LISTMANIA 2008The Best Albums of the Year: Honorable Mentions

Only twenty candidates made the cut this year, but there were quite a few excellent albums lingering at the edge of the bubble...like Syracuse on the NCAA tourney selection special. Some simply weren't top-twenty material, while others I could only hear briefly or piece-by-piece via free downloads, but all are worth picking up if you have the means (or a Limewire account).

I would also like to mention a few albums I wanted to listen to, but never got to hear in their entirety: TV on the Radio - Dear Science; Guns & Roses - Chinese Democracy; Boris - Smile; Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak; Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull; Spiritualized - Songs in A & E; and Hot Chip - Made in the Dark.

(Don't forget to check out the 40 Best Songs of 2008!)

Here, in no real order, are the Listmania 2008 runners-up.


Titus Andronicus – The Airing of Grievances
Forget the Hold Steady—lord knows I wish I could—these Glen Rock, New Jersey, natives' ramshackle debut is indie rock's true answer to the Boss.


Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
A white acoustic folkie from Wisconsin who somehow manages to sound like the best TV on the Radio songs they never recorded. Must be heard to be believed.


The Dirtbombs – We have You Surrounded
Mick Collins's underrated Detroit psycho-soul outfit take their typical genre-hopping ways to new extremes. Check out an interview at The Sound of Young America.


MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
The standard bearers of the hippie-ster movement may have committed the unpardonable sin of bringing colorful head-scarves back into vogue, but they also produced a legitimate neo-psych masterpiece. "Electric Feel" and "Time to Pretend" were two of the year's best singles.


Black Mountain – In the Future
Sabbath riffs? Check. Blue Cheer fuzz? Check. Extended jams? Check. Enjoy.


Fucked Up – Chemistry of Common Life
This is an album of super-awesome face-melting Canadian hardcore. Yeah, if you're not already running to the record store there's not much more I can do for you.


Abe Vigoda – Skeleton
Fractured "tropical punk" straight out of Chino, California. Bouncing, high-toned guitar gymnastics with so much echo it sounds like it was recorded in a high school bathroom.


Foals – Antidotes
And this year's Futureheads Award for the English band whose sound is most often referred to as "angular" goes to...Foals, a semi-incomprehensible quintet of Oxford lads with a penchant for chiming guitars and colorful sweatshirts.


Islands – Arm's Way
Never let it be said that Islands' Nick T. (formerly of indie stalwarts The Unicorns) is afraid of gilding the lily; the guy likes to throw a lot of instruments into his songs. And while this approach sometimes flirts with diminishing returns, the successes are truly epic.


Santogold – Santogold
Santogold's debut veers from dancehall to U.K. garage to 80s-style anthemic rock in a multi-culti mélange worthy of M.I.A. (to whom she is frequently, and favorably, compared). Santogold may be the year's best driving music.


Does It Offend You, Yeah? – You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
Perched on the narrow line between the best and worst band names ever, DIOYY are this year's most lovable post-rave pranksters.


Evangelicals – The Evening Descends
Describing an album as "weird" is the height of laziness, even for the armchair critic. Nonetheless, The Evening Descends is weird. Not Trout Mask Replica weird, but definitely 1980s Danny Elfman weird. Every song seems to be about Halloween, skeletons, or scary movies, and the singing isn't so much "singing" as "a spider is crawling on my neck" moaning. It's fantastic.



Love Is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night
Admittedly, after the energetic brilliance of Love Is All's debut, I found this album's same-y tempo disappointing. That said, an OK Love Is All album is still better than most of the stuff out there.


Metallica – Death Magnetic
Rick Rubin is the Flip this House of music: he takes on down-market fixer-uppers, hoses off all the unnecessary dross, and returns them to their former glory. First it was Johnny Cash, then it was Neil Diamond, and now it's the seemingly unredeemable 'Tally. In the wake of the trainwreck self-parody of their Some Kind of Monster period, it's fun to imagine Rubin's pitch: "So how do you guys feel about NOT being a bloated joke? I'm thinking we could cut the over-produced horseshit and maybe get back to, oh I don't know...maybe thrashing the shit out of some metal?" The resulting album is no Master of Puppets, but it's no Load either. That's a big step in the right direction, and it's nice to see this dog returning to some old tricks.


Why? – Alopecia
A hip-hop/indie rock album that sounds like an unholy cross between the Bloodhound Gang, They Might Be Giants, and MC 900 Ft. Jesus? Yeah, but it's actually good.

Up next...

The 20 Best Albums of 2008!