The 2008 round up

So after receiving an equal amount of praise and rocks thrown at me this time last year for my 2007 round up, why wouldn't i take the chance again to piss off some of you with my terrible choices and inspire others to listen to what i think has been the best 25 albums this year. As the Chemical Brothers once said girls and boys...Here We Go!

25. Little Red - Listen To Little Red

I'm pretty sure this album was on the jukebox in that Happy Days diner Fonzie used to always hang out at. Unashamedly pastiche, these guys avoid being turned into a joke by their ability to put a heartwarming smile on every face in the crowd and get you tappin' those toes like Buddy Holly would've wanted you to. Johnny B (very) Goode.
Key Track: Misty Eyes

24. Children Collide - The Long Now
The debut album from these Aussie alternative rockers nearly make it cool to wear flannel shirts again. Nearly. Combining an outer-space theme with a punk/grunge aesthetic, Children Collide deliver the goods with just plain old fashioned rock 'n' roll, with catchy melodies that will stick with you like herpes. Lyrics about distant planets and meteors have never had such romanticism and their songs are amazingly eclective for a debut, experimenting with different sounds, from dizzying 2 minute punk rockers to stadium anthems. Fun for the whole family.
Key Track: Farewell Rocketship

23. Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim
The one thing that sets this young woman apart from the plethora of other indie-folk beat poets is her stupidly high IQ. Taking pages from the gospels of The Decemberists and Fionn Regan, Alas, I Cannot Swim is so immersed in nuance and dense beauty that it is near impossible to take it all in at once. But patience is rewarded, as her lofty Kate Bush-like voice tells of the million and one skeletons in her closet in the most intelligent style since Conor Oberst.
Key Track: My Manic & I

22. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
The latest diamond from the quarries of the seemingly endless Canadian music scene, TCP impressed with their debut mini-album A Lesson In Crime but fell short of the greatness of their two most obvious influences, The Strokes and Bloc Party. Thankfully they found 4th gear on their first full-length LP and it shines the brightest due to its brevity. This might be an odd achievement for a band to put on its mantle at home but the catchiness and quirks of the songs come and pass through your headphones without ever out-staying their welcome. A lovely surprise considering the amount of self-indulgent assholes making music these days who have never heard of the word 'edit.' The album may have a similar sound radiating through-out but hey! that's just cause it's obvious each member of the band has listened to Is This It? a billion times, escaping punishment by keeping their entire album under 30 minutes.
Key Track: Tessellate

21. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

Orchestral hip-hop anyone? Atmosphere confirm their importance in the genre with their most outwardly focused record to date. Tired of rapping about his own life, Brother Ali paints various portraits of the hard lives of those struggling to get by. The LP can almost be seen as a concept album, a homage to the less fortunate, with the socially important lyrics balanced by funky and creative sampling. The album also confirms that there really isn't anything cooler in hip-hop than rapping over a string section.

Key Track: Puppets

20. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Yeh. look. Good album. Mercury Prize worthy though? Hmm, something doesn't sit right with that one. Nevertheless, this is probably one of the best in that vague 'adult contemporary' genre that has sprung up in the last few years. It is however one of those double-edged swords that nobody likes because the downfall of that genre is that it is more boring than Miley Cyrus's underwear. Elbow is at its best when they are pushing the boundaries of conventional pop/rock music, creating unique sounds and structures that make me hope that The Panics are taking notes.
Key Track: Dead Heat: One Day Like This vs. Grounds For Divorce

19. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Yes, i realise i took them to the cleaners earlier this year. But i was right wasn't i? They sucked live. Didn't they? Admit it. Alright whatever, you still gotta hand it to them for coming up with some disgustingly catchy tunes on a debut effort. Over-rated and over-played as they were, they did show promise for the future. Is it possible to ban them from the radio?
Key Track: Weekend Wars

18. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're all together ooky, the Hot Chip Family! Music's biggest pack of weirdos return after the glorious dance/pop album The Warning with an even more left-field floor filler. Made in The Dark offers many surprises and even more melodic hooks as the boys push the definition of 'pop music' to the limits of space disco and back again. In a league of their own with no contemporaries, all hail the captains of one of the most progressive ships in the galaxy.
Key Track: Ready For The Floor

17. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement

Well it wouldn't be a top 25 albums list without an appearance from Mr Alex Turner would it? Turning out his third #1 album in 3 years, the arctic monkey teams up with his buddy from The Rascals, Miles Kane and they escape to the South of France to write this orchestral, brooding and eloquent album. At first sounding like a series of possible James Bond themes, the album's dark intricacies are lured out on further listens and contains what possibly could be Turner's finest moment. Side-Projects should not be this captivating.
Key Track: My Mistakes Were Made For You

16. Sigur Rós - Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust (With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly)
I must say i am bias because i have been scarred forever by this band. If i had been reviewing this CD last year it would have said it was mind-blowing, but after their life changing set at Splendour in the Grass earlier this year, listening to their music through my shitty Sony speakers just does not do the experience justice. And that is precisely what Sigur Rós is, an experience, like Pink Floyd back in the days of your dad wearing tie-dye ponchos; this band is an acid-tripping, mind-altering exploration of the soul. Wow i just sounded like an NME hack didn't I? I should stop now. Put simply, their music is as perfect as Mozart's, and I'm pretty sure if you analyzed it closely enough it would be just as mathematically precise. Genius amplified.
Key Track: Goobledigook

15. Santogold - (Self-Titled)
Following in a long line of party albums that started with the naughtiness of Licensed To Ill by The Beastie Boys back when i was in nappies, Santogold uses her mentor Diplo to create the soundtrack to every party in 2008 had by someone in between the ages 17 - 25. In keeping with his Afro-beat fetish that orgasmed with Bondo-De-Role, Diplo triumphs behind the decks laying the alley-oop for Santogold to dunk like Jordan back in the 90's. Combining afro-beat and hip-hop, Santogold has an album that is addictive as crack and a reputation that is soaring with the likes of M.I.A.
Key Track: Creator

14. Josh Pyke - Chimney's A'Fire
Sending hearts a flutter with his boy-next-door charm on his debut Memories and Dust, Joshy (as his mum calls him) returns to satisfy society's recent tizzy infatuation with pop/folk music. Balancing his string swept arrangements around his multi-layered melancholic voice, Josh story-tells and serenades effortlessly, remaining proof that all you need to get into a woman's underwear these days is an acoustic guitar and a soulful, sensitive voice box.
Key Track: New Year's Song

13. Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

A party jukebox on cocaine. On Night Ripper, Gilles made his mark on the scene, this year's Feed The Animals blew his own genre out of the proverbial water and onto the nearest dance floor. He is every pop-culture fiend's wet dream mashing everything from Snoop Dogg and Westlife to Enya and 50 Cent. Chaotic is the understatement here as Girl Talk runs through snap shots of the last 60 years of music in under one hour. It will make you wonder how you partied before you heard of him.

Key Track: Shut The Club Down

12. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
The kings of melancholy return with a set that confirms their place among the indie-elite. Experimental production from guitarist Chris Walla gives the standard DCFC themes of love-loss and despair a new and unexpected twist, the eight and a half minute song about stalking a girl being one such delight. Thankfully such new tastes do not take away from the quality of Gibbard's masterful lyrics, forever twisting his words into a labyrinth of meaning. Narrow Stairs, while not being the highlight of their career, maintains the band's significance for all of the sensitive souls out there that prioritise intelligent rock music over oxygen.
Key Track: Grapevine Fires

11. Adele - 19
She might not be as good as Amy Winehouse but she wipes the floor with Duffy. That pretty much where Adele fits into this musical hemisphere of 'music you can put on to impress a girl.' This album is an incredibly mature debut from a girl telling us about her world as a 19 year old girl and how becoming a woman sometimes is a pretty shit thing to go through. Production guest-spots by Mark Ronson help and a voice that rivals Ella Fitzgerald will mean that this beautifully heavy-set lass from London will be around for years to come.
Key Track: Best For Last

10. Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
The English-U2 didn't so much as make an amazing record this year, but rather did an amazing job at convincing everyone that they did. I'm starting to think Coldplay's PR manager is even more talented than Chris Martin. This album is great in relativity, that is to say it's better than their previous effort X & Y, but if we are to be honest with ourselves, it's not as good as everyone says. It has a few good tracks, including first single Violet Hill, but even the catchiness of the title track became grating on that iPod ad. And don't even get me started on their whoring off the French Revolution, I'm all about bands trying new directions and images, but what the fuck has a nerdy English rock band got to do with Robespierre and The Terror? I'm looking forward to when Coldplay just want to be Coldplay again.
Key Track: Strawberry Swing

9. Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns
Yes, I specifically placed it above Coldplay. How can the public diss this band so much while sucking Chris Martin's cock at the same time? Bad mental image? Good. You deserve it, because you've probably said bad words about Snow Patrol at one time or another and I'm guessing you've never even listened to one of their albums. Serves you right. These guys spent 8 long years in indie-purgatory before finally receiving critical acclaim (and a Mercury prize nomination) in 2004 for the amazing LP, Final Straw. They've done their time, and all it took one stupid, fricking song on Grey's Anatomy and radios decided to destroy them, dig up the corpse, and then all embrace necrophilia. Do you think Snow Patrol asked for their songs to be played 8 times an hour on radio? The answer is No. The truth is that the fickle nature of this industry ruins the reputation of hard working bands like these Glaswegians by saturating society with them until no one wants to see their faces anymore. And you know what, their album this year was actually better than Coldplay's, but no one listened to it. Shame.
Key Track: The Lightning Strike (Parts 1, 2 & 3)

8. Sia - Some People Have Real Problems
Totally original, totally catchy and totally smart. There's not much more we can ask for from this Australian song mistress. Nearly condemned to one-hit wonder status when a little show called Six Feet Under used her morbid song Breathe Me on the series finale - she will soon be famous for probably being our best up and coming songwriter with everyone from Christina Aguilera and Beck Hansen wanting a piece of Sia's pie. With a penchant for emotive and intelligent lyrics and a talent to carve melodious noises out of asbestos (if she had to), it seems this veteran of the industry is only just hitting her stride now, all i can say is thank god for late bloomers. Attention Miss Blasko, I think you have some competition...
Key Track: Soon We'll Be Found

7. Fleet Foxes - (Self-Titled)
A wood cabin at sunset in the middle of America's north-west wilderness. That is the feeling i get from this spectacular 1-part Simon and Garfunkel, 1-part Harvest-era Neil Young five-piece. Gorgeous harmonies over lush musicianship, Fleet Foxes provided the sleeper hit of the year with the skinny black jean wearers finally coming round to these bearded folk masters. Debut albums rarely sound so mature and accomplished.
Key Track: Blue Ridge Mountains

6. Cut/Copy - In Ghost Colours

Wow. Modular have really stepped up their game recently haven't they? Pnau, Ladyhawke, and these guys...the stargazing tripsters come good. Making the change from the come-down music for your Sunday morning to the night-club bangers that draw you to the d-floor at 3am when you should be getting in a taxi home - Cut/Copy turned up the volume on their amps to find they were shining brighter than neon love. Four anthemic singles before the album release is always a good sign of things to come and when In Ghost Colours slid into our stereo, it was the sound of every memorable and not-so memorable moment of our weekend. Well played boys. Well played.
Key Track: Far Away

5. The Presets - Apocalypso
The beginning of the end or the beginning of something great? The Presets second outing begins with a dominating frazzle of bleeps and falsetto vocals that even Soulwax would be proud of. Whoever said a band's second album is supposed to be 'difficult' obviously do not know Kim Moynes or Julian Hamilton. Unleashing singles of devastating glory not seen since Mylo dropped the pressure, the ripple effect in society was crushing...believe me, I saw librarians lose their shit to this music. Walking the tightrope between gorgeous electronic harmonies and disgustingly dirty beats; The Presets found their winning formula, giving them enough confidence to throw church organs and whatever the fuck else they wanted into the mix. But this was nothing compared to their piéce de résistance. 7 words. 8 syllables. That was all it took for these classically trained musos to change the history of Australian electronic music forever. And we were all here with all of our people...

Key Track: (apart from above mentioned classic) Talk Like That

4. Vampire Weekend - (Self-Titled)

Time for honesty. When i first saw this band, i wanted to punch them squarely in their FCUK'n preppy mouths. Then i heard them play. I heard their catchy, off-beat, afro-indie blend of pop music and i was hooked. They look like campus wankers but that's okay with me now because they don't pretend or claim to be anything else. In fact, they own it. The wankiest band since The Dandy Warhols they may be, but no one could say that they didn't create one of the most unique albums of this year. Oh yeah, and they fucking rock live.
Key Track: Oxford Comma

3. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

"The best bar band in the world" give hope to the post-Bush trauma victim that is the United States of America, delivering a surprisingly direct message. Stay Positive is a homage to the American wasteland, telling stories of those lost and disparaged by the state of the nation. But rather than dwell on such tragedies, The Hold Steady in their rousing rabble style of bar rock rally the troops (figuratively) and deliver a gorgeously human and uplifting album. The perfect musical watermark for the beginning of a new administration as their Americana belies not only the inherent despair for their home country but more importantly their resolve for a better future. Music with such purpose has not resonated so loudly since Springsteen was Born To Run.
Key Track: Stay Positive

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

An album of such intricate and delicate beauty is created so rarely that it makes you feel like you're desecrating it by placing your grubby fingers on the immaculate disc when you prize it from the plastic teeth inside the cover. Such is the effect Bon Iver has on his listener, his multi-layered falsetto has the ability to raise the hairs on your neck and if you happen to be several bottles of red down, perhaps bring a tear to your eye. The entire album is an emotional punch to the face as we follow our man's recovery from what must have been one helluva breakup. His lyrics and voice contrast beautifully with the rustic production of the album, something which just adds to its gripping romantic sentimentality. By the end of the rollercoaster you just want to give him a big hug and tell him everything's going to be okay, either that or crack open another bottle of red and play the album again...
Key Track: Skinny Love

1. Bloc Party - Intimacy
Who would have thought someone's emotional heartbreak and torment could be so rewarding and fruitful? Anyone who has ever bought an album by The Smiths I guess...Evolving the subtle beauty of their debut, Silent Alarm and combining it with the ferocious electronic rock mash of their early 2006 release A Weekend In The City, the third album from the Brit rockers is the perfect metaphorical progression of our relationship with the band...on the first album when we first met our front man Kele, he was nice, pretty cool but kept everything on a superficial level. Second time around we saw a bit more emotion, a bit of anger, a bit of darkness, something behind the veneer of indie aloofness. We thought he was becoming quite an interesting person. Now, in 2008, in our third meeting, he lets us into his head, sharing with us his deepest fears, regrets and joys. Intimacy is a ride of emotions, both the most tempered and most fragile Bloc Party release yet, and my gosh is it captivating. On Signs, a song written about a deceased lover, Kele whispers, "I see signs now all the time, that you're not dead you're sleeping, I believe in anything, that brings you back home to me." This record marks the first where our beloved front man openly talks about his sexuality and themes regarding his homosexuality are spotted throughout the diary-come-album. Refreshingly honest and at times shockingly brutal, Bloc Party surpasses all previous efforts and expectations, proving they cannot be pidgeon-holed as another upstart riding the Renaissance wave of Britpop. This crowning achievement makes its title all the more apt, how much closer do we feel to Kele now?

Key Track: Ion Square