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

ha

im all over the place on that record. part of it is that i had pretty unreasonable expectations for it since their s/t is one of my favorite of the decade. im slowly coming around to it but the lyrics esp seem kinda lazily written to me. it's missing a song like "adventure" or "thresher's flail" i think. i dont like using the "its not you its me defense" but i would recommend the record and the band to anyone and everyone (and do irl) but its just been overshadowed by other things this year. still holding out on it all the way clicking though.

xp

lex:

gucci is a must. #1 good mood rap music of the year right now, esp. the bleepy keyboard tracks ("i know why", "i might be", "ballers") on back to the traphouse. he's also got a bunch of good guest spots on that rich boy mixtape and a few joints off soulja boy's teen of the south.

also "freaky gurl" remix but you might've heard that since it's got a reeeeeally nasty kim verse

i don't think anyone in rap right now has more fun rapping than gucci

yup i love the 'freaky gurl' rmx, that was the first i heard of gucci. kim's absolutely kills, solid solid gold and so nasty

kim's verse

In no particular order:

MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
Vampire Weekend: s/t
Crystal Castles: s/t
Neon Neon: Stainless Style
Elvis Costello & The Imposters: Momofuku
Sparks: Exotic Creatures Of The Deep
Fleet Foxes: s/t
Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward
Santogold: s/t
Ladytron: Velocifero

also ran: Young Knives, Hercules & Love Affair, Midnight Juggernauts, Wolf Parade, Gnarls Barkley

I'm intrigued by the Costello. But not enough to buy it for £14 which is all I've seen it for.

secret chiefs 3 - xaphan
meshuggah - obzen
racebannon - acid for blood
mike patton - a perfect place
sparks - exotic creatures of the deep
melvins - nude with boots
made out of babies - the ruiner
the mars volta - bedlam in goliath
earth - the bees made honey in the lion's skull
oneida - preteen weaponry

I'm way behind on listening to new music but here's my top 10 of what I have heard:

magnetic fields - distortion
goslings - occasion
breeders - mountain battles
portishead - third
fall - imperial wax solvent
be your own pet - get awkward
melvins - nude with boots
times new viking - rip it off
ladytron - velocifero
asteroid #4 - these flowers of ours

best reissue:
amebix - no sanctuary - the spiderleg recordings

segond and the fractures - agamemnon baby oh yeah
lockboxer - cherry denial
slack camomile - weakness quiescence
turvey knoller - lam blach tarpo
purply - soul hissy fit
neverminds - 69 horsefish
jumblies - too close to mall
aztec swordfish - green north diaphragm
lum bar - wrack my spine
73 combost 78 - gronigen greengage

you liked the turvey knoller album? for god's sake man, why? it was weeeeaaaaaak.

what are you talking about fool of fools, it was a stunning return to form!

it wasn't a patch on 'lickbone and sons (etd. 1864)'.

listened right through the mars volta album once, it's by far their worst, most unengaging record.

not sure I've liked any volta record on first listen. they're all growers for me.

I still prefer frances the mute overall, but I'll rep for goliath any day. it's their most direct and relentless album, and really rewards recidivists (though admittedly it does tail off a bit in the final quarter).

(xxp)

he definitely benefits from having dj muckshake producing tho'.

Frances The Mute is easily their best, I'd say Amputechture their second-best, actually. FTM is a wondrous adventure, TBIG just seems to be a complete wankrush of unthought-through frilly tech-metal.

Erykah Badu
Studio (06/07)
Portishead
Strategy (07)
H&LA
Hot Chip
Santogold

a few flawed others from liked artists but lots yet to hear and as usual i'm more about individual tracks

xp: you say that like it's a bad thing...I'd suggest you give it another go, and give in to its sheer grandiose preposterousness.

I always end up buying TMV albums almost despite my better judgement, and never actually got around to amuptechture. you may the first person I've heard sing its praises.

4 mentions of erykah so far, all placing her at no 1! good going ilx

Hey - it's not like I'm known for hating on sheer grandiose preposterousness! If anything, TBIG isn't theatrical enough - it rushes by in a one-paced flab of squealing. More bands should go down the preposterousness route, but TMV need to add a bit of variation into their by-now familiar Spanish-flavoured speed-metal.

that's a pretty reductive assessment of the record, but I take your point. personally, I've never felt they were that hot in ballad/soundscape mode, but that their strength lay in their proggy freneticism.

speaking of which, based on past form I fully expect the new cardiacs album to make it into this year's final cut, and I suspect you do too...

it's called LSD...it cannot fail :D

hey lex, is the jordin sparks album worth bothering with?

Also, TMV's proggy freneticism is their strongest suit, yes, but previously it was so much better orchestrated, measured...there was a sense that it was all building up to something (see: Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus, where after 8:44 of glorious arc-based songwriting we break through into the unimaginably awesome Con Safo section). On TBIG I don't feel the craft or the surprise. Just tedium. Might give it a relisten tho seeing as you'll rep for it.

Tentative 10:

Lil Mama – VYP: Voice of the Young People
V/A - Boogy Bytes Vol.4 mixed by Ellen Allien
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Monade - Monstre Cosmic
Ashlee Simpson - Bittersweet World
Matmos - Supreme Balloon
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
Portishead - Third
Estelle - Shine
Sean O'Hagan & Jean-Pierre Muller - The Musical Paintings_Volume 1

xp: it's not a comparable beast, really. whereas frances was a prog/concept suite, this is much more a collection of discrete rock songs, more like the debut. but in terms of building towards something, the track 'goliath' should see you right...

for me, it was the crimsony outro of the first track that was the key to the kingdom.

Goliath itself has a really irritating riff, tho. TMV-by-numbers. The great thing about a band like Cardiacs is that they have a LOT of different melodic (and rhythmic, and textural) structures in their arsenal. TBIG demonstrates limitations IMO. But enough of it; I'll give it another listen before further comments.

The Fall, Imperial Wax Solvent
Goslings, Occasion
Portishead, Third
Kim Doo Soo, 10 Days Butterfly
Master Musicians of Hop Frog, Centuries Later
Andrea Belfi, Knots
Etran Finatawa, Desert Crossroads
Indian Jewelry, Free Gold!
Maninkari, Le Diable Avec Ses Chevaux
Aleph-1, s/t

xp: no argument that cardiacs are vastly superior to TMV.

hey lex, is the jordin sparks album worth bothering with?

dunno! i do have it somewhere but i've been rinsing 'no air' too much to listen to the whole thing. will rectify this soon though

No order:

Be Your Own Pet
The Doubtful Guest
Blood Ceremony
Ascend
Kelley Polar
Hercules & Love Affair
Dimension X
Diskjokke
Gnaw Their Tongues
Nick Cave

Pretty certain there's stuff I'm forgetting, will check later

Portishead - Third
Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
Studio - Yearbook 2
Spiritualized - Songs In A&E
Goslings - Occasion
The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Wire - Object 47
Santogold - S/T
Boris - Smile

I think I've liked the Steinki compilation more than any record released this year.

^^^^ This. My two favorites so far: Steinki and Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue (I'm lol old lol). Portishead's disc is good. After that, there's a precipitous decline in quality in this year's discs. I'm hoping for better new releases in the second half of 2008.

All these people moaning that this year's rubbish, have they heard the albums other people are praising?

Well as we've already discussed, Cardiacs are due. Let me add the lovely Volcano! to that and it's already looking a lot rosier.

YEAH OK NICK I'LL GET THAT SHEARWATER ALBUM

In no order:

Erykah Badu
Hercules & Love Affair
Steinski
Portishead
Vampire Weekend
Lil Wayne
Magnetic Fields
The Hold Steady
The-Dream
Be Your Own Pet

Haha, I'm not so much meaning that, Louis, as just... there's always people, every year, who moan that each year is shite and last year was better and 1991 was even better still, and I can't say I see much difference between any two particular years you care to choose that are close together. Each year there are records I love, like, and don't give a shit about.

actually, for once, i aint complaining this year is a bad'un.
just that i, along with a few others i know, have obviously fallen off distribution lists, so not getting to hear as much new stuff as per normal.
there's loads of good stuff i would love to hear, but only so many hours in the day and so many pounds in the pocket.

Good records, bad records and indifferent records, all living together inside a piano.

The only criticism of this year is that 2007 was so awesome it's just not gonna match up.

It was? It isn't?

Yer certinleh makin' me think!

Provided you're wise enough not to take your aesthetic lead from Guardian Music or Radcliffe and Maconie, 2008's been a pearl of a year thus far.

I have little-to-no-interest in albums this year. There are good ones I am sure.

For singles it's the best year since 2002.

I don't even know what's been a single this year. I kind of assume it doesn't matter anymore.

No that was 1959.

i'm feeling more enthusiastic about albums than i have in years, but singles (or 'tracks', whatever) are always going to be more important to me. also, far far harder to put into a list, b/c while there might be about 30 albums i'm into this year so far, there are already well over 100 individual tracks

Where is DJ Martian's list of 9000 albums band?

Hm, looks like Low hit its stride in February and March... was the Billboard Top 40 #1 for six weeks, second only to that fuckin' Leona Lewis thing.

Digi Snacks was terrible imo

1. Black Pus - Black Pus 4: All Aboard the Magic Pus
2. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
3. Rings - Black Habit
4. Mutators - Secret Life
5. Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
6. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
7. GOA - 3
8. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
9. Sun Araw - The Phynx
10. Stereolab - Chemical Chords

I really really liked Digi Snacks and I don't know anyone else who did.
Go figure.