Living Thing is about as far away from a lazy retread as any follow-up to a megahit record could be. Unfortunately, it’s so far out there that it doesn’t come close to engendering the kind of charm that made PB+J such a refreshing and enjoyable listen a couple of years back.
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The Hazards of Love is a 58-minute, literary waltz through alt-country, folk, prog and metal that should be accessible to just about everyone, despite a complete lack of standout singles.
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Cymbals Eat Guitars cut their teeth playing Weezer covers. But the sound of their impressive debut is more akin to that of Modest Mouse, Built To Spill and Pavement. The album is so solid and self-assured, it bears mention in the same breath with Vampire Weekend’s 2008 breakthrough.
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Middle Cyclone picks you up, spins you around, lets you think about it for a while and then dumps you in a field at dusk to find your own way home. It fully redeems the patience of Neko Case fans, who have anxiously awaited her first solo release in almost two years.
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Dark Was The Night is filled with performers that work so well together, songs that hew so closely to the compilations’s theme, musical and lyrical experiments so bold and interesting, that you can’t help but play the album over and over again.
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While bands like M83 and Cut Copy push digital-age infusion of the My Bloody Valentine sound, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have done the opposite, releasing an album more reminiscent of 1980s-era Morrissey.
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Wisconsin’s own backwoods darling, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), has decided to tease the masses that fervently gobbled up his 2007/2008 debut with a quickie four-track EP for the New Year. And tease he does. This sucker does not deliver.
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About 45 seconds into Animal Collective’s tremendous ninth album, the band provides the first hint that Merriweather Post Pavilion will be their most rhythmically structured album to date. It also turns out to be their most accessible and ambitious.
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We list our favorite albums of 2008, top to bottom. TV On the Radio, Kanye West, Blitzen Trapper, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver earn high marks in a year that started slow but ended relatively strong.
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