indie rock, Afro-pop, Calypso, and punk--borrowing a little here, mimicking a little there, and wham--and this is what has everybody so hopped up: they actually created a new thing.  Comparisons to late Talking Heads and Paul Simon are spot-on, including their common attention to, or really adoption of, African influences.  Importantly, all three also made something that scratched the itch of their day.  The album’s vibe is overwhelmingly sunny despite the lyrics being almost entirely cool, gently subversive observations of the band’s own yuppie elite community, accomplished most often through mere description. There have been some haters (Pitchfork came close to likening them to “your little brother’s music"), but when it comes down to it, we’re on board.  It’s smart, it’s fresh, and yeah, whatever, we kind of love it when they bitch about Cape Cod.  When jabbed about unabashed engagement with cultural appropriation, lead singer Ezra Koenig has said “It’s like zeitgeist or gestalt… a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.” We are maybe not so willing to shrug off such concerns, but leave it to another distant day when we’re finally sick of hearing this album on repeat.  It will have to be sometime next fall, cause this shit sounds damn good mixed with some sunshine and a warm breeze. -Jenny Rushlow

The breakout album, Oracular Spectacular, from the Brooklyn duo MGMT is more than just a dance album, and I had plenty of time to notice all these little nuances in the two straight weeks that it spent in my cars cd player. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden have rejected the polish and over produced sound of most synth-pop bands and developed a Psych-dance album of epic scope. The up-beat synth is under girded with solid drum loops and gloriously spacey funk guitar. From the first track to the last the multi-instrumental duo create a musical utopia where anything goes, and where the listeners are invited to “flood the streets with love or light or heat, whatever…”.But with all the lyrics about excess and hedonism there is always an underlying reminder to find and enjoy what is real and best in life. Highly recommended for your next wholesome neighborhood orgy. -Marion Clinton

HERE IT IS! Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House clean up their act after their ho-hum 2006 debut washed ashore on the blogsphere. Their new-old sound on Devotion manages to be fresh and vibrant, yet otherworldly. Sounds like if Nico had a love child with a depressed Dick Dale, and then the whole thing is blurred out on mescaline.  There’s a lustrous atrophy of chords and slowmo, lonesome guitar that moves through the opening tracks of “Wedding Bell” and “Gila”, which are my favorite cuts on the album, like the last party goer looking for somewhere to pass out. Victoria Legrand’s voice drones steadily, as if from a dream, about world-weary love, loss and yearning.  It’s pristine and a combination that’s hard to beat. This is not to be missed! -Kelly Davidson

On first listen, Third sounds like it could have been released just after the group’s second self-titled album. The Bristol collective has always been a band ahead of its time. Their first two albums, Dummy (1994) and Portishead (1997), were layered and moody works that seemed to foretell millennial tensions. Third was released eleven years after the band’s sophomore effort and it retains the same mystique and delicacy as its predecessors. Third relies on the interplay between the melancholy vocals of Beth Gibbons, layered moody strings and synths, and pace-setting breakbeat drums. Opener “Silence” and “We Carry On” are surprisingly fast-paced and energetic with Geoff Barrow’s guitar breaking the tension between the vocals and effects.  “Machine Gun” is simultaneously the most accessible and experimental song the band has produced, with industrial beats dominating the track. The album’s centerpiece, “The Rip,” combines a cascade of acoustic guitar, theremin, and keyboard effects that seems to reenergize itself with each verse.  The song, like the album, builds serenity and hope through despair. -Jeff Sparks

Disco and dance music seemed everywhere this year and no album represented this theme better than the self-titled debut of Hercules and Love Affair. Signature track “Hercules Theme” is replete with trumpets, Rhodes and vocal harmonies over a simple and catchy beat. “Iris” gently rocks you back and forth and intones “Don’t give up on your desire/I can understand your thirst.” This is ambitious music destined to inspire or crash in its own tangles. Yet, New York-based DJ Andy Butler creates a masterpiece that seems to satisfy both critics and dancers alike. The album’s hit single “Blind” features the emotive vocal talents of Antony Hegarty who transforms synthetic beats into a get-lost-in-yourself dance hit. Hercules and Love Affair will grow on you slowly—mixing its instant accessibility with soaring ambition and complex vulnerability. -Joshua Holt

Likening Jonathan Meiburg’s delicate falsetto to the objects of his ornithological research can’t be remotely original, but space is short and metaphors are useful. Resorting to eponym would be too painful, so let his voice be a frigatebird: resigned to eternal flight over rough seas, climbing effortlessly on the occasional updraft, the gentle rhythm of its glide broken by sudden, violent dives into the churning waves below. Shearwater’s second album following Will Sheff’s departure is likewise a thing of fragile, absurd, weather-beaten beauty. The band found their footing with 2006’s Palo Santo, and have now proven what they can do with a pair of overgrown wings. -Riley Nagler

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