NME's 50 Best Albums of 2008

NME's 50 Best Albums of 2008

Original Source →

50.

Heartbreak - Lies
September 23, 2008
Critic Score
80
1 review

49.

August 21, 2008
Critic Score
66
28 reviews

48.

July 28, 2008
Critic Score
69
23 reviews
She’s great, but Lord, it’s heavy-going.

46.

April 15, 2008
Critic Score
67
9 reviews

‘Box Of Secrets’ suffers from occasional patches of tedium where the pair sound a little short on ideas and take unfortunate turns towards becoming an omnisexual Nine Black Alps.

44.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
74
23 reviews
With a teenhood spent travelling around Asia and Europe, 22-year-old Swedish superkid Lykke Li has already seen more of the world than most aircraft. It’s these nomadic experiences that she’s channelled into her disparate (a good thing) debut.

43.

July 22, 2008
Critic Score
68
26 reviews

Partie Traumatic is the sexiest, most outrageous outright pop album of ’08 so far, hard not to love and (seemingly) even easier to lay.

42.

School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
October 28, 2008
Critic Score
73
21 reviews

39.

September 30, 2008
Critic Score
69
16 reviews
Swathed as it is in the kind of ’80s arrangements of flutes and chiming guitars that have rarely been allowed beyond Carol Decker’s lushest, most velveteen fantasies, this album is an open goal to accusations of trend-following revivalism. But, like Ladyhawke’s debut, the sheer quality of songwriting justifies any retrospective leanings they may have.

37.

Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
July 15, 2008
Critic Score
64
14 reviews

35.

Cass McCombs - Dropping The Writ
January 28, 2008
Critic Score
74
12 reviews

34.

October 27, 2008
Critic Score
81
24 reviews

Cooked up in a session originally meant to spawn a batch of B-sides, ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ instead debuts 10 songs that outstrip LC!’s debut album at every turn.

32.

September 23, 2008
Critic Score
73
26 reviews

31.

June 17, 2008
Critic Score
73
33 reviews

With mainstream success guaranteed, by over-reaching themselves Coldplay are perfectly placed to decree the shape of the new rock order with album five. King Bono is dead; long live the kings.

30.

February 5, 2008
Critic Score
78
32 reviews

29.

April 8, 2008
Critic Score
84
32 reviews

Just when The Bad Seeds seemed content to settle into middle-age as a cabaret gospel showband – albeit an extraordinary one – they’ve bared their teeth again.

28.

January 14, 2008
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ might be fashionably rough around all the right edges, but there’s definitely still enough lyrical wit and musical beauty contained herein to warrant your attention. And, at times, your adoration.

27.

June 24, 2008
Critic Score
84
24 reviews

For now ... this is a very fine record. Not Herculean exactly, but certainly something that NME loves.

26.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
68
26 reviews
This album is probably the most solid foundation this quartet have had in 15 years, and it would be a disaster if it wasn’t a springboard for several more.

25.

April 28, 2008
Critic Score
85
33 reviews
That ‘Third’ exists at all is impressive. That it’s Portishead’s best album yet is little short of miraculous.

23.

Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head
May 20, 2008
Critic Score
57
22 reviews
This is a brilliant album that will no doubt top some ‘best of 2008’ lists, but it’s hard to work out if it’s a one-off or not.

22.

October 6, 2008
Critic Score
65
26 reviews

More than anything else, there’s a feeling that ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ might actually be their best album in over a decade. In other words, not quite the fabled, oft-promised “Best one since fookin’ ‘Definitely Maybe’!” but certainly the best one since fookin’ …Morning Glory’.

21.

Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
February 5, 2008
Critic Score
70
19 reviews
This is an album of genuine depth, one expressing the nervous conservative shockwaves which charge through party kids once they start to come down.

20.

May 26, 2008
Critic Score
81
24 reviews
In sick times, with extreme politics on the rise and a fright-wigged bad Tory joke in charge of London, this is an album you can retreat to for succour.

19.

October 7, 2008
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ finally proves that rather than being a messy gimmick, Fucked Up are a startlingly talented punk rock band.

17.

March 17, 2008
Critic Score
82
24 reviews

‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ is a stunning record, a career-best from a band whose consistency has seldom been matched by any British indie band this decade.

16.

September 22, 2008
Critic Score
71
16 reviews
Ladyhawke’s louche synthetic pop is brazenly Bananarama, ridiculously ‘Rio’, and wonderfully Waterman, but the lack of posing – her sheer scruffiness – makes it the first credible ’80s pop record since ABC’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love’.

15.

April 15, 2008
Critic Score
73
22 reviews

For a two-week lark between mates, The Last Shadow Puppets is an awesome achievement – a modern reinvigoration of an archaic, dead musical language.

13.

June 3, 2008
Critic Score
87
28 reviews
You have to wade through a lot of plaid-shirted, porch-rocking psychedelia before you get there. The patient pilgrim, though, can look forward to unearthing the widescreen Laurel Canyon-birthed wonder of 'Your Protectors' after one or two plays.

12.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
71
24 reviews
As media characters, they may be difficult to love, but it’s easy to get seriously smitten with the music. New rave is over. The likes of frYars, Late Of The Pier and Crystal Castles are taking electro into darker, more interesting territory. No glowstick required.

11.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
80
20 reviews

10.

September 1, 2008
Critic Score
72
12 reviews
Friendly Fires songs are all manufactured to a similar formula but there’s a whole lab shelf lined with addictive variants.

9.

September 23, 2008
Critic Score
65
26 reviews

Like their last, ‘Only By The Night’ is front-loaded with world-beaters but then gradually ebbs back to more interchangeable moments. More than ever its strengths, when it succeeds, later become its weaknesses. It tries a mite too hard.

8.

March 24, 2008
Critic Score
77
14 reviews

They’ve upset people’s expectations and made a handful of very good pop songs, but ‘Twenty One’ ultimately just proves that they’re as unpredictable as they ever were.

7.

April 29, 2008
Critic Score
74
22 reviews
An eclectic album for Right Now, which shows what it means to be a modern pop star, and reveals a glittery crazy-paved path towards a brave new musical future.

6.

September 8, 2008
Critic Score
76
13 reviews

5.

April 8, 2008
Critic Score
74
26 reviews
Their debut sounds sleek and exhilarating, although Foals seem cautious about completely breaking out of the punk-funk strictures that have confined them so far.

4.

January 29, 2008
Critic Score
82
27 reviews

Indulge in ‘Vampire Weekend’’s vivid, foppish fantasy, which can still tell you plenty about the human condition, even if its lacrosse whites are rather suspiciously well-laundered.

3.

January 6, 2009
Critic Score
72
25 reviews
So believe it: this is the real thing, no-one’s crying wolf, not even Alan McGee.

2.

September 22, 2008
Critic Score
86
32 reviews

‘Dear Science’ cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. As ever, Sitek’s production shines.

1.

October 2, 2007
Critic Score
75
23 reviews
For all its musical philandering, unbridled excess and shrouds of irony, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a record with more musical depth and warmth all year than this one.
Original Source: http://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/2008
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