My Favourites 08

2008 wasn't that remarkable of a year for me, half of the albums that i was looking forward to hearing didn't come to be this year (Clues, Starlight mints) and ones by bands i used to love just seemed to disappoint (Islands, Of Montreal) but here are the ones i did like in no particular order.

1. Tobacco - Fucked up Friends
Taking a more instrumental/hip hop approach to the same formula that made black moth super rainbows dandelion gum so awesome last year Tobaccos album wasn't a show stopper but is consistently good enough with a few great moments to probably be my favourite album this year.

2. Beck - Modern Guilt
While the risk taking, genre bending Beck of last decade may be gone the new beck sure knows how to set a mood over the course of an album. I think this is the first time Beck has taken a big stab at more 60's styled music, tho he dabbed in pscydellia before it is was a more post modern version. Song for song this isn't one of Becks best efforts but i give him points for always trying something different.

3. The Bicycles - Oh No, Its Love
Expanding on their debuts style the new album is more hit and miss but still a very good pop album. On some of the songs the bigger production values seem to strangle the songwriting a little bit, not enough to hate the songs but enough to slightly annoy you. In other places the album tends to go a more 70s route than the 60's styled pop the first album specialized in, but a lot of the more mediocre ideas only last 30 or 50 seconds and its on to something fun and funky again.

4. Man Man - Rabbit Habits
This record didn't win me over at first, but eventually a lot of the material really grew on me and it turned out to be one of my favourites of this year. The record has the instrumental prowess of 70's Zappa and mixes it with the strangeness of Primus and that's bound to turn more people off the band than on to them, but under it all the songs are strong and the instrumentation, i think is well chosen and played.

5. Unicorn Dream Attack - Love Bits
I just got this in the mail a couple weeks ago but its one of the most original pieces of music I've heard this year. Made mostly of game boy beats and old Casios it gives you that warm feeling of being 8 and playing video games. One thing they have on other 8bit or Chiptune music that put them ahead of the pack is the vocals, although vocoded are sweet and melodic as opposed to the sometimes harsh and abstract approches of other 8bit groups.