I’m obsessive about music, to say the least. I keep charts. I have rankings on those charts and I update them constantly. Some might view it as a sickness, I view it as a hobby as this pattern isn’t reflected anywhere else in my life.

We’re now one quarter into 2008 and my list of albums of note is smaller than the first quarter mark of the last few years (I said I keep lists). However, there are some heavy hitters on there. I’m not sure how many will stick around the remainder of the year and be there as Santa shows up and music snobs of the world unite in their annual of best of list-making activities.

So far I’ve trekked through 75 albums and five have been standouts to me. Some I’m sure you’ve heard of and the others you should check out. They’re well worth the visit to the performer’s myspace page.

Enjoy.


This Will Destroy You [self-titled]

Some people go to therapy, see a shrink, get a massage; I listen to music. And on the really tough days, a day where you would stretch your normal 30 minute massage to an hour is a day where I would throw on This Will Destroy You’s self-titled album.

For fans of Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, Godspeed You Black Emperor and I’ll throw in Sigur Ros and one of my local faves, The Appleseed Cast, look them up. It’s loud, powerful, driving, ambient music. It’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever heard.

It’s a seven song album that clocks in at 51 minutes and 30 seconds; these are long anthems to seemingly distant atmospheres. For most of you, you’ve never heard music like this and I would highly suggest checking them out on myspace.

TWDY were supposed to have played the Record Bar a few weeks back but ran into a few problems with the police. Hopefully they’ll come back around after they wrap they European tour later this Spring.

Track to check out: The Mighty Rio Grande

Kate Nash [Made of Bricks]

Two of my favorite albums of the last few years have been from Regina Spektor, the scatty Russian now New Yorker whose career has blossomed nicely. This album by Brit, Kate Nash has all the fine characteristics of a Spektor album and will probably hold up and be in my Top Ten at years’ end. Additionally, she may see her name in lights like Spektor really soon. With the writer’s strike a thing of the past, and television shows back in production, her work will surely end up in Grey’s Anatomy soon.

In her song/speak delivery you can really hear that she is British. Most times the accent is lost, but here it lingers and I really like it. Perhaps that adds a bit of mystery to her songs and seperates her from the so many other attractive lady singer songwriters trekking ‘round the globe.

Track to check out: Foundations

Juno Motion Picture Soundtrack [Various Artists]

This pick was too easy. Let’s get this out of the way quickly, it’s not Garden State, but man it’s close. It’s said in blogs, youtube videos and articles that the young, talented Ellen Page, Ms. Juno herself suggested the use of Moldy Peaches and Kimya Dawson for the film. Someone get her a Grammy to go with her Oscar Nomination.

The soundtrack pumped life into the defunct Moldy Peaches and has pushed the now solo Kimya Dawson to celebrity status. I read on Dawson’s myspace blog that she met Dustin Hoffman and he hugged her saying he loved her work. It’s a crazy world.
And as if the Moldy Dawson tracks aren’t enough the last track with Ellen Page and Michael Cera more than holding their own cover the Peaches’ now uber-famous and perfect wedding song for gen x-ers, “Anyone Else But You”.

Track to check out: Anyone Else But You sung by Michael Cera and Ellen Page hitting all the right notes

Vampire Weekend [self-titled]

Believe the hype. I hate believing the hype. The same hype was recently found with the Arcade Fire and Feist and the hype was right there too. This foursome from Columbia University has received so much press this year the university has probably seen a boost in enrollment.

Their music is called a lot of things. I’d call it Paul Simon-esque Afro-chamber pop. I’d also call it really good stuff. It has this lightness to it that really moves around your car as it bounces out of your iPod. I also think because of the hint of Paul Simon in there it’s easy for a lot of people to grab on to, that otherwise would be quickly turned off to indie pop.

I listened to the album in its entirety and when it finished, I did it one more time. The lyrics are quite good and roll along nicely with the poppiness of the beats.

Track to check out: Walcott, I love the cello in the song


Mountain Goats [Heretic Pride]

I’ve compared the Mountain Goats to a Triscuit before and I will again. You eat one cracker and it’s not very good. You eat three or so and you’re getting a taste for it. Then before you know it you’re elbow deep in the box and loving Triscuits. This same thing happened to me when I first heard the Mountain Goats and the nasally John Darnielle a few years back. I wasn’t elbow deep so to speak, but I had their entire catalog and my music-loving friends had it a few days later. I needed to tell people about this cracker, I mean band.

Heretic Pride is another fine album telling great stories in that pinched voice. It takes a few listens to appreciate what’s happening here, as it does with all the Goats’ albums. But once you sit back and find yourself taking it in and stop questioning things you’re left wanting the whole box… of their catalog.

Track to check out: Autoclave

With most musicians and bands, I usually remember the when and where of things: when I first heard them, where I first saw them. With Mike Doughty, former Soul Coughing frontman, I recall neither. That twist in my near autistic ways of remembering things fits in with his non sequitur stylings.

Doughty is a lyrics guy, the e.e. cummings of music. He follows the short, choppy style of cummings' twitchy poetry. Songs flow from a stream of consciousness. If you were in a crowded bar and walked through it, paused to write a sentence from each conversation you heard and then put it all together and added a hook, you’d be close to a Doughty song.

One of my good friends is an REM freak. He’s been waiting for this album for years. It’s been viewed as a chance for REM to redeem itself and once again put something out there that’s meaningful and will find a place in the hearts and iPods of loyal and new fans alike. And for the first time in 10 years, I think Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills have done it.

For those sleeping in class, and it’s easy to do with these albums, Reveal was released in 2001 and Around the Sun in 2004. I own both albums. I even paid extra for a book of photos taken by Stipe acting as the casing for the Reveal album. Right now I have no idea where that book is. It was hard making it through the album one time.

My last favorite REM track is 10 years old. That’s crazy. It’s called Why Not Smile off of Up. That came out when I was in college and I’m 30 now.

You've heard the commercial. The Kia ad with people at the gas station, pulling up to the wrong side of the gas pump, like they're driving a rental car, forgetting where the gas tank is because their car pulls 40+ miles per gallon. It's a clever ad, but the best part of the commercial is the music hanging in the background. It's a track called "Can't Get It Right Today".

The singer-songwriter is Joe Purdy, http://joepurdy.com/. When I heard the song I spent some time on his website. He streams EVERY album of his on his website. On a Sunday at work I made it throug most of his catalog. Once again I was introduced to a great artist via a commercial.

Tim Finn recently wrote on http://backtorockville.typepad.com/ that we are now more accepting of smaller acts jumping in the commercial/soundtrack world and I whole-heartedly agree. My favorite example of late is what Garden State did for Imogen Heap or Frou Frou or what Natalie Portman did for The Shins in the waiting room with headphones on. I'm just amazed this artist was delivered to the mainstream by Kia and not Apple, VW or the Gap.