Justin Vernon. Courtesy New York Press.
10. Lil Wayne. Tha Carter III.
Tha Carter III makes a case for itself from virulent opener “3Peat” all the way to the amusing political piece “Don’t Get It.” The concept is simple: fill an entire album with songs that sound like singles, paired with worthwhile guest-appearances and Lil Wayne’s singular, codeine-laced style. The voice of hip-hop in 2008 was Weezy, not Ye. -Brian Contratto
9. Sun Kil Moon. April.
By now, Mark Kozelek fans know what to expect from his music. The Ohio-born musician makes the case for classic songwriting. April is stripped down, instrumentally sparse–just as, if not more, honest and powerful than anything else in 2008 and as good as anything from his past two decades of music-making. -Andrew Hibbard
8. Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend.
Had Jack Kennedy skipped out on politics and moved to Africa, this could be the soundtrack to his life. Vampire Weekend is marked by its catchy vocals, catchy guitar, catchy drums—hell, even the album cover is catchy. Don’t believe the hype and don’t listen to the backlash; these four gentlemen deserve an honest listen. -Kevin Lincoln
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The increasingly desperate Rolling Stone just released its top 50 albums of 2008. Bon Iver barely cracked the top 30, and TV on the Radio took the top spot, followed by Bob Dylan, Lil Wayne, My Morning Jacket and John Mellencamp. Yes. John Cougar Mellencamp.
Bon Iver barely cracked the top 30, a clear sign that Rolling Stone’s critics have no taste in music. For better more Justin Vernon-loving year end lists, check the recess top 10 lists.
Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste at 2008's Lollapalooza. Courtesy brooklyn vegan
10. Girl Talk. “Play Your Part (Part 1).” Any track off Feed the Animals—the unquestionable album of the summer—could have made this list. Dr. Gillis gets by with a little help from his friends Lil’ Wayne and Sinead O’Connor, a combination that makes for one of the best Girl Talk moments since Biggie rapped about the Twin Towers over “Tiny Dancer.”
9. Grizzly Bear. “Two Weeks.” It’s hard to judge a track solely on a live recording, but I have evidence beyond recording of a performance on Letterman that leaked in July: When Grizzly Bear broke out “Two Weeks” (sure to be a highlight of their upcoming ’09 release) during their show at a synagogue in D.C.’s Chinatown, the infectious piano stomp and soaring harmonies stood up against the rest of their remarkable set. The studio version has a lot to live up to.
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Courtesy prettymuchamazing.com
Chris Barth of Pretty Much Amazing does a… well, pretty much amazing job of summarizing the Year-End List phenomenon in music blogs. Specifically, he muses about how something he loves about music can turn out so wrong, making some astute observations along the way:
How can Paste Magazine’s top two albums – the best two records produced in the last year – not even merit mention in Blender’s top thirty-three? (Sidenote: the explanation for this is that Paste is crazy)
He even includes a list he calls “The Thinking Man’s Commandments for Making Best-Of Music Lists” where he states how Year-End Music lists should work. Here is number three:
Your list isn’t comprehensive, I promise. There will always be someone asking “where is ____?” Cut to the chase and admit that you didn’t listen to the whole Bon Iver album because you were too busy spinning “Skinny Love”. That you couldn’t get to the Brian Eno/David Byrne collaboration because it was your girlfriend’s birthday and you were slaving over a romantic mixtape. That you don’t like Beck, so you have no idea how his new album is. All Year-End lists should be titled “My/Our/Readers’ Year-End Favorites” or something of that nature.
After reading this post, I thought it was a good time, since we are halfway through our series, to see how our own lists stack up thus far to the rules he proposed (including the ones in the picture at the top).
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Over at the New York Times, David Itzkoff just wrapped up his live blog of the Grammy nominations ceremony. Gone are the days of early morning announcements:
For the first time in the 50-year history of the Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy is attempting to make the announcement of its nominations as much of a flashy and unpredictable event as the awards ceremony itself. The traditional, early-morning yawner of a press conference is out; in its place, a prime-time concert special on Wednesday night, mixing nomination announcements with performances by Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Foo Fighters, and many more.
The Foo Fighters (who knew they were still around) covered “You’re So Vain,” Mariah Carey sand one of the best Christmas songs ever, “All I Want for Christmas is You” “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and the Jonas Brother broke the time-space continuum by being in LA and at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting in the same night.
Leading the nominations are Lil Wayne with eight nods and Coldplay with seven. But a bigger question remains. Who cares?
