2008 Albums Club

My 10 for 08

This year, possibly more than ever, has been difficult to compile a year end rundown of my favourite records. As the previous post lays out, there have been so many that I found to be a cut above that picking 10 was always going to be a bit of a nightmare. As always, I’m eschewing critical acclaim for what I simply liked to and listened to the most…

10. Emiliana Torrini – Me And Armini
Emiliana’s resurgence in 2008 was a welcome surprise after having largely been off the map for most of the decade (spare 2005′s Fisherman’s Woman).  I heard lead single and standout track Jungle Drum on Marc Riley’s 6music programme and had to get the album. It doesn’t disappoint, with the uptempo title track and Big Jumps proving perfect foils for the more tender moments such as Ha Ha, Beggar’s Prayer and album closer Bleeder. A solid comeback.

On the Road: Jungle Drum – one of the singles of the year and no mistake, 2 foot stomping minutes of Torrini at her most quirky and best.
Off the Beaten Path: Heard It All Before – Torrini displays her great range on this epic midway through the album.

09. Roots Manuva – Slime & Reason
I’m unabashedly a massive fan of Mr. Smith and a new Roots Manuva record is now a massive event in the calendar. After the powerful yet somewhat scattershot Awfully Deep, this year’s Slime & Reason is less a return to form than a massive step forward, certainly up there with Run Come Save Me as his most complete album. A new wackiness rears its head in lead single Buff Nuff and Do Nah Bodda Mi, but Manuva’s at his best when he’s navigating his flow through his unique hard beats on tracks like It’s Me Oh Lord and Kick Up Ya Foot. After aiming for the skatalites on album opener Again & Again, Roots’ recalls his best, most chill moments on A Man’s Talk and the sublime Let The Spirit. A thunderous comeback.

On the Road: “Echelon know me!” he proclaimes on third single Let The Spirit, one of the year’s finest moments in music.
Off the Beaten Path:  C.R.U.F.F. might as well be the man’s career theme tune.

08. M83 – Saturdays = Youth
A critical masterpiece, M83′s latest offering arrived having been heralded as a massive arrival for the “band.” Admittedly I didn’t get into this record until much later in the year than its April release – which perhaps places it a few spots lower on the run down than it ought to be. But a top album of the year it is nevertheless, the rich sonic textures of Saturdays = Youth making it a record which is with few peers in its start to finish listenability. In fact I have trouble listening to it in any other context other than start to finish, despite the presence of singles as rich as the almost perfect Kim & Jessie and somewhat triumphant Graveyard Girl.

On the Road: Third single Kim & Jessie is perfect pop.
Off the Beaten Path:  The aptly titled Up! is a surefire attention grabber.

07. Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
The debut album from Ra Ra Riot’s arrival was somewhat of a triumph in and of itself given the band’s storied history, but what lies within is altogether more remarkable, a collection of tracks destined to lay the foundation for this band’s promising future. Its weakness lies in that it isn’t a concrete album in the purist’s sense, but it is a wonderful collection of songs. Many of these tracks date back before 08, with Each Year, Dying Is Fine and Can You Tell finally receiving the mix they truly needed to sound like they were being aired with the blankets off. The addition of Kate Bush’s Suspended In Gaffa is a nice, heartwarming touch as well.

On the Road: Storming set up single Ghost Under Rocks is the perfect album opener, an absolute joy.
Off the Beaten Path: Buried near the back of the record, Oh, La is a treat on every listen.

06. Mason Proper – Olly Oxen Free
While the sophomore set from Michigan’s finest quintet lacks the individual brilliance of the band’s 2007 debut, Olly Oxen Free is in many ways the more thorough album. Artistically this is a giant step forward for a band who have been more than deserving of great things for quite some time… with tracks such as Downpour and album opener Fog demonstrating said sonic leap. Album closer Safe For The Time Being ranks up there with the band’s finest, most haunting moments, while Point A To Point B is the kind of simple yet perfect pop song most bands only dream of writing.

On the Road: Lead single Lock & Key is part Sonic the Hedgehog Oil Ocean scene and part MIA’s Jimmy, all thrown in a blender with the Flaming Lips.
Off the Beaten Path: Only A Moment is perhaps the most immediate single of the year – that wasn’t a single. 

05. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
I seem to share in the sentiments of others who always felt Elbow was a great ‘singles’ band. And they were – and still are. But The Seldom Seen Kid is a masterclass from start to finish, possessing the kind of deft touch and skill that is olympian in its nature. Lead single Grounds For Divorce is the fuel for the album’s fire, Guy Garvey almost becoming with each passing lyric the most consummate frontman in rock today. He gets you with every line, setting the tone from the first track Starlings with the line:

“So yes I guess I’m asking you to back a horse that’s good for glue and nothing else
But find a man that’s truer than, find a man that needs you more than I”

But what becomes apparent throughout is that in pulling for Garvey, there is no one we need more than him.

On the Road: Is second single One Day Like This the single of the year?
Off the Beaten Path: There are plenty of great album tracks to choose from, but The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver is simply beautiful.

04. Duffy – Rockferry
Off the seemingly endless production line of UK female pop starlets in 2008 rolled Duffy – but what attracted me to this album was that she possessed something a little more in her locker to most of her contemporaries. While the Dusty Springfield comparisons will never fade – which to me are more to do with the Bernard Butler arrangements than her vocals, but musically hold – Duffy’s somewhat more unique feel is owed to the personality conveyed with the music, words and vocals you feel are expressed with honesty and passion. Rockferry holds more substance than the average pop record, a fact belied by the excellent but ill-fitting breakout single Mercy, which somewhat denies the rest of this very deep record its fair dues. The back half of this record is sublime, with Hanging On Too Long and I’m Scared proving the perfect glum foils to album closer Distant Dreamer‘s hopeful perfection. On this form a bright future lies ahead for Duffy.

On the Road: Third single Warwick Avenue should really have been the track to break this album wide open.
Off the Beaten Path: Serious – the single that never was – is a tribute to unrequited love deserving of any mixtape. 

03. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
I think perhaps it was seeing Hot Chip live that really made this record make much more sense. The first time I heard it I remember calling up a friend and saying “I don’t get it – it’s just not solid start to finish.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. Made In The Dark is a wonderful adventure, from the almost tribal beats of Shake A Fist to the straightforward dancefloor groove of Touch Too Much and Hold On… straight through to the more sombre tracks on the record such as the title track and majestic closer In The Privacy Of Our Love. This album is more than the sum of its parts, and Hot Chip are one of the only bands around capable of making an artistic statement of this enormity.

On the Road: Do it do it do it now – Ready For The Floor is a de facto anthem.
Off the Beaten Path:  The quirky Wrestlers is Hot Chip to its very core.

02. Sia – Some People Have Real Problems
Looking back at the records I’d simply even listened to in 2008, it really struck me as crazy how much further ahead this was from most of the chasing pack. Sometimes you just don’t realise how much you listen to an album you merely thought was pretty good. But it isn’t on quantity that this record places so high on my list, it is down to quality. From album opener Little Black Sandals to Kinks cover I Go To Sleep, Sia displays the unmatchable vocal personality that defines any Sia record… but the brilliance of the record is exposed through tracks such as Academia and Playground where you come to appreciate the clever touches of her words and how they bend so perfectly around the notes. These songs are stories – the theme is much of a muchness, one we’ve heard before, but each track is fresh and when Sia truly opens up – such as on third single Soon We’ll Be Found – the result is electrifying. 

On the Road: Soon We’ll Be Found is the ultimate break-up to make-up power ballad.
Off the Beaten Path: Any schoolteacher would be proud of the excessive but clever wordplay on Academia. 

01. Los Bunkers – Barrio Estación
Usually the follow up to an album which was huge for you personally is approached with some degree of trepidation. After Vida de Perros became one of the out-of-nowhere favourite albums of the decade for me, I was a touch worried about Los Bunkers’ follow up. Would they be able to recreate the magic I only accidentally stumbled upon a couple summers back?

Of course, I needn’t have worried. I have long said Los Bunkers have been writing the kind of music that their british compatriots in Franz Ferdinand and Oasis have been trying and failing to make for years. Vida de Perros was that collection of songs, but Barrio Estación is the album that separates the true leaders from the chasing wolfpack. That this album is sung fully in Spanish while the world of pop music passes it idly by is of no consequence – the arrangement and instrumentation on this album is a workshop to any ambitious rock band.

For sure, Barrio Estación is an album of two halves (or possibly even four quarters), broken up by the unexpected instrumental interlude Capablanca. Leadoff track Coma is one of the finest openers on any rock album I’ve ever heard, while second single Me Muelen A Palos possesses a bass groove that recalls fellow end-of-year listees Mason Proper at their finest. Si Todo Esto Es Lo Que Hay pays wonderful tribute to the Beatles, the band that is clearly their key inspiration – right down to their experimentation.

Thundering lead single Deudas kicks off the second half, followed promptly by the heart rendering career-highlight Nada Nuevo Bajo El Sol. El Tiempo Que Se Va relies on more than a bit of reggae influence, before the band kicks into a relentless 3 song closing salvo of El Mismo Lugar, Tarde and Abril – indeed each track flows seamlessly into the other until the album suddenly fades to a close. It’s a whirlwind of emotion and masterful application of songwriting. Despite being an album no one north of Tijuana cared about, Barrio Estación completely shattered the expectations of at least this one person, and for that it is my album of the year.

On the Road: Nada Nuevo Bajo El Sol slowly but surely became one of my favourite songs, nevermind singles, of all time.
Off the Beaten Path: Coma is the song every artist should aspire to be able to place at the front of their record.