2008 Albums: 11-15

15. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

It's difficult to shake a song you hear while incredibly happy to be the best man in a close friend's wedding. Add to that being buoyantly drunk, garrulous, jubilant, and in an unfamiliar city being driven around by a mysterious woman (Kyle's girlfriend). All these circumstances converged in Electric Feel, which Kyle played over and over while we all embraced each other in the back of a car and cared not what it looked like. We fell asleep singing that song in the hotel room, and played it the next morning despite raging hangovers and the fact that Nick periodically threw up all the way home.

But as much as I wanted to just put on Electric Feel and remember that night, the other songs were immediately interesting enough to keep me listening to the whole album. They're warm, lush, immediate, and sugary. And I just kept listening to the album over and over. I didn't care what they sang about or why, or if the music was derivative or inventive. It was, and is, just a hugely enjoyable album to listen to. So here it is on my list.

14. Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too

The first time through this album, I actually sort of chuckled. For some reason what popped into my head was some sort of mid-90s computer generated school video about travelling through the universe, zooming in and out of the solar system and learning about planets. This, naturally, made it very hard to take the album too seriously. Repetive beats, spacey sounds, artificial synthesizer melodies -- it sounded like the production assistant at an educational video publisher had got hold of an MC-303 and gone to town.

I clearly got past this initial reaction. In fact, this is a beautiful piece of work that I listened to many times while reading and writing, and came to appreciate like a piece of classical music. It's hardly danceable -- there are bits here and there that would work, but in between long stretches of swirly ambience where you'd stand around wondering what to do -- but that's probably not the point. Plus, doesn't he look like such a nice guy?

13. Lykke Li - Youth Novels

What the hell is it with Sweden? It's like a conveyer belt of really good bands. One after the other, year after year, somebody new comes around and blows me away. My biggest Sweden crush this year was Lykke Li, who is young (22), smart, not afraid to be goofy, and a fantastic writer of pop songs.

It's easy to listen to this album once or twice and walk away saying "meh." The production is very minimilist and uncrowded, which can be a little underwhelming, especially because the songs are well-written enough to really soar, and at times I really wished they would. But I stuck with it, and found myself increasingly charmed. It's a very, very restrained album, and mature because of it--every little beat and backup vocal is carefully placed. Lykke's voice is pretty airy and gentle, so the simplicity suits her -- but it takes time to love. She's a coy artist, which is the best kind to have a crush on.

12. Shearwater - Rook

During my torrential love affair with Okkervil River this year, building on my love for last year's The Stage Names, I read a lot about them. That's when I found out about Shearwater, a side-project for Will Sheff with Jonathan Meiburg that has since grown, while Sheff has lessened his role to work with Okkervil River (Meiburg also plays in Okkervil River)

The influence of one band on the other is clear, but Shearwater is a lot calmer, darker, and introspective. Like the National, the band pulls off a kind of wearied sophistication that's massively appealing. There is a melancholy to everything, but none of that mood weighs down the record; instead it give it permanence. The songs ebb and flow with the high falsetto and richly expressive qualities of Meiburg's voice, which has this amazing combination of strength and fragility (think Jeff Buckley). The record is entirely human, and the songs express that. It's not a record of pop melodies or experimentation. Just an extremely high quality collection of incredibly well-written songs.

11. Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Since I missed Tanglewood Numbers back in 2005 I've been absorbing a lot of Silver Jews. I've since gone back to their earlier albums (especially American Water), and I recently realized that they're closely related to Pavement, and Stephen Malkmus played with lead singer David Berman in college and was an early member of the Silver Jews until Pavement took off. This is, I think, their best album since American Water.

Why do I love the Silver Jews? Berman is a gifted songwriter, a published poet who writes like it, and pens incredibly odd music. He's probably a heavy whiskey drinker, and just an all-around weirdo. The songs are unfailingly smart, hilarious, and never takes themselves seriously (see Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed from Tanglewood Numbers, or the epic San Francisco B.C. from Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea). It's just enough country for me, feeding a casual southern/southern-gothic fascination, and he knows how to tell a great story. He sings in a casual, deep voice that kinda reminds me of Johnny Cash in its deadpan delivery. But in the end, I'm most entranced by the strange beauty that emerges when I listen to the Silver Jews. I don't know why, but I can't deny it.