That said it wasn't a bad year for music, (and it was a great year for music technology) so it'd be a shame not to recognise some of the hits and misses of 2008.
Top Records
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever (amazon
)This album is just heart-wrenchingly delicate and beautiful. It is the perfect album for a cold, dark winter's day. Every song is brilliant, and my favourite seems to switch with the seasons. When I first listened, it was Creature Fear, then Blindsided, now re:Stacks. I'm sure this album still has more to give and it will remain a staple in our house in 2009.
Glasvegas - Glasvegas (amazon
)I was switched on to Glasvegas by a friend's Google Talk status, saying simply 'Album of the Year'. Well Simon was right on that one. This Scottish group make the most incredible racket. They remind me of Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine, but this is no pastiche. The lyrics and melodies are touching and sometimes childlike (even when they're about getting stabbed) and the production is staggering. Favourite track right now is S.A.D. Light (Ruthie likes the nursery rhyme!)
Kings of Leon - Only the Night (amazon
)I resisted KOL almost until the very end of the year. Finally, in December, I succumed and made it my first purchase through Amazon's new UK MP3 store. I have to say that everyone else was right on this one. It blew me away. The best out and out rock album I have heard in years. It has echoes of so many great bands of the past, but is absolutely KOL at it's heart. Sex on Fire is my favourite single of the year, and that is nowhere near the best track on the album.
Portishead - Third (amazon
)Portishead have been away for what seems like ages. I remember hearing Dummy for the first time as a student and having my ears opened to a completely new sound. So it's pretty astonishing that one band could do that twice. Third sounds like nothing else released this year. The beats are harder, there is a new mechanical edge as evidenced in tracks like Machine Gun and there is liberal use of old school synths. Portishead have obviuosly been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk while they've been away.
Special Mention
Radiohead - I Might be Wrong (amazon
)I know this is an old album, but it gets a special mention as it was playing through most of the birth of our first child Ruthie. Pippa is a nut for Radiohead and this, I think, is their finest moment. The versions of True Love Waits and Like Spinning Plates are breath-taking. And now it will have the added benefit of always making me think of little Ruth.
Honorable Mentions
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E (amazon
)Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (amazon
)Beck - Modern Guilt (amazon
)Top Music Technology
The big tech event in our house this year was switching 100% to the Apple. We ditched our old desktop and now meet all of our computing needs with a black Mac Book and a shiny silver Mac Bpook Pro. This had an additional massive benefit for our music enjoyment of enabling us to access the awesome music stack on the Mac. So now we have all our music living on the Mac Book, which is wirelessly connected to our amp via the AirPort Express and is controlled via the iTunes Remote on my iPhone (or the TuneRemote app on Pippa's Android). Our CDs are finally in the loft!
The other big Apple news was Genius Playlists on iTunes. We have been using it loads in order to re-disciver the music on our hard drive. I'm really impressed by their algorithm (and I'd forgotten quite how good Beck was!)
The last.fm application on my iPhone gave me a glimpse of a future that I thought was a lot further away. The first time I streamed personalized, Internet radio over a mobile 3G network to my phone I had a huge grin on my face. This is the way it's going to be in the future and I can't wait!
On the desktop, Spotify pointed the way to free streaming ad-supported music on-demand. It's a great service with a nice lightweight client and a very large library. The ads every 5-6 songs are absolutely fine and have even turned me on to a couple of things (my observation is that Movie ads work best in this media). I'm not sure if they can make the numbers turn round at this rate, but I hope they can.
In December, I rejoiced in the long awaited launch of Amazon MP3
in the UK (all the amazon links on this page point there). It's a great service. Big catalogue. Cheap (KOL was 4 quid). DRM-free. iTunes eat you heart out.Finally the new year has brought two great music zeitgeists which are starting to live up to the promise of the internets ability to aggregate our music tastes. Last.fm have a chart made up of music scrobbles while Hype Machine have one based on blogs written. Both of these are great services and I'd like to see more automated music discovery in 2009.
I've definitely resolved to get back on the blogging machine in earnest in 2009, so expect a bit more traffic than the miserely 3 posts in Q4 :-) I might also try to post a few songs on Tumblr if I can make integration with this blog work.