More lists

This week's Other Paper has my top five albums for 2008, along with brief write-ups, and the top five Columbus albums (all of which you'll probably recognize).

Semi-regular posting will resume next week.

This week's Other Paper

Christmas music reviews: Rosie Thomas's A Very Rosie Christmas! here, Julian Koster's The Singing Saw at Christmastime here.

Dear Time

TV on the Radio's Dear Science has been popping up on a whole lot of "Best of 2008" lists, even topping off compendiums by mainstream mags like Spin and Rolling Stone. I could bemoan how blog culture is becoming synonymous with the mainstream press like Idolator did, but I'd rather just be happy that most people--Big Media and bloggers/blog readers alike--seem to recognize how great this album is, and they're giving TV on the Radio the credit it deserves for this one (it nabbed the #4 spot on my list).

Time has joined the party too, awarding Dear Science the #2 spot. Now, I hate to be one of those guys who critiques someone else's critique, but I have to say the accompanying writeup smacked of ignorance, especially this line: "With its Beach Boys '"ba-ba-bas" and killer lo-fi guitar, "Halfway Home" is all propulsion and energy, the best album opener of the year."

True, it's a great opener, but "lo-fi guitar"? Is it me, or does almost nothing on this album, guitars included, even approach lo-fi? To my ears, this is one of the most crisp, cleanly recorded albums I heard all year. I don't hear it.

And one more quibble with the closer: "Hopefully the merging of their cerebral side with melodies you can actually hum will finally get TVotR an audience outside their borough." To say that TVotR hasn't had an audience outside Brooklyn until now is just uninformed, lazy journalism.

Guilty Pleasure?

I like the new Fall Out Boy album. In fact, I'll go so far as to say I like most of Fall Out Boy's albums. Yeah, Pete Wentz is a spotlight whore whose lyrics can sometimes be as annoyingly narcissistic as his eyeliner, but Patrick Stump is the real talent. The dude has turned into a real-deal singer, and he has a seemingly endless supply of huge hooks in his head. (And a cameo from Elvis Costello on the eighth track makes up for blatantly stealing the guitar riff from "Teenage Wasteland" on the first track.)

I'll just say this: Folie a Deux is the best Island/Def Jam promo I've received in quite a while (I'm looking in your direction Kanye and Killers).

Love is All, Crystal Stilts, Times New Viking

All of the above bands will be playing tonight at the Summit, next to Cafe Bourbon St. I was supposed to cover the show but woke up feeling like sh*tgaze. It should be a good show, though, and I recommend checking it out. I'm betting the first band will go on around 10 or 10:30. Love is All is a crazy bunch of Swedes playing a crazy bunch of jittery punk, Crystal Stilts play really morose songs that should appeal to the Joy Division crowd or those who like their post-punk sopping wet with reverb. And if you don't know Columbus's own Times New Viking by now, you should.

Anyway, the show tonight also made me already realize I forgot Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night on that big list below. You can mentally insert it somewhere between 35 and 55. (On a semi-related note, I probably should have included the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely somewhere, too.)

Top 55 albums of 2008

I’ve been looking over and reordering this list for a couple weeks, and I’m sure it would change a bit again after another couple weeks and some more re-listening, but at some point you gotta stop and go with what you got. Probably not too many surprises here for regular readers of this blog (all two of you). I’ll also give the usual disclaimer that there are plenty of albums I just never got around to. Oh, and looming deadlines are preventing me from adding any mp3s or (attempts at) pithy descriptions below each. Use the Hype Machine and your imagination, respectively.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
3. Shearwater - Rook
4. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
5. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
6. Deerhunter - Microcastle
7. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
9. The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon
10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
11. Gentleman Auction House - Alphabet Graveyard
12. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
13. The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
15. Anathallo - Canopy Glow
16. Man Man - Rabbit Habbits
17. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
18. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
19. Son Lux - At War with Walls and Mazes
20. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
21. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
22. Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s - Animal/Not Animal
23. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
24. Matt Bauer - The Island Moved in the Storm
25. Alina Simone - Everyone is Calling Out to Me, Beware
26. R.E.M. - Accelerate
27. Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
28. Dodos - Visiter
29. No Age - Nouns
30. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
31. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
32. The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam
33. Horse Feathers - House with No Home
34. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
35. Bodies of Water - A Certain Feeling
36. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks
37. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
38. Bowerbirds - Hymns for a Dark Horse
39. Sun Kil Moon - April
40. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
41. The Weepies - Hideaway
42. Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows
43. Ryan Adams - Cardinology
44. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
45. The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
46. Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz
47. Throw Me the Statue - Moonbeams
48. Dr. Dog - Fate
49. The Walkmen - You & Me
50. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings & All
51. Titles - Up with the Sun
52. Little Joy - Little Joy
53. Lambchop - OH (ohio)
54. Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
55. Love is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night

Best Columbus albums 2008

Since I already gave away that Miranda Sound's self-titled record is my favorite of Columbus album of 2008, I figured I should post all top ten. So here they are, though after the top three the order itself doesn't mean a whole lot--some of these will switch spots with others, depending on the week, day or whatever mood I'm in. The point is, these are all great records. 2008 was a good year for Columbus music. (Links go to previous reviews.)

1. Miranda Sound - Miranda Sound
2. Times New Viking - Rip It Off, Stay Awake E.P.
3. Melty Melty - Rise of the Birdmen
4. Two Cow Garage - Speaking in Cursive
5. Envelope - Shark Bolt!
6. The Lost Revival - Homemade Confetti
7. Moon High - Moon High
8. Our Cat Philip - Apart of Someone
9. Sinkane - Color Voice
10. Brainbow - Brainbow