Cut Copy
In Ghost Colours
(Modular)

By scientific means I've concluded that mathematically this should be my number one album of the year. But I just couldn't go to the grave knowing in 2008 I choose an overtly neon and fey electro-pop album to sum up the year. Despite being a bit scared to rank this one place higher, there's little error in this record, nothing disposable. Quite the opposite. While Cut Copy evoke New Order and George Harrison in equal measure, they've tapped into out-blips and psych-rock excursions that pad these disco-balled daydreams with substance.

The Hospitals
Hairdryer Peace
(self-released)

Sonically the most ambitious release this year, thought it really doesn't settle in until the 10th or 11th listen. At first it might come across as possibly the worst record ever laid to tape, but ingesting it late night, or when there's no distraction in sight, triggers a new kind of anti-psych. This is seriously built for another level of fidelity, warped and drugged, rattled and imploding, nightmare-ish downer riffs that eat at themselves till there's nothing left. Post-apocalypse, future-punk—there are people in my circle that say this rivals Loveless.

Eat Skull
Sick to Death
(Siltbreeze)

Eat Skull remind me of the band that ingested far too many hallucinogens around the same time they were cutting their teeth on everything from Alien Lanes to Jamboree to cheap, '70s zombie flicks. That Trapper Keeper aesthetic lends a great deal of nostalgia to their sound. Lo-fi and wide smiles, there's an underlying spate of actual heartache and reflection in the grooves, an existential wad of noise that transcends mere indie-rock trash.

Lindstrøm
Where You Go, I Go Too
(Smalltown Supersound)

Yeah, this might be my obligatory album to prove I still listen to plenty of electronic music. Only I'm right in including Lindstrøm, because here he tackles all the mini-genres of electronic music and spreads them across the cosmos. Space disco is not only a tag, but a way of life. Epic.

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
(Sub Pop)

Crystal Stilts
Alight the Night
(Slumberland)

Los Llamarada
Take the Sky
(S-S)

Fabulous Diamonds
Fabulous Diamonds
(Siltbreeze)

Best live show of the year. Best 15 minutes you'll ever spend with reverb, drums and organ.

Portishead
Third
(Mercury)

Lykke Li
Youth Novels
(LL)

Lyndsey Buckingham
Gift of Screws
(Warner Bros.)

You may think that this is a record filled with adult contemporary cream, and then you'd be highly mistaken. "Time Precious Time" begs the question of which came first : Buckingham's experimentation with multiple prismatic finger-picked overdubs or Animal Collective mastering the sampler. There is some sentimental bullshit on here, but Buckingham always survives with his masterful guitar work. And that cream? As long as it sounds like vintage Mac, which "Did You Miss Me?" does triumphantly, I'm pleased and overwhelmed.

Blank Dogs
On Two Sides
(Troubleman Unlimited)

Best leader of a particular trend of which I enjoy any variation: the loner synth-fueled disaster-psych genre. The Blank Dogs can evolve along two different paths— the robotic Strokes or, my hope, the robotic Cure.

Dungen
4
(Komeda)

If you want to make a psychedelic album, there's really no better place in the modern world to start than with Gustav Ejstes. This is not the best Dungen record he's made, but it's no less beautiful and full of depth. And in the context of a year lacking in this type of meticulous and warm recording, full of swirling pianos and crushing riffs, he has no rival.

Some Singles of 2008