The last half of 2008 was spent knee deep in work and school. As a result, The Mixtape felt the full effect of my neglect. Even though it didn't make it into the blogosphere each week, I did track my personal musical habits with the tried-and-true ink and paper method that I started some 25-ish years ago. Old habits are hard to break. So as 2009 begins officially in a couple weeks with the new Animal Collective record, here are the Mixtape's favorite songs of last year.
1. Fine Young Cannibals / Wolf Parade
This track from the band's second album, "At Mount Zoomer," owned my iPod for the better part of the summer and fall, spending a year-best 12 weeks on top of the Mixtape. Critics generally gave a warm reception to the album upon its release while almost universally snubbing it on the year-end "best of" lists, a stark retreat from the collective critical gushings for the band's first album, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" in 2005. Keyboards and guitar slip in and out of each other, creating a sinewy background for singer/guitarist Dan Boeckner to plead for a romantic requiting upon.
2. Hurricane Jane / Black Kids
Loved by critics at the end of 2007 for their debut EP, “Wizard of Ahhs,” the band’s first full-length, “Partie Traumatic,” came out in 2008 to a reception of critical jeers. The biggest fault with the record, many claimed, was that it sounded too syrupy - imagine an amalgam of New Wave’s cheesiest moments as performed by a Robert Smith sound-alike. I fell in love with the EP version of this song and concur that much of “Traumatic’s” material felt over-produced in contrast to the rawer versions found on the EP. That being said, the album was still full of bouncy synth-driven pop songs that reveled in their catchiness and smarmy lyricism. A pleasure of the most non-guilty variety.
3. You on the Run / The Black Angels
A little band from Austin, TX that at once embodies the spirit and sound of late sixties bands like The Velvet Underground and The Doors, The Black Angels are unlike anything else out there right now. This song didn’t get to number one, but spent 30 weeks on the Mixtape with 11 of them at #2.
4. Nothing Ever Happened / Deerhunter
This was the #1 song as 2008 ended and looks to continue its reign well into this year. The song masquerades for the first 2:25 as an indie-rock single before blasting off into a spaced out, fuzzy jam for the final 3:25. It is as blissful it its noisiness as other Deerhunter and Atlas Sound (Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox’s other band) songs are in their quiet dreaminess.
5. Apartment Story / The National
This was on the band’s 2007 “Boxer,” but managed to spend five weeks on top of the ‘tape in the winter of 2008. Twenty-seven weeks on the chart in 2008 and 34 weeks total dating back to 2007, Apartment Story is a perfect example of The National’s aesthetic.
6. Evil Urges / My Morning Jacket
Jim James and crew continued to build on their legacy as the most successful jam band out there in 2008. The title track from their fifth album showcased James’ falsetto while proving Jacket hadn’t lost any of their desire to kick out the…well, jams.
7. My Drive Thru / NERD, Santogold, and Julian Casablancas
This musical ad campaign for Converse ended up being my “summer song” of the year. Not only did NERD sound better on this than any song on their most recent album, Santogold – who delivered a killer debut in her own right - and the Strokes’ lead singer were in top form as well. And to tell the truth, hearing Julian’s voice again made this song all that much better.
8. Time to Pretend / MGMT
The duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden produced a single that, like the Black Kids’ “Hurricane Jane,” was more appealing in its less-polished EP version than it was on the band’s second full-length album, Oracular Spectacular. Lyrically, the song plays on the textbook rock star creed of “live fast, die young, and get a model wife along the way” while sonically straddling synth pop and psychedelia. It’s catchy as hell and spent a ridiculous 33 weeks on the Mixtape in ’08.
9. The ’59 Sound / The Gaslight Anthem
New Jersey begat Springsteen. Springsteen begat Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi…well, let’s not go there. The Gaslight Anthem, like their Jersey brethren, makes music infused with and informed by the Jersey streets they rose from. Punk in spirit and pop in delivery, the title track of the group’s second album sounds as timeless as its subject matter. Emotional and anthemic, the chorus invites the toe-tapping sing-along, belying the story of untimely death unfolding around it.
10. Call it a Ritual / Wolf Parade
Three songs in the top 100; two in the top ten. That’s the kind of presence Wolf Parade had for me last year. This was the first new Wolf Parade since their 2005 debut, “Apologies to the Queen Mary” and it was long overdue. The song only reached #2, but spent nearly three months in the top five and five months on the chart.
11. L.E.S. Artistes / Santogold
She came, she saw, she kicked out a genre-busting, self-titled debut that included this verbal throwdown to the hipsters in New York’s Lower East Side. New wave and new school, Santi White proved she was a force in her own right after spending years in bands and writing songs for GZA, Lily Allen, and gasp…Ashlee Simpson.
12. The Modern Leper / Frightened Rabbit
It’s been proven through the years that some of the best albums result from a shattered heart. Frightened Rabbit’s break-up opus, “Midnight Organ Fight,” is no exception. The album’s first song, “Leper” sets the tone for lead singer Scott Hutchison’s 14-song cycle of wry lyricism and soul searching that ended up being the best album spawned from a failed relationship since Lenny Kravitz poured his soul into “Mama Said” – his 1991 sophomore release prompted by his breakup with Lisa Bonet. Lenny never regained the magic he had on that album. Here’s hoping Frightened Rabbit don’t suffer a similar fate.
13. Paper Planes / MIA
Ubiquity often breeds backlash. Not the case for MIA’s larger-than-life single from her 2007 album, “Kala.” “Paper Planes” was too good of a single to suffer a death via obscurity that most indie-esque artists’ best works are fated from a lack of major-label promotion. Mainstream pop radio picked up on MIA’s single after it was featured in the trailer for the Seth Rogen film, “Pineapple Express,” and the rest of the world finally got to hear Sri Lanka’s best musical export.
14. Love Dog / TV on the Radio
This is the highest charting of five TV songs on the list. Which means exactly two things. TV on the Radio is still brilliant and their album, “Dear Science” is the best album of the year. Guitarist and band co-founder Dave Sitek gets my vote for producer of the year, despite producing Scarlett Johansson’s universally-panned album of Tom Waits covers.
15. I Will Possess Your Heart / Death Cab For Cutie
16. The Heart Gently Weeps / Wu Tang Clan
WTF??? The Wu Tang entered the classic rock chamber with this “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” remake of sorts featuring George Harrison’s son, Dhani, Erykah Badu, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante, on rhythm and lead guitar respectively. It was such a merging of the Wu aesthetic with the spirit of the Beatles’ song that, instead of a train wreck, it was an admirable interpolation of an untouchable classic rock track.
17. Golden Age / TV on the Radio
18. Salute Your Solution / The Raconteurs
19. Oxford Comma / Vampire Weekend
20. Turn On Me / The Shins
21. Grounds for Divorce / Elbow
Guy Garvey and the rest of the boys from Manchester snagged the Mercury Prize and a bunch of new fans with their 2008 release, “The Seldom Seen Kid.” This song was the album’s first single and best choice for a sing-along after a few pints of strong English beer.
22. Unless it’s Kicks / Okkervil River
23. Heretic Pride / The Mountain Goats
24. Squalor Victoria / The National
25. On and On and On / Wilco
26. Sex On Fire / Kings of Leon
Band of brothers aim for the fences and shoot even higher. Album sounds like a premeditated (though according to the band it was more premedicated) attempt to become the next U2 instead of the “Southern Strokes.” This single was the album’s highest point and a bright spot in a disappointing effort.
27. White Winter Hymnal / Fleet Foxes
“Camp Rock.” That’s my personal genre nomenclature for Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Blitzen Trapper, etc... It refers to music that sounds tailor-made for campfires. Or growing out beards. Pretty much every cool indie-kid and rock critic’s best album and band and beard of 2008 had the Fleet Foxes attached to it. The first single from the Foxes' self-titled album was this song which evokes what the Beach Boys might have sounded like if they had spent more time in the mountains and less in the surf.
28. Last Believer, Drop Dead / Secret Machines
Much-loved band loses key member. Much-loved band recruits replacement. Cyncial fan (me) assumes band will never recover. Cynical fan eats crow. Much-loved band gets hug (and number 28 song of the year) from once cynical fan.
29. Lost Coastlines / Okkervil River
30. Shake a Fist / Hot Chip
Forget shaking a fist, this - and many other songs from “Made in the Dark” – made me shake that ass.
31. Eraser / No Age
Sonic Youth and Superchunk had a kid and named it No Age.
32. DLZ / TV on the Radio
33. Pot Kettle Black / Tilly and the Wall
34. Teen Creeps / No Age
35. Id Engager / of Montreal
On the band’s latest album, “Skeletal Lampings,” Kevin Barnes eschews cohesiveness for an exhauting pastiche of psychedelic funk and hyper-literate, hook-laden neuroticism…except for this, the album’s first single and best shot at reaching the masses.
36. Doves / The Black Angels
37. Torn Blue Foam Couch / Grand Archives
38. Ready For the Floor / Hot Chip
39. Lover’s Day / TV on the Radio
40. Dancing Choose / TV on the Radio
41. Someone Great / LCD Soundsystem
Yeah, it’s from 2007, but like some of the other songs on here, it seeped over from the end of ‘07 into the winter of ‘08. The rules can be blurred a bit and this song is good enough to warrant such fudging.
42. Furr / Blitzen Trapper
I live in Portland. They live in Portland. Life is good. More “camp rock” executed flawlessly.
43. Something is Not Right With Me / Cold War Kids
44. Mother Mary / Foxboro Hot Tubs
45. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You / Black Kids
46. Love Me Already / Black Kids
47. Trashcan / The Delta Spirit
48. Impossible Germany / Wilco
49. Love Lockdown / Kanye West
This generation’s self-proclaimed Elvis dropped an icy album, “808s and Heartbreak,” to chronicle both the loss of his mother and the end of a relationship. Auto-Tune may or may not reveal itself as a fading fad this year, and I hate the damn thing, but its presence on Kanye’s work is appreciated…the dude can’t sing and he knows it. Oh yeah, the drums on this are sick. You’re not Mr. Presley quite yet Mr. West, but you have more stones than most in the game.
50. California Girls / Magnetic Fields
51. No Social / The Shortwave Set
52. Discipline / Nine Inch Nails
53. Those Dancing Days / Those Dancing Days
54. No One’s Gonna Love You / Band of Horses
55. Sequestered In Memphis / The Hold Steady
56. Violet Hill / Coldplay
57. Each Year / Ra Ra Riot
58. I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You? / Dear and the Headlights
59. Sheffield / All The Saints
60. Crawl / Kings of Leon
61. Chemtrails / Beck
Sounding like something Pink Floyd recorded 40 years ago, Beck continued to prove himself as unpredictable as ever on the first single from “Modern Guilt.”
62. Blind / Hercules and Love Affair
Disco came back from the grave and Antony Hegarty was the perfect diva to give this track its soul.
63. The Old Days / Dr. Dog
64. Get Busy / The Roots
65. I Woke Up Today / Port O’Brien
66. Pork and Beans / Weezer
Toto, it’s not 1994 anymore.
67. The Ark / Dr. Dog
68. Leaving / Dirty on Purpose
69. Handlebars / Flobots
70. In The Hospital / Friendly Fires
71. Sugarbaby / Morningwood
72. The Rat / Dead Confederate
73. GfC / Albert Hammond Jr.
74. Sleeping Lessons / The Shins
75. Little Motel / Modest Mouse
76. Drivin’ Down the Block / Kidz in the Hall
77. Run Away / Super Furry Animals
78. You In Color / The Black Angels
79. The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance / Vampire Weekend
80. Recent Bedroom / Atlas Sound
A narcotically hazy, droningly woozy, beautiful blast.
81. Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo) / Black Kids
82. Old Yellow Bricks /Arctic Monkeys
83. Language City / Wolf Parade
84. Everyone Nose / NERD
85. M4 pt. 2 / Faunts
86. Glitter and Gold / Cheap Time
File under: truly sparkling garage rock.
87. Skeleton Man / Evangelicals
The best band to go unnoticed this year. If only they could open a few shows for the Jonas Brothers...
88. Lay Me Back Down / Portugal, the Man
89. Heartless / Kanye West
90. A-Punk / Vampire Weekend
91. Breaking It Up / Lykke Li
92. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? / She and Him
93. We’re Looking For a Lot of Love / Hot Chip
94. 2080 / Yeasayer
95. Morning Exercise / The Heavenly States
96. Feedback In the Field / Plants and Animals
97. Bag of Hammers / Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
98. Plastis Wafers / of Montreal
99. Chinese Democracy / Guns N Roses
Seventeen years? Really? Makes me want to “be a Pepper.”
100. Crown of Age / The Ettes
If you've made it this far, here are The Mixtape's top 20 albums of 2008.
- Dear Science / TV on the Radio
- At Mount Zoomer / Wolf Parade
- Oracular Spectacular / MGMT
- The Midnight Organ Fight / Frightened Rabbit
- Feed The Animals / Girl Talk
- Microcastle / Deerhunter
- Made In The Dark / Hot Chip
- Nouns / No Age
- Hercules and Love Affair / Hercules and Love Affair
- Furr / Blitzen Trapper
- Fate / Dr. Dog
- Secret Machines / Secret Machines
- Vampire Weekend / Vampire Weekend
- The Seldom Seen Kid / Elbow
- Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes
- Stop, Drop, and Roll / Foxboro Hottubs
- Santogold / Santogold
- Partie Traumatic / Black Kids
- Skeletal Lamping / of Montreal
- The Tipping Point / The Roots
