#2: Fleet Foxes -- White Winter Hymnal
Fleet Foxes are blowing up. This song is why. There's just no one else doing stuff like this today. It's simultaneously modern while calling back to 60s pop and folk.
The entire self-titled album is a phenomenal throwback. Fleet Foxes' sound is so unique, yet so familiar that it's no doubt that they're rapidly growing in popularity.
Also, it's a damn beautiful song.
#3: Weezer -- The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
Rivers Cuomo is insane. The good kind of insane.
From Weezer's latest album (affectionately known as "The Red Album"), you've got a song that again follows in the grand Brian Wilson tradition. Take a bunch of elements of varied popular music and figure out how to fit them together into a little pop masterpiece.
I suppose, at 5+ minutes, this isn't a "little" pop masterpiece. But it's a masterpiece nonetheless. Where Brian Wilson incorporated doo-wop, orchestral arrangements, surf rock, and barbershop harmonies, Rivers incorporates a capella harmonies, rap, your usual alternarock, and a bit of a hymn to create this bit of indulgence.
Fill in the blank: Rivers Cuomo : Brian Wilson :: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" : ?
It's not for everybody. But it should be.
#4: Nada Surf -- I Like What You Say
Yes, it's repetitive. It is like "I Got My Mind Set On You" updated for 2008. There's absolutely nothing to this song except hook, hook, hook, for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Seriously. They took a normal song and distilled it down until there's nothing but catchy.
Nada Surf has been completely slept on over the past few years while they've put out 3 good albums and one of the best songs of the decade ("Always Love").
(Note: The song linked below is from a movie soundtrack and isn't the album version. The album version from Lucky
is better.)
#5: Delta Spirit -- Trashcan
A few weeks back we went to see Nada Surf play. They were going to be preceded by The Jealous Girlfriends and Delta Spirit. We were running late and I figured we'd miss the opener and get to see the second band, which I assumed would be The Jealous Girlfriends.
I was wrong.
We saw Delta Spirit.
They were awesome.
At one point, one of the guys in the band starts beating on some unique percussion. I said to my friends, "I think that's a trash can lid!" Turns out I was right. It is a trash can lid. You can see for yourself in this video. A year later, that lid is beat to hell, but still sounds awesome.
Delta Spirit sound a lot like a more melodic, funkier Cold War Kids. I mean that as a compliment (I like the Cold War Kids).
Trashcan, in particular, has an awesome piano line, a great hook, and some fun ass percussion. It's why it's my #5 song of 2008.
This is why I love Hulu. One of the best (mini-)episodes from one of the top 5 sitcoms of all time.
But Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no! I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung
#6: Violens -- Violent Sensation Descends
I think I heard this on KEXP's Music That Matters Podcast. Then I went and found it online and listened to it about 1000 times. If you've ever wanted to hear the 2008 version of the purest 60s pop goodness, with organs and harmonies and all that awesomeness, this is your song. Holy shit, this is your song.
Seriously, these guys need to get an album out pronto.
#7: The Decemberists -- "Valerie Plame"
This is an easy one.
If you like The Decemberists, then you'll dig this. It's everything that's good about The Decemberists. The verbose, literary, somewhat historical lyrics. The eclectic instrumentation. Colin Meloy's singing. It's pretty much the essence of the band distilled down to a 4-and-a-half-minute pop song.
If you don't like The Decemberists, then you'll hate this. It's everything that's bad about The Decemberists. The verbose, somewhat self-important, self-indulgent lyrics. The needlessly eclectic instrumentation. Colin Meloy's singing. It's pretty much the essence of the band distilled down to a 4-and-a-half-minute pop song.
Obviously, I fall into column A. The Decemberists might have been one of the top three live shows I saw this year.
#8: Ra Ra Riot -- "Ghost Under Rocks"
Everything about Ra Ra Riot is tinged by the tragedy that hit the band in mid-2007. That tragedy and the band's perseverance are everywhere on Ra Ra Riot's first full-length album The Rhumb Line. The best track off the album, one that represents the best parts of Ra Ra Riot's sound (the strings, the pushing drums, the unconventional vocals), is also one that is so the most obviously influenced by the loss of their bandmate.
It's good.
#9: Girls Guns and Glory -- "667"
Now the only "countryish" stuff on my list. After Lyrics Born's Coup-esque "I Like It, I Love It", we get Boston's own Girls Guns and Glory doing their best Johnny Cash.
Off of Inverted Valentine, this first caught my ear on the Band in Boston Podcast (you should listen, if you don't already), and I kept it on my list of things to maybe buy if I found them at Newbury Comics.
I found them, and I dug this song. I hope you do too.
#10: Lyrics Born -- "I Like It, I Love It"
Probably the only hip-hop that caught my ear this year was Lyrics Born's track from his album Everywhere at Once. That's not to say it was a bad year for hip-hop (M.I.A., Santogold, the new Kanye album), but for whatever reason, none of them really resonated with me. Plus, I think "Paper Planes" is technically a 2007 song. So eat it.
This struck a cord because it sounds a lot like something Boots Riley would do. And if Boots Riley pseudo-approves it, I'm on board.