Fast Forward writers’ individual Top 10 lists
PATRICK BOYLE
1. Chad VanGaalen — Soft Airplane (Flemish Eye): Chad’s first two albums were great listens but neither of them really felt like albums. Soft Airplane feels great start to finish and I finally feel like there’s a studio recording that does justice to one of Calgary’s remarkable homegrown talents.
2. Beck — Modern Guilt (Universal): In my mind this is Beck’s first great record since Sea Change . It’s a solid outing start-to-finish and it draws upon a broad palette giving us a taste of the many different sides of this complex veteran songwriter.
3. Portishead — Third (Universal): Somehow this record manages to feel like a departure from the band’s original material while evoking the feeling that they picked up right where they left off. They are one of the most talented bands in the world and this record will enjoy international acclaim for many years to come.
4. Hayden — In Field & Town (Universal): This is one of Hayden’s best and most overlooked records to date. He continues to develop as a songwriter ditching a lot of the whinier bits in favour of a good mix of plaintive folk and Crazy Horse-era Neil Young jams.
5. Plants & Animals — Parc Avenue (Secret City): What an ambitious outing from Montreal’s finest psychedelic troubadours! The album makes for a fantastic spread a perfect showcase for the band’s pomp and bombast but it never quite manages to top last year’s With/Avec EP even though it took about 100 times longer to produce! Get the message P&A: your best work is off the cuff.
6. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks — Real Emotional Trash (Matador): Stephen Malkmus is joined by veteran drummer Janet Weiss who fills out the already-excellent Jicks lineup nicely managing to rein in the outgoing front-man even when it seems like one of his meandering solos is about to go into orbit. This is a fantastic rocker of an album and it might be Malkmus’s most accessible to date.
7. Ladyhawk — Shots (Jagjaguwar): Everyone’s favourite stoners just keep getting better and better. Another solid chunk of straightforward hard-rocking goodness. In an entire year’s worth of awesome music my hands-down favourite moment is the epic crescendo towards the climax of closing track "Ghost Blues".
8. of Montreal — Skeletal Lamping (Polyvinyl): It might be the most fucked up nonsensical scatter-brained album of the year. And it comes with a giant horse-shaped acid-drenched wall tattoo of a poster. I love it.
9. Deerhoof — Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars): Another year another great Deerhoof record. Back to a four-piece after last year’s brief spell sans-second guitar these art rockers recapture a bit of lost edge that was missing —although not altogether missed — on last year’s Friend Opportunity .
10. Silver Jews — Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea (Drag City): The first half is a bit of a sleeper but once I got through to gems like "My Pillow is a Threshold" "Candy Jail" and "Party Barge" (track of the year!!) the rest of the album started to make sense and congealed into a whole that I can now thoroughly enjoy.
CHARLES GUNN
• Portishead — Third (Universal)
• Wolf Parade — At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop)
• Chad VanGaalen — Soft Airplane (Flemish Eye)
• Volcano! — Paperwork (Leaf Label)
• Destroyer — Trouble in Dreams (Rough Trade)
• The Kills — Midnight Boom (Outside)
• Mount Eerie — Lost Wisdom (Southern)
• Jim Noir — Jim Noir (Barsuk)
• Amadou & Mariam — Welcome to Mali (Because)
• Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
MATT LEAROYD
1. Bonnie "Prince" Billy — Lie Down In The Light (Drag City)
2. Portishead — Third (Universal)
3. Mount Eerie — Lost Wisdom (Southern)
4. Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
5. Sun Araw — Beach Head (Boomkat)
6. Women — Women (Flemish Eye)
7. Deerhunter — Microcastle (Kranky)
8. Vivian Girls — Vivian Girls (In the Red)
9. Times New Viking — Rip It Off (Matador)
10. Various Artists — Shadow Music of Thailand (Sublime Frequencies)
CHRISTINE LEONARD
• Bison B.C. — Quiet Earth (Metal Blade): Easily my favourite new release and band of 2008. This East Van quartet combines hardcore rock sensibilities with heavy metal fury and a dash of science fiction thrown in to boot!
• Torche — Meanderthal (Hydra Head): Slothcore at its best. Torche shows off their colossal chops with leaden bass notes grinding guitar runs and possibly the best cover art this year.
• The Sword — Gods of the Earth (Kemado): The genius of The Sword’s old world power cannot be exaggerated. Now if they could only find some tour-mates of a comparable calibre.
• Melvins — Nude with Boots (Ipecac): Singer King Buzzo says that “grunge” is the stuff that grows around his bathtub so leaving your shoes on is probably a good idea.
• Quest for Fire — Quest for Fire (Storyboard): Former members of The Deadly Snakes No No Zero and Cursed jammed for a year in a Toronto warehouse before issuing this blues-infused stoner-rock extravaganza.
• Black Mountain — In the Future (Jagjaguwar): Everyone’s darlings this group of friends from B.C. have no preconceived notions when it comes to working with different genres and genders. Opting to bring the full brunt of their collective talents to every track the elemental ensemble never fails to fascinate with their moody soft-loud capitulations.
• Fucked Up — The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador): Canada’s most exciting new band is by no coincidence also one of its most confrontational. Whether they’re taking the government to task over the plight of the country’s sex workers or bludgeoning the religious right this indignant group always uses its musical intelligence to good effect.
• The Mars Volta — The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal): Twenty years from now this will album will be hailed as one of the greats. High-flying guerrilla guitarist Omar Lopez-Rodriguez is set to become the next Hendrix his reputation for tangential hedonism augmenting the band’s already legendary status as brujos (Spanish: wizards) of psychedelic metal.
• The Black Keys — Attack and Release (Nonesuch): Plundering the fundamental blues-rock canon Patrick Carney and Dave Auerbach prove once again that they are simply the best when it comes to putting a modern spin on old school grooves.
• Beehoover — Heavy Zoo (Exile on Mainstream): Straightforward respectable home-grown prog-rock of the highest order.
Honourable mentions go to: Black Hollies Elf Power Labyrinth of Dreams Thunderwood Duchess Says Alpha Galates Damn Dirty Ape Red Hot Lovers Somastate Witch Graveyard The Mag Seven Beast Lioness King Khan and The Shrines The Herbaliser Moondoggies Mugison Powersolo Low Note The Visitors Catfish Haven Galacticus Behemoth Golden Smoke Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Eagles of Death Metal Grails Asian Dub Foundation Tetrix Cursed No No Zero B.A. Johnston The Evaporators The Bronx Early Man Kings of Leon Local H Cripple Creek Fairies The Creepshow Monster Magnet and Real Tuesday Weld.
FRANK LITORCO
1. Jazzanova — Of All the Things (Verve)
2. Q-Tip — The Renaissance (Universal)
3. Raphael Saadiq — The Way I See It (Columbia)
4. Erykah Badu — New Amerykah (Part One: New World War) (Universal)
5. Blue Sky Black Death with Jean Grae — The Evil Jeanius (Babygrande)
6. Cyne — Pretty Dark Things (Hometapes)
7. Estelle — Shine (Atlantic)
8. Fred Everything — Lost Together (OM Records)
9. Scarface — Emeritus (Rap-A-Lot/Asylum)
10. Ivana Santilli — TONY (Outside)
SEAN MARCHETTO
1. Islands — Arm’s Way (Anti-)
2. The Herbaliser — Same As It Never Was (Outside): Only Ollie Teeba and Jake Wheery remain from the troop that recorded the phenomenal mid-’90s acid jazz classic Blow Your Headphones but Same As It Never Was solidifies the Herbaliser’s transformation from stunnng acid jazz revivalists to a full on funk unit and manages to create what some will no doubt call the year ‘s best old school hip hop album. Like the title suggests however hip hop was never like this from the creepy but cheeky groove of the instrumental "The Next Spot" to the majestic soul of "You’re Not All That" Teeba an’d Wheery’s passion and knowledge of music reaches new heights.
3. Cadence Weapon — Afterparty Babies (Paperbag)
4. Beck — Modern Guilt (Universal)
5.Okkervil River — The Stand-Ins (Jagjaguwar)
6.The Breeders — Mountain Battles (Select)
7. The Bug — London Zoo (Ninja Tune)
8. Portishead — Third (Universal): Portishead returned to the studio after a 10-year absence to wind the clock back and make the best Jefferson Airplane album ever.
9. The Bronx — III (Wichita)
10. The Streets — Everything is Borrowed (Warner)
GARTH PAULSON
1. Subtle — Exiting Arm (Lex): Not many bands can truly be called original these days but Subtle is undoubtedly one of these few. Their sound as best as it can be described contains elements of hip hop indie rock industrial noise electro-pop and pretty much anything else that crosses the minds of Doseone and company. Though the third album of a confusing trilogy about a character named Hour Hero Yes Exiting Arm is also the band’s most approachable album to date. While still wildly bizarre and unpredictable the album comes the closest the group will ever likely get to adhering to recognizable song structures. While some hardcore fans will doubtlessly cry foul the album exudes a creativity that would embarrass most bands. This nod towards accessibility also highlights the diverse vocal abilities of Doseone and Dax Pierson which have always been Subtle’s greatest strength.
2. The Dodos — Visiter (Frenchkiss): The Dodos make a bigger sound than two people should be able to on Visiter . Though largely comprised of guitars and drums the album sounds gigantic thanks to the respective virtuosity of Meric Long and Logan Kroeberg. Working from a simple blues foundation Long plays his guitar as if possessed by the devil shredding fingers and strings alike all over the fret board with exhausting speed. Kroeberg backs this up with his own blurring rhythms taped out on an array of toms rims and found objects that constantly threaten to upstage Long’s deranged riffs and sweet vocals. The synergy between the two is breathtaking. That they manage to package their chaos in catchy pop songs is just an added bonus.
3. Black Milk — Tronic (Fat Beats): If the world were fair Black Milk’s Tronic would be embraced by the hip hop community in the same way that fellow mediocre MC but incredible producer Kanye West’s The College Dropout was in 2004. In fact throughout the forward-looking clinic in production Black Milk expresses disbelief that he isn’t a bigger deal. He’s acutely aware of his shortcomings behind the mic but he also know just how ahead of the game his future-electro beats are and can’t figure out why more people haven’t caught on. On an inferior album this would come across as annoying whining but Black Milk is right Tronic should be the watermark to which hip hop producers aspire for years to come.
4. Gang Gang Dance — Saint Dymphna (Social Registry): There has never been a question about Gang Gang Dance’s talent at crafting interesting music. What hasn’t always been evident however was their ability to package that music in digestible ways. On Saint Dymphna they finally get the balance right streamlining their experimentation into consistently coherent songs for the first time in their career. The group’s rhythmic thrust global scope and futuristic soundscapes haven’t been compromised; they’ve just been bottled in such a way as to maximize their impact.
5. Erykah Badu — New Amerykah Pt. 1 (4th World War) (Universal Motown): On first listen the first installment in Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah series is confounding. Badu’s voice is often found buried deep beneath sparse twitchy tracks repeating a single phrase over and over until it becomes a mantra. After a few listens though the album starts to emerge; Badu’s messages begin to sink in and those beats that sounded so strange at first crystallize into crackling fusions of funk soul hip hop and R&B. After a few more listens New Amerykah reveals itself as a masterpiece a jaw-dropping album of vital politics unrestrained playfulness brash ambition and a constant dose of the bizarre.
6. Of Montreal — Skeletal Lamping (Polyvinyl): What’s fascinating about Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping isn’t the album’s schizophrenic sequencing loose song structures or even its incredibly open (some would say too open) poly-sexuality. No what’s fascinating about the album is listening to Kevin Barnes play against type. Throughout the past decade he’s solidified himself as one of the most gifted pop songwriters of his generation and by deliberately trying to make Skeletal Lamping unpredictable and disorienting he has to resist the very talents that come so naturally to him. This push and pull results in is an album that piles hooks on top of each other with dizzying abandon becoming a fittingly perverse hour-long orgy of choruses that will lodge some new twisted morsel firmly in listeners head on every visit.
7. The Walkmen — You & Me (Gigantic): Albums where bands known for their ferocity start to grow up and settle down are usually dreadful affairs. The Walkmen’s You & Me then is a rarity as it is not only the band’s most mature and pensive album to date but also their best. Overtop of their now-signature vintage organ sound frontman Hamilton Leithauser largely abandons his usual tales of late night revelry — and vocal cord-shredding wail — for quiet examinations on leaving youth behind and realizing that growing up doesn’t need to be a frightening proposition.
8. Wale — The Mixtape About Nothing (Self Released): Though Wale follows the standard mixtape convention on The Mixtape About Nothing by mainly just retrofitting other people’s beats with his verses the strength of those verses is so high that it doesn’t matter that the songs are recycled. Here Wale uses continual references to Seinfeld to examine criticize and celebrate every aspect of hip hop culture. He’s critical of gangster rap’s materialism and misogyny but can’t deny its allure. He’s uncomfortable with backpacker hip hop’s empty messages and band-aid solutions but recognizes that it’s better than negativity and the perpetuation of stereotypes. He loathes “ringtone rappers” but craves that kind of success. He’s conflicted throughout dissecting himself right along with everything else in poignant incredibly intelligent and humourous ways that never cease to be ear-catching. Though run-of-the-mill on the production side The Mixtape About Nothing is one of the most consistently impressive and thought-provoking performances by an MC in a long time.
9. Lykke Li — Youth Novels (LL): Lykee Li’s Youth Novels is a dance album for kids who feel too awkward and self-conscious to dance; a series of club tracks for people who feel uncomfortable and alienated in clubs. Li spends most of the album painting herself as the ultimate wallflower. In a pixie-like voice she sings about her shyness her inability to make a move on a crush and constantly feeling alone in crowds overtop of Bjorn Yttling’s minimalist pop production. Li’s beguiling outsider personality and Yttling’s unconventional tracks sync perfectly creating an odd little pop gem.
10. Frightened Rabbit — Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat): The emotions on display on Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight are messy unflattering and occasionally even politically incorrect but they also feel real. Though frontman Scott Hutchinson spends the whole album walking the fine line between earnest emotional disclosure and emo absurdity over fairly straightforward folk-rock stompers he never crosses it resulting in an album about being miserable that aches in all the right places.
MARY-LYNN WARDLE:
• The Hold Steady — Stay Positive (Vagrant): You probably can’t remember your dark fucked up youth from being out of your head the first time around so here’s the instant replay. This time with feeling…
• Tom Phillips and the Men of Constant Sorrow — Downtown Cowboy (Independent): Tear in the beer trumps fear in the mirror to earn revere.
• Old 97’s — Blame It On Gravity (New West): Warm up to their thundering guitar crunch and drive drive drive.
• Dave McCann and the Ten Toed Frogs — Shoot the Horse (Old Man River): An album so live you can feel its heartbeat.
• Emmylou Harris — All I Intended to Be (Nonesuch): Grace in music’s clothing.
• Ian Tyson — Yellowhead to Yellowstone and other Love Stories (Stony Plain): Broken voice broken heart sweeping spirit.
• Lucinda Williams — Little Honey (New West): Declan duet and songs that dig in like a jailhouse tattoo.
• Tim Hus — Bush Pilot Buckaroo (Stony Plain): “Cadillac with a Cattle Rack” wins for best sing-along and best rhyming alliteration
Best live show:
Dustin Bentall Band at Mikey’s Juke Joint — Joined by Billy’s son Del Cowsill on bass with Outlaw Social’s Kendel Carson and Adam Dobres adding fiddle and guitar they warmed Hades up with their sinful solos and hellfire harmonies. Watch for a new album and return trip in the spring.
