2008 Your Morning Rock In Review – Matt’s Albums Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Posted by Jerkwheat in Your Morning Rock.Tags: matt_T, Year End Listicles, YMR In Review 2008, Your Morning Rock
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It’s time to move onto our midweek YMR contributor, ATL’s finest – the one and only Matt_T. Matt was kind enough to provide a very hearty list of favorite albums and favorite tracks from the past year, so I’ll be splitting it up over the next two days. And I’ll follow suit with the same format on Thursday and Friday. We’re working on a special treat for Friday, so keep your fingers crossed for that as well. It’s either going to be brilliant, absurd, awful, or all of the above. In the meantime, let’s reflect on the albums of 2008 with Mr. Matt…
2008 was a fantastic year of music. I consumed more new music this year than I ever have before. And I still missed a lot of good stuff that was out there.
My favorite albums:
1. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady.
There hasn’t been a week that’s gone by since this has been released that I haven’t listened to it at least twice. This is what rock should be, fantastic rifs, singalong songs, stories told and a good mixture of songs. Even their ballads come off well, instead of forced and cheesy like most power ballads.
2. Narrow Stairs – Death Cab for Cutie.
This album is beautiful. The production is amazing, it just sounds great. Gibbard as always has fantastic lyrics. It feels like you are actually involved with the characters he sings about.
3. Only by the Night – Kings of Leon.
A little different than previous albums, but a step forward. Caleb has a haunted voice that works really well on this album. It was nice to see them get some recognition for this album and appear on Gossip Girl. Even though Caleb told me he was against it, but he got out voted.
4. Evil Urges – My Morning Jacket
Like the KoL, MMJ took a different approach on this album. Its got the standard MMJ songs, which are great as always, but the experimentation and funkiness of this album is very enjoyable. yes the lyrics are stupid and nonsensical on “Highly Suspicious” but James commits to it, and it works.
5. Cardionology – Ryan Adams and the Cardinals.
Fantastic song writing on this album from Mr. Adams. He works well with the Cardinals. Great for listening on a Sunday morning.
Best of the Rest:
Not Animal – Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s
Consolers of the Lonely – The Raconteurs
Volume One – She & Him
Acid Tongue - Jenny Lewis
Mission Control – The Whigs
Needz mor Hills soundtrack albums.
WHAT WUZ THE SONG WHEN SPENCE GOT RAN OVER BY THE TRUCK?!?! PLEZ, I NEED IT!!!
solid list and pretty much all which make mine in the 11-20 range
I have tried 10 times to fix the formatting on this, but it refuses to correct itself.
Everyone should just assume the bold text is representative of the bold direction that Matt took in assembling this list. It is reminiscent of other young critics, such as OMG DO YOU KNO WHO SINGZ THE SONG THAT WUZ PLOYING WHEN WHITNEY AND LO WHERE CRYING AT THE RESTAURANT. THOSE LYRICS REMIND ME OF A BOY THAT I NO.
GOD Matty, could you be more of a pretentious douche?
:D
She & Him is great. Wait, She & Him are great. No, She & Him am great.
/fixed
//you’re welcome, Jerkwheat
Good – WordPress and I were fighting for a moment there
Does this mean I should go out and get the Jenny Lewis and MMJ albums?
#5
Album: (Tie) These 2 are nothing alike and I had a bitch of a time establishing an order so this is what you get.
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend. Yeah, putting it this high ruins whatever indie street cred I “had” but I don’t care. This was a thoroughly enjoyable album with a ton of great songs and the biggest highlight of Q1. I couldn’t listen to it over and over again but taken in doses it’s a lot of fun.
Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers. Another standout from early 2008. Just a lovely album with some innocence, some fun, and fantastic to listen to over and over again. I’m not sure if it’s gotten better with time but I could listen to it at anytime and be happy.
Song:
M.I.A. – “Paper Planes.” Didn’t really come out in 2008 but I let the songs slide if that’s when they became singles. I’m not real sure what to say about this one other than it was a fun song, became a hit, and was one of the songs that represents the year for me.
Show:
Kathleen Edwards @ The Belly Up (in May?) – I had a definite top 4 and a solid group after that (also MMJ, Swell Season, BSS) and this was probably my favorite of that group. It was an extremely intimate show with lots of chatter going back and forth with plenty of storytelling. Beautiful set that just made me feel good while striking a perfect mix of emotion and fun. I’d see her again anytime.
@SA: Do you like Jenny Lewis or My Morning Jacket? If you do I’d suggest picking the albums up but if you don’t (or haven’t heard either) I’d suggest other albums before each of their releases this year.
So, what do we need to do to get you folks to come back?
This may be heresay, but as far as Jenny Lewis, I like Acid Tongue a little bit more than Rabbit Fur Coat.
YOU ARE DEAD TO ME MR UNDERSCORE T
Rabbit Fur FTW
Is “heresay” a combination of heresy and hearsay?
I think its a combination of, I’m an idiot who can’t spell
DougO-I’m mostly meh on MMJ. Never heard Jenny Lewis solo before (no, not a big fan of Rilo Kiley. please don’t hate me) but I’ve been reading how how the album was one of the best this year. I’ll check out one her other album first.
Boy, are my lists going to look different from some of these.
Since I’m behind a day, #4
Album:
TV on the Radio – Dear Science. I know, I know, this is supposed to be #1 or #2 on all lists, but I have a couple of reservations. When I first heard the album I wasn’t completely thrilled and thought it was far inferior to TVotR’s previous efforts, but as I’ve listened to it more it keeps getting better. The songs have really grown on me as I’ve come to appreciate the larger sense brevity, angst, and energy. It all makes for a cohesive solid album that I may not have appreciated at first due to a lack of standout tracks (I didn’t care for the 1st 2 singles much but I’m big on “Lover’s Day” right now) but now realize it might be their best. Previous albums were pretty dark and kind of hard to listen to; despite Return to Cookie Mountain being my favorite album of 2006 I really wasn’t able to listen to it all the way through at once very often. I think his album has the post potential to grow and will eventually be my 2008 #1, just not right now.
Song:
Bon Iver – “Skinny Love.” Probably the most beautiful song of the year. Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLOr_FrJJWA ’nuff said
Show:
Radiohead – Like it’s #4 album counterpart, a bit lower than you would expect to see. Don’t get me wrong I loved them (I mean they are fucking Radiohead) and they put on a hell of a set with a cool stage and a great setlist, but something was lacking for me. It just didn’t quite match up to the top 3 and wasn’t nearly as memorable.
Pretty sure heresay is heresy in Southern.
Is this where I find the cakies recipe?