Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008
TOP 50 ALBUMS |
The Hype Machine & Blog Fresh Radio have teamed up to present each set of 10 albums as a radio show featuring songs from the albums & interviews with key music bloggers.
Explore The Top 50 Albums of 2008
Click on the album cover to stream each album in its entirety or browse through reviews by music blogs on the right!
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50Mates of State • Re-Arrange Us
Each track is beautifully crafted and I love how this duo has taken the time to let each song linger on for just the right amount of time. READ POST »
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49The Kills • Midnight Boom
Post-Strokes New York punk rock. Midnight Boom will please any skinny jean, leather-jacket wearing indie rocker READ POST »
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48Glasvegas • Glasvegas
solid, more accessible british sea power, for fans of U2 and coldplay, but not outstanding READ POST »
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47Drive By Truckers • Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Each song tells a story of a person’s troubles, but without being a classic tale of woe. READ POST »
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46Shearwater • Rook
The shear gorgeousness of the music often masks a strong undercurrent of anger and frustration. READ POST »
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45R.E.M. • Accelerate
I can't emphasize enough how pleasantly surprised I am by this album, even shocked. READ POST »
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44Flying Lotus • Los Angeles
Deep within the layers theres something scary. Its noise; Its a heartbeat; Its something to shake an ass to. READ POST »
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43Ra Ra Riot • The Rhumb Line
The Rhumb Line so engaging is that it's ultimately life-affirming: It's a tribute to the ones who stuck around through the worst times. READ POST »
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42sun kil moon • april
April could be the soundtrack to an early morning drive down a country road. READ POST »
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41Jenny Lewis • Acid Tongue
Rilo Kiley songstress' second solo effort less instant than the last. Songs get into your brain after a few listens. Costello guests. READ POST »
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40Beck • Modern Guilt
Combines the folky and somber elements of an album like Sea Change with the addictive pop hooks of albums like Guero and Midnight Vultures. READ POST »
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39Of Montreal • Skeletal Lamping
Skeletal Lamping is an audio feast and worth every cent. READ POST »
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38Blitzen Trapper • Furr
A little like if you let The Beatles, The Who and CSNY co-record an album. READ POST »
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37The Gaslight Anthem • The '59 Sound
who’d have thought the classic “american†rock album would be reinvented by a new jersey punk band rocking out the basement circuit? READ POST »
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36Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds • Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
The record delivers with no waste, perfectly identifying the strengths of the band without reaching extravagantly far. READ POST »
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35Lykke Li • Youth Novels
Youth Novels is one of the year’s most fun albums, if not one of the best. READ POST »
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34Death Cab for Cutie • Narrow Stairs
A dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group's bright melancholy for something nearer to despair. READ POST »
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33The Black Keys • Attack and Release
It is more ferocious than all of their previous records put together and seals their fate as a classic blues rock band suitable. READ POST »
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32Foals • Antidotes
Good music to listen to whilst jumping on a trampoline! READ POST »
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31Wolf Parade • At Mount Zoomer
This is Krug and Boeckner's fully realized musical vision and it's literally blowing my mind. READ POST »
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30Why? • Alopecia
My album of the year. A self-contained universe of found sounds and marble-mouthed rhymes that trip off the tongue like lyrical hairballs. READ POST »
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29Hot Chip • Made In the Dark
The major off-putting thing about this album is the disturbing repetition of the vocals on some songs. Other than that, a solid dance album. READ POST »
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28Department of Eagles • In Ear Park
An album beamed in from an alternate history of pop music, existing in its own era (even if it does sound a bit like Grizzly Bear). READ POST »
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27Beach House • Devotion
It's dark, a little creepy, and if it happens to be raining where you are, it'll provide the perfect soundtrack. READ POST »
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26My Morning Jacket • Evil Urges
Nonplussed with it. MMJ are wildly inconsistent. READ POST »
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25Kanye West • 808s & Heartbreak
Kanye=rapper, producer, and, now, song-writer. This is a love it or hate it album. I, for one, love it. READ POST »
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24Okkervil River • The Stand Ins
Music about musicians, while slightly masturbatory, works out for the better on this finely wrought, lyrically superb concept record. READ POST »
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23Kings of Leon • Only By the Night
Every song bests the previous. Fun to rock out on full blast. READ POST »
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22Lil Wayne • Tha Carter III
OK, it’s true: he really is the best rapper alive. READ POST »
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21She & Him • Volume One
Their acoustic vibe conjures up a time-travel fantasy of key parties, hot tubs and Chablis-crazed groping behind the spider plants. READ POST »
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20The Dodos • Visiter
And speaking of nervous systems, if Visiter doesn't make you tap, nod, shake, or just plain move, then you don't have one. READ POST »
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19No Age • Nouns
The album is a fine, fun piece of work. Nouns will leave you wanting more. READ POST »
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18Elbow • The Seldom Seen Kid
Very inventive, textured record layered w/ acoustic gtrs, piano, percussion. Guy Garvey's voice is alternately haunting and uplifting. READ POST »
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17Crystal Castles • Crystal Castles
A NES stuffed with ecstasy and not even dust blown first! Staring at the resulting fuzz for days on end because it's all that's left to do. READ POST »
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16The Walkmen • You & Me
We needed this. The Walkmen needed it, sure, but so did our collective timelines. So did the year 2008, if we're talking about indie rock... READ POST »
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15Coldplay • Viva La Vida
Their most musically interesting album to date but its political messages are too vague to be heard amid its outsize hooks. READ POST »
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14Girl Talk • Feed The Animals
Worth whatever just to see how many samples you recognize. Consider donating, he'll need the lawyer fee money. READ POST »
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13Frightened Rabbit • The Midnight Organ Fight
While we were skeptical at first of the clean, crisp sound on this new set, The Midnight Organ Fight is a landmark recording for the band. READ POST »
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12Santogold • Santogold
There's great hooks aplenty and you'll be humming these songs all summer. READ POST »
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11Deerhunter • Microcastle
"Deerhunter are either one of the toughest ambient bands or one of the most ambient tough bands you will ever come across." READ POST »
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10The Hold Steady • Stay Positive
Stay Positive’s message is that with each new step there are more and more reasons to love this band. READ POST »
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9M83 • Saturdays=Youth
Saturdays... is an album best listened to alone, or at 3am at an open-minded party. READ POST »
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8Sigur Ros • Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
After 8 listens, the album keeps growing on me. Sigur Ros did it again and make any wait for their music worth every minute. READ POST »
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7Cut Copy • In Ghost Colours
Luckily I had occasion to listen to the whole thing more closely, and the sleek dance grooves on display wound up winning me over. READ POST »
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6Portishead • Third
Third is a remarkably vivid work that sustains the group's legacy and offers an overdue chapter in their subtle musical development. READ POST »
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5MGMT • Oracular Spectacular
I didn't expect it to be this good. This is the first band in a while that truly manage to produce perfect pop & remain effortlessly cool. READ POST »
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4Bon Iver • For Emma, Forever Ago
It's the musical equivalent of reading someone else's diary. READ POST »
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3Vampire Weekend • Vampire Weekend
Even without an album Vampire Weekend has made one of the year’s most impressive debuts. READ POST »
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2TV On The Radio • Dear Science
A big melting pot of genres all fused together into one innovative sound. READ POST »
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1Fleet Foxes • Fleet Foxes
It’s like watching the sun rise over distant mountaintops, over and over, familiar and captivating all at once. READ POST »
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