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The top 10 albums of 2008, by Spencer Ross. I welcome comments/feedback, although I’m quite satisfied with my current list.

First of all, this was a difficult year, as the recession started to hit, affecting an already decreasing my music spending capacity.  However, in spite of Sasha Fierce or the pop drivel of someone like Katy Perry (who cares if you kissed a girl? Isn’t that so 1999 teenage curiosity?) real music came through once again.  Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter III seemed to have a hold on the charts, but I failed to see where there was sufficient musical prowess, other than to show an extreme ability to commercialize hip-hop.

I’m convinced that the Napsterization of music ran two tracks: mainstream (commercial) and alternative (artistic).  2008 showed the burring of blurring line between the commercial and the artistic, as the fragmentation of musical genres and business models brought everyone to the table.

1. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Sometimes when an album comes out, you just know it’s the album of your year’s list–even if the album comes out early in the year.  The buzz surrounding the Vampire Weekend album was early and pervasive, but the Brooklyn quartet pulled through with its debut.  There was something short and sweet about Vampire Weekend. It didn’t dawdle and was upbeat the whole way through, which is a nice feeling to have.  Even the slow songs are peppy.  Top marks for originality of sound.

2. The Rhumb Line – Ra Ra Riot
Several reviews put this album akin to Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie.  Perhaps there is a similarity in the ‘alternative’ ness.  But there’s also some Andrew Bird (“Each Year”), The National (“Winter ’05″), and a tinge of Decemberists (“Oh, La”). Regardless, the songs are sweet and endearing, even if tragic.

3. The Seldom Seen Kid – Elbow
One music critic at a major publication called this album a snore.  Other publications have found this a good one, and after winning the Mercury Prize, why shouldn’t Elbow get its due?  Cast of Thousands was polished, Asleep in the Back was raw, Leaders of the Free World was forgotten… The band took tragedy to a higher level and came in with a complete album.  ”One Day Like This” is soaring string anthem at its best, “Mirrorball” is exactly the melodic 4/4 waltz it needs to be.  Additionally, the band has fought the loudness war by showcasing versatility in volume dynamic on some songs by ascribing to Turn Me Up! Hopefully this bodes well for the much anticipated Doves album in 2009.

4. Santogold – Santogold 
Another artist who found the key to exposure as selling songs to commercials (read: “Lights Out” to BudLight Lime).  It’s jungle-y and electric, sort of like M.I.A.  It’s fusion, it’s reggae, sort of like Mirwais.  It’s punk, sort of like Debbie Harry and Chryssie Hynde.  Figuring out what genre this album is, is an unnecessary feat; the album tells its own story (“Fit in so good the hope is/That you cannot see me later/You don’t know me /I am an introvert, an excavator”).

5. Only by the Night - Kings of Leon
I’m not quite sure what it is about the Followhills, but they’ve yet to put out an album that disappoints me.  Night was supposedly the product of some drugs and thunderstorms — which I think is irrelevant to the simplicity of this album.  KoL have a grand ability to write the southern rock that defines their style, move greater towards arena rock, yet still retain a uniqueness that surpasses Caleb’s yelping.  The sliding bassline of “Notion” is grandiose, yet kept in check by the guitars.  The same can be said for “Crawl.”  If it has to be said, this album is commercial delight.

6. Evil  Urges – My Morning Jacket
Some would say that this album should place higher on a top 10 list than #6.  Some would say that this album will define the direction of MMJ for future albums.  Perhaps the people are right, but “I’m amazed at the tv stations/I’m amazed what they want me to believe”.  Comparisons to Prince aside, the stemming loss of reverb has changed the way the band sounds.  The sad, yet melodic tunes like “Sec Walkin” and “Look at You” miss out on something, standing in bizarre contrast to harder songs like the title track and “Remnants.”  Jim James brings it all back though on “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″.  It will be interesting to see how they follow this one up.

7. Everything is Borrowed – The Streets
Mike Skinner has something special about him; it is unfortunate that he is not only exiting the game in one more album, but will likely never get his credit due in the U.S.  The British Invasion never seemed to catch on in hip-hop.  Skinner is now 30, but already moved from the fast pace of 2002′s Original Pirate Material and its juvenile subversiveness to the chippyness of “Heaven for the Weather” and the Lily Allen-soundalike on “I Love You More (Than You Like Me)”.  Skinner has grown up in sound and in lyrical content.  Album closer “The Escapist” is melodic and extreme British garage introspection: “Every year ‘til yesterday/I see the eternal setting sea/I compare all this to me/It’s all fleeting momentary me/I blink my eyes, this is reminding me/Life lies in the blink of an eye”.

8. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - Sigur Rós
I would have loved to have placed this album higher on my top 10 list, but the fact is, it is still no Takk…  Though the music evokes some of the ethereal spirit of Sigur Rós albums past (“Góðan daginn” and “Suð í eyrum”),  songs like “Fljótavík” and the English “All Alright” bring a stripped-down presence that brings a different definition to the group.  Bringing in producer Flood seemed to help break what could have been the band’s downfall.  ”Festival” is typical, phenomenal Jonsí Birgisson Hopelandic verse, followed by pause, and then soaring drums (that’s right) and the London Oratory Boys Choir.

9. Rockferry – Duffy
In my opinion, there is something about Duffy that set her apart from the other British soulstresses of ’08.  Her voice is infectious almost sounding like Brenda Lee/Shirley Owens (of the Shirelles).  ”Rain On Your Parade,” for instance, hits some notes in a seemingly contradictory female falsetto.  Despite its overproduction, there’s still something “independent” sounding in its quality.  Where the album lacks is in its upbeat demeanor.  ”Autobiographical” in soul doesn’t have to necessitate “sad and mopey”.

10.Remind Me in 3 Days – The Knux
Comparisons of this album to Outkast are over-rated.  While there is a southern freneticism to this duo’s debut album (“Bang Bang”, “The Train”), I hear a shade of Ludacris’s tenor vocals, combined with the old school hip-hop flavors of the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, and De La Soul. Just listen to “F!RE (Put It In The Air)”.  The extensive use of guitar riffs enables better melody retention, almost sounding like Krispy Kream and Rah Al Millio are throwing verse over a Strokes/Oakenfold album.  The single “Cappuccino” has an inspiring beat and catchy electronic melody, sure to keep these guys in business, at least with the underground scene.

Runners-up: Modern Guilt- Beck, Strength in Numbers- The Music, For Emma, Forever Ago- Bon Iver, Maths+English- Dizzee Rascal, Narrow Stairs- Death Cab for Cutie.

On embarking on a four-game West Coast road trip after assuming first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1993:

“At one point if we want to be a really good team, we’re going to have to learn to deal with these things… That’s where I want to get this team to — dealing with being the best and learning to be the best.”

~Guy Carbonneau, Head Coach, Montreal Canadiens Post-Game Press Conference, 29 February 2008

The top 10 albums of 2007, by Spencer Ross. I welcome comments/feedback, although I’m quite satisfied with my current list.

First of all, let me say that I think this year was the year that alternative music made it big into the mainstream of music publications. If you take for instance, Rolling Stone’s top 25 songs of 2007, there are quite a few surprises. The trend continues as most of those songs were not meant to be one-hit wonders. They may have used iPod and Volkswagen commercials to “sell out,” but they finally slapped the non-audiophiles in the face and made it much more difficult to choose only ten.

I don’t buy into the Amy Winehouse fad, I don’t buy into the Yung Joc fad, and I most certainly don’t even comprehend the Hannah Montana fad–I think real music finally came back this year…

1 (tie). In Rainbows – Radiohead
For the first year that I’ve been writing a top ten list, I had great difficulty giving the top spot to just one band. Quite frankly, I expected Radiohead to head any list I would write, but nobody had a clue as to when their next album would be released until 10 days prior. Their pricing model aside, the quintet showed sonic improvement from their past two albums and rivaled their greatest achievement since OK Computer. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” is easily the best song since “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “15 Step” shows the sonic progress with Thom Yorke’s electrodabbling on last years The Eraser. Equally impressive: disc 2 in the limited edition discbox, which features the subversive “Down is the New Up” and the biting “Bangers and Mash.”

1 (tie). Neon Bible – Arcade Fire
My fellow McGillians came out with an stellar debut and succeeded in pulling the follow-up. I have a very difficult time with Win Butler’s voice. If you discount that, the music is genius and early in the year I figured it would be a hard album to catch for the number one spot on my list. I was right. The title track is easily one of the best songs on the album due to the sweetness of its lyrics and the simplicity of the melody. “No Cars Go” channels U2 and The Smiths. “(Antichrist Television Blues)” is an homage to Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Yet the songs are uniquely Arcade Fire. Who says multiinstrumental is a bad thing?

3. Sky Blue Sky – Wilco
Like Radiohead, I’m wondering when the “new” Wilco will ever make a bad album. Yet that question is simply answerable: they wont. Why? Because like Radiohead, Jeff Tweedy is manic-obsessive when it comes to his music. Thus, any listener can hear a cheery glow on this album, now that he’s supposedly found the missing pieces to his band. Nels Cline rocks it out on “Impossible Germany” and “Walken” (the latter of which is such a jovial romp of a song).

4. Armchair Apocrypha – Andrew Bird
I’ve a difficult time with singer/songwriters – even Sufjan Stevens. Yet for some reason Andrew Bird’s music is very soothing. By the end of the year, this was easy for me to like. Formula: Beck + Wilco + Rufus Wainright. And I’ll be damned if the hook in “Heretics” isn’t great, even while he’s singing about how “thank god, it’s fatal.”

5. The Reminder – Feist
If I’ve got a problem with male singer/songwriters, it’s even worse with females. However, Feist seemed to top her performance on Let it Die and completely come into a friendlier sound on this album. Whether she’s only recognized for her iPod commercial or not, she deserves the Grammy nods for having a complete album. “So Sorry?” Excellent ballad. “The Park?” Excellent girl-and-her-guitar simplicity. I wonder what her third solo album will be like…

6. Boxer – The National
This album was also a tough sell on me because I find it sounds a lot like Interpol. However once stripped down, it’s really the vocals that sound like Interpol (who also tend to be consistently good). “Squalor Victoria” and “Gospel” even bring in tinges of Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie, but in a Joy Division type of way. Again, more clever song writing.

7. Tricot Machine – Tricot Machine
A friend of mine was heading back to Montreal. Before she went, I found a couple of hit Francophone discs and told her to pick one for me and bring it back. This ended up as an amazing disc with definite Montreal music influence, yet many of the songs are so simple. “Roman Savon” is a simple piano ditty (sounds like it’s a hidden track). Or the delightful track “Pas Fait en Chocolat.” It will sadly go unnoticed by most of the anglophone world and never make it to the U.S. They will make no money and thus never come out with a sophomore effort.

8. Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeys
I loved what these guys did on their first album and I honestly think they followed up strongly. The rawness of the first album still plies through the sophistication of songs like “D is for Dangerous.” How about the double-bass beat in “Balaclava” or the Knight Rider hook in “Old Yellow Bricks?” My favourite track: “Flourescent Adolescent” (“That boy’s a slag/The best you ever had”).

9. Because of the Times – Kings of Leon
These guys took their time with U2 to make themselves mainstream. However I agree with Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the Financial Times–these guys are “The Lynyrd Strokes.” Caleb Followhill’s squeaky voice isn’t necessarily accessible to the masses, yet “Charmer” and “McFearless” get the bass and drums going and “Ragoo” and “Camaro” are riff-intensive. For those looking for something a little lighter, there’s “Fans” and “Arizona”–neither of which stray too far from the KoL course of action. These guys truly are perfecting their rough cut diamond.

10.Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – Spoon
Personally, I liked Gimme Fiction better than this album. I think “The Underdog” was an overrated song for this album. I think Britt Daniels’s group excellently showcases Austin music. “Finer Feelings” is a great funk song; “Don’t Make Me a Target” is a great Spoon song. Part of me wonders if John Lennon would have evolved into these guys if he wasn’t shot. However, that’s a big “what if.”

Runners-up: Grand National- John Butler Trio, Zeitgeist- Smashing Pumpkins, Everybody- Sea & Cake, Under the Blacklight- Rilo Kiley, Graduation- Kanye West, Friend or Foe- Menomena.

The new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, came out this morning (my confirmation code arrived at 1:30am; when I woke up at 3:30 to go to the bathroom, I downloaded it). Having heard a few of the songs in bootleg forms during the past five years, the chance to hear the studio versions was all the more exciting. The album is sparser than before, yet equally rich in magnitude; gritty in sound, yet more polished.

It also seems as though there have been vast amounts of external influences coming through in the songs—perhaps some of which were unintended. The sound spectrum is both infinite and finite in its ability to appeal to the human ear. Even a band as innovative as Radiohead can only expand out so far (as opposed to progress), having run the instrumental and technological gamuts of music composition. One has to expect that there are large similarities between songs, regardless of the group. And while In Rainbows is probably not the next OK Computer, there’s enough on the album to show growth from the Pablo Honeyesque sounds of 2003′s Hail to the Thief. The more I’ve listened to this album, the more I’ve fallen in love with it.

Here’s my track by track run through:

15 Step: Trippy drum ‘n’ bass beats open this song, showing the newfound influence of Yorke’s digital dabblings from 2006′s The Eraser. Is it really Phil Selway? Perhaps. But if so, it is incredibly difficult to tell. Selway has played the drums live, but it didn’t sound anything like this. Very tinny (almost like he’s playing soup cans), very raw, very fast. Colin Greenwood’s input is very sparse in this version. My favourite part? The interlude at 2:23 to the outro, when the lyrics describe “fifteen steps, then a sheer drop” before the clips of child screams.

Bodysnatchers: Lots of e-bow and complete fuzz distortion abound. Hints of Ondes Martenot in the pre-chorus. There is also a reminiscence of “Electioneering” in its grittiness and “Knives Out” in its eeriness. For some reason, I’m also reminded of Wilco’s “Spiders (Kidsmoke).” This song grows on me.

Nude: “How to Disappear Completely” for the first 41 seconds, until the strings drop. It took ten years for this waltz to be released and I find it interesting to hear the final product. But how many takes did Thom Yorke put in to get the same emotional response that he got from recording the vocals for “Fake Plastic Trees?” Regardless, it sounds like the vocal overdubs were done right on this. The orchestral coatings around 2:15 in are what raise the song out of its immense minimalism, while the end of the song around 3:45 designates where its place would have been on OK Computer (right before “No Surprises” would have brought some symphonic composition to that album, but maybe the symphonic compositional themes are really found throughout the Radiohead catalogue).

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi: This song begins with some upbeat drums, prompting one to believe he’s going to be dancing. In fact, the studio version could easily place in among the best of Radiohead’s repertoire. It’s the arpeggiation on both Ed O’Brien and Thom Yorke’s guitars syncing together smoothly and the incremental buildup of layers. The vocals drip with reverb and the muted guitar tones leave us with a real spacey feeling. When the arpeggios start to increase in tempo around 1:48, something contrasts with the rest of the album (or most of Radiohead’s other songs), yet its unique sound still pegs its source. The song’s ending is a polish of The Eraser’s “Cymbal Rush” and everything is in its right place.

All I Need: As opposed to “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” this song starts with a more subdued, grooved-out techno drum beat. The bassline reads much like an extension of OK Computer’s “Climbing Up the Walls” though the vocals never match the intensity. That’s okay though. Instead, the last 56-60 seconds of this song sounds like they were easily distilled from having played in the Split Sides show with Sigur Rós. Yorke’s vocals sound like they’re reaching upwards in optimism, à la Sigur Rós’s “Mílano.”

Faust Arp: An interesting little two minute ditty that sounds very Kings of Convenience with a large dash of Paul McCartney—even in the vocal timbre. The darkness suggests something off of Chaos in the Backyard or even “Blackbird” in its simple acoustic picking. Yet, the string arrangements add depth where necessary without overpowering the sweetness of the song. Better yet, the subtle and rarely used vocal harmonies allow it to stand out.

Reckoner: First I think the adjective ‘jangly.’ Then I think John Mayer’s ”Waiting on the World to Change.” Then the guitars come in after 0:10 and I think Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love,” before I realize that this song’s none of the above. There’s something missing in this song to tie it all together. At 2:23, the song splits out and I can’t put my finger on what other band it sounds like. Perhaps it’s like Sigur Rós’s track 8 from ( ) or a splash of Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. The strings are sweet, but perhaps for once on the album, the otherwise sparseness of the piece works against it.

House of Cards: It goes without saying that this is a fragile dub piece. However its fragility makes it one of the lesser quality songs on the album. The drenched reverb of vocals are too reminiscent of My Morning Jacket. The signatures have slight echoes in “Fake Plastic Trees,” but there was more emotion, more texture, more to invest in that song. Unfortunately, this song doesn’t quite seem to translate into what “Fake Plastic Trees” was, becoming somewhat a house of cards itself. Get Nigel Godrich out of this one.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place: After hearing the live version of this song open with electric guitars, I was hoping to find the same bite on the studio version. Instead, the opening acoustic picking (reminiscent of “Wolf at the Door” or “Paranoid Android”) bring a different type of bite. This bite comes more in concentrating on the vocals and the buildup following the first verse. Is it any better this way? I think it just might be.

Videotape: Some of the early reviews are railing on “Videotape” as the biggest letdown of the album, having stripped away a lot of the live tracking. Disagree. If you want to say that Thom Yorke singing over his own piano playing and Colin Greenwood’s quarter-note bassline is disappointing, that’s fair enough. However it works better to highlight the actual lyrical content of the song, especially toward the end where he’s “spiraling away from the videotape.”

Bear with me, I can’t contain my enthusiasm today. After a horrible subway ride to work this morning, I went through my usual litany of sites and saw on the BBC that, after a four year wait, the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, would be released in only 10 days. That’s October 10. The blogs have been busy salivating today. So will this one.

Things that make this release all the more interesting:

1. Radiohead is no longer under contract with a record label. This allows them the freedom to release an album however they’d like. Forget the implications on their own profits, this has equal implications on the musicgoer.

2. The freedom to do what they’d like translates to a three-tier distribution strategy:

1) Download the album for whatever price you’d like to pay for it, October 10.
2) Purchase a 2-CD, 2-Vinyl, Album Art, Lyrics, and Liner notes discbox for £40 on December 3. This includes the October 10 download.
3) Buy the CD wherever it is that the band finally decides to distribute it to, sometime in 2008.

3. The strategy allows the band to market themselves and show that their hype is in being innovative musicians and artists. Releasing an album with 10 days notice is possible, but if you want to move copies and distribute it, the traditional means has been through retail or online store. Additionally, you’ve always needed a lead time for promotional materials. If you’re Radiohead, 10 days is all you need, no promotion necessary.

4. When you aren’t subject to the vagaries of record industries, you can store all the master tapes yourself. You prevent leaks through self-distribution. This becomes virtually irrelevant when you’re allowing people to price their own album, yet serves to create its own hype, as it starts to maintain the self-worth of an official release date. Bands have become upset because record labels cannot control album leaks anymore; why not contain the leak yourself. (I’ve noted, October 10 is 10/10 and December 3 is 12/3. I don’t know if there’s any significance to those dates.)

Lest one thinks that this means that everyone will buy it for nothing, he might want to think again. What this really does is show that people are willing to pay for music that has merit. Not everybody, but a vast majority. I’d be curious as to what the (probably never released) statistics would show in terms of average price paid. I’d bet about $/£10-13 would be what most people pay. Once again they blaze the path for those who have attempted these models and failed, but ultimately proving that commercial music is just that – a valueless commodity. Thom Yorke once said in an oft-quoted 2003 Time interview that he’d like to “say Fuck You” to the “decaying business model.”

Don’t believe me? Here’s some of the best of the articles that have come out on the news:

Radiohead challenges labels with free album – The Daily Telegraph (UK)
How Radiohead killed the record labels – The Daily Telegraph (UK) ***One of the better articles***
Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want – Time.com
Fans crash Radiohead album site – BBC