the great pumpkin

This list has taken much longer than expected.  There were a bunch of albums that I liked in 2008, but I feel that this is pretty comprehensive, but the ones that made this list I truly liked from beginning to end…in my opinion solid records.

For example, I really loved the No Kids record (Come into My House), but I was much more into the R&B songs versus the world music songs…and for that reason it didn’t make my list.

Some things got left off because I didn’t get them til early 2009 (examples are Wavves- s/t and Castanets – City of Refuge), but somethings that I didn’t get into until the end of 2008 shot up to the top ten (mainly Grouper).  I was going to do a top 10, but I have been into the blogging and I wanted to do something bigger (also see my best of 7″ and 12″ singles of 2008).

Welcome to my Top 25 albums of 2008:

25. Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls (Mauled By Tigers Records / In the Red)

24. Eat Skull- Sick to Death (Siltbreeze)

23. Abe Vigoda – Skeleton (Post Present Medium)

22. Desolation Wilderness- White Light Strobing (K Records)

21. Matmos – Supreme Balloon (Matador)

20. Arthur Russell – Love is Overtaking Me (Audika)

19.  The Dodos – Visitor (French Kiss)

18.  Xiu Xiu – Women as Lovers (Kill Rock Stars)

17. David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything that Happens Will Happen Today (self released)

16. Beach House – Devotion (Carpark)

15. The Magnetic Fields- Distortion (Nonesuch)

14. Titus Andronicus – Airing of Grievances (Troubleman Unlimited)

13. Bonnie Prince Billy- Lie Down in The Light (Drag City)

12. Lord Dog Bird - s/t (Jagjaguwar)

11. Burning Star Core – Challenger (Hospital Productions/ Plastic Records)

10. No Age – Nouns (Sub Pop)

9. Thee Oh Sees- The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In (Tom Lab)

8. Times NewViking- Rip it Off (Matador)

7. High Places- High Places (Thrill Jockey)

6. Karl Blau- Nature’s Got Away / AM (K Records / Whistler)

5. Grouper- Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill (Type)

4. Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. (Kranky)

3. Mount Eerie- Dawn / Lost Wisdom / Black Wooden Ceiling Opening (P.W. Elverum and Suns)

2. The Music Tapes- For Clouds and Tornadoes (Merge)

1. Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now, Youngster / We are Beautiful, We are Doomed (Wichita/Arts & Crafts)

Tags: Abe Vigoda, Arthur Russell, Beach House, Bonnie Prince Billy, Brian Eno, Burning Star Core, David Byrne, Deerhunter, Desolation Wilderness, Eat Skull, Grouper, High Places, Karl Blau, Lord Dog Bird, Los Campesinos!, Matmos, Mount Eerie, Music Tapes, No Age, The Dodos, The Magnetic Fields, Thee Oh Sees, Times New Viking, Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, Xiu Xiu