Another year, another list! 2008 finds an eclectic lot where old favorites rub elbows with new ones. Russian punk-folk sits alongside Japanese experimental metal. Rock can still rule. Soul music never gets old and the good singer/songwriters only get greater.

In alphabetical order:

Adele

19

(Sony)

Young Brit soulstress’ writes and sings them on this impressive debut.

Boris

Smile

(Southern Lord)

Japanese doom overlords keeping it heavy. Available in vastly different Japanese and American versions, too!

Bethany and Rufus

900 Miles

(HYENA Records)

There’s very little that gets between Bethany Yarrow’s voice and Rufus Cappadocia’s cello, but this hypnotic music can’t be called spare or sparse. The two sounds richly blend into a dance that crosses folk tradition and jazz overtones with moody psychedelic and underground rock sensibilities never bubbling too far from the top.

British Sea Power

Do You Like Rock Music?

(Rough Trade)

Yes, we like rock music. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n20)

David Byrne & Brian Eno

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

(Todo Mundo)

Old friends sounding new and fresh. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n34)

Centro-matic/South San Gabrie

Dual Hawks

(Misra)

Two bands made up of the same members split one double album between note-perfect indie rock and panoramic emotional landscapes. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n23)

Dr. Dog

Fate

(Park the Van)

Lead vocalists Toby Leaman and Scott McMicksen sound like they could be singing about things that happened yesterday or centuries ago, which is only bolstered by the band’s seeming effortlessness at embracing a timeless quality in the way they play. The sound is their own but owes a debt to the big B’s: Beach Boys/Beatles/the Band. This was the album they were bound to make and it is almost perfect. They call it Fate. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n29)

The Hold Steady

Stay Positive

(Vagrant)

While perhaps not on par with their epic Separation Sunday, Craig Finn and company’s morality plays about boozers, bros, dropouts, desperados, wastoids and wannabes set to their impassible wall of guitar and singalong choruses are still sounding great.

The Last Shadow Puppets

The Age of the Understatement

Steeped in lessons straight from the school of Scott Walker, Arctic Monkey Alex Turner and his mate Miles Kane hook up with producer/composer James Ford for a fully-realized set of baroque pop bathed in widescreen grandiosity and genuine intrigue. They manage just enough entrenchment in 1960s orchestral panache and of the modern edge of things courtesy Turner’s wit and unmistakable delivery. The themes and the execution of The Age of the Understatement belies the pair of young twentysomethings. There’s not a record that sounds anything remotely like this one in 2008.

M83

Saturdays = Youth

(Mute)

In an ethereal and near perfect electro-pop sweep that conjures all the epic emotion and teenage angst and melodrama that the title might suggest, M83—a.k.a. French aural auteur Anthony Gonzalez—fills every second with hazy, shoegazey pathos, joy, lust, and beauty.

Van Morrison

Keep It Simple

(Lost Highway)

The biggest news in the Morrison camp for 2008 might be that he revived his feverishly acclaimed autumnal masterpiece Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl in November—which was a big deal—but it’s a shame to see it overshadow one of Van the Man’s best records in a decade. Written, produced, played, and strongly sung by Morrison himself, as the title might suggest, this is a collection of unfettered, uncomplicated blues and soul backed with a sympathetic, crack band of pros—and recorded to sound more like Van’s heyday string of great albums. Listen to the lion roar again. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n15)

My Morning Jacket

Evil Urges

(ATO)

This record is so good it’s almost not fair to every other record that came out in 2008. Here’s to ongoing exploration and fearlessness as My Morning Jacket blazes forward. Already a million miles past their reverb-drenched Southern folk rock beginnings, Jim James’ distinctive voice and knack for unimpeachable melodies are still the highlight but so are forays into skewered Prince-like funk, stretched out psych rock and arena-ready boogie.

Mudhoney

The Lucky Ones

(Subpop)

If grunge is dead, no one told Mudhoney, as they return with their finest effort in a deacde.

Okkervil River

The Stand Ins

(Jagjaguwar)

Will Sheff and his band offer a worthy followup to 2007’s impeccable The Stage Names with a sort of companion piece to it. The Stand Ins easily stands on its own, however, showing Sheff’s unparalleled songwriting prowess with a cycle of songs further diving into his obsession with the self-loathing, celebrity, and rock and roll’s inability to live up to its own mythology. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n41)

One Day as a Lion

One Day as a Lion

(Anti)

Zack de la Rocha, along with drummer Jon Theodore, ferociously spits lyrics with his unmistakable ratatatat delivery and agitprop agenda on this EP that sounds every bit as immediate, dangerous, impassioned, and revolution-ready as anything by Rage Against the Machine. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n37)

Raphael Saadiq

The Way I See It

(Columbia)

It’s an old-time soul revival and it couldn’t be any sweeter. Saadiq, perhaps best known for his years with 1990s newjack swingers Tony Toni Tone, is not trying to do anything new but clearly does want to do what hasn’t been done in far too long. Dressed up like Marvin Gaye circa 1965 and with a clutch of new songs that you would almost swear were of that same vintage, Saadiq carefully walks the tightrope of recording a very traditional soul record but making it sound new and fresh. There’s the intoxicating rhythms and falsettos of “Keep Marchin’,” the sunny Tamla bounce of “Love That Girl,” and plenty more numbers that sound like the kind of soul music that used to pour out of AM radios. (Reviewed on Donny's Blog)

Alina Simone

Everyone Is Out Crying to Me, Beware

(54.40 or Fight!)

NYC-based singer/guitarist Simone rescues lost Russian folk punk nuggets by late Siberian artist Yanka Dyagileva, who died mysteriously behind the Iron Curtain in 1991 at the age of 24. Raised in the USA since the age of one, the Ukrainian-born Simone sings in the native tongue, caringly taking these powerful works to connect them with an audience that almost certainly would have heard them and in turn proving her own magnificence as a singer.

Spiritualized

Songs in A&E

(Universal)

Jason “Spaceman” Pierce’s recovery record steeped in redemption, joy and just enough fuzz. (Reviewed in Artvoice v7n31)

TV on the Radio

Dear Science

(Interscope)

It’s like the new new wave but just weird, funky and undefinable enough to shrug off such a thing, the Brooklyn collective have another qualified classic.

Paul Westerberg

49:00x

(self-released/Tunecore)

Forever to be referred to as the Replacements’ leader, Paul Westerberg has now been making solo records almost twice as long as that band existed. This one is another keeper. An unheralded surprise release put out with no fanfare, this self-issued-via-the-internet album is a warts-and-all pastiche of songs delving into his favored power trash, sneering blooze and love and likelorn pop beauty that Westerberg has made his trade. It all overlaps as one 49-minute track. Not even three months later, Westerberg issued another, 3oclockreep, with more songs in the same spirit and including a long lost Replacements session that includes Tom Waits. (Reviewed on Donny's Blog)