Pick of the Week:

Deerhunter: Microcastle

In a way, we’re really naming Bradford Cox Artist of the Year, because the mad genius behind Deerhunter in effect pulled off a hat trick – three great albums in one year. After all, 2008 began with his brilliant, mind-blowing Atlas Sound side project. Then came Microcastle, the follow-up to last year’s breakthrough Cryptograms. And what di...read more

• 

  Abe Vigoda: Skeleton

  This was a great year for psych, and this knockout LP from Abe Vigoda was one of the genre’s finest offerings. The 14 songs on Skeleton stop and start at a moment’s notice, d...read more

• 

  Beach House: Devotion

  We knew Baltimore’s Beach House was going places after their excellent debut from two years ago, but nothing prepared us for this. Expanding on the skeletal feel of their first...read more

• 

  BELL: EP

  It’s a sure thing, peeps: Olga Bell is a star in the making. This delightful collection of six songs hover somewhere between the breathing bombast of St. Vincent and the laptop...read more

• 

  Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

  Every so often a ray of light emerges, rising above the strummy-strum of the indie-folk ghettos and crystallizing everything pure about simple American roots music with an approach t...read more

• 

  Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Lie Down In the Light

  The near-annual release of a superb Will Oldham record never gets boring. Like 2006’s The Letting Go, Oldham¹s most recent effort as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is a slo...read more

• 

  Born Ruffians: Red, Yellow & Blue

  Few records this year have delighted me more than this one. It’s not only a great album, but Born Ruffians gave us one of 2008’s best in-stores: warm, intimate and fun. T...read more

• 

  The Breeders: Mountain Battles

  It’s been far too long since the Breeders gave us a new album, but Mountain Battles sure was worth the wait. Far from the ultra-catchy and inspired pop of The Last Splash, Moun...read more

• 

  Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

  How many bands can still deliver on their 14th album (and a studio album at that, not even including live albums or collections)? Not many. Nick Cave continues his icon status with B...read more

• 

  Crystal Castles: s/t

  Call this the year of the Crystal band: Antlers, Castles, Stilts. The fact that Crystal Castles share their name with an 1983 Atari arcade game and play keyboards using vintage video...read more

• 

  Crystal Stilts: Alight of Night

  If albums were people, I’d be in much deeper trouble with my wannabe-shrink of a sister than I am already. With its barely intelligible lyrics and overall ghoulish pop drone, Cryst...read more

• 

  Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours

  Few records brought more joy to us this year than this spectacular new record from Australia’s Cut Copy. The deliriously fun and hooky In Ghost Colours is an electronic record ...read more

• 

  Death Vessel: Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us

  There’s nothing groundbreaking about Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us, the latest from Joel Thibodeau’s Death Vessel – it’s just a beautiful and strange coll...read more

• 

  Department of Eagles: In Ear Park

  Who knew? Once considered nothing more than a Grizzly Bear side project, Department of Eagles prove they are a great band in their own right with the wondrous In Ear Park. Led by Dan...read more

• 

  The Dodos: Visiter

  The Dodos have put together such a unique combination of genres and sounds here that it’s pretty much impossible to dismiss them, with or without all of the hype. With a propul...read more

• 

  Fennesz: Black Sea

  The king of ambient electronica retains his title with another enchanting, engrossing album. Proving that ambient is about more than chillout, he builds magnificent yet delicate soni...read more

• 

  Fleet Foxes: s/t

  There’s something inherently compelling about a chorus of voices joined in song. Seattle’s Fleet Foxes join that sensibility — virtually everyone in the band lends a sizable vo...read more

• 

  Flying Lotus: Los Angeles

  The masterful indie electronica of 2007’s EP Reset would have been a tough act to follow for anyone but Steven Ellison, a.k.a. Flying Lotus, a Los Angeles-based DJ, producer an...read more

• 

  Frightened Rabbit: The Midnight Organ Fight

  I was ready to declare Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight one of the freshest and most exciting debuts I’ve heard this year, until I discovered that this is act...read more

• 

  Gang Gang Dance: Saint Dymphna

  Finally, Gang Gang Dance gives us the album that unites lovers of electro, rock, hip-hop and prog – no easy thing. Brooklyn’s Gang Gang Dance has always been an enigma, a...read more

• 

  Gas: Nah Und Fern

  We try to avoid sticking compilations on this list, but every now and then something so special comes along, we would be derelict in not citing it. Gas’s Nah Und Fern is essent...read more

• 

  Girl Talk: Feed the Animals

  Hands down, the party album of 2008. The greatest mashup album ever assembled – and “assemble” is the only right word to describe this kind of music. Who else but G...read more

• 

  Hercules and Love Affair: s/t

  We all did a double-take of sorts when we heard that Antony (of Johnsons fame, of course) was making a dance album, but damn if he hasn’t pulled it off. Here Mr. Hegarty assume...read more

• 

  High Places: s/t

  What a year this has been for Brooklyn’s High Places. They put out two full-lengths, a ton of popular 7-inches, and emerge as one of THE band’s to watch in 2008. We not o...read more

• 

  Lia Ices: Necima

  Best new artist of 2008? Very possible. Listening to the debut album from Lia Ices, courtesy of our local Rare Book Room Records, gave me a chilling, exciting feeling that I was not ...read more

• 

  Indian Jewelry: Free Gold!

  Too many bands, eager to home in on a profitable genre, undeservedly adopt the psychedelic label, but Indian Jewelry is the real deal. Free Gold! throbs, drones and fuzzes, but the b...read more

• 

  Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III

  No question, when it comes to hip-hop, this was Lil Wayne’s year, hands down (sorry, Kanye). The “best rapper alive,” as he modestly calls himself, put together a b...read more

• 

  Lindstrom: Where You Go I Go Too

  Electronic music may not be known for tunes of Ramones-like brevity, but even the most ardent clubhound will be left a bit breathless after the knockout 30-minute opener (no, that...read more

• 

  M83: Saturdays=Youth

  This one was a finalist for Album of the Year. M83’s move towards more vocals increases considerably and successfully thanks to new vocalist/keyboardist Morgan Kibby, not only ...read more

• 

  The Magnetic Fields: Distortion

  With a first track that thunders in like a surf rock/Jesus and Mary Chain mashup, it’s clear from the start that Distortion represents a new aesthetic wrinkle for Stephin Merrittâ€...read more

• 

  Marnie Stern: This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That

  Stern’s debut album was very guitar-focused and kinda mathy, a daring punk-metal-prog hybrid. This time out, still working with Hella drummer Zach Hill (plus alternating bassis...read more

• 

  MGMT: Oracular Spectacular

  So how did this become one of our most beloved records of 2008? It doesn’t hurt that the opening notes of “Time to Pretend” recall American Analog Set’s ̶...read more

• 

  Neon Neon: Stainless Style

  Super Furry Animal’s singer Gruff Rhys and hip-hop producer Boom Bip gave us one of the year’s great party records, a deliciously nostalgic 1980s rock opera/concept album...read more

• 

  No Age: Nouns

  The thing that makes No Age’s music so exciting is there’s really no precedent for it. Sure, from a distance they look like a two-piece punk band, playing fast music to h...read more

• 

  Osborne: s/t

  It’s a shame. If the year were 1978, then Todd Osborn’s first album, Osborne (why he adds the “e” to his musical persona I cannot say), would probably be a wo...read more

• 

  Ponytail: Ice Cream Spiritual

  By expertly mixing elements of old-school punk, surf music and untamed experimental indie rock, the whippersnappers of Baltimore quartet Ponytail have managed to create something qui...read more

• 

  Portishead: Third

  No one but Portishead could pull something like this off. Think about it; one of the three or four definitive trip-hop groups in the 90’s puts out two albums that not only set ...read more

• 

  Santogold: s/t

  How can you not love Santogold? Seriously, we know how subjective music can be, but here’s an album that not only bends genres unlike just about any other we can think of, but ...read more

• 

  Sic Alps: U.S. EZ

  It’s tempting to lump Sic Alps with the other garage bands du jour (Jay Reatard, Times New Viking, King Khan, etc.), but beware facile comparisons: the San Francisco duo of Mat...read more

• 

  J. Spaceman/Sun City Girls: Mister Lonely Soundtrack

  One of the year’s most magical records. Harmony Korine has always relied heavily on music for sculpting the feel and identity of his movies. It’s hard to imagine the imag...read more

• 

  Spiritualized: Songs in A&E

  It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Jason Pierce’s storied Spiritualized, but he had a good excuse: a near-fatal encounter with pneumonia in 2005, which not on...read more

• 

  Tobacco: Fucked Up Friends

  Damn, this guy’s good. Tom Fec of the fabulous Black Moth Super Rainbow (a.k.a., Tobacco) releases his first solo album, and it’s a gas from start to finish. The music ce...read more

• 

  TV on the Radio: Dear Science

  TV on the Radio continue to top themselves, and they manage to do it by breaking ground every time. After the gritty, distorted, fuzzy sounds of Return to Cookie Mountain, the band d...read more

• 

  Twi the Humble Feather: Music for Spaceships and Forests

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, they sound a little bit like Animal Collective. But remember when Animal Collective came around? We were told they sounded like the Incredible String Band and Milto...read more

• 

  Valet: Naked Acid

  In a year of many fine psych albums, this one was near the top. Valet is the solo vehicle of Honey Owens, sometimes member of Jackie O Motherfucker, Atlas Sound and Nudge, and Naked ...read more

• 

  Vampire Weekend: s/t

  A band as hyped-up and blogged-out as Vampire Weekend has a lot to live up to when it comes to actually making a record. This self-titled debut sweeps the hype machine into the corne...read more

• 

  v/a: Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump

  This was the year of African compilations. So many great ones came out (three on Soundway alone), we could devote a whole page to them. This one was perhaps the year’s best. St...read more

• 

  Vivian Girls: s/t

  The buzz was swirling about Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls months before their record hit our shelves, from the talk about their amazing live shows to the array of 7-inches that sell ...read more

• 

  The Walkmen: You & Me

  Hard to believe that not too long ago, some people were writing off the Walkmen. After some recent misfires, many wondered if the Walkmen could recapture the brilliance of 2004’...read more

• 

  Women: s/t

  No joke: This got strong consideration for Album of the Year. To be sure, it’s the best debut of 2008. I know little about this band – four dudes from Canada, they record...read more