It’s the time again that I post my favorite music of the past year. This year I’m making it a three-part post. As usual, I’m posting my favorites from the year, the stuff I listened to and enjoyed the most. Only one of the albums on these lists was not released in 2007 or 2008, but all of them I’ve acquired in the past 12 months.
As I did last year, I’m posting a top 20 list. My pool of new music to choose from this year ended up at around 110 albums, and so it was difficult to narrow it down to my favorites. And it’s been very difficult to nail down a #1 this year (but I think I may have finally decided as of last night.)
I also noted, looking back through the my list of 100+ albums, that I only purchased five of them on physical CD’s. The rest was all downloaded from eMusic, iTunes, AmazonMP3 or other legal sources. It may be that 2009 is the first year I don’t purchase a physical CD.
So, to get started, I’ve also decided to post an “also ran” list of a few albums that didn’t make my top 20, but I still deemed worth mentioning. So, here is that list, along with a few notes and a clip of some of the music on the album. I did not rank this particular part of the list, so these are in no particular order.
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Deconstruction Justin McRoberts (2008) This album was my introduction to McRoberts, a gifted singer/songwriter. His music is reminiscent of other artists I’m fond of, such as Andrew Osenga and Derek Webb. |
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Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces Seether (2007) Seether’s most recent release is just another mindless hard rock album, but one of those I’ve turned to this year when I just wanted to rock, and it accomodated. |
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Learn To Live Darius Rucker (2008) I’ve long been opposed to listening to country music under most circumstances, but I’ve always liked Darius Rucker (Hootie & the Blowfish) and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this one. |
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Life, Death, Love and Freedom John Mellencamp (2008) I’ve long been a Mellencamp fan, and this newest is full of some terrific thought provoking songs, albeit missing some of the more pop/rock anthems he was known for in the 80’s. |
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Revelation Third Day (2008) Third Day’s recent albums have sounded like the same album over and over, and while this one isn’t significantly different, I like it better than anything they’ve done this decade. |
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The ‘59 Sound The Gaslight Anthem (2008) These guys are sometimes referred to as punk rock meets Springsteen and it’s not diffcult to understand why. This was my “last one out” of the top 20 list. |
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Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend (2008) Preppie Ivy-leaguers plus African-influenced pop equals Vampire Weekend. It’s a bit quirky and different from a lot of what I listen to, but it’s a very good debut and worth checking out. |
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That’s it. That’s the list.
Next week, part two – the ’second ten’.
Good stuff. Mellencamp and Vampire Weekend might make my top 20.
December 4, 2008
Yeah, I initially had Mellencamp in my top 20, then dropped it. Then moved it back up, then dropped it again. I’ve had a much more difficult time selecting stuff this year. Anyway, as usual, if I did this again in a month, the whole list would probably look different.
December 4, 2008
I always enjoy your picks, Greg. The Gaslight Anthem is definitely in my top 20.
December 4, 2008