Top Albums of 2008

[explodo]

eh, it's a valid point though... i don't care if people include it or not, but most omissions from EOY lists this year stem from them putting it on their '07 list, like Pitchfork and both the sites I run/help run.

Right. It was way up on my last year list so if I get around to making one this year, it won't be there. But it got a much wider reception in the real world via Jagjaguwar or whatever, so I think it is more than fine to have it on lists this year.

[PopTodd]

i've seen that, but the cover makes it look very cheap so it put me off. have you heard it then?

 

Nope, but I am LOVING The Sounds Of Our Time, and I know that the new one is put together by the same folks who put together Sounds.... Also got a rave at AllMusic.com:

 

4.5 Stars

Jim Ford only released one album' date=' 1969's Harlan County, during his life but he had plenty of stray singles that accumulate over the years. Most of these found their way onto Bear Family's 2007 release The Sounds of Our Time, which reissued the full Harlan County album, along with these 45-rpm rarities and unheard demo tapes. As Bear Family was compiling that superb disc, Ford revealed to journalist L-P Anderson that there was a whole bunch of unheard tapes, not sitting in the vault but rather in a canvas bag in his trailer. The notoriously ornery, uncooperative Ford eventually agreed to release these tapes but he didn't live to see the release of Point of No Return, a 2008 compilation of unheard songs. Unheard doesn't necessarily mean unknown, as this contains Ford's own versions of "I'm Ahead If I Can Quit While I'm Behind" and "Harry Hippie," songs popularized by his disciples Brinsley Schwarz and his friend Bobby Womack, who also cut the title track, "Point of No Return." As to why these recordings -- all full-blown studio recordings apart from the fragile, lovely acoustic "I'm Ahead If I Can Quit While I'm Behind," one of Ford's finest songs -- weren't released at the time, there are no specific reasons revealed in the liner notes, yet the succession of stories of how Ford sold the same songs to five or six different publishers, how he demanded exorbitant fees to cut a country album, how he brawled his way through L.A. in the '60s, and how he was incessantly asking for cash after the release of The Sounds of Our Time leave no doubt that he was one difficult SOB.

 

Ford paid the price for his behavior, dropping out of sight and alienating friends (the testimonials by Bobby Womack and P.J. Proby here are heartbreaking, although they leave little question that they had to avoid Ford in order to preserve their own sanity). His demons drove him underground, but like many tortured artists, the art that Jim Ford produced was the opposite of his chaotic life: his songs flowed easily and naturally, simple in their structure yet clever in their words and melodies. That is as true to this collection of 16 songs -- all but the 1968 single "Look Again" previously unreleased, but that's so rare it virtually counts as unreleased -- as it was to the music on The Sounds of Our Time. The songs here ever so slightly emphasize his country side, surfacing primarily as the thick country-funk that distinguished Harlan County but also the slick '70s shine of "If You Can Get Away (She Don't Need Me Like I Need You)," where Ford falls for a Rodeo Drive cowgirl and cuts a single that could have been a soft rock hit if he had only gotten his act together. Songs like this bolster his boast that he could have delivered a hit record if the price were right, but that price was never met, so he left behind gem after gem -- at least it seems that way based on the unreleased tapes Bear Family has dug up, as Point of No Return is every bit as excellent as Sounds. The music here is a continuation of the unreleased cuts there, right down to how this offers a slow version of "Go Through Sunday," a rewrite of "She Turns My Radio On" (here spun to be a gospel tune), and a different version of "I Wonder What They'll Do with Today" called "Whicha Way," but also in how Ford's country blends with his soul obsessions, most wickedly so in "If I Go Country," a plea to get back to the land that's dressed up in blaxploitation funk.

 

That's the only big, brassy funk tune on the disc; when Ford gets soulful here, it's a bit quieter, as on the soulful "Harry Hippie" and slow-burning "Sweet Baby Mine (You Just A...)," which has a counterpoint in the dirtier, fuzz-toned funk of "Don't Hold Back What You Feel." There are also a couple of polished roots-pop tracks here that very much sound like the end of the '60s -- "Point of No Return," "Look Again" -- but the heart of the new stuff is in the country, in the rocking ramble "Mill Valley," the slow-rolling tear-in-my-beer "Just Cause I Can," a cover of Eddy Arnold's "Bouquet of Roses," and, best of all, "Stoppin' to Start," a clever ode to the bottle. Of course, that addiction is what sank Ford personally and professionally, but somehow through that haze he left behind a wealth of remarkable music, music that only gets better the longer that you live with it, music that makes a significant argument that he's one of the great unsung country-rock songwriters of the '60s and '70s. Those talents are as easy to appreciate here, on a full-blown collection of rarities, as they were on Harlan County and The Sounds of Our Time -- and with any luck, the promise of yet another volume of Jim Ford tapes in the liner notes to Point of No Return will indeed come true somewhere down the road.[/quote']

[tangara]

eh, it's a valid point though... i don't care if people include it or not, but most omissions from EOY lists this year stem from them putting it on their '07 list, like Pitchfork and both the sites I run/help run.

 

 

Right. It was way up on my last year list so if I get around to making one this year, it won't be there. But it got a much wider reception in the real world via Jagjaguwar or whatever, so I think it is more than fine to have it on lists this year.

 

 

Heh. Apparently the argument still has legs

 

I would not have argued if someone heard it and wanted to put it on their EOY list last year. But I think it'll be on more EOY lists this year than last, simply because of the wider release in 2008.

[solace]

Heh. Apparently the argument still has legs

 

I would not have argued if someone heard it and wanted to put it on their EOY list last year. But I think it'll be on more EOY lists this year than last, simply because of the wider release in 2008.

 

no doubt.

 

hell, it'd still be my #1 album of 2008 too, but probably not really fair to list it twice

[tangara]

Ah, go ahead. You know you wanna

[solace]

Ah, go ahead. You know you wanna

 

on the Sound Ops EOY poll i def wanted to... but it seems like it'll be top 10 on there even without my #1 vote

 

i think the fact that I started the Bon Iver thread on there last August says enough however

[sethyo25]

Music I enjoyed this fine year:

 

Deerhunter:Microcastle/Weird Era

Beck:Modern Guilt

Dodos:Visiter

Department Of Eagles:In Ear Park

Jenny Lewis:Acid Tongue

Fleet Foxes:Fleet Foxes

Portishead:Third

Bon Iver:For Emma, Forever Ago (I didn't hear the record till this year)

Vampire Weekend:Vampire Weekend

Aimee Mann:@#%&*! Smilers

She & Him:Volume One

MGMT:Oracular Spectacular (again, didn't hear the record till this year)

The Walkmen:You & Me

Beach House:Devotion

Conor Oberst:Conor Oberst

The Whigs:Mission Control

The Black Keys:Attack & Release

Lucinda Williams:Little Honey

M83:Saturdays=Youth

Belle & Sebastian:The BBC Sessions

 

I think it was a great year for music. Cheers!

-seth

[you ever seen a ghost?]

This argument is so tired. Its official label release was February '08, and that's good enough for me.

 

question: if one wanted to, could one have purchased the album in 2007?

answer: yes.

 

question: what would the date on the back of that edition read?

answer: 2007.

 

question: do self-released records not count? do we have to wait until it comes out on a label?

answer: of course not. In Rainbows was originally self-released and came out in 2007, not 2008 silly.

 

question: was it widely available in 2007?

answer: yes, but not physically. reading all the best of lists it topped (PITCHFORK), one could have easily downloaded it and determined it was a good one and one of their favorites of the year. the year 2007.

 

-justin

[solace]

not to mention it was streaming on virb.com for free from July through December

[you ever seen a ghost?]

not to mention it was streaming on virb.com for free from July through December

 

checkmate!

 

-justin

[bleedorange]

question: if one wanted to, could one have purchased the album in 2007?

answer: yes.

 

question: what would the date on the back of that edition read?

answer: 2007.

 

question: do self-released records not count? do we have to wait until it comes out on a label?

answer: of course not. In Rainbows was originally self-released and came out in 2007, not 2008 silly.

 

question: was it widely available in 2007?

answer: yes, but not physically. reading all the best of lists it topped (PITCHFORK), one could have easily downloaded it and determined it was a good one and one of their favorites of the year. the year 2007.

 

-justin

 

Why does it matter?

[Beltmann]

Why does it matter?

It doesn't, unless pedantry is your thing.

 

Bon Iver will appear on my 2008 list.

[Synthesizer Patel]

i had it on my 2004 list, when Mr Bon was first coming up with the songs in his head.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

It doesn't, unless pedantry is your thing.

 

 

what if it isn't your thing exactly, but you just like to be correct. and not "technically correct" either. like correct correct. i bet the people that refer to it as a 2008 release also say "cardshark" instead of "cardsharp" and "liberry" instead of "library."

 

-justin

[Winston Legthigh]

cardshark is an invalid term?

 

huh.

[bleedorange]

what if it isn't your thing exactly, but you just like to be correct. and not "technically correct" either. like correct correct. i bet the people that refer to it as a 2008 release also say "cardshark" instead of "cardsharp" and "liberry" instead of "library."

 

-justin

 

Actually, I doubt that's the case. My guess is that people who refer to it as a 2008 release didn't get to hear it (or learn about it) until it was released by a label in 2008. Then, these same people who heard it then also really liked it enough to want to include it on their "ultra-important" end-of-year list for favorite albums. Regardless of the "overwhelming evidence" from certain people that they were not allowed to put it on their list.

 

Now excuse me while I go enjoy my "expresso."

[you ever seen a ghost?]

>Now excuse me while I go enjoy my "expresso."

 

:-)

 

-justin

[GtrPlyr]

cardshark is an invalid term?

 

huh.

Both are acceptable terms as far as I know... maybe that wasn't the best example to use .

[Synthesizer Patel]

cardshark is an invalid term?

 

huh.

 

no. it's just another term for a card sharp. it's how language evolves. i mean, it's worth noting that americans generally aren't too hot at pronouncing english words in the first place - they say them how they wish, meaning they evolve them. otherwise we'd all be speaking greek now, wouldn't we.

[tangara]

question: if one wanted to, could one have purchased the album in 2007?

answer: yes.

 

question: what would the date on the back of that edition read?

answer: 2007.

 

question: do self-released records not count? do we have to wait until it comes out on a label?

answer: of course not. In Rainbows was originally self-released and came out in 2007, not 2008 silly.

 

question: was it widely available in 2007?

answer: yes, but not physically. reading all the best of lists it topped (PITCHFORK), one could have easily downloaded it and determined it was a good one and one of their favorites of the year. the year 2007.

 

-justin

 

Hey, man?

 

It's just not that serious.

[you ever seen a ghost?]

Both are acceptable terms as far as I know... maybe that wasn't the best example to use .

 

well, i don't want to be pedantic, but it is a thornier issue than that.

 

for example, searching on dictionary.com, there is no entry for cardshark, but if you look up cardsharp, you get the definition.

 

wikipedia, citing multiple sources, says:

According to the prevailing etymological theory, the term "shark", originally meaning "parasite" or "one who preys upon others" (cf. loan shark), derives from German Schorke/Schurke ("rogue" or "rascal"), as did the English word "shirk[er]". "Sharp" developed in the 17th century from this meaning of "shark" (as apparently did the use of "shark" as a name for the fish), but the phrase "card sharp" prefigures the variant "card shark".The original connotation was negative, meaning "swindler" or "cheat", regardless of spelling, with the more positive connotations of "expert" or "skilled player" arising later, and not supplanting the negative ones."Card sharp" and "card shark" are synonymous, although American English is somewhat, but informally, beginning to favor "shark" as a positive term versus "sharp" as a negative one. (However not even all American dictionaries agree with this, and some suggest the opposite.)

 

-justin

[explodo]

Now excuse me while I go enjoy my "expresso."

 

 

This thread has jumped the sharp...

[Synthesizer Patel]

well, i don't want to be pedantic, but it is a thornier issue than that.

 

for example, searching on dictionary.com, there is no entry for cardshark, but if you look up cardsharp, you get the definition.

 

wikipedia, citing multiple sources, says:

According to the prevailing etymological theory, the term "shark", originally meaning "parasite" or "one who preys upon others" (cf. loan shark), derives from German Schorke/Schurke ("rogue" or "rascal"), as did the English word "shirk[er]". "Sharp" developed in the 17th century from this meaning of "shark" (as apparently did the use of "shark" as a name for the fish), but the phrase "card sharp" prefigures the variant "card shark".The original connotation was negative, meaning "swindler" or "cheat", regardless of spelling, with the more positive connotations of "expert" or "skilled player" arising later, and not supplanting the negative ones."Card sharp" and "card shark" are synonymous, although American English is somewhat, but informally, beginning to favor "shark" as a positive term versus "sharp" as a negative one. (However not even all American dictionaries agree with this, and some suggest the opposite.)

 

-justin

 

that simply points out that things aren't set in stone, therefore following that notion through in regard to the most interesting thing about Bon Iver's album (that being it's release date), we can conclude that this too is not set in stone as well. or not?

 

- spunky backpack

[you ever seen a ghost?]

that simply points out that things aren't set in stone, therefore following that notion through in regard to the most interesting thing about Bon Iver's album (that being it's release date), we can conclude that this too is not set in stone as well. or not?

 

well, i would say that the statment "the phrase 'card sharp' prefigures the variant 'card shark'" equates to the 2007 release prefiguring the 2008 one. :-)

 

 

 

This thread has jumped the sharp...

 

brilliant!

 

-justin

[bleedorange]

I only wish that I liked the Bon Iver album enough to include it on my 2008 list.