i didn't do an end-of-year fave albums list last year, because i found that i really didn't listen to a lot of whole albums during the course of the year. i don't know whether this year had better music, or if my attention span just increased a bit, but there were a number of complete albums & EPs which did a good job of catching my ear.

my listening habits are still a lot different than they were a few years ago... maybe it's the influence of my iPod Shuffle, but i tend to focus more on individual tracks, rather than complete album-length works. the music press keeps saying "the end of the album" is near for that very reason, but i don't see it happening quite yet.

in recent weeks, i've been adding bits and pieces to a best-of-2008 list, and i think it's time to share. here's the list, and there's more info and links to mp3s behind the cut. this list represents a wide range of musical styles, so almost anyone should find something here they love and something here they hate :-)

Phil's Top 12 of 2008:
#12) Fennesz - Black Sea
#11) Cranes - Cranes
#10) Envy/Jesu - split EP
#09) Pidgeon - Might As Well Go Eat Worms
#08) Pinhead Gunpowder - West Side Highway EP
#07) Matt Elliott - Howling Songs
#06) Antony and the Johnsons - Another World EP
#05) Unbunny - Sensory Underload
#04) D_rradio - D_rradio
#03) Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
#02) Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
#01) The Mae Shi - Hlllyh



#12) Fennesz - Black Sea
The latest instrumental release from prolific guitarist and sound manipulator Christian Fennesz is one of the few albums of his I enjoy listening to all the way through. He's always got interesting ideas & sounds, but I tend to prefer them in relatively small doses. This album covers a lot of territory, from billowing guitar fuzz, to harsh sonic processing, to gentle acoustic melody. Rather than structured songs, these tracks are more expansive and free-form.

Listen to Saffron Revolution.


#11) Cranes - Cranes
I'm guessing that Cranes are an acquired taste for most people, due to Alison Shaw's odd little-baby-girl vocals. I particularly enjoyed some of their earlier work when that wispy voice was set against noisier, fuzzier instrumentation. Their recent albums have moved in a much gentler, mellower direction, and I haven't been a big fan. But this album -- allegedly their last -- manages to be sweet without being boring... at least to my ears. It serves as a fitting lullaby ending to what has been a surprisingly long career.

Listen to Worlds.


#10) Envy/Jesu - split EP
I wrote about this release here.

Listen to A Winter Quest for Fantasy.


#9) Pidgeon - Might As Well Go Eat Worms
The sophomore album from San Francisco's Pidgeon treads some new ground. Their debut was very much in the indie-noise-pop-guy-girl-vocals mould of Thingy or Pee or the Pixies. The new album veers all over the place stylistically, from screamy metal to punk-pop to simple & melodic. There are definitely parts that are heavier than their debut, but they often reveal a strong pop core. Here are two faces of Pidgeon:

Listen to Could Be The Last Time.
Listen to California (Is For Fuckers).

#8) Pinhead Gunpowder - West Side Highway EP
Although often referred to as a "Green Day side project" since Billy Joe Armstrong handles a lot of the vocals, Pinhead Gunpowder was organized by punk musician and 'zine author Aaron Cometbus. I first heard them on the radio years ago covering Diana Ross' "(Theme from) Mahogany", and this new release (on 7" vinyl or digital download) is their first output in 8 years. Kathleen Hannah lends vocals to one track (although not the title track linked below).

Listen to West Side Highway.


#7) Matt Elliott - Howling Songs
The third and final installment in Matt Elliott's "Songs" trilogy (following up on the albums "Drinking Songs" and "Failing Songs") continues his unique blend of eastern-european-influenced instrumentation with a love of noise and drama familiar to fans of his work as The Third Eye Foundation. One reviewer described it as "a frightening collision of introspection and anger."

Listen to A Broken Flamenco.


#6) Antony and the Johnsons - Another World EP
Antony gets around quite a bit... in addition to his own recorded output, he's also contributed guest vocals to a number of other albums (including Pitchfork Media's pick for the #1 song of 2008). He's another artist I've always enjoyed in small doses, and this EP turns out to be just about the perfect amount of Antony for my ears.

Listen to Another World.


#5) Unbunny - Sensory Underload
This is actually a compilation of rare and out-of-print tracks from EPs, compilations, and whatnot. Unbunny is the work of Seattle musician Jarid del Deo. His quirky, low-fi style reminds me of The Mountain Goats and Neutral Milk Hotel. "The Path" (linked below) actually appeared on a compilation CD I posted long ago on LJ.

Listen to The Path.


#4) D_rradio - D_rradio
Their myspace page says "d_rradio make music with a graceful, timeless sound and a joyously mesmerizing feel. Warm, vibrant and widescreen in production, the melodies and rhythms have a subtle lightness of touch and a melancholic sense of hope. Difficult to pin down and easy to fall in love with, this music has a clear intention; to make you feel alive." A friend introduced me to them a few years back, and this year I accidentally stumbled across their new album (self-titled, the same as their first). I couldn't pick just one track to share, so here are two:

Listen to Paper Soul.
Listen to So Long.


#3) Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
When I was in SF over the summer, bearzbub went to the video store to get a dvd to watch with beg1n and me. our first choice (i forget now what it was) wasn't available, so he got the first season of HBO's Flight of the Conchords. I was immediately enamored of "New Zealand's fourth-most-popular novelty folk duo", and their clever, catchy folk parodies. Season 2 of the series starts on January 18th!

Listen to The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room).

(and if you follow the link for song #9, you can get a FotC track that wasn't included on the album.)


#2) Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
Greg Gillis has assembled a remarkable sonic collage that has got to be the most copyright-law-stretching release in history. It is composed almost entirely of samples from other songs, and I've been really surprised not to hear of any lawsuits about it. Much of the album consists of a main vocal borrowed from a rap or R&B song, layered over bits and pieces of tracks from the last 40 or 50 years of popular music. I imagine that the rap component will put some people off, but I'm not a rap fan, and I still love this. It even prompted me to go out and find some of the rap originals... although in most cases it turned out I wasn't as crazy about the originals as I was about the Gillis-ized versions. Listening to this album is like playing a high-speed game of "name that tune" as samples of artists as varied as Radiohead, Heart, Eminem, The Bangles, Beyonce, The Jackson 5, Prince, Toni Basil, Metallica, and Rick Astley go whizzing by.

You can find the complete list of samples here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_the_Animals -- i think of it like a "name that tune" answer key :-)

The album is really meant to be listened to as one continuous track (and that's one of the digital release options), but there is a version divided into individual tracks. Here's one that I posted on LJ before.

Listen to Like This.


#1) The Mae Shi - Hlllyh
I wasn't a big fan of The Mae Shi's debut album & EP... it was all a bit too spastically frenetic for me (their first album squeezed 33 tracks into 43 minutes) and I didn't really like the vocals. But since then they've switched vocalists and their most recent album brings a bit of restraint and a strong sense of melody that make for compelling listening. There are still enough musical left turns and noisy outbursts to keep it weird, but there are also plenty of pop touches to smooth the edges a bit. There is a thematic undercurrent about the Book of Revelation, and the lyrics show an apocalyptic bent on occasion, but it's by no means a religious album -- to me it comes across more as socio-political commentary on life in the 21st century. One of the strangest moments is the 11-minute album mid-point "Kingdom Come", which is a techno megamix built from samples of the other tracks. Stylistically, it is totally out of character, but I personally find it quite catchy, and it serves as an interesting segue into the album's second half.

They're coming to Seattle on Jan. 25th, and I'm hoping to be there. Apparently they put on quite a live show.

Listen to Run To Your Grave.
Watch the video.
And here's an interesting cover version: Run To Your Grave (by Slow Club).