Top 10 Albums of 2008
*I always base my lists on an attempted blend of personal favoritism, genuine quality, and partially on a sense of 2008-ness (or whatever year)
*Since I'm ridiculous and have been ranking these casually all year in itunes, I've included my track rankings for each album also...
*I've included bonus tracks, etc for some of these albums, so if you're confused...
10. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Spend four minutes watching the Paris Is Burning video and you'll understand. Take one listen to 'Magic' and your mind will be blown. Especially if you love 80s hairband powerballads. Fierce.
12. Crazy World
11. Morning Dreams
10. Professional Suicide
09. Dusk Til Dawn
08. Manipulating Woman
07. Better Than Sunday
06. Love Don't Live Here
05. Back Of The Van
04. Another Runaway
03. My Delirium
02. Paris Is Burning
01. Magic
09. Grace Jones - Hurricane
Grace Jones established a long, long time ago that she is one of the coolest women to have ever lived. Not to mention one of the most influential artists of the last thirty years or so. Unfortunately, it's been like, two decades since she last released music, but she kind of made up for it here. 'Corporate Cannibal' is probably most impressive because it's still so avant garde, but 'This Is' is my personal favorite..."this is the tree the buddha slept under, these are the clouds, this is our thunder"...YES.
And um...award for album cover of the year? I think so. Those are chocolate casts of Grace Jones on an assembly line, if you didn't know. Fucking amazing.
09. I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)
08. Love You To Life
07. Well Well Well
06. Sunset Sunrise
05. Devil In My Life
04. William's Blood
03. Hurricane
02. Corporate Cannibal
01. This Is
08. Carla Bruni - Comme si de rien n'était
Let me just explain to those of you who don't know, why Carla Bruni is totally amazing. She's Italian but has lived in Paris since she was young. So she's fluent in Italian, French, and English (at least..). She's absolutely beautiful and was a major supermodel in the 1990s, one of the highest paid at the time. She's had a number of notable romances, including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton (but who hasn't..), and just a few brilliant little quotes include:
"I'm monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry."
"I want a man with nuclear power."
"I'm easily bored with monogamy. Love lasts a long time, but burning desire - two to three weeks."
She was (allegedly) living with a man, whose son (who was married) she soon picked up an affair with. Fierce. Even more fierce is that the son's wife, an author, wrote a book and in which she "paints a vitriolic portrait of "Paula", the surgically-enhanced model who steals the protagonist's husband and describes her as "a preying mantis" and "a leech of a woman with a Terminator smile". Amazing.
To top it all off, she married the President of France last year, which has of course created a number of fabulous scandals to light. But in the midst of it all, if you watch interviews with her, she's one of the most likeable people I've seen..
But that's not all!! She has released three albums, plays guitar, has a cool scratchy voice, and writes all her own (good) music. Her second album was re-imaginings of poems by dead authors into songs. I don't know if you could tell, but this woman is fucking amazing.
14. Notre grand amour est mort
13. Salut marin
12. Déranger les pierres
11. Péché d'envie
10. Le Temps Perdu
09. L'Amoureuse
08. Tu es ma came
07. La possibilité d'une île
06. You Belong To Me
05. Ta tienne
04. Il cecchio e il bambino
03. L'Antilope
02. Je suis une enfant
01. Ma Jeunesse
07. Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head
If you are going to argue with me over this, I will hunt you down and kill you. When I started listening to this for the first time, by the end of 'Fawn', I was so overcome with excitement at the amazing prospects I pretty much exploded. And Fawn is a fucking instrumental. I don't care what you have to say about Scarlett Johansson. I don't care that these are Tom Waits covers (except one track, with which Scarlett shows she actually has songwriting skills in addition to amazing taste), because they are some of the greatest songs ever written. I don't care if you are going to try to argue that her voice is terrible, because you either a) have never heard what Tom Waits sounds like, and therefore have no idea what the fuck this album even means, b) have no appreciation for character and probably worship Nicole Scherzinger's "voice", and/or c) have no taste whatsoever.
The first time I finished this album I told Christopher it was certainly the second best of the year. It's down to #7 now, but at the time only that one other album above it had been released, sooooo....
11. I Wish I Was In New Orleans
10. Who Are You
09. I Don't Want To Grow Up
08. Fannin' Street
07. No One Knows I'm Gone
06. Green Grass
05. Town With No Cheer
04. Fawn
03. Anywhere I Lay My Head
02. Song For Jo
01. Falling Down
06. Lady GaGa - The Fame
Lady GaGa is completely epic. One of her many mantras, "Pop music will never be lowbrow" serves to explain her various lyrics about panties, sex, drugs, liquor, vanity, paparazzi, beauty, discosticks, money, glamor, and fame with an unabashed love of pop and an close link with distinctive imagery. All my favorite things! With all that, it's a pleasant surprise to find that I find myself attached to her more ~emotional~ songs as well. Anyway, It's nice to see a dance act do well at the charts too, even if she's more famous for Christina Aguilera ripping her off and subsequently calling her a tranny (pot..kettle..). The best part is GaGa's response, "I HAVE NO ENEMIES." Fierce.
17. The Fame
16. I Like It Rough
15. Again Again
14. Beautiful Dirty Rich
13. Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
12. Space Cowboy
11. Disco Heaven
10. Money Honey
09. Brown Eyes
08. Summerboy
07. Vanity
06. Paparazzi
05. Love Game
04. Boys Boys Boys
03. Paper Gangsta
02. Just Dance
01. Poker Face
05. Annie - Don't Stop
This album and those at #4 and #3 are the three best "Pop" albums of the year. They are each so amazing that their spots are pretty much interchangeable, but I settled for this placement. Just, fyi.
This album is allegedly still scheduled for release next year, but it leaked like five months ago, and considering her current state with her label, it's likely this album will actually never be released. Which is a total tragedy, because it's a masterpiece. With her last album, Annie got a lot of indie press praising her. She's been called "a pop singer with credibility, an indie artist with one eye on the dancefloor" and "the Kylie it's cool to like." Pitchfork, the fucking messiah of assholy, full of shit, stuck up indie press even recognized this album's brilliance, in addition to naming 'Heartbeat' from the last album the best single of 2004. For Don't Stop, Annie hooked up with Xenomania, perhaps the greatest idea in all musical history, to put out this pop epic.
All I know is, Island Records can kill themselves. Thank buddha Annie has not lost hope and is already working on new material.
12. Marie Cherie
11. When The Night
10. Heaven and Hell
09. What Do You Want (The Breakfast Song)
08. I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
07. Loco
06. Sweet
05. Take You Home
04. Songs Remind Me Of You
03. Bad Times
02. I Can't Let Go
01 . My Love Is Better
04. Britney Spears - Circus
Well, no one should be surprised. I've said it many times by now, but currently it is actually uncool to not like Britney Spears. Sorry.
After the glorious Blackout, Britney had a lot to live up to. And while I think Blackout is better, she didn't disappoint.
I don't even know what to say about this that hasn't already been said, maybe I'm just losing steam. Anyway, it's fucking amazing. 'nuff said.
18. My Baby (truly, truly awful)
17. Rock Boy
16. Trouble
15. Out From Under
14. Blur
13. Quicksand
12. Rock Me In
11. Shattered Glass
10. Lace And Leather
09. Mmm Papi
08. Kill The Lights
07. Phonography
06. Circus
05. If U Seek Amy
04. Amnesia
03. Womanizer
02. Unusual You
01. Mannequin
03. Girls Aloud - Out Of Control
Girls Aloud are an absolute phenomenon. They have, to put it quite simply, revolutionized pop music. I was going to say that perhaps they established this upon the release of Tangled Up, their last album, which is leaps and bounds better than probably 100% of what is on the Billboard 100. Then I realized maybe it was with the greatest hits before that, and the mindblowing 'Something Kinda Oooh' (jumping on my tutu - AMAZING). Then I thought, well, what about Chemistry before that? A solid album from start to finish, and Biology is certainly one of the greatest pop songs ever written. After all, wasn't it NME or Q that called it the song of the decade? It's no coincidence they've gotten so much credit, because before that they released What Will The Neighbors Say?, and the album before that, their debut, contained a few more of their greatest tracks.
So really, in conclusion, Girls Aloud are amazing because they seem so consistently outstanding in their output. In a way, they have never taken a step back. They are consistently incredible, but they seem to get better and better. Sticking with the same fantastic Xenomania formula without sounding the least bit recycled.
Basically if they ever break up, I'll die.
*PS if Grace Jones had the most awesome album cover of the year, I think I'd say Out Of Control is probably the shittiest, if only for the text...
12. We Wanna Party
11. Fix Me Up
10. Turn To Stone
09. Live In The Country
08. Revolution In The Head
07. Miss You Bow Wow
06. Rolling Back The Rivers In Time
05. The Promise
04. Love Is Pain
03. Love Is The Key
02. The Loving Kind
01. Untouchable
02. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
I've been completely enamored with Goldfrapp for about six years now. Even though they will probably never make another album as good as their first, Felt Mountain, they have remained fascinating to follow for me, even with the dreadfully commercialized Supernature, which was still a masterpiece.
With Seventh Tree, I was so fucking excited for them to have a return to form of sorts...something that would reestablish them as underground songwriters who made otherwordly, atmospheric music, rather than disco stompers (NOTHING AGAINST DISCO STOMPERS THOUGH!). And even though Seventh Tree is no Felt Mountain, I'm still so happy to have something warmer, more lush. String arrangements and synths that are arranged more for depression and subsequent revival (or at least LSD) than for a night out on cocaine and subsequent splitting headache.
10. Some People
09. Road To Somewhere
08. Happiness
07. Caravan Girl
06. Cologne Cerrone Houdini
05. Little Bird
04. Eat Yourself
03. Monster Love
02. Clowns
01. A&E
01. Emilíana Torrini - Me And Armini
In 2005, the year Goldfrapp released their last album, Supernature, I was pretty sure for the larger part of the year that that would end up being #1 on my year-end list. It was amazing, sweeping, dance, electronic...it was Goldfrapp. Then Emilíana released Fisherman's Woman, probably the sweetest, warmest, most beautiful album I'd ever heard. It was as if our generation had just gotten its own Blue, something so revolutionary and all-time-list worthy, except it was Icelandic and modern but folky and even more sad and uplifting, all at once. Fisherman's Woman ended up taking the top spot, with Goldfrapp at number 2.
The same thing (astoundingly) happened again this year. To be honest, even though I knew Emilíana was releasing something new and Fisherman's Woman was, like, the greatest album of all time, I thought there was no way she would be able to top it. How do you perfect perfection? I guess Me And Armini is the answer. How could any song be more sweet and sad than the title track to Fisherman's Woman? I guess Bleeder is the answer.
I said this last year about Patrick, but sometimes these albums are so few and far between that it's hard to imagine anyone creating modern masterpieces like Joni Mitchell or Kate Bush used to make. But every now and then there is one or two. This is one of those.
12. Dead Duck
11. Ha Ha
10. Heard It All Before
09. Me And Armini
08. Fireheads
07. Big Jumps
06. Jungle Drum
05. Gun
04. Hold Heart
03. Birds
02. Beggar's Prayer
01. Bleeder
Thanks if you read all the way to here..:)
This was a pretty big/great year for pop (I thought so at least, a lot of people on FlopPop would disagree..they're wrong..)...Next year will be more full of some really epic all-time greats with Patrick, Tori, Neko Case, etc. all releasing material.
Peace the fuck out, '08.
Happy New Year.
*Since I'm ridiculous and have been ranking these casually all year in itunes, I've included my track rankings for each album also...
*I've included bonus tracks, etc for some of these albums, so if you're confused...
10. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Spend four minutes watching the Paris Is Burning video and you'll understand. Take one listen to 'Magic' and your mind will be blown. Especially if you love 80s hairband powerballads. Fierce.
12. Crazy World
11. Morning Dreams
10. Professional Suicide
09. Dusk Til Dawn
08. Manipulating Woman
07. Better Than Sunday
06. Love Don't Live Here
05. Back Of The Van
04. Another Runaway
03. My Delirium
02. Paris Is Burning
01. Magic
09. Grace Jones - Hurricane
Grace Jones established a long, long time ago that she is one of the coolest women to have ever lived. Not to mention one of the most influential artists of the last thirty years or so. Unfortunately, it's been like, two decades since she last released music, but she kind of made up for it here. 'Corporate Cannibal' is probably most impressive because it's still so avant garde, but 'This Is' is my personal favorite..."this is the tree the buddha slept under, these are the clouds, this is our thunder"...YES.
And um...award for album cover of the year? I think so. Those are chocolate casts of Grace Jones on an assembly line, if you didn't know. Fucking amazing.
09. I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)
08. Love You To Life
07. Well Well Well
06. Sunset Sunrise
05. Devil In My Life
04. William's Blood
03. Hurricane
02. Corporate Cannibal
01. This Is
08. Carla Bruni - Comme si de rien n'était
Let me just explain to those of you who don't know, why Carla Bruni is totally amazing. She's Italian but has lived in Paris since she was young. So she's fluent in Italian, French, and English (at least..). She's absolutely beautiful and was a major supermodel in the 1990s, one of the highest paid at the time. She's had a number of notable romances, including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton (but who hasn't..), and just a few brilliant little quotes include:
"I'm monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry."
"I want a man with nuclear power."
"I'm easily bored with monogamy. Love lasts a long time, but burning desire - two to three weeks."
She was (allegedly) living with a man, whose son (who was married) she soon picked up an affair with. Fierce. Even more fierce is that the son's wife, an author, wrote a book and in which she "paints a vitriolic portrait of "Paula", the surgically-enhanced model who steals the protagonist's husband and describes her as "a preying mantis" and "a leech of a woman with a Terminator smile". Amazing.
To top it all off, she married the President of France last year, which has of course created a number of fabulous scandals to light. But in the midst of it all, if you watch interviews with her, she's one of the most likeable people I've seen..
But that's not all!! She has released three albums, plays guitar, has a cool scratchy voice, and writes all her own (good) music. Her second album was re-imaginings of poems by dead authors into songs. I don't know if you could tell, but this woman is fucking amazing.
14. Notre grand amour est mort
13. Salut marin
12. Déranger les pierres
11. Péché d'envie
10. Le Temps Perdu
09. L'Amoureuse
08. Tu es ma came
07. La possibilité d'une île
06. You Belong To Me
05. Ta tienne
04. Il cecchio e il bambino
03. L'Antilope
02. Je suis une enfant
01. Ma Jeunesse
07. Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head
If you are going to argue with me over this, I will hunt you down and kill you. When I started listening to this for the first time, by the end of 'Fawn', I was so overcome with excitement at the amazing prospects I pretty much exploded. And Fawn is a fucking instrumental. I don't care what you have to say about Scarlett Johansson. I don't care that these are Tom Waits covers (except one track, with which Scarlett shows she actually has songwriting skills in addition to amazing taste), because they are some of the greatest songs ever written. I don't care if you are going to try to argue that her voice is terrible, because you either a) have never heard what Tom Waits sounds like, and therefore have no idea what the fuck this album even means, b) have no appreciation for character and probably worship Nicole Scherzinger's "voice", and/or c) have no taste whatsoever.
The first time I finished this album I told Christopher it was certainly the second best of the year. It's down to #7 now, but at the time only that one other album above it had been released, sooooo....
11. I Wish I Was In New Orleans
10. Who Are You
09. I Don't Want To Grow Up
08. Fannin' Street
07. No One Knows I'm Gone
06. Green Grass
05. Town With No Cheer
04. Fawn
03. Anywhere I Lay My Head
02. Song For Jo
01. Falling Down
06. Lady GaGa - The Fame
Lady GaGa is completely epic. One of her many mantras, "Pop music will never be lowbrow" serves to explain her various lyrics about panties, sex, drugs, liquor, vanity, paparazzi, beauty, discosticks, money, glamor, and fame with an unabashed love of pop and an close link with distinctive imagery. All my favorite things! With all that, it's a pleasant surprise to find that I find myself attached to her more ~emotional~ songs as well. Anyway, It's nice to see a dance act do well at the charts too, even if she's more famous for Christina Aguilera ripping her off and subsequently calling her a tranny (pot..kettle..). The best part is GaGa's response, "I HAVE NO ENEMIES." Fierce.
17. The Fame
16. I Like It Rough
15. Again Again
14. Beautiful Dirty Rich
13. Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
12. Space Cowboy
11. Disco Heaven
10. Money Honey
09. Brown Eyes
08. Summerboy
07. Vanity
06. Paparazzi
05. Love Game
04. Boys Boys Boys
03. Paper Gangsta
02. Just Dance
01. Poker Face
05. Annie - Don't Stop
This album and those at #4 and #3 are the three best "Pop" albums of the year. They are each so amazing that their spots are pretty much interchangeable, but I settled for this placement. Just, fyi.
This album is allegedly still scheduled for release next year, but it leaked like five months ago, and considering her current state with her label, it's likely this album will actually never be released. Which is a total tragedy, because it's a masterpiece. With her last album, Annie got a lot of indie press praising her. She's been called "a pop singer with credibility, an indie artist with one eye on the dancefloor" and "the Kylie it's cool to like." Pitchfork, the fucking messiah of assholy, full of shit, stuck up indie press even recognized this album's brilliance, in addition to naming 'Heartbeat' from the last album the best single of 2004. For Don't Stop, Annie hooked up with Xenomania, perhaps the greatest idea in all musical history, to put out this pop epic.
All I know is, Island Records can kill themselves. Thank buddha Annie has not lost hope and is already working on new material.
12. Marie Cherie
11. When The Night
10. Heaven and Hell
09. What Do You Want (The Breakfast Song)
08. I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
07. Loco
06. Sweet
05. Take You Home
04. Songs Remind Me Of You
03. Bad Times
02. I Can't Let Go
01 . My Love Is Better
04. Britney Spears - Circus
Well, no one should be surprised. I've said it many times by now, but currently it is actually uncool to not like Britney Spears. Sorry.
After the glorious Blackout, Britney had a lot to live up to. And while I think Blackout is better, she didn't disappoint.
I don't even know what to say about this that hasn't already been said, maybe I'm just losing steam. Anyway, it's fucking amazing. 'nuff said.
18. My Baby (truly, truly awful)
17. Rock Boy
16. Trouble
15. Out From Under
14. Blur
13. Quicksand
12. Rock Me In
11. Shattered Glass
10. Lace And Leather
09. Mmm Papi
08. Kill The Lights
07. Phonography
06. Circus
05. If U Seek Amy
04. Amnesia
03. Womanizer
02. Unusual You
01. Mannequin
03. Girls Aloud - Out Of Control
Girls Aloud are an absolute phenomenon. They have, to put it quite simply, revolutionized pop music. I was going to say that perhaps they established this upon the release of Tangled Up, their last album, which is leaps and bounds better than probably 100% of what is on the Billboard 100. Then I realized maybe it was with the greatest hits before that, and the mindblowing 'Something Kinda Oooh' (jumping on my tutu - AMAZING). Then I thought, well, what about Chemistry before that? A solid album from start to finish, and Biology is certainly one of the greatest pop songs ever written. After all, wasn't it NME or Q that called it the song of the decade? It's no coincidence they've gotten so much credit, because before that they released What Will The Neighbors Say?, and the album before that, their debut, contained a few more of their greatest tracks.
So really, in conclusion, Girls Aloud are amazing because they seem so consistently outstanding in their output. In a way, they have never taken a step back. They are consistently incredible, but they seem to get better and better. Sticking with the same fantastic Xenomania formula without sounding the least bit recycled.
Basically if they ever break up, I'll die.
*PS if Grace Jones had the most awesome album cover of the year, I think I'd say Out Of Control is probably the shittiest, if only for the text...
12. We Wanna Party
11. Fix Me Up
10. Turn To Stone
09. Live In The Country
08. Revolution In The Head
07. Miss You Bow Wow
06. Rolling Back The Rivers In Time
05. The Promise
04. Love Is Pain
03. Love Is The Key
02. The Loving Kind
01. Untouchable
02. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
I've been completely enamored with Goldfrapp for about six years now. Even though they will probably never make another album as good as their first, Felt Mountain, they have remained fascinating to follow for me, even with the dreadfully commercialized Supernature, which was still a masterpiece.
With Seventh Tree, I was so fucking excited for them to have a return to form of sorts...something that would reestablish them as underground songwriters who made otherwordly, atmospheric music, rather than disco stompers (NOTHING AGAINST DISCO STOMPERS THOUGH!). And even though Seventh Tree is no Felt Mountain, I'm still so happy to have something warmer, more lush. String arrangements and synths that are arranged more for depression and subsequent revival (or at least LSD) than for a night out on cocaine and subsequent splitting headache.
10. Some People
09. Road To Somewhere
08. Happiness
07. Caravan Girl
06. Cologne Cerrone Houdini
05. Little Bird
04. Eat Yourself
03. Monster Love
02. Clowns
01. A&E
01. Emilíana Torrini - Me And Armini
In 2005, the year Goldfrapp released their last album, Supernature, I was pretty sure for the larger part of the year that that would end up being #1 on my year-end list. It was amazing, sweeping, dance, electronic...it was Goldfrapp. Then Emilíana released Fisherman's Woman, probably the sweetest, warmest, most beautiful album I'd ever heard. It was as if our generation had just gotten its own Blue, something so revolutionary and all-time-list worthy, except it was Icelandic and modern but folky and even more sad and uplifting, all at once. Fisherman's Woman ended up taking the top spot, with Goldfrapp at number 2.
The same thing (astoundingly) happened again this year. To be honest, even though I knew Emilíana was releasing something new and Fisherman's Woman was, like, the greatest album of all time, I thought there was no way she would be able to top it. How do you perfect perfection? I guess Me And Armini is the answer. How could any song be more sweet and sad than the title track to Fisherman's Woman? I guess Bleeder is the answer.
I said this last year about Patrick, but sometimes these albums are so few and far between that it's hard to imagine anyone creating modern masterpieces like Joni Mitchell or Kate Bush used to make. But every now and then there is one or two. This is one of those.
12. Dead Duck
11. Ha Ha
10. Heard It All Before
09. Me And Armini
08. Fireheads
07. Big Jumps
06. Jungle Drum
05. Gun
04. Hold Heart
03. Birds
02. Beggar's Prayer
01. Bleeder
Thanks if you read all the way to here..:)
This was a pretty big/great year for pop (I thought so at least, a lot of people on FlopPop would disagree..they're wrong..)...Next year will be more full of some really epic all-time greats with Patrick, Tori, Neko Case, etc. all releasing material.
Peace the fuck out, '08.
Happy New Year.