aaron’s favorites, 2008

[1] spiritualized—“songs in a&e”
not the first spiritualized record with laser guided melodies, but the first one with a laser beam to the heart

[2] nick cave & the bad seeds—“dig, lazarus, dig!!!”
furious, vulgar, masterfully composed and arranged—thirty years later, cave and his crew still shame your band and everyone else’s

[3] deerhunter—“microcaste/weird era cont.”
an almost-perfect cocktail of shoegazer, krautrock, eno and 60’s pop

[4] beach house—“devotion”
like a half-remembered dream over a meal of tea, biscuits and heroin

[5] the hold steady—“stay positive”
craig and the boys do it again, so well we forget that they’ve done it all before

[6] flight of the conchords—“s/t”
a parody album of almost rutles-esque brilliance, and the most awkwardly funky record you’ll ever hear.

[7] destroyer—“trouble in dreams”
another slice of lush, woozy pop from indie’s crankiest weirdo

[8] dungen—“4”
virtuoso psychedelia from frigid sweeden, more melancholy than ever but all the more beautiful for it

[9] stephen malkmus & the jicks “real emotional trash”
ten labyrinthine jams transmitted from malkmus’ perpetually stoned skull

[10] retribution gospel choir—“s/t”
alan sparhawk being crazy, but this time with a drum set and a stack of marshalls in his sandbox