Top Ten Albums: 2008

This is always really hard for me. One of my friends made a top fifty which seems like too big an undertaking for me. I’m really picky and to be completely honest this year and last year have been a pretty close minded time for me. I’ve been listening to a lot of noise because it makes me jizz my pants. However, when I do hear albums that catch my attention I take note. While there were a number this year, I can only really make ten. Fifty seems like too gratuitous, plus I’m just not that strong and smart to make a list of albums in order of importance like that. This is my top ten and while it was extremely difficult for me, given the nature of some amazing albums that will probably not be in here, I am satisfied in this list and comfortable enough to say I’ve listened to these albums the most out of any in 2008.

10.) Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold
It was tough bumping an amazing Secret Abuse LP out of my top ten, but this is my album of winter (despite the fact it came out in May). This is all I’ve been blasting and for good reason. Slug and Ant have made some good albums before but none have the drama and lore the way this one does. It fucking delivers on all fronts. “Glass House” and “The Waitress” stand out as some of the biggest heartbreakers of 2008. I don’t care if Slug’s an asshole. Have you heard this record? There is a reason he’s so bitter. Best Hip Hop album of 2008.

9.) Beach House – Devotion
I loved loved loved this album. I can’t say it enough. LOVED. It was my summer. It was how I slouched through those shitty months. It was the end of a harsh time encapsulated for me. It was dreamy, mysterious, and oh so sad. “Wedding Bell” and “Gila” were what got me on board and “Turtle Island” still sends chills through my body. Seeing them live at CMJ was just an extra added treat. Great live band with a great record that reminds me of well, being at a beach except being really drunk and depressed.

8.) Hair Police – Certainty of Swarms
It is the first in what will be many noise records on here. It is also oddly one of the most surprising. I expected insanity. I expected deviance, but I never knew Connelley and co. were capable of something as brutal and destructive as this. I put this album on early in the morning expecting to hear the Halloween-esque howls and creepy sounds and instead I was bludgeoned to death. “Strict” is by far the most intense song they have ever recorded and the final track “Freezing Alone” is the best song by them period.. It is the perfect song for how I’ve felt this long cold winter. Connelley’s voice is in rare form as his howls and screeches sound like a baby being skinned alive. This is Hair Police’s masterpiece and head and shoulders above anything else they’ve ever done. No Fun had an amazing year with “Adult Life”, this, and another album which is further down on this list.

7.) Young Widows – Old Wounds
This album kind of snuck up on me because I had no idea it was released until I was in a record store and saw it. I had been anticipating this album for so long because of the fact 2006’s “Settledown City” was utterly jaw dropping and the best debut for a new band I’ve ever heard. This record did not disappoint and is further proof to my assessment; Young Widows are the best band to come out within the last four years. “Took a Turn” starts off with that driving bass line and kicks into what is the shortest and best song on the album, “Old Skin”. That guitar is so heavy and at such atmospheric levels. “Guitar” showcases this and “21st Century Invention” levels you with crunch. This is also my most overplayed album of this year. I cannot stop raving about this band. They are a must see live for 2009 and my band to watch. They will be headlining in two years if they can keep it together.

6.) Emaciator – Coveting
I don’t own this album and it tears me up inside. My roommate purchased this record and after listening I immediately understood why it is called “Coveting”. I covet this album so bad. I want it so band and as soon as I get home it will be mine. Talk about leaps and bounds, I had no fucking clue Borges could do this. I mean Pedestrian Deposit’s “Vestige” was a hint and his recent stuff has been leading up to it, but holy shit, “Coveting” is simply the motherfucking holy grail in drone. It’s got it all. Trippy tape loop sounds, depressing hums, and that guitar—HOLY FUCK THAT GUITAR. This is Emaciator’s swan song for now I guess because Pedestrian Deposit is to return in full force for this year but what a way to leave us hanging. Borges outdid himself with simply the saddest, most tragic, and most debilitating record to date but this sorrow master project known as Emaciator. If those last ten minutes of this album with that crying guitar, don’t bring tears to your eyes, you are a robot and deserve to be erased.

5.) Prurient – Time Began In a Garden
This is Dom’s first appearance on the list and his fourth on these lists. I said last year he is making a habit of being on here well there is a good fucking reason. Everything he puts out is fucking incredible and utterly stupefying. While other noiseheads and PE behemoths are still angrily screaming at their moms, Dom is fucking destroying the American—no, WORLD dream, one agonizing song after the next. No where is this more evident then on what will now in my mind be a classic American noise album, “Time Began in a Garden”. The concept behind this album is murder and investigation of Jon Benet Ramsey. There were only 100 copies of these double tapes and they came with a poster, stickers, and a skull key. So much time and thought went into this and the songs are as unrelenting as any harsh things he’s ever done…and it’s all drone. Dreary, dark, ambient, miserable drone. These are the saddest songs I’ve ever heard Dom record. “Stun Gun Theory” starts the misery off perfectly and if “December Man” isn’t the most chilling and unsettling thing I’ve ever heard I have to get my pulse checked. To me the highlight is “The Wine Cellar” which upon hearing broke my already cynical American Heart. “Spider Spins a Child” finishes it off and like I said, this record just breaks your heart. This record is about much more than the death of Jon Benet, it’s about the death of the family, the death of our notion of safety and ultimately the death of whatever piece of shit American dream we thought we had. Simply put: fucking brutal as shit.

4.) Akimbo – Jersey Shores
Talk about coming out of no where. These guys have been at it for a while and never get the dues they deserve. They deserve to with this monument of an accomplishment. It is their best record to date and a fucking behemoth in terms of power and heaviness—something this band is well versed in. I did not expect to listen to this album and immediately upon listening I was like, “oh hello what’s this.” I had not been too familiar with Akimbo and that’s my fault as “Jersey Shores” snuck up behind me like the shark of a record it is and tore me to pieces. The album cover fucking rules and any band that can take a concept like shark attacks off the Jersey Shore and shape it into a fucking monster of a record that still rocks, kicks ass, and not get a single ounce of cheesiness deserves five thousand beers in my book. That bass line that resonates throughout the entire album is so heavy and awesome and “Great White Bull” is their best song ever recorded. I love the fact you can pump your fist, headband and still spazz the shit out of this record. AND IT’S A FUCKING CONCEPT RECORD! Whoduhthunkit? Another case where I got to see the band live this year, and I am so grateful I did. They kick even more ass in person.

3.) Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
With all this talk about kicking ass and annihilation, one might be surprised to find this record on here and so high. Well, it’s a sad album. Quite frankly, it’s the saddest record I heard all year. And there is a reason I listen to music. The song writing on this record, the best out of all records for 2008. The songs in terms of accessibility and listenability, the best of 2008. This record came along when one my closest friends, who just so happened to be named Emma, was gone abroad in Italy and I missed her. So what, I miss my friends, I don’t care. So the album took on special meaning and after a rough year personally, nothing made me feel more connected than a depressed man, shattered by the world, alone in the Wisconsin woods, recording the most tearjerking album of this year. “Lump Sum” as sad as it is, has a cute little hoppy beat that leads right into the heaviest and most emotional track, “Skinny Love”. Those howls get me every time and the lyrics just make you want to slide even lower into your sulking pit. To me, the standout comes on Wolves Act I and II where the voice cracks to a point where a little vocoder is used. It is subtle but oh so powerful and really that sums up this record beautifully. One of the most powerful of the entire year, also one of the quietest. Sometimes all you need is your voice, a guitar and the woods to make an album heavier than any Judas Priest or Scorpions record you will ever hear.

2.) Prurient – And Still, Wanting
This is Dom’s second appearance on the list, his fifth overall and this record is up there for me next to “AIDS” and “Shipwrecker’s” as one of his crowning achievements, which is saying a lot for Dom considering everything he touches is magic. This is another No Fun release, which as I said earlier had a monumental year, but really this record is important because just when you think Fernow will start going the strict synth route, he lets you know, that his anger, aggression, and pure power in terms of noise and PE will always be unrelenting. From the opening blasts of “Memory Repeating” you are given this idea and then that almighty line, “I woke up today…” gives you a second to breathe before he destroys you again with the legion of feedback and effect loops he has at his beckoning. This man is a fucking warrior (as indicated by earlier releases), his sounds are his weapons and every single album he puts out he unleashes war on some part of the listener. “Garden” attacks the soul while “Wanting” attacks your ears and never lets up. “Total Terrorism” is as it says, complete and utter terror before unleashing mental mayhem on the listener with the best track on the record, “Strict Ideas”. Holy shit, this is a candidate for song of the year. No song captures the spirit of who I am, what I aspire to be and what Dom has been for the past eight years, like “Strict Ideas”. It features the harsh distortion, the sorrow-filled synth and the lyrics of a man plagued with terrible terrible thoughts despite his friendly demeanor. I cannot say enough about this record and what it stands out as one of Dom’s top two albums recorded. “Incense and Rubber” finishes the record off brilliantly in such suspenseful and nerve-wrecking fashion. All I’m going to say is every time I wear a shirt and tie now I will always feel a little naughty. I’ve got some pretty strict, ideas.

1.) Jason Crumer – Ottoman Black
Someone call the kids, for the first time ever a harsh noise record will be taking my honors as best album of the year. This isn’t just your normal run of the mill noise album though. No, oh god no. As I mentioned earlier in my review of this album (see May or June of 2008), this record is a fucking milestone—a motherfucking miracle. There is a reason Crumer is one of the most talked about names in noise right now and it’s because of albums like this. Blending together the greatest parts of harsh noise, drone, power-electronics and sound collage, Crumer set out to craft such an ambitious project and went way beyond what anyone was probably thinking he was going to do. The difference between this and others is leaps and bounds. Simply put: this record makes everyone look like a joke. I don’t say that to put anyone else down, but jesus tap dancing Christ how are you going to top this. “Ottoman Black” had it all. Terror and fright with “Town Crier”, suspense with “Self Deceiver”, gore and violence with “Where Were You?” and complete and utter decimation with “Betrayal After Betrayal, After Betrayal, After Betrayal.” I heard Carlos Giffoni praising this album safe for “Pissed Off Responses” but I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with my hero on this, as I felt this was an appropriate placing for a such a short and spastic release of tension (god knows I do that all the time when I break shit). This leads right into “Certified Blue” which is the culmination of a work of art that elevated Crumer to the top of my list. It is triumphant, yet bitter. Beautiful, yet tragic. It is the perfect metaphor for an album that ruled my world and well no doubt live on as a masterpiece within this particular niche of music. I don’t know what will outdo this album. Every year I hear something that immediately after hearing it, I am floored and know nothing will top it. “Ottoman Black” had my jaw literally dragging on the floor as I felt my brain and my ears get completed wasted. Crumer not only destroys, but this album is so magnificent in power, it brings tears to your eyes. I never knew what it meant to find beauty in something so morose and downtrodden as I did when “Ottoman Black” entered my life and for that—for completely destroying my world and my music life for 2008, I thank you Jason Fucking Crumer.


Honorable Mentions:

Secret Abuse – Violent Narcissus LP: If not for Atmosphere making me shit tears, this gorgeous guitar drone record was number ten.

Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us: Everyone shit on this record like they did “Our Constant Concern” because indie rock’s Captain and Tenille were going through marital problems and they don’t like to hear about that, but you know what—that’s marriage and that’s what makes it more personal. And makes me connect with it more emotionally. Best record by them SINCE “Concern”.

Shallow Waters – Equal Eyes LP: I am an opponent of mixing politics and music, but holy fuck if everyone is as pissed off as this guy I want more more and more. Brutal Power Electronics had me coughing up “Red Foam”.

Ceremony – Still Nothing Moves You: Best and most brutal hardcore album of 2008. Kudos to this band for upping the themes and songwriting while still maintaining a sound makes me break so much fucking shit every time I listen.

Crystal Antlers – EP: The only reason it is not in the top ten is that I am so eagerly anticipating the full length this year. This is the best new band out there right now. Simple infuckingcredible.


There are a lot of bands I am eagerly anticipating for next year: Crystal Antlers, Young Widows, Emeralds, Animal Collective, Wolf Eyes, etc. Next year should be a year for complete and utter mayhem. I look forward to it.