The Musical Artifacts That Meant The Most To You In 2008

Not a best of the year, obv. More like: a roadmap for your experience of music in the past year. The more personal/meaningful the experience the better.

My selections (I've actually left out actual 2008 stuff for the most part, with a few exceptions):

1) Marcus Nasty w/ MC Shantie and Quincy, Deja Vu FM, some time in March.
Possibly not my favourite UK Funky radio set of last year, not even the my favourite Marcus Nasty set (choosing just one would be hard though) but this was the first that I heard, and it was a revelation. From that point in April onwards 2008 was about UK Funky for me.

2) Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates
I've had this album for about ten years and always liked it, didn't feel that there was anything for me to "get" that I didn't already. But something about this clicked hard for me in about May, at which time I listened to it every day for about a month. I love Rickie's flighty vocals, the sudden swerves from balladic serious to swing romp, the pointillist lyrics, everything. Obscurely, the happiest I can remember feeling last year was standing in the rain with no umbrella, waiting for a tram and listening to "Living It Up".

3) Fela Kuti - Black President: The Best Of
Have to admit to always having found funk a bit... not difficult, but less intuitive than I would expect (with certain exceptions, mostly the obvious big singles like "Sex Machine", "Dance To The Music" etc.). I dutifully listen expecting instantly to be blown away, only to feel appreciation instead - a dreadfully distant emotion, although not an unpleasant one. So what shocked me w/r/t my first real exposure to Fela was how completely comfortable I felt immediately with this stuff, like becoming intimately reacquainted with an old lover. I'm not even sure what the key factor is, but I've listened to this endlessly. Once I'm working full time I'm gonna start collecting the proper albums, which looks like quite a mammoth task.

4) Steely Dan - Aja
And Katy Lied too, but Aja first and more. I can chalk Rickie Lee fandom up to an adolescent immersion in female singers; Steely love felt like the biggest seachange in my tastes in 2008. This was the music I found myself singing to myself most when nothing was playing.

5) Pepe Bradock - "Atom Funk"
I played this very loud a lot in the evenings. Partly because French House is one of the few points where my taste and my boyfriend's taste overlap, and he enjoys the ostentatious overripe decadence of this track as much as I do - the diva samples, the dazzling eq'd synth hits, the guitar solo, the part just near the end where everything seems to return at once... This makes me think of Chuck Eddy's claim that music writers are not frustrated musicians but frustrated DJs - whenever I play this I feel this urge to just inflict it on everyone.

6) Peter Visti - DJ Mix for 2-4-hours.blogspot.com
I really strongly associate this with last summer (Jan/Feb down here) and recovery from surgery, sunbaking on my deck because I couldn't do anything active; this music was perfect for that kind of hazy lassitude midway between luxuriant enjoyment and slight melancholy.

7) Maria McKee - Peddlin' Dreams
Perhaps not as astonishing as Life Is Sweet but this was probably the album I put on before sleep more than any other last year. I loved its slightly bruised, sunblanched quality. This is also one of those albums that makes me wish I could write better about songs qua songs.

8) The-Dream - "Shawty Is Da Shit"
Again, probably not even my favourite song from The-Dream's album. But I'd often load this album up when I was feeling slightly anxious about something, and The-Dream's a cappella intro "Shawty rock to the beat for ya boy..." would always instantly relax me like my morphine drip dose had just been upped. The full effect when that kick in with the glorious harmonising backing vocals in the chorus.

9) David Cassidy - "Romance (Love Mix)"
As heard on a DJ mix by Ronny & Renzo. I isolated this track and played it over and over again. This stands in for a whole bunch of one-off pop curios primarily from the eighties (see also "Cruel Summer", "Living Thing" and "Life In A Northern Town") that i returned to frequently last year. "Romance" in particular has something so utopian about it, I feel myself turning into a better person just listening to it.

10) Alice Coltrane - Journey Into Satchinadanda/Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
More convalescence choices: the Coltrane was what passed for "background music" at my place throughout January, though I'm not sure if Matt approved. 2008 was the year Laughing Stock finally began to overtake Spirit of Eden in my affections. Not coincidentally i also got into the Hollis solo album fully for the first time.

Tim are you still blogging?

Yay for Alice Coltrane, Tim. What else have you heard by her?

Listened to a lot of Alice Coltrane in the last days of '08. And Sun Ra too. Kind of unusual choice for a vacation soundtrack, I guess. Juana Molina (Argentinian singer touring currently with Feist) released a new record last october and it had a great impact on me. Almost sure "experimental Argentinian pop" is the kind of definition that could scare many people off, but anyway it's kind of hard to describe her. Trippy loops, slightly psychedelic, works awesome on headphones.

Pretty much all old stuff:

1. "Remarkable" by Colin Lloyd Tucker, where I learned that a semi-famous ambient guy (who was in The The and Deux Filles and has played with Kate Bush and the Go Betweens, speaking of eclectic) whose pop stuff I'd written off years ago based on hearing one atypical album has been putting out Bowie-esque Robyin Hitchcock albums for quite some time. Total bolt from the blue that put me in a good mood near the end of the year.

2. "The Plan" by the Osmonds, which is unironically breathtaking.

3. "Ahead" the Band of Susans cover of the Wire song, which combines downtown guitar rock, shoegaze, and arty post punk into the best song ever, for now.

4. Both Konki Duet albums. Arty girls who, had they been on Rough Trade in the 80's, would be legendary along with Raincoats, etc. First heard them during some icy days right after the birth of my son, and they keep bringing me back to that point in time.

5. The Sesame Street version of Feist's "One, Two, Three, Four." Cannot stop singing it, and it's nice to see someone more at home with monsters and penguins than in her big-budget video.

6. Various youtube videos of Suburban Lawns playing "Janitor." Finally I learned why the name Sue Tissue had been bouncing around my head for years and years.

7. "Fade Out" by Loop, where I finally learn to love Loop after years of trying.

8. Soundtrack to the movie "The Apple" downloaded from Egg City Radio, prompting the rental of a breathtakingly bad movie about music in the future world of 1984.

9. Youtube video for Sarah Brightman's "I lost my heart to a Starship Trooper" which then prompted a rediscovery of Hot Gossip, who had blown my little mind back in the very early 80's.

10. The Maybe It's Reno album, a slow grower, that finally gave me another Unrest album to love.

8. Soundtrack to the movie "The Apple" downloaded from Egg City Radio, prompting the rental of a breathtakingly bad movie about music in the future world of 1984.

9. Youtube video for Sarah Brightman's "I lost my heart to a Starship Trooper" which then prompted a rediscovery of Hot Gossip, who had blown my little mind back in the very early 80's.

I think we were separated at birth. Much love!

Driving through Minneapolis with my sisters and niece this Christmas, listening to the Ne-Yo album, when Brittany began complaining about her live-in, Miguel, and began singing over "Back to What You Know": "Go back to Mexicoooo . . . "

I can't remember what fell where exactly, but these are the strongest signposts I can think of

Winter: Disco (Not Disco)-type stuff ... especially Was (Not Was) "Wheel Me Out"; Marvin Gaye's In Our Lifetime?
Spring: Badu Badu Badu; Don Blackman's s/t; Kid Creole comp.; moderately obsessed about GTAIV radio station playlists
Summer: "Foot-Stomping Music," Bohannon; lot of Roy Ayers; Maurice Ravel (but I'm always obsessed over him)
Autumn: "Fantastic Vampere"; Wait Until Dark soundtrack; Kerri Chandler, "I Think Of You"
Winter: fell in love again with the music of "Amahl and the Night Visitors"; "Womanizer"

i got really into buckingham/nicks this year, like, really into it, and it lived in my car during my last few months in LA, driving around visiting all the places i hadnt been yet before i left, and all the places i had been to too often and wanted to see for the last time, and now when i listen it to it it just makes me think of san gabriels over the 134, and seeing downtown from the carpool lane on the 105 at sunset

back at home i (over)played hugh masekela's 'i am not afraid' while i had a few months before my job started, what an incredible summer album. both of those LPs became such an important part of my life that im tempted to put them on top of any top 10s i make for the end of the year.