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]
lee ann womack at 26? do paste readers really listen to womack?
ida maria is so best.
I really enjoy the hell out of that She & Him record. That being said, it’s not a number one album. Lower half of the top ten, maybe, but definitely not number one.
Did everyone just forget that Stephen Malkmus and Times New Viking both put out amazing records this year? Is Matador not throwing enough payola Paste’s way? Their readers should be eating that Jennifer O’Connor record up like it’s made out of bacon. The lack of a Magnetic Fields record is surprising as well.
I like all the question marks at #18.
I guess Paste forgot that WARBRINGER put out an album this year
@R. Morast: Womack kind of did a neo-classic country makeover a few years ago and became a lot more Paste-friendly.
Flight of the Conchords. Interesting. The possibility somehow hadn’t occurred to me that the Conchords album is a legitimate ‘end-of-year-list’ album, which it totally is. Despite being a “novelty” or whatever, it’s a hell of a lot more enjoyable (and well-written) than a lot of stuff at was released this year. I’ll be curious to see how many lists it ends up on. I actually hope it makes some top 10’s.
@R. Morast: @Al Shipley: That caught my eye too. Womack’s record is good, but it’s not anywhere near as good as Sugarland’s record, which seemingly would fit in much more easily on this “playlist”. I wonder why Womack got the “token country album” slot instead.
But — kudos to Womack for outranking MGMT.
she and him are god awful, they just have a boner for Zoe and are trying to justify giving them the cover in the spring.
Not seeing Beach House, Portishead or Department of Eagles is criminal.
@Rob Murphy: My assumption is that Womack’s limited sales success debuting at #23 seemed more indie credible than picking a Sugarland disc that opened at #1.
Just a hunch.
I like the She & Him album a lot — but not #1. Of course I’m totally in the tank for anything M. Ward so there’s that….
I’m sorry, but Ida Maria just didn’t do it for me — every song is exactly the same thematically (and mostly musically as well), and she even has two songs that are almost entirely comprised of yelling the title character’s name.
Glad to see Walkmen up there. That album is gorgeous.
good god, paste - 50? i know p-fork and many other magazines do 50, but at least most of them have a wide enough purview to warrant that many albums on a best-of list. tokenism and lip service aside, they do cover house, dubstep, metal (if torche is the only metal album on your list THIS year, then fuck you, that’s all), etc.
at least it isn’t 100 like it was last year. i’m already getting list burnout thanks to this one. how many polite indie/folk/americana records can you appreciate in a given year? i say that as a pretty staunch fan of the genre, but c’mon.
No Jenny Lewis or Coldplay? Is that their way of baiting their readership?
Sun Kil Moon put out a really great record — glad to see it make at least one list.
@westartedthis: As someone who lacks the energy to aggressively follow metal these days, I’ll bite; what are the essential metal albums of 2008?
The simple fact that Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes are both in the top 10 shows me that Paste has terrible taste. Those two albums suck as does anything put out by Santigold. Ugh. I can’t believe these flash in the pan, nothing “artists” are terrible.
I am sad to see Dear Science all the way down at the bottom. Below Accelerate even.
@westartedthis: i have the same question as dan!!
@wakeupbomb: Wait, you can’t believe they are terrible?
I like Santogold, for the record.
Dan, here is something we completely on: Ida Maria’s album is one of my favorites of the year. Though parts of this list were simply confounding, Fortress being in there- and all the way up at 13!- brought a smile to my face.
@Lucas Jensen: Oops…I meant I can’t believe they are on the list because they are terrible.
@whoneedslight: That obscene error, plus the lack of Portishead on this list, has me writing it off completely.
@Dan Gibson:
Opeth, Watershed
Metallica, Death Magnetic
Meshuggah, obZen
Slipknot, All Hope Is Gone
Gojira, The Way Of All Flesh
Amon Amarth, Twilight Of The Thunder God
Harvey Milk, Life…The Best Game In Town
Nachtmystium, Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
Enslaved, Vertebrae
Cavalera Conspiracy, Inflikted
Torche, Meanderthal
Krallice, Krallice
Neuraxis, The Thin Line Between
Judas Priest, Nostradamus
Testament, The Formation Of Damnation
The Sword, Gods Of The Earth
Genghis Tron, Board Up The House
Wetnurse, Invisible City
GridLink, Amber Gray
Made Out Of Babies, The Ruiner
Children Of Bodom, Blooddrunk
Lair Of The Minotaur, War Metal Battle Master
@Maura Johnston: Is it fair for them to consider Ida Maria, since the majority of Americans haven’t had a (legitimate) chance to hear the album yet?
Is it actually ever being officially released in the US?
@Dan Gibson: well, i probably don’t follow satan-rock like i should, and i have little patience for the drony, “experimental” side of black metal. or most black metal at all for that matter - if Krallice is black metal, then i guess they are an exception. in short, i’m a dilettante - which i guess makes my point that it was a good year for metal if even the dilettantes are noticing.
i’m using itunes to help me remember stuff, which is probably an incomplete listing of what i actually listened to:
Harvey Milk - Life…the Best Game in Town
Magic Lantern - High Beams
Boris - Smile (seek the Japanese version if you can, but the american version is also good, just not as)
Krallice - Krallice
Plague Bringer - Life Songs in a Land of Death
Skeletonwitch - Beyond the Permafrost (late 07 release i didn’t hear until this year)
and if i’m going to include records that are super “heavy”, but don’t necessarily “rock”:
Earth - the Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
Growing - All the Way
surely, there are pleasures in Torche’s record that one may not find in any of those. it just seemed weird - and i guess, annoying - for Paste magazine to have it there (right above I’m From Barcelona’s shitty second record, which didn’t even have the decency to include a disposably awesome song like their eponymous theme from their first also mostly-shitty record). since when do they even like “hard rock” much less the sludgy metal that Torche plays?
and while i’m on my high horse, it kind of reeks to see Lil’ Wayne as the only hip-hop record, but A.) i like it, B.) there’s the whole “cultural phenomenon” thing with Weezy, and C.) i’m going to see a lot more token mentions of it as the year-end lists roll on.
@unperson: <– also just read his post, Dan and Maura.
@unperson: You had me until you mentioned Nostradamus.
@unperson: Opeth, Watershed
Track two on that record is by far the best folk-funk-prog metal song of the year.
That’s like the tip of the iceberg, by the way; I edit a metal magazine full-time, and this year has been fantastic.
@westartedthis: I should have mentioned how odd the I’m From Barcelona mention was. Last year, they mentioned that they sat down in a conference room to compile their list. I can’t imagine who had the gall to propose that charmless IFB disc and how they weren’t fired on the spot.
Maybe I need to just start listening to metal all the time. I think it’s come to that. The Paste list, as ever, made me want to kill people.
@baconfat: As for the lack of Matador product — um, I think that’s to edgy for a mag that put She and Him in the No. 1 slot.
Why don’t they just tell it like it is? They all have boners for Zooey Deschanel. What amazes me is she trumped their probably inevitable man crushes on Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. (YES I WENT THERE.)
oh! also “The Sycophant” by Indian.
@the rich girls are weeping: lol on the “man crushes”. i am utterly shocked that Fleet Foxes isn’t their #1. hey, i even LIKE that record and i find that funny. the only thing paste magazine loves more than a waifish childlike woman is a burly bearded man.
@Halfwit: a good point. honestly, i have no idea on either level; i would imagine that for ida maria to get a shake from universal execs in the states, the album would have to be retrofitted to fit, i don’t know, travis mccoy on there or something.
the whole ‘global marketplace’ is something that i think about a lot, what with The Device You Are Gazing At (to quote rob kemp) collapsing the idea of international release dates in a weird way. i mean, just look at the robyn album — universal sat on it here for how long? and it underperformed in part because people who liked it had acquired it in some way (legal or illegal). of course, it also underperformed because programmers in the states are idiots who don’t recognize good pop songs, but, sigh.
@the rich girls are weeping: 2008: the year of the bromance? (maybe that’s why i was so underwhelmed so much?)
@Dan Gibson: “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.”
I wonder about this, not because I care for Girl Talk at all, but because I wonder a) how one can judge lasting value w/o a crystal ball and b) why music being great at parties would at all be a negative measurement of this value.
@the rich girls are weeping: Is Jennifer O’Connor edgy? I can’t believe she has a career.
If this is the start of a complete lack of attention for Beach House, H&LA, and Goldfrapp I am going to be so peeved. I will be further annoyed if I keep seeing Hot Chip show up on these sorts of lists.
@the rich girls are weeping: Yeah but the Jennifer O’Connor record is definitely NOT “edgy” (unless you’re put off by the idea of an actual non-Katy Perry lesbian kissing her girlfriend on the front cover) in any way, shape, or form. And you’re telling me that the same mag which will highly rate a Silver Jews and Deerhunter (both on “edgy” indie labels) record won’t go gaga for a very solid Malkmus effort?
i think it was just a lil’ joke at both Paste and Matador’s expense.
@Maura Johnston: That’s the sadness, isn’t it? I downloaded the UK version of Robyn, but did eventually buy the US release (kept the UK bonus track, though).
I’ve also been sitting on Ida Maria for the longest, but I’d like to spend a (logical) amount of money on her. Do artists even get a cut of import sales, or is it basically a “middle man” option (like used CDs)?
@Maciej: “Sublime” and “Under the Table and Dreaming” went over great at my summer pool parties. That doesn’t mean that they were the best albums to come in those years.
I’m really happy to see Hot Chip in the top 20. There may have been better “albums,” but that was definitely one of my favorite “collections of songs” this year.
@Halfwit: With the exchange rate what it is, you can get the album for about $14 (£6, 15% VAT deducted, £3 shipping) from Amazon.co.uk.
@Nunya B: Though, honestly, there are a thousand other UK-only releases that I think would probably be more worthy of real cash, but chacun a son gout.
*cranks up her sarcasm knob a little higher*
@baconfat: @Lucas Jensen: YES, THE MATADOR CRACK WAS A JOKE. Sorry I didn’t make that more clear. (thanks for reading me
westartedthis — I mean, making fun of Paste is kind of like kicking a cripple, but it’s so damn fun.)
Frankly, I was surprised not to see Shearwater on this list.
@Maura Johnston: Seriously. I smell a feature.
@Nunya B: HAHA!! US Amazon’s selling it for $32. I’ll look into it, thanks.
Ohhh man. Its way too early for the list making. Too. Early. Its like putting up Christmas decorations the day after Halloween.
Is this like the Iowa Caucus? Are Vampire Weekend John Edwards?
Ah well. The She and Him record has a great first half then totally loses steam. But what strikes me about this list is how many really kinda boring records are on it. And I don’t think that there will be too much variation from these 50 in different orders as the lists start to bubble out.
And also- this particular publication has a different view about what music is good than I do- whatsupwiththat? haters.
@baconfat: Agreed. I know me and Baconfat are in a minority (what with liking the She & Him record and all), but also find the placement at #1 as completely stupid and idiotic. No love for Los Campesinos!, Long Blondes, Forward Russia, Drive-By Truckers, Midnight Juggernauts, Why? or Beach House? And the fact that Laura Marling and TV on the Radio are rated lower than they should be?
Et tu, Paste? You were the last good music magazine left and now you do stuff like this (SPIN did stuff in recent years like firing Chuck Klosterman and naming Against Me!’s last album the best of 2007 over far better records - They did the same thing in 1991, but at least Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub was good)
@Michaelangelo Matos: Wait, you made the Bandwagonesque reference before I could. Good on ya.
@Murk: I should probably not try to speak for Dan, but I read the scare quotes as mocking Paste a little bit–the idea being that separating them is a little absurd at this stage. I think the She & Him pick is wrongheaded too, not because Paste or its editors/writers are stupid but because it’s hard to believe a record that slight would actually have topped anyone’s list–like when Spin named Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque its No. 1 of 1991, ahead of Nevermind, Loveless, Out of Time, and many others that even without the benefit of historical hindsight carried more heft.
(”them” = musicians of one kind vs. another)
@Murk: Just to clarify, Matos’ assessment of my use of quotation marks in this case was correct. I actually enjoy Girl Talk quite a bit (as I’ve mentioned maybe a dozen times), but it’s certainly a very different sort of musical product. Not better or worse in essence than, say, the MGMT disc, just different.
That being said, I haven’t personally listened to _Night Ripper_ in a while, and _Feed The Animals_ entertains me less and less as time goes on. As essentially a form of mixtape heavily dependent on recent sample sources, I find that, like most mixtapes, the shine wears off pretty fast. I liked this year’s Reggae Gold comp a lot too, but I doubt it would make my top ten list.
Also, this whole music thing is supposed to be fun, remember? Lighten up.
Actually, a better comparison might be the Grammy for Album of the Year going to Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell covers album (which Molanphy had plenty to say about: [idolator.com]).