Rough Trade's top 50 albums of 2008

2008-12-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

A very worthy no.1 slot for Bon Iver's debut release. The result of front man Justin Vernon retreating to a hunting cabin following the demise of his band and the break up of a relationship. For Emma, Forever Ago is a collection of 9 beautifully tender and haunting tracks about love lost brimming with falsetto harmonies, twanging guitars and soft but deliberate drums that drive each track forward and keep your feet tapping through the heartache. A stand out track is nearly impossible to select with an album as rich as this, but The Wolves (Act I & II) is a fine example of what it has to offer. Opening with the softness of a lullaby it swells into anthemic chorus refrains of 'What might have been lost'. A very appropriate line for anyone considering allowing this masterpiece to pass them by.

2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

The eponymously named album from Seattle based 5 piece Fleet Foxes is the second debut album in the top 2, and a very worthy contender. Another vocal- harmony heavy effort at times quite reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, seems to show a pattern of tastes for 2008's favourites. Fleet Foxes exists in a world of reverb and echoes. Their sound could been likened to My Morning Jacket, but it would be a lazy and inaccurate assumption that they are a soundalike band. Lyrically rich and compelling songs make this a deserving second place with paticular highlights being 'Your Protector' - building from gentle panpipes and Robin Pecknold's ethereal vocals into a battle march drumbeat chorus with momentum its near impossible to remain still to. 'Meadowloarks' is the lament of a man trapped down a well looking at the stars and 'Blue Ridge Mountains' is an epic track with musicbox keys that soar high above the wall of sound that hits you in a chorus so big it should have its own channel 5 documentary about the perils of obesity.

3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

4. White Denim - Workout Holiday

Like Britain in snowfall I wasn't really ready for White Denim. At times punk, at others garage rock and an interesting mix of lo-fi crunchy guitar riffs that wouldn't stand out on The Strokes debut - Is This It. Workout Holiday is a frantic, energetic rock album with short blast songs of 2 to 3 minutes befitting any self respecting album of its genre. Highlight track for its frantic pace and vitriolic vocals is 'Darksided Computer Mouth' which is a punk rock track leading to brutal noise explosion and a triumph standing at 2:15 secs in length. By no means a straight forward garage rock album Workout Holiday seems to ecompass a variety of sounds, techniques and melodies and crow bar it all into short, punchy and infectious tracks. Take a snow day and give it a listen or 5.

5. Metronomy - Nights Out

In a similar vain to Hot Chip, Bloc Party, dance meets indie. Nights Out is Metronomy's follow up to 2006 Pip Paine (Pay the £5000 you owe) and its a fine effort. Very danceable, and yet not just a dance album. A mixture of jangly guitar riffs and synths that can only have come from Nintendo make for an interesting listen. There is a real diversity throughout with some songs on the electro indie side ('On Dancefloors') and others (Nights Outro) that sound positively lamentful. Nights Outro is in fact one of the highlights of the album, allbeit an instrumental to end the album there is a real feel of end of the night blues about its clumsily plucked strings mixed with the static and distortion that conjure up distant memories of drunken, rainy walks home after nights of excess.

6. El Guincho - Algranza

Calypo, rumba, carnivale! Ok, so its a mish mash of musical genres of the world music variety (Spanish Folk, Afro pop...) chopped up, sampled added to and blended together. It could end up like a body builders protein shake freshly poured from the magimix blender, so completely unpalletable to anyone without an agenda. Or could it be the genre that has been missing from your musical horizon all this time. Well actually its neither. You certainly couldn't accuse it of being like much else out there at the moment, the only problem is that whilst being very different from other artists the album itself fails to differ in its mood or tempo throughout which does result in a somewhat nausiating listen. There is a lot of repitition and looping of samples and found sounds which can get very tiring and bring about this sense of chanting, meditation and a nightmarish merry-go-round that would no doubt be a risky choice for anyone who'd had one too many tokes.

7. Benga - Diary of an African Warrior

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8. Zombie Zombie - A Land For Renegades

Krautdisco, weird for a pair of Parisians non? Zombie Zombie or Etienne Jaumet and Cosmic Neman make music that would be a fitting soundtrack to the hammer horror, zombie slasher, George Romero style film. Inspired by the use of analogue over digital and a mutual love of horror films they have managed to create a compelling dance / techno / frightfest of an album.

9. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls

10. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

11. TVOTR - Dear Science

12. Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

13. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

14. Hold Steady - Stay Positive

15. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

16. Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night

17. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

18. Santogold - Santogold

19. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

20. Apollo Sunshine - Shall Noise Upon

21. Atlas Sounds - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

22. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

23. Peter Broderick - Home

Opener 'Games' is an instrumental track with a layered angelic choir harmonising over sparse softly strummed acoustic guitar. An electrical radio-static confusion leads into 'And Its Alright' a song which is in equal measure the blanket around my shoulders and the cold breeze that makes me aware of the shivers. Broderick's Home is a stripped down effort consisting predominantly of voice and guitar and little else and yet it still feels full in its sound. Finger picking acoustic guitar tracks and layered vocals create the ambience. Percussion is kept to a minimum although used to great effect when tracks wander off into creshendo like in 'Sickness, Bury'. Home has echoes of heyday Simon and Garfunkel particularly on 'Maps' and in its introverted beauty its best listened to through headphones gazing out of the window of a train, either heading to or away from home. Highlights: 'Below It', 'And Its Alright'

24. Crystal Stilts - Alight Of The Night

25. F Buttons - Street Horrrsing

26. Spiritualized - Songs In A and E

27. The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain

28. Dodos - Visiter

29. Baltic Feet - Baltic Feet

30. David Holmes - Holy Pictures

31. Bug - London Zoo

32. Dengue Fever - Venus On Earth

33. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

34. 2562 - Aerial

35. The Heart Strings - Try Fly Blue Sky

36. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

37. Byrne and Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

38. Headless Heroes - The Silence Of Love

Opening track 'True Love Will Find You In The End' is a cover of cult American singer songwriter Robert Johnston's haunting lament brought into an electric ethereal realm. The guitar solo is achingly appropriate and Alela Diane's vocal stylings fit in comfortably with the mood of the original. Headless Heroes are a collection of artists and instrumentalists performing reworked cover versions of some well known and lesser known tracks. Cover songs have skated on thin ice often being the preferred route of boy and girl groups scraping their next number one by karaokeing their way through a familiar tune. Things have changed somewhat of late with the release of Mark Ronson's - Version, which enjoyed huge success and various other formats such as Radio 1's live lounge albums. So is Headless Heroes a Hendrix to Dylan - All along the Watchtower or is it a Jamie Cullum to 'Radiohead's - High and Dry?' There are some wonderful reimaginings on this album noteabley to 'I Am Kloot's - To You' and 'Nick Cave's - Nobody's Baby Now' which lend this album real credibility and make it well worth a listen. Stand out track True Love Will Find You In The End

39. Breeders - Mountain Battles

40. Johnny Flynn - A Larum

41. Portishead - Third

42. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

43. Pete and The Pirates - Little Death

44. Torche - Meanderthal

45. Lykke Li - Youth Novels

46. Shearwater - Rook

47. Foals - Antidotes

48. Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

49. Sonny J - Destructo

50. Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine

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Rough Trade's top 50 albums of 2008