The Post Where We List Music We Liked From This Past Year

I've very much wanted this web log to avoid the tropes of the blog world, like regular content, bad writing, and year-end lists. But I'm incredibly bored right now, so fuck it.

The Best Music of 2008

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, We Brave Bee Stings & All

TV On The Radio, Dear Science
Just listen to the overlapping claps going off in the background during the verse of "Halfway Home" and you're hooked. And it's only the first song. Like Radiohead, these dudes make alienation, fear, and uncertainty sound incredibly beautiful.

The Dodos, Visiter

Lykke Li, Youth Novels
This record isn't that great as a whole. I'd say maybe five songs on it are great, but they're so great, it's worth the price of the entire record. "Dance Dance Dance" makes me want to do just that and "Little Bit" is so sexy-awesome. Also, it's great to hear a lady sing about how much she likes fucking.

Nana Grizol, "Tambourine-N-Thyme"
Like Ms. Li above, this record (Love It Love It) only has a handful of great songs, but when they hit, they hit hard. This song is so pretty, you can almost forget that it's an anti-city polemic.

The Mountain Goats & Kaki King, "Thank You Mario But Our Princess is in Another Castle"
I don't want to be this type of dude, but ever since John Darnielle signed to 4AD and got a full band, I haven't really been all that interested in his stuff, with the prominent exception of "No Children." It's not that I mind that he no longer records into a boombox or that he's gotten more exposure. I just think his songwriting has changed, and not for the better. His songs became more autobiographical and personal. Gone were the interesting characters, the songs about peanuts and the possiblity of the Cubs winning the World Series. Songs that could make you laugh as much as they made you cry. This song, from the Black Pear EP, is a step back to his old songwriting style; a song sung from the perspective of a put-upon plumber, combing the depths of a nightmarish underworld filled with demons and dragons. It's spectacular.

Vampire Weekend, "Oxford Comma"
It seems that many people have strong opinions about this band. This song is great, and really, that's all that matters. The rest of their debut record is just okay.

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire, "Voice in Headphones"
A song about the awesome-ness of Bjork that lifts and reinterprets the chorus of "Undo." So great.

Brian Wilson on "Live From Abbey Road"
"God Only Knows" is probably the best song ever recorded, and to hear Brian Wilson's stellar band perform it live, with not one part missing from the original, was jaw-dropping. It's the kind of thing that reminds you why music matters to people. It hits that nerve inside of you that makes you appreciate, if only for three and a half minutes, a world where this type of beauty is possible.