Broken’s Neighborhood

I picked up some really good albums in May.

I picked these up in April:

I also got this Evening Magazine EP and Mighty Righteous by The Fantastics ! but they don't have art on Amazon.

Oh, and:

Swoon

Silversun Pickups

Homg. ♥ ♥

Oops: I left out a few things I got in the past week to round out my Emusic downloads:

Also a few tracks from Cloud Cult's Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes).

Here's some music I liked last month:

There was also a bunch I found by almost catching up on Shifted Sound, so it's not on Amazon (apparently):

Bromst

I sank the biggest chunk of playing time into the new Dan Deacon album, Bromst... though I haven't been playing the hell out of it like I did with Merriweather Post Pavilion. Maybe I won't burn out on it, then.

Rearrange Beds

It's also time for the post-SXSW shows, and after listening to Sound Opinions' wrap-up yesterday I've already bought my first album, An Horse's Rearrange Beds. It's also the first music I've bought on the iTunes Store in forever, but you can hear the whole thing on Last.fm (mileage may vary). They remind me of Pretty Girls Make Graves for some reason, though they're much softer; I would like more songs as fast as “Horizons,” but it's still a pretty good album. Not quite as revelatory as Sons and Daughters' This Gift (which I heard on Sound Opinions' SXSW 2008 show and was a favorite of the year), but good.

So it's March.

Nick wondered why I'd only just gotten the Tally Hall album. I found out about it when my last roommate played “Banana Man” at me every chance he got, but never got the whole thing despite the cool video for “Good Day.” However I was reminded of it by Molly's cover of the hidden-in-plain-sight last track and finally got the whole album.

In February there were a few more game soundtracks: In addition to the Psychonauts Original Soundtrack, I also got the Psychonauts Cinematic Score when they both landed on download services such as Emusic. This month Offworld also linked to free soundtracks for Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure, World of Goo, and The Legend of Princess.

So far this year I've been enjoying some new favorites from other people's year end lists, and of course:

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective

The Invincible and Blu & Exile are some hip-hop Emusic recommended, but I haven't gotten very into them yet. I've had better luck with some miscellaneous tracks from Skate 2. I also got some miscellaneous singles from a few BBC Sound of 2009 contenders like Florence and the Machine, Kid Cudi, and winner Little Boots that are really nice. (Apparently Little Boots got started on YouTube.)

I promised I'd make a best of 2008 list, so here it is. How did 2008 go? I listened to a bunch of stuff, according to Last.fm (and Lastgraph):

Lastgraph

I'd like to pick what was best out of my 2008 epdates, but I had quit doing them during the first half of the year, so I only have real epdates since July. If I look at my Last.fm album charts for the last year... you get numerical play count data that doesn't agree with how I would rank these albums, plus a bunch of stuff I only found in 2008.

What came out in 2008 that I liked? Here are what I can look back and say are my best favorites and runners-up, conveniently broken into major genres.

Visiter

The Dodos

Best pop album
The Dodos – Visiter

This Gift

Sons & Daughters

Best rawk album
Sons & Daughters – This Gift

The Odd Couple

Gnarls Barkley

Best hip-hoppish album
Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple

Velocifero

Ladytron

1 comment

Best electronic album
Ladytron – Velocifero

Fair Ain't Fair (Dig)

Tim Fite

Best weird album
Tim Fite – Fair Ain't Fair

Krissy asked me a couple weeks ago if I had made a top list of 2008, which I agreed I should, but that also should have reminded me I hadn't posted an epdate for December yet either. A lot of it was assorted Christmas music, so the disappointing paucity of regular music was:

Coworkers and twitterers already heard about the 3D Christmas tree kit we soldered together last week, but we did finish it! Here it is, blinking away on my desk:

It was actually the Parts & Labor album I didn't like. Maritime is okay.

But since then I got:

Christmas Caravan

And, oops, it's December, so it's time for Christmas music. I never had the Squirrel Nut Zippers' holiday album so that's the only new thing so far, though I collected a playlist last year's picks and some new albums I'll get when I get December's downloads.