Best Albums of 2008
1. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
After a painfully long hiatus, Montreal-based indie-rock quintet Wolf Parade followed up their acclaimed 2005 debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, with the far more cerebral At Mount Zoomer. Zoomer retains most of what made Apologies a success: strong, deliberate percussion and dynamic song structures that spastically jolt back and forth with instrumental breakdowns and build-ups. In this album the band injects significantly more complex, brooding, and prominent single-instrument lines into their preexisting template, particularly fleshing out the percussion and keyboard departments (as evident in “Bang Your Drum”). While texturally impressive, however, the songs lack Apologies’ fist-pumping, sweaty-dancing rock (perfected in “I’ll Believe in Anything”)-perhaps because frontmen Spencer Krug and Dan Boekner have increasingly concentrated on side projects. It’s clear on most songs that the two are working within their own heads rather than collaboratively, but given these guys’ talent and the retention of the tried-and-true WP formula, that isn’t such a bad thing.
-Chelsea Paige
“Call It a Ritual” (from At Mount Zoomer, out now on Sub Pop)
(To download, right-click on link and “Save As”)
2. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
It’s easy to hate Vampire Weekend. Four sweater-wearing Ivy League tryhards who proudly don their preppy threads and eat their marshmallow-y indie-pop cake too-what’s not to dislike? But with squeaky-clean melodies that expertly balance pep and melancholy, and clever quips as precisely planned as the band’s impeccable outfits, it’s hard to hate them for long. From the ska-punk beat on “A-Punk” to the straightforward yet sly lyrics on “Campus” (“I wake up / My shoulder’s cold / I’ve got to leave here / Before I go”) to the infectious keys on “Oxford Comma,” it’s tough to keep yourself from humming along. Why try?
-Anna Bank
“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” (from Vampire Weekend, out now on XL)
3. Invincible – Shapeshifters
Shapeshifters, the debut LP from Invincible (a.k.a. Ilana Weaver), is the type of album that proves hip-hop is not dead in 2008 (contrary to what Nas may say). Turning the spotlight away from herself, the Detroit-based MC grapples with topics like urban decay, misogyny, cultural imperialism, and historiography: “It’s like erasing Proof, only remembering Eminem’s name/ Many stories-only ones written in pen will remain.” In short, this isn’t just another “fuck the system” record-it emblazons a repressed narrative that will now live to see another day. In Weaver’s words: “Music’s not a mirror to reflect reality/ It’s a hammer with which we shape it.”
-Dan Cook
“Looongawaited” (from Shapeshifters, out now on Emergence)
4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
No band stormed 2008’s indie-electro bandwagon quite like Australian outfit Cut Copy. The trio’s sophomore release, In Ghost Colours, is one of those brilliant albums that offers pure, unadulterated enjoyment from start to finish. “Hearts On Fire,” one of the most pleasure-inducing tracks on the album, dishes out up-beat synths in generous portions, only to follow with singer Dan Whitford’s dreamy chorus backed by a sultry saxophone dissolving into the band’s neon pastiche of dancefloor truisms. In Ghost Colours is, without a doubt, one of the must-have albums of 2008, especially for those light on their toes and eager to groove.
-Scott Munro
5. Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Running a scant 30 minutes, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is packed to the brim with ideas. After kicking off with the romanticized lyrical wit of opener, “Ways to Make It through the Wall,” the album tumbles into a frenzy of synth and violin entanglements that provide the recipe for pure pop bliss. The band’s dueling vocalists harmonize with awkward sexual tension-a perfect foil to the upbeat instrumentation and drumming too danceable to sit passively through. Los Campesinos! never stray far from their indie-pop niche, but their maturation in both production and composition allows them to sidestep the pitfalls of the current scene.
-James McGrory
“Miserabilia” (from We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, out now on Arts&Crafts)
6. Max Tundra – Parallax Error Beheads You
Max Tundra is something of a bleep technician. The sound has long been electronic music’s most popularly recognized touchstone, yet few artists have squeezed such a cheery, pleasing sound from a synthesizer as Max has on Parallax Error Beheads You, his third album. It’s nearly a human bleep, a bleep with shades of emotions, a bleep striving to be heard. Combine these startlingly expressive synthetic chirps with honeyed melodies, charming lyrics about Max’s woeful internet dating experiences, and some endearing, almost conversational vocals, and it’s easy to see why Parallax is one of the most addictive albums of this year.
-Shira Hecht
“Which Song” (from Parallax Error Beheads You, out now on Domino)
7. Re-Up Gang – We Got It For Cheap Vol. 3
Music and cocaine have been mixed up since Studio 54 opened, but not until the We Got It For Cheap mixtape series by the Re-Up Gang (rap duo the Clipse plus Philly bruisers Ab-Liva and Sandman) has slinging both looked so desirable. Their take on Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys” is darker and more audacious than Jigga’s, while “20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner” paints the legions of corner boys as a prestigious secret society everyone wants in on. If you can get over the moral implications of jamming to the suffering of addicts (no easy task), you’ll find Volume 3 as invigorating as the nose candy it celebrates.
-Will Sommer
“20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner” (from WGIFC Vol. 3, out now on Re-Up Gang Records)
8. TV On The Radio – Dear Science,
Three studio albums in and TV on the Radio sound as vibrant as ever. Whereas 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain was an innovatory step toward expanding the band’s sonic palette, Dear Science sands down the raw edges of its predecessor to produce a more polished, lustrous sound. The hooks, horns, and drum machines are all still here, of course, but Dear Science is distinct in the band’s oeuvre for its more orchestral feel and lack of distorted textures. The result is a nuanced consistency: Dear Science keeps the formula fresh, even as the band plays it safe.
-Dan Cook
Stream “Golden Age” and “Dancing Choose” (from Dear Science, out now on 4AD/Interscope)
9. Black Milk – Tronic
I would say Detroit-based producer/MC Black Milk nimbly toes the divide between mainstream and underground hip-hop if the line between the two weren’t so blurry to begin with. Like his revered Motor City forbear J Dilla, Black Milk constructs beats cerebral enough to demand quality headphones time yet bangin’ enough to shake lime-lit clubs and make even Jay-Z cringe at the illness (hypothetically). In a better world, FM radio would rock the rib-rattling hi-hats of “Losing Out”; high school dances would implode under the jazz-funk insanity of “Give the Drummer Sum”; gangly hipsters and rap purists would nod heads in unison to Tronic.
-Traviss Cassidy
Stream “Give the Drummer Sum,” “The Matrix,” and “Tronic Summer”
10. Deerhunter – Microcastle
Let’s forget 2007. Forget Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s blog posts about feces and naked young boys; forget the drama surrounding the band’s numerous hiatuses and line-up changes; forget even the band’s reputation for intense concerts. (Microcastle is a far cry from the band’s cacophonous shows in support of last year’s Cryptograms.) Microcastle treats the listener to 40 minutes of hazy “alternative rock” with obvious influences (krautrock, dream pop, doo-wop) but a sound all its own, at once progressive and familiar. Like Battles’ Mirrored from last year, Microcastle isn’t an intimidating affair, but each successive listen brings out something new and exciting.
-Matthew Collins
Best Movies of 2008
1. Wall-E
Pixar has an astounding track record, but with this latest story of a lonely robot, it surpassed even itself. The dialogue-sparse story of a robot trash compactor, his lonely life on Earth, and his adventures with a female compatriot who resembles an iPod, Wall-E packs a gravitas unique to the genre. It’s a rare animated film that feels blissfully alive and active. The animation simply astounds, like a slowly floating bubble of colors never found in our ordinary lives. Wall-E reflects ourselves back to us, in glowing, shiny, hyper-real color. To watch this robot gaze up at the sky is to feel the endless empty grandeur of being a sentient being in a vast world; to see him point out the Milky Way to his sleeping “girlfriend” is to understand love. The grandiose hyperbole is justified: Wall-E is why we go to the movies in the first place.
-Shira Hecht
2. There Will Be Blood
Visually immaculate and compellingly acted, the epic, There Will Be Blood will make you sorry that Daniel Day-Lewis only makes a movie about once every ten years. While director Paul Thomas Anderson limns a sprawling picture of early 20th-century California, Day-Lewis is deliciously remorseless as oilman Daniel Plainview, who comes to make his fortune from the town of New Boston’s untold oil supply. A dogged Paul Dano mounts seething tension between himself and Day-Lewis as the town’s fanatical preacher, Eli Sunday, the constant watchdog of Plainview. Beautiful and riddling, There Will Be Blood lives up to all its hype, so feel free to drink the Kool Aide.
-Molly Redden
3. The Dark Knight
With the exception of Wall-E, The Dark Knight is the only movie of 2008 that was as critically successful as it was financially lucrative. The reasons for this achievement are myriad: the nuances of Chris and Jon Nolan’s screenplay, the eye-candy of Wally Pfister’s visuals, the ease in forgetting that Heath Ledger is an actor and not a feral anarchist, and so on. Frankly put, The Dark Knight is what other hero-epics like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings aspire to be but are not-a movie as entertaining as it is substantive, as unreal as it is affecting.
-Dan Cook
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Set in communist Romania, 4 Months follows the journey of one college student, aided by her roommate, to obtain an illegal, “back-ally” abortion. Far from a date movie, this haunting, evocative film from the brilliant Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is what great art should be-both provocative and insightful. Heavy though never ponderous, the subject matter is handled with restraint, much like the film’s color palette, wherein occasional bursts of color punctuate the oppressive, industrial surroundings. 4 Months rightly won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for its suspenseful portrait of raw emotion, of real life and the choices and circumstances that constrain us.
-Jeff Reger
5. Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express was the feel-good hit of the summer. It’s rife with romance, drama, struggle, and, best of all, tons of illicit drug use that keeps the laughs rolling in. James Franco and Seth Rogen, whilst running for their lives from murderous drug dealers, manage to keep the audience mired in belly-aching laughs and uncontrollably streaming tears for almost two hours. Everything about this movie is consistently great, from the dialogue, casting, and even the technological choices. Both the cinematography and the soundtrack are superb, lending Pineapple Express an aura of “cool” that never gets redundant or repetitive.
-James McGrory
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
It’s easy to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall as another step in the “raunchy rom-com” genre that Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year Old Virgin so comfortably inhabit, and with Apatow behind the scenes, maybe this designation is appropriate. But the tag seems a little off base. This is really a straight-up romantic comedy, the first in years to transcend tepid genre standards and provide genuinely funny and touching content. Writer/actor Jason Segel’s humor draws on real-life quirks that rely on neither unattainable perfection (see: most romantic comedies) nor over-exaggerated “regular joe”-ness (see: Knocked Up), instead finding a medium that hits close to home-and hilariously so.
-Matthew Collins
7. Iron Man
Director John Favreau’s Iron Man is much better than it should be. A potentially ridiculous concept-a billionaire weapons contractor fights terrorism and the military-industrial complex with a powered suit of armor-is turned into a winning action film thanks to a round of strong performances from its cast. Robert Downey Jr. is pitch-perfect as the arrogant industrialist-turned-superhero Tony Stark, and Jeff Bridges is at his malevolent best as a rival businessman with his own gadget-y weapons. Avoiding the bloated excess that has sunk much of the superhero genre, Iron Man is one of the finest superhero films in years.
-John Cooke
8. Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading marks the Coen Brothers’ first venture into the spy genre, one replete with duo’s trademark dry humor. It all begins when two dim-witted gym employees discover a disc they believe contains sensitive intelligence information. However, the flimsy piece of software contains nothing more than the ramblings of a recently fired (and disgruntled) low-level analyst for the CIA (played by John Malkovitch). Absurdity ensues as the two gym hoppers concoct ridiculous schemes in hopes of selling the bogus information. Brilliantly written, well-cast, and outrageously funny, Burn After Reading is undoubtedly one of the smartest comedies of 2008.
-Katie Boran
9. Sweeney Todd
Besides a love for the color black and ridiculous hair, Stephen Sondheim, Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp all share an affinity for the darker side of art, a penchant for evil lurking in fairy tales, and an appreciation for levity’s value in horror movies. Sweeney Todd pits the three maestros for a darker-than-dark musical comedy about an infamously homicidal barber and the dangers of revenge. Each chilling detail is carefully constructed for maximum sinister impact, making the film’s fleeting moments of enjoyment and beauty all the more striking. The world may be a pile of shit, but when pie is involved it can’t be that bad.
-Shira Hecht
10. The Visitor
It’s difficult to explain what makes The Visitor so great without divulging the small surprises and larger revelations that render it both heart-wrenching and joyful. The film intrigues in even the smallest, most intimate details. Take the title: Who is the visitor? Is it the lonely college professor who belongs neither in his university nor in his empty home? Is it the squatter he discovers in his long-vacant New York City apartment? The Oscar crowd, with its sights perennially set on the films with hallowed December release dates, paid The Visitor scant attention upon its arrival this summer. Don’t make the same mistake.
-Jeff Reger
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