My Top 10 Albums of 2008

1. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Standout tracks: “Home”, “One Fine Day”

It’s not unusual for an album we eventually fall in love with to be challenging or even off-putting on the first listen, but my favorite album of 2008 was that rare collection of songs that I loved as much on the first listen as on the thirtieth.  Equal parts art and pop, Everything elegantly balanced the weird and the warm by enveloping Byrne’s exultant lyrical proclamations in Eno’s grandiose pop sheen.  These two wizards’ gloriously accessible collaboration reminded me of why Talking Heads and U2 were so incredible in the first place.

2. R.E.M., Accelerate

Standout tracks: “Man-Sized Wreath”, “Supernatural Superserious”

The most welcome return-to-form of the year, Accelerate ranks among R.E.M.’s best work—and when you’re talking about a band that’s made such classics as Out of Time and Automatic For The People, you know that’s no small feat.  R.E.M.’s stripped-down and urgent “Fuck you!” to the Bush administration stands alongside U2’s All You Can’t Leave Behind and Elton John’s Songs From The West Coast as triumphant late-career albums by legendary artists striving to make waves in the wake of their best material.

3. Coldplay, Viva La Vida

Standout tracks: “Lost!”, “42″

I must admit, I didn’t like it at first.  Some parts were too predictable, I thought, and others felt like they were just pieces of song ideas strewn together with a lack a cohesive vision.  Then I finally submitted like the rest of the world, and now I just enjoy the hell out of it.  Keep ‘em comin’ Coldplay—at this point they can do whatever they want.

4. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cardinology

Standout tracks: “Fix It”, “Let Us Down Easy”

Another year, another Ryan Adams album (or four).  This guy’s like the Woody Allen of singer-songwriters: different project, same story, always great.  This one in particular has been growing on me since I salivated over it’s acoustic soft-rock when it came out two months ago.

5. Jakob Dylan, Seeing Things

Standout tracks: “Something Good This Way Comes”, “All Day And All Night”

Artists living in the shadow of the extraordinary accomplishments of their parents never have it easy, but surely none has had a tougher go than Jakob Dylan.  You’d expect the son of Bob Dylan’s first solo outing to shock and awe its way into the limelight like a child desperate for attention; instead, the Wallflowers front man coolly delivers some quiet, straightforward folk that sounds not too unlike Bob’s first disc some fifty years ago.  Yeah, you could accuse him of playing it safe, but since “Something Good This Way Comes” is my favorite song of the year, I like to give the guy a break.

6. Vampire Weekend

Standout tracks: “Oxford Comma”, “M79″

Oh how I wanted to hate these guys.  The cover of Spin magazine some one month after they released their first album?  The buzz is not to be believed, right?  But dammit if their debut isn’t one of the most refreshing listens of the year, copping Graceland-era Paul Simon and early Talking Heads in equal doses, and proving that a “serious” indie record can still be joyously optimistic.

7. She & Him, Volume 1

Standout tracks: “Sweet Darlin’”, “You Really Got A Hold On Me”

This wonderful throwback to 50s era Doo-wop and Motown features the voice of Zooey Deschanel, whose innocent yet sexy crooning sounds so sweet and so sad all at the same time.  Check out their stellar, slow-as-molasses cover of “You Really Got A Hold On Me”, which just happens to sound like it was recorded in a bathroom.

8. Mudcrutch

Standout tracks: “Scare Easy”, “Orphan Of The Storm”

Some suspected Tom Petty’s reunion with his old band from Gainesville would just be a subpar take on a new Heartbreaker’s record.  Turns out Mudcrutch was the best Petty project since Wildflowers.  Lead by a man whose age wears him well, Mudcrutch had a voice all its own due to Petty’s winning mix of Southern charm and backwoods wisdom.

9. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular

Standout tracks: “Kids”, “Time To Pretend”

“Kids” was the song for this and all summers, a breezy and affectionate ode to innocence that sported the catchiest synth keyboard lick since Van Halen’s “Jump”.  Great to see “Time To Pretend” over the opening credits of the movie 21 too…too bad the rest of the movie blew!

10. The Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely

Standout tracks: “Old Enough”, “Many Shades Of Black”

Jack White, you are the savior of rock n’ roll for our times.  While the first Raconteurs record’s saving grace was the killer single “Steady As We Goes”, their second outing was the album that indicated that The Raconteurs are not just Mr. Black’s one-off experiment, but a band with a singular sound that could stand on its own.  Meg, who?