Top 25 of 2008: 10-6

10) Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

It has been an on again, off again type of year between Wolf Parade and I. I was initially disappointed with this album; it didn’t have the fire, the intensity of Apologies to Queen Mary. But then I friend of mine saw them in concert and told me I had to give it another listen and a loud listen at that. I fooled around with the levels a bit and she was right—the production on this album sucks, but the energy of the songs is definitely there.

Then I saw Sunset Rubdown in concert and my complete adoration for them was cemented, which instead of augmenting my love of Wolf Parade served to diminish it. Instead of listening to this album I put on old Sunset Rubdown albums. And if this album popped up at random I would just switch to Sunset. It was a sad situation.

And then, inexplicably, this album became something, that for a couple weeks, was the only thing I could listen to. Perhaps it was the piano hook on “Call It a Ritual.” And as long as I was listening to that song I might as well continue with “Language City” and there were the catchy drum highlights on “Bang Your Drum” and before I knew it was listening to all ten minutes of “Kissing the Beehive” with rapt attention.

9) Bloc Party – Intimacy

There is this great section in 2666 by Roberto Bolano, where Amalfitano asks a young pharmacists what his favorite books are:

Without turning, the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphoses, Bartleby, A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol. Leaving aside the fact that A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol were stories, not books, there was something relevatory about the taste of this bookish young pharmacist...and who clearly preferred minor works to major ones. What a sad paradox, though Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacistsare afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works.

This album has been roundly criticized for being overambitious, for throwing too much stuff into one album (luckily much of what they thrown in is drums), and for the failure to achieve what they set out to accomplish. But, to me, it’s a beautiful failure.

8) TV on the Radio – Dear Science

I’ve never been a big TVOTR fan, and by that I mean I’ve never given their albums more than one spin before I decidedly dismissed them as music I don’t like. This does not necessarily mean I discounted their talent, or their appeal to some people, but it wasn’t for me.

However, I couldn’t ignore the buzz around this album. Scarlette Johansson recommended it on the Daily Beast for crying out loud, and how can she be wrong? So I put it on one morning for my drive into work. My drive is usually about 45 minutes and I leave around 5 a.m. and usually I found the time passes most quickly with NPR, not with music. But this morning, with TVOTR soundtracking my journey it felt like no drive at all. And after this drive I couldn’t stop thinking about this album, replaying certain hooks and choruses over in my head, wondering why the fit together so well, why they were catchy, because on the surface much of this is not catchy.

7) Lil’ Wayne – Tha Carter III

Jennifer Olmsted, reacting to a “This American Life” piece that asserted Americans as a whole are getting smarter and more intellectual, wrote the following:

“Intelligence is the new chic. Chic, and easy to attain. Learn to pronounce Foucault, drop a well-placed Freaks and Geeks reference, read a few Great Books, subscribe to HBO and the Economist, mix in a little ironic Lil Wayne appreciation, and suddenly, you've got class, intelligence, and culture. And everyone perusing your Facebook knows it. Appearance, not reality.

Ironic Lil’ Wayne appreciation? This quote, though I didn’t much creedance to the post as a whole, caused a minor crisis. Was my appreciation of Lil’ Wayne only ironic? A Latin teacher in the suburbs of Boston listening all the time to Weezy rap about hustling rock, ironic? Who really knows what this word means?

Following Michael’s recommendation last year I got the mixtape version of this album and I haven’t looked back since. I would like to write a paper on the lyrics of Lil’s Wayne, but a study of the lyrics alone would only address half of the genius of this artist: the impact comes in the delivery, the evident pain in boastful raps, the slight chuckle after a line about death, the humor that is both sincere and (gasp) ironic.

I could go on gushing about this album and about Wayne’s body of work in general, but I’ll stop because I don’t have much time.

6) The Walkmen – You & Me

The colder weather hurt Hercules and Love Affair, and as they fell the Walkmen climbed. I don’t know if I can necessarily define the mood of their music. Is it dreary? Is it quietly joyful? Or does it simply exist? Is it just a mood, a state of being? I am inclined to think the latter, because I find my affection for this album indefinable.

Many, many mornings have spent with coffee writing and listening to this album. Over and over. Over and Over.