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| Twisted Ear's Albums of 2008 |
| Written by Twisted Ear | |
 The team picks at the remnants of the 2008 musical carcass, taking album scraps back to the nest.To many, the majority of Twisted Ear staff included, 2008's musical output has been a bleak affair. A period that could be best described as the land that time forgot, or rather the twelve months we're choosing to forget. Before the obligatory year-end trawl across the album landscape in search of those isolated moments of excellence, it's best to put those gems into some kind of context. Or the opposition as we'd like them to be known. If 2008 was significant for one thing, it was the fact that it was the year when all music's big hitters returned to show us what they've learned over the past two, ten and seventeen years. Truth be told, they didn't teach us anything they hadn't told us before, and we weren't that impressed as a result. Looming on the horizon like music's Neanderthal Men were Oasis and Kings of Leon; prowling, skulking and braying at a quivering media like chromosome-deficient warlords, their shiny new album-slings were loaded with the same-old cocaine ineptitude, clunky syntax and nothing else of any importance. Elsewhere, Coldplay dusted off Earth's consensus and decided that the time for switching on all provincial-types to some interesting sounds was long overdue. With sonic situationalist and considerate lover Brian Eno on the payroll, and rhyming dictionary in hand, the boys set about the task. This year, rather apologetically, their album results came in, and they were pretty similar to the last set. Only less singalongable. With the interludes between the tracks making you think you had water in your ear. Thanks, Brian. One interesting strand did emerge from Coldplay's return, and that was of their new image: the Adam Ant revival starts here. And ends too. The charts were a strange place for budding artists to take up residency in 2008, and a funny one too. The north-end of the sales hierarchy was dented with alarming regularity by the old school - and by old school, I mean Robert Plant (No. 2), Whitesnake (No. 7), Neil Diamond (No. 1) and Bob Dylan (No. 9) alongside honourable mentions, and Top 10 and Top 20 chart placings, to Billy Fury, Joe Brown, Dennis Wilson and The Bachelors also. Perhaps the older artist album-buying shift is best typified by AC/DC's Black Ice blasting its way to the top of the album charts, pushing aside Kaiser Chiefs' Off With Their Heads, outselling it by two to one in the process. The times are, indeed, a-changing. Comebacks continued to be lucrative and career-reinvigourating, particularly in the hard rock domain. As already mentioned AC/DC made a seismic impact on their reappearance, as did Metallica whose Death Magnetic was lauded as a long-awaited return to form. The spectre and the speculation of a long-term reunion of Led Zeppelin initially continued to set hearts a-flutter, before interest waned on news of Robert Plant's reluctance. At the time of writing it is thought to only now be of concern to the most desperate of tabloid editors. In pop, one of Girls Aloud's number (themselves returning rather limply and somewhat subdued), Cheryl Cole, replaced the self-styled Britain's Best Mum on TV's X Factor, to earn her rightful place as next in line to the People's Princess' throne. Just gotta wait for Princess Di to pop her clogs now, right Daily Express readers? America now, and pop scientists successfully cross-bred Pink with Tatu to give us Sapphic tantalizer Katy Perry. And the public, for the first fifteen minutes at least, liked it. So that was 2008. The bright spots of the year emerged through a democratic, argument-free poll conducted amongst the Twisted Ear staff. The McCains have been cast aside, leaving ten site-endorsed Obama-albums. If you haven't already, then welcome them into your lives: change, after all, is good.  1. TV On The Radio - Dear ScienceOne of the debating points whilst compiling this year's list has been whether or not 2008 was actually anywhere close to being a vintage year. 'Where were the standout records of yore?' came the cry - and then one record comes in and takes the number one spot with all the ease of Usain Bolt running the 100 metres against a chocolate biscuit. Regardless of the overall arguement's validity or otherwise, Dear Science stands out because it is the most inventive and intuitive record of the year, the most rythmically compelling mix of old-school funk and electronic grooves in ages (with heavy politicing and massive hooks thrown in). For the uninitiated, picture this.....a recording studio somewhere far, far away.......Talking Heads are jamming on Prince & MBV covers..... production is being handled by Bowie/Eno with able assistance from Nile Rogers & Bernard Edwards.....the chalkboard in the studio reads 'Isaac Hayes invented LCD Soundsystem - Discuss'. Dear Science is not just a reflection of influences, but a true distillation of them to evolve a sound where you know they're there, but can't see the join; the ghost of funk future. Graham Quinn [Read full review]  2. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaustOutside of the usual spectacle; the lavish dramatic designs and the insatiable urge to press the button marked 'grandiose orchestral crescendo', a different Sigur Rós returned this year. For the first time on record the Icelandic quartet sounded like they were a band, and pleased to be in a band; Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust found them in strident form, unanchored from their shyness and quietly jovial. Yet even this bold new footing was surpassed by the band's gentler passages; subtle creaks, watery soundscapes and sedate ruminations all paved the way for album six's most striking triumph: Jónsi Birgisson's heart-stopping falsetto. Green, vulnerable and crystalline in its release, the innate purity of Birgisson's sustained call raised him leagues above the similarly unique Jim James, Antony Hegarty and Jeff Buckley, and gave Sigur Rós their simple, but simply mesmeric signature. Still couldn't resist that button, mind. Mark Thompson [Read full review #1] [Read full review #2]  3. Fleet Foxes - Fleet FoxesLet’s not fuck about, the world needs this album to exist. Fleet Foxes remind us what a record is capable of being. This lush and harmonious debut blends all the best parts ever written by America, The Beach Boys, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and countless others but still sounds fresh, new and somehow original. Delicate, precise and so very, very earnest, this is a record that shows no age; a timeless classic of the future. Ian Simpson [Read full review]  4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever AgoNo way in the world should this work. No way IN THE WORLD should you do anything but run-a-shreiking from the premise of this record. Bloke gets dumped by titutlar Emma, heads off to isolated wood cabin to document and record response to said dumping, kills and eats various wildlife along the way. It sounds as if you're being faced with the bastard child of John Denver and John Rambo. Thankfully, it's nothing of the sort - and whilst it can take some time for For Emma, Forever Ago's magic to fully seep into you, the rewards are enormous; the record is emotionally stark without ever being cloying or self-pitiful, fragile without being weak, taut and spare musically without sounding under-nourished. Sure, it isn't for the faint hearted, but part of the sheer brilliance of the record is how Justin Vernon is able to encapsulate his situation in simple phrases like "if all your love was wasted / then who the hell was I?" as well as in delicate musings like Blindsided. Rarely is such emotional density handled with such a lightness of touch; in a year replete with records of great beauty, For Emma, Forever Ago remains a stand out achievement. Graham Quinn [Read full review]  5. The Hold Steady - Stay PositiveOn this fourth disk, The Hold Steady continue their holy, compulsively listenable crusade to be the least cool band in indie rock. On the first song, the almost impossibly catchy Constructive Summer, their Midwestern Poet Laureate of a lead singer Craig Finn references Iggy Pop and demands reverence be paid to Joe Strummer, hardly the idols of the current indie quirkerati. But The Hold Steady always have been more Springsteen than Wolf Parade anyway. In lesser hands the album could’ve been a collection of overripe rock and roll clichés; included is the ode to the drunken hook-up (Sequestered In Memphis), a Led Zeppelin-ish mystical excursion, with Catholic dogma replacing Lord Of The Rings lore (Both Crosses), a synth-laden 80’s time-capsule worthy rocker (Navy Sheets), a murder mystery with a harpsichord breakdown (One For The Cutters) and even a power ballad, executed without a touch of irony (Lord, I’m Discouraged). And, amazingly, it’s all executed flawlessly. Granted, it’s not as vibrant as 2006's masterpiece Boys And Girls In America, but what could be? The Hold Steady traded momentary faddism for lasting brilliance, but that doesn’t mean they’re content; as Finn reminds the Youth Of America that he always seems so preoccupied with on one of the three (glorious) bonus tracks “we gotta try a little harder/we gotta be a little better.” And the fact that this band isn’t massively successful by now proves that yes, yes we do. Michael Poley [Read full review]  6. Goldfrapp - Seventh TreeA warm and breezy country summer idyll. Alison Goldfrapp invites us to her secret garden for a tea party in soft focus. Costume hats and chocolate biscuits, innocently sensuous yet percolating and ripe. The songs are thick textured and luxurious, unconcerned with the sort of jittery jive for which Goldfrapp has been known. Neither are they concerned with much at all, besides an intimate relationship with your serotonin receptors. Listen only if you're a sort what likes to feel good. Yorgo Douramacos [Read full review]  7. Neon Neon - Stainless StyleThe 80s. An era not for the faint-hearted, or the colour-blind, and the go-to decade for those 2008 acts mired in their own creative inertia. This year some amazing transformations and career u-turns occurred; M83 got cuddly and cosy with a big, gated drum noise, The Killers became Duran Duran and Keane became Simple Minds. No-one panicked, no-one was startled, and everything remained so cloyingly familiar and dishwater dull. Everything, except for Neon Neon, the John DeLorean-inspired meeting of minds between the UK's premier idiosyncratic pop maverick Gruff Rhys and LA's digi-alchemist Boom Bip. The synthesis was Stainless Style, the 8.21 gigawatted majestic clash of archaic synth-pop, hip-hop, yacht rock and italo disco that outlined the rise and fall of the wing-door designing, car company owning playboy businessman. A pop masterclass ensued that spanned musicality as bold and brash as the muscle cars themselves (Sweat Shop), to ingenious songwriting equally finespun and precision-engineered (Belfast). A peerless retro requiem, then. Great Scott! Mark Thompson [Read full review]  8. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.The album leaked ridiculously early on the internet, as did the bonus disc, thanks to lead singer Bradford Cox mistakenly allowing the public access to everything in his Mediafire folder. Which is very funny, I guess; but, to be fair, by next year nobody's going to be talking about that, really. They will be talking about the music. Tightening up their sound and losing most of their effects pedals could so easily have lost them their audience. But, just because the production was cleaner didn’t mean they couldn’t still stare at their shoes. Bonus disc Weird Era Cont. took the new sound off on a tangent - or rather back on itself - to a slightly noisier past, but it was on Microcastle where they finally lived up to the hype that 2006’s Cryptograms generated. Richard Ellis [Read full review]  9. Elbow - The Seldom Seen KidThe season of goodwill started early this year. The outpourings of support that greeted Elbow winning the Mercury prize were perhaps only beaten by those for America's election of the puppet on the left this time around, but it is definitely true that in Elbow's case, the good guys won out. The Seldom Seen Kid was a self-produced elegy for a departed friend, and was at once uplifting and heart-rending, driving and restrained, anthemic and subtle. Delicate pieces like Starlings, Weather to Fly and Mirrorball sat comfortably next to the fuzz-driven The Bones of You and the junkyard blues of Grounds For Divorce. And yes, One Day Like This may have been this year's TV montage bed of choice EVERYWHERE, but the real highpoint was The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver, a brooding, pulsing rumination with a stunning vocal performance. A band completely on top of their game. Graham Quinn [Read full review]  10. My Morning Jacket - Evil UrgesWhat a strange proposition My Morning Jacket offered up with this, their fifth album. After three solid, reverb-heavy country rock epics, MMJ's fourth disc, Z, hinted that Jim James and co weren't just about long hair and Flying V's with nods to funk and reggae. But even though its predececssor was diverse, Evil Urges was a step nobody could have imagined the band would take, veering all over the place musically, from James' Prince-like falsetto on its title track to his all-American Springsteen/Meatloaf crossover on Aluminum Park. And then there was the opinion-dividing freak-funk of Highly Suspicious, which epitomised the audacity of the record. Evil Urges turned out to be a real curveball - it shouldn't have worked, but it did. Beck Kingsnorth [Read full review] Twisted Ear Writers' picks of 08 in full Kev Acott 1. Dr. John - The City That Care Forgot 2. Nitin Sawhney - London Undersound 3. Tricky - Knowle West Boy 4. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree 5. Rokia Traore - Tchamantche 6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! 7. Emmylou Harris - All I Intended To Be 8. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 9. Jackie Leven - Lovers At The Gun Club 10. Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - Lie Down In the Light Sam Black 1. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E 2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 3. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive 4. Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual 5. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid 6. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 7. Shugo Tokumaru - Exit 8. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke 9. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely 10. Monkey - Journey To The West Samuel Byron 1. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster 2. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree 3. The Mae Shi - Hlllyh 4. Kleerup - Kleerup 5. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion 6. Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer 7. Girls Aloud - Out Of Control 8. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls 9. Sambassadeur - Migration 10. Delays - Everything's The Rush Erin Carson 1. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs 2. The Travelling Band - Under The Pavement 3. Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night 4. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line 5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 6. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash 7. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins 8. John Legend - Evolver 9. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 10. Chris Walla - Field Manual Jim DiGioia 1. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 2. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid 3. M83 - Saturday=Youth 4. Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich 5. The Dears - Missiles 6. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree 7. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles 8. Sons & Daughters - This Gift 9. The Week That Was - The Week That Was 10. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend Yorgo Douramacos 1. Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - NYC 2. The Notwist - The Devil, You and Me 3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! 3. Portishead - Third 5. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 6. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid 7. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges 8. Ladytron - Velocifero 9. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree 10. The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia Daniel Dzodin 1. The Mae Shi - Hlllyh 2. Why? - Alopecia 3. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 4. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark 5. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight 6. T.I. - Paper Trail 7. Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Graves 8. Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams 9. Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends 10. Jessica Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt Richard Ellis 1. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 2. Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill 3. Neon Neon - Stainless Style 4. Beach House - Devotion 5. El Guincho - Alegranza 6. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges 7. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. 8. Koushik - Out My Window 9. Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park 10. Plants And Animals - Parc Avenue Nick Forshaw 1. Johnny Flynn - A Larum 2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 3. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 4. Noah And The Whale - Peaceful The World Lays Me Down 5. High Places - 03.07 - 09.07 Pádraic Grant 1. Immortal Technique - The 3rd World 2. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul 3. Benga - Diary Of An Afro Warrior 4. Dead Meadow - Old Growth 5. Dungen - 4 6. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping 7. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 8. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie 9. The Charlatans - You Cross My Path 10. GZA - Pro Tools Philip D. Huff 1. Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs 2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges 4. Otis Redding - Live in London and Paris 5. Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw 6. Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night 7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 8. Neil Young - Sugar Mountain 9. TV On The Radio - Dear Science Beck Kingsnorth 1. Metallica - Death Magnetic 2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive 3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges 4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 6. Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams 7. The Pack AD - Funeral Mixtape 8. The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia 9. Portishead - Third 10. Neon Neon - Stainless Style Anna Lord 1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 2. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight 3. Johnny Flynn - A Larum 4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 5. The Dodos - Visiter 6. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 7. Tony Christie - Made In Sheffield 8. Noah And The Whale - Peaceful The World Lays Me Down 9. Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez - Why Is The Bear Billowing? 10. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping Michael Poley 1. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive 2. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster 3. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 4. Paul Westerberg - 49:00 5. No Age - Nouns 6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! 7. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. 8. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 9. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion 10. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins Graham Quinn 1. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 2. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins 3. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid 4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 6. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 7. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive 8. Glasvegas - Glasvegas 9. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. 10. R.E.M. - Accelerate Ian Simpson 1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 2. These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid 3. Portishead - Third 4. Beck - Modern Guilt 5. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement 6. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 7. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 8. This Town Needs Guns - Animals 9. Neon Neon - Stainless Style 10. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Noel Slevin 1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 3. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight 4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 6. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing 7. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid 8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! 9. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs 10. Foals - Antidotes Mark Thompson 1. Koushik - Out My Window 2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science 3. Portishead - Third 4. Clark - Turning Dragon 5. Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park 6. El Guincho - Alegranza 7. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 8. Autechre - Quaristice 9. Neon Neon - Stainless Style 10. Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. Mike Walker 1. Bubblegum Lemonade - Doubleplusgood 2. Tears Run Rings - Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never 3. Lady Gaga - The Fame 4. Belle And Sebastian - The BBC Sessions 5. Safeashome - Not What Happens 6. Ladytron - Velocifero 7. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree 8. Beach House - Devotion 9. M83 - Saturdays=Youth 10. The Daysleepers - Drowned in a Sea of Sound Nikki Wertheim 1. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs 2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 3. A Silver Mt. Zion - 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons 4. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust 5. Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger 6. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive 7. No Age - Nouns 8. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III 9. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath 10. Nas - Nas  (0) comments - discuss in the forum |
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