Best Albums of 2008: "Dear Science,"

1. The world’s best vocalist is…

a) Karin Dreijer.

b) Tunde Adebimpe.

c) Rob Van Winkle.

d) Thom Yorke.

e) a, b, and d.

2. The most talented musician right now is…

a) Jonny Greenwood.

b) Steven Drozd.

c) Dave Sitek.

d) Nick Jonas.

e) a, b, and c.

3. Dear Science…

a) makes you smarter.

b) is the album The Arcade Fire was trying to make when they recorded Neon Bible.

c) won’t be fully appreciated until the end of 2009, when all of those lists for the best albums of the decade hit the webzine/blogosphere.

d) will be the subject of a history graduate student’s thesis entitled Dear Science: How the Hipsters of the Aughts Coped With Occupation Iraqi Freedom.

e) is all the above.

For the answers to these and more of life’s deepest questions, refer to the video after the jump. Continue reading…

Best Albums of 2008: "Microcastle" & "808s & Heartbreak"

ACTUAL CONVERSATION BETWEEN BRADFORD COX AND KANYE WEST:

Cox: What’s up Mister West, Mister West, Mister Fresh, Mister By His-self-he-so-impressed?!

West: Hi there. Did you hear Pretty Young Thing named both of our albums to their Best Albums of 2008 list?

Cox: Yeah, I was so honored when I saw that. Of all the year-end lists we made this year, that one takes the cake. Continue reading…

Best Albums of 2008: "In Ghost Colours"

I was only nine years old when I saw my first ghost. My classmates and I were on a field trip to the Queen Mary. We were in the pool area of the ship at the time. She was an older woman – white hair and white clothes. I wasn’t the only one that saw her – my friend Scott saw her too. Frightening! Cut Copy knew what they were doing when they named their latest In Ghost Colours. It’s haunting. Unfinished business or not, this record is smoothe. All of the songs seemlissly run together. All highs, no lows, it haunts in a good way – like a spirit, not a ghoul. Heaven, not Hell.

Best Albums of 2008: "Third"

Dear Diary,

Marty is really starting to worry me because he just told me that he was born in 1968. I tried doing the math and it doesn’t work out. By my arithmetic, that would make him forty, but he looks like he is seventeen!!! He also told me that his car is a time machine. Is it bad that I think he is on drugs? Or mentally ill? Should I talk to someone about this? He was showing me notes from this History of Rock & Roll class that he says he took at Cal in the year 2037 because he was trying to prove to me why Portishead’s album Third was so important. He said his professor in that class explained that Third single-handedly kept the album format alive at the end of the aughts. I guess that makes sense to me – listening to one song from Third after listening to a track from, say, Coldplay would be as disturbing as watching that scene with the bunny in Donnie Darko right after watching Back to the Futu…..

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Portishead – “The Rip” (sharebee)

Best Albums of 2008: "Crystal Castles"

Ironically titled track with preachy lyrics about how cocaine is bad for your health. Check. Single about self-mutilation that sounds like a low budget “Ayo Technology.” Check.  Closing song that sounds like it could have been an outtake from Loveless. Check. With their self-titled debut LP, Crystal Castles a) was able to get kids who had never used drugs to dance to songs about doing drugs, b) united hip-hoppers with goths, and c) converted even the most cynical of music snobs.

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Crystal Castles – “Vanished”