TLOBF Best of 2008: Jan – June

15 July 2008, 10:37

If we’re to quote The Cranberries (and why shouldn’t you?), “Everybody else is doing it, so why can’t we?”. As we’ve past the halfway point in this year of 2008, it seemed like a good time to look back. What have been the musical higlights of the year so far? We’ve had some absolutely corking albums released, from Fleet Foxes genre defying debut, to Elbow’s continued cultured and heartwarming release. It might surprise some of our readers what’s ended up on this list but one thing this exercise has made us realise, is that come the end of the year, there’s going to be a big pile of albums under the ‘Excellent’ heading…

So how did we decide on the final 10 albums? We asked all of our writers to email in their favourite 5 releases of the year thus far. Each album voted for was then given a point and entered into a highly technical spreadsheet – which left us with the following records…

The Wave Pictures Instant Coffee Baby [TLOBF Review]

Indie-rock as witty and consummately British as the erection you’re creepingly becoming aware of as you sit drunkenly a bit too close to a pretty girl on a couch.
Tom Whyman

This album still entrances, amuses and delights me, seven months after first hearing it. The naïve-yet-profound lyrics have a unique charm, perfectly matched by their jangle-indie setting. One of the most refreshing releases in many a year: wonderful stuff.
Jude Clarke

Instant Coffee Baby is the album that has probably received the most repeated plays so far this year. The songs are packed with witty, lyrical nuggets – with each listen you pick out ones you’ve previously missed. Perhaps not a perfect album (it could do with a couple of songs shaved off the end) – it is still totally satisfying, and one of the best indie pop records you’re likely to hear this year.
Rich Thane

Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes [TLOBF Review]

Quite extraordinary, otherworldly lay ‘hymns’ from an amazing new act that are unlikely to be 5 minute wonders. This album beautifully showcases their gorgeous sound-drenched sound.
Jude Clarke

I have no doubt that in years to come, this flawless debut will appear amongst Revolver, OK Computer and Nevermind in those annoying ‘Best Album of All Time’ lists that crop up year after year. A band hasn’t excited me this much since…well, I really can’t remember. It truly is a work of art and without doubt, one of the greatest debut albums I’ve ever heard – and what excites me more, is that I strongly believe they have so much more to offer. Go and buy the album, see them in concert, buy the t-shirt. Whatever. Just let them into your life. Now!
Rich Thane

This is, without doubt, one of the best albums ever, let alone this year. An offering from a band that have found a huge place in my life.
Rich Hughes

Frightened Rabbit Midnight Organ Fight [TLOBF Review]

So, what’s so great about yet another white, male, 20-something, indie rock band, then? How about: Great production decisions, a concentrated lyrical direction, stellar songwriting, Scott Hutchinson’s voice walking the line between warble and sublime melody, melody and lyrics walking the line between bleakness and euphoria? My favourite music makes me giddy, supremely confident in myself, and in love with life, in all it’s ugly, beautiful, dreadful glory. And, I suppose, all of that is what makes Frightened Rabbit and The Midnight Organ Fight so great.
Simon Gurney

Utter perfection. These guys deserve to be fucking huge. But the foul language and dodgy subject matter will always prevent that from happening. Maybe that’s the point? The album also has my favourite lyric of the year so far: “You’re the shit and I’m knee deep in it”.
Rich Thane

Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago [TLOBF Review]

What more can I say about this mysterious, mystical, raw, emotionally epiphanical dream of a record? Its popular resonance has single-handedly revived my faith in the essential goodness of humanity – a sentiment I’m sure its creator would agree with.
Emily Moore

So I’ll forgive and forget the fact that it manages to sit next to Bon Jovi on my ipod. I’ll even forgive the fact its only 37 minutes long. Which may be a good thing, as the delicate, claustophoic beauty of this album has been unequalled by anything else so far in 2008, and is all the better for its brevity. No fancy tricks or gimmicks, just great songs packed with emotion and a fizzling intensity.
Simon Reuben

There are less than a handful of records from this decade that I could happily choose as a desert island disc. The fact that two have been released in 2008 (the other record being Fleet Foxes) that I would literally die for proves this year has been the best year in music in – well, god knows how long. For Emma, Forever Ago is a work of unadulterated genius. The sincerity and honesty within it’s nine songs floored me from the very first time I heard it – that was nearly 12 months ago and even now I’m still finding new sounds and textures and emotion to wrap myself up in. Justin Vernon has created a stone cold classic, and easily one of the greatest records of the 21st Century.
Rich Thane

Elbow Seldom Seen Kid [TLOBF Review]

Oh my. What an album. Has there been a more consistent band in recent times? Guy Garvey’s found love and want’s to tell the world about it, but he’s also lost a friend and discovering Richard Hawley’s perfect croon. This is an album to fall in love with everytime you listen to it. It’s not here for the shorthaul, but, like the rest of their material, it’s here to amaze and touch you on each repeated play.
Rich Hughes

Johnny Foreigner Waited Up Till It Was Light [TLOBF Review]

Best indie-pop record since Slanted & Enchanted or (at a stretch) Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? And plus it manages to take in Cap’n Jazz too. I literally couldn’t ask for more, which is why I gave it (sort of) 100%. 100% is a score I suppose usually reserved for shimmering brilliance but to my mind its equally applicable to this sort of joyous, perfectly imperfect shouty pop amazingness. ” CAN’T LOOOOSSSE YOU IN CROWDED ROOMS!” etc.
Tom Whyman

And I thought they were amazing live! This is all that the Los Campasinos! album should have been. Full of energy and youthful vigour, I felt 10 years younger just listening to it. This is everything an indie-pop album should be about.
Rich Hughes

Bonnie Prince Billy Lie Down In the Light

Going back to the country, the bonnie prince lightens up and delivers an understated masterpeice.
Ro Cemm

It may have been released to a distinct lack of fanfare, and it’s no I See A Darkness. But it’s an intricate, warmly rewarding album, and an eighth note from Will Oldham is worth a career’s worth of songs by most bands around today.
Emily Moore

Sun Kil Moon April [TLOBF Review]

Mark Kozelek’s style of songwriting, from the early days in Red House Painters and then this most recent Sun Kil Moon album April, has always sounded to me like the aftermath of a broken nose. As strange as it may seem, that is always what his music evokes for me; a heady, muffled and painful throb. His soft, weak (but not in a bad way) voice dipping away into the rest of the instruments, guitar repeating it’s litany, calling to mind the slow powerful transformations found in minimalism, a thrumming quality that overtakes my mind, a style that gives me a temporary head cold, where just the music and melancholy survive, everything beyond that is a haze.
Simon Gurney

The Red house painter man returned to form on this melancholy work, the guitar work is right up there with his best work for a while, and moved away from the cover versions he had been known for.
Ro Cemm

Mesmerisingly beautiful. That’s all I’m going to say.
Rich Hughes

Beach House Devotion [TLOBF Review]

An otherworldly album that manages to wonderfully create its own atmosphere and feel. Shimmery summery haze-pop of the highest order.
Jude Clarke

In an age where second albums suffer from lack of ideas, imagination and focus – Beach House returned in 2008 with a renewed sense of vigour for their sophomore effort. The original ‘Beach House’ bluebrint still remains, but this time with an added pop sensibility and a more luscious production that you want to dive into and wallow around in for hours. When it comes to dream pop – nobody does it better than Beach House.
Rich Thane

Keyboard Choir Mitzen Head To Gascanane Sound

[TLOBF Review]

Like the sound of a thousand planets crashing into one another, this is one of the most adventerous and thought provoking debuts of the year so far. Their intelligent use of samples, spoken word interludes and their own sense of brooding power combines wonderfully to create an album that could best be described as a more accessible Fuck Buttons. But that does these guys an injustice. They’re their own band, creating their own fantastic sound.
Rich Hughes

Honourable mentions:
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks Real Emotional Trash [TLOBF Review]
The Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea [TLOBF Review]
The Duke Spirit Neptune [TLOBF Review]
Los Campesinos Hold On Now Youngster [TLOBF Review]
HEALTH Disco [TLOBF Review]
El Perro Del Mar From The Valley to the Stars [TLOBF Review]
These New Puritans Beat Pyramid [TLOBF Review]
The Black Keys Attack and Release [TLOBF Review]
Portishead Third [TLOBF Review]
White Denim Workout Holiday [TLOBF Review]
Fuck Buttons Street Horrrsing [TLOBF Review]
British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music? [TLOBF Review]
M83 Saturdays = Youth [TLOBF Review]