2008 in Dead Music

Before I get to my list of 2008's top five albums, I would like to point out that there are only five albums from this year that I feel confident in putting on such a year-end list. Compared to 2007, which was an absolute bonanza when it came to amazing new music, 2008 has been a year of slim pickings. It's hard to tell if I have been largely unreceptive to new things because of external factors and blog-rock fatigue,¹ or just because there were not very many new things that were good. I suspect I need to broaden the narrow sweep of my musical radar, something I intend to do with a vengeance in the new year.

Here is what this year's releases have looked like for me:

A complete list of the albums that I have listened to more than once,² but that did not warrant any higher acclaim:

God Is An Astronaut - God Is An Astronaut

At least it's not as bland as Explosions in the Sky?

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Pleasant enough background music.

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

Peter Peter Hughes once said that Trent Reznor is a goth Ryan Adams. That is more entertaining than this album.

Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Some songs I really like, but the album has no real hook for me.

The Whiskers - The Distorted Historian

A strange and shambolic sort of beast, this may just need more time to grow on me.

Good albums that I don't love:

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Now, this is a lovely album, with lots of lovely harmonies and it's all very lovely, I just don't care about it. I don't quite understand why so many people are gaga over what feels like background music (albeit very nice background music).

Kaki King - Dreaming of Revenge

I would really like to like this more. I think I would love it if all of the tracks were in King's post-rockish instrumental mode but, alas, they are not.

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

A typically frustrating mix of great tracks and tracks that are not so great. Okkervil River always seem to do this.

R.E.M. - Accelerate

What a pleasant surprise. The first really enjoyable R.E.M. album I've listened to since Automatic for the People.

Good things that were not albums:

Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP

A smaller serving size works wonders sometimes, and thanks to the inclusion of the wonderful "Mykonos" this rates higher for me than the long-player.

The National - The Virginia EP / A Skin, A Night DVD

In the absence of a new National album, a bunch of rarities and B-sides along with a strange, impressionistic Vincent Moon film will do me just fine, thank you.

The Mountain Goats - Satanic Messiah EP

Very different in character to this year's Mountain Goats album (on which I will have more to say in a later post), lovely and stripped-back and boasting one of the best song titles of the year.

The Mountain Goats & Kaki King - Black Pear Tree EP

I haven't even heard this in its entirety yet, but what I've heard is enough to make me WANT it.

The War On Drugs - Barrel of Batteries EP

I don't know what this is or where it came from, but I like it.

The one good thing that I will say about the dearth of awesome new music this year is that it has encouraged me to experiment. Some music that has been recommended to me has fallen flat³, but other stuff I've tried out has been surprisingly entertaining.⁴ I've even had my interest in classical music rekindled, although pursuing that tends to take more effort than simply wallowing in different flavours of pop song.

Tomorrow: the five albums I actually loved this year.

1. Oh dear god, everything sounds the same and everyone is saying the same things about all the things that sound the same. [↩]
2. Sometimes this just means that I listened to it once more to see if I had missed what made it worth listening to, the first time around. [↩]
3. Aimee Mann, The Zombies, The Kinks, Wax Tailor. [↩]
4. Demons & Wizards, DJ Shadow, Ulver, Torche, Jesu [↩]