2008: 25-16

Sorry for being so late; I am currently overwhelmed by term papers. I'm actually being very irresponsible making this list at all, but hey, I need my year-end list don't I? I will hopefully go back and fill these out with more pictures/words later. OK, without further ado:
25.Alphabeat

Is this the token sugar pop album on my list? Maybe. I feel bad about putting this on here, since I start to get stomach aches when I actually listen to it all the way through. I can't ignore the fact that I often listen to “10,000 Nights,” “Boyfriend,” and “Touch Me Touching You” on repeat.
24.Be Your Own Pet – Get Awkward
I'm the only person I know who like Be Your Own Pet as much as I do. So I had no one to complain to when they broke up. The first album was like a slap in the face; this one was much more digestible, with elements of mall-punk and violence I can understand. BYOP is still more of a Siouxsie than a Donnas, though, and I have unashamed fun when I listen to this, their second and last album.
23.HEALTH – Disco
I don't really have anything to say about this album besides its fast, loud, and dancey. I could listen to 20 different versions of Triceratops, if they were as well remixed as these. If I were a professional athlete, this would be my favorite album to listen to before the big game.
22.Nico Muhly - Mothertongue

I really love this album, but I'm not sure I understand it. Who are the multiple voices supposed to be? What is the relationship to folk music? Is there a connection between the first and second halves of the album? I fell asleep once to this album; my dreams are terrifying. Yet I find myself returning to Muhly again and again, for a kind of music I've never experienced before. That kind of album doesn't come around very often.
21.Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Dolores
I wonder if I would have nearly as many drone/post-rock albums on my year-end lists if I made them in, say, June rather than December. There's something about winter that just begs me to listen to slow, grinding, dark music. And this album certainly qualifies; it's been on repeat the past few weeks. Then again, winter hasn't actually hit here in Austin; it's still T-shirt weather outside. Maybe music like this is more associated with term papers for me...
20.Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down in the Light
I'm not a huge B “P” B fan, but this album ranks up there among my favorites, with I See a Darkness and Ease Down the Road. His voice works better, I think, the folkier his songs get, and this as folky as they get. The duets are wonderful too, and there is just enough honk on the album to keep it from dragging into wrist-slitting territory. “Easy Does It” and “For Every Field There's a Mole” are among my favorite singer-songwriter songs in a year in which I don't listen to that kind of music.
19.Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
See: Bohren and Der Club of Gore, but I listened to this album this spring. I can't believe the Earth concert was sold out when I tried to buy tickets in Berlin; I had to go to a disappointing Yeasayer concert instead. When I first heard “The Driver,” the guitar struck a chord in me that is still ringing, I think: it sounds like a darker, not-dated-sounding soundtrack to Twin Peaks. I will see them live, one of the days.
18.Clinic – Do It!

Back in high school I LOVED Internal Wrangler and Walking With Thee; then I got to college and was disappointed by their subsequent albums, which sounded like a rehashing of those, but less interesting. This album, though, has all the bite of the former and all the mood of the latter; I rank it right up there.
17.The Cure – 413 Dream
The Cure are in my favorite 3 bands ever. This is my favorite Cure album since Bloodflowers at least.
16.Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling

OK, so this is no Mr. Beast, but the new Mogwai sound is growing on me. “The Sun Smells Too Loud” is fun in a way that old Mogwai isn't, and “Batcat” rocks hard, even if I miss the long buildups. Have you seen the video for that, by the way? OMG. I fully acknowledge that I have this WAY too high on my list, and I'm not even going to try to prove its worth. At least there's no Ryan Adams on this list, though!