Luke’s Top 10 Albums of 2008

Time for annual list making! My favorite part of the new year is looking back on the artistic achievements of the previous one. We’re starting with music this year. Here is my list of Top 10 Albums of the past year.

10. Death Cab For Cutie  Narrow Stairs

I remember hearing Death Cab a few years ago. I listened to a clip or two off of “Transatlantisicm” because they were all the rage it seemed (or maybe I was watching too much “The O.C.”). In any case, I didn’t like them. One listen and I thought “Not for me”. Then “Plans” came out a couple years ago and upon a first listen I was hooked. That’s the thing about music. Sometimes things just click for no good reason. It’s kind of cool, and everytime something like that happens I can always tell I’ll like the music for a long time to come, as long as the artist keeps putting out quality stuff. It seems to me that’s not something to worry about with Death Cab. “Narrow Stairs”, while IMHO not as good as “Plans”, is a fantastic offering and I find myself honestly forgetting which songs go to which album. Also saw them live this year and they were phenomonal!

09. Radiohead  In Rainbows

I believe “In Rainbows” may be one of the 100 greatest cd’s of this current decade.  Not only a brilliant piece of art and commentary but a snapshot of a band in their prime. Radiohead, to me, is so much a bigger than life band and we don’t have many of those anymore. Look at the 70’s. Bands like Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, etc. all became pillars of rock music. They were bigger than the fading musical trends of the decade and that started to fade later on in life, and now we don’t have them much anymore. But Radiohead, like the bands mentioned before, are a pillar of rock. They stand above the rest. They remind me of U2 in this way. U2 was an 80’s band for sure, but you don’t think 80’s when you hear them. Their music transcended those trends. And they transcended those times and thrived in the 90’s and are just as popular, if not more, today. Radiohead is the same and “In Rainbows” paints the picture of a band who is feeling their way around legend-dom.

08. Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend

This is the debut album from New York City based band “Vampire Weekend”. Though the album came out in January I just discovered it in the fall and immediately fell in love with it. There’s a quality in it that I can’t quite put my finger on. But I really enjoy the direction that the neo-garage wave is going in. This is just a really fun indie record and you owe yourself a listen.

07. Coldplay Viva La Vida

Ah, Coldplay. My dear Coldplay. “Viva La Vida” is a brilliant brilliant album. The portrait of a band that is here to stay and that has effortlessly proved that they are masters at their craft. Granted, I believe they owe much of the brilliance of this album to producer Brian Eno. His influence is vast in this work, and he has more than proved his spectacular genius. This is just a perfect album front to back. I can’t listen to one song. I have to listen to the entire thing all the way through and that’s the key to a great album. The natural flow that speaks to you in a complete form. That says, “I am the sum of my parts”. I do not believe that this is Coldplay’s best album, but I do believe it is their most artisticly realized work.

06. Sigur Rós Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust

For a band that basically sings lyrics in a non-existent language, they sure are incredible. For their fifth studio album, Sigur Rós is definitely reaching into the more conventional, but it is not a bad thing. It is in fact, a way for us to reach deeper into their talent and view them from a new side. Of course, they are not abandoning the ethereal melodies that define them by any means, but in this album their is more cohesive structure and a new beauty that I haven’t heard from them before. Simply put, this is a brilliant and ADDICTIVE album.

05. She and Him Volume One

I didn’t really need another reason to leave my wife for Zooey Deschanel, but if she insists.  For those who don’t know, She and Him consists of actress Zooey Deschanel (of “Elf” fame) and singer-songwriter and guitarist (primarily for Bright Eyes) M. Ward. The result of this collaboration was revealed this year as “Volume One” and it is by far one of the best albums to have come out. Merging a somewhat sixties retro style with a little bit of country-folk, you end up with this beautiful enchanting record. Besides Zooey’s buttery and innocently sensual voice, there’s a wonderful playfulness to this music but not in a way that turns you off. It’s serious by all means, but doesn’t take itself too seriously and it adds to it’s immense charm. I highly highly recommend this album!!

04. Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes describes their music as “baroque harmonic pop jams” and I couldn’t have put it better myself. Sign me up as one who is always in the mood for something a little different, especially when it concerns merging pop sensibilities with established forms of music. This album is spectacular from start to finish. A beautiful and unique offering from top to bottom. Their first single, the song “White Winter Hymnal” is just one of those songs that will define this decade of music for me. I absolutely cannot wait to see how this band evolves over time.

03. Kings of Leon Only By The Night

In 2005, when I found out that Kings of Leon were going to be opening for our U2 show in Chicago, I decided to give them a try beforehand and I was instantly hooked. To begin with, Caleb Followill’s voice is instantly intoxicating. This man was born to sing rock ‘n roll. And this band, with their mixture of retro sixties pop-sensibilities and raw neo-garage style music, was an instant hit for me. I’ve enjoyed each of their previous records and they have all been staples in my ipod, but “Only By The Night” is something….something totally different. Listening to this album, every single time, makes me feel like I’ve never heard this band before. This is a new Kings of Leon. Now, not everyone is okay with that. I’m aware of the backlash some people gave this album. The wonderful “Sold out” phrase gets thrown around a lot here and there, but it’s the most rediculous thing I’ve ever heard. This is not an album of surrender to the conventional, it’s Kings’ “Joshua Tree”. This is a band that is discovering the full potential of their writing abilities. Sure, I love their older stuff as much as the next guy, but when I listen to a song like “Use Somebody” I hear beauty in maturity. I hear a band that has decided it’s going to stick around for awhile and we are all going to be the better for it. This, my friends, is an absolutely brilliant and addictive record.

02. The Bird and the Bee The Bird and the Bee

Okay, so technically this album came out late 2007, but I don’t care. It still counts in my opinion because not only did I discover it in 2008, but I burnt a whole in the damn thing in 2008.  I am now officially a mega-fan of The Bird and the Bee. The duo, consisting of keyboardist Greg Kurstin and vocalist Inara George, have created one of the most memorable and enchanting albums I’ve heard in several years. Again, as with She and Him, there is a subtle retro vibe underneath, which seems to be a musical trend as of late (probably thanks to the popularity of Amy Winehouse), but here it is mixed with a pop-dance vibe, sort of in the vein of Frou Frou. And in fact, if you’re an Imogen Heap fan, I know you will very much enjoy The Bird and the Bee. Seriously, this album has become almost a comfort album for me in the past year. One night while flying back from a short filming gig in San Diego, I listened to it 4 times in a row. Needless to say, it was the most enjoyable plane ride I’ve ever had.

Now that we’ve gotten to number one, it seems I should let you know that I just couldn’t decide which one of these next two albums I liked better. In one way, they’re very similar and in another way they’re very different, but in the end the important thing is that they just both inspired me equally so I’ve chosen to end it in a tie.

01.02 William Fitzsimmons The Sparrow and the Crow

Though he’s been around for a few years, I discovered William Fitzsimmons for the first time this year and I haven’t been the same since. This is, by all accounts, a perfect record. Like “The Bird and The Bee” above, this album has become a comfort album for me. It is so relaxing and beautiful and altogether wonderful, I just end up playing it just about anytime I can’t decide on anything else. There’s nothing particular special about William as an artist. It’s your usual somewhat-whispery singer-songwriter style, and the music has no particular bells and whistles, but more than anything this man can write a melody that just doesn’t seem like a melody. There’s a Paul Simon-esque effortlessness to it, and the result is such a wonderful blend of sweetness and sadness. By all accounts, this is the kind of music that should be dominating the airwaves. In a perfect world, the song “Goodmorning” would be a Top 40 hit.

01.01 Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago

A guy by the name of Justin Vernon had a pretty crappy year after the breakup of a band, a girlfriend and a bout with sickness and decided to lock himself up in a cabin in the woods of Northern Wisconsin. The result was this album. “For Emma, Forever Ago” is one of the most gentle and most quietly intense records I’ve heard in a long time. It has been a very long time that an album has touched me the way this one has. With every whispered lyric and fragile falsetto the longing and heartbreak that comes through is both beautiful and hard to bear. This is a haunting record, from the front cover to the ethereal folk-sound of the music to the heartbreak and hurt in the lyrics to the broken whisper of Vernon’s singing. Not only is this album my absolute favorite of the year, it is easily one of my top 25 favorite albums of all time. Hands down. I am truly enamored by it’s beauty and cannot sing it’s praises enough.