One person has asked for it, so now you all get it: MY FAVORITE NEW MUSIC OF 2008.  Isn't this what blogging is all about?  One blowhard pontificating ...


BEST CDs
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1 DeVotchKa (A Mad and Faithful Telling)
This kicks ass - I play it in any environment: at tailgate parties, over brunch with Mom, while I'm working, roadtrips, washing the dishes.  Here's an analogy: If Eastern European gypsy type music were trailing in the 9th inning, Gogol Bordello are the 2-out walk that keeps the inning alive, A Mad And Faithful Telling is the 2-run home run that wins the game.  

2 The Bigfellas (Chubbed Up)
First of all, if your own record isn't one of your favorite albums, then you've done something wrong.  I now just listen to our record without thinking of us producing it all over again, just listening.  It's damn good and right up my wheelhouse.  Let everybody else sing about love ... we'll sing about everything else.

3 Islands (Arm's Way)
Since when did Quebec become such a hotbed of cool?  "The Arm" is like a pop rock punch in the face and the rest of the CD seems like the album that people wanted from The Killers.  If you're a downloader, try "Abominable Snow".  

4 Was Not Was (Boo!)
Just as The Bigfellas are a stylistic mess, I've yet to read a blurb or phrases that properly described Was (Not Was).  This CD just makes me pissed that they haven't found a way to be recording over the last 15 years.  Something for everybody but nobody else could have made "Semi-Interesting Week" and "Green Pills In The Dresser".  Nice beat and you can think to it.

5 Duffy (Rockferry)
I love her - she took a lot of the quirk (and DSM-classifications) out of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen pop style.  "Mercy" is one of the best songs of 2008, despite being overplayed.  She's good enough to be one of those singers who you say "why aren't they more popular", but she hit #1 anyway.  I love "Warwick Avenue" a lot.

6 The Killers (Day & Age)
People need to get over Hot Fuss.  Yeah, it was great, but if you loved it yet can't see that Sam's Town was great, then you're musically retarded.  They make bombastic music fun, they just sound huge.  For now "Joy Ride" and "Losing Touch" are my favorites.  But their records are always on time-release for me: about a year from now, other tracks will surely start taking over.

7 Peter Gabriel & Co (Big Blue Ball)
This thing has been kicking around for a while, recorded during Gabriel's "Music Week" get togethers at his studio over the years.  There's no way I wasn't going to love world musicians, Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger working together to make a record.

8 Portishead (Third)
Trip-hop, baroque, electronica, art-rock all at the same time.  It isn't for every occasion, isn't for radio and isn't for 5-second iTunes samples.  But it does make me wish I had more stuff in my medicine chest.

9 KD Lang (Watershed)
I refuse to put a name in lower-case, but besides that, she's the best.  Most singers this good make it all about the vocals, but the songs themselves are awesome.  If you like music, this is for you.  "Coming Home" is great.  KD Lang is the closest thing to a sure thing in music.

10 Randy Newman (Harps & Angels)
When I was 15, I wanted to be Randy Newman.  I was jealous of his Epstein-Barr Syndrome, which matches my work ethic perfectly.  All I can say is this is the same old Randy Newman.  Same old tired, warmed-over stuff like "Potholes" and "Easy Street" that sounds just like 15 other ones (makes the Family Guy parody of him seem that much more accurate).  But still the same old Randy Newman with great odd string arrangements & killer lyrics like "A Few Words ..." and "A Piece Of The Pie"?

11 Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes)
Folky & trippy, think Surfjan Stevens meets The Moody Blues meeting the 1880s.  It's got a really reverby sound, in a good way, like it costed just $500 to record it at a dude's house, which works.  Sure, there's gonna be a backlashing where saying they're your favorite band at a cocktail party would (rightfully) be literally ridiculous, but in the privacy of your own home when you're not dancing or entertaining, it's mood appropriate.

12 Lucinda Williams (Little Honey)
Even more than KD Lang, Lucinda Williams is the surest thing in music.  She's got a distinctive style (like Tom Petty) that never degenerates into complete formula.  This CD isn't quite as reflective as 2007's West, which I loved.  More uptempo goodies like "Real Love" and toe appers like "Well Well Well".  If you've ever liked her, then get this.

13 Brian Wilson (That Lucky Old Sun)
Now that he finished sMiLe, Brian Wilson can start making music really using modern technology.  It's really hard to argue against considering him a genius.  Sure, sometimes a genius can go off the rails for a second, like an occasional childish lyric or the narratives on luCkY olD SuN (and I keep thinking that "Believe In Yourself" is a modern update of Robert Evans 1980 court-ordered public service announcement song).  But when the drums get going here with off-the-wall harmonies, half of me is smiling and other half wants to throw a shoe at Mike Love for robbing the world of stuff like this for 30 years.  More on that anti-Love score from The Bigfellas in the "Senor Amor" song, coming soon.  

14 David Byrne and Brian Eno: (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)
Maybe I'm shallow, but I had been scarred by too many Byrne-Eno collaborations on ambient music albums, so I was leery of this.  I shouldn't have been.  It's all accessible, "Strange Overtones" and "Home" are downright exciting, the rest is good.  It ain't Remain In Light but then again, what is?

15 Guns N' Roses (Chinese Democracy)
This is a funny one; it took about 15 years, went through about 15 different members of Guns N' Roses, dozens of versions of tracks released on the interwebs.  All the while Axl Rose kept chugging away on these songs, as major music trends were coming and going.  This almost sounds like a historical sampler of rock as it existed from 1994 to 2008.  "Catcher In The Rye" and "If The World" lets me pretend what a world with Guns N' Roses would have been like in 1995 and 2000, respectively.  But I still think these guys are complete knuckleheads.

16 TV On The Radio (Dear Science,)
This CD is so almost exciting that I almost consider myself almost a big fan of this almost great band.  I almost like the faux dance and almost funk.  Almost.

17 The Hold Steady (Stay Positive)
Critics are falling over themselves likening Craig Finn to Springsteen.  Hold on, Hold Steady.  It's good, but it is all starting to sound the same.  It's still good rock that I would like as much on a lyrics sheet.  Personally, they peaked for me a little while ago; they're like Cake who are basically putting the same record out for a long while under their brand, which is generally good.  Good.

18 Gnarls Barkley (The Odd Couple)
There's no "Crazy" here, so most people don't care.  I do.  "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" is a great song.  There's lots of goofy funk that's not totally jokey.  Prediction: Within five years Gnarls Barkley makes a great album and Outkast is nothing but a Jeopardy! answer (or question).

19 Joan Osborne (Little Wild One)
Her career has been detonated by goofball record company legal actions and way too many covers albums, but I love her voice and want her writing more originals which is what worked on Relish.  It's early, I've had this less than a week, but for starters I enjoy "Can't Say No".  

20 Alejandro Escovedo (Real Animal)
If you haven't heard The Hold Steady, don't bother.  Otherwise, bombs away, you'll like it.  This and the Mudcrutch album are   the musical equivalent of chicken fried steak.





BEST SINGLES
(not on albums listed above)
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* M.I.A. "Paper Planes" - Or was this technically 2007?  It was a single this year, so who cares - pure excitement, and it makes "Straight To Hell" retroactively even better for me.
* Vampire Weekend "M79" - Despite what critics think, I don't believe that everything this new indie band does is dipped in gold.  But this song is.
* Alanis Morisette "In Praise Of The Vulunerable Man" - Where did this pop masterpiece come from, in the middle of a preachy & boring album?  Get this song.
* Lenka "The Show" - I loves my catchy, pop glockenspiel and I loves tapping my toes to a 2/4 beat. 
* Stephen Colbert & John Legend "Nutmeg" - You ever start out listening to a song that's a joke, then you end up genuinely loving?  Leave it to Colbert to inspire and co-write John Legend's best song.
* Katy Perry "I Kissed A Girl" - A dance juggernaut for a reason.  Not because of the tee-hee Lesbianism, but because it sounds like a freight train ringing my doorbell
* Delta Spirit "Trashcan" - A cross between what's great about Hot Hot Heat and TV On The Radio, excitement galore.
* Lykke Li "I'm Good I'm Gone" - Arty catchy electro quirk from a hot Swedish chick.  What's not to like.
* Britney Spears "Womanizer" - Another pop juggernaut.  It's like they got the Army Corps of Engineers to create a dance hit.
* Blitzen Furr "Trapper" - Super simple and pretty folk, if Fleet Foxes were a little more like this song, they'd be perfect
* Lindsey Buckingham "Did You Miss Me" - He really has never stopped writing insanely catchy songs, even though Fleetwood Mac is your parents band.
* Sarah McLachlan "U Want Me 2" - Once was arguably on top of music world, now under the radar.  I like this song as much as ever.  BTW, her Lilith Fair career obscures the fact that she's a tremendously hot looking woman.
* Santogold "L.E.S. Artistes" - Am I crazy but does this sound like The Go-Gos in a weird way?
* Raconteurs "Old Enough" - A little of Jack White goes a long way for me, but this is certainly good enough to listen to several times.
* Ingrid Michaelson "Be OK" - It's not quite up to her "The Way I Am", but that's a lot to ask.  It also can get annoying the 5th time in a row you heard it, but just good enough to make you listen to it 4 times in a row.
* Hercules and Love Affair "Blind" - Could have been a Village People out-take (that's a compliment) if you replaced blue-collar gay characters with kids you'd find in a coffee shop




A LITTLE DISAPPOINTING
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Beck (Modern Guilt)
Coldplay (Viva la Vida)




DUDS
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* R.E.M. (Accelerate) - If you're a glutton for pretension, read what Rolling Stone haircut David Fricke has to say about this.  I feel the exact opposite.  Completely forced "rock", as if they are ashamed of getting old, as if the distortion knob was the fountain of youth.

* Rolling Stones (Shine A Light) - Maybe I was too close to the screen for this in the theater, but watching Mick strutting around on the stage without a walker was simply embarrassing for me, and I was alone at the time.  The movie itself was a mess - Scorcese is on autopilot when it comes to music movies, couldn't decide if this was a concert music, documentary, retrospective, or what.  At times Ron Wood looked like a guitarist who would get kicked out of a bar band, Jagger going through the motions.  Buddy Guy singing "Champagne & Reefer" made me wish there was a Buddy Guy movie in the multiplex so I could walk out on the Stones.  Guys, if you're not gonna bother to care, you're rich enough ... stop!