Batted my eyelashes and one year slipped away into the next. All that was left of the yesteryear was smudged eyeliner on my cheek and this charcoaled best of 2008:
Jetset’s TOP 3 ALBUMS
1. – Ra Ra Riot “The Rhumb Line” “Too Too Fast” by Ra Ra Riot
2. – Fire on Fire “The Orchard” “Hartford Blues” by Fire on Fire
3. – Bell “Bell EP” “Echinacea” by Bell
While we love wordpress in so many ways, it is a little limited. We wish we could paste our imeem player in this post for you to hear, but we’ll have to settle for a lil link instead. So jetset yourself here to listen to our mix of the year’s best cuts: 2008: The Year in Songs **HINT** If you wave your mouse cursor over the linked songs in the above list like a magic wand, a pop-up player will appear for your listening pleasure!!
TOP FOUR AND SO ON…
(cannot be numbered for reasons unmentioned)…
- Thao with the Get Down Stay Down “We Brave Bee Stings and All”
- Fleet Foxes “Fleet Foxes”
- Ida Maria “Fortress ‘Round my Heart”
- Laura Marling “Alas, I Cannot Swim”
- Girl Talk “Feed the Animals
- Ponytail “Ice Cream Spiritual”
- Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend”
- Jolie Holland “The Living and the Dead”
Where are the diamonds of yesteryear? Where is this year’s “Rise Above”? There just isn’t.
Still looking for that shining masterpiece for the year… there are plenty of solid choices,
but nothing that stands up by itself outright and promises to be timelessly classic and shattering!
OTHER BESTS
Best concert of ‘08 is a two-way Balto-tie:
–White Williams, Ecstatic Sunshine, and Rings at the O-Bar
–F-yeah Tour with Death Set, Team Robespierre, Matt & Kim, and Monotonix
Best New Artist: Olga Bell!!
Classically trained pianist with sweet Russo voice and a penchant for
sparkling electronics — oh how it does befit her surname!
Best Guilty Pleasure of the Year: Those Dancing Days (I love Swedish teenie boppers, I really do!) and Ben Folds with Regina Spektor (of course, of course) — these songs truly tested our virtuous fortitude!
Too much productivity this year (Best of the Prolific): Herman Dune (minus the sexy umlaut)
– how many EPs and a full length this year? How do I even begin to sort through it all?
Best Anachronistic Anthem of OhEight: “Our Friends Appear Like the Dawn” by Bodies of Water
(how come I didn’t discover them earlier? Why am I not so pleased with their contemporary release?)
Best Contemporaneous Anthem of OhEight: “Swimming Pools” ?? (Or is it still too early to tell…?)
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OVER-RATED
Once excited about yet overrated? -Lykke Li “Youth Novels”
Even more overrated — MGMT… ugh… Can we live that down yet?!
Near hits (near miss): -Santogold? (poppy goodness, but warranting top ranking stature?) She & Him? (Cute but solid enough?)
Still not sure about: -Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit? Larkin Grimm’s “Parplar”?
Disappointed about: Josephine Foster’s new album
Nifty Gifty! Amnesia by Fire on Fire
This is just a really exciting list and playlist.
…
I am glad that the best concerts and over-rated sections from April’s myspace blog last year made an appearance here.
“Mexico city” is a favorite of mine which I knew nothing of before this list. There is much detail and energy in all of the songs, a lot of shimmer too. This decade’s music as a whole often causes a type of snowblindness from the speed at which it has expanded in what musicians play and write!
Thanks! I am absolutely amazed by your description of the effect of this decade’s music as a “type of snowblindness.” Absolutely lovely and true! Thank you for your continuing readership. “Mexico City” is indeed one of our top 10 favorite songs of last year! In the interest of furthering the exchange, what were a few of your gems of the yesteryear?