PopMatters' Best Albums of 2008

PopMatters' Best Albums of 2008

Original Source →

60.

Maiysha - This Much Is True
August 26, 2008
Critic Score
90
1 review

59.

Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town
June 3, 2008
Critic Score
80
10 reviews
It’s a grim journey, and often creepy as hell, but it’s by no means depressing. Mediocre music is depressing. This stuff is exhilarating.

58.

June 17, 2008
Critic Score
73
33 reviews

No, Viva la Vida is not their masterpiece, but for now, it’s as close as they’re gonna get.

57.

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara - Soul Science
May 13, 2008
Critic Score
80
2 reviews

55.

January 21, 2008
Critic Score
79
26 reviews
This album is more consistent than the first album because it succeeds not only with the hard-rock shuffle of “Stormy High”, but also with the acoustic-driven, high-register of “Stay Free”.

54.

February 26, 2008
Critic Score
75
30 reviews
It might be a quieter and more introspective disc than we’d been expecting, but this is still a quintessential Goldfrapp album with Gregory’s arrangements brilliantly underscoring the inimitable vocal versatility of his female foil.

50.

June 24, 2008
Critic Score
84
24 reviews
There is a dedication and an ardor in play that cannot be denied.

48.

September 9, 2008
Critic Score
79
22 reviews

All of Sheff’s characters once again come to life on The Stand Ins. More stories are told from the first person than on The Stage Names, but the theme shines through.

47.

June 24, 2008
Critic Score
78
30 reviews

From day one, Sigur Rós have demonstrated that affecting compositions are not the exclusive domain of the virtuoso, by layering simple melodies to create songs that are more moving than the sum of their parts. While that statement still rings true, on Med Sud í Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust the band finally sounds fully confident.

46.

March 25, 2008
Critic Score
70
24 reviews

Consolers is a labored album, the product of much studio tinkering and a desperate need for the band to prove themselves as a “serious” outfit.

45.

Lizz Wright - The Orchard
February 26, 2008
Critic Score
70
2 reviews

44.

April 8, 2008
Critic Score
84
32 reviews

To call Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Nick Cave’s best album yet is a matter of opinion certain to raise some protests. But for someone who has always wanted to dive into the man’s songbook headfirst but has never known where to start, it can be said that this latest work is the perfect place to begin your journey into a most enjoyable and provocative catalog and work backwards chronologically from there.

43.

April 28, 2008
Critic Score
78
17 reviews

Rising Down does prove to be an provocative peer of cultural riot-acting and pragmatic contextualization — though, as contemporary pop music, it provides a much more immediate delivery of social ethics from a street-level perspective.

42.

April 29, 2008
Critic Score
74
22 reviews
This album is a place to crash, boots to wear, pepper spray to fight back with and charcoal to dirty your hands. If the struggles of urban artists sound like this, these 12 anthems ensure that starving will never go out of style.

41.

Shugo Tokumaru - Exit
September 2, 2008
Critic Score
82
6 reviews
Astounding, intelligent, quirky pop from Japan.

40.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
74
23 reviews
Classy, fun, sensual, and more grown-up than you’d expect, it’s the kind of confident debut that puts the Kate Nashes of the world to shame.

39.

November 11, 2008
Critic Score
73
17 reviews

Feed the Animals is a wonderful achievement, but don’t take my pseudo-intellectual pontification as proof of anything, go listen to it yourself.

38.

January 22, 2008
Critic Score
77
19 reviews
Despite such strong material, it’s a shame it has to be bogged down by a good six or seven tracks of filler.

37.

April 15, 2008
Critic Score
70
19 reviews

Saturdays=Youth isn’t an unqualified success, and probably won’t be as warmly welcomed by fans as M83’s previous albums have been. Still, there are plenty of moments on the disc that remind you why this pulsing, layered music is so powerful.

36.

Al Green - Lay It Down
May 27, 2008
Critic Score
77
17 reviews

Familiar yet fresh, Lay It Down presents Satin Soul at its finest.

35.

June 3, 2008
Critic Score
79
16 reviews

Shearwater has magnificently outdone itself. Not only is Rook destined to be named one of 2008’s favorites, but it could be one of the best albums for years to come.

34.

October 14, 2008
Critic Score
69
17 reviews

While there are a few more missteps here than we’re used to seeing from our beloved Lucinda, for the most part, her music has survived that awful, awful curse of falling in love.

32.

June 10, 2008
Critic Score
71
27 reviews

Evil Urges sounds like an album that falls short of its mark, committing the whole to a sound that ultimately weakens and breaks down its parts.

31.

April 29, 2008
Critic Score
70
24 reviews

The subtlety of these electronics and the discretion of their employment are what makes Jim an ultimately more accomplished record than Multiply.

30.

July 8, 2007
Critic Score
85
23 reviews

Bon Iver mines fragile beauty from acoustic guitar, floating vocals, and low-fi recording.

28.

April 8, 2008
Critic Score
78
5 reviews

27.

May 30, 2008
Critic Score
81
4 reviews

It’s through this self-fictionalization that Wale is able to separate himself from the music and society, giving him a chance to speak eloquently and realistically about things long-since thought of as a closed case.

26.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
80
20 reviews

Just like “Rocket 88”, Born to Run, and “Little Red Corvette” before it, Stainless Style gets to the heart of popular music’s motivation through one of its oldest obsessions, following roads that lead somewhere and nowhere with desire and drive stashed in the trunk.

25.

March 1, 2008
Critic Score
76
20 reviews
It’s more than just clever sampling. If not for El Guincho’s command of unconventional rhythm, the record could be accused of copping the style of the aformentioned freak-folkers.

24.

May 8, 2008
Critic Score
80
21 reviews

As the 12 songs pass by in 31 minutes, the overall effect is nothing short of exhilarating. While their musical antecedents are clearly apparent, at no stage does Nouns feel in any way derivative or familiar.

23.

July 8, 2008
Critic Score
72
28 reviews
This unpretentious attitude permeates the album’s writing and terse production whose results are self-evident: it lacks the unique resonating timbres one is accustomed to with Beck.

22.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
77
24 reviews

Too often on You & Me the rest of the group sounds pedestrian, cautiously still and unambitiously sticking to what they know so well.

21.

June 10, 2008
Critic Score
80
17 reviews

You could literally leave Los Angeles on repeat for hours and hear something different each time. It’s a gritty, spacey, and ultimately beautiful record that is sure to give Flying Lotus some much-deserved attention.

20.

October 2, 2007
Critic Score
75
23 reviews
It is dripping with irony and awfully self-aware.

18.

March 31, 2008
Critic Score
77
27 reviews
Accelerate hits the ground running, slows down briefly, and ends as furiously as it began. Mapped out that way, its most striking moments end up being the bookends of the first and last two songs, particularly since the album is so short, but even the weakest moments in the middle detract little from the whole.

17.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
71
24 reviews

A battery-powered fortress of disorienting electro-punk, Crystal Castles serves as the perfect introduction to the twisted world of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass.

16.

October 7, 2008
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

The Chemistry of Common Life is made by an expansive search party of scalpels, each handled with surgical precision. And together, they make a pretty deep cut.

15.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
72
27 reviews

The Odd Couple is an emotionally and musically provocative album. Despite its weighty subject matter, it’s also one hell of a fun listen.

14.

January 29, 2008
Critic Score
82
27 reviews

Not since Talking Heads bowed out with their masterful 1988 swan song Naked has NYC been so dutifully represented by such a melodically robust collection as the 11 that comprise this eponymous redux of Vampire Weekend’s acclaimed “Blue CD-R” demo.

12.

September 23, 2008
Critic Score
77
15 reviews

11.

July 14, 2008
Critic Score
82
27 reviews

While Stay Positive might find Finn in existential contemplation of his past, present and future, thankfully it doesn’t keep him away from his observational wisdom in recounting tales of hedonism, naivety, drugs and alcohol in small town America.

Original Source: http://www.popmatters.com/feature/66813-the-best-albums-of-2008-60-51/
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