Last week I started this series with part 1, and today I continue with part 2 – the “second ten” – on my way to my favorite album of the year. All of my harder music fell in this part of the list this year, while my top ten is heavier with singer/songwriter types. I almost chose not to rank these, numbers 11 through 20, but went ahead and did so at the last minute anyway. Several of these could slide up or down on a given day, but here’s what I’ve got for now.
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#20 Temporary People Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts (2008) Some of Arthur’s seemingly perpetual music releases are hits and some are misses, but this one was a hit in my opinion, my favorite since Nuclear Daydream. |
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#19 Black Ice AC/DC (2008) Black Ice sounds like it could be an AC/DC album from the 80’s, but hey, they’re old and they’re not changing now. Brian Johnson may now be as difficult to understand as Ozzy. Nevertheless, this is what they do best, and I still like it. |
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#18 The Sound Of Madness Shinedown (2008) Shinedown is not special or unique in any way that I can tell. But I’m drawn to their music for whatever reason. Perhaps, in part, due to Brent Smith’s vocals, which – while also not really unique – I like a lot. Anyway, this is another good “I just want to rock” albums. |
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#17 The Stand Ins Okkervil River (2008) As is true of many of the artists on this list, I came across indie-rockers Okkervil River on eMusic. It took a while for me to warm up to it, but I’ve grown to like this album a lot over the last few months. |
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#16 XV King’s X (2008) If you know me, you know that King’s X is one of my very favorite bands, and, in my opinion, highly underrated. During their nearly 30 years together, they’ve put out a lot of great music, and this is no exception. |
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#15 Blackbird Alter Bridge (2007) Okay, it’s Creed with a different singer, but I really like Myles Kennedy’s vocals. Their first album was (somewhat) surprisingly good, but this sophomore effort is even better, far exceeding my expectations. |
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#14 Along Came A Spider Alice Cooper (2008) Talk about old, Alice turned 60 this year. (60!!) But on this concept album about a serial killer (”Spider”), he proves that he’s still young at heart and can still get it done. God bless Vincent Damon Furnier. |
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#13 Straightjacket Steven Delopoulos (2007) Delopoulos is a talented musician and songwriter, exceptional at storytelling and painting pictures with his lyrics. I loved his work with his band Burlap To Cashmere last decade, but this album has become my favorite of what he’s done to date. |
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#12 Stay Positive The Hold Steady (2008) Another eMusic find, I became a big fan of The Hold Steady and their classic rock and roll sound this year. Not quite in my top 10 (but almost), this is one to check out if you like a great rock album. |
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#11 Ghost Notes Matthew Barber (2008) Barber is a very good singer/songwriter who I also discovered via eMusic this year (see how great eMusic is?). This album sort of got lost in the pack for me when I downloaded it early this year, but I’ve been listening to it more lately and realized again how good it is. |
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That’s it. That’s the list.
Coming soon: the top ten.
You’ll see Barber in my Top 10, no doubt. I tried Okkervil River, but I couldn’t get into them. I need to re-up my eMusic subscription; it was my introduction to a ton of new stuff this year.
December 8, 2008
I’ve already felt guilty about not putting Barber in the top 10. Like I said, I’m sure in a couple of months I’ll wonder what I was doing when I ordered this list. Oh well…
December 8, 2008
The Hold Steady album is without a doubt one of my favorite of the year.
December 8, 2008
Barber and Hold Steady are the only overlaps we have so far. That’s surprising. I had Alice on my short list but just didn’t like it enough.
December 9, 2008
Spider’s gonna get you for that…
December 9, 2008