2008's Best Rock Records
Bob Gendron -- Tue, 12/16/2008 - 12:58
Of the myriad new records that crossed my desk and countless hundreds of rock/pop albums I heard this year, here are the ten releases that I deemed the year's best, plus another fifteen that weren't too far behind. For kicks, I also cut-and-pasted the Top lists of Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot, fellow Chicago colleagues and music critics whose writing and opinions I highly respect. You may know them as the hosts of the Public Radio program Sound Opinions. In addition, regular TAS/Playback contributor Andy Downing's Top 10 is posted below as well.
Best-
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback
1. Nick Cave: Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!
2. Nachtmystium: Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1
3. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
4. Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
5. TV on the Radio: Dear Science
6. Disfear: Live the Storm
7. Alejandro Escovedo: Real Animal
8. Bon Iver: For Emma
9. Randy Newman: Harps and Angels
10. Erykah Badu: New Amerikah, Pt .1
Fifteen runners-up (in no order): The Baseball Project, Deerhunter, Sam Phillips, Wetnurse, David Byrne/Brian Eno, Mudhoney, Fucked Up, Krallice, Parts & Labor, Torche, Q-Tip, Jenny Lewis, Little Joy, Kanye West, Girl Talk
---Sound Opinions hosts Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot's Top 10 of 2008--
Jim DeRogatis’ Best Albums of 2008
1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
2. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
3. Vivian Girls, The Vivian Girls
4. The Knux, Remind Me in 3 Days
5. Brazilian Girls, New York City
6. Local H, 12 Angry Months
7. Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
8. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
9. Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak
10. Erykah Badu, New AmErykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War
Greg Kot’s Best Albums of 2008
1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
2. Torche, Meanderthal
3. Vivian Girls, The Vivian Girls
4. TV on the Radio, Dear Science
5. Q-Tip, The Renaissance
6. Parts & Labor, Receivers
7. Portishead, Third
8. Rhymefest, Mark Ronson Presents Rhymefest: Man in the Mirror, The Michael Jackson Dedication Album
9. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
10. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
TAS/Playback regular contributor Andy Downing's Top 10
1) Bon Iver
2) TV on the Radio
3) Nachtmystium
4) Nick Cave
5) Black Keys
6) Gaslight Anthem
7) Cool Kids
8) Torche
9) Randy Newman
10) Fleet Foxes
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Interesting that none of these lists include "Do you like Rock music" by British Sea Power nor "Brighter than creation's dark" by the Drive By Truckers.
Am working on my top 10 and will post in a day or 2. However based on available listening time it will be less "radical" (if that is the right word) than these.
Hey MTaylor: I liked that BSP record but not enough to be in the Top 25. I'm a huge DBT fan as well, and have written on every record they've released for TAS, including Brighter. But I felt that record a bit unfocused. If four or five songs had been trimmed from that album, I think it would have been as one of the band's best. For me, the sequential releases of "Southern Rock Opera," "Decoration Day," and "The Dirty South" stand as one of the best three-album streaks of the past two decades.
BG, does soul/R&B fall under the "Rock/Pop" rubric? Because I think Jazmine Sulllivan's Fearless belongs on every Top 10 list. Apart from a few obligatory nods to radio, the album is full of contemplative songwriting, and interesting musical and vocal arrangements. It has a genuine soul feel to it, not some derivative version thereof (like neo- or retro-). And the topper? That big ol' voice!!! Jazmine's a MAJOR talent.
(By the way, I would have ranked 808s and Heartbreak much higher than you do :-))
Chidi Ogene
BG, not sure my prior post made it. Jazmine Sullivan's Fearless belongs on every Top 10 list. I hope it gets reviewed in The Absolute Sound.
Chidi Ogene
Hey Chidi: Yep, I'd put R&B under the rock/pop banner.
Jazmine Sullivan definitely shows promise. I liked most of what I've heard but I'd like to hear her fine tune her styles a bit more, and focus on a tact she really wants to pursue. While strong, some of the material seems tailored to fit market desires.
And yes, I liked the Kanye, too, but not well enough to crack the Top 10 (it's in my Top 25).
Thanks for the reply-Bob
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback
That seems to be a common plaint about Jazmine -- it's true, she's all over the place stylistically. But how come The Carter III is not on any of your lists? I thought you or Greg Kot would recognize Weezy's genius :-)
Sounds like I really need to check out TV On The Radio......