Top 10 Records of 2008

This is something I've done every year for the last five years and only now has it found a proper venue (rather than simply being relegated to my livejournal). You'll find out soon enough--provided you read this blog--that I am sort of in love with making lists...in fact come to think of it I bet I'll be posting a shit ton of track lists for mix tapes/CDs I make in this blog...anyway listed below is my top 10 for 2009 and if you're interested at all here are links to top 10 lists from previous years:

2004
2005
2006
2007

and now...2008...

1. Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vol. III & IV: Air and Earth
(I'd really like to give this consideration as a full album but the first disc came out last year...this one is way better though...the Earth disc is amazingly written and Broken Lungs and Daedalus are two of the most powerful songs this band has ever written...which is saying a lot, trust me)
2. Russian Circles - Station
(jesus the things this band can do without using any words...no other instrumental band is capable of what this one is and that's a hell of a compliment)
3. Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
(this band could just keep making records that sound like "( )" and everyone--myself included--would be happy...but for some reason they continue to do different things...when I first heard the romping acoustic intro to this album I was a little iffy but this band really has done it again)
4. Portishead - Third
(somewhere in between krautrock band Can, Bjork, and Radiohead lays this beautiful, catchy, grooving, and above all unique record...I'm now a Portishead fan)
5. Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
(not quite as great as The Ties That Blind, a little more simple, but this band continues to make epic, heavy music that is not contrived as so many slow, heavy, epic bands are nowadays...do yourself a favor and check this band out)
6. Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward
(it's truly a testament to this band's talent that this album really isn't that good by their standards...Choirs of the Eye is so ridiculously brilliant that you can only call this a shadow of that record...even then it's absolutely brilliant and this band is still one of the creative forces in underground music today even after losing and gaining so many members)
7. Meshuggah - ObZen
(this band sure has come a long way from the slow, crushing, off-time brutality of it's earlier work...this is a masterpiece of timing, precision, and ingenuity in the realm of metal)
8. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
(pretty much the same deal as Mouth of the Architect except that I think this might be my favorite album this band has done yet)
9. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
(it may have lost a few slots because I didn't particularly care for what they did with some of the songs--although rerecording songs is always hard to do without overdoing them cuz you want to make them different but the songs from the show were perfect--but the fact remains that not only are FOTC hilarious but they write great songs too...like Tenacious D but funnier and with better tunes--and I fuckin LOVE the D)
10. Gregor Samsa - Rest
(the most underrated band doing instrumental music right now and maybe the best until GY!BE come out of hiding)

same time next year

I'm sure I'll probably post at least one more entry this week so stay tuned