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Top Albums of 2008: #5 - #1
Continued...
Karl Hector and the Malcouns - Sahara Swing
(funk, afrobeat)
What do you get when a funk band decide to take on afrobeat? I think you know the answer already, don't you? Sahara Swing is an absolute blast, a spiced-up fusion of funk's groovy melodies and silky basslines with afrobeat's kinetic percussion and tribal chants. The number of layers in the instrumentation is just awesome, with trumpets, keyboards, funky guitar lines, a sea of click-clacks, shakers and other percussive bits and pieces, sax, flutes, clarinets and more besides all bubbling around together in a mix that's just breathtaking. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the album is that it manages to sit halfway between its two reference genres - this isn't a funk album with minor touches of afrobeat or vice-versa, it's a 50/50 blend of the two, which gives it a really fresh, vital sound. On top of the admirably creative concept, though, Karl Hector and the Malcouns deserve huge props for making one of the year's most incredibly catchy releases, as Sahara Swing is a highly-addictive foot-tapper that's played to absolute perfection.
Highlight Tracks: "Nyx", "Sahara Swing"
Beck - Modern Guilt
(pop/rock, psychedelic-pop)
It's so nice to have another album by my favourite artist that I can unreservedly say is just all-around great. I definitely enjoyed Sea Change, Guero and The Information, but there were always little nitpicky things I wanted to change about them. Not so on Modern Guilt. This is Beck's most consistent, well-structured, infectious and replayable album since the 90s, and boy have I gotten a lot of mileage out of it. "Replayable" is the keyword, there - Beck, along with producer Danger Mouse, whose contributions are invaluable, is so to-the-point and economical in the way he delivers Modern Guilt's gauzy retro-pop that it's often hard to resist restarting it right after it concludes. I've probably listened to it 2-3 times as much as any other album released this year, and I haven't tired of it in the slightest. Whether it's the blissful psychedelia of "Chemtrails", the chugging guitar lines of "Gamma Ray", the blasting energy of "Profanity Prayers" or the mellow finale of "Volcano", Modern Guilt delivers again and again. After a few minor stumbles (but, I must say, no falls), it's the shot in the arm Beck's career has been waiting for.
Highlight Tracks: "Chemtrails", "Profanity Prayers"
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
(post-punk, experimental-rock)
It's almost impossible to talk about Imperial Wax Solvent without focusing on its 11-minute highlight "50 Year Old Man", Mark E. Smith's snarling, acidic ode to being exactly that. With its ferocious guitar assault, sneering lyrical challenges ("I'm a 50 year old man / What you gonna do about it?") and surprise banjo-solo interlude, it's an incredible centrepiece and an undeniable contender for Song of the Year honours. Pleasingly, the rest of the album quite effortlessly measures up, trading in lean runtimes and snappy hooks which perfectly offset "50 Year Old Man's" excesses. Plenty of stylistic ground is covered: "Alton Towers" sounds like The Fall in a haunted house, and opens the album in a cool and arty way; "Wolf Kidult Man", "I've Been Duped" (featuring Smith's wife Eleni Polou on lead vocals) and "Tommy Shooter" all veer into boozy-but-tempered post-punk; "Strange Town", "Can Can Summer" and "Is This New" are closer to rumbling garage-rock; and "Tourig" springs up out of nowhere with a detour into thumpy electronica. In the end, though, it comes back to "50 Year Old Man's" themes of age and experience, as "Exploding Chimney" winds up the album with Smith coolly claiming "Believe me kids, I've been through it all." By all accounts, he has, and to still be making albums as brilliant as Imperial Wax Solvent is damn impressive.
Highlight Tracks: "50 Year Old Man", "Is This New"
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War)
(soul, hip-hop)
Musically complex and ignited with fiery social and political commentary, New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War) takes elements from neo-soul (via the vocals) and hop-hop (via the beats and production) and merges them in a way that seems at first challengingly unfamiliar but eventually strikes you as a totally natural fit. Sounding confident and righteously motivated, Badu doesn't hold back for a moment, delving fearlessly into heated topics such as politics, war, drugs, violence, race-relations, religion, health, education, law and death, and her lyricism is razor-sharp throughout. So much of Badu's vocal performance and the album's subject matter will leave a mark on the listener: first track "Amerykahn Promise" grabs your attention with the love-meets-violence catch-cry of "Promise to you baby, I'll love you tooth for tooth and eye for eye", while "The Healer" sees Badu claiming that hip-hop is "bigger than religion ... bigger than the government", set atop funky beats and dreamy chime samples. "The Cell" reflects on the tragedy of addiction within the family ("Momma hopped up on cocaine / Daddy on space ships with no brain / Sister gone numb the pain the same / Why same DNA cell?") and recently-deceased producer Jay Dee (J Dilla) is eulogised in the serene "Telephone", which features a soaring coda that makes for one of the albums greatest highlights. New Amerykah Part One is saturated with this sort of powerful content, and it's incredibly moving stuff. The album concludes with Badu previewing the arrival of Part Two (Return of the Ankh). I can't wait.
Highlight Tracks: "The Healer", "Telephone"
The Drones - Havilah
(garage-rock, blues, punk)
Take that world! The best album of 2008 is by an Australian group! The Drones' fifth album Havilah is so good it's almost scary. A work of dirgy, muscular punk-blues with grimy, raw production, it's a sprawling work of art that's emotionally charged and very fiercely delivered. Backed by bluesy percussion and guitar that alternates between punchy and sparse, Gareth Liddiard's incredible lyrics and vocals are a wonder to behold, coupling formidable songwriting talent with a gravel-lined, croak-&-roar delivery that makes every emotion he expresses sound like it's been amplified a hundred times over. The Drones show incredible discipline on Havilah, knowing exactly when to reign in their fury and when to push it into overdrive, making for an intense, gripping and dynamic performance. Highlight tracks are in abundant supply here, be it the lonely melancholy of "Cold and Sober", the measured storytelling of "The Distant Housewife", the blistering and anthemic "Oh My", the uplifting finale "Your Acting's Like the End of the World" or the album's thrilling mini-epics "Lay it Down", "I Am the Supercargo" and "Luck in Odd Numbers". However, "The Minotaur" is probably Havilah's most immediately attention-grabbing piece - its clunky, unconventional guitar lines punctured by amazing drum work and Liddiard's revelatory, off-kilter vocals. It's probably the album's most "straightforward" rock song (although that isn't saying much), and takes the expected place as its first single. If it sounds like I'm mentioning far too many tracks with the enthusiasm that I'd reserve for the very best songs of the year, it's only because Havilah really is that consistently amazing. From what I've managed to check out this year, it might well be 2008's singular true masterpiece. Hearing it leaves me in a state of pure awe. Get it. Now.
Highlight Tracks: "The Drifting Housewife", "Oh My"
That's it! Thanks for reading :)
---#5---
Karl Hector and the Malcouns - Sahara Swing
(funk, afrobeat)
What do you get when a funk band decide to take on afrobeat? I think you know the answer already, don't you? Sahara Swing is an absolute blast, a spiced-up fusion of funk's groovy melodies and silky basslines with afrobeat's kinetic percussion and tribal chants. The number of layers in the instrumentation is just awesome, with trumpets, keyboards, funky guitar lines, a sea of click-clacks, shakers and other percussive bits and pieces, sax, flutes, clarinets and more besides all bubbling around together in a mix that's just breathtaking. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the album is that it manages to sit halfway between its two reference genres - this isn't a funk album with minor touches of afrobeat or vice-versa, it's a 50/50 blend of the two, which gives it a really fresh, vital sound. On top of the admirably creative concept, though, Karl Hector and the Malcouns deserve huge props for making one of the year's most incredibly catchy releases, as Sahara Swing is a highly-addictive foot-tapper that's played to absolute perfection.
Highlight Tracks: "Nyx", "Sahara Swing"
---#4---
Beck - Modern Guilt
(pop/rock, psychedelic-pop)
It's so nice to have another album by my favourite artist that I can unreservedly say is just all-around great. I definitely enjoyed Sea Change, Guero and The Information, but there were always little nitpicky things I wanted to change about them. Not so on Modern Guilt. This is Beck's most consistent, well-structured, infectious and replayable album since the 90s, and boy have I gotten a lot of mileage out of it. "Replayable" is the keyword, there - Beck, along with producer Danger Mouse, whose contributions are invaluable, is so to-the-point and economical in the way he delivers Modern Guilt's gauzy retro-pop that it's often hard to resist restarting it right after it concludes. I've probably listened to it 2-3 times as much as any other album released this year, and I haven't tired of it in the slightest. Whether it's the blissful psychedelia of "Chemtrails", the chugging guitar lines of "Gamma Ray", the blasting energy of "Profanity Prayers" or the mellow finale of "Volcano", Modern Guilt delivers again and again. After a few minor stumbles (but, I must say, no falls), it's the shot in the arm Beck's career has been waiting for.
Highlight Tracks: "Chemtrails", "Profanity Prayers"
---#3---
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
(post-punk, experimental-rock)
It's almost impossible to talk about Imperial Wax Solvent without focusing on its 11-minute highlight "50 Year Old Man", Mark E. Smith's snarling, acidic ode to being exactly that. With its ferocious guitar assault, sneering lyrical challenges ("I'm a 50 year old man / What you gonna do about it?") and surprise banjo-solo interlude, it's an incredible centrepiece and an undeniable contender for Song of the Year honours. Pleasingly, the rest of the album quite effortlessly measures up, trading in lean runtimes and snappy hooks which perfectly offset "50 Year Old Man's" excesses. Plenty of stylistic ground is covered: "Alton Towers" sounds like The Fall in a haunted house, and opens the album in a cool and arty way; "Wolf Kidult Man", "I've Been Duped" (featuring Smith's wife Eleni Polou on lead vocals) and "Tommy Shooter" all veer into boozy-but-tempered post-punk; "Strange Town", "Can Can Summer" and "Is This New" are closer to rumbling garage-rock; and "Tourig" springs up out of nowhere with a detour into thumpy electronica. In the end, though, it comes back to "50 Year Old Man's" themes of age and experience, as "Exploding Chimney" winds up the album with Smith coolly claiming "Believe me kids, I've been through it all." By all accounts, he has, and to still be making albums as brilliant as Imperial Wax Solvent is damn impressive.
Highlight Tracks: "50 Year Old Man", "Is This New"
---#2---
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War)
(soul, hip-hop)
Musically complex and ignited with fiery social and political commentary, New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War) takes elements from neo-soul (via the vocals) and hop-hop (via the beats and production) and merges them in a way that seems at first challengingly unfamiliar but eventually strikes you as a totally natural fit. Sounding confident and righteously motivated, Badu doesn't hold back for a moment, delving fearlessly into heated topics such as politics, war, drugs, violence, race-relations, religion, health, education, law and death, and her lyricism is razor-sharp throughout. So much of Badu's vocal performance and the album's subject matter will leave a mark on the listener: first track "Amerykahn Promise" grabs your attention with the love-meets-violence catch-cry of "Promise to you baby, I'll love you tooth for tooth and eye for eye", while "The Healer" sees Badu claiming that hip-hop is "bigger than religion ... bigger than the government", set atop funky beats and dreamy chime samples. "The Cell" reflects on the tragedy of addiction within the family ("Momma hopped up on cocaine / Daddy on space ships with no brain / Sister gone numb the pain the same / Why same DNA cell?") and recently-deceased producer Jay Dee (J Dilla) is eulogised in the serene "Telephone", which features a soaring coda that makes for one of the albums greatest highlights. New Amerykah Part One is saturated with this sort of powerful content, and it's incredibly moving stuff. The album concludes with Badu previewing the arrival of Part Two (Return of the Ankh). I can't wait.
Highlight Tracks: "The Healer", "Telephone"
---#1---
The Drones - Havilah
(garage-rock, blues, punk)
Take that world! The best album of 2008 is by an Australian group! The Drones' fifth album Havilah is so good it's almost scary. A work of dirgy, muscular punk-blues with grimy, raw production, it's a sprawling work of art that's emotionally charged and very fiercely delivered. Backed by bluesy percussion and guitar that alternates between punchy and sparse, Gareth Liddiard's incredible lyrics and vocals are a wonder to behold, coupling formidable songwriting talent with a gravel-lined, croak-&-roar delivery that makes every emotion he expresses sound like it's been amplified a hundred times over. The Drones show incredible discipline on Havilah, knowing exactly when to reign in their fury and when to push it into overdrive, making for an intense, gripping and dynamic performance. Highlight tracks are in abundant supply here, be it the lonely melancholy of "Cold and Sober", the measured storytelling of "The Distant Housewife", the blistering and anthemic "Oh My", the uplifting finale "Your Acting's Like the End of the World" or the album's thrilling mini-epics "Lay it Down", "I Am the Supercargo" and "Luck in Odd Numbers". However, "The Minotaur" is probably Havilah's most immediately attention-grabbing piece - its clunky, unconventional guitar lines punctured by amazing drum work and Liddiard's revelatory, off-kilter vocals. It's probably the album's most "straightforward" rock song (although that isn't saying much), and takes the expected place as its first single. If it sounds like I'm mentioning far too many tracks with the enthusiasm that I'd reserve for the very best songs of the year, it's only because Havilah really is that consistently amazing. From what I've managed to check out this year, it might well be 2008's singular true masterpiece. Hearing it leaves me in a state of pure awe. Get it. Now.
Highlight Tracks: "The Drifting Housewife", "Oh My"
That's it! Thanks for reading :)
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Ok, off to find it online. I will have an opinion on it by the time I see you next.
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I suspect you'd really like that Erykah Badu, album, by the way. Strike me as your sort of thing.
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