Right now, it looks like this:


1. Elephant Shell- Tokyo Police Club
2. Man In The Mirror- Rhymefest (produced by Mark Ronson)
3. Fair Ain't Fair- Tim Fite
4. Hold On Now, Youngster- Los Campesinos!
5. Third- Portishead
6. Stay Positive- The Hold Steady
7. April- Sun Kil Moon
8. The Red Album- Weezer
9. This Gift- Sons & Daughters
10.Consolers Of The Lonely- The Raconteurs
11.Saturdays=Youth- M83
12.Made In The Dark- Hot Chip
13.The Midnight Organ Fight- Frightened Rabbit
14.4th World War- Erykah Badu
15.Accelerate- R.E.M.

Honorable mention: The Black Keys, Gnarls Barkley, Gary Louris, Matmos, Fuck Buttons, Jamie Lidell, The Mae Shi, Mates Of State, Santogold, She & Him, Stephen Malkmus, Times New Viking, & Vampire Weekend

Right now here's how it stands:

1. Sun Kil Moon - April
2. Portishead - Third
3. Throw Me The Statue - Moonbeams
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes


still need to listen to / evaluate further: wolf parade, the notwist, black angels, weezer, my morning jacket, stephen malkmus, black keys, sigur ros, nick cave, spiritualized, bun b, no age, the roots, lil wayne, beck

2008 stuff that's been less that thrilling: destroyer, earth

I know this for sure:

01. Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher
02. Bruno Pronsato - Why Can't We Be Like Us?
03. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Swirling around in a vortex of terror below them: Weezer, Portishead, Al Green, Bersarin Quartet, Boris, Cut Copy, The Raveonettes.

Something like this...

01. m83 - Saturdays = Youth
02. Sun Kil Moon - April
03. Boris - Smile
04. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
05. Glass Animal - Patterns
06. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
07. Ratatat - LP3
08. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
09. The Watson Twins - Fire Songs
10. Portishead - Third

Sun Kil Moon - April
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Constantines - Kensington Heights
The Black Keys - Attack & Release
Bonnie Prince Billy - Lay Down in the Light
Crescent Moon is in Big Trouble - EP
Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Langhorne Slim - Langhorne Slim
Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
The Futureheads - This is Not the World
Lykke Li - Youth Novels
White Denim - Workout Holiday
Why? - Alopecia
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
The Dodos - Visiter
These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Delays - Everythings The Rush

!

actually forgot that was '08 when i was trying to come up w/ a list

You like that Delays album Solace? Thought it was a bit stinky.

Nice. I won't be the only one with this in my year-end list.

1. Life…The Best Game in Town (Harvey Milk)
2. Deathconsciousness (Have a Nice Life)
3. Weezer [Red] (Weezer)
4. Stay Positive (The Hold Steady)
5. Board Up the House (Genghis Tron)
6. On Two Sides (Blank Dogs)
7. Street Horrrsing (Fuck Buttons)
8. Cheveu (Cheveu)
9. April (Sun Kil Moon)
10. Dream Code (The Pink Noise)
11. The Sistrum (Factums)
12. Lie Down in the Light (Bonnie “Prince” Billy)
13. Celebration (Thomas Function)
14. Little Lucid Moments (Motorpsycho)
15. Arm’s Way (Islands)


Hold Steady will slide down a few spots, certainly, and The Pink Noise record will probably move up. No idea about the Harvey Milk album - I love it right now, but I'll admit that part of that is the initial high. That said, it has all the earmarks of what I look for in a great album, so who knows, right?

what a fun record this is!
have had it in my car for a week now, and man is it addicitve after a few spins..
fine indie pop bursting with infectious vocal melodies..also has a 90's fuzz feel to it..great stuff...

Damn, no love for Elbow! That's one hell of a great album by one hell of a great band.

Elbow - The Seldom-Seen Kid
Clark - Turning Dragon
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
The Notwist - The Devil, You & Me
Ruby Suns - Sea Lion
Sun Kil moon - April
The Breeders - Mountain Battles
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Sambassadeur - Migration
Spiritualized - Songs in A & E

Disappointments: Guillemots, South (what the hell were they thinking with the drum sound? such poor quality!!! and I'm not even a snobbish audiophile-type, honestly!!!)

Still need more time with... Brendan Canning, Weezer, Portishead

compared to the last one, it's really great, but definitely not as killer as the first one

i love about 2/3 of it quite a lot tho, great sunny dream pop, just like the first


ah, i'd put Elbow on my list too. that said it's definitely not my favorite of theirs.

Glad you like! Real early emo/Sunny Day Real Estate influence going on there, which mixes neatly with the airy vocals. Fantastic album.

Yeah, I've really come back to this record a lot lately, and I must have missed how fucking phonomenal it was when I first got it, because this it's blowing my mind everywhere.

Fair enough on the delays, it's certainly better than the last but by this point if pretty mlah on them.

Elbow album is maybe their best, catch me on another day and I'll say Cast of Thousands is.

Newer entries for me would be Flight of The Conchords, Johnny Flynn, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Cadence Weapon, Duels in the top 25 or so haven't done a list for a while but have a spreadsheet at work.

British Sea Power, Laura Marling, Portishead, Ruby Suns, Neon Neon yadda yadda yadda. at the top still.

Locks: These New Puritans, British Sea Power

I like but won't make the cut: Times New Viking, No Age, The Teenagers

Need more time with: The Futureheads, White Denim, The Virgins

Eager to hear: Glasvegas, Wire, The Faint, Primal Scream, CSS

updated:

1. mae shi - hlllyh
2. why? - alopecia
3. my morning jacket - evil urges
4. weezer - red
5. hot chip - made in the dark
6. destroyer - trouble in dream
7. wolf parade - at mount zoomer
8. frightened rabbit - midnight organ fight
9. erykah badu - nu amerykah
10. no age - nouns

i still need more time with the portishead, the weezy, the wale, the m83, the dan friel and a few more. at this point in the year, the only thing that could possibly dethrone my top three is a new sunset rubdown record. fingers crossed.

shit, forgot both of those. for some reasn TNV seems like '07 for me as well

an update, mainly because that Shearwater album just floors me.

1.Shearwater - Rook
2.Beach House - Devotion
3.No Age - Nouns
4.British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
5.M83 - Saturdays=Youth
6.Vampire Weekend
7.Portishead - Third
8.Boris - Smile
9.Constantines - Kensington Heights
10.Ruby Suns - Sea Lion

My second favorite album of the year so far, as stated... somewhere. More people need to hear it.

Right now:

1. Man Man - Rabbit Habbits
2. The Mars Volta - Bedlam in Goliath
3. Why? - Alopecia
4. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
5. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Earth
El Guincho
Animal Collective
No Age
Times New Viking
Natural Snow Buildings
Boris

edit:

AND

Wolf Parade
Beach House

I don't listen to it every week, but I still think Black Mountain's In the Future is the strongest overall rock release of 2008 so far (Go ahead and disagree, I don't mind at all). I don't dislike any of the songs on this album. I just wish less of the lyrics sounded like they fell out of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath's assholes.

The new Weezer album sounds good too. I wonder what I'm going to think of the some of lyric after I've heard them a few hundred more times though. They are always highly entertaining when I first hear them, but can seem sort of childish after you've heard them a bazillion times. Just my opinion.

Other things I am liking at the moment are Santogold and Cloud Cult - but for completely different reasons.

Bon Iver is good, but I really only like a couple of the songs on it A LOT.

Gary Louris is good too, but I wish he rocked out a little more - at least on a couple of songs, that would have made the album for me. The harmonies are great though.

It won't be leaving my top five, that's for certain.

I never thought I'd say this. But I think Coldplay is one of my tops of the year

i'd been putting off picking up New Amerykah Part One, but now that i have it... this is some great shit. This and the new Hold Steady are one and two for me right now.

{{{Sunset}}} and Deerhunter just made it onto my list. I don't know if I have 10 yet, though.

Here's what sticks out in my head. Only chronological order are the first few, then I just listed some of the albums I've really liked.

Sun Kil Moon 'April' -- I've listened to the first song 89 times and the last song 72 times, with the middle tracks each receiving a steadily descending number between those two. Meaning, about 80% of the time, I listen to it from start to finish. Great record and I just can't get enough of it.

Meshuggah 'ObZen' -- Just some wicked evil shit. Sounded like most GULAAAARG metal to me at first, but there's so many interesting things going on that it really grabbed hold and now I love it.

Grand Archives s/t -- Not what I usually go for necessarily, but the first song is such a nice pop song that I ended up getting into most of the rest of it. Bonus points because my wife likes it, so it gets played a lot.

Others I like:
M83
Times New Viking
Fuck Buttons
Bonnie Prince Billy
Black Angels -- hoping/assuming I get into this more with time, because I fucking LOVED Passover
Erykah Badu
No Age
{{{Sunset}}}
The Sword
(cough) _weezer (cough)

right now itd be
1.) frightened rabbit
2.) Cut copy

my buddy whos the lead singer for the white rabbits when he was in town a few weeks past told me the new walkmen is amazing and one of the best things hes heard in a while...so im really anticipating that...already love the cover...almost as good as ewptlmig...

Mid-year top 20:

1. Harvey Milk – Life…The Best Game in Town
2. Origin – Antithesis
3. Boris – Smile
4. Melvins – Nude With Boots
5. Leviathan – Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
6. Sahg – II
7. Portishead – Third
8. Kevin Drumm – Imperial Distortion
9. Matmos – Supreme Balloon
10. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
11. Asva – What You Don't Know Is Frontier
12. Unearthly Trance – Electrocution
13. Genghis Tron – Board Up the House
14. The Endless Blockade - Primitive
15. Opeth – Watershed
16. Times New Viking – Rip It Off
17. Prurient – And Still, Wanting
18. Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1
19. Evangelista – Hello, Voyager
20. Wold - Stratification

1.) Weezer - Weezer
2.) Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III

1. Weezer
2. Autechre
3. M83
4. Lil Wayne
5. Cut Copy
6. Hercules + Love Affair
7. Fleet Foxes
8. Portishead
9. Erykah Badu
10. The Stars

Of the 72 albums I've ranked so far, the cream:

001. Boris. Smile
002. Fleet Foxes. Fleet Foxes
003. British Sea Power. Do You Like Rock Music?
004. Wolf Parade. At Mount Zoomer
005. Fuck Buttons. Street Horrrsing
006. Man Man. Rabbit Habits
007. Times New Viking. Rip It Off
008. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
009. Portishead. Third
010. Ours. Mercy (Dancing For The Death Of An Imaginary Enemy)

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.

i really can't decide!

Should I check out this Boris album?

its good but not as good as the pink one...

Yes. Better than Pink

if you like rock music yes. if you don't, don't.

It's worth checking out I say if you don't mind guitars. If you really want to get absurd with things, I recommend checking out both the Japanese and American versions, as they are two different albums and give you two really different experiences despite the fact that they are the same songs. The reworkings of them from album to album are pretty great, though.

See, that's what's really bugging me about Smile. If the Japanese version is so superior, why did they make it only available there, instead of North America, where they're ten times as popular? They're an exceptionally talented band, but their quirky-for-quirky's-sake routine is really getting old.

As for the album, though, I'm having a hard time getting into it, compared to Pink, Akuma No Uta, and Rainbow.

Top 15:

Shearwater
Wolf Parade
Sigur Ros
Evangelicals
Vampire Weekend
Quinn Walker
British Sea Power
The Mountain Goats
Sun Kil Moon
Cloud Cult
Islands
Mates of State
Jamie Lidell
Headlights
Fleet Foxes

Eh, anyone who wants to hear the Japanese version can download it if they don't feel like paying $25 or whatever to import it. Also, who said the Japanese version was superior? I find myself listening to the US version much more often, though I'm glad they both exist.

maybe they just had different ideas for how the mix could sound and decided the more overtly 'rocky' one would be best sold in america. maybe it's to do with cds being more expensive in japan and the justification thereof. maybe it's just unabashed fecundity!


it's less accessible, for sure. pink opened with ‘決別’, which is gonna reel a listener in. smile is more awkward in that sense. and pretty much every sense.

might prefer it because, the odd epic aside, both pink and akuma no uta were heavy rocks retreads, whereas this is something new

I thought the general consensus among those who have both is that the Japanese version is better. I did download it, but the thought of doing a track-by-track comparison seems like too much work for an album I can't really care about in the first place. Maybe later this year I'll get to it.

to clarify, my 'better' statement was w/r/t/j-version. i'm waiting for southern lord to move mountains before i hear the western one properly. that and the earth vinyl are right around the corner!

I've only got the Japanese version. And it rules.

On another note, At Mount Zoomer is seriously great. I'm tempted to say it's highly underrated.

These are in a very rough order

1) Visitor by The Dodos
2) Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
3) The Airing of Grievances by Titus Andronicus
4) Lie Down in the Light by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
5) At Mount Zoomer by Wolf Parade

I'm still digesting HEALTH's remix album DISCO, but that's worth mentioning. Also awesome: Drive-By Truckers, as well as the new Nick Cave record.

Vampire Weekend really faded for me.

Real talker.

I was listening to the Japanese version of Smile for a month or so before I heard the American version, so I kind of got used to it. The American version isn't bad, necessarily, but it's definitely not as interesting. It's more of a fast food Smile. Fun, but not epic. The Japanese version is epic.

If you're trying to decide between the two, compare "Message" and "Statement" and see which one you like better.