Top 10 Tracks of 2008 (Part 5)
(12/04/08 12:23pm)
Here is the fifth installment in our nine-part series about the best tracks of 2008. For the first four, click here.
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Here is the fifth installment in our nine-part series about the best tracks of 2008. For the first four, click here.
Jens Lekman may be one of the wittiest, most talented songwriters right now, yet not many people know about him. I stumbled upon this YouTube video of him performing "A Postcard to Nina" with a ukulele (bonus points) after an electrical outage prevented his full band from helping out. Check it out and you'll find genuine nervousness, a beautiful voice and a heart-warming story about his friend, all of which I think anyone can appreciate. And if you haven't heard Jens' latest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, do so immediately.
It's the same old story: indie boy meets indie girl, they play indie music together, they make indie love and then more indie music is played. But move over, Jack and Meg White-your whole "We're divorced, but still best friends" bit is getting old, and we want the real deal. Fear not; alternative punk/dance duo Matt and Kim shows that a music-producing relationship can prevail. On their sophomore album, Grand, Matt and Kim continue to rely on the synth pop that burst from the seams of their self-titled debut, but this time they do it with a bit more care.
In recording their new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion-named for the Baltimore amphitheater that David Portner (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) frequented in their youth-Animal Collective pays homage to the place where they grew up listening to good music.
Say goodbye to the Dropout Bear; Kanye West's all grown up, and he's not happy. His latest album finds Kanye leaving behind "Good Life," and instead embracing his hell: heartbreak. Ironically enough, West has chosen to segue into this more despondent sound by recording his newest album in Hawaii (area code: 808).
The formation of Carrboro band Schooner seems lifted from a bad movie script, complete with serendipitous beginnings and the potential for fractured families.
When I was in high school, I dyed my hair four different shades of not-yellow. I was hoping for the Eminem look because he was just so cool. But nothing ever goes as planned.
When Chaz Martinstein moved east to Durham in November 2005, he thought about searching for the average 9-to-5 job.
The smoke that builds up in Sterling Cooper, a fabricated advertising agency, is almost as much a character as the rest of the cast of AMC's critical darling Mad Men.
It's official: class has replaced sex as the new theme of R&B. Ne-Yo's third album, Year of the Gentleman, pays tribute to the unparalleled style of the Rat Pack. I think it's safe to assume Sinatra and Davis Jr., are sharing a chuckle in heaven.
We all love the '90s. Who doesn't? The decade gave us denim, Stretch Armstrong, 56K Internet (with Al Gore, and Al Gore only, to thank) and of course, the meteoric rise of pop music.
After a 27-year hiatus since their last collaboration, David Byrne and Brian Eno return with Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, which they dub an "electronic gospel" record that is sure to leave most yawning.