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

I listen to music about 4-5 hours a day at work, so about 30 albums/singles/EPs a week. But I'm usually listening to old music.

ditto.

I guess Raveonettes came out 2008 in US, 2007 in UK. That's why I didn't list it anyway, cos I do like it.

I haven't made my list yet, but this'll be on it. So that's two votes, at least. Only 3 more mentions needed for Lust Lust Lust to climb into Mike's aggregate list above.

White Denim are a sort of Rag Week Animal Collective.

Of those mentioned so far, the only one that immediately leaps out at me as being "Definite Top Ten Even In An Average-To-Good Sort Of Year" material is The Fall.

Others that I've got / heard which may also be contenders - especially if things don't improve dramatically in the next 6 months: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; Neil Diamond; Elbow; Fleet Foxes; Gnarly Barkley; Guillemots (a little surprised not to see more love for those last two, esp Guillemots); Bon Iver; Portishead; Vampire Weekend.

Surprised to see absolutely no-one's mentioned so far: Bauhaus (although not entirely surprised as it was hardly the masterpiece I'd spent the previous 25 years imagining); Johnny Dowd; Futureheads; Last Shadow Puppets; Tindersticks.

Hadn't bothered with so far, but may need to reconsider based on the consensus here: Erykah Badu; Goldfrapp; Hercules & Love Affair; Spiritualized.

"my research skills and 'will consider listening to' criteria have been honed by years of over consumption. I'm not interested in hearing everything anymore, just stuff I think I will like. Which is probably bad in some ways, but in terms of my mental health and relationship with music is terrific."

OTM

Trust me Stu, you really don't want to reconsider Spiritualized and their 1974-style soft rock.

What, not even if I wanted something to file next to that bloody Dennis Wilson double CD that I somehow managed to let myself get talked into thinking I wanted to buy?

The Guillemots album I quite like but there's something stopping me going overboard on it. It's in my Amazon lists.

"The Guillemots album I quite like but there's something stopping me going overboard on it."

The fact that it's not as good as their last one, maybe?

I missed British Sea Power out of my "Others that I've got / heard which may also be contenders" list.

How many records to you people listen to? Some people are listing about 1 a week for the year so far, so assuming 'the best' make up only a quarter of your listening then your getting a new record every 2 days!
You can't possible give them all a proper chance.

A new album every 2 days might be an under-estimate for me, between promo copies and things I buy, borrow, or download. But I listen to music for much of my working day and just about any second that I'm at home, plus often while I'm in transit (walking, driving or subway/trolley/bus-riding).

Is that not normal?

I dunno. I reacted very strongly to the first one initially, but I think I prefer the EP / mini-album overall - it's more upbeat. The album's probably too long, and a little inconsistent. The new record is shorter, more consistent, more 'now' in many ways, and has a handful of songs I really like. I'd say it was on a par with or even a little better than the debut album, but it's not got... the two or three really AMAZING songs that the mini-alb um and debut proper did have. Every time a tune comes on iTunes randomly when I'm at work, I enjoy it more than I expect.

Anyway, my Amazon lists:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albums-of-2008-part-1/lm/R3MWCGYF9TLFUQ/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albums-of-2008-part-2/lm/R2CONECE0C2NL0/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full

A new album every 2 days might be an under-estimate for me, between promo copies and things I buy, borrow, or download. But I listen to music for much of my working day and just about any second that I'm at home, plus often while I'm in transit (walking, driving or subway/trolley/bus-riding).

Is that not normal?

It's not abnormal, and it's pretty much what I do (rarely in transit tho) but it's still inevitably going to sell good music short in a lot of cases. It's not especially hard for me to liten to everything I get sent, I'm hardly Chuck Eddy or whoever, but it annoys me when I rifle through a pile of stuff and find something that I've been really enthusiastic about to other people and still haven't managed to play more than twice. The same applies to the absurd pangs of quasi-guilt I feel when I devote a lot of attention to something (eg the Jay Reatard compilation) and other things get shorter shrift.

This is precisely why I'm being ruthless about what I listen to. I didn't deliberately get into music writing - someone has always asked me if I'd be interested in writing about X for Y first, pretty much (bar DiS) - I've only ever written about music because I'm a music fan. At points I've got caught up in being 'a music journalist' and generally that's resulted in me having a pretty fucked-up time re; my relationship with music - stressing, wasting time and money, writer's block, feeling like I don't love music anymore, etc - and I'm just not prepared to do that anymore.

In no order really, and not really 10:
Boris - Smile
Sun Kil Moon - April
Cloudland Canyon - Lie In Light
Genghis Tron - Board Up The House
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Jucifer - L'Autrichienne
Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Mouth
The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Torche - Meanderthal
Autistic Daughters - Uneasy Flowers
Beach House - Devotion
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

Also good: Ida, Portishead, Times New Viking, Sic Alps, Lau Nau, and that Growing EP!

I need to listen to an album at least 10 times to know if I properly like it, and that has to be spread over at least a couple of weeks. I'll then need to go back to it later and reconsider.

I know that from experience some/most of my favourite music didn't really grab me when I first heard it.

I can often tell now after a first listen that although I didn't massively enjoy that, I know once I listen to it enough to absorb and understand it I'll probably love it.

Some kinds of music is so dense it needs repeated studying to appreciate.

and by Mouth I mean Skull. I did something equally as dumb on the 1/4 of the way through 2008 thread.

Based on play counts I have an actual fondness for Santogold, Goldfrapp, H&LA, Beach House, Kleerup, The Ting Tings, and Alphabeat, and I may have been forcing myself to like Lykke Li and Crystal Castles. Which adds up to only nine... I do like the Lil Mama disc every time I remember to play it, especially the grim-ass middle stretch between various T-Pain guest appearances but I never, well, remember to actually play it so it just sort of languishes there. Basically, there are so many albums I could have really liked but that just didn't do it for me for whatever reason (MGMT, Los Campesinos!) and other albums that are four good songs amongst some really low-quality crap (Neon Neon is totally ruined by the song with Har Mar Superstar and Vampire Weekend will never not sound like a really boring Gap commercial to me).

It's been a year for singles anyway.

Only 3 more mentions needed for Lust Lust Lust to climb into Mike's aggregate list above.

actually, it's been mentioned 6 times now - by matinee, M@tt, Snowballing, jonathan, you and me.

Surprised to see absolutely no-one's mentioned so far: Bauhaus

Not surprised at all. That album pretty much blows.

Vampire Weekend will never not sound like a really boring Gap commercial to me

Thank you, this is totally OTM.

In no order really, and not really 10:
Boris - Smile
Sun Kil Moon - April
Cloudland Canyon - Lie In Light
Genghis Tron - Board Up The House
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Jucifer - L'Autrichienne
Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Mouth
The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
Torche - Meanderthal
Autistic Daughters - Uneasy Flowers
Beach House - Devotion
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

Also good: Ida, Portishead, Times New Viking, Sic Alps, Lau Nau, and that Growing EP!

jonathan that's a fantastic list, and there's enough overlap with my loves (Boris, Fuck Buttons, Earth, Raveonettes, Portishead) and likes (Sun Kil Moon, Torche, Beach House, Times New Viking) for this year, that I'll need to check out the rest of these albums. I actually haven't heard the Growing this year but I love all their other stuff. The rest I'll need to look into more closely.

I can only get to 6 at this point and most of them already mentioned (roughly in descending order of how good they are):

Vampire Weekend - s/t
Jenny Scheinman - Crossing the Field
Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams
Santogold - s/t
Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
Opeth - Watershed

Also not mentioned so far: My Morning Jacket.

The Seu Jorge album has just jumped into my top ten and I'm barely halfway through it.

-- Scik Mouthy, Thursday, July 3, 2008 7:40 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Unsurprisingly it reminds me of Africa Brasil by Jorge Ben.

-- Scik Mouthy, Thursday, July 3, 2008 7:41 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Wow, I REALLY want to hear this.

Thanks stephen! There really has been a lot good coming out this year.. You mentioned the James Blackshaw album upthread too, which I just got today. Really really great stuff.

pas/cal, james blackshaw, silver jews, destroyer, robert forster ... umm that might be it.

oh yeah, malkmus too. that one is good!

indie rock, dudes.

haven't bought it yet, but fairly certain NOMO - Ghost Rock will be one of my favorites from this year.

The Seu Jorge album has just jumped into my top ten and I'm barely halfway through it.

-- Scik Mouthy, Thursday, July 3, 2008 7:40 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Unsurprisingly it reminds me of Africa Brasil by Jorge Ben.

-- Scik Mouthy, Thursday, July 3, 2008 7:41 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Wow, I REALLY want to hear this.

-- call all destroyer, Thursday, 3 July 2008 18:43 (30 minutes ago) Link

My mate MattS, who knows these kinds of things, said that Seu Jorge apparently conceived it as a kind of follow-up to Africa Brasil. Which makes sense, totally. I've only listened once, so can't tell yet, but quality wise this is pretty awesome.

Africa Brasil is a top 10 all-time record for me so this is damn exciting news. Don't think it's in the US at all yet but I will download or maybe even import.

pas/cal, james blackshaw, silver jews, destroyer, robert forster ... umm that might be it.

That Pas/Cal album's not out for a few months still, isn't it? You've heard it?

yes, there are promos floating around. it is pretty off the hook awesome.

I gotta find one of those promos... really looking forward to that album.

must concur with jeff treppell on the Blackstrap - Steal My Horses and Run. this has gotten lots of play here since early june. i would also go with::
hercules & love affair
2562 - Aerial
portishead - third
elbow - the seldom seen kid
fleet foxes
humanfly - II
torche - meanderthal
women

forgot about Sparks! haven't heard it yet.

also, Paavoharju and Earth (also on the need-to-hear list)

didn't Es put out a CD on Fonal this year?

that United Bible Studies 3" CD I listed is from 2006, oops.

pas/cal is available at darla's site now.

took them long enough

lol music

nat king cole - love is many a splendored thing

it's hard for me to say if these will endure, but these are my favorites so far (in alphabetical order):

2562 - Aerial
Agalloch - The White (EP)
Ascend - Ample Fire Within
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind lead..
Boris - Smile
Cloudland Canyon - Lie in Light
Earth - The Bees Made Honey Inside the Lion's Skull
Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
Nachtmystium - Assassins Black Meddle vol 1
Nadja - Trinity
Opeth - Watershed
Prostitute Disfigurement - Descendants of Depravity
The Drift - Memory Drawings
Torche - Meanderthal

AWESOME! So mebbe erykah badu and the fall will make top 10, and the breeders will make top 30...

screw you guys! best fucking year EVAH!

Opeth - Watershed
Black Mountain - In the Future
Lykke Li - Youth Novels
Meshuggah - obZen
Disfear - Live the Storm
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Jucifer - L'Autrichienne
Krallice - Krallice
Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner
Caina - Temporary Antennae
Lukestar - Lake Toba
Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
Torche - Meanderthal
Ladytron - Velocifero
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrsing
Mike Patton - A Perfect Place OST
Eluveitie - Slania
The Gates of Slumber - Conqueror
Ihsahn - angL
Sahg - II

London Zoo by The Bug is an awesome album and I was pleasantly surprised to see Lex bigging it up in this morning's Grauniad.

i wanna update my list:

hold steady - stay positive
shearwater - rook
dodos - visiter
ponytail - ice cream
no age - nouns
mgmt
vampire weekend
the fall
wolf parade
destroyer
boris

London Zoo by The Bug is an awesome album and I was pleasantly surprised to see Lex bigging it up in this morning's Grauniad.

thought you'd like it! is a measure of how much good stuff's been released this year that it's only on the fringes of my top 10, which is no slight at all cuz it's quite something.

apropos of nothing, on a portishead note - i'm very impressed by third but i really haven't been able to get into it, which isn't really anything to do with the music - my issue is kind of prosaic, it's been such a gorgeous summer so far that i just can't bring myself to listen to anything that ~bleak~. wrong time of year to release it, totally. i guess i shall get into it in november or something

Any individual tracks that sticking out for people? Probably needs its own separate thread, but I'd love to see something comparative for single songs that are knocking the metaphorical wind out of people.

apropos of nothing, on a portishead note - i'm very impressed by third but i really haven't been able to get into it, which isn't really anything to do with the music - my issue is kind of prosaic, it's been such a gorgeous summer so far that i just can't bring myself to listen to anything that ~bleak~. wrong time of year to release it, totally. i guess i shall get into it in november or something

-- lex pretend, Friday, July 4, 2008 2:13 AM (Friday, July 4, 2008 2:13 AM) Bookmark Link

Yeah, in that respect and only that respect, it's kind of nice we had an extra-long winter here. It let that Portishead joint have some time to sink in before the summer came back.

Jacaszek - Treny
Machinefabriek + Stephen Vitello - Box Music
Machinefabriek - Ranonkel
Autechre - Quaristice
Aleph-1 - Aleph-1
Rameses III - Basilica
Christopher Willits & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Ocean Fire
Natural Snow Buildings / TwinSisterMoon / Isengrind - The Snowbringer Cult / Song For Laurie Bird
Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
Wouter van Veldhoven - Four Simple Songs For Five Dead Bumblebees
Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion
Excepter - Debt Dept.
Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI: Ambleside

my alternate top thirteen which just means albums that got left off in the flux:

eddie floyd, eddie loves you so
the mountain goats, heretic pride
seun kuti and fela's 80, many things
pritam/sameer, race soundtrack
al green, lay it down
equilibrium, sagas
cowboys from hell, monster rodeo
the b-52's, funplex
lyrics born, everywhere at once
los tigres del norte, raices
a.r. rahman, jodhaa-akbar soundtrack
matmos, the supreme balloon
devian, ninewinged serpent

xpost

Any individual tracks sticking out for people?

I'm not sold on the whole album but "The Healer" by Erykah Badu is pretty fucking stellar.