Best of 2008 (indie rock)
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We knew Baltimore’s Beach House was going places after their excellent debut from two years ago, but nothing prepared us for this. Expanding on the skeletal feel of their first record, Beach ...read more
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After seven years and four albums of basement-recorded trashcan blues rock, Akron Ohio’s favorite sons The Black Keys return with Attack & Release. The big deal being made about the new r...read more
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The cover of the psychedelic Canadian quintet Black Mountain’s second LP looks like it was designed by English artist Roger Dean (of Yes and Uriah Heep fame) with its organic yet precise rows...read more
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Every so often a ray of light emerges, rising above the strummy-strum of the indie-folk ghettos and crystallizing everything pure about simple American roots music with an approach that works perfe...read more
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The near-annual release of a superb Will Oldham record never gets boring. Like 2006’s The Letting Go, Oldham¹s most recent effort as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is a slow, spare ramble...read more
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Few records this year have delighted me more than this one. It’s not only a great album, but Born Ruffians gave us one of 2008’s best in-stores: warm, intimate and fun. This Toronto tri...read more
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It’s been far too long since the Breeders gave us a new album, but Mountain Battles sure was worth the wait. Far from the ultra-catchy and inspired pop of The Last Splash, Mountain Battles ca...read more
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How many bands can still deliver on their 14th album (and a studio album at that, not even including live albums or collections)? Not many. Nick Cave continues his icon status with Bad Seeds in tow...read more
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There’s nothing groundbreaking about Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us, the latest from Joel Thibodeau’s Death Vessel – it’s just a beautiful and strange collection of songs...read more
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The Dodos have put together such a unique combination of genres and sounds here that it’s pretty much impossible to dismiss them, with or without all of the hype. With a propulsive (almost tr...read more
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With 2006’s half-hearted stab at attracting VH1 viewers now long past, the Truckers return to gritty portrayals of the New South’s sordid sides, with plenty of slide guitar and pedal st...read more
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There’s something inherently compelling about a chorus of voices joined in song. Seattle’s Fleet Foxes join that sensibility — virtually everyone in the band lends a sizable vocal contributio...read more
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I was ready to declare Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight one of the freshest and most exciting debuts I’ve heard this year, until I discovered that this is actually their sec...read more
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Grand Archives is the new project of former Band of Horses guitarist Mat Brooke. The Seattle-based quintet’s debut album is a wonderful collection of pop songs that only occasionally referenc...read more
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What a year this has been for Brooklyn’s High Places. They put out two full-lengths, a ton of popular 7-inches, and emerge as one of THE band’s to watch in 2008. We not only watched, bu...read more
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Remember this band, the High Places, because they are headed for big things. After releasing a series of seven-inches, the band finally gives us a proper full-length CD before their upcoming record...read more
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Imagine a parallel universe where Architecture in Helsinki spent all their time listening to Billy Bragg instead of tweaking their drum machines. Or maybe where Life Without Buildings or Huggy Bear...read more
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With a first track that thunders in like a surf rock/Jesus and Mary Chain mashup, it’s clear from the start that Distortion represents a new aesthetic wrinkle for Stephin Merritt’s motley Magne...read more
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This one was a finalist for Album of the Year. M83’s move towards more vocals increases considerably and successfully thanks to new vocalist/keyboardist Morgan Kibby, not only because her bre...read more
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So how did this become one of our most beloved records of 2008? It doesn’t hurt that the opening notes of “Time to Pretend” recall American Analog Set’s “The Postman.&...read more
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The thing that makes No Age’s music so exciting is there’s really no precedent for it. Sure, from a distance they look like a two-piece punk band, playing fast music to hordes of excita...read more
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By expertly mixing elements of old-school punk, surf music and untamed experimental indie rock, the whippersnappers of Baltimore quartet Ponytail have managed to create something quite sonically re...read more
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After a much-publicized original digital release, the seventh album by Oxford’s art-rock maestros has finally hit record stores’ shelves. Upon first listen, the first single, “Jig...read more
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LP3, the third album (duh) from the visionary upstate New York duo Ratatat, is another sublime and delightful romp. Once again the group ingeniously creates an album that sounds fresh and retro all...read more
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This is the second Shearwater album on which Jonathan Meiburg has written all the songs, and his songwriting and arranging have gained in clarity and focus. The chamber music arrangements here, whi...read more
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It’s tempting to lump Sic Alps with the other garage bands du jour (Jay Reatard, Times New Viking, King Khan, etc.), but beware facile comparisons: the San Francisco duo of Matt Hartman and M...read more
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It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Jason Pierce’s storied Spiritualized, but he had a good excuse: a near-fatal encounter with pneumonia in 2005, which not only took its tol...read more
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That voice. Not to diminish Mark Kozelek’s prodigious gifts for arrangement and production, nor his tremendous guitar-playing, but the amber beauty and light-in-darkness of Sun Kil Moon’s gorge...read more
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Rip It Off, the latest from Times New Viking, opens with “Teen Drama,” anchored by a rolling, sentimental keyboard line and dual vocals, each element defiantly blown-out. It’s dis...read more
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TV on the Radio continue to top themselves, and they manage to do it by breaking ground every time. After the gritty, distorted, fuzzy sounds of Return to Cookie Mountain, the band defies expectati...read more
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Bay-area folkie collective Vetiver has returned from a prolonged silence with this stunning covers record. Bandleader Andy Cabic picked 12 songs by his favorite and most influential artists, includ...read more
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A band as hyped-up and blogged-out as Vampire Weekend has a lot to live up to when it comes to actually making a record. This self-titled debut sweeps the hype machine into the corner and gets down...read more
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Hard to believe that not too long ago, some people were writing off the Walkmen. After some recent misfires, many wondered if the Walkmen could recapture the brilliance of 2004’s Bows & A...read more
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