So I finally got the Best Tracks list up - was only over the last couple of days I managed to knuckle down and do it, and it feels good to have it finished.
Of course, you may have noticed the formatting looks like shit and the font, size etc. is all different to before. That's not intentional, but blogspot has decided to act like a dick and refuse to publish my post the way I want it. If I can ever figure out why then I'll try and fix it, but in the meantime it's stuck that way. Grr.
Still have the Top 10 Albums list to go, hoping to tackle that over the weekend. Have an essay to do now though.
Unsurprisingly, I am already way behind schedule, and now hoping to finish these lists before the end of 2009, having missed my previous deadline by over a week. Here we go with the Top 10 Tracks:
10: M83
"Kim & Jessie"
[Mute] Pretty much everyone who's heard it agrees - Saturdays = Youth is a great album. Similarly, these same people nodded and declared "Kim & Jessie" the finest track on the album. Naturally, and stupidly, it was my first instinct to stick a more left-field choice in the Top 10. Sparse but lovely "Skin of the Night" perhaps, or maybe the sombre "Too Late". I even briefly considered opening track "You, Appearing" (which, while divine, doesn't really work as a standalone song).
It was only after a dig through my recent memory that I remembered it was this song that I first fell in love with - after buying the album on a total whim - and that I still return to time and again. I listen to the whole album lots, of course, but this one song remains a permanent fixture in playlists and mix CDs some nine months on. If this is the "new" sound for M83 - epic, heartfelt, windswept, and very '80s, then "Kim & Jessie" is surely the new quintessential M83 track.
09: Hercules and Love Affair "Blind" [DFA] Before 2008, it was no secret that Antony Hegarty had one of the strongest and most unique voices in modern music. Whether anyone but Hercules creator Andy Butler knew that it was also a perfect fit for disco is another matter, but nowhere is the brilliance of that pairing more apparent than on this single. Most people would agree that great music should either move your heart or move your feet. By this thinking, any song that manages both should be fine indeed, and upon listening to "Blind" you may find it hard to argue. Together, Butler and Hegarty craft a song of such seductive passion and unbridled emotion it is difficult to resist, and once inside you won't want to leave (a good thing for a song over 6 minutes long). What's more, you'll feel like dancing like it's 1979.
08: Animal Collective "Seal Eyeing" [Domino] Animal Collective's brief but gorgeous 2008 release succeeded in feeling as epic as their recent full-length albums. In just under 20 minutes, it winds through breezy meditations on water, wanders down moonlit city streets, dives into echoing caverns, before finally bubbling out into a clear and beautiful lagoon. That lagoon is closing track "Seal Eyeing", a gentle piano ballad comprising melting shores, swimming in sunshine and the fragility of nature. Compared to his usual abrasive style of vocals, here Avey Tare sounds calm and at peace, with the air of someone entranced by a scene of utmost beauty. The combination of fluttery piano, sighing vocals and melted ambient sound will make you feel much the same way.
07: Conor Oberst "Sausalito" [Merge] As an accomplished and experienced young musician, Conor Oberst is no stranger to the road song. 2005's aptly-titled "Another Travelin' Song" from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning proved this. However, while that song was an angry and confused rant from a tormented heart, "Sausalito" finds the songwriter more relaxed. Much like sister track "Moab" on the same album, this is a song all about redemption and healing on the road, and the promise of a new and better life elsewhere. More than just a dream of far-off happiness, here Oberst revels in the beauty of travelling the beaten path, and of escape.
06: Crystal Castles "Vanished" [Last Gang] Much of Crystal Castles output so far is of the shouty variety of electronic music, and that's all well and good. For my money though, their real talent lies in more restrained pieces, the tracks that are more concerned with subtle modulations than shock or impact. "Vanished" is hypnotic in its use of a single sound. Lonely and icy sounding, yet comforting, it is pitched up and down, stretched and punctuated with clear thudding percussion. Beautiful even without the accompanying lyrics, as a whole it is spellbinding to the last desolate line.
05: Kings of Leon "Sex on Fire" [RCA] Perhaps in thirty years' time, music historians will examine 2008 and note it was the year that Kings of Leon transformed from popular rock band to global phenomenon. The reason is "Sex on Fire". While the Tennessee quartet have rarely been a band of subtle pleasures, this single takes the latent epic quality of their music and kicks it into overdrive. While not their best song, it outstrips the rest of their discography in terms of pure fun, practically commanding the listener to jump around and shout along. Their new glossy production style may not work on every track, but here it is perfect, bringing Caleb's vocals high up in the mix, while the backing instruments lock together in brilliant unison. Yet despite the rigid production, it is not a boring song. In fact, it's one of the most exciting of their career.
04: Hot Chip "Ready for the Floor" [EMI] Hot Chip started their career with an endearing take on hip-hop, and on second album The Warning they successfully applied that same style to electro music. Twin singles "Boy From School" and "Over and Over" successfully proved they could conquer both the heart and the dancefloor respectively, but "Ready for the Floor" is perhaps the ultimate combination of the band's two distinctive sides. While there is nothing overtly emotional about this track, it is perhaps the sweetest and most earnest dance song you will ever hear. While many tracks on The Warning were tongue-in-cheek aggressive, here Hot Chip remain confident but dispose of the threats, instead offering a wholly charming pop tune that not only commands you to dance, but also to smile. No.1 guys indeed.
03: Four Tet "Ribbons" [Domino]
Much of the music that comes under the broad ambient/techno/IDM/downtempo umbrella works well as both background sound and something to be actively listened to, and while "Ribbons" is certainly dreamy sounding, its gentle layering and building of different sounds demands to be unthreaded and picked apart in your head. Kieran Hebden is an expert at sprinkling his tracks with delicious blips, bubbles and drips of noise. On "Ribbons" though, the listener is positively spoilt. Each bassy thud, every ambient splash is a joy for the ears. A piece of music to be savoured.
02: Vampire Weekend "M79" [XL]
Despite having gone on for decades, it still feels somewhat novel to hear a rock aesthetic paired with sweeping strings. When done as effortlessly as Vampire Weekend manage, the result is positively delightful. A brilliant song in its own right, it is the giddy string refrain that makes "M79", swooping in and out of the track with a heady joy. Combined with the four-piece's remarkably full sound and Koenig's colourful lyrics, it provides the apex of the album and an undeniable statement of talent. Mediocre indie bands, pay attention.
01: Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal" [Sub Pop]
The best song of 2008 isn't an indicator of musical trends, nor is it a cultural or political signpost. Like the rest of the album, "White Winter Hymnal" seems to almost exist outside of our time. Not only does it sound like it could have been made at any time since the advent of popular music, it sounds like it could have existed at any point in human history. The lyrics, abstract though they may be, are truly universal - the joy of life, the passage of seasons and the inexorable encroach of death. Everything passes, all things die, singer Pecknold seems to suggest, and yet he and his band have crafted a song so achingly beautiful and essential that its own end seems impossible. Here is a song that soundtracks human existence, and deserves to last just as long.
