Best New Music 2008 (Now w/ 100% More Best-Of Lists!)

[stereosforgeeks]

Beck's 'Modern Guilt', produced by Danger Mouse and featuring Cat Power on two tracks, has LEEAAKKEEDD!!! Super-blogger Pop Apocalypse has had it up a couple of days, don't miss it - like him or not, he's yet to release a dud yet, in my opinion, as I really enjoyed both the 're-Odelay' vibe of 'Guero' and the hynotic long beat-jams of 'The Information', although they are strikingly different (but of course, it's this constant changing of styles that defines him).This has had my full attention for a couple of hours now, it's relatively simple in terms of arrangements and production'. I keep expecting Danger Mouse to do something excessive, grandiose and bombastic, and he keeps confounding that expectation by producing works of restraint, and demonstrating excellent taste - he's even quite conservative on the last Black Keys Outing, although it's tricky to know how much of this is due to both the bands roots rock & blues minimalist attitude, and the late great Ike Turner's involvement at the beginning of recordings. 'Modern guilt' seems to be 'Pop Classism' if you will; brief and straight to the point (or the hook), occasional flourishes and nods to any number of old music nuggets, but always in the service of the tune - with Beck and Danger Mouse, it really does seem like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It's a nice feeling, the experience that you are listening to something unique and very good the first few times. Time to shut up and take it all in... I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

I was almost gonna start a thread for Beck himself - any interest?

I listened to it for the first time today and honestly while i enjoyed what i was hearing it never really hit me. I guess nothing just made me want to dig deeper into the album. Nothing made me think damn that was cool, wow i really dug that moment. This is not saying i didnt enjoy what I was listening to because I did. It's just that i never found anything to grab onto.

[tapehead]

I'm done editing and re-editing that post like some kind of spastic now stez =] - I'm kinda pre-inclined to like this after being a Beck fan for a long time - it might take a few more listens for a casual fan, I dunno - I think it's really good though. There seems to be more lyrical substance here too (something I loved about 'Seachange' too, by the way) - it's a long way away from Beck-tionary rhyming, and Beck really demonstrates some great guitar (presuming it's all his playing). The one live drumtrack on the album on ''Çhemtrails'' really pushes things out towards spacey psyche rock too.

[tapehead]

So, in the hopes I haven't single-handedly killed this thread, I'm going to push on. There is a definite but disparate new-wave revival, not just consisting of the likes of Cut Copy and Shocking Pinks and maybe Santogold. I've been listening to French Post-Rockers M83's new album (which actually came out back in April). I've read one of the two core members left the band before the recording of 'Saturdays = Youth', and it might account for the big left turn this album makes compared to their previous discography. 'Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts' and 'Before the Dawn Heals Us' both sound, to various extents, like post-rock aesthetic played out with more sequencers and keyboards than usual (my favourite track from 'Dead Cities...' for instance, 'Run Into Flowers', sounds like Mogwai done with midi), or Cocteau Twins shoegazing in an electronic format. Their other album, 'Digital Shades Volume 1' moves into ambient electronica.
The first single off 'Saturdays', 'Couleurs' (it's French for 'Colours') does nothing to dispel this opinion, and indeed the album isn't a complete departure, but then there are tracks like the the second and third 'Kim + Jessie' and 'Graveyard Girl'. Both of these sound like they are intended for the a high school teen movie soundtrack, the voice over on the latter is almost silly, but on the whole it works. It seems either Surviving core member Anthony Gonzalez is really started trying to make a pop single and catch the kids attention, or to remind those emo-fucks that we had middle-class teenage angst back in the eighties, or more likely he's started to find ways to integrate these earlier new-wave digital music elements into his postrock / electronica bag of tricks. Whatever it is, I like it.

If you haven't listened to them before, also check out 'Don't Save us From the Flames' from 'Before the Dawn Heals Us'. I've got a few friends who like to trip their balls off on a regular basis and always give track a listen while they're at it.

[stereosforgeeks]

So, in the hopes I haven't single-handedly killed this thread, I'm going to push on. There is a definite but disparate new-wave revival, not just consisting of the likes of Cut Copy and Shocking Pinks and maybe Santogold. I've been listening to French Post-Rockers M83's new album (which actually came out back in April). I've read one of the two core members left the band before the recording of 'Saturdays = Youth', and it might account for the big left turn this album makes compared to their previous discography. 'Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts' and 'Before the Dawn Heals Us' both sound, to various extents, like post-rock aesthetic played out with more sequencers and keyboards than usual (my favourite track from 'Dead Cities...' for instance, 'Run Into Flowers', sounds like Mogwai done with midi), or Cocteau Twins shoegazing in an electronic format. Their other album, 'Digital Shades Volume 1' moves into ambient electronica.
The first single off 'Saturdays', 'Couleurs' (it's French for 'Colours') does nothing to dispel this opinion, and indeed the album isn't a complete departure, but then there are tracks like the the second and third 'Kim + Jessie' and 'Graveyard Girl'. Both of these sound like they are intended for the a high school teen movie soundtrack, the voice over on the latter is almost silly, but on the whole it works. It seems either Surviving core member Anthony Gonzalez is really started trying to make a pop single and catch the kids attention, or to remind those emo-fucks that we had middle-class teenage angst back in the eighties, or more likely he's started to find ways to integrate these earlier new-wave digital music elements into his postrock / electronica bag of tricks. Whatever it is, I like it.

If you haven't listened to them before, also check out 'Don't Save us From the Flames' from 'Before the Dawn Heals Us'. I've got a few friends who like to trip their balls off on a regular basis and always give track a listen while they're at it.

That's exactly what it is Tape. He's managed to keep doing everything he's been doing in the previous albums but at the same time expanding his work into an 80s pop soundscape. This works really well because it's something that's been in their music previously it's just now being brought to the foreground and it's making for a really captivating songs.

[Smasher]

I'm really looking forward to the release of After Winter, Spring, by La Familia Sextet

[doglips]

So, BLK JKS, getting some good press, produced by a Secret Machine, I'm liking the tracks on the myspace.

Anyone got any more info?

[tapehead]

I'vs really been enjoying the Santogold Vs Diplo mixtape 'Top Ranking'. Ostensibly this is similar to the 'Piracy Funds Terrorism' mix that Diplo did with MIA three or four years back, but where that effectively introduced MIA as an artist to a wider audience (and MIA's lame toasting even features on one track), Santogold's brilliant debut LP has been out for at least six months already, so her potential audience is already in check. But don't let that dissuade you; there are a few of-the-cuff throwaway tracks on 'Top Ranking'; Such as one consisting of Mark Ronson chatting away with Santogold in a studio (one might guess recorded surreptitiously during the recording of his album of covers 'Version' which was the first place I heard Santogold, doing a cover of the Jam's ' Pretty Green') but there are also moments of brilliance; The album version od 'Les Artistes' is already pretty stunning, but the XXXchange Mix ft Movado on 'Top Ranking' makes it explode in a flurry of bombastic techno and rude electronic Dub noise - it's pretty amazing. Overall the album really indulges more heavily in the 'Dubby dancehall' and 80's ska sounds that 'Santogold' merely flirts with. It's coming into Spring time here and I expect to hear cuts from this in clubs and at parties all Summer long.

There have been some great mixtape releases this year - I've only just recently tracked down Nas' 'afro-american superman' mixtape, which after a couple of listens is already clearly far better than his recent lp, and I'd also mention the Van She Tech Mixtape which their label Modular recently gave out for free to anyone on their mailing list - the Van She mix is more clever party mixing - pretty rough and primitive in terms of production but so much fun for it's entire +100 minutes of length. You can get it here
It's got me quite excited to see their band incarnation, which is touring here soon.

[stereosforgeeks]

Ive been listening to the Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line a lot lately.

They've been highly touted for about 2 years and finally have a full length to their name. If you like Vampire Weekend definitely give this a shot. They are a bit more diverse than the Vampire Weekend is on their cd, but not all of it works. The songs that do work are well worth your time.

Pitchfork states it a lot better than I ever could.

7.5
It's hard to believe that, up until now, Ra Ra Riot had only one EP to their name. The Syracuse-based chamber pop crew has garnered plenty of attention over its two-year existence, despite a limited recorded output. Such attention came, at first, in the form of breathless reviews of early festival appearances and accounts of their tireless slogs across the country, but most of the headlines since have focused on the inter-band tribulations: losing their frontman during their first year of existence and then suffering an even bigger setback when drummer/co-founder John Ryan Pike was found dead early last summer after a show in Providence, Rhode Island. But finally, with the release of their full-length debut, Ra Ra Riot are placing the emphasis firmly back on musical matters.

Nautically named and themed, The Rhumb Line reminds us why we cared about this band in the first place. Its mournful cellos and haunting violins are dissonantly (if pleasingly) matched with triumphant rhythms and exultant melodies, resulting in a record that is at once grand and intimate. With moments of pop savvy reminiscent of their pals in Vampire Weekend and the emotional subtlety of the Shins, Ra Ra Riot's songs inhabit a space that is both bubbly and bittersweet. To wit, swirling album opener "Ghost Under Rocks" blooms from a melancholic cello line into skittering, propulsive post-punk percussion. And their excellent cover of Kate Bush's "Suspended in Gaffa" finds the appropriate whimsy in the bounce of the melody, but makes the song safe for those who are uncomfortable with Bush's theatrical trilling.

But Ra Ra Riot, as their name implies, are not only capable of autumnal, Arcade Fire hymns. "St. Peter's Day Festival" and "Can You Tell" represent the breezier, brighter side of the band, taking perky melodies and swelling them with luscious string arrangements. Those strings prove to be the secret to Ra Ra Riot's success; "Too Too Too Fast", on which they lean on synths rather than the organic warmth of a cello or violin, is the flattest of the bunch.

Much of The Rhumb Line sounds like an elegy-- though Pike co-wrote roughly half of this album's songs before his passing. "Dying Is Fine", with its ee cummings-borrowed lyrics ("Death, oh baby/ You know that dying is fine/ But maybe/ I wouldn't like death, if death was good") is sadly apropos, but it eventually explodes into an anthemic, cheery chorus. "Winter '05", set before Pike's death, is more mournful: You can hear the band's loss in the elegant, weeping strings, the descriptions of lonely cemeteries, and Wesley Miles' vocals as he sings, "If you were here/ Winter wouldn't pass quite so slow." It's rare for a band to survive the death of a key member, but Ra Ra Riot are actually thriving, turning The Rhumb Line from a potential "what could've been" record into a rousing, poignant testament to Pike's life and his former bandmates' resilience.

[indiefilmgal]

yelle is great if anyones heard

[tapehead]

There's nothing as inventively 'cut and paste' or down right funny as the heavy metal break down in 'Lets make love..' to be found on CSS's new album Donkey, and the album overall is much more like a straight band performance of tested musicians than the pop culture bricolage that characterised their first album. I was startled at first by how much the album's aesthetic resembles the 80's keyboard and pop sheen of The Killers' Hot Fuss', to the point where I was looking for some connection, be it the same producer or engineer, but as drummer Adriano Cintra was at the helm again, it might just be that he is exerting his influence on the band's sound more (although tellingly Gwen Stefani's producer also gets a credit on this). There's a lot more guitar riffing, as can be heard in the Pixies-reminiscent guitar on first single 'Rat is Dead', and my only complaint is that it's a little too cool and smooth, at least the opener Jager Yoga mixes it with cowbell, synths and Lovefoxxx's silly rhymes (which on this song sound like a determined call-to arms) into something that rocks a bit more. 'Move' gives us almost the only track on the album to dance to with a disco steady beat (which is again a little off, since their first album was a built for the indie club dance floor), but it's also one of the corniest lyrics I've heard from this band, and the calculations behind this album's evident push to give the band a larger audience beyond the hipster novelties of their debut seems a little too evident on Beautiful Song, which seems like a distillation of guitar pop from the last few years, but at the same time is undeniably catchy and memorable. It's a second album that gets past most of the sophomore slumping of repeating the formula of the first, but falls prey a little to seeming to try please new audiences than those already faithful or, I suspect, the band themselves. Maybe it's just CSS turning their hand to guitar pop after the unique electro-fun of 'Cansei de Ser Sexy', but at least it will be enough to keep them on peoples' minds and stereos.

Also been trying to write some thoughts on Van She's 'V' (really fucking good, although if you've listened to M83's Saturdays=Youth, you'll be disturbed by the similarities on some tracks- shades of labelmates' Cut Copy's last album too, which of itself is no bad thing) and the Midnight Juggernauts album. The latter are reportedly Justice's favourite band, and listening to their album 'Dystopia' (which came out in Australia last year to much acclaim, but only got an international release in May) it's no surprise, there's a lot of Bowiesque vocals coupled with a unique dramatic take on the ever popular electro pop sound.

New 'Of Montreal' and Bloc Party' out this week - anyone heard 'em?

[TonyWilson]

I am really enjoying CSS's Donkey. I think more than I dug the first. The problem I've found it that it's a bit front loaded, after the frankly badass one-two of Jager Yoga and Rat Is Dead, Let's Reggae All Night is too samey and lacking in the first two songs momentum but Give Up's two super catchy guitar hooks give the first the 15 minutes of Donkey an unassailable advantage over the rest of the album. Left Behind sounds too much like International Dateline by Ladytron, partly it's a lack of imagination - as Tape mentioned there isn't anything as inventive as on the first album and partly it's a concession to scoring a big hit - Beautiful Song is tailor made for chart success but I think it's CSS trying to hard to write an anthem. I think the songwriting is stronger overall though, every song cept for Let's Reggae All Night has at least one keyboard or guitar hook that worms it's way into your subconscious.

I got Bloc Party too but not listened to enough to form an opinion - well apart from the thought that Ares and Mercury are the best songs they've recorded.

[stereosforgeeks]

I am really enjoying CSS's Donkey. I think more than I dug the first. The problem I've found it that it's a bit front loaded, after the frankly badass one-two of Jager Yoga and Rat Is Dead, Let's Reggae All Night is too samey and lacking in the first two songs momentum but Give Up's two super catchy guitar hooks give the first the 15 minutes of Donkey an unassailable advantage over the rest of the album. Left Behind sounds too much like International Dateline by Ladytron, partly it's a lack of imagination - as Tape mentioned there isn't anything as inventive as on the first album and partly it's a concession to scoring a big hit - Beautiful Song is tailor made for chart success but I think it's CSS trying to hard to write an anthem. I think the songwriting is stronger overall though, every song cept for Let's Reggae All Night has at least one keyboard or guitar hook that worms it's way into your subconscious.

I got Bloc Party too but not listened to enough to form an opinion - well apart from the thought that Ares and Mercury are the best songs they've recorded.

I think the music of donkey is really good but the lyrical component is sorely lacking in any substance.

[TonyWilson]

Yeh the lyrics are big pile of nothing really. But the crunchier technicolour sound of the album is great and leads to some really addictive tracks.

And SFG, your assessment of Donkey is how I feel about Bloc Party as whole. So there's half my review of Intimacy already

[tapehead]

I got Bloc Party too but not listened to enough to form an opinion - well apart from the thought that Ares and Mercury are the best songs they've recorded.

Mercury was the album teaser that's been streaming on sites and blogs in anticipation of the album's release - I didn't like it much on it's own - the vocal sampling and processing seemed like a gimmicky replacement for substance in the actual lyric, but in sequence on the record after Ares they flow like parts of a whole. Ares, I would have to agree, is slightly amazing.

There's a moment, after the tearing, whining guitar attack of the opening starts the 'alarm' riff, and the drum loop kicks in, that you realise that you're listening to an audio 'quotation' of Chemical Brother's 'Setting Sun' - a recreation in which the resemblance is startling but undeniable, and done with purpose. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with rave/dance culture will get a smile out of lyrics mentioning 'Supermen and mitsi turbos' (there should be more songs about one fucking one's shit up on the exxes) and dancing to the sound of sirens in '98. The song also serves to introduce the 'break-up' theme that permeates all the lyrics of the album, and following it the striking percussive build up of Mercury is more propulsive and less jarring.

So it's the third track of the album, Halo, that stands odd - and it's mostly because it sounds like a band playing - the opening tracks, despite some great explosive guitar work, are more electronic, Halo is the band that made Silent Alarm - tight post-punk riffing against Kele Okereke's melancholy and occasionally slightly goth romanticism (think 'Helicoptor'). Following it Biko (not a cover of the Peter Gabriel track - it doesn't even seem to be referencing the South African anti-apartheid activist, but something else in keeping with the slightly pretentious citing of classical mythology at work on the rest of the album) starts as a sad lament against a single guitar, but the electronica creeps in again, only to be followed by the old-school sound of 'Trojan Horse'. I'm really enjoying this back and forth between the band's two musical poles, due, no doubt, in part to having the producer both of 'Silent Alarm' and 'Weekend in the City' on board for this, but I'm still yet to make my mind up on whether this will wear or drag over repeated listening - I think most people will see it as better than their last at least, and something of a return to form.

I like that the band seem content to wear their influences on their sleeves - the pretty chiming which opens 'Signs' reminds me a little of Sigur Ros, for instance, and the glitch-beat and vocal dynamic of Zepherus is reminiscent of Radiohead's methods of melding drum machines and drama into pop music, though Bloc party don't quite pull it off to my ears. It's good, and it doesn't suffer it's precursor's fate of seeming to run out of melodies and ideas halfway through.

[Fried Gold]

The song from the Mercenaries 2 advert is the best song of the month.

http://www.pandemicstudios.com/mercenaries/audio/Oh_No_Full_Length.mp3

[Hermanator X]

The song from the Mercenaries 2 advert is the best song of the month.

http://www.pandemicstudios.com/mercenaries/audio/Oh_No_Full_Length.mp3

And its Peter Stormare singing it too. Bizarre.

[ZachVsYojimbo]

Flight of the Knife by Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears is a great 70s prog/pop epic about some glider in the future. Hilarious and awesome.

But the album to beat this year is TV on the Radio's Dear Science. Maybe the best band in the world. Not that I've heard a copy before the release date or anything.

[tapehead]

Welcome to the Zone ZachVsYojimbo - keep on bringing the musical opinions man.

[stereosforgeeks]

Yeah we need more people contributing to this section. I know Ive been pretty lax with tryiong to write stuff up lately.

[TonyWilson]

Does anybody have a link for the TVOTR album they can PM me?

[Fried Gold]

The song from the Mercenaries 2 advert is the best song of the month.

http://www.pandemicstudios.com/mercenaries/audio/Oh_No_Full_Length.mp3

And its Peter Stormare singing it too. Bizarre.

Yeah I heard that. It seems a bit up-in-the-air at the moment about who's behind the song. I've also read that it was Chris Tilton (one of Michael Giacchino's assistants) or someone called the "Wojahn Brothers".

[TonyWilson]

So has anyone got or heard Take Me To The Sea by Jaguar Love? Got it today and it might be my favourite album of the year already. It doesn't really give you any other choice on the first couple of listens, the sheer ridiculous exuberance of the high pitched vocals, slick sorta post-hardcore savant guitar and huge clattering drums courtesy of the fantastic Jay Clark from Pretty Girls Make Graves just bitchslap you the second it comes on. At times it veers into Mars Volta territory not a huge fan of that band but it works here as the obvious art rock stylings are tempered by great melodies and even a damn fine ballad in the middle of the album. Standout track from a line up of standouts is Humans Evolve In To Skyscrapers - put it this way, Black Mountain just got beaten to greatest riff of the year. I've only heard it twice through so yeh it may not hold up and I'll probably have a bit more to say in a day or so but I give it a 8.8 right now.

[stereosforgeeks]

So has anyone got or heard Take Me To The Sea by Jaguar Love? Got it today and it might be my favourite album of the year already. It doesn't really give you any other choice on the first couple of listens, the sheer ridiculous exuberance of the high pitched vocals, slick sorta post-hardcore savant guitar and huge clattering drums courtesy of the fantastic Jay Clark from Pretty Girls Make Graves just bitchslap you the second it comes on. At times it veers into Mars Volta territory not a huge fan of that band but it works here as the obvious art rock stylings are tempered by great melodies and even a damn fine ballad in the middle of the album. Standout track from a line up of standouts is Humans Evolve In To Skyscrapers - put it this way, Black Mountain just got beaten to greatest riff of the year. I've only heard it twice through so yeh it may not hold up and I'll probably have a bit more to say in a day or so but I give it a 8.8 right now.

I was a pretty big blood brothers fan for awhile but the Jaguar Love album didnt really do it for me.

[TonyWilson]

I was reading a few blogs and reviews and saw a quite a few Blood Brothers fans say the same thing, though not as politely

[stereosforgeeks]

I was reading a few blogs and reviews and saw a quite a few Blood Brothers fans say the same thing, though not as politely

Adultery is ripe and March On Electric Children are my favorites but all of them are pretty damn good. Check it out.

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

Stereolab's Chemical Chords. Five tracks in thus far and I am enjoying the hell out of it.

[tapehead]

Stereolab's Chemical Chords. Five tracks in thus far and I am enjoying the hell out of it.

I've heard it described quite aptly as 'French Motown', and it reminds most of albums like 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' (ie some of their best work). It's been a long time since I've had an ear for their grooves, so it's fortunate I've got an appetite for it again as they seem to hitting their strides.

[Worst Part's Almost Over]

I won't write a full review, as I know most people never get around to reading them, but the new Kings Of Leon album Only By The Night is a damn good listen. I've been a fan of theirs for a few years now and although this album feels more like a stop-gap between their last album (which was amazing) and whatever they do next, it's still quality. I guess it would make more sense to say it feels as though they were going for something truly brilliant here but didn't quite manage it. Possibly in the rush to get the album out. But I think there are clear indications of a follow up album that will be truly amazing and possibly the best thing they'll have ever done.

KEY TRACKS: Sex On Fire, Manhattan, Revelry, Cold Desert

[doglips]

Does anybody have a link for the TVOTR album they can PM me?

Have you got it yet? Probably the album of the year. I got tickets for the Birmingham gig in Dec too!

[stereosforgeeks]

Top 50 (Best/Favorite) albums (in no order):

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
Why? - Alopecia
The Mae Shi - HLLYH
Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue
Beach House - Devotion
Sam Amidon - All Is Well
The Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Man Man - Rabbit Habits
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Subtle - ExitingARM
No Age - Nouns
Titus Andronicus - The Airing Of Grievances
Portishead - 3rd
Santogold - Santogold
Quiet Village - Silent Movie
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Balmorhea - Rivers Arms
Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
Air France - No Way Down
Women - Women
Hanggai - Introducing Hanggai
Calexico - Carried To Dust
Max Richter - 24 Postcards In Full Color
TV On The Radio - Dear Science,
High Places - High Places
Horse Feathers - House With No Name
Marnie Stern - This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls
Johann Johannsson - Fordlandia
Wilderness - (K)No(W)Here
School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night
Passion Pit - Chunk Of Change
Volcano! - Paperwork
Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Deerhunter - MicroCastle / Weird Era Cont
Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Deastro - Keeper's
Fennesz - Black Sea
Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You
Q-Tip - The Renaissance
Notwist - Devil You + Me
The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
The Saturday Knights - Mingle

[tapehead]

Great list Stez, there's more than a couple you've listed that I haven't heard or disregarded (Q-Tip? alright, I'll give it a try ) - here's a few I might consider adding;

Spirtualized Songs in A and E?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazurus Dig!!!
Bon Iver (too faddish? That Skinny Love track was on every second blog I'd visit for a while there)
Asobi Seksu - Citrus (since you've included both Marnie Stern and Atlas Sound, I figure this rates a mention)
Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
The Breeders - Mountain Battles
The Curse Of Company - Leo Magnets Joins A Gang
The Drones - Havilah

notable compilations

Diplo - Decent Work For Decent Pay
Ninja Cuts - You Don't Know

There's also quite a few 'mixtapes' or internet only freebie releases I'd count among my favourites for the year.

[Ribbons]

Asobi Seksu - Citrus

Co-sign (not that I know jack about music, but I'm a fan of this album too)

[stereosforgeeks]

Great list Stez, there's more than a couple you've listed that I haven't heard or disregarded (Q-Tip? alright, I'll give it a try ) - here's a few I might consider adding;

Spirtualized Songs in A and E?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazurus Dig!!!
Bon Iver (too faddish? That Skinny Love track was on every second blog I'd visit for a while there)
Asobi Seksu - Citrus (since you've included both Marnie Stern and Atlas Sound, I figure this rates a mention)
Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
The Breeders - Mountain Battles
The Curse Of Company - Leo Magnets Joins A Gang
The Drones - Havilah

notable compilations

Diplo - Decent Work For Decent Pay
Ninja Cuts - You Don't Know

There's also quite a few 'mixtapes' or internet only freebie releases I'd count among my favourites for the year.

Spiritualized and NIck Cave were almosts.

Bon Iver was on my list last year in it's self released form. In fact iut was probably my most listened album last year.

Asobi Seksu was an older release I think too.

Havent heard of The Curse Of Company or The Drones but will check them out for sure.

The Breeders album I enjoyed but never really loved.

Tobacco honesly i never gave it more than a cursory listen due to my black moth super rainbow love. I will have to listen some more.

Those comps are great but any mixtape or comp type things were kept off.

[burlivesleftnut]

Yeah I thought Citrus came out in like 2006 or something. Seems like I have had it forever now.

[tapehead]

Yeah you're right - I guess I got a couple of their eps this year and thought they were an album .

edit: I looked it up - that album only got a release here this year, so I'll still count it.

[Scottys potty]

I like Lady Gaga. What is a poco though? She wants to do these to your poco. I find pocoing her to be rather pleasurable doesn't one agree?

[burlivesleftnut]

I like Lady Gaga. What is a poco though? She wants to do these to your poco. I find pocoing her to be rather pleasurable doesn't one agree?

From Urban Dictionary: Poco is the act of lubricating a woman's vaginal cavity with the feces of a combination of dog feces, homeless person spit, and irradiated petroleum.

[havocSchultz]

Duly noted...

Now I just need to find some irradiated petroleum...

[Ribbons]

IPAMPILASH!

The "poco" must not be all that easy to come by...

[/pun sort of-intended]

[Scottys potty]

I don't think that's a Poco. I think that's ridiculous and just insulting. Lady Gaga is the new Christina Aguilera and her single needs better kudos. Just watch the video and you'll realise this. A very underrated voice.

[burlivesleftnut]

I don't think that's a Poco. I think that's ridiculous and just insulting. Lady Gaga is the new Christina Aguilera and her single needs better kudos. Just watch the video and you'll realise this. A very underrated voice.

Maybe I got it wrong. From Urban Dictionary: Someone who doesn't get a joke or who lacks a sense of humor altogether.

[Scottys potty]

Why didn't you people say that you were just joking and had nothing better to say? Show not tell then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65zI9LH-as She is amazing and could soon be in he leagues of a young Shirley Bassy in the future some time off.

[havocSchultz]

Why didn't you people say that you were just joking and had nothing better to say? Show not tell then.

Do you need a stand-up comic to say "just kidding" after every joke as well...?

Cause I'm sure a priest, a rabbi, and a sasquatch never actually walked into a bar together...

[Scottys potty]

I am here to talk about music. Not comedy.

[burlivesleftnut]

Why didn't you people say that you were just joking and had nothing better to say? Show not tell then.

Do you need a stand-up comic to say "just kidding" after every joke as well...?

Cause I'm sure a priest, a rabbi, and a sasquatch never actually walked into a bar together...

hahhah

[Scottys potty]

I am here to talk about music.

[burlivesleftnut]

I am here to talk about music.

Then do it without being a derogatory ass.

/moderator

[tapehead]

Sometimes I post stuff here in the Zone, and later on I reconsider, it occurs to me that what I've written might be read as being a little ill-considered, dismissive or kinda rude...


Then a real douchebag comes along and makes it all better.

[Scottys potty]

Sometimes I post stuff here in the Zone, and later on I reconsider, it occurs to me that what I've written might be read as being a little ill-considered, dismissive or kinda rude...


Then a real douchebag comes along and makes it all better.

I beg your pardon?

[tapehead]

Excuse me but I was talking to Havoc