It’s oft been said that when the economy goes down the toilet the music gets better, which probably explains how I managed to listen to so much fantastic music this year. On my reckoning I listened to almost 120 albums of new music this year making it really hard picking my top albums!

Album of 2008:

Shearwater - Rooks last.fm reckons that Shearwater were my most listened to act this year, so it should come as no surprise that this album is my favourite record of 2008. Shearwater make the sort of music that the phrase ’sonic cathedrals’ was meant for. Music that is epic in stature without ever being overblown or insincere. The star of the show is band leader Jonathan Meiberg who has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. Rooks is the sort of grown-up record that you suspect Coldplay’s Chris Martin would love to make, straddling that “uneasy ground between experimental noise and hazy AM radio”  Here’s hoping that this their fifth album is the one that finally breaks them to a wide and appreciative audience in the way that The Seldom Seen Kid did for Elbow in 2008.

and the next ten were….

1. Portishead - Third This amazing record ran the Shearwater album very closely for my album of the year. Sonically stunning, musically adventurous, and if you ever needed reminding Beth Gibbons isthe greatest British female vocalist since the very wonderful Sandy Denny died back in 1978 .
2. TV On The Radio - Golden Age I’m so pleased that so many records seemed to hark back to Talking Heads of Fear of Music and Remain in Light this year. Producer and and multi-instrumentalist David Sitek toned down the dense production and gave the songs and the music room a bit more room to breath, with staggering effect. A joyous record to beholden.
3. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes Unless you’d lived under a stone in 2008 you can’t have failed to have come across these guys. So are all the accolades this album worth it? You bet they are. The Sun giants EP that preceded the album was just as good. Check out drummer J. Tillman’s new solo album due out in the new year.
4. Foals - Antidote Not sure how I missed reviewing this album this year. This is not only one of my faves, but is also Harry, my twelve year old son’s favourite album of 2008 (you can often find us singing along to “Cassius” at the top of our voices in the car). It’s a shame that this debut from a young Oxford band didn’t get as many column inches as US contemporaries such as Vampire Weekend or TV On The Radio (whose David Sitek produced the album), yet they deserved it.
5. El Guincho – Alegranza Myself and Paul Martin came across this fantastic record in Rough Trade at the beginning of the year and it’s been a big fave of both of us all year. Finally available properly in the UK, this great record puts a smile on everyone’s face.
6. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend Some people seemed to take offence to their preppy ivy league look, which reminded me of nothing else other Messers Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth and Harrison circa 1976. While musically the reference points were not too dissimilar. And like much of the great music made this year it also proved that you can steal from African music and not make an arse of yourself!
7. Kanye West - 808’s and Heartbreak The album’s lead single “Love Lockdown” grabbed me the first time I heard it on the radio, sounding like some weird futuristic take on Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”, and has yet to let go. Sadly it seems that a good number of the Hip-Hop community have yet to warm to this album, which ditches the raps for a futuristic take on electro and RnB. While some parts of the rock press have also moaned that it sounded unfinished, that the auto-tuned vocals made the whole thing seem somehow unauthentic, and that after all it was just another RnB record. More fool them. Along with Erykah Badu’s excellent concept album New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, Kanye proved that at least two RnB artists were making more interesting music than almost anyone else in 2008.
8. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Along with Fleet Foxes another fantastic take on dark rural Americana. This was a slow burner that grew on me all year and never gave up.
9. Colour Haze - All I absolutely hated Heavy Metal growing up as teenager in the North East of England in the mid 70’s. It’s taken me nearly thirty years to go anywhere near classic heavy rock bands such as Black Sabbath, Grand Funk Railroad or AC/DC, while even the kind of experimental metal that Plan B and Wire magazine have been raving on about - such as OM, Sunn O))), Nadja or anything on the Southern Lord label - failed to really grab me. So it came as some surprise when I discovered this record and found myspelf loving it. But this record is anything but generic metal or stoner rock. Colour Haze’s ninth album has elements of both trippy psychedelia and the finest cosmic krautrock (they come from Munich), but what sets them apart from the sludge and the drudge that inflicts much of the contemporary Metal acts I’ve heard (which to be honest is hardly extensive) is that like Hendrix, Stooges, MC5, Free or AC/DC it not only rocks, but it also most definitely rolls.  Yes there are plenty of guitar solos here, but they remind me more of Quicksilver Messenger Service or Maggot Brain era Funkadelic than they do of Metallica. Which in my books is a very good thing.
   
10. The Week That Was - The Week That Was As I said in my review of this album it’s not often that I get the chance to rave about a band from my hometown of Sunderland, but this record does not belie any parochialism. This is one hell of a great record that will have anyone who loved Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love album, the smart adult-pop of Todd Rundgren, 10CC or XTC, or Peter Gabriel’s early solo albums jumping for joy. Mackem boy done good!

As I didn’t have room in my Top 10 to include everything I wanted to rave about this year I had to get a bit creative and add some extra categories…

Honourable Mentions:

There were a bunch of great albums this year (many of them debut’s) that were deserving, but didn’t quite make the top of my chart. They may not have garnered the column inches or the record sales to grab the attention of all but the most diligent music fan, but they are equally deserving of your time and money as any of the big name releases from 2008. If you got a few too many iTunes vouchers or even got some record tokens this Xmas and don’t know what to buy, or you simply fancy listening to something a bit different, here’s 10 more albums for you to check out…

1. APSE - Spirit Are we still calling this stuff post-rock this month, space rock maybe, or dare I even mutter the words progressive rock? For many men of a certain age the term ‘prog’ either sends you running for the hills, or alternatively it takes you back to a happy time of loon pants, mellotrons, concept albums and Roger Dean record sleeves. So am I suggesting that this 6-piece band from Newtown Connecticut are prog? Well the All Music Guide does go as far as describing this excellent debut album as ‘Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd covering Joy Division (but nothing as accessible as “Love Can Tear Us Apart”).’ However, if progressive means moving away from the three minute verse-chorus, verse-chorus, middle eight pop song, this is prog, but with a noughties sensibility! A genre of music that could also include Sigur Rós, Secret Machines, Battles, Radiohead, Deerhoof, Animal Collective and dozens of other bands who don’t want to next weeks Pigeon Detectives. Hurrah!
2. Diagonal - Diagonal So with ‘Prog Rock’ being OK to like again, some young bands are having a go! Although most of the  bands I’ve mentioned would probably hate being put in the prog basket, it’s unlikely Diagonal would complain one bit. Diagonal are a young and a rather cool-looking seven piece band from Brighton, who look like they were dressed from the small ads in the backpages of a 1973 copy of the NME (opposite). The whole band are multi-instrumentalists, they have a very proggy flute player, the album has track titles such as opener “Semi Permeable Men-Brain” - which attempts to mix up up Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis with the best bits of King Crimson and Gentle Giant - oh, and the album only has 5 tracks! How prog is that. It also sounds like they own quite a few Van Der Graaf Generator albums between them, which is no bad thing especially of you remember that one John Lydon cited a track by Van Der Graaf leader Peter Hammill as one of his favourite tracks back in ‘77!
3. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing Easily the loudest record I bought this year. These guys often get lumped in with avant metal bands like Sunn 0))), but this two piece from Bristol make a very different sound that at times has more in common with the electronica of Boards of Canada or Autechre, or early Kraftwerk or Cluster fed through a fuzz peddle.
4. James Blackshaw - Litany of Echoes The nu/freak/wyrd folk scene that has emerged over the last few years often uses the likes of the Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, The Fairport Convention, Donovan and Pentangle as touchstones, mixing it up with some fine A-grade psychedelia. However, the main inspiration for these three artists seems to be legendary American acoustic guitarist John Fahey, who sadly died in 2001 leaving behind a stunning catalogue of work. Hastings resident James Blackshaw is not only the best but probably the most orginal of Fahey’s contemporary followers , with this his sixth album Litany of Echoes, h best yet.  Opening and closing tracks “Gate of Ivory” and “Gate Of Horn” are the biggest departures from his previous output with the dominant sound being an acoustic piano. Much of the album is as much reminiscent of minimalist classical composers such as Gavin Bryars or Terry Riley or the musical output of the ECM label, as it is of John Fahey, Robbie Basho or Leo Kottke. His 12 string acoustic playing throughout is rich and beautifully textured as ever.A rewarding listen.
5. Jonquil - Lions/Whistle Low EP Jonquil are another young British band, who I know far less about. From what I can gleam from their MySpace page they are an Oxford-based six piece, and Lions is their second album. An immediate comparison on first hearing is a British take on citizensound faves Akron/Family. Their music is certainly rooted in folk, but is strangely redolent of early James before they all got us to all “Sit Down”. Their taste in music is pretty eclectic, referencing everyone from Joan Baez to Motown, Eno to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Bulgarian woman’s choir to Can, and they even like to jack to Fleetwood Mac! With so much weird American folk music getting coverage in the UK music monthlies these days, it’s a wonder that this record slipped through the net. The Whistle Low EP, is a great 7 track intro to the band, and features an excellent rerecording of the bands stand-out track “Whistle Low”. Along with the Foals the most interesting music to come out of Oxford since Radiohead.
6. Samamidon – All is Well Samamidon are Sam Amidon and his childhood friend Thomas Bartlett. This album has been around since last October, but is only now getting it’s full UK release. Their music takes the sort of old Appalachian folk songs you’d find on the field recordings of Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, and is given a fresh cinematic twist with the aid of Bjork collaborator and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. If you like the Bon Iver album, Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine or Jose Gonzalez, you should explore immediately.
7. School Of Seven Bells - Alpinisms Take one part Secret Machines (former guitarist Ben Curtis) and add in twin sister vocalists and you have the School Of Seven Bells, who make an electronica-enhanced sort of dream pop, that for seems to be getting tagging in some quarters as shoe-gazing. You can certianly hear a kinship with the likes of Seefeel, My Bloody Valentine, Laika and some of Slowdives better moments. A really lovely dreamy record that’s a great listen on a cold and frosty winter days.
8. Sian Alice Group – 59.99 The Sian Alice Group have one of the worst band names ever. But their debut album 59.99 (the time it takes to listen to the record) is anything but dull and predictable. Their music mixes pop melodies with improvisation to create music of epic proportions, not dissimilar to the best of Spiritualized or My Bloody Valentine (more shoegazers??). While, the band claim inspiration from Jeff Mills’ Detroit techno, the soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti, and the minimalism of Steve Reich. Although London-based, they are signed to a small US label, which may suggest why the British music press have been particularly slow on the uptake.
9. The Mummers - Tale To Tell (Part One) I picked up on the Mummers from my old mate Paul Lester’s New Band of the Day column on the Guardian website, where he describes their music as sounding “like Björk if she had never been seduced by club culture, techno, drum’n’bass and the avant garde and instead focused on being a sort of weird 21st-century Doris Day.” Lead singer Raissa had an album out on Polydor back in ‘99 which apparently did nothing, but now with collaborator Mark Horwood and producer Paul Sandrone in tow, she has made a beautiful and quite simply tremendous record that puts a stupid big grin on my face everytime I hear it.
10. These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid Alongside the Horrors and Theoretical Girl, These New Purtians are a new breed of great young bands coming out of Essex’s favourite seaside town, Southend. Musically their début album, Beat Pyramid, reminds me of a cross between an incredibly tight version of the Fall, with the likes of the Fire Engines and fellow art-punks Wire (whose producer Gareth Jones twiddles the knobs here). However these plucky 19 year olds are anything but copyists, and a lot more contemporary than those references suggest. I’ve heard a few comparisons to the likes of Franz Ferdinand and the The Futureheads, but this is a far tougher propulsive sound, although equally as arch. The sound is bolstered by some fantastic rhythms and punchy synthetic textures (check out the ‘Get Ur Freak On’ staccato beats and synthetic brass on Swords of Truth). They’ve already hooked up with über fashion designer Heidi Slimane to produce the music for a recent Dior Homme catwalk show, while lead vocalist Jack Barrett was listed in GQ’s 50 Best Dressed men for 2007; and before we forget that this is a band not a fashion brand, the ever on-the-mark Plan B Magazine named them as one of their hot new bands for 2008.
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Compilation of the year:

Arthur Russell - Love is Overtaking Me This man and his music should be a national treasure in the US. But sadly as it was with another special soul, Nick Drake, he was taken from us at a far too early age, and his fame is likely to be far greater post his death, than when he was alive. This album is made up from both home and studio recordings made in the main in the early 70s, and are far more song orientated than anything I’d heard before from his brief catalogue of music.  But this album is deserving of all the praise that was heaped on it by the music press, and if this is an indication of what is hiding away in the archives I can’t wait to hear what they choose to dig out next…

Dance music of the year:

Kelley Polar - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling This Kelley’s second album is what might have happened if Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside had decided to get into House, Disco, and Techno, rather than R&B, Hip Hop and Reggae! This could be this year’s Matthew Dear, Junior Boys, Hot Chip-type dance crossover record that it’s safe for indie kids and Guardian readers to like. This is the sort of music the Human League could be making right now – with a definite 80s electro-pop feel.

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond The biggest banger this year at citizensound towers was “Kalemba (Wegue - Wegue)” by our favourite Portuguese dance act. The album finally arrived on Fabric’s new label and it’s a cracking dancefloor album that is up there with contributor M.I.A as one of the most exciting acts around.

Mix albums of the year:

DJ /rupture - Uproot “Jace Clayton, aka DJ/rupture, returns with another outstanding mix. Combining dubstep, pulsing ambience, and orchestral flourishes on tracks from Ghislain Poirier, Shackleton, and Ekkehard Ehlers, Rupture doesn’t just wade through music, he constructs an alternate history” Pitchfork. Sorry but I couldn’t say it better myself!

Pilooski - Dirty Edits Vol. 1&2 - A Collection Of Dirty Classics Pilooski is one of the hottest mixes around at the moment, his skill is remixing and mashing-up incongrous tracks and making something special out of them. These two limited edtion CD’s brought together some of his recent 12’s. Personal favourites include his rerub of Can’s “Mother Sky”, his edit of Nobody But Me by The Human Beinz and his version of Elvis’ “Crawfish”. If you can find copies of these two CDs grab ‘em.

The Time & Space Machine - The Time & Space Machine and Beyond The Wizards Sleeve - Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Ark 1 Richard Norris former NME journo and ex-member of Soft Cell, David Ball in the Grid is behind these two albums. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve is Richard and his pal Erol Alkan (DJ and producer de jour), and his love of 60s Psych Rock is back. Both albums aren’t exactly made up of his own material, but re-edits of classic 60s psych and Krautrock from around the world. The Wizards Sleeve album includes a great rerub of The Factory’s “Path Through The Forest“, one of my favourite bits of UK freakbeat, while The Time And Space Machine includes a great re-edit of the Writing On The Wall’s classic “Buffalo”, which was also sampled on the excellent Quiet Village album.

Still making great music after all these years award:

Jointly awarded to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! and Tricky for Knowle West Boy.

One to Watch in 2009:

The Very Best - Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are the Very Best I’ve only had a week to live with this record but wanted to share it with you. Eusau Mwamwaya is Malawian but lives and works in East London. DJs and dance producers Radioclit visited his secondhand shop and became friends with Esau. The result is this amazing album that you can still download for free from their myspace page. US webzine Pitchfork included this album in their best of 2008 and rightly so. The album is a “hugely eclectic mixtape that veers from South Africa’s marabi and kwaito music to Hans Zimmer scores to French and American hip-hop to Michael Jackson. While strong collaborations with M.I.A., Santogold, and Vampire Weekend include some surprising left-turns.”

If you want to check all the other albums I listened to and enjoyed in 2008 go and have a look on my last.fm page.