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We’re here, the final five!

5) Ladytron – Velocifero (Nettwerk)

This, for me, is much akin to the Knife’s Silent Shout–an album so clearly indebted to goth, cold, & darkwave, yet no one ever utters those words when speaking about it. I think those words are just too frightening, so things like New Order & Depeche Mode are used in their place. I’m really glad Ladytron has managed to move past the whole electrocash label they were once trying to get pigeonholed into, and have instead become this wonderful band. While Witching Hour may have been a bolder direction and more complex, Velocifero sees them taking elements of Witching Hour into the sound they perfected on their debut, 802. I tend to have a proclivity towards enjoying albums that catch a band between their artistic inclinations and mainstream desires. Especially in synth & electro-based pop, because that’s how Violaters are made!  And while this isn’t that, it is closer to say a Music for the Masses and step in the right direction in the greater scheme.

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4) MGMT – Oracular Spectacular (Columbia)

I’m kind of shocked that this album got such a lukewarm critical response when it was released. I suppose that it managed to sort itself all out when MGMT went on to become so popular this year, so much so that you just wanted to hate this album… but you can’t, because it’s just too good. It takes a little bit from every “next big thing” over the past couple of years and mixes it all together into a really nice, cohesive, & infectious package. I know no one will look at this as a compliment (even though I mean it to be), but Oracular Spectacular is kind of a “Hipster Greatest Hits”. 10 perfectly crafted little nuggets of what makes you love/hate “hipster” music.  This is the sort of album that you find yourself obsessing over and listening repeatedly to over and over again.

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3) Harvey Milk – Life… The Best Game in Town (Hydra Head)

I still can’t believe that there are enough bands to make an entire genre of music that takes its cues and inspiration from bands like the Melvins and Kyuss! Holy fuck, is this album amazing stoner metal! Life… The Best Game in Town might just be on par with Houdini and Welcome to Sky Valley. The Milk have toiled around for a while and even broken up for a bit, but never, in any of their pretty good previous efforts, were there any hints at the kind of potential stoner masterpiece we have here. Harvey Milk has always deviated somewhat from the mold that so many stoner bands followed, jumping around stylistically to every form of heavily distorted music you can imagine. On Life… The Best Game in Town, however, they manage to take all those variant parts and glue them together perfectly with some sticky green. The slow-to-grooving tempo changes are amazing. This album is like being trapped inside a blacklight poster

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2) Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

You know you’ve found a truly amazing album when, during each listen, you find something completely new to fall in love with that you had somehow missed before. The Chemistry of Common Life is hardcore’s Daydream Nation–a bigger compliment I do not think I could bestow on an album. It sucks you in from the opening build up, and engulfs you in a sonic wash that, while it’s beating you all to hell, you never want to leave, because with every punch, you’re also hearing and learning something new and magical. Fucked Up has made a career out of pushing the boundaries of what hardcore is and can be, and The Chemistry of Common Life is that sign in the ground stating “follow us to salvation!”

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1) M83 – Saturdays=Youth (Mute)

Not a knock to any other amazing album on this list, but with Saturdays=Youth, I knew upon first listening that I was hearing an album I would never, ever grow tired of. Something that, if it wasn’t widely acknowledged now, I was sure would be later down the road. This album is an utterly perfect. M83 has encapsulated the ambivalence, angst, and enthusiasm of adolescence within Saturdays=Youth as successfully as J.D. Salinger did in Catcher in the Rye. And maybe a put off to some, I find the simplistic and innocent nature of the lyrics befitting the albums overall theme. This is the sort of album that transcends it’s influences (like Heaven & Las Vegas, Loveless, and The Hounds of Love) and joins them on equal footing. In many ways, I can’t help but compare this album to what I’d probably call the best film of 2008, which is Let the Right One In. They both tap so well into the same desperate feelings of ambivalence that are grotesque and wonderful, all at once.

Honorable Mentions: Melvins – Nude With Boots, Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna, The Week That Was – The Week That Was & Q-Tip – The Renaissance.

Now that we’ve reached our conclusion please stand by for my 10 Most Disappointing Albums of 2008 sometime next week and A more comprehensive look at the Best in Thrash of 2008 in a couple of weeks!

• For albums 10-6 on the list click here!

• For albums 15-11 on the list click here!

• For albums 20-16 on the list click here!

• For albums 25-21 on the list click here!

• For albums 30-26 on the list click here!

• For albums 35-31 on the list click here!

• For albums 40-36 on the list click here!