The Ineligibles

The were two records that I played more than any other this year. Between them, they would have battled for the top spot on the list…except that both were released in 2007:

Two Gallants
Two Gallants

I saw Two Gallants at Bonnaroo festival – there was nothing I wanted to see at the time, and I remembered I'd been told that they were a good Saddle Creek band. They were really great live, but not anything all that exceptional. Good enough, though, to encourage me buy their latest record. It turned out to be the album I played most all year. Lyrics of the highest possible quality, raw but beautiful blues rock and a perfect sense of songwriting all add up to one astounding record. Stand out tracks are: ‘Reflections Of A Marionette’ (with its really nasty sentiment masked by a lovely picked guitar part) and ‘Despite What You’ve Been Told’ (which turns the structure of the traditional love song brilliantly on its head, and is the one single track I have played more than any other in 2008). However, those are just examples to highlight an album that is without flaw. Album of the year. Sort of.

LCD Soundsystem
Sound Of Silver

Closely followed by this. I’m not sure what type of music it is (electronica, I guess, but then there’s also rock and other junk in here too). Every track is different from all the others, and yet the album works really well as a whole. ‘Get Innocuous’ is a brooding piece of electronic music that slowly draws you into it, whereas ‘North American Scum’ is an instant classic that it’s impossible not to love. Finally, ‘New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ is a pretty lament that shows a completely different side to LCD Soundsystem. There’s a reason that this appeared at the top of many people’s ‘album of the year’ lists this time last year. It would have been somewhere up there on mine too if I’d known about it. I’m off to buy their back catalogue…

I should also mention a stand out 2008 release that was ineligible, being an ep:

One Day As A Lion
One Day As A Lion

It’s great to have Zack de la Rocha back. Finally. Better still, this is really good stuff. Similar enough to his work with Rage Against The Machine that there’s some continuity here, but different enough that it is its own beast, One Day As A Lion is as good an ep as you’ll find. The mix of rock and dance/electro is seamless, and all fits really well with Zack’s rapping. It just annoys me every time that it ends so soon. I particularly love the line ‘your arsenals stripped’ from ‘Wild International’, which I like to pretend is Zack saying ‘your Arsenal strip’, in reference to a replica football kit…