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: RunB's 2008 First Half Music Awards
BEST ALBUM OF JAN-JUNE 2008
Honorable Mention: Black Keys, Attack & Release... Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell... Cat Power, Jukebox... Ringo Starr, Liverpool 8.
10. Portishead, Third... Good to have them back. The same sound is there, a little more mellow this time out.
9. Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely... This album definitely has a Stripes-esque energy to it, a welcome change from the sterile packaged pop of Broken Boy Soldiers.
8. Mudcrutch, Mudcrutch... What if Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had been an all-Deadhead outfit? Well now we know the answer to that question. A great album that recalls the Byrds and early-70's Dead, while strands of classic Petty are still present.
7. Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer... Very creative indie rock from Canada's answer to Modest Mouse (Isaac Brock is a big fan of theirs). Less headache-inducing than their also-good debut Apologies to the Queen Mary.
6. REM, Accelerate... The album Monster wanted to be but wasn't. They haven't sounded this vital in a decade. Bill Rieflin has a power behind the kit that Bill Berry lacked. Only on "Until The Day Is Done" do they flounder (sounds like a parody of their early-90's peak), nothing else is skippable.
5. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend... Ooh, another indie band for all the indie kids to turn against the second the non-indie people get into them (note the 8.8 from Pitchfork). Still, gotta love a band that writes songs about how they "don't give a fuck about Oxford commas". (note: I don't use them, if you've noticed, hehe) This is exciting music though.
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges... A huge step forward for the band from their jammy subculture to art rock, in the same vein as OK Computer and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And hey, just in time for Phish to reunite.
3. Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends...
Amazing that a band so thoroughly pigeonholed, the subject of a monumental backlash (including the scene pictured above), could reinvent themselves so effectively at this point in its career as they have. Listen to songs like "Lost!" and "Lovers In Japan"; these songs could have been lazily arranged in the standard Coldplay styles we've grown accustomed to the last 8 years, but instead we find an album's worth of rousing tunes all played from different musical angles. The title track recalls a more muscular incarnation of The Buggles. Lead single "Violet Hill" thumps like Be Here Now-era Oasis. All "Strawberry Swing" needs to be a great Peter Gabriel Song is the Soweto Gospel Choir. The album is all audacity from a band viewed by many as one that's played it very, very safe. (not me, I've always been in their corner)
2. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs... The cast of characters in this album is a very bleak set. A man who seeks to commune with Kerouac in Big Sur but fails. A creepy stalker pleading that you "gotta spend some time" with him. A woman marrying the wrong man and damning herself to an unsatisfying life in the process. A couple afraid to break up for fear of dying alone. Witnesses to a blaze in the Grapevine area overwhelming the firefighters. A man who both envies and pities a girl with whom he just hooked up. I could go on. But musically, this is a powerful, yet intimate rock record, having more in common with Transatlanticism than with Plans. It's a triumph for Ben Gibbard that his lyrics are heartbreaking and unsympathetic at the same time.
1. Sun Kil Moon, April... It took Mark Kozelek 5 years to release a new album of original material after the masterpiece that was Ghosts of the Great Highway, but the wait was worth it. Every word is so carefully considered, nothing is cliche; a song like "Lost Verses" would have been a schmaltzy failure at the hand of another songwriter, almost any other for that matter.
Best Song, Single: Weezer, "Pork And Beans"... The closest thing to old Weezer that the band's put out since the mid-90's glory days.
Best Song, Non-Single: My Morning Jacket, "Highly Suspicious"... Somehow bridging the gap between Prince and Strongbad. What a concept.
BEST ALBUM OF JAN-JUNE 2008
Honorable Mention: Black Keys, Attack & Release... Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell... Cat Power, Jukebox... Ringo Starr, Liverpool 8.
10. Portishead, Third... Good to have them back. The same sound is there, a little more mellow this time out.
9. Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely... This album definitely has a Stripes-esque energy to it, a welcome change from the sterile packaged pop of Broken Boy Soldiers.
8. Mudcrutch, Mudcrutch... What if Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had been an all-Deadhead outfit? Well now we know the answer to that question. A great album that recalls the Byrds and early-70's Dead, while strands of classic Petty are still present.
7. Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer... Very creative indie rock from Canada's answer to Modest Mouse (Isaac Brock is a big fan of theirs). Less headache-inducing than their also-good debut Apologies to the Queen Mary.
6. REM, Accelerate... The album Monster wanted to be but wasn't. They haven't sounded this vital in a decade. Bill Rieflin has a power behind the kit that Bill Berry lacked. Only on "Until The Day Is Done" do they flounder (sounds like a parody of their early-90's peak), nothing else is skippable.
5. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend... Ooh, another indie band for all the indie kids to turn against the second the non-indie people get into them (note the 8.8 from Pitchfork). Still, gotta love a band that writes songs about how they "don't give a fuck about Oxford commas". (note: I don't use them, if you've noticed, hehe) This is exciting music though.4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges... A huge step forward for the band from their jammy subculture to art rock, in the same vein as OK Computer and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And hey, just in time for Phish to reunite.3. Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends... Amazing that a band so thoroughly pigeonholed, the subject of a monumental backlash (including the scene pictured above), could reinvent themselves so effectively at this point in its career as they have. Listen to songs like "Lost!" and "Lovers In Japan"; these songs could have been lazily arranged in the standard Coldplay styles we've grown accustomed to the last 8 years, but instead we find an album's worth of rousing tunes all played from different musical angles. The title track recalls a more muscular incarnation of The Buggles. Lead single "Violet Hill" thumps like Be Here Now-era Oasis. All "Strawberry Swing" needs to be a great Peter Gabriel Song is the Soweto Gospel Choir. The album is all audacity from a band viewed by many as one that's played it very, very safe. (not me, I've always been in their corner)
2. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs... The cast of characters in this album is a very bleak set. A man who seeks to commune with Kerouac in Big Sur but fails. A creepy stalker pleading that you "gotta spend some time" with him. A woman marrying the wrong man and damning herself to an unsatisfying life in the process. A couple afraid to break up for fear of dying alone. Witnesses to a blaze in the Grapevine area overwhelming the firefighters. A man who both envies and pities a girl with whom he just hooked up. I could go on. But musically, this is a powerful, yet intimate rock record, having more in common with Transatlanticism than with Plans. It's a triumph for Ben Gibbard that his lyrics are heartbreaking and unsympathetic at the same time.1. Sun Kil Moon, April... It took Mark Kozelek 5 years to release a new album of original material after the masterpiece that was Ghosts of the Great Highway, but the wait was worth it. Every word is so carefully considered, nothing is cliche; a song like "Lost Verses" would have been a schmaltzy failure at the hand of another songwriter, almost any other for that matter.Best Song, Single: Weezer, "Pork And Beans"... The closest thing to old Weezer that the band's put out since the mid-90's glory days.
Best Song, Non-Single: My Morning Jacket, "Highly Suspicious"... Somehow bridging the gap between Prince and Strongbad. What a concept.
