My Top Ten:
01. Bon Iver - FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO
- A lot of my favorite music of the year was interior in nature. (I spent much of the year nesting in a new home, so that's not surprising.) Albums 04, 05, 13, and 17 listed below all qualify, but none do more so than the Bon Iver album. Justin Vernon has nailed the wintry isolation of lovelorn nostalgia. It's an utterly unlikely thing of beauty, somehow feeling both sparse and lush. I've previously referred to the closing song, "Re:Stacks," as a miracle, and it still levitates me every time.
02. Portishead - THIRD
- I expected this to be great but, at best, a case where an extended break recharged batteries and brought the artist back to peak form, matching previous high points (see Kate Bush, Wire, Mission Of Burma). What I did not expect was that THIRD would simultaneously fulfill all the promise of Portishead's previous work and blow away any strictures imposed on the listener by the stale and unfair "trip-hop" pigeonhole. If this music ends up soundtracking make-out sessions in moody indie films or yuppie-hipster parties, I think the participants would be likely to injure themselves. This is, of course, always a welcome development -- good on ya, Portishead.
03. Deerhoof - OFFEND MAGGIE
- It stuns me that a band as off-the-wall as Deerhoof has gradually put together what I think is the most consistently great run of albums of the last 15 years. I loved the starkness afforded by the trio lineup from '07's FRIEND OPPORTUNITY, but the addition of a second guitarist only brought out additional subtle layers rather than fundamentally altering their sound. Greg Saunier remains one of the great drummers of the decade, constantly dropping surprises.
04. Azeda Booth - IN FLESH TONES
- Given that I got this based on a glowing Pitchfork review, I've been sad to see Azeda Booth get absolutely no year-end-list love from them or anyone else. This combination of drone, buzz, skitter, and wisp provides an immersive and beautifully alien experience. And I swear I'm not just listing them because they have a track called "John Cleese."
05. Gemma Hayes - THE HOLLOW OF MORNING
- Recipe for a Swooning Dolphus: record a female British singer/songwriter with a nuanced voice and thoughtful lyrics, accompanied by subtly unexpected production touches, and put the CD in my 5-disc changer on random with more familiar stuff. That or tequila will do it every time.
06. David Byrne & Brian Eno - EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY
- Among Eno collaborations, this album is far more like what he did with John Cale on WRONG WAY UP than any of Eno's previous work with Byrne or Talking Heads. But would we really have wanted another MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS? On first listen, I missed the pan-cultural rhythmic influences, and then I got to the radiant songs. In retrospect, it's as if producing Paul Simon's SURPRISE gave Eno a well-budgeted practice run for this album, wherein he knew he'd be applying his skills and imagination to a far more suitable voice and an old friend. The collaboration also led to my favorite live show of the year -- Byrne at the Austin City Limits Festival, with Soul Coughing's Mark De Gli Antoni subbing ably for Eno, among a crew of dancers in white business-casual wear.
07. Frightened Rabbit - THE MIDNIGHT ORGAN FIGHT
- I am a complete sucker for Scottish bands who can obliterate my emotional walls with loud guitars. In 1983 it was Big Country. In 1997 it was Mogwai. Last year it was the Twilight Sad, and now here's Frightened Rabbit. Also check out their fun live album LIVER! LUNG! FR! Favorite song: "Old Old Fashioned."
08. Deerhunter - MICROCASTLE / WEIRD ERA CONT.
- I admired their previous album CRYPTOGRAMS, but I was in no way prepared to care about the dual followup. I was particularly drawn to WEIRD ERA CONT., the "bonus" album Deerhunter created after MICROCASTLE leaked to blogs. This is my favorite type of response to a leak: "They took the music earlier than intended? Quick, make more music!"
09. Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That
- The hyperspeed shred-pop of Marnie Stern reaches the 14-year-old me that hung out for hours in suburban guitar stores before and after lessons. In fact, I imagine it sounds like waiting in the hallway outside the lesson studios -- me learning semi-obscure 60s songs as the adjacent studios blared with sweep picking and fingertapping exercises. There is exuberance and innocence and giddiness all over this music.
10. Elbow - THE SELDOM SEEN KID
- The best songs here ("Starlings," "Grounds For Divorce," "One Day Like This") are career peaks for my favorite mainstream UK band of the decade. Unfortunately, there is a deadly 15-minute lull in "side 2" that ruins the momentum for me, rendering the album merely excellent. It's become a cliche (as if that ever stops me), but seriously -- everyone who bought the Coldplay album needs to hear this immediately. Give them as gifts and make people happy.

My Next Ten:
11. The Week That Was - THE WEEK THAT WAS
12. School Of Language - SEA FROM SHORE
- These two albums are from the two brothers who co-lead the band Field Music, and had they been released as a double Field Music album they might've cracked my top 10. The only real complaint I have is about the School Of Language album, which takes the ingenious hook of "Rockist" and spreads it out all through the album for maximum annoyance.
13. Strategy - MUSIC FOR LAMPING
- Burbling ambient bliss.
14. Fuck Buttons - STREET HORRRSING
- At low volume, I find Lou Reed's METAL MACHINE MUSIC to be extremely soothing. The same applies to this album.
15. Jennifer O'Connor - HERE WITH ME
- There are thousands of singer/songwriters with the same basic tools as Jennifer O'Connor. What she managed to do this year is make honest, simple music about love and happiness, while promoting neither tooth decay nor irony overdose (on Matador, no less).
16. Lisa Hannigan - SEA SEW
- From her stunning turns on Damien Rice and Cake Sale albums, I was expecting to be devastated and wrung out by Lisa Hannigan's debut. What happened instead was she put her breathy goodness into bludgeon-free songs reflecting simple pleasures. Some were probably disappointed. To me, it demonstrates a much wider range than I'd anticipated and makes me eager to hear what she brings next.
17. Julian Cope - BLACK SHEEP
- The Archdrude follows up last year's double YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH ME with another long and wooly album of Stonehenge-besotted garage rock. Song title of the year: "All The Blowing-Themselves-Up Motherfuckers (Will Realise The Minute They Die That They Were Suckers)"
18. Kim Taylor - CANAL STREET TAVERN LIVE
- I am rooting so hard for Kim Taylor. Unaccompanied, she delivered one of the most affecting sets I saw in 2005. Here, she's live with a band, at the biggest bar in my city of origin -- how am I not going to love it?
19. the gifted children - ALWAYS STAY SWEET
- Rochester's finest deliver their most pelvic rekkid, with a rich bass and cello sound that belies the music's homemade origins. For most of the year, the song here that would not leave my silly brains alone has been "how important the local creek". But there is one short song that makes me giddy to think about even existing, called "left behind: desecration". As a refugee from the kind of Jeebusist mobthink that kept LaHaye & Jenkins churning that chum out, I have a special hatred for those books and a very special love for the song.
20. The New Year - THE NEW YEAR
- Downbeat, echoey, and yet not relying on crutches, the songs here have won me over despite the arrangements being somewhat too familiar.

Fine albums that just didn't grab me, from artists I adore:
Aimee Mann - @#%&*! SMILERS
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, DIG LAZARUS DIG
Elvis Costello, MOMOFUKU

Somehow these albums reached #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart in 2008 :
Radiohead - IN RAINBOWS
JUNO soundtrack
Neil Diamond - HOME BEFORE DARK
AC/DC - BLACK ICE

Best metal track:
Krallice, "Wretched Wisdom"

Studio Dolphty Productions in 2008:
Dolph Chaney - GUMSHOE KOALA
Dolph Chaney - O-RIGINALS #1 single (covers of "Only The Lonely" by the Motels and "Other Side" by Josh Ritter)
Dolph Chaney - HIPPO HOLLANDAISE
Breaker 1 9 - BREAKER 1 9