What a year its been, we feel practically spoiled with the music we've discovered.
Its a wonder our favorite album of the year came out at the end of January, and had been bypassed on so many other lists - topped by groups we didn't list, such as TV on the Radio, Crystal Stilts, Death and Cab For Cutie to name a few. The Helio Sequence's Keep Your Eyes Ahead was a shoo-in after their performance in May and although the group is composed of only two, they still have all of the guitar, drums and background instrumentation done via computer to make a great, diversified album able to be reproduced in live format.
Not to shun our other top choices, Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours was a close second, as was Tokyo Police Club's Elephant Shell. Both albums carried a different appeal, yet made for many repeat listens. All of our 11-20 picks had some of the best singles we've heard all year, and also had great album flow. Despite much criticism, we believe Coldplay's VLV was their second best album yet for the band (behind Parachutes of course), which says quite a bit about the over-critiqued foursome. As you go through our list, you will see many of these guys again in our top 50 songs of the year, which will be a complete list worthy of making several mix tapes to look back at 2008.
MP3: Coldplay - Strawberry Swing (live from Philadelphia) (buy)
MP3: Tokyo Police Club - Juno (buy)
MP3: The Helio Sequence - Back To This (buy)
MP3: Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (buy)
MP3: Fleet Foxes - Your Protector (buy)
Although we could have done a top 40 or even 50, we wanted our list to be solid, so we cut down many of the albums we didn't feel were up to par with the ones listed below. Afterall, we don't have the abililty to listen to every album out there, and we didn't want to list every single album we listened to this year, so this list was considerably cut down to represent an accurate list according to our tastes. Our top 30 was decided by the two of us and if you've been following us throughout the year, some of these picks may come as no surprise. Please share your comments on our list, we'd like to say that nobody's opinion is wrong when it comes down to your personal tastes. There are ours:
30
Elbow
The Seldom Seen Kid (Polydor)
29
Pictures and Sound
Pictures and Sound (Vangard)
28
Beck
Modern Guilt (DGC)
27
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Perishing (Polyvinyl)
26
The Academy Is...
Fast Times at Barrington High (Atlantic)
25
Glasvegas
Glasvegas (Sony)
24
This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You (Magic Bullet)
23
The Walkmen
You & Me (Gigantic)
22
The Stills
Oceans Will Rise (Arts & Crafts)
21
Department of Eagles
In Ear Park (4AD)
20
School of Seven Bells
Alpinisms (Ghostly)
19
Cartridge
Fractures (Revolver)
18
Dr. Dog
Fate (Park the Van)
17
MGMT
Oracular Spectacular (Sony)
16
French Kicks
Swimming (Vagrant)
15
Ladytron
Velocifero (Nettwerk)
14
M83
Saturdays = Youth (Virgin)
13
Blitzen Trapper
Furr (Sub Pop)
12
Plants & Animals
Parc Avenue (Secret City)
11
Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line (Barsuk)
10
Low vs Diamond
Low vs Diamond (Sony)
9
Air Traffic
Fractured Life (EMI)
8
The Shore
Light Years (Weather Machine)
7
Delta Spirit
Ode To Sunshine (Rounder)
6
Your Vegas
A Town and Two Cities (Universal Republic)
5
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
4
Coldplay
Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends (EMI)
3
Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours (Modular)
2
Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)
1
The Helio Sequence
Keep Your Eyes Ahead
See Our Runners-Up!
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