Spin's 40 Best Albums of 2008

Spin's 40 Best Albums of 2008

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40.

September 30, 2008
Critic Score
69
16 reviews

Astute, melodic evocations of plinky new wave and the Cocteau Twins' smeary dreams that achieve a timeless emotional response.

39.

November 23, 2008
Critic Score
59
32 reviews

An outrageously overblown pop-metal extravaganza, Chinese Democracy feels like a perfect epitaph for all the absurdity and nonsense of the George W. Bush era — one final blowout before Principal Obama takes our idiocy away.

38.

October 6, 2008
Critic Score
65
26 reviews
Noel Gallagher wrote two more tunes here, both excellent. Unfortunately, age has softened his heart, and he cedes the album's other half to his bandmates (including lead-singing brother Liam), who offer subpar material.

37.

June 17, 2008
Critic Score
74
22 reviews

At Mount Zoomer sounds deliberately weirder and grander.

36.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
74
23 reviews

Her voice is mousy, the low end juicy, the melodies sketchy, the choruses huge.

35.

March 25, 2008
Critic Score
70
24 reviews

Too often, the Raconteurs' love of twisty, monolithic rock gives way to bombast that teeters between homage and parody.

34.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
June 10, 2008
Critic Score
75
10 reviews
On “Buriedfed,” he pictures his own death and those of his friends over smoky acoustic guitar. It ends, like many of these tracks, in sparkling bombast. Such explosions are Grizzly Bear’s signature, but for Robinson, they’re the earned sound of life pulsing through the gloom.

33.

March 1, 2008
Critic Score
76
20 reviews

The joyous problem: All the repetition, all the sunshine, all the sound can get tiring. But the same goes for anything that releases endorphins this ecstatically.

32.

March 4, 2008
Critic Score
76
21 reviews
These guys sound like they're genuinely torn between looking up at the stars and trying to find an exit to the sewer. Neat trick, that.

31.

July 8, 2007
Critic Score
85
23 reviews

Vernon’s voice — delicately layered and yearning — gives standouts “Skinny Love” and “Flume” their stunningly direct emotional impact, but his sturdy folk chords, earthy melodies, and plainspoken, pastoral lyrics prevent the album from descending into self-pity.

30.

October 14, 2008
Critic Score
69
17 reviews

The result is her finest record since Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the decade-old masterpiece by which her career will always be judged.

28.

September 12, 2008
Critic Score
77
25 reviews
The album is more a rebirth, with Metallica exploring what they've learned durig their 20 years at the top of the heavy-metal slag heap.

27.

September 15, 2008
Critic Score
65
28 reviews
Over inventive arrangements that feature more live instrumentation than on any other Streets album, Skinner gives maturity a fresh coat of meaning.

26.

March 31, 2008
Critic Score
77
27 reviews

Accelerate will be rightfully championed as the defibrillator that shocked a once-great band back to its senses.

25.

May 13, 2008
Critic Score
74
24 reviews
While that may sound dangerously morose, Death Cab have become skilled with the light/dark juxtaposition.

24.

March 3, 2008
Critic Score
72
23 reviews

The shadows come richly dark, and the brilliance pierces.

23.

Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
August 6, 2007
Critic Score
71
18 reviews

Nash's bluntness and attention to detail make for a good spectacle.

22.

July 22, 2008
Critic Score
68
26 reviews
Kissing goodbye to the obsolete racial and gender roles that pop, hip-hop, or indie rock still demand, Youngblood and pals throw a thrillingly subversive victory party to lift the country out of eight years of anguish.

21.

September 23, 2008
Critic Score
65
26 reviews
On their fourth album, the Kings of Leon still rule with a messy hand, applying rough magic and blurry, slurred imagery to their swashbuckling rock.

20.

March 18, 2008
Critic Score
72
27 reviews

There was a sense on St. Elsewhere that the music could go absolutely anywhere. Here, you know where it’s headed.But that’s ultimately nitpicking. The Odd Couple is still a parti-colored R&B pop trip pretty much unlike anything else out there. If the bar was set too high the first time, the twosome have got only themselves to blame.

19.

September 9, 2008
Critic Score
79
22 reviews

The Stand Ins, is packed with the same compound sentences, sprawling narratives, and precarious, barn-dance guitars that made its companion piece, 2007's The Stage Names, so weirdly gripping.

17.

April 28, 2008
Critic Score
78
17 reviews

The Roots’ hardscrabble classicism and maverick whimsy cohere seamlessly, making Rising the group’s most potently evocative work yet.

16.

June 10, 2008
Critic Score
71
27 reviews

Evil Urges is easily MMJ's most accomplished and ambitious record, masterfully sifting through genres.

15.

July 8, 2008
Critic Score
72
28 reviews

In a scant 30-plus minutes, Modern Guilt modestly proves that it's still restlessness, both artistic and personal, that drives the only living boy in Los Angeles.

14.

January 29, 2008
Critic Score
82
27 reviews

Vampire Weekend have made a truly fresh, fun, and smart record.

13.

May 8, 2008
Critic Score
80
21 reviews

Nouns evolves gradually, with “Teen Creeps,” “Sleeper Hold,” and “Cappo” adding Superchunky pop riffs to the their relentless punk vigor.

11.

March 17, 2008
Critic Score
82
24 reviews
Nicer than Pulp, less sappy than Coldplay, Elbow excel at meticulous orchestral pop that doesn't take itself too seriously.

9.

June 17, 2008
Critic Score
73
33 reviews

For all of Coldplay’s experimentation, though, there’s no doubting that Viva La Vida, with its sturdy melodies and universal themes — think love, war, and peace — is an album meant to connect with the masses.

8.

February 5, 2008
Critic Score
78
32 reviews
This is some serious whimsy.

7.

August 19, 2008
Critic Score
83
34 reviews

Where Cox's Atlas Sound output is scattered and eclectic, Microcastle, Deerhunter's third album, is focused and consistent.

6.

April 29, 2008
Critic Score
74
22 reviews

Combining new wave, ska, dub, grime, Baltimore club, and hip-hop in an ear-warping wash of 21st-century psychedelia, Santogold takes listeners on a trip to a hidden black America, where White acts as tour guide through the alleyways of her mind and undoubtedly excellent iPod.

5.

June 3, 2008
Critic Score
87
28 reviews

At its best, Fleet Foxes is warm and cathartic, with all the hopefulness of a balmy summer night.

4.

October 7, 2008
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

Abraham’s broken-glass bellow is often matched with folk-siren backup vocals that disorient more than they soothe. Multi-tracks thicken and slur the guitar riffs, heightening both tension and complexity.

3.

April 28, 2008
Critic Score
85
33 reviews
As punk’s dumbing down has proven, anyone can make abrasive music, but few can do something new and compelling with apocalyptic heaviness. That Portishead manage to do both 14 years into their recorded career is an unexpected triumph over the darkest clouds that have shaped their art and soul.

1.

September 22, 2008
Critic Score
86
32 reviews

Throughout Dear Science, TV on the Radio — which includes the rhythm section of bassist Gerard Smith and drummer Jaleel Bunton — flesh out Adebimpe’s andMalone’s ruminations with relentlessly inventive arrangements that make even familiar sentiments seem fresh.

Original Source: http://www.spin.com/articles/40-best-albums-2008/
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