So we're halfway through 2008; what are your top 10 albums of this year, so far?

If I made a top ten now, it would probably look like:

1. Jamey Johnson – That Lonesome Song (Mercury)
2. Legless – Finding Mr. Perfect (leglesstheband.com)
3. The Tonic Rays – The Tonic Rays (thetonicrays.com ’07)
4. Woodbox Gang – Drunk As Dragons (Alternative Tentacles)
5. Rags – Rags (RPT ’06)
6. Dolly Parton – Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)
7. Teacher’s Pet – Teacher’s Pet (Smog Veil)
8. Ross Johnson – Make It Stop! The Most Of Ross Johnson (Goner)
9. Phil Vassar – Prayer Of A Common Man (Universal)
10.Steinski – What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective (Illegal Art)

But four of those (Ross Johnson, Rags, Teacher's Pet, Steinksi) are not primarily "new" music per se' (though all four have lots of music that was never actually on album before, and one of those came out in '06. And Tonic Rays are technically '07. So to make up for those, this would be my next five):

11. Prima J – Prima J (Geffen)
12. Final Solutions – Songs By Solutions (Goner EP ’07)
13. Montgomery Gentry – Back When I Knew It All (Columbia)
14. Ashlee Simpson – Bittersweet World (Geffen)
15. Crash Street Kids – Transatlantic Suicide (Hot City Recording Company)

Albums a few people listed above that might have an outside chance at my top ten: Lil Mama, Opeth.

Albums people listed above that I basically like, but that would definitely not have a shot at my top ten (more or less in order): Hold Steady (their worst album, sounds like to me), Kathleen Edwards, Santogold, Ting Tings, Hercules and Love Affair, Vampire Weekend, Los Campesinos!, Boris, No Age.

Still haven't heard Lil Wayne yet. Haven't decided what I think of Jay Reatard, which is never as good as I want it to be. Didn't even know there was a new Oneida album until just this second. Etc. etc. etc.

Glad to see someone else is enjoying the Jucifer album as much as I did! It may be long, but damn it's solid all the way through.

I forgot about Backwoods Barbie. That is probably near the bottom of my top 10.

El Perro Del Mar - From The Valley To The Stars
Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
James Blackshaw - Litany Of Echoes
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Times New Viking - Rip It Off
Sic Alps - U.K. EZ
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Not Heal
Crystal Stilts - 12"
Rhys Chatham - Guitar Trio Is My Life
El Guincho - Alegranza

Reissues/Comps:

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
Van Duren - Are You Serious
V/A - Thank You Friends
Gas - Nah End Fern
Steinski - What Does It All Mean?
V/A - Nigeria Disco/Rock Special
Big Dipper - Supercluster
Earth, Roots, And Water - Innocent Youths
Joe Higgs - Life Of Contradiction
Jim Ford - Point Of No Return
V/A - Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli

This is all I can come up with:

The-Dream- Lovehate
Mariah- E=MC2
Rod Modell- Incense & Black Light
Marcel Dettmann- Berghain 02
Kelley Polar- I Need You to Hold On While the Sky is Falling
Justus Kohncke- Safe and Sound
Various Artists- My Favorite Things (Mule Electronic)
Janet Jackson- Discipline
Erykah Badu- New Amerykah Part One

Feels like a pretty shit year for albums so far, but I'm confident the second half of the year will make up for it.

Don't have ten yet, and I'm pretty sure that the new Bleach (only out in Japan at the moment) and possibly the new Magic Dirt (not out yet) will be on it. As of now, I just have:

Portishead "Third"
18th Dye "Amorine Queen"
Opeth "Watershed"

Oh crap, totally forgot to add Maybe It's Reno - s/t to the list. Stupid memory.

Top 25 in alphabetical order... these don't really include the more recent stuff that I haven't had time to fully digest yet (Opeth, etc).

Atlas Sound
Erykah Badu
Be Your Own Pet
Black Mountain
Bon Iver
Cut Copy
Dead Meadow
Death Cab For Cutie
Dodos
Fleet Foxes
Foals
Frightened Rabbit
The Goslings
Gutter Twins
Hercules & Love Affair
Los Campesinos!
No Age
Portishead
Ruby Suns
Spiritualized
Sun Kil Moon
Torche
Vampire Weekend
Vandermark 5
The Whigs

shearwater: rook
elbow: seldom seen kid
goldfrapp: seventh tree
portishead: third
american music club: the golden age
sun kil moon: april
kelley stoltz: circular sounds
spiritualized: songs in a&e
nick cave: dig lazarus dig

i think that's about it.

Not a single one. What a crappy year, maybe some sort of hangover from last year when there was overwhelmingly much to choose from.

Probably should check out Kelley Polar and that one baja moonship was raving about, the one with the crazy artwork

^^^^ This (last year = gr8; this year so far = not so much).

I forgot about Sun Kil Moon! That disc is good, tho it's been in my playlist rotation far less than Ghosts Of The Great Highway, even now.

things i havent made my mind up about: the beach house album, the bon iver album, the death cab album. i'm pretty sure I don't love any of them but you never know

Had slightly more of a think, was forgetting a couple of things

Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward
The Doubtful Guest - Acid Sauna
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Blood Ceremony - s/t
Hercules & Love Affair - s/t
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down In The Light
Gnaw Their Tongues - An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood
Kelley Polar - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling
Ascend - Ample Fire Within
Diskjokke - Staying In

This is pretty much in order I guess

black and whites s/t
cheap time s/t
the pets "misdirection"

if you ain't interested in hearing ANY of the stuff mentioned on this thread you should perhaps question your interest in music

I think that's too extreme. The range of music being mentioned here isn't really that great.

(Which doesn't mean I'm not interested in anything mentioned here, but I'm close enough to it to want to respond.)

The range of music being mentioned here isn't really that great.

Seriously. You guys are all listing the same albums and they all suck.

All I really like so far that I can think of at the moment are the Drive By Truckers and Jucifer albums.

And Pierced Arrows.

don't know those 3 - wonder if they don't suck...

The range of music being mentioned here isn't really that great.

compared to what? don't understand anyone who thought last 2 years had significantly more better stuff than this year

I've listened to and liked a lot of albums this year, but the only one that I really absolutely love is Kelley Polar's. I don't know if I'm burnt out but even albums by acts I usually love (M83, Mag Fields, Cut Copy etc) aren't holding my attention.

pierced arrows = great.

juicifer and dbt's = zzzz for me.

10. breeders - mountain battles
9. born ruffians - red, yellow and blue
8. hercules & love affair - s/t
7. crystal castles - s/t
6. oxford collapse - bits
5. times new viking - rip it off
4. the spectacles - home
3. nick cave and bad seeds - dig, lazarus, dig
2. fake fictions - krakatoa
1. prairie spies - surplus enjoyment

good call on the shearwater album people. i'm listening to it now and into it

lol nick.

lolnick.

jeremy lolnick would make a good pseudonym.

compared to what?

I see an awful lot of indie rock on these lists though, which just doesn't do it for me (or when it does, I make sure not to label it indie rock). But then, I also have essentially no interest in hip-hop or "dance music," and I could add a few more major genres to that probably, so maybe I am looking for a narrow range of music? It's just that I know there's a bunch of other music out there (there has to be?) that's doing things this stuff isn't.

I don't think 2007 was so great either. I found a lot of 2006 albums to like though.

that's an honest list, i like our album more than everything else i've heard this year, except the prairie spies

good call on the shearwater album people. i'm listening to it now and into it.

I'm sort of listening to it now, too. It's at least a little better than I expected, and worth more effort on my part.

I see an awful lot of indie rock on these lists though, which just doesn't do it for me

Same for me, which is why I rarely listen to any music from this decade despite having a burning urge to find new bands to really get into and follow.

I want to find more bands like Pierced Arrows (who are basically just Dead Moon), The Sadies, Drive By Truckers, etc. etc. Basically, ROCK based rock. Not this indie pop/rock bullshit. I personally think the 00s are the worst decade for music by FAR...bar none. Nothing else even comes close.

If anyone has anything to recommend, I'm all for it. I just don't think much of the music I really love gets made anymore, or if it does, it rarely gets out of the garage.

I can even get into a lot of psychedelic music though, as long as it's based in REAL (again, by my definition) music. Plastic Crimewave Sound and early Comets on Fire would be great examples.

Will probably make my 2008 top ten (not in this order): Kleerup, Step Up 2 the Streets OST, Mariah, Erykah Badu, Spiritualized, Jerusalem and the Starbaskets, Los Campesinos!

Maybes: Hercules and the Love Affair, Elbow

Still have to listen to: Portishead, The-Dream, Kelley Polar, Lil Mama, Studio, The Raveonettes, the Drive-By Truckers

Still waiting on: Cassie, Ryan Leslie, Cortney Tidwell, Annie, Beyonce, Solange, The Juan Maclean???

Boooooo!!!: Fuck Buttons, Magnetic Fields

(and yes, Badu = my favorite)

If anyone has anything to recommend, I'm all for it. I just don't think much of the music I really love gets made anymore, or if it does, it rarely gets out of the garage.

this is the thread for you.

yeah are the juan maclean putting out an album?

I love this decade's music (far more than, say, the 90s), but -- to be fair -- I like (lol) indie. I just think this has been a substandard year, so far. But the second half of the year looks v. promising to me.

"I have finished a new album that will be coming out sometimes in the Spring/Summer of 2008. It is called . Before that, though, a 12" called Happy House is coming out on March 4, 2008"

xpost

most of the stuff i like most is by bands that will never record an album so i think my list is at 3. i would not be able to give you a list of my 10 favorite records of the year. too many.

I want... ROCK based rock. Not this indie pop/rock bullshit

There's some on my list (a lot more rocking than the mostly lethargic DBTs album from this year, too.)

Agree that most of these lists seem pathetically indie (and that the selection could be wider), but that's no surprise. And not all of them are pathetically indie.

^^^ this

I was just going to say something about not looking to the most recent DBT album for "rock".

oh whoa! i forgot mahjongg. that's def. top ten

black mountain - in the future
records i liked, more than 10:

bun b - II trill

curren$y - higher than 30,000 ft.

the fall - imperial wax solvent

she & him - vol. 1

george cartwright - a tenacious slew (could be 07? doesn't say)

guilty simpson - ode to the ghetto

lil' wayne - the carter III

mission of burma vinyl reissues

mountain goats - heretic pride

portishead - third

raveonettes - lust lust lust

vampire hands - me and you cherry red

wolf parade - at mount zoomer

various - nigeria disco funk special: the sound of the underground lagos dance floor

rank strangers - tucke des objekts, die

and the intelligence - deuteronomy if that is from this year

oh and the new erykah badu

and bonnie prince billy!

This thread made me go through my 2008 cd's thinking, 'it hasn't been a good year so far, has it?'. RONG perception. It's been great so far! So much good stuff. My picks (not limited to ten) so far, in an order too difficult to explain:

Inca Ore - Birthday Of Bless You
Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
The Caretaker - Persistent Repetition Of Phrases
Cloudland Canyon - Lie in Light
Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - Inlandish
Robert Ashley & Ensemble Mae - Tap Dancing In The Sand ( watch )
Morton Feldman - For Philip Guston (by Julia Breuer, Matthias Engler, Elmar Schrammel)
Rudi Arapahoe - Echoes From One To Another
Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
This Will Destroy You - s/t
David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music
Dahlia's Tear - Under Seven Skies
Christopher Bissonnette - In Between Words
Peter Broderick - Float
Balmorhea - Rivers Arms
John Maus - Love Is Real
Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head
Royal Train - An Underwater Call
Portishead - Third

Only thing I really miss is 2008's definitive black/doom metal release, like Deathspell Omega's last year, Lurker of Chalice (who did re-release their s/t this year, but that doesn't count). Maybe the new North will take care of that?

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

OMG NEED!!!

YA U NEED! It's four tracks clocking in at 70 minutes, very similar to Lynch's stellar 'The Air Is On Fire' (which was my record of the year 2007).

(e-mail baudelairex_at_that geemale thingy, I'll hook you up)