2008 In Review, Vol. 10 - Last Minute Finds/Albums

The thing I love most about Year-End List Season is not seeing what order everyone put the same 40 or 50 albums. It’s discovering (or re-discovering) some albums/songs that I missed out on or overlooked during the past 12 months. 2008 was no exception. The following 5 albums are ones that I either slept on or heard too recently to consider for my own lists. All are excellent and deserving of some extra attention.

Shearwater - Rook

Jonathon Meiburg left Okkervil River upon release of Rook, the latest effort from his own (now full-time) songwriting project. Hopefully that turns out to be a smart move - Rook is a far more fluid, cohesive statement than The Stand Ins, and is probably as good as any other album Will Sheff & co. have made save Black Sheep Boy. I did post about this back in the spring after hearing the title track, and I did pick it up after it was released, but then for some reason it just kind of fell by the wayside. I started listening again last week and now wish I hadn’t screwed up by leaving it off my favorite albums list - it would be a sure-fire Top 15 if I was to redo things today.

MP3 :: The Snow Leopard
(Buy here)
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Women - s/t

No Age’s Nouns was an album that made an immediate impression on me but faded from my listening as the year went along. That might have been because Women’s self-titled Jagjaguwar debut started filling my need for noisy art-rock in a much more satisfying way.

MP3 :: Black Rice
MP3 :: Group Transport Hall
(Buy here)
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Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

Grouper is the work of Liz Harris. Her music is made for late nights - full of whispers and strange, introverted melodies embedded between a mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. A truly haunting, meditative collection of songs.

MP3 :: Disengaged
MP3 :: Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping
(Buy here)
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School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

This is another female fronted album that mixes acoustic and electronic music, but School Of Seven Bells has a decidedly more pop focus than Grouper. I’m still getting to know Alpinisms after having it sent to me a couple of weeks ago, but so far I’m enjoying it quite a bit.

MP3 :: Conjurr
MP3 :: Chain
(Buy here)
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Meursault - Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues

The gent who runs the very excellent Song, By Toad blog just sent me an email about 2 weeks ago pointing the way towards Meursault, a band whose album he put out this year. It’s no wonder that the howling, boundless energy of songs like “The Furnace” remind me of a more electro-minded, less sexually-depraved Frightened Rabbit - both bands hail from Scotland. This is another record, had I had time to fully immerse myself in it as I am now, would have likely been a Top 20 for me. It’s really good.

MP3 :: The Furnace
MP3 :: A Few Kind Words
(Buy here)
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