So yeah, most other people (like pitchfork) would do this in several segments; however, I thought of putting it up here a little too late, so I'm just doing it all as one big post: THE TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2008 (AND HONORABLE MENTIONS)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
-IN RAINBOWS - RADIOHEAD
The only reason this album does not make my top 10 was the fact that it was technically released last year. Yes, the physical copy was put out this year, but the actual music was released (legally, not leaked) in 2007. Sorry Thom Yorke and crew, it was still an amazing album.
-CHINESE DEMOCRACY - GUNS 'N ROSES
This album was painful. It hurt to listen to and made me cringe every time I heard Axl Rose's voice. The only reason this album gets an honorable mention was the fact that, with it's release, Dr. Pepper gave everyone in America a free Dr. Pepper. Since it is the greatest soda on the face of the earth, I had to mention this album somewhere.
-THA CARTER III - 'LIL WAYNE
This album is not so much good as it is catchy...I have realized that my musical tastes are far too white and this was my way of getting more "cultured"
-808S AND HEARTBREAK - KANYE WEST
see "Tha Carter III" review
-VIVA LA VIDA OR DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS - COLDPLAY
I've always wanted to like Coldplay. There was something about them that was appealing, something that I just couldn't put my finger on. This is the first Coldplay album that I can say I actually enjoyed...to an extent. There were many things wrong with it, but my desire has been quenched.
TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2008
25.ARM'S WAY - ISLANDS
24.MODERN GUILT - BECK
23.WATERSHED - OPETH
22.EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY - DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO
21.FEED THE ANIMALS - GIRL TALK
20.SATURDAYS=YOUTH - M83
19.REAL EMOTIONAL TRASH - STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS
18.BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS: NICENE CREEDENCE EDITION - PAVEMENT
17.IN GHOST COLOURS - CUT COPY
16.MICROCASTLE - DEERHUNTER
15.VAMPIRE WEEKEND - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
14.WEEZER (THE RED ALBUM) - WEEZER
13.THE BEDLAM IN GOLIATH - THE MARS VOLTA
12.HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR - HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR
11.Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly)
- Sigur Rós
10.HIDEAWAY - THE WEEPIES
9.NARROW STAIRS - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
8.AT MOUNT ZOOMER - WOLF PARADE
7.CHRISTMAS ON MARS - THE FLAMING LIPS
6.AT THE ROXY - PHISH
5.EVIL URGES - MY MORNING JACKET
4.DEAR SCIENCE - TV ON THE RADIO
3.RABBIT HABITS - MAN MAN
2.FLEET FOXES - FLEET FOXES
1.PARADISE LOST - ERIC WHITACRE
I will post more short reviews of these albums later, but it is snowing outside, so I must go get warm.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Man Man Live at the Heirloom Arts Center, Danbury, CT
So yeah, this was a while ago, but I realized that I had never posted anything up here about seeing Man Man.
First off, it was the most amazing show I have ever seen and would urge everyone on the internets to go see them. I have posted a few pictures below, but if you want to see more, just go to My Picasa Page
Cheers!
Tim Fite
Tim Fite
Man Man
Man Man
Man Man
Man Man (and one of the greatest drum kits ever!)
Man Man
First off, it was the most amazing show I have ever seen and would urge everyone on the internets to go see them. I have posted a few pictures below, but if you want to see more, just go to My Picasa Page
Cheers!
Tim Fite
Tim Fite
Man Man
Man Man
Man Man
Man Man (and one of the greatest drum kits ever!)
Man Man
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Abbey Road - The Beatles
The Beatles - Abbey Road (Apple, 1969)
When one mentions the Beatles, you usually think of "Yellow Submarine" or "Help!" or maybe, MAYBE, "All You Need is Love". Despite all of their pop-hits, the Beatles were an extremely talented group of musicians...they didn't become "Bigger than Jesus" for nothing. So here we go...
The album opens with a bluesy number, Come Together, which creates a very modern image of the Beatles. With a familiar bass-line and almost a complete absence of guitar until the chorus, "Come Together" certainly shows the Beatles taking their music in a different direction, seeming to imitate Jim Morrison and the Doors style of writing. Nonetheless, it has become one of Aerosmith's most famous songs after they covered it on the soundtrack to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie.
Come Together transitions into "Something", one of George Harrison's several successful songs written for the Beatles.
"Something" is somewhat of a love-ballad, detailing the insecurities of the narrators relationship. Musically, the song is very ahead of it's time at some points, relying heavily on odd filters used on the guitars and strange keyboard effects.
Next up is one of the strangest Beatles songs ever. Personally, it is my favorite on the album (hm, that can't be healthy). Maxwell's Silver Hammer is a song about Maxwell Edison who goes around his town murdering people with his silver hammer, first a girl in one of his science classes, then his professor, and eventually the judge who was overseeing his murder trial. The song is very upbeat, almost one that would have a bouncing red dot moving over every word for karaoke. Regardless of the questionable subject matter, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is one of the more fun Beatles songs to listen to.
"Oh! Darling" is another love song, this time written by Paul McCartney. The song has a very strong relation to gospel music, mainly deriving from Paul's shouting of the lyrics at times. The song also shares styles with southern blues/R&B music, again referring to Paul's vocal work.
The next song on Abbey Road is Ringo Starr's only written contribution to this album, "Octopus's Garden". Another upbeat and happy song, this one talks about the singer's desire to live somewhere where there are no problems, no worries, somewhere where he can just be free to do whatever he wants. This is also Ringo's second time singing lead vocals on a Beatles song, causing the song to have a much different style than those of Lennon/McCartney.
One of the Beatle's more experimental songs of their career is "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Ending the first side of the album, "I Want You" is a blues/progressive based song that was written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The song clocks in at 7:47, making it the longest on the album by over 3 minutes. Revolving around one hypnotic guitar riff, this song focuses more on the musical nature of the song than the lyrical (the song contains only 14 different words). Another typical contribution from Yoko Ono, "I Want You" in one of the odder tracks on the album.
"Here Comes the Sun" is arguably George Harrison's most successful foray into songwriting, even though it was not released as an official single. The story behind this song is one of the happier stories in Beatles history. George had grown tired of Apple Records (the Beatles record company), stating that it "was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen." One day, Harrison decided to go to a close friends house (Eric Clapton) and just walked around his garden, watched all of the plants begin to grow again as the ice melted away. Of course, this called for him to write a song. Overall a calm, relaxing song, "Here Comes the Sun" was recorded without the presence of John Lennon, who was busy recovering from a car accident.
The final "song" on the album before the "Abbey Road Suite" is "Because", another highly experimental track featuring a harpsichord, a guitar played through many filters, and a moog-synthesizer part, not to mention the three part vocal harmonies performed by McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison. A very interesting piece, "Because" closes up the true album before the epic suite.
The remaining 15+ minutes of the album are divided up among 8 songs, collectively known as the "Abbey Road Suite". There is no unifying theme to the suite, other than that the songs were all pieces written by either John Lennon or Paul McCartney and were never finished. Coming into the recording of Abbey Road, the band essentially knew that this would be their last album. All of these songs were ones that had been previously written, never finished, and somebody wanted them to be put onto the album. So, they were combined into one giant medley of songs that flow into each other. While the medley is musically fascinating, the songs have essentially nothing in common with each other. If you want the true experience, I suggest you buy the album and listen to it.
The only thing after the medley is a 24 second piece called "Her Majesty", a piece that was accidentally included on the album by a studio technician who was told not to ever throw any material out. He saw the piece of cut tape on the floor and decided to attach it to the end of the album. The song is what a 24 second song can be; a catchy jingle about wanting to marry the Queen of England.
In conclusion, Abbey Road is one of the greatest Beatles albums. It has such drastic musical differences in both theme and style and does not rely on one type of playing. The Beatles were the biggest band in the world, they were "Bigger than Jesus", and they went out with a bang.
When one mentions the Beatles, you usually think of "Yellow Submarine" or "Help!" or maybe, MAYBE, "All You Need is Love". Despite all of their pop-hits, the Beatles were an extremely talented group of musicians...they didn't become "Bigger than Jesus" for nothing. So here we go...
The album opens with a bluesy number, Come Together, which creates a very modern image of the Beatles. With a familiar bass-line and almost a complete absence of guitar until the chorus, "Come Together" certainly shows the Beatles taking their music in a different direction, seeming to imitate Jim Morrison and the Doors style of writing. Nonetheless, it has become one of Aerosmith's most famous songs after they covered it on the soundtrack to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie.
Come Together transitions into "Something", one of George Harrison's several successful songs written for the Beatles.
"Something" is somewhat of a love-ballad, detailing the insecurities of the narrators relationship. Musically, the song is very ahead of it's time at some points, relying heavily on odd filters used on the guitars and strange keyboard effects.
Next up is one of the strangest Beatles songs ever. Personally, it is my favorite on the album (hm, that can't be healthy). Maxwell's Silver Hammer is a song about Maxwell Edison who goes around his town murdering people with his silver hammer, first a girl in one of his science classes, then his professor, and eventually the judge who was overseeing his murder trial. The song is very upbeat, almost one that would have a bouncing red dot moving over every word for karaoke. Regardless of the questionable subject matter, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is one of the more fun Beatles songs to listen to.
"Oh! Darling" is another love song, this time written by Paul McCartney. The song has a very strong relation to gospel music, mainly deriving from Paul's shouting of the lyrics at times. The song also shares styles with southern blues/R&B music, again referring to Paul's vocal work.
The next song on Abbey Road is Ringo Starr's only written contribution to this album, "Octopus's Garden". Another upbeat and happy song, this one talks about the singer's desire to live somewhere where there are no problems, no worries, somewhere where he can just be free to do whatever he wants. This is also Ringo's second time singing lead vocals on a Beatles song, causing the song to have a much different style than those of Lennon/McCartney.
One of the Beatle's more experimental songs of their career is "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Ending the first side of the album, "I Want You" is a blues/progressive based song that was written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The song clocks in at 7:47, making it the longest on the album by over 3 minutes. Revolving around one hypnotic guitar riff, this song focuses more on the musical nature of the song than the lyrical (the song contains only 14 different words). Another typical contribution from Yoko Ono, "I Want You" in one of the odder tracks on the album.
"Here Comes the Sun" is arguably George Harrison's most successful foray into songwriting, even though it was not released as an official single. The story behind this song is one of the happier stories in Beatles history. George had grown tired of Apple Records (the Beatles record company), stating that it "was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen." One day, Harrison decided to go to a close friends house (Eric Clapton) and just walked around his garden, watched all of the plants begin to grow again as the ice melted away. Of course, this called for him to write a song. Overall a calm, relaxing song, "Here Comes the Sun" was recorded without the presence of John Lennon, who was busy recovering from a car accident.
The final "song" on the album before the "Abbey Road Suite" is "Because", another highly experimental track featuring a harpsichord, a guitar played through many filters, and a moog-synthesizer part, not to mention the three part vocal harmonies performed by McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison. A very interesting piece, "Because" closes up the true album before the epic suite.
The remaining 15+ minutes of the album are divided up among 8 songs, collectively known as the "Abbey Road Suite". There is no unifying theme to the suite, other than that the songs were all pieces written by either John Lennon or Paul McCartney and were never finished. Coming into the recording of Abbey Road, the band essentially knew that this would be their last album. All of these songs were ones that had been previously written, never finished, and somebody wanted them to be put onto the album. So, they were combined into one giant medley of songs that flow into each other. While the medley is musically fascinating, the songs have essentially nothing in common with each other. If you want the true experience, I suggest you buy the album and listen to it.
The only thing after the medley is a 24 second piece called "Her Majesty", a piece that was accidentally included on the album by a studio technician who was told not to ever throw any material out. He saw the piece of cut tape on the floor and decided to attach it to the end of the album. The song is what a 24 second song can be; a catchy jingle about wanting to marry the Queen of England.
In conclusion, Abbey Road is one of the greatest Beatles albums. It has such drastic musical differences in both theme and style and does not rely on one type of playing. The Beatles were the biggest band in the world, they were "Bigger than Jesus", and they went out with a bang.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst (2008)
Could Conor Oberst be the next singer-songwriter legend? Could he lead the world from the shitty depths of mainstream music into the land of pretense, bad haircuts tight jeans and quiet acoustic guitars.
NO
Conor Oberst Fails
Game Over
http://www.mediafire.com/?cxmvdgmddvc
0.420 out of 10
NO
Conor Oberst Fails
Game Over
http://www.mediafire.com/?cxmvdgmddvc
0.420 out of 10
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Matisyahu is Amazing
This isn't a review or anything. I would just like to go on record by saying that Matisyahu might be the singles greatest musician on the planet right now. Everything about him is amazing. He lyrics, his singing style, how GOD DAMN FAST HE CAN SING, everything. But the thing I love the most about him is how into his religion he is, while his lyrics never seem preachy or like he's trying to convert you. He's just a regular guy who has a talent for singing amazingly well. Thats about it. I'm trying to go see him the next time he comes near me. If I do, I'll write up a review of the show on here. For all of the people that read this...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Narrow Stairs - Death Cab For Cutie
Fear not Death Cab fans, Ben Gibbard and crew have not sold out. While many feared that after the more mainstream "Plans" was released on a (gasp) major lable, that Death Cab for Cutie would be lost into the mainstream forever. As I said, fear not! Bellingham, Washington's biggest indie act has taken one huge leap away from the mainstream with their latest release, Narrow Stairs.
Narrow Stairs' first single, the 8-and-a-half-minute tune that is "I Will Possess Your Heart", is possible the best indicator of this experimentation. With a 4-and-a-half-minute instrumental intro, this song truly epitomizes the effect that DCfC wants from this album. And to top it off, they even made a video for this song. Clocking in at 8:35, it is Death Cab's longest video to date. And it's a darn good 'un too.
The rest of the album follows suit. While many of Gibbard's lyrics retain the angst-filled, melancholy tone as previous works, the music does give some songs a much happier feel (No Sunlight, Cath..., You Can Do Better Than Me). However, there is no mistaking it, this is Death Cab For Cutie. With an album that critics said will either revolutionize their career or destroy it, Death Cab has definitely revolutionized their career in my eyes.
With such a great album, however, does come one complaint. After the first two tracks, DCfC appears to shift back into their old, indie pop style. While there is a significant difference between the two eras of DCfC's music, it almost seems as is they took old songs, put weird effects over some of the songs and had some fun with the production.
Nevertheless, Narrow Stairs is arguably Death Cab's best work. Transitioning from poppy to dreamy to melancholy all while remaining distinctly Gibbard, Narrow Stairs is definitely in the running for "Album of the Year".
9.7 out of 10
Narrow Stairs' first single, the 8-and-a-half-minute tune that is "I Will Possess Your Heart", is possible the best indicator of this experimentation. With a 4-and-a-half-minute instrumental intro, this song truly epitomizes the effect that DCfC wants from this album. And to top it off, they even made a video for this song. Clocking in at 8:35, it is Death Cab's longest video to date. And it's a darn good 'un too.
The rest of the album follows suit. While many of Gibbard's lyrics retain the angst-filled, melancholy tone as previous works, the music does give some songs a much happier feel (No Sunlight, Cath..., You Can Do Better Than Me). However, there is no mistaking it, this is Death Cab For Cutie. With an album that critics said will either revolutionize their career or destroy it, Death Cab has definitely revolutionized their career in my eyes.
With such a great album, however, does come one complaint. After the first two tracks, DCfC appears to shift back into their old, indie pop style. While there is a significant difference between the two eras of DCfC's music, it almost seems as is they took old songs, put weird effects over some of the songs and had some fun with the production.
Nevertheless, Narrow Stairs is arguably Death Cab's best work. Transitioning from poppy to dreamy to melancholy all while remaining distinctly Gibbard, Narrow Stairs is definitely in the running for "Album of the Year".
9.7 out of 10
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Hideaway - The Weepies
Wow. That's what I have to say. After downloading this album for a friend, I decided to give it a listen. I was completely blown away. When someone mentions alt-folk, I generally think of fairly chill, Sufjan Stevens-esque music. While I do love Sufjan Stevens, his music can only be taken in small doses. The Weepies, however, combine elements of "pop" music without straying too far into the "pop" realm. They have several down-tempo songs that are reminiscent of Sufjan, but many of the tracks have an extremely upbeat feel to them.
Attempting to follow up their biggest success to date (2006's "Say I Am You), Deb Talen and Steve Tannen had some work to do. However, I can say without a doubt, they more than surpassed their previous album. Songs such as "Old Coyote", "How You Survived the War" (One of my personal favorites), and "Can't Go Back Now" offer quiet moments of reflection, while "Not Dead Yet", "Antarctica", and the title track, among others, are just more songs that bring a smile to your face. With fairly simple instrumentation (Acoustic Guitars, Drums, Bass), The Weepies have succeeded in creating another indie masterpiece that will be remembered for years.
Maybe it is because they are now married and have a child. Or maybe it is because they have just grown a little older. Whatever the reason, The Weepies' latest foray into the recording world seems much more mature than their previous effort. However, they do not forget to remind us that, once in a while, life is fun, so enjoy it.
9.5 out of 10
Attempting to follow up their biggest success to date (2006's "Say I Am You), Deb Talen and Steve Tannen had some work to do. However, I can say without a doubt, they more than surpassed their previous album. Songs such as "Old Coyote", "How You Survived the War" (One of my personal favorites), and "Can't Go Back Now" offer quiet moments of reflection, while "Not Dead Yet", "Antarctica", and the title track, among others, are just more songs that bring a smile to your face. With fairly simple instrumentation (Acoustic Guitars, Drums, Bass), The Weepies have succeeded in creating another indie masterpiece that will be remembered for years.
Maybe it is because they are now married and have a child. Or maybe it is because they have just grown a little older. Whatever the reason, The Weepies' latest foray into the recording world seems much more mature than their previous effort. However, they do not forget to remind us that, once in a while, life is fun, so enjoy it.
9.5 out of 10
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