Best Albums of 2008

One of my pet peeves is the number of websites who post their “best of” lists beginning in mid-November.  With albums still being released and still plenty of opportunity to give an album a couple more spins, why rush?  Having said that, I’ve seen the release schedule for the last couple of weeks in December and there’s nothing coming out that has the slightest chance of being on this list.  As I get older, I hate hear my (older) friends say that there isn’t as much good music coming out.  Unfortunately, this year seemed a little sluggish.  The top three on this list would make my list any year, but beyond that I struggled.  Good news is that there are quite a few bands who put out amazing singles (I’m looking at you White Lies and It Hugs Back) and will be releasing great albums in 2009 (not that I’ve heard leaked versions or anything…).

I’ve tried to do something that’ll seperate my list from the masses.  Not only have I posted one video for each of the albums, I’ve tried to steer clear of the “official” video.  This presented challenges since the “live” videos tend to have bad sound quality.  In almost every case I was able to come up with something that is a little special.  Enjoy!

…and with that, here’s the list:

1) The Duke Spirit- Neptune

2) The Virgins- The Virgins

3) Darker My Love- Darker My Love 2

4) Steve Malkmus & The Jicks- Real Emotional Trash

5) The Kooks- Konk

6) The Late Greats- Life Without Balloons

7) The Pigeon Detectives- Emergency

Fujiya & Miyagi- Lightbulbs

9) We Are Scientists- Brain Thrust Mastery

10) The Bronx- The Bronx 3

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Tags: Best of 2008, Darker My Love, Fujiya & Miyagi, Music, Steve Malkmus, The Bronx, The Duke Spirit, The Kooks, The Late Greats, The Pigeon Detectives, The Virgins, The Whigs, We Are Scientists