Best Album 2008 so far?

Badu/Portishead '08

no half man half biscuit, no credibility

no half man half biscuit, no credibility

― Michael B, Friday, 12 September 2008 00:08 (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Basically this.

wtf some of these aren't even out yet!

still badu but leaving lil' wayne off is kind of bizarre

ALSO WHERE IS MIMI

wtf some of these aren't even out yet!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 12 September 2008 00:09 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's almost as if journalists tend to review albums before they're commercially available or something.

not everyone on ILM is a journalist btw

Best: Al Green- Lay it Down. MGMT-Oracular, Black Keys-Attack & Release, July Skies-Weather Clock and Villalobos' Vasco EP are also pretty good.

No Grails or Torche no cred.

(though I voted Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista since everyone else will probably vote Portishead)

Seriously, these are my fucking choices?

I've listened to at least 50-60 nationally released albums so far this year, and exactly one of them is on this list, so Badu.

Anyway, Randy Newman's Harps and Angels.

See... the point of the poll is to see how ILX board members view the most hyped albums of the year rather than really asking whats 'YOUR' favorite album of the year. For all it's worth even my personal favorite album of the year is not included on the list.

still wtf @ no lil wayne

most hyped albums

flying loltus

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/6245/3a44aa2b90346d1213e884dxz7.jpg

still wtf @ no lil wayne

Yes, I admit I completely forgot about that one, unfortunately ILX doesn't allow edits... I thought this was going to be fixed on this new version but...

Isn't that robyn album three years old?

No Elbow?

Poll Fail.

Yes, that's referring to the US release of the 2005 Robyn album; the 2008 version is better because it has the tracks she's released from 2005 to 2008 (e.g. With Every Heartbeat, Dream On). I'm still debating whether it belongs on a year-end list (it feels like cheating).

also, my favorite is the-dream. my second favorite is erykah, so that.

My favorites are Badu, H&LA, Portishead, and Vampire Weekend, but they all have some problems: I like the abstractness of the Badu, but wish there were more melodies; H&LA doesn't hit quite hard enough for me; Portishead is beautiful but too grim to listen to very often: and VW is kind of light. Since VW is the one I've listened to the most, that's what I'm going with.

E=MC2 was also very enjoyable, really grew on me, and I've been resistent to Mariah since I first heard her music.

no los campesinos! no the-dream either so i voted vampire weekend

Third is really the best so far but is going to run away with the win in this poll. so i voted for Visiter in this poll because it deserves some love.

Of those on the list, New Amerykah, Vampire Weekend, At Mount Zoomer and Santogold are the contenders, but Get Awkward by Be Your Own Pet, and Arm's Way by Islands are almost as impressive, and Mariah's E=MC2 has really clicked with me...it's really a GREAT pop album, even though on first listen I thought it was kind of same-y. Jeanius by Jean Grae might be my favourite album of the year, but it leaked in 2004, so it likely doesn't count. Robyn is disqualified by the same measure.

Santogold's 50% less than great even if the other half is AMAZING. Vampire Weekend is a bit insubstantial, even if every track is a great pop song. Amerykah and Zoomer I'm still grappling with. Going with Amerykah, but if Dear Science were out already, it would take the prize.

yeah dear science might be incredible

Santogold's 50% less than great even if the other half is AMAZING.

really?? more than any other album this year, santogold's has struck me as one where every song is alright, but none of them stand out at all

No Hold Steady?

From that list - Portishead. Followed by Santo and Lykke.

Portishead own this thread so far. My 2nd pick would be Nick Cave, but I listen to Third more.

Fuck No Age, Mariah Caery, and Fuck Buttons.

Goodnight.

where is the love for bon iver. what a fantastic album.

Badu, for sure. Then Vampire Weekend +, for me, Fleet Foxes.

Yeah, where's that Gnaw Their Tongues on this list?

out of these portishead but there's certainly other things i like more i just can't think of them at the moment

sun kil moon is one of them maybe

off of this list, I went for Quiet Village - even though a few of the tracks really annoy me.

from this barren selection, portishead.

in reality, made out of babies, asva or secret chiefs 3.

Voted Lykke Li here although there are a bunch of non-critic-favourites that are better.

(And I believe one of them, Brian Wilson, will probably do quite well in critics lists too. People very much agree that it's his best solo album ever if you don't count "Smile")

Will Oldham or Hercules & Love Affair for me. I was really surprised when I realised that the Nick Cave album really did come out this year - I like it but it feels like an age ago since I actually played it

Oh, and Be Your Own Pet and The Doubtful Guest from near the start of the year are still my top two I think

Christ, fucking White Power list with two token black entries or what? Where are Weezy, Jeezy, Three 6 Mafia, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Kano, Ghetto, Giggs, Nu Brand Flexxx, Dot Rotten, Tinie Tempah, Solange, Chaka Khan, Jazmine Sullivan, Estelle, Snoop, Mariah, David Banner, Flo Rida, Chris Brown, T-Pain etc. etc. etc.? Not to mention the new Kanye or the new T.I. or the new Hova 'cos they're not out yet but I doubt they would have got on a stinking list like this anyway.

i dunno. fuck buttons leaped out at me; i clicked that; didn't need to read the rest of the list.

i'm aware i sound like a stuck record when it comes to the fuck buttons album, but really: it ticks every grimly box there is.

Voted for Cut Copy.
Marcello is almost worse than The Lex.

I still haven't got around to listening to the Fuck Buttons record. It's a disgrace.

marcello is otm! "the most hyped albums of the year" my ass. most hyped according to rock critics with terrible taste and lame indie kids maybe but we should not take our cultural cues from those people.

please amend list to include SIC ALPS, EAT SKULL, GROUPER, CRYSTAL STILTS, BLANK DOGS, HOSPITALS, NOTHING PEOPLE, CAUSE CO-MOTION!, + WOODEN SHJIPS.

You guys know just as well as anyone else that the likes of Mariah Carey would never get on a critics list. Not because they are black, but because they suck and have no artistic merit. If they had concentrated less on appealing to mainstream audiences and more about making something artistic, then....

I imagine you'd know quite a lot about sucking.

"touch my body" might be the best song of the year!

to quote husker du, "i love it i hate it i love it i hate it too."

Kano? Seriously?

But yeah, no Lindstrom, no Lil Wayne, no Hold Steady, no Young Jeezy. That's my top four of the year (all pretty prominent records) gone already.

Robyn - Robyn

Are people going to put this in every end-of-year list until the end of time?

Re. Kano: yeah, 140 Grime Street, out on the 29th and if I didn't loathe expressions like St*nn*ng R*t*rn T* F*rm I'd say that's what it is.

Haha awesome! Presumably this is a back-to-basics mixtape?

Pretty much so; a lot of bitching about Major Record Label but there's more than enough speed, wit and imagination to disregard that.

i haven't listened to it yet but it's got to be better than london town. put 'ps & qs' on the other day though, that song is such a classic still.

I put the best nine or ten tracks from the first album onto my MP3 player recently and it still stands up if you wipe out all the filler. P's and Q's does kind of blow everything else away though.

WHAT!? NO Scott Tuma!? I call this thread bollocks!!!1!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/gina_mckee_gallery_1.jpg

i voted for Cut Copy. great album.

god she's beautiful ...

anyway.

was Robyn even RE-released this year?? surely not. never mind ftw 2005?

Evangelista - Hello, Voyager... not on this list so I guess no comment but that's mine. :/

aww noodle, you should have been there, seriously... Carle @ Adelphi was something fucking else, absolutely religious.

Who in the world didn't understand that this poll was essentially doomed from inception?

Voted Paul Heaton's Cross-Eyed Rambler.

badu, el guincho, the rest of it looks like shit

i also like santogold

I sort of liked the single off Cave's 'Lazarus', but not enough to buy or download. Or vote for. The rest of the list just makes you realise just how much music there is out there now, and how meaningless these sort of lists have become.

i voted for Cut Copy. great album.

think the Midnight Juggernauts one might be slightly better (or maybe it just has higher peaks but lower troughs)

Carle @ Adelphi was something fucking else

If somebody would update the bleeding website occasionally I'd know what was going on.

Badfu out of control crazy only voteable quality magictacular.

Also Erykah Badu's album is quite good.

of the ones that haven't come out yet, microcastle

microcastle has a slight edge over the atlas sound album. it's really been b. cox's year, imo.

Wolf Parade

No Spiritualized choice = massive poll FAIL

Otherwise, I vote Portishead.

It's a toss-up between Erykah Badu and Vampire Weekend for me. I think I will be listening occasionally to these albums for the next few years. I still think the Portishead album is great, especially the first and last tracks and "Machine Gun", but it's played itself out for me, for the time being.

weird era contd.

was Robyn even RE-released this year?? surely not. never mind ftw 2005?

it finally came out in the US on April 29, 2008 on Cherrytree/Interscope, it has 16 songs on this release.

badu/vampire weekend tossup for me

This poll is not very good. I'll go with Portishead as it happens to be my favorite of the year. Aside from that and Hercules, none of my other top albums are here.

Somebody should redo this poll with all the suggested choices (as well as a few more). But then every single albym would either get 0 or 1 votes.

This is just a topic that doesn't need to be polled.

yeah, if i had to vote it would be either fuck buttons or Hercules and love affair, but neither are anywhere near the best thing I've heard this year.

I'm tempted to say Slime and Reason, but it only came out two weeks ago so a bit of perspective is probably needed.

well, i'm pretty blown away by it, and i don't see that changing.

black mountain

ABN It Is What It Is

I actually really love the Fuck Buttons album. Must have not seen that in the poll. Anyway... it's a borderline top ten album for me this year. Great stuff.

Roots Manuva's Slime & Reason
TV on the Radio Dear Science
Ame: Fabrix 42.
Wolf Parade.

Portishead, seriously?

I have a lot more fun listening to Solange's album than the new Badu.

Portishead, seriously?

I like how you said this after mentioning TV on the Radio and Wolf Parade as some of the best. Great way to invalidate your argument there.

I mean... Wolf Parade, seriously?

I didn't find my favourites of the year either. But I am not at all surprised that Coldplay, Brian Wilson and Julian Berntzen aren't on the list. And those who like Mariah Carey should be even less surprised she isn't.

geir, i'd think your favorite so far would be the elbow album

I picked Buju Banton, but where the fuck was David Cassidy and the Chews? This is a hella racist poll that makes my pants feel weird against my legs.

'Slime And Reason' sounds quite disappointing and samey to me, just based on clips

Disappointing - your prerogative to think so. Samey - no.

I went for Why? which is, happily enough, my favourite album of the year.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted for Fleet Foxes.

i guess fleet foxes as far as that list goes.

but, sun kil moon is my personal pick

That Fleet Foxes album is right up my alley, I guess, but I've been listening to it constantly since I got it. When is Espers coming out with a follow-up to II, I wonder? We need more baroque, pastoral folk-rock like that.

I went for Why? which is, happily enough, my favourite album of the year.

Yes. Would also be two of my favourite shows of the year.

And it genrifies itself as "Hip Pop" in itunes which, as cute as it is, I rather like.

The new Kano is something of wonder. It's got that huge space-epic sound that kind of reminds me of Deltron3030 or Pendulum, but in a Grime context. Okay that kind of sounds lame, but it's a seriously good album.

I thought Fleet Foxes just sounded like My Morning Jacket, or am I missing something?

The Wolf Parade album is very good once you've spun it enough times. I prefer Sunset Rubdown's last one though. Elsewhere I'm really rating Get Well Soon which is great majestic bedroom-recording stuff. The Jeremy Warmsley album is great too.

not sure if this was last year or not:

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-1140474-1196686563.jpeg

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-1140474-1196686563.jpeg

well fuck me in the goat ass

from the list I choose "Dig Lazarus Dig!" but overall it is "Imperial Wax Solvent"

bar exam 2 by royce is fucking awesome...

also i think this is now my fav record of the year:

http://rensoul.com/images/artist_nomo-ghostrock.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Badu/Portishead '08

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― The Referee (The Reverend), Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:07 PM Bookmark

You see, now we can delete all of them which got 0 or 1 vote, add the new suggestions and get the ultimate best album thread!

But lets... not. At least for another 2 months.

Let's just wait for the usual year-end poll with nominations, shall we?

Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista

Fuck me sideways! What the fuck is this???

Also, I think the poll's most overrated is Cut Copy. And certainly, with three votes, Hercules and Love Affair is the most underrated. Those two ought to switch places. Then I'd be happy. Or at least happier.

what would your true emotion be if they switched places? melancholic but positively so i bet

i feel u ilxor

xpotm

herc & love affair album is totes overrated...amazing in places, i'm feeling what they do, but listening to the whole thing is a drag.

WHOOP WHOOP!!! at the result. have only really noticed two camps of opinion when it comes to new amerykah: "haven't heard it yet" or "WHOA album of decade". hope this encourages people to check it out if they hadn't considered it before, it's really something special.

But see, the Hercules album is amazing in places, overrated in others. The Cut Copy album is just plain overrated. The whole fucking thing. It is not good music, to these ears.

Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista

Fuck me sideways! What the fuck is this???

I have to say I'm pretty impressed myself by the number of votes Paavoharju got. This definitely makes it on the top slots this year for me. I enjoyed Yha Hammara slightly better but this one is very cohesive.

Also surprised at the lack of attention "No Age" has in here... specially considering it has been the highest rated album by Pitchfork this year so far.

Can't say I'm very interested in it though.

gonna have to agree with Matt Helgeson on Nomo. Also Beach House and, based entirely on two tracks I've heard, Gang Gang Dance.

I'm doing a happy dance for the Paavoharju! And no vote for the atrocious Kills! There's some good peoople around here.

I've never heard Paavoharju, but "Laulu laakson kukista" sounds like the title of some 1940s Finnish movie, which I guess is what they were going for.

Maybe they were alluding to this film?

Tuomas, what does it mean?

"Laulu laakson kukista" = "Song of the Flowers of the Valley". It sounds more poetic in Finnish though.

hope this encourages people to check it out if they hadn't considered it before re the Paavoharju,

I re-listened to New Amerykah Pt. 1 and while it's entertaining and engaging, at the end I was like, where's the tunes?

Pt. 2 Return of the Ankh, was supposed to be released in July. What happened? From a blog:

Return of the Ankh is set for an July 2008 released and is to be accompanied by a USB stick which Badu says will include extras ranging from footage of concerts, to commentary on the recording process and “me in the bathtub with Flavour Flav” [praying that's a joke!] - “I wanted to give away my materials…It’s about sharing, and that’s why I like this system”.

i've just 'previewed' the Paavoharju album and it's fantastic. i'll definitely be purchasing this as soon as i can find it. beats + approach/aesthetic remind me of Kim Hiorthoy. if you haven't taken the time to listen to his stuff and you like this Paavoharju album, check out My Last Day or Hopeness EP or the japanese comp or anything except For The Ladies :)

To be honest I don't get all the love for badu/portishead. About the former, I as 'fastnbulbous' feel as if songs were engaging but at the end they're just not sticking enough. Portishead was overall dissapointing for me, ideas are scattered all over the place without taking any form, many tunes carry on for too long and the mood is annoyingly oppresive, only allowing the songs to breath out for moments. I could count some highlights but not enough to deserve a spot, peeps are just thrilled by it because it's Portishead. I really doubt it'd be getting such praise was it an album by any other minor trip-hop outfit.

so few of these are good, but at least the winner is

I could count some highlights but not enough to deserve a spot, peeps are just thrilled by it because it's Portishead. I really doubt it'd be getting such praise was it an album by any other minor trip-hop outfit.

The only way in which this is true is that if someone besides Portishead had released it, not as many people would have heard it. I think that the people praising to genuinely like it!

I think it's become my fave album of theirs.

how did I manage to type "to" instead of "it"

Christ, fucking White Power list with two token black entries or what? Where are Weezy, Jeezy, Three 6 Mafia, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Kano, Ghetto, Giggs, Nu Brand Flexxx, Dot Rotten, Tinie Tempah, Solange, Chaka Khan, Jazmine Sullivan, Estelle, Snoop, Mariah, David Banner, Flo Rida, Chris Brown, T-Pain etc. etc. etc.? Not to mention the new Kanye or the new T.I. or the new Hova 'cos they're not out yet but I doubt they would have got on a stinking list like this anyway.

Sorry, I have to revisit this. There are albums from the above list that would make my list. But the implication that it would be "white power" to have a year-end list that isn't heavily made up of albums released on major labels somehow escapes me. Wall Street is noted for its progessive stance on racial issues, now?

This whole class fight is misunerstood. In fact, in music, it is the working class AND the upper class Vs. the middle class. The former two find each other preferring corporate music while the latter prefers arty music. :)

oh god

wait, never mind

the list is rigged anyway!

marc h. and geir with the tag-team attack

I mean... Wolf Parade, seriously?

Yes, seriously. And that Why? album is terrible.

Erykah Badu seriously.... I know this year has been bad for music, but overall it's just another hiphop album.
praize white jeezus

Actually, of all the albums listed, I only gave Erykah Badu, Vampire Weekend and No Age a try.
I'm not gonna go out and download every new album just to test drive them. Fu*king good music gets lost that way but just because an album is on a list doesn't mean Im gonna download it, and when I do I'm almost always disappointing. I've gotten to the point where I have no clue what to download anymore because even the 'top 11 songs/albums at the moment fuck' threads are a list of bands I've no clue where they came from... and they suck more than half the time too. Getting good suggestions this day in age doesn't happen from lists on the internet. I just don't know how to find good music at all anymore.

Probably because no one here vouches for anything - they only say they listened to some _____ band and then they dont even describe what type of music it is.

disappointed*

http://www.dra-mata.com/images/gifs/dance.gif

I re-listened to New Amerykah Pt. 1 and while it's entertaining and engaging, at the end I was like, where's the tunes?

i think it's packed with hooks, rhythmic and melodic.

"I'm not gonna go out and download every new album just to test drive them."

I can think of worse things to do with my time. Spoiled kids these days never had to trudge through three miles of snow uphill to plunk their hard-earned allowance money on an album unheard, based only on shards of information like a single on the radio, MTV, hearsay, a 100 word blurb written by an intoxicated Creem journalist...

This list ain't bad. Add my two favorites, TVOTR and Gang Dance Dance, plus The Bug, Boris, Pete & the Pirates, Opeth, The Horror The Horror, White Denim, Ellen Allien, The Week That Was and Dungen.

Black Mountain, Bug, Nomo, Crystal Antlers, Wooden Shjips, Fucked Up, Vampire Hand…