Popshifter‘s Best Of Lists

2008 Top Eight

By Chelsea Spear

2008 marked the year that my interest in music outstripped my interest in film by a hair. This might have something to do with the crappy quality of feature films this year, or the fact that it’s easier to stuff a portable music player of choice into your pocket and listen to music while you do other things than it is to do the same with a movie. This was also the year that I finally had access to an iPod (which my boyfriend and I have dubbed “El Señor”), which broadened considerably my access to music. That said, my musical year revolved around two disparate artists—a favorite opening act whose album is a masterpiece in its own right, and a duo who have created some of the most inventive and influential albums of the past half-decade since long before I was a zygote. Herewith are the eight artists and albums without which 2008 would have been a lot less tuneful.

Justin Vernon

Bon Iver, For Emma Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
By now the origins of this record have become legend in the indie rock blogosphere. I came to Justin Vernon’s music with no such baggage—when he toured as the support act for Elvis Perkins last year he was just a guy with a guitar and one of the most amazing voices I’d ever heard. His goofy, good-humored stage presence contrasted with the gorgeous music that poured forth from him. When his record finally dropped in February, it exceeded even my highest expectations. This song cycle matched the catharsis of heartbreak and redemption with lush melodies and double- and triple-tracked falsetto vocals that sound like the music you hear as you’re assumed into heaven. Imagine Elliott Smith covering Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows in April” and you have a point of departure for this album. There are really no words for how wonderful this album is, and how much it kept me company this year.

Sparks, Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (Li’l’ Beethoven)
2008 is the year I discovered Sparks, the inventive and willfully eclectic brother act from Los Angeles. Most Popshifter readers are hipper and savvier than yours truly and have probably been listening to them for years, so I’ll cut to the chase and say that this is, to my ears, the strongest of their self-released albums from the oughties. The lush, melodic music, funny-yet-poignant lyrics, better-than-you’d expect arrangements (okay, so the strings sound canned), the lovely falsetto vocals. . . it’s all here. Though it’s hard not to giggle at song titles like “She Got Me Pregnant” and “Lighten Up Morrissey,” there’s a sense of melancholy driving many of the tunes. When I listen to this album, I feel as though I’m in an art deco bar, commiserating about my latest heartbreak with the Ronald Colman-esque bartender, who then turns to me and says, “Dry your tears, madame. It’s a good thing you left that cad. After all, I not only know that man. . . I was that man.”

My Brightest Diamond, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth (Asthmatic Kitty)
A second album of dense chamber rock from Shara Worden (the operatic colatura-turned-indie diva), this very cinematic collection of songs improves upon her previous album by pulling the listener in to an eerie, but whimsical soundscape. Torchy numbers (like the single “From the Top of the World”) glide alongside operatic set pieces like “Black and Coustaud” and the late-album lamentation “Bass Player.” This gorgeous, gilded album recalls both Brian Eno’s mid-period work like Another Green World and Berlioz’s sweeping, heady operas. If you like your lady singers with a dash of ambition, or if you want to be swept away into the musical equivalent of an Aubrey Beardsley painting, this is the album for you.

The Shortwave Set, Replica Sun Machine (Wall of Sound/import only)
This British band fell into my lap after I learned that they’d worked with Van Dyke Parks and John Cale, two of my favorite experimental pop codgers. It’s one of the most fun albums I’ve heard all year. Imagine that Robert Schneider of Elephant 6 infamy produced a Stereolab album and you have an idea of what this swirly, tuneful psychedelia sounds like. The second half of the album falls off a bit, and “House of Lies” lifts a few measures from “Sylvan Screen”, but the rest of the album is strong enough to excuse these bumps.
(Read Chelsea’s album review here.)

Inara George with Van Dyke Parks, An Invitation (Everloving)
Speaking of Van, the great and good sideman to knowing popsters everywhere paired with Bird and the Bee frontlady Inara George to record the father/daughter album she was unable to record with her birth father, Lowell George of Little Feat. This elegant, playful album hearkens back to girl singers of the pre-rock era, and George’s ladylike mien and dry, vibrato-free voice brought to mind the impish, endearingly imperfect music of Audrey Hepburn. Good music for a classy cocktail party or a visit from the parents!

Fleet Foxes, S/T (Subpop)
Every other blogger has told you about this rock quartet, who effortlessly blends the folksy sounds of The Band, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and My Morning Jacket with the scintillating four-part harmonies of a madrigal choir. You’ve heard the lovely single “White Winter Hymnal” and seen the clever, Davy and Goliath-esque video for the song. There’s really nothing I can add to the praise heaped upon these guys, but if you haven’t heard Robin Pecknold’s heartbreaking cover of Judee Sill’s “Crayon Angels,” seek it out.

Janelle Monae, Metropolis Part I: Chase Scene (Bad Boy)
A breathtakingly ambitious EP from a rising star, these four songs wed modern R&B with German Expressionist filmmaking to tell the story of a robot who falls in love with a human, breaking the rules of their futuristic world. While the songs are not always poppy or memorable, the vision that Monae puts forth in her album is impressive—she really takes you on a journey. There are three more EPs in this series. I cannot wait to hear the next one. She’s one of the most impressive young artists I’ve heard in a while, and I’m looking forward to following her career.

Vampire Weekend, S/T (XL Recordings)
It might be overrated, and the conceit can be a little hinky at times, but I’ve gotten one or another of these tunes stuck in my head once a week since I first uploaded this album onto my MP3 player. “M79” in particular is so reminiscent of Mark Mothersbaugh’s music for Wes Anderson’s films that I always feel as though Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman are going to bust in out of nowhere and start fighting over me.

To go back to the list of contributors, click here.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19