Best Everything 2008

Is it 6 Barrel Shotgun, the idea of which still baffles the mind?

No, it's Weapon of Choice - not quite Six Barrel, but damn close. There's still hope for it being downloadable, though.

Also, seeing as 2008 is drawing to a close I think we need a Best Of 2008. We could do albums, movies, QVC products, religions, whatever suits your fancy.

Owen's Best of 2008 albums

Albums:

1). Death Cab's Narrow Stairs

With Plans I felt DCFC finally captured the sound they had been going for since Photo Album and that any subsequent albums have to have to be drastically different to mark a new direction. I was right. It seem the Seattle foursome went back to the drawing board with their first release, You Can Play These Songs With Chords to chart a new course (appropriate seeing as YCPTSWC contained a myriad of styles ranging from rock to pop to techno). Narrow Stairs is highly reminiscent of their early work, with heightened dissonance and faded vocals, along with a little something new . As always, Gibbard's lyrics are piercing and laced with the classic American melancholy of disillusionment with age and unfulfilled promises. While it took a little getting used to Narrow Stairs does a great job of diversifying their collection and if this is their new direction I'm definitely in for the ride.

2). Bloc Party's Intimacy

There exists a war between Bloc Party fans over which of their two studio albums (Silent Alarm or Weekend in the City) is superior and which, of the two starkly different sounds (Silent Alarms "noise music" intensity or WITC's soft-spoken twang) should be perused. It seems like Bloc Party, in an attempt to quell the violence, created an album that would satisfy both sides. I think they succeeded. Intimacy is highly intense album, filled with heart-racing guitar rifts (Better Than Heaven) and pulsating synth beats (Flux) while still reigning in the discordance and laying down some semblance of order. The way I see it, even if Intimacy ranks as #2 of the 3 albums for both Matt and I, it's still a good compromise.

:It should be noted that this war has been primarily waged between Matt and I and may not drastically effect the relationships of other Bloc Party fans:

No, but we can pretend that it does, and feel so very good about ourselves.

3). Greg Laswell's Three Flights from Alto Nido

Disclaimer: This is Scrubs Music. By which I mean this is music that could easily be seen in Scrubs, as Zach Braff muses on overcoming obstacles and Sarah Chalk. Musically this means that Laswell's Three Flights is crooning, highly melodic, and finds crevices of your brain in which to hide and torture you. It's probably this last feature that's promoting me to nominate it for one of the best albums of the year. Laswell continues in the style of David Grey, Augustana, and The Fray with the deadly combo of a gently strummed acoustic guitar and semi-haunting piano chord. While I know this selection isn't the deepest or the most artistically noteworthy but I can't deny that it's been racking up play counts on my iTunes. Here's one for the Main Streamer's!

4). The Indie Rock Playlist: July

I know, I know. This isn't an actual album. But neither are the Now That's What I Call Music DCLXVI (points for translation) collections. I'm nominating the IRPL July for two reasons. A) It was a phenomenal sampler of independent music from 2008 with songs to make you laugh, cry, dance, or stare out train windows and reflect. B). I haven't listened to that many real albums from 08. Prior to the July sampler I hadn't been thrilled with the IRPL series. Listening to some of them I felt like I was combing the beach with a metal detector, finding a lot of lost keys and buried retainers (I guess) and only rarely stumbling onto something worth keeping. After trudging through 120 songs I'd keep maybe 5 or 6. This changed with July. Almost every song was good, prompting me to keep every single one. It was the perfect party mix, to play in the background of small gatherings or on road trips (Poet's Dying, Ballantine's, Arcade Catastrophe, to name a few), and contained some real hits from bands new and old. It's a great introduction to IRPL although it may spoil you for any future ones.

5). Umm...well...I'd nominate either TVOTR's Dear Science or Oasis's Dig Out Your Soul but I was disappointed by both. Keane came out with Perfect Symmetry, which made me feel old because it sounds like Tom Chaplin's balls have finally dropped. Oh well, I guess I have some listening to do. I'll get back to you on this one.

Dig Out Your Soul was pretty underwhelming. In the same way that when you cook a quesadilla with nothing but a plain tortilla and a Shaw's PizzaCheese pack, it's not that it's bad, just really really boring. Not really the fault of the food, or you as a chef, it's just the ingredients weren't there.

You hating the new TV on the Radio will mean that I have to crush you, though.