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

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?

it's a bit weird that since downloading making a list of 10 albums at the end of a year never did get any easier for me (inability to 'widen it up' unchanged). it meant i just heard a lot more average albums each year.

I think 'methods' of listening / consumption have far more influence over our perception of how many 'good albums' there have been (in relation to individual tracks or not) than number of albums consumed does.

I generally tend to use the "ears" option.

No Age: Nouns
Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Robert Forster: The Evangelist
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
Opeth: Watershed
Stephen Malkmus: Real Emotional Trash
Bon Iver: For Emma...
Nada Surf: Lucky
MGMT: Orangular...
Wolf Parade: Mt. Zoomer

I think 'methods' of listening / consumption have far more influence over our perception of how many 'good albums' there have been (in relation to individual tracks or not) than number of albums consumed does

probably right, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference with me either way

plus sometimes i forget i'm not actually a music writer i just spend a lot of time on list threads with people who are

I think Matmos - "Supreme Balloon" is my #1 so far. Other things, in only a vague order and probably not exhaustively, which have had many listens and delighted me on all of them:
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
Strategy - Music for Lamping
Grouper - Dragging etc
uh, maybe the Ladytron? I'm running out now

Currently looking forward to hearing Oneida, the Alex Moulton and Racebannon, and giving No Age and TNV more of a chance because I really liked their previous releases but haven't had a chance to sit down with the TNV much and really didn't care for the No Age on first listen.

I didn't know there was new randomNumber out and had forgotten about the Oneida, so I'm glad this thread exists.

in no order:

American Music Club, The Golden Age (Merge)
Kaki King, Dreaming of Revenge (Velour)
Tata Young, One Love
the Breeders, Mountain Battles (4AD)
Cece Winans, Thy Kingdom Come (EMI Gospel)
Jucifer, L'autichienne (Relapse)
Jamie Liddell, Jim (Warp)
Beach House, Devotions (Carpark)
Septic Flesh, Communion (Season of Mist)
Prostitute Disfigurement, Descendants of Depravity (Willowtip)
Origin, Antithesis (Relapse)
Morbosidad, Profana la Cruz del Nazareno (NWN)

As a non-writer (obviously), pre-internet I was reluctant to make year-end lists as it would typically take me until the next year to hear most of the albums I'd decide were the "best", as I was a lot more reliant on finding things second-hand (things I eagerly bought new tended not to live up to expectations).

Now, I'm hearing a lot more stuff at the time of release/leak, but more aware than ever of how much there is left to listen to, and have usually forgotten what last month's best album ever was (sometimes even before its physical release) in the rush to find this month's. So by the time the list season rolls round I still feel unprepared.

So, I am as unable as ever to produce a list of solid gold classics off the top of my head, but from this corny indie fuck's point of view there are a bunch of exciting new directions opening up in the music I've been listening to, and this year trying to keep up has felt fun again and less of an obligation. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the rest of the year.

El Perro Del Mar, The Dø, Elbow, Portishead, Half Man Half Biscuit, Goldfrapp...
That's all I got.

Pattern is Movement
Syclops
Shonky
Cristian Vogel (technically 2007 I think)
El Guincho

also: Meshuggah, Minilogue, Marc Romboy

Willie Nelson - Moment of Forever
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah, Part 1
Ponies in the Surf - See You Happy
Kath Bloom – Terror
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Adam Green - Sixes and Sevens
Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
No Kids - Come Into My House
A Weather - Cove

Vampire Weekend feels like it was released 8.5 years ago, but I gotta give it props for being a solid indie pop record.

The Ruby Suns' Sea Lion has sort of surprised me how frequently it pops up in rotation. Definitely on the list for me.

Other albums I bought only within the last couple weeks, so it's tough to guage whether they're "best" or just shiny and new: Fleet Floxes, Shearwater, MGMT.

Beach House I think is good but not "best" of anything.

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.