2008 was the best of times and the worst of times for music, at times reaching new heights of creativity, and at others, wallowing in the pits of the worst kind of derivative trends. I'm not sure if the critical threshold already broke or if it will in the future, but this year saw music stretched to its limits, and I can only guess where things will go in the upcoming year. Here are some of the albums of 2008 that ended up on many "albums of the year" lists on the interwebs with which I take issue. That is not to say that I dislike or hate any of these albums. I have all of them on my iTunes and all of them have something redeeming to them. This list is mostly meant to redress the undeserved attention given to these albums. Negation and criticism is key to progression and development, so excuse me if you don't get why I find it necessary to focus my frustration with certain contributions to what has become "mainstream" (≠mnstrm) "indie" music:
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular: This album has three good songs. The rest are mediocre at best. Yeah, I said it. Before I get too polemical, I’d like to acknowledge that my friend Daniel told me about this upstart band back in the summer of 2006. He wins. The hit tracks on this album have that anthem-like feel that “define a year.” It seems that every song on the album is essentially about living a carefree, empty life of glamour amidst a nostalgic desire to return to better times. You know, like that time we were doing heroin with models in Paris, or alternatively, that time we were playing with worms in the sandbox and everything just seemed “right”? Well, as a product of thought (…errm…) in its time, yeah, this album probably comes pretty close to defining the year in “hip” music—the battlecry in the “hipster movement” (or, as others may prefer, the hipster regression). It breaks the genre barrier between electronic and indie-rock, and at times, it does so with stirring success. Kids is a very good song, built around a really catchy guitar-drum backbone, with a melodic and memorable vocal part, and Time to Pretend does really capture the decadent feel of the hipster bullshit that owned most of 2008. Electric Feel was also worth its weight in American Apparel lamé. However, I’m not sure that MGMT’s fans or even the band itself is aware of their relation to music and “indie-culture.” MGMT didn’t even need an iPod commercial to become super indie douches. Like 2008, MGMT’s remaining days in the spotlight are numbered, and I suspect that this act will struggle to recapture the appeal of Oracular Spectacular in future releases.
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend: It makes perfect sense that this group blew up this year. I can even see them releasing a second album with comparable success (note: in this cyber-age of one-download-wonders, that is a compliment). The instrumentation is clean and multicultural, the melodies are catchy and sweet, and the lyrics are uncontroversial and cute. But after a couple listens, I had enough. This is a true indie-pop album-the Peter Bjorn & John of 2008, if you will-and that’s ok. But please don’t try to tell me that this is anything more, and whatever you do, please don’t make me listen to Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa ever again.
The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing: This album is very, very mediocre. There is nothing unique or exceptional about this album and save one or two catchy dance tracks, this band isn’t doing much anything at all. How dare you give it the distinction of anything close to “album of the year.” Far from it. At least the album name is honest. They didn't do anything, either.
Girl Talk – Feed the Animals: Oy, what to say about this album?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUVAA1cGREo
This says nearly enough. Seriously, Gregg? You make people sweat? Please, figure out something else to do. Feed the Animals is one of the better mash-up albums to hit the scene, but is there really anything creative going on beyond simply the well-produced synthesis of 300 pop singles into an hour long mix? Nope.
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes: The problem with this album played itself out, oddly, in a conversation I had with my friends Max and Sara, whose taste in music generally overlaps heavily with my own. They loved Grizzly Bear last year, so I played them Fleet Foxes in June or so, expecting at least moderate approval for an album I thought was pretty damn good. Nope. They did not like it at all. According to them, it’s last year’s thing under a new name (although “Fleet Foxes” sounds so much like a hundred other indie bands that the name is probably the least groundbreaking part of this album). They’re right. This album is pretty good, the harmonies are pretty fantastic and the acoustic guitars work pretty well accompanying them. But that’s it. I have seen a number of prominent year-end lists that place this album at number one. Well, just, no. Max and Sara are right: there is nothing that is new about this sound, and although it is well orchestrated and executed, that really doesn’t cut it for “album of the year,” not by a long shot.
Lil’ Wayne - Tha Carter III: I enjoyed listening to this album when it came out, and I still find several of the tracks really insightful and worth returning to past its moment in the sun. Dr. Carter is an excellent prognosis of the current state of hip hop (on its deathbed but still beating) and Weezy’s role as the doctor with the skill and creativity to save the art form does strike me as a fun, if ridiculous and pompous, way of approaching the situation. Mr Carte is a keeper, in my opinion. Many (no, pretty much every single) rap songs proclaim a new king of the game, following up the universally acknowledged forefathers, Biggie and Tupac. Mr Carte is Lil Wayne’s latest proclamation that he belongs up there with the greats too. I certainly appreciate the tacit endorsement of Jay-Z as a worth member of this kingly lineage, and I think his verse on this song is one of his better in years (not that that says all that much). With that said, A Milli, Lollipop, and even the aforementioned songs I moderately enjoy have been blown out of proportion. You have to be a fucking idiot to really think the Carter III is one of the greatest rap albums ever. Fucking idiot.
Kanye West – 808 And Heartbreak: No, seriously, when did Kanye become T-Pain? Why has the Chicago hip-hop producer-gone-rapper taken it upon himself to become his own cultural movement? This album is really, really bad. You want to nitpick and tell me that Love Lockdown isn’t so bad? That’s fine. But on the whole, this new direction for Kanye is so, so wrong for him and for music itself that I find it necessary not only to not grace him with a spot on my top 25, but to additionally decry his new brand of bullshit shitty R&B-electro-shit. It’s just so bad I can’t wrap my head around it. I miss the College Dropout cause this newfound emotional Kanye should really hate himself for this album and everything he has become. Keep your shudder shades, your mediocre Daft Punk knockoffs, and your cultural status as the king of "hip hop" (isn't it sad that this is probably true?). I don't want any more.
No Age – Nouns: I really do like the post-punk noise-rock sound that has emerged in the progressive circles of indie-rock over the last few years. And Eraser is a pretty fun track, I guess. But beyond that, I do not understand why this album has garnered the critical acclaim and attention it has. I just don’t get it. I’ve listened to the recroding and I’ve even caught No Age live in concert twice, but still, I’m not hearing whatever the rest of you hear.
Stay tuned for the BEST albums of the year some time tomorrow.
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