i hate the sound of guitars

1. Parts & Labor
2. The Airfields
   This indie-pop outfit came to my attention via the Take the Pills years-best list, in which I thought their track was a stand-out. Their last.fm bio starts, “We’d like to tell you that we write our songs in an abandoned airplane hangar, just to account for all the echoing, but that would be very untrue and a little fanciful,” which was basicallly enough for me to order their disc on the spot. It turns out I like their 2007 EP Laneways a smidge more than the 2008 full-length Up All Night, because the former features a little more unruly guitar. Spiffy stuff all around, though. I’m working on my own year’s best mix, and “Never See You Smile” is a definite contender. The graphic design is really nice, too.
3. Deerhunter
   Finally got to spinning Weird Era Cont the bonus disc that accompanies Microcastle. I love the story behind this recording — the album was leaked online early, the band was frustrated, and retaliated by doubling the volume of the release.; many critics proclaimed the thrown-together second disc the stronger of the two. Me, I liked ‘em both okay, and will give both more attention, but at first blush, nothing on either disc grabs me like “Flourescent Grey” did.
4. Wire
5. Los Campesinos!
   I was just thinking, all the new bands I love are either from Scotland or Canada. Woops, forgot Wales! This Welsh outfit released two full-length albums in 2008, posing another minor year’s-best dilemma. I think the debut Hold on, Youngster is a tiny bit stronger than follow-up We are Beautiful, We are Doomed, but my actual favorite song is on the second release. A good problem to have.
6. Joel Plaskett Emergency
   I’m having fun digging into the catalog from the former frontman of Thrush Hermit. Still looking for a song that hits me like “True Patriot Love,” but I will buy records as good as Ashtray Rock as long as he keeps putting them out. I would especially commend this one to all my friends who love Tommy Womack. (Ashtray Rock is kind of a concept album, but not in a get-in-your-face-about-it way. Also the second disc of the week with packaging/art that deserves special mention.)
7. Times New Viking
8. Deerhoof
   I wish I liked Offend Maggie a little better, but, so far, I don’t. Not that it’s bad, it’s just not amazing. Needs more time to sink in, maybe. It will get it.
8. Fifty Foot Spiders
   This Copenhagen-based act mixes familiar elements — mostly post-punk and shoegaze — but the result is surprisingly cohesive and fresh.
10. Cloud Cult
    Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) is the album this year that I love despite it being pretentious. What I’m saying is, if you’re going to write songs with titles like “Story of the Grandson of Jesus” you better put ‘em on an record with a whole lot of good hooks.
10. Hello Saferide
    It’s like a wrote out a set of instructions for making an indie pop record I’d find utterly irresistable for Hello Saferide leader Annika Norlin, and she followed them to the letter. More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide is a very late (to my ears) but strong contender for a slot on the 2008 year’s best list.
10. Love is All
    On one hand Love is All seem like one of the most slavish and narrowly-focused imitators of early post-punk — their evocation of X-Ray Specs is specific enough to feature demented saxophone bleats. Josephine Olausson’s twitchy delivery is also reminiscent of Sue Tompkins’s singing in the more recent Life Without Buildings. Several of Love is All’s members were in indie-pop/twee Girlfrendo, a very color-within-the-lines sort of outfit. The radical shift in sound provides circumstantial evidence for cynical band-wagon jumping. But on the other hand, they’re doing it so well. And many of the lyrics on A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night are pretty great.
10. P.K. 14
    Here’s a thing I’m a sucker for: a previously noisy punk band suddenly expands its range of textures, tempos, and/or dynamics. This describes several of my very favorite records of the last decade or so, like Fugazi’s The Argument, Unwound’s Leaves Turn Inside You and Blonde Redhead’s Melody of Certain Damged Lemons. P.K. 14’s City Weather Sailing doesn’t exactly fit the pattern — for one thing, they weren’t all that noisy to start with. But I still like it a lot. (I originally learned about P.K.14 from the very fine Look Directly into the Sun: China Pop 2007 compilation, which inspired me to check out full albums from several of other the featured artists, notably China Dub Soundsystem, Queen Sea Big Shark, and Hang on the Box.)
10. These New Puritans
    What if The Fall had formed in 2006 instead of 1976? Instead of emerging in the context of punk’s first wave, they would arise in the thick of post-punk/new wave revivalism. They’d still be cantankerous and spiky, the lyrics would be still weird with some chant-like repetition and sung in not overly pretty fashion. Maybe they’d be a tiny bit funkier. In other words, they might sound a hell of a lot like These New Puritans.

64 artists, 432 tracks.