Music Under Fire

Missed our rundown of this year's best? See our top 30.

Many albums that didn't make our Top-30 list for the year, reached lofty places on other sites' lists. As our motto is, we won't saturate you with music we don't think is worth mentioning. The albums below were all quite good, but just fell below the best of the year.

MP3: Eureka Birds - Mars (buy)
MP3: Daniel Martin Moore - Stray Age (buy)
MP3: Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened (buy)
MP3: Nada Surf - Weightless (buy)

Here are MusicUnderFire's honorable mentions for 2008:

Eureka Birds - Eureka Birds
Not flashy. Not laced with catchy refrains. This Baltimore group caught our attention and has stuck with us since, thanks to a consistent debut album. We reviewed them and we liked them quite a bit. If you like an album off the beaten path, this is for you.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Taking the first major step of 2008 was VW. Songs such as "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma" and "Campus" certainly earned this high marks for many and would have been higher if not for some transitional drawbacks.

Daniel Martin Moore - Stray Age
The top singer/songwriter on our list for this year, Moore used his simplicity and songwriting talents only he could pull off. Although a heavy contender to make it in the top 30, Moore was found he could do only one type of songwriting style, but nail it every time. Stray Age was a cinch to listen through the whole way - perfect for a relaxing situation, not something you will want to put on your iPod to go to the gym. We particularly enjoyed "That'll Be The Plan". Outstanding effort by Sub Pop's newest songwriter.

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns
Snow patrol didn't particularly stun us this time around, but the album had enough versatility with some of their traditional poker hands to some longshots they took, which actually worked. If you've listened to SP as long as we have, "Chocolate" seems to be in heavier rotation than "Engines", but that could possibly change. Just like most Snow Patrol albums, this one is a grower. Many tracks veer in a different dirrection that their older albums, particularly their last track "The Lightning Strike: (i) What If This Storm Ends? / (ii) The Sunlight Through The Flags / (iii) Daybreak", a three part song, in which each part blends into the next. I'm not sure why they didn't do their whole album this way, but this is just one example of how the band is growing and reaching deeper into their creative interworkings.

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
These youngsters are growing up quick, and as if you haven't noticed already, there's something special about them. Not only has the world of pop taken in "Sex On Fire", but the band managed to make a bit of consistency out of their name. Their listeners got another solid outing by Kings of Leon once again. Songs such as "Manhattan" and "Revelry" made this album that more intriguing. Although they did have some gems on here, KOL seem to have the same formula time and time again, when in fact we were never head over heels for it to begin with. This would be the only reason we could not keep it in with our favs of this year.

Greg Laswell - Three Flights from Alto Nido
An album laced with not just your run-of-the mill sappy singer/songwriter material, Greg Laswell had a bit of every emotion poured into his debut. Songs such as "Comes and Goes (In Waves)" are well orchestrated and much has to do with his classy label, Vangard. Laswells songs excelled in both the studio and on the road. There's not much to say about this album that hasn't already been said here.

Bloc Party - Intimacy
Where A Weekend In The City left off, Intimacy took that and notched it up ten times, in terms of sheer loudness that is. The albums glory may be captured in the club-friendly "Better Than Heaven", but this album had too many pitfalls to be considered for our top albums. What did make this album great is the unbridled feel to the songs. Tracks such as "One Month Off" made for a great anthem for this album as did many other songs that followed the same raucous attitude. Bloc Party continues to put out albums with a few likable songs on each album.

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
One of the most influential albums for the first half of the year, Frightened Rabbit used many unorthodox methods of song. Perhaps its their folk-pop appeal, or maybe we liked them because we love Scottish bands. But no, FR was something quite special this year, and this list of 'almosts' also serves a purpose to show that other albums did not even make it into our 'honorable mentions' list. The Midnight Organ Fight was driven by some nifty songwriting by Scott Hutchison and backed by a talented band (sans bass). This is a well deserved spot in the midst of many other talented bands we've heard this year. (if you're looking for a Christmas song from Frightened Rabbit, check our short list of Indie Christmas Songs.)

Deerhunter - Microcastle

Another album teetering on the brink of making it into our top albums of this year, Deerhunter put out a marvelous effort, yet didni't score enough songs for us to truly 'get'. Most notable from this album is "Nothing Ever Happened". It looks like this group's future is quite bright, so I would anticipate much to happen in their future.

Nada Surf - Lucky
Their latest album showcased why they are such a timeless group. Songs such as "See These Bones", "Beautiful Beat" and "Weightless" highlighted this addition to your Nada Surf collection. Nada Surf has quite a bit of experience and it shined on this album.

Ok, we lied. There's six of them below. (Five sounded so catchy, we couldn't resist)

This Holiday Season, we're 99.9% positive you'll hear Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, The Rat Pack and many more chime in your glowing, memorable Christmas music collection. This year, we hope we can make a small difference. Afterall, its tough searching for new Christmas songs when the internet is so overloaded with the old classics (don't worry, we even get a little sentimental for Bing too).

But if you're looking to spice up your collection with some Christmas music that kind of sounds like Christmas, but then really doesn't, we may have your number. You might even be tired of the jangling and jingling at all times. If this is the case, these six are perfect for the season and are from some of our favorite groups both from this year and last. Highly recommended below are Blitzen Trapper's "Christmas Is Coming Soon" and Mason Jennings' "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

MP3: Blitzen Trapper - Christmas Is Coming Soon (buy)
MP3: Evangelicals - The Last Christmas On Earth (buy)
MP3: Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (buy)
MP3: Mason Jennings - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (buy)
MP3: Rogue Wave - Christmas (buy)
MP3: Snowden - White Christmas (buy)

Above: The Kooks' own Luke Pritchard, left, and Paul Garred.

This week The Kooks album KONK is finally here. You probably heard their single "Always Where I Need To Be" and we think its their best song yet. The Kooks really have great things in store for them this year. Check out their tour dates here.

Some other notables: Supergrass, the English rock band from Oxford are set to go with their album Diamond Hoo Ha. We recommend watching their zany video for "Alright" here. On the more popular side of things is Everclear with The Vegas Years. Everclear has now been around 14 years since their start in 1994.

If you're looking for some pop/punk, we recommend checking out Kill Your Ex. They're not morbid or depressing - it's pop/punk at its best. Hop on it. If you haven't checked out our M83 article, please do so. And lastly, the boys who have been around the block, yet keep getting better and better; I'm talking about Phantom Planet with their release of Raise The Dead.

Oh, and don't forget South (remember "Paint The Silence"?) and Frightened Rabbit, whom we just posted an mp3 for our Mix For The Weekend.

Mp3: M83 - We Own The Sky (buy)
Mp3: Tristan Prettyman - New Soul (Yael Naim cover) (buy)
Mp3: Phantom Planet - Leader (buy)
Mp3: Black Francis - I Sent Away (buy)

Better Luck Next Time - Start From Skratch (Official Site) (MySpace)
Black Francis - Svn Fngrs (Official) (MySpace)
Children of Bodom - Blooddrunk (Official Site) (MySpace)
Destroy the Runner - I, Lucifer (Official Site) (MySpace) (purevolume)
Everclear - The Vegas Years (Official Site) (MySpace)
Freddie Stevenson - All My Strange Companions (Official Site) (MySpace)
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight (Official Site) (MySpace) (last.fm)
In Flight Radio - The Sound Inside (Official Site) (MySpace)
Joseph Arthur - Crazy Rain and Boredom EP (Official Site) (MySpace)
Kill Your Ex - From Words to Motion (Official Site) (MySpace)
Lady Antebellum - Lady Antebellum (Official Site) (MySpace)
M83 - Saturdays = Youth (Official Site) (MySpace)
Maldroid - Maldroid (Official Site) (MySpace)
Moral Crux - Moral Crux (Official Site) (MySpace)
O'luge - Movements (Official Site) (MySpace)
Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead (Official Site) (MySpace)
Plastic Constellations - We Appreciate You (Official Site) (MySpace)
Robert Hood - Fabric 39 (Last.fm) (Wiki)
Sally Shapiro - Remix Romance Vol. 1 (Official Site) (MySpace)
South - You Are Here (Official Site) (MySpace)
Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha (Official Site) (MySpace) (YouTube)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - My Bloody Underground (Official Site) (MySpace)
The Child Ballads - Cheekbone Hollows (Official Site) (MySpace)
The Kooks - KONK (Official Site) (MySpace)
Tristan Prettyman - Hello (Official Site) (MySpace)

We're already patting ourselves on the back for making our second 'Mix For The Weekend'. Since this is only the second time around, our goal was to make as plain a name for it so we could just add the next roman numeral at the end and look smart.

Our 'Mix For The Weekend is a random grouping of songs we thought were interesting, each for their various reasons. Again, if you haven't read our About Page, then you'll notice we don't post things we don't care about. So give them all a listen and explore further into who each one of these groups are.

I'll tell you right now, my favorite below has to be decided upon, but is between Cassettes Won't Listen, Frightened Rabbit and We Were The States with honorable mention to "Wonderwall" via jazz extrodinares the Brad Melhdau Trio.

MP3: Adorable - Sunshine Smile (buy)
MP3: Cassettes Won't Listen - Freeze & Explode (buy)
MP3: The Winchell Riots - The Man Who Mapped The Oceans (buy)
MP3: Frightened Rabbit - I Feel Better (buy)
MP3: Portishead - Mysterons (buy)
MP3: We Were The States - Up Your Sleeve (buy)
MP3: Brad Melhdau Trio - Wonderwall (buy)
MP3: Meat Beat Manifesto - International Reprise (buy)
MP3: Tegan and Sara - The Con (buy)