Favorite Albums of 2008, Part 1: Honorable Mentions
You knew it was coming... you know I get a kick out of doing corny shit like this. So the time is finally here, 2008 is finally ending so I can make another pointless list of all the junk I listened to the past 12 months. Look for links throughout to videos and (if applicable) the album's page on Last.fm where you can stream it for free.
Honorable Mentions
Ben Folds "Way to Normal (Fake Leak)"
[stream (the real version)]
About a week or two before the real version of "Way to Normal" was set to drop, a "leaked" version showed-up on all the major torrent websites claiming to be the real thing. What people were treated to was a collection of songs with misspelled titles, hardly any mixing, and a couple of actual tracks from the album. Fans quickly went to their various message boards and quickly slammed the record thinking it was real. This persisted until the sham was revealed and the real thing came out, wherein people realized after paying for the real songs that the free stuff was actually better then what they paid for.
Key Tracks: Hiroshima - Bitch Went NutZ (live)
Monkey "Journey to the West"
[stream not available]
"Monkey: Journey to the West" is a Broadway musical from the guys who gave us Gorillaz based a Chinese folktale. The soundtrack (thankfully) isn't just a straight recording of the show itself, it is more of a studio version then anything. It features some really great tracks, problem is they are in between tracks that are clearly transitional pieces for the play or would only make sense if you actually could see what was going on (mostly the songs with heavy dialog). "Heavenly Peach Banquet" is the clear stand-out, it is easily one of my favorite songs of the year.
Key Tracks: Monkey Bee - Heavenly Peach Banquet (live) - Monkey's World (live)
The Black Mages "The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight"
[streaming not available]
TBM have always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and while their third outing isn't as much of a leap forward as their last record, this one still has plenty of juicy tracks to sink your teeth into. Sadly, the album features a couple rather lame tracks which will only have people new to the group scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss was about. The rest is nice and epic, every time I hear "Opening - Bombing Mission" I almost whip out my copy of FF7... almost.
Key Tracks: Opening - Bombing Mission - NeoEXDEATH - Darkness and Starlight (Part 1) (Part 2)
More later.
Honorable Mentions
Ben Folds "Way to Normal (Fake Leak)"
[stream (the real version)]
About a week or two before the real version of "Way to Normal" was set to drop, a "leaked" version showed-up on all the major torrent websites claiming to be the real thing. What people were treated to was a collection of songs with misspelled titles, hardly any mixing, and a couple of actual tracks from the album. Fans quickly went to their various message boards and quickly slammed the record thinking it was real. This persisted until the sham was revealed and the real thing came out, wherein people realized after paying for the real songs that the free stuff was actually better then what they paid for.
Key Tracks: Hiroshima - Bitch Went NutZ (live)
Monkey "Journey to the West"
[stream not available]
"Monkey: Journey to the West" is a Broadway musical from the guys who gave us Gorillaz based a Chinese folktale. The soundtrack (thankfully) isn't just a straight recording of the show itself, it is more of a studio version then anything. It features some really great tracks, problem is they are in between tracks that are clearly transitional pieces for the play or would only make sense if you actually could see what was going on (mostly the songs with heavy dialog). "Heavenly Peach Banquet" is the clear stand-out, it is easily one of my favorite songs of the year.
Key Tracks: Monkey Bee - Heavenly Peach Banquet (live) - Monkey's World (live)
The Black Mages "The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight"
[streaming not available]
TBM have always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and while their third outing isn't as much of a leap forward as their last record, this one still has plenty of juicy tracks to sink your teeth into. Sadly, the album features a couple rather lame tracks which will only have people new to the group scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss was about. The rest is nice and epic, every time I hear "Opening - Bombing Mission" I almost whip out my copy of FF7... almost.
Key Tracks: Opening - Bombing Mission - NeoEXDEATH - Darkness and Starlight (Part 1) (Part 2)
More later.