This has been a long time coming. I finished this list about a week ago and have been making slight tweaks all week, this is as good as it's going to get. Before I get to the list, I want to discuss a few things about these lists.
First, I acknowledge, and anyone reading this should also acknowledge, that these lists really come down, at some level, to arbitrary decisions. Sure there are some factors that I take in to account, but especially with a list this long, how do you decide the difference between position 36 and 37.
Now, why a list so large, when this large of a list is hard to widdle down from 170 albums (My long list) to 50 favorites. It's frankly because I believe there are some albums that deserve some amount of notoriety in a year of great music.
That being said, I do have some criteria for my list. The largest one is how often I find myself wanting to listen to the album. Foes it make it's way on to my headphones often? The next and almost as important criteria is if the artist is doing something original or creative within their genre. those are the 2 main criteria that I base my decisions on.
Now, the list:
50. Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
49. Snowman - The Horse, The Rat & The Swan
48. Abe Vigoda - Skeleton
47. Bun B - II Trill
46. The Long Blondes - "Singles"
45. Amadou & Mariam – Welcome To Mali
44. High Places - S/T & 03/07-09/07
43. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement
42. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus, Dig!
41. Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
40. Love Is All - A Hundred Things to Keep Me Up At Night
39. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed/Hold On Now, Youngster!
38. The Cool Kids - Bake Sale
37. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
36. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
35. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
34. Air France - No Way Down
33. Deerhunter - Microcastle & Weird Era Cont.
32. Lil’ Wayne – The Carter III
31. Times New Viking - Rip It Off
30. Shugo Tokumaru - Exit
29. 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 This is It And That Is That
28. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
27. Shearwater - Rook
26. F*ck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
25. Gentleman Jesse & His Men - Introducing...
24. Mount Eerie/Julie Dorian/Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom
23. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah pt. One (4th World War)
22. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
21. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
20. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
19. Vampire Weekend - S/T
18. Conor Oberst – S/T
17. TV On The Radio - Dear Science,
16. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
15. The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Graves
14. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
13. Jay Reatard - Matador Singles '08
12. The Walkmen - You & Me
11. So So Glos - Tourism/Terrorism
10. El Guincho - Allegranza!
9. Samamidon - All Is Well
8. The Dutchess & The Duke – She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke
7. Dodos - Visiter
6. Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
5. Fleet Foxes - S/T & Sun Giant EP
4. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
3. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
2. Why? – Alopecia
1. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
I decided not to write blurbs about each album, but I realized what I had to say was useless. If anyone really needs me to defend my choices ask me in the comments, I'd be more than happy to.
Jeffrey
5 comments:
Brilliant list Jeffrey... knocked the socks off any list of mine! I'll put my measly 25 up in the next few days.
it is so neat to see our record up on this list, betwixt all other sorts of stellar artists. titus' is by far my #1 record of the year too.
you live in arizona...? we wanted to give you guys some advanced notice (couldn't find an email) that we'll be playing in tucson on thursday, january 15th, then in phoenix on friday the 23rd (still not booked). we'd love to hear from you, perhaps get some phoenix input. hope all is well!
thesosoglos@gmail.com
my best,
matt so so glo
Not surprisingly I have not heard any one of these albums. I need help!!!
Jeffrey, once again I feel the need to point out the fact that you're probably the hippest, coolest person I know. Just know that your top 50 list is going to be a major source of information for the next several albums that I will buy - because you have impeccable taste. But first, I seriously need to find out who all of these bands are!
this list is so bomb. and yayyy fleet foxes made it to your top 10!
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