Music 2008, Part 2: Fresh Choices

Old farts weren’t the only ones making good music in 2008. The best of them was the debut by Vampire Weekend. This album took a little while to grow on me, but once it did it became a staple for me. I listen to it in the car, while working out, and while programming. Ten years ago I would have probably said it was the best of 2008, instead of Coldplay. Vampire Weekend was the best of the “young” artists, but hardly the only noteworthy album.

The Very Good
Attack & Release by The Black Keys is a very good album. These guys are both good songwriters and talented musicians. The album runs a little flat at times, but is thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely best listened to in the car, which for me means blaring loud.
For a more relaxing listen, try For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver. The music is clever and enjoyable. The vocals can take some getting used to, but do not get in the way even if you are not a fan of the folk and falsetto.
Death Cab or Cutie has had a lot of success in recent years, and they only got better in 2008. Narrow Stairs is their best album to date. In fact “Cath...” was one of my favorite songs of 2008, but the album is full of beautiful songs.
The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow received a lot of hype in 2008, and it deserved it. These guys really know how to create space in their music. “Grounds for Divorce” and “Weather to Fly” were personal favorites, but the whole album received a lot of playtime for me. It is a better headphones album, good for programming.
Back to Black by Amy Winehouse was a 2007 release that was discussed ad nauseum in the past. Personally I did not really get into the album until this year. She really does have a remarkable voice and the album is full of memorable music.

Merely Good
Metro Station’s self-titled album was technically released in 2007. I did not listen to it until 2008. It spawned a number of pop hits, but you should not hold that against them. It is a quality release. These guys are definitely know a good beat and good hook. They remind me a lot of a less polished Garbage.
Another heavily hyped album from across the pond was Fed by Plush. The songwriting and production is excellent, but a little indulgent at times. It did not live up to the hype to me, but is a good listen nonetheless. The adjective “lush” is often used to describe it, and with good reason.
If Plush puts you to sleep, then throw on Santogold’s debut album. It is a very fun and exciting album. This is probably not the kind of album that you will find yourself going back to in a year or two, but it is a pleasant treat for now. Of course I once thought the same thing about The Gorillaz...
Finally a year-end retrospective of music these days is obliged to mention the most popular showcase of music: American Idol. This year’s winner, David Cook, was the first “rocker” to win the event. However, former finalist Chris Daughtry has had as much success as any winner with the exception of the new Queen of Country, Carrie Underwood. So it was not surprising at all for Cook to win. His self-titled album is par for the course. It is not as good as Daughtry’s debut, but that probably won’t matter. It definitely reproduces the “emo” sound that was Cook’s signature and has quality songwriting. In other words, if you liked Cook on the show, you will like his album. This may not seem like a notable accomplishment, but actually there have been very few Idol winners who you could say this about.

Music 2008, Part 1: The Early Bird Special

It has been a remarkable year for new music. Not just because there has been some good new music released this year, but because of who has been releasing it. A lot of old dudes have rolled out of their pillow top beds and put down some good to great music this year: R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, The Cure, AC/DC, Q-Tip, and Guns n’ Roses. All of these guys released some of their best work more than 20 years ago, and they were all back this year releasing good music once again. You could argue that if any of these guys were new bands then what they released this year would have created huge hype. To some degree they are victims of their own success. None of these guys can ever release music that would be judged as being as good as what they did at their peaks.
R.E.M., AC/DC, and Metallica took a similar approach. They all tried to go back to their roots and resurrect the sound of their glory days. They all succeeded in my opinion. Each group released albums that were very enjoyable for long time fans. Neither really tried to reach new fans, but why bother? It was an election year, and playing to the base is a tried and true strategy.
NIN and The Cure both took their music in the direction they wanted. In both cases this was not a huge departure from where they had been in the past, but it was definitely distinct. The 21st century version of NIN has proven to have its own distinct sound from the 20th century NIN. Since 2005, NIN has released four albums: With Teeth, Ghosts, Year Zero, and 2008’s The Slip, plus the remix album Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D. That’s a lot of music, especially compared to ye olde NIN that tended to take many years between releases. With more product, it has been a little more hit and miss for NIN. That is fine by me. The Slip contained several awesome tracks, and several so-so ones.
It is not uncommon to see rockers past the age of 30 continue to release music, even if it is usually not very good. It is more rare to see a hip-hop artist do this. This year saw an excellent album released by A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. Tribe and De La Soul once provided an excellent alternative to the misogynistic lyrics of “gangsta” rap. Of course today we have dropped the term gangsta, as it is the norm. Nearly every hip-hop artist is bound to make reference to dealing drugs, brandishing firearms, treating women as property, etc. Q-Tip still does things his own way and The Renaissance sounds as fresh in 2008 as Tribe did back in the late 80’s and 90’s. It was easily the best hip-hop album of 2008, far ahead of good but predictable albums by Kanye West, Lil Wayne, or T.I.
And then there was Guns n’ Roses... The long winding road of Chinese Democracy has been well chronicled. When you listen to Chinese Democracy, it is amusing to speculate about the evolution of the songs. However, I think you are best off to consider Chinese Democracy without its history and build-up. If you do that, it is an average album. It has some good moments, but nothing spectacular. It sounds modern, and that is noteworthy given the age of its creator (even more so if you speculate that many of the songs are 10+ years old, but I said I wouldn’t indulge in such speculation...)
The members of Coldplay are not quite the oldtimers as the above artists. They have been around for a while, and like the other artists, they are always compared to what they have done in the past. Maybe some fans may also think that Coldplay can never do anything that is as good as what they have done in the past. I definitely belonged to that camp -- I thought that Coldplay would never come up with anything as good as “Yellow”. I was wrong, because Viva la Vida is Coldplay’s best album of their career. It was one of my two favorites albums of the year, and I would give it the very subjective nod as the “best”.