Paste’s 2008 best-of isn’t unlike the magazine itself: largely predictable, but with a few surprises seemingly thrown in to confuse or distract. The list hews rather closely to their adult alternative aesthetic, but as likely obligated by law, they threw in Lil Wayne (No. 29). He’s not quite as good as MGMT, in case you were wondering.
THE GOOD: It cheered my heart to see that Ida Maria’s Fortress Round My Heart placed highly (No. 13); the odd, but charming acknowledgment of Torche (No. 34) elicited a similar reaction. For the Christian rock enthusiast portion of my heart, seeing Sandra McCracken buried near the bottom of the list was nice, although almost a wink and a nod to those who wonder if Paste is a undercover Christian rock mag. They may recommend Lil Wayne, but don’t worry, true believers. They still have room for Jesus rock.
THE BAD: Im sure any Idolator reader could pick out a record they don’t particularly care for and go all critically nutzoid, but Girl Talk at No. 7 seems like an odd slap in the face to the parade of “real musicians” who fall afterwards. I like Girl Talk; I downloaded the disc, and it stayed in my car stereo for a few months. But the question ends up being whether these best of lists are really running down the “best” of the year, and that the idea of lasting value and meaning is taken into consideration, or whether a disc’s inclusion just means that it was awesome to hear at parties.
THE WHAAA? Although I was surprised not to see Al Green on the list, and to note that Santogold’s Diplo mixtape outranked her actual album, nothing could top my shock to see She & Him at No. 1. The magazine defends the selection: “Maybe it’s just a sweet little folk record—a tiny, flawless diamond. Or maybe it’s a pristine distillation of harmony and craft; 50 years of songwriting experience served up on a spinning silver platter. Either way, it’s our album of the year.” To my ears, neither assertion is true. Volume One is a cute novelty record that has more preciousness than innovation, skill, or any other sort of metric people tend to judge great albums by. Last year’s number one was the National’s Boxer… this year’s pick is a long slide down in quality.
1. She & Him, Volume One
2. Sigur Rós, Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust
3. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
4. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
6. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
7. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
8. Sun Kil Moon, April
9. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey
10. Deerhunter, Microcastle
11. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
12. Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping
13. Ida Maria, Fortress Round My Heart
14. Langhorne Slim, Langhorne Slim
15. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
16. My Morning Jacket
, Evil Urges
17. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lie Down In The Light
18. Death Cab
for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
19. Gentleman Jesse and His Men, Introducing Gentleman Jesse and His Men
20. Hot Chip, Made In The Dark
21. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust
22. No Age, Nouns
23. Mates of State, Re-Arrange Us
24. Santogold and Diplo, Top Ranking
25. Mugison, Mugiboogie
26. Lee Ann Womack, Call Me Crazy
27. Liam Finn, I’ll Be Lightning
28. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
29. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
30. I’m From Barcelona, Who Killed Harry Houdini?
31. The Walkmen, You & Me
32. Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
33. Santogold, Santogold
34. Torche, Meanderthal
35. Colour Revolt, Plunder, Beg and Curse
36. The Bridges, Limits of the Sky
37. Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit, A Larum
38. Jamie Lidell, Jim
39. The Dodos, Visiter
40. Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords
41. The Tallest Man On Earth, Shallow Grave
42. Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down, We Brave Bee Stings & All
43. Amanda Palmer, Who Killed Amanda Palmer
44. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers
45. M83, Saturdays = Youth
46. Lykke Li, Youth Novels
47. Laura Marling, Alas, I Cannot Swim
48. REM, Accelerate
49. Sandra McCracken, Red Balloon
50. TV On The Radio, Dear Science
Signs of Life 2008: Best Music [Paste]
@DocStrange: Damn right Bandwagonesque was good.
@Dan Gibson: I like that one MGMT song. Kids? Can’t help it.
Damn right Bandwagonesque wasn’t remotely good enough to be named best album of 1991.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Can I just say that I still listen to Bandwagonesque and Loveless and Out of Time and Nevermind? I think it was a messed up pick, too, but I don’t think She & Him even gets close to Bandwagonesque territory.
I think that maybe one of my top ten this year will even show up on one of these lists. When people say things like “it’s a bad year for music” I hope they mean a bad year for consensus music that would go on lists like this one. I have no trouble finding ten records I love every year, if not fifty.
Putting scare quotes around “real musicians” doesn’t make you any less stupid for thinking that Girl Talk - & by implication every hip-hop producer - is somehow less of a real musician than an umpteenth indie guitarist.
And the comments on this blog are tedious enough without the actual writers joining in to pretend that choosing the best records of the year is a science, & there are right or wrong answers. Seriously, I hope the idiot who calls him- or herself “wakeupbomb” is under 16. If it’s some adult walking around under the delusion that because he thinks something sucks, it therefore sucks & anyone who can’t see that is dumb, well, that’s just sad.
I like Santogold. I think Beach House is just about the most godawful band imaginable. I think the best album of the year is Fucked Up’s, with Portishead, Taylor Swift, & Bon Iver close behind. But you know what? I don’t actually believe people who don’t like those records are either wrong or stupid.
@Michaelangelo Matos: Oh no, I agree with you that much released that year was better and certainly more important, but I don’t think it’s the atrocity that people say it was. They look super-silly in hindsight, but as far as beating out Nirvana, Nirvana fever was just getting going when that poll was probably written. Nevermind was released in September of 1991, and it didn’t reach #1 on the Billboard charts until the next year. It was a slow grower, and that list was probably written in October or November. If memory serves me, Nevermind was #3 on their list, too, which is hardly small potatoes. I think that the importance of Nevermind. Now, over Loveless, yeah, there’s no excuse!
The fact that, years later, System of a Down was named #1 by SPIN over anything is a bigger problem to me.
@DocStrange: That Against Me! pick was wild.
@Lucas Jensen: I like MGMT, too and they sound like they have a bright future ahead of them as a singles band.
Also, yes, Bandwagonesque was a good record with a classic single (”What You Do To Me”), but #1 over all the albums released in what was a landmark year for music? unforgivable. As I said before, SPIN pulled it again by naming Against Me!’s New Wave not a bad record, but #1? or even in the Top 50? and over Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem?
Lots of people put Against Me! in their top ten. I thought it easily one of the ten best records of last year. Not number one though - that was Lil Wayne’s Da Drought 3, no question.
There are things I want to say, but I don’t know if they will be to you.
When are music nerds ever going to agree on any “Ultimate,” “Year End,” “Best of,” “Top Ten,” “I know more than you and my record collection proves it,” list? Never.
We all just love to fan our over-informed feathers for each other, never realizing that NO ONE outside of our snot-nosed tunnel vision view GIVES A SHIT. Even if you’re respectable like Paste.
I gave Fergie one of my Top Ten album slots last year. That probably means I have no right to even be writing about music in the first place.
I’m throwing Metro Station on my list this year along with The Breeders, Lil’ Wayne, and that wretched Girl Talk no one seems to want to give credit to. Why? Because their record did what it was supposed to do, and did it really well.
MS are like the Beach Boys with coke and hairspray and Myspace. And I love them because of it.
Yes, I liked She & Him, but number one is a little much. On the cover of Paste they even look a little puzzled themselves….and no love for Aimee Mann?
Girl Talk at number 7? An interesting technological exercise, to be sure, but not a great album.
Oh, glad we cleared that up. I say (as do several others) it is a great album. Who cares? Nobody. But what’s offensive is the utter disregard for the artistry involved in anything that’s not guitar-bass-drums. The inanity of the idea that using technical reproduction to produce music is somehow suspect should be self-evident to anyone even slightly acquainted with the history of twentieth-century music. And rock records are made without technology?
Maybe it’s just my age, but I only own five of the Paste “top 50″ for 2008 (Hold Steady, MMJ, Silver Jews, REM, Girl Talk) and there are only a couple of others (Walkmen, Okkervil River) that I’d even be remotely interested in hearing. Girl Talk at number 7? An interesting technological exercise, to be sure, but not a great album. Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend are probably just this week’s flavor, and Sigur Ros isn’t doing anything that Brian Eno and Cluster didn’t do better (and they did it first).
I’d agree with “unperson” about Meshuggah, Opeth, Gojira and the Sword among the best metal albums of ‘08, and would begrudgingly reconize Metallica, save for the god-awful production. When talking metal 2008, though, you can’t ignore great albums by Ihsahn or King’s X, and the Burzum anthology was pretty sweet, too.
@Murk: I’m almost certain no one is making the contention you’re arguing against, but hey, everyone loves a straw man.
Actually, everyone on the internet loves to show that they know what “straw man” means. In this case, it’s very interesting that the phrase “technological exercise” is applied to the very record that was not made by “real musicians.” If you don’t see the condescension inherent in both characterizations - both of which are intended to show that the magazine rated the record too highly on the grounds that it was made on a laptop - then perhaps you’d like to explain to me how they’re not truly condescending, instead of simply denying that the contention they imply is actually being made.
Ah, well, I guess I stand corrected.
i’ve only heard eight of these. really liked five of them (the raveonettes’ is their best yet, i think. also santogold, santogold again, lykke li and tv on the radio) but i despised the other three (she & him, of montreal and jamie lidell) with all of my being.
@Murk: Sigh.