The Pelican’s Perch

Ah, my year end list.  Late as usual.  Have to keep with tradition right?  2008 was an odd year musically for me.  With my life getting twice as busy as my record label started taking off, I found myself having less and less time to search for and consume new music, and instead did something I hadn’t done in years.  Actually enjoyed albums for more than two days.  Last year I had a solid top five that I turned to over and over, with the rest of the list being entirely interchangeable.  This year, I can say my top 10 album are all ones I spent plenty of time enjoying.  Most stayed in my car for weeks on end, a rarity for me, and you really have to get towards the end of my list before you find my “interchangeable” albums that I enjoyed, but don’t consider essentials to anyone’s collections.  So, today are those very interchangeable albums at the bottom of the list.  All are great for various reasons and are ones you should absolutely check out, but it’s the ones at the top of the list I really want you to hear.  But, of course, you’ll just have to wait for those.  I know, I know.  I’m evil.  Now, on to the list!

50.  Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

I loved Elbow’s last album, Leaders of the Free World, with songs like “Mexican Standoff” and “Station Approach” staying among the top songs of the year most of 2007.  So, admittedly I had high hopes for Elbow’s latest release.  Did it disappoint?  Not necessarily.  I just think it was one of those albums I knew from the start wouldn’t top it’s predecessor since I enjoyed it so much.  That being said though, this new one tried its hardest to win me over, and it did for the most part.  A few more songs like “Grounds for Divorce” and this would have been much higher on the list.  As it stands, it still makes the list, albeit barely, but it’s a worthy album none the less and should be heard by all.

Grounds for Divorce [mp3]

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49.  Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride

If you would’ve told me the latest Mountain Goats album would barely crack my top 50, I would have broken out into laughter…and maybe cried a bit too.  But alas, there lies the rub.  “San Bernardino” stands out as one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs yet, but the rest of the album falls into most of the Mountain Goats cynics’ favorite description, “it all sounds the same”.  Blasphemy! I’d usually yell at them, but this time around it was either too much Mountain Goats too soon since the last album, or it simply did all just sound the same.  Who knows, but while this new album didn’t quite hit the mark, songs like “San Bernardino” do more than keep me a fan.

San Bernardino [mp3]

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48.  Grand Archives – Grand Archives

I almost didn’t listen to this album.  I’d heard the back story about how Mat Brooke left Band of Horses to form this band, but their self-titled album literally sat in my 2008 folder for months before I randomly just played it on a whim.  I still don’t know why I chose to listen to this album at that time, but I guess I can thank my lucky stars I did.  It’s the perfect summer album, and even though I caught it late in the year when things were getting dreary and cold on me, it was still a welcome ray of musical sunshine that I just happened to stumble upon.  Lucky me I guess.

Torn Blue Foam Couch [mp3]

Miniature Birds [mp3]

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47.  Decomposure – Humidity Patient Guide

Decomposure is Caleb Mueller’s band, project, experiment.  Whatever you want to call his musical endeavors, one thing is inherently clear.  His music stands alone and nothing quite matches its uniqueness, ambition, or energy.  For those of you unfamiliar with his music making process, he basically makes his beats and base song structures from found sounds around the house or out in nature, such as the crash of pans or the falling of tree limbs and cuts and pastes all those sounds into a musical collage which leads to songs once the melody is added.  At Home and Unaffected was the album I first became a fan of, then Vertical Lines A proved to be just as good, so when this new album came out of nowhere and landed in my lap, I couldn’t have been more excited.  What I found was an album even more experimental than his previous efforts, which, for Caleb, that’s saying a lot.  The album is available in two forms.  The original 50 minute seamless album that flows from one song to the next, or in 12 excerpts for those of you who want to jump to the best songs.  It’s quite the feat I must admit, but it may be a little too much on the experimental side for me to play it over and over.  It may not end up being your cup of tea, but he’s giving the album away for free at his website, with an option to donate $5 if you want.  Considering how much effort must go into his albums, the fact that he’s letting everyone hear it for free wins me over in a big way and should convince all of you to at least go download it and give it at least one listen.  I guarantee you won’t hear anything else like it.

Download the album for free over at his label’s site

Excerpt 1 [mp3]

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46.  Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

I’m not the biggest Vampire Weekend fan.  I’ve read a few interviews with them and they irk me the wrong way for some reason.  Slightly pretentious I guess.  But there’s no denying this album had plenty of shining moments, and I can’t knock them off my list simply because I’m not a fan of their interviews.  “Oxford Comma” was the track that got them on the map, but for me, it was “Walcott” and it’s great string breakdown that won me over.  I probably listened to that track on repeat more than any this year.  And I can’t forget to mention the string intro to “M79″ as well.  We’ll see how their follow-up matches this one, but all qualms aside on my part, this debut was deserving of most the praise it got this year and here’s looking forward to another one.

Walcott [mp3]

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45.  My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

I recently read a review of Evil Urges while looking info up for this list and the writer compared them to Radiohead.  The point was backed up well, showing how MMJ have built a cult following throughout the years, have an amazing and intense live show, and can be quite mysterious at times just like Radiohead.  I can see that to a degree.  They’ve kind of become the classic rock revival Radiohead.  Focusing much more on epic guitar riffs and going from quite to really loud, MMJ have become the Godspeed of rock.  With great singing of course.  Evil Urges follows Z with a solid effort that doesn’t top Z, which was one of my favorites and made it high on that year’s year end list, but I didn’t expect this new one to top the previous great effort, and the fact that they gave us pretty much more of the same is a very good thing in this case.

I’m Amazed [mp3]

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44.  Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

#1 album of the year, eh?  I’ll admit to not spending as much time with this album as it appears I should have, but much like Grizzly Bear, I have to be in the mood to listen all the way through this album.  And, with albums like My Morning Jacket’s Evil Urges there for me to listen to, sounding essentially the same as this Fleet Foxes album, I tended to turn to those over this one.  But, once I started seeing it all over year end lists from magazines to blogs, I sat down and truly gave this one some serious listens.  And it really is a great, soothing album for fans of Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket’s slower songs.  I doubt this will be a long runner in my collection over the years, but it’s good background music for around the house tasks, long drives, or napping.  Still, I don’t know what all the hooplah was about and even as I give it more listens, I still sit a little baffled wondering how it got #1 on so many lists.  But, here is sits at #44 on my list.  Not #1 by any means, but hey, it made the list and that’s worth noting.

White Winter Hymnal [mp3]

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43.  Ratatat – LP3

It’s pretty fitting Ratatat’s 3rd LP is simply titled, LP3.  It can be argued that it’s the third LP of pretty much the same.  Fans of Ratatat will see no problem with that fact, but there’s always sceptics that say Ratatat albums all sound the same.  With a few songs on Classics, and even more evident on this new album, Ratatat’s sound is evolving and I think that’s a very good thing.  “Mi Viejo” finds Ratatat playing mainly classical guitar and perhaps mandolin, having an almost Desperado sound to it.  “Shempi” is one of their most upbeat dance songs as of late, and “Mumtaz Khan” adds more groove than normal and almost finds itself in instrumental hip-hop territory.  All in all, this is another Ratatat album, so most of you know what to expect.  But, it’s different from their previous albums to make it a stand-out album this year.

Videos for Shempi, Mirando, and Flynn
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42.  Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs

The anticipation for this album was high for obvious reasons.  Being a big Death Cab fan, reading reviews touting this as the album that could scare away their fanbase, or cement them as indie rock pioneers, made me more than confused as to what it would ultimately sound like.  “Bixby Canyon Bridge” starts the album off on an epic note, showing Death Cab’s newfound chops for rocking out, and I thought I knew what to expect based on that opener.  Then came the 8-minute “I Will Possess Your Heart” and I started to understand why those reviews were saying they didn’t know how fans would react.  The song is good, but was the overwhelming winner for most skipped on the album throughout the year.  The rest of the album brought back memories of the old Death Cab days.  Days of The Photo Album and Something About Airplanes.  Only much more produced.  I ended up really enjoying this new release, but it took awhile to get used to it, and for a Death Cab album, that’s pretty surprising.

Your New Twin Sized Bed [mp3]

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41.  The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely

In a time of musical experimentation, some experiments work, and some don’t.  Radiohead decided to give people about a week’s notice before they threw their new album on the net for all to download and people went nuts.  When the Raconteurs decided to follow suit, doing no promotion for their new album and giving fans a week of notice before it was released, the results didn’t exactly match Radiohead’s success.  That’s a shame, because the album is really good.  I saw the Raconteurs back in Seattle when I was interning at Sub Pop and have been a big fan ever since.  You can’t really knock a band that has both Jack White and Brenden Benson.  I’d have to recommend “Rich Kid Blues” over any track on this album, as it’s one of my favorite tracks of the year, but the whole album is full of White Stripes sounding songs mixed with Brendon Benson songs.  It’s the same formula that got them big in the first place, and the story is no different this time around either.

Rich Kid Blues [mp3]