What a boffo mood I've been in today. Not having to study for the first time in weeks has a lot to do with it, but I also ate Chipotle, got a Christmas tree, bought a Costa Rica travel guide for the honeymoon we're taking in a few months, and spent a lot of time with Pam and the animals. It was awesome.
Anyway, it's the end of December now, so here's a taste of my favorite music of the year. Look for the big post with my top albums as soon as I get around to it. Until then, these are some of the songs released in 2008 that moved me most but happen to be on albums that didn't quite make my top 10:
MGMT- "Time to Pretend": The best single of the year, and it isn't close. Impossibly, no, freakishly catchy glam-dance with snark-fest lyrics that only improve when you imagine thousands of club rats shouting along, joking a little but really with far-off hopes that their lives will someday, somehow take them to Paris, where they can "shoot some heroin, and f%*k with the stars." An instant classic that keeps getting better. From "Oracular Spectacular."
Spiritualized- "Soul on Fire": "Songs in A&E" is frustrating at times if you're like me and you prefer the droning psychedelia and obsessively perfect production and track sequencing of early Spiritualized. As has been the case with all of Jason Pierce's post-millenium output, though, specific moments manage to keep "A&E" compelling. The record's delirious high point comes with Brit-rock throwback "Soul on Fire," an homage to true love, heroin, and even Oasis that all adds up to the purest pop song Pierce has ever released, and one of the best.
M83- "Graveyard Girl": Trying something new seldom fits so well as M83's "Saturdays=Youth," which pastes the group's familiar woozy synthscapes onto an almost perversely straight-faced 80s pop album. "Graveyard Girl" is the album at its Hughes-iest. If the mid-song monologue doesn't make you sigh, then congratulations, you skipped being a teenager.
GZA- "0 Percent Finance": Every few years, GZA drops a coldly efficient reminder that the most consistent MC of the past 15 years remains one of hip-hop's best. "Pro Tools" doesn't break any new ground, but it's a grower and there just aren't many rappers anymore that can spit like this. Over a nervous beat that manages to remind us of Enter the Wu-Tang, The Police, and Rocky III at the same time, The Genius shows us that only he could turn a visit to a car dealership into an urgent, layered meditation on fast women and (I think) making records in the digital age. See also the scorching battle rap "Paper Plates."
Blitzen Trapper- "Furr": The title track on a record that came thisclose to making my top 10. On a sprawling exploration of what seems like every rock trend of the 70s, "Furr" is the stripped-down center. A nu-folk re-telling of the classic boy-raised-by-wolves tale, with a great melody that makes a pretty compelling argument that the verse can play a dual role as the hook. This one stays with you from the first listen, but doesn't overwhelm the other stuff - like a friend you can count on but who comes over just often enough. One of my favorite songs of the year, and I'm already regretting having some pretty suspect shit in my top 10 instead of Blitzen Trapper. You'll see.
Another five of these, and then my top ten albums at some point soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment