Top 15 Albums of 2008

1. The Walkmen - You & Me

2. El Guincho - Alegranza

3. The Black Keys - Attack & Release

4. Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night

5. Portishead - Third

6. Deerhunter -Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

7. Death Vessel - Nothing Is Precious Enough for Us

8. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light

9. T.I. - Paper Trail

10. No Age - Nouns

11. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

12. Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing

13. Growing - Lateral

14. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

15. Delta Spirit - Ode to Sunshine


Stay tuned for my Time Out wrap of the Top Ten.

For last year's 15 go here and for the Top Ten TONY wrap, here. Word!

Oh yeah...almost forgot...

FUCK YES.

CMJ

Doing some daily blogging for Time Out from the CMJ Festival in NYC. You can check out my preview of the events here.


Day 1 Blog here

Day 2 Blog here

Day 3 Blog here

More come—the rest of the posts will be under "Time Out Blog" in lower right rail.

Back from Denver

Check out the full hot order of my Democratic National Convention blogging here. I feared and loathed as best I could on the campaign trail.


While you're at it, observe Denver Post columnist (and local legend) Bill Husted's shout out to yours truly (scroll to the bottom).

Awesome Albums, Vol.4

I'm not exactly sure what they're doing here besides making a great fucking album.

Oxford Collapse - BITS

Awesome Albums, Vol.3

This album is no joke: Great singing and songwriting from a well-connected 24 year-old (with a lot of names) who makes this 25 year-old feel woefully inadequate.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

Awesome Albums, Vol.2

This should have been on my Top Ten from last year. I listen to it more than most of the others now, finding new sounds all the time.

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

Awesome Albums, Vol.1

Today I'm going to start recommending albums that kick total ass. I'm not going to give them a rating or some long, erudite review. Just listen to these fucking albums.

First one is just coming out; tight blues-rock to your face.

Black Keys - Attack & Release

What the hell is going on?

I'd say by the end of March/beginning of April last year, I had 10-15 albums that I was enthralled with, 10-15 albums that I probably could throw on a Year End list like the one below.

This year, I can't figure out what's going on. I suppose it's just the natural ebb and flow, but I only really like a handful of albums so far this year and of those few, only one approaches being flawless. And guess what? It was released in 2007. All Hour Cymbals by Yeasayer.

Other acceptable discs so far this year: Fuck Buttons, Bon Iver (also first released last year), The Dodos.

Shit better pick up soon.