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In the interest of all thing negative and reductive, here's a response to the top ten albums of 2008 as chosen by Penusfork.
10. DJ/Rupture Uproot I did like the "Brooklyn Anthem," despite the carpetbagging. But while most tracks are accomplished dancehall-dubstep-electro hybrids, I still can't get the memory of bad drum n' bass/jungle out of my head when I hear dubstep. This also makes me think of Ali G, and that's not a good thing. And this is just a DJ mix. Play some instruments. Or dig deeper. This only skims surfaces.
9.Hercules and Love Affair Hercules and Love Affair Interesting for Antony's vocals +disco, but they think it's corny in the clubs. 'Cept in Chicago, I guess.
8.M83 Saturdays=Youth Deserved much higher. My #2
7. Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend Cultural carpetbagging by a walking Benneton commercial does not justify expanding three decent, even interesting songs into a 10 track yawner. Not even in my top 50. Thank god I didn't buy it.
6.TV on the Radio Dear Science. Total dud. I've already destroyed any memory of this release so I can enjoy their next album.
5. Deerhunter Microcastle/Weird Era Cont For sure, Mr. Cox's constant feeding of news material, to p-fork, assisted ranking. As for me, not sure why (yet), but I can't get my nails into this one. Their first release means so much to me, and their second, Cryptograms, was such a giant, towering effort, that this seems sterile in comparison. I may have to let the unfair analysis stick.
4. Cut Copy In Ghost Colors The album that #9,#7, and #6 weren't. Against all my learned skepticism, it hit me right in that secret nucleus accumbens I'd suppressed since Duran Duran. Or I'm not as hetero as I thought. Don't tell my wife. Although she knows.
3.No Age Nouns. I pitch mad respect, but there's so much lo-fi garage out there, and No Age doesn't exactly surpass it all, that I couldn't give the time.
2. Portishead Third My number one of the year. Few albums rarely shatter the rest of the pack like brittle glass figurines, and even fewer are comeback albums after a chunk of silent years. Recorded music ought to sound like its creators had to make it for no other reason than something would have consumed them had they failed to do so. The Who comes to mind. More bands should make less albums, and Portishead is the reason.