Final mehcommendations: 2008's best releases

Updated 12/11

In lieu of publishing reviews for the remainder of 2008, here is a list of 179 albums and EPs I believe are worthy of recommendation. I will update the list frequently, as I still have 48 albums on my iPod I haven't listened to yet. I also download an average of two or three new albums a day, which are then appended to my playlist. This list will get longer.

I also hope to publish some reflections on this year's new music over the next few weeks. I have a pretty hectic schedule ahead of my relocation, so I can't make any promises in this regard.

UPDATE: I am starting to add links to either my review or to another that more or less echoes my sentiments. If I have written a review of the release, I will link to my own review. If not, I will link to a positive review from a source I consider reputable.

Note: Some of these were released earlier than 2008 in limited tour editions, digital-only or outside the U.S. I have included them because they received their first physical release in the U.S. this year. Others were released for the first time in some form, but a domestic release is forthcoming. Expect to see these albums listed again next year.

Bold text indicates release was recently added to the list.

A Weather: Cove
Alias: Resurgam
Theresa Andersson: Hummingbird, Go!
Autechre: Quaristice
The B-52's: Funplex (AV Club review)
Nat Baldwin: Most Valuable Player (Pitchfork review)
Barr: Skogsbo Is the Place
Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward
Beach House: Devotion
Andrew Bird: Soldier On (Pitchfork review)
The Black Dog: Radio Scarecrow (Tiny Mix Tapes review)

Black Kids: Partie Traumatic

Black Mountain: In the Future (AV Club review)
Blood on the Wall: Liferz
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Lie Down in the Light
Brazilian Girls: New York City (Boston Globe review)
Breathe Owl Breathe: Ghost Glacier
British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?
The Bug: London Zoo (Dusted review)
David Byrne & Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Tiny Mix Tapes review)
Brendan Canning: Something for All of Us... (Delusions of Adequacy review)
Pelle Carlberg: The Lilac Time (PopWreckoning review)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
The Chap: Mega Breakfast
Vic Chesnutt: Dark Developments (Prefix review)
Cheveu: Cheveu (cokemachineglow review)
Clinic: Do It!
Cloud Cult: Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) (The Sneeze review)
The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale
Julian Cope: Black Sheep (Playlouder review)
Crystal Antlers: EP
Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles
The Cure: 4:13 Dream (Sputnikmusic review)
Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
Dead Confederate: Wrecking Ball (AV Club review)
Death in June: The Rule of Thirds
Deerhoof: Offend Maggie (AV Club review)
Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (Tiny Mix Tapes review)
Dengue Fever: Venus on Earth (Dusted review)
Department of Eagles: In Ear Park (Delusions of Adequacy review)
Destroyer: Trouble in Dreams
Detektivbyrån: Wermland (It's A Trap review)
DeVotchKa: A Mad & Faithful Telling
diskJokke: Staying In
The Dø: A Mouthful (Drowned In Sound review)
Dodos: Visiter
Dungen: 4 (Paste review)
Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006
Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Eat Skull: Sick to Death
Edie Sedgwick: Things Are Getting Sinister and Sinisterer
El Guincho: Alegranza!
Elf Power: In a Cave
Evangelicals: The Evening Descends
Evangelista: Hello, Voyager
The Faint: Fasciination
Firewater: The Golden Hour
Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Flying Lotus: Los Angeles
Josephine Foster: This Coming Gladness
Dan Friel: Ghost Town
Tobias Fröberg: Turn Heads
Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing
Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life
The Futureheads: This Is Not the World
Gang Gang Dance: Saint Dymphna
The Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound
Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
Growing: All the Way
Growing: Lateral
The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
Hauschka: Ferndorf
Head of Femur: Great Plains
HEALTH: DISCO
Hello Saferide: More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide
Herman Düne: I Wish That I Could See You Soon
High Places: High Places
The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
David Holmes: The Holy Pictures
Horse Feathers: House With No Name
Frida Hyvönen: Silence Is Wild
I Scream Ice Cream: Me Too
Ryoji Ikeda: Test Pattern
Iran: Buddy
Japancakes: Loveless
Japanese Motors: Japanese Motors
Jarboe & Justin K. Broadrick: J2
Jeremy Jay: A Place Where We Could Go
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Fordlândia
Kelley Polar: I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling
Kleerup: Kleerup
Koushik: Out My Window
Kutiman: Kutiman
Lambchop: OH (Ohio)
Land of Talk: Some Are Lakes
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip: Angles
Leila: Blood Looms and Blooms
Dominique Leone: Dominique Leone
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue
Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
Lindstrøm: Where You Go I Go Too
The LK: The LK vs. the Snow
Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...
Los Campesinos!: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Low Motion Disco: Keep It Slow
Luomo: Convivial
Lykke Li: Youth Novels
M83: Saturdays = Youth
The Magnetic Fields: Distortion
Man Man: Rabbit Habits
Max Tundra: Parallax Error Beheads You
Mirah: The Old Days Feeling
Monkey: Journey to the West
Mount Eerie: Lost Wisdom
The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
My Teenage Stride: Lesser Demons
Nadja: Desire in Uneasiness
Neon Neon: Stainless Style
Nomo: Ghost Rock
Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst
Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping
Okkervil River: The Stand Ins
Oneida: Preteen Weaponry
Parenthetical Girls: Entanglements
Parts & Labor: Receivers
PAS/CAL: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura
Pete & The Pirates: Little Death
Peter Bjorn & John: Seaside Rock
Plants and Animals: Parc Avenue
Poni Hoax: Images of Sigrid
Portishead: Third
Q-Tip: The Rennaissance
Quiet Village: Silent Movie
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Radiohead/AmpLive: Rainydayz Remixes
Rafter: Sweaty Magic
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Robyn: Robyn
The Rosebuds: Life Like
The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion
RZA as Bobby Digital: Digi Snacks
Samamidon: All Is Well
Schlammpeiziger: Schwingstelle Für Rauschabzug
School of Seven Bells: Alpinisms
Shearwater: Rook
The Sight Below: Glider
Sigur Rós: Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Smart Growth: Surrey
Patti Smith & Kevin Shields: The Coral Sea
SoiSong: qXn948s
Solange: Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
Spiritualized: Songs in A&E
Stereolab: Chemical Chords
The Streets: Everything Is Borrowed
Suishou No Fune: Prayer for Chibi
Susu: Win
Syclops: I've Got My Eye on You
Thee Oh Sees: The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In
Titus Andronicus: The Airing of Grievances
Tobacco: Fucked Up Friends
TV on the Radio: Dear Science
The Twilight Sad: Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist
Violent Femmes: Crazy (single)
Quinn Walker: Laughter's an Asshole/Lion Land
The Walkmen: You & Me
The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel Blues
Wax Fang: La La Land
The Week That Was: The Week That Was
The Weepies: Hideaway
Kanye West: 808s & Heartbreak
Why?: Alopecia
Wilderness: (k)no(w)here
Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
Women: Women
Xiu Xiu: Women as Lovers

Hiatus

I am immediately suspending new mehcommendations until early 2009. I am going to relocate to San Francisco much more quickly than expected, so I have to devote my free time to moving preparations. When I resume, reviews will be longer and, hopefully, more useful to readers.

In the meantime, I will publish a list of the best releases so far this year and update it regularly. This will include releases I've already recommended and a number that I haven't yet.

PAS/CAL: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura

As much as I love a simple, beautiful pop song, I'm a sucker for byzantine, schizophrenic compositions. I'm still scratching my head trying to comprehend just how PAS/CAL manage to accomplish both simultaneously. Their songs, regardless of length, change direction unexpectedly and frequently but seamlessly, never losing that sense of cohesion that tells you you're still listening to the same song. Imagine a sunnier Destroyer, using ELO as a touchstone instead of Bowie. It helps that PAS/CAL are interminably upbeat; their confections aren't weighed down by artiness or a sense that they're doing anything but having fun. This is an enjoyable, nuanced record with lots of twists that still surprise after many listens.

Eat Skull: Sick to Death

The first immediately noticeable feature of Eat Skull's debut is the overwhelming, unrelenting noise. Blistering feedback and static dominate throughout, but tracks like "Ghost List" and "Fade to Smoke" hint that there is a secret coherence lying hidden under the squall. A second pass through the album makes the picture clearer. For all their devotion to no-fi production values, Eat Skull are astonishingly melodic. Traces of surf rock and VU-style balladry belie their apparent abrasiveness. Sick to Death is one of those rare albums that sounds like a different record each time, and each of those records has a cryptic charm.

Technical issue

Today's post was delayed due to not having internet access last night at home. It will appear tonight, and tomorrow's post will appear at midnight as scheduled.

Firewater: The Golden Hour

Global influences are ubiquitous in indie music these days, and Firewater has helped make it that way. The Golden Hour is a travelogue of sorts, mining the popular musical forms of various regions for backgrounds against which stories of escape and refuge are told. Tod A. wields these cultural devices deftly, meticulously arranging them into gorgeous, gritty songs. The album vividly portrays the sensations of a weary expatriate. The Golden Hour shows that cerebral music needn't be dull or pretentious.

The Chap: Mega Breakfast

I can honestly say that Mega Breakfast is the oddest album of the year so far. The Chap start on a foundation of post-punk and krautrock, two forms which have come back into vogue in a big way, and then depart from that plane at a ninety-degree angle. The strange rhythms, non-musical sounds and often whimsical lyrics on Mega Breakfast stand in stark contrast to the utter humorlessness of other revivalist bands. It would be easy to believe that Sparks have had a large influence on The Chap's songwriting. Novelty alone doesn't make an album great, though, but their ability to craft both danceable and hummable songs do. There isn't a dud on the album. Mega Breakfast is both fun and challenging, making The Chap one of the most promising bands to emerge this year.

Alias: Resurgam

Resurgam finds Alias, the producer behind many of the best records released by the anticon. label, showing off his compositional skills in a wide array of electronic styles. His songs hover between the indie hip-hop for which anticon. is best known, glitch-hop, ambient and IDM. Artists always risk making a scattershot, incoherent record when trying to move in so many directions at once, but Alias deftly avoids this pitfall. Instead, his compositions emphasizes the elements the forms have in common, so the album never loses focus. Resurgam is one of the best records from anticon. in years, possibly in its entire history.

Solange: Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams

Whereas most soul and R&B records made after 1967 make me want to douse myself in gasoline and light a match, Solange Knowles' new record came as a welcome surprise. A major factor in my unlikely enjoyment of Sol-Angel is its rejection of the faux-soul sound that has dominated the past twenty or so years. Solange instead embraces sounds from the acme of Motown and the girl-group genre it inspired. The album isn't purely a throughback, though, as it also incorporates influences from more recent electronic music. "This Bird" masterfully appropriates a sample from Boards of Canada and "Sandcastle Disco" reminds me of Stereolab at times. Sol-Angel is a remarkable development from a young artist who is just beginning to move out of her more famous sister's shadow.

Bonus mehcommendations!

You may have noticed that I have published a couple of unannounced reviews this week. The year is coming to a close and I'd like to review as many albums as possible by Christmas. This means, hopefully, quite a few extra reviews that won't be put on the schedule ahead of their appearance.

Glasvegas: Glasvegas

Glasvegas is probably the most aptly named new band to emerge this year. Their eponymous debut inflates maudlin Glaswegian-ness and the post-punk revival sound to arena-sized proportions. The bloom is off the rose for peers like Bloc Party and Interpol, due in no small part to their failure to inject soul and intensity into their music. In contrast, Glasvegas remedy this shortcoming by dispensing with the spartanism of post-punk, favoring sentimentality and Phil Spector-esque production values instead. Almost wholely successful in its gargantuan ambitions, Glasvegas is an impressive opening salvo from a band that's too loud to be contained by any venue smaller than a stadium.

Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist

Admittedly, I have little frame of reference to evaluate Detrimentalist with. I usually find the more spastic and noisy genres of electronic music unbearably abrasive. Even worse, the records that aren't irritating are some of the most boring I've ever heard, i.e., the recent output of Meat Beat Manifesto. Perhaps Venetian Snares affect me differently than their peers because rhythm isn't treated as an end in itself. The time signatures are prominent, of course, but the beats often slow down or pause to make room for a fragment of melody. The tracks on Detrimentalist are distinguishable from one another in terms of tempo, mood and intensity. This alone makes it one of the superior records of drum 'n' bass and related genres, and the fact that almost all are gems puts it over the top for me.

The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel Blues

A few years ago, having taken notice of several then-nascent musical revivals, I predicted the entire previous century would come back into vogue in the first decade of the current one. With new bands under astronomical pressure to stand out, genres would rub against one another and fuse into strange new musical forms. Nothing as dramatic as the scenario I foresaw has occured yet, but there is ample evidence that many of the more interesting bands are drawing inspiration from intersections. Wagonwheel Blues, at times, sounds like a collaboration between Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Guided by Voices. Despite a vastly ecclectic range of sources, though, The War on Drugs have integrated their influences into a surprisingly coherent sound. It would not severely tax the imagination to picture this solid, frequently transcendant debut becoming the catalyst for a flood of ambient shoegaze Americana imitators.

Growing: All the Way

All the Way, Growing's second superb release of 2008, is measurably better than its predecessor, Lateral. Whereas Lateral was droning and austere, All the Way is more rhythmic. In a sense, the newest release is the closest thing to a pop record Growing will ever release. Repeating, arpeggiated sequences of notes sculpt something almost resembling a song, as if an extraterrestrial civilization had attempted to reconstruct music from Earth using only parts from Voyagers I and II. As the century unfurls, All the Way will either be a weird but beautifully accessible standout or the template for the pop music that follows.

Dodos: Visiter

There has been such a flood of new bands offering their takes on Americana in the past five or so years that most of them have begun to sound the same. Even the more gifted musicians often fail to create anything distinctive enough to be heard over the din. Visiter, fortunately, does not suffer from this failing. Dodos possess an aptitude for hummable melodies, beating most of their peers on this basis alone. Unlike all the other bands pursuing an indie-folk aesthetic, however, Dodos also lean heavily on precise clockwork rhythms that flaunt their acumen as instrumentalists. Hopefully, unlike the birds from which they took their name, Dodos won't become extinct anytime soon.

The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale

The Cool Kids take a simple approach to rap that hasn't been heard much in the past twenty years. Without the benefit of expensive studio production, they sink or swim on the basis of their beats and lyrics alone. It is a testament to their considerable strengths in these areas that they do much more swimming than sinking. The content and subject matter are simple, too, as The Cool Kids eschew heavy or emotional topics in favor of light fare. This decision pays off handsomely, resulting in a stellar, fun party record.

RZA as Bobby Digital: Digi Snacks

Digi Snacks continues RZA's urban sci-fi meditation on the internal struggle between opposing natures, with Bobby Digital playing the Hyde to his Jekyll. While Bobby holds the reins almost completely, RZA continually hovers in the background, tempering Bobby's single-minded aggression with softness. Similarly, the album's grittiness is balanced against hazy, surreal atmospherics. In one of the album's most surprisingly pleasurable moments, a woman who sounds just like (and very well may be) one of the Cassidy sisters from CocoRosie contributes vocals to the most tender rap song about fucking I've ever heard. On the whole, what could have been a ham-handed, gimmicky album is saved by a remarkable depth.

My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges

With Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket plunges deeper into R&B without losing footing in their well-established proggy Americana mode. It's a somewhat surpising move, but in retrospect it was prophesied by the adventurous genre-bending of Z. When the band gets carried away, like with the over-the-top falsetto of "Highly Suspicious", a solid Southern rocker kicks in just in time to prevent the album from jumping the shark. The schizophrenic tone of the album belies a subtle grace that takes repeated listens to perceive. Evil Urges doesn't approach the triumph of Z, but it still demonstrates a great deal of what makes My Morning Jacket special.

Illness

The yesterday's and today's recommendations were delayed by illness. I will have them up soon and tomorrow's will be up at midnight, right on schedule.

Black Kids: Partie Traumatic

Those who claim that good music must be original either harbor some woeful misconceptions about music or just don't enjoy very much of it. For one thing, all music relies on what has come before to a great degree. For another, innovation in music is usally accidental, arising due to imperfect mimicry, much like mutations in genetic code. And artists that set out to create something completely original usually produce something interesting but unlistenable.

Black Kids' debut full-length, Partie Traumatic, is great precisely because they are skillful imitators. They strip-mine the 80s for vintage sounds and combine them with current pop culture signifiers to make fun party songs. While the seams are mostly visible, Black Kids' surprisingly broad cultural vocabulary make up for obviousness. Reggie Youngblood's frequently dead-on impression of Robert Smith, while almost embarrassingly transparent at times, works well with Black Kids' fluffier fare. Partie Traumatic won't be anywhere near as influential as the material they bite, but it's tremendously successful at what it tries to be: one of the most memorable and fun indie pop records in recent memory.

Mehcommendations resume

Short-form reviews will resume tonight at midnight. I was hoping to start lengthening my recommendations, but I'm getting way behind in my writing. I'd like to finish reviewing all of this year's best releases by the end of the year, so I need to get busy. I'm still studying and thinking about ways to improve, but long-form reviews will wait until 2009.

Delay

You may have noticed that I've pushed back the next set of reviews a week. I'm taking a short break for research. I'm doing some reading about techniques and tools of musical criticism. I hope to incorporate some of the ideas I find into my writing. The next set of reviews will be longer, allowing me to more fully and precisely express what I enjoy about each release. I hope that my recommendations will grow more enjoyable and helpful for anyone looking for great new music. Thanks for your patience.

Portishead: Third

Third cannot exist unless everything we know is wrong. It's an abomination unto the laws of nature. And like all abominations worth their salt, it's astonishingly beautiful. Portishead have created a return to form that's also a radical departure. Paradoxically, Third recreates the mood and the aesthetic of Dummy by discarding its techniques and employing a new toolkit. Third sounds as if it were Portishead's eleventh album snatched from an alternate reality, rather than their third in this one. In another potentially universe-detroying contradiction, Beth Gibbons sounds like a torch singer enfeebled by chemotherapy, but her presence is anything but meek. I've always felt that the best music seems imaginary, though music becomes real once it is imagined. Third seems less real the more I listen to it, so by this criterion (and by many others) it's easily one of this year's best albums.

Robyn: Robyn

It's actually been four years since Robyn, Sweden's former teenage "pop tart", released this astonishing comeback album in Europe. However, it didn't get a U.S. release until this year. Fortunately for Robyn and for the States, it still sounds ahead of its time. She has clearly matured beyond the teen pop stereotype and into the role of auteur. Robyn is constructed on a bedrock of impeccable electro and dance pop, but the whole affair is handled with much greater intelligence than is typical of these genres. Her winking, smirking bravado and semi-coherent appropriations of American slang are a perversely astute deconstruction of the clichés of celebrity. It's no wonder why Robyn has crusty old music snobs scratching their heads and reevaluating preconceptions of musical credibility.

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

It's quite unusual for a band to release such a sophisticated debut as that of Fleet Foxes. It's even more anomalous to hear an album that's both highly polished and unfailingly excellent. Yet Fleet Foxes have achieved both in one fell swoop. This is largely because they know their myriad strengths well and have crafted an efficient showcase for them. Their songs rely equally on unabashedly buoyant melodies, sunny harmonies and arrangements or guitar, piano, etc., played more than competently. If you haven't heard Fleet Foxes yet - and judging by its U.S. chart peak at #83, you probably haven't - you're missing one of the finest albums of the decade.

The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion

It saddens me that most people's first (and probably only) exposure to The Ruby Suns will be a recent Microsoft commercial that uses about three seconds of "Oh, Mohave". I say that because the venom just beneath the surface of the ad - it implies that if you don't like Vista, the problem is you, not Vista - is antithetical to the spirit of the band. Ryan McPhun skillfully marries Brian Wilson-inspired sunshine pop to the equally good vibrations of the South Pacific. Sea Lion hasn't a single malicious note. The album is a densely layered confection of fuzzy, sunny loveliness. I hope that the songs will be licensed for more commercials, but for companies that use their powers for good instead of evil. Then Sea Lion will get the exposure it deserves without being sullied by malice.

Syclops: I've Got My Eye on You

Syclops isn't the typical act for DFA Records, if there can be such a thing anymore in the wake of the label's more diverse recent signings. The funk and punk trappings ordinarily found in their releases are sparse on Syclops' debut album and there is very little cowbell. Likewise, with few exceptions, the tracks on Eye are much more landscape than foreground. The negative spaces are filled with dreamy synths and squelches. The array of tone colors floating around the middle of the mix provides ample reward for repeated listens.

Autechre: Quaristice

Warp Records stalwarts Autechre seem to have recovered from their slump. Heralded as the future of electronic music in the 1990s, Autechre's sound didn't carry well into this decade. It seemed that they were doomed to release the same dull, plodding record over and over again. Quaristice manages to outdo most of their recent output and some of their older stuff, too, by breaking the routine. It's their most diverse album so far, integrating the weirdo noodling of Amber with the cacophony of Tri Repetae and the nearly dancy rhythms of LP5. Most of the tracks are very short by Autechre's standards as well, around four minutes on average. Compared to the interminable repetition of the eight-minute-plus tracks of Untilted, the songs of Quaristice are a welcome return to brevity and variation for Autechre. Apparently, they've still got it in them to shape the future of IDM.

Blood on the Wall: Liferz

In an era when the past is being systematically mined for dormant genres to reinvigorate modern music, it's almost a subversive act to adopt a form so recent it never had a chance to go out of style. The low-fi alternative guitar rock of Pixies, Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr. and others has never lost its indie cred, so it's not a good style choice if one is trying to get by on meta-ironic gimmicks. On the other hand, Blood on the Wall do something pretty unusual for an indie band in the 21st century: solid, inspired musicianship. Liferz shows that with care and attention to detail, even the most well-worn paths can feel fresh and vibrant.

Tobias Fröberg: Turn Heads

If there are any mediocre Swedish bands or musicians, I don't want to know about them. In the Sweden of my mind, the streets are crawling with pop geniuses and the wind carries impossibly sweet melodies. One day something will shatter this illusion, but I'm grateful that it won't be Tobias Fröberg. Turn Heads, Fröberg's third album, is yet another example of modest yet impeccable albums flowing out of the country these days. Nothing on this album screams out for critical acclaim or indie cred, but it doesn't need to. It wins over the listener quietly and gradually. I found it unremarkable on first listen, but it has grown on me over the past couple of months. Now I recognize it as one of the strongest, most infectious albums of the year despite its unassuming demeanor.

Quiet Village: Silent Movie

Quiet Village's approach to songcraft is similar to that of The Go! Team, Girl Talk, and numerous others that have emerged this decade. Silent Movie combines copious samples with original music to weave vivid atmospheres. But while their contemporaries turn their dials up to eleven, Quiet Village trade in subtlety. Silent Movie is a slow collision of Martin Denny's exotica, Ennio Morricone's film scores, shoegaze, and early 90s downtempo "chillout" music, among others. A few years ago I formulated a theory that in this decade, every form of music from the previous century would reemerge in unusual combinations, giving birth to the first new musical forms of the 21st century. Silent Movie is compelling evidence that I might just be correct.

Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III

If you told me two years ago that I'd be writing a recommendation of a double-platinum certified rap album, I would have thought you were crazy. Yet, here we are. Tha Carter III retains many of the best qualities of Lil Wayne's 2006 mixtape with DJ Drama, Dedication 2, but is strangely more cohesive despite having nearly as many producers as songs. Wayne's shambolic cadences are criticized as lazy in some circles, but when paired with the relatively mechanical flow of Jay-Z and others, Wayne just seems to be having a good time. In nearly eighty minutes, Tha Carter III explores so many ideas that it might be easier to appreciate in smaller portions. However, hardly a single moment on the album seems dispensible. Tha Carter III might be somewhat demanding, but it pays enough dividends that it can afford to be.

Head of Femur: Great Plains

Great Plains is a lot to take in. Copious numbers of instruments, abrupt rhythm changes and winding muli-part songs keep the listener on the verge of sensory overload. But when "Jetway Junior" starts, it becomes clear that all this complexity actually serves simplicity in perverse ways. The kernel of each song is a great melody and propulsive rhythm. Once this realization sinks in, it becomes easier to focus on each track's core qualities. The large arrangements are in sharp relief with the simple pop melodies, making Great Plains a more interesting listen as it progresses.

Sigur Rós: Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust

Less than ten seconds into "Gobbledigook", the opening track of Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, it's clear that Sigur Rós has made a long overdue change in direction. Three albums of pretty much the same sound was beginning to get a little stale. By the time Takk... was released, they were just treading water. Now it seems Sigur Rós has been paying a little more attention what's going ob outside their own insular world. The melodies still are soaring and pretty and spacy (it would hardly be a Sigur Rós record otherwise), but the instrumentation is much more complex. There are fewer strings and more varied instruments like horn sections showing up on various tracks. Rhythm is more prominent than it has ever been on a Sigur Rós album. At moments, there is even an unmistakable Animal Collective influence. Finally shedding some of the trappings that were beginning to make Sigur Rós a bit dull, they are now free to explore their undiscovered potential. If Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust is an indication, then their best days may still be ahead of them.

Kelley Polar: I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling

Kelley Polar, aka Michael Kelley, is a Juilliard-educated violinist and this shows in his approach to electronic music. Kelley treats his electric instruments as a means to an end, foundations of a larger structure, components of a finished product. While most of his peers aim to dazzle with the strangest sounds (many to wonderful effect), Kelley is more comfortable with the slow build and the cumulative effect. In a genre that frequently depends on instantaneous reward, Kelley's music demands a great deal more attention and is unlikely to create the kind of mass fervor that Daft Punk have. However, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling rewards the attentive listener with a deeper experience. This is more bedroom music than dance music.

Herman Düne: I Wish That I Could See You Soon

Herman Düne is a French band, but it's understandable why people would think they're from Sweden. In recent years, Sweden has handily unseated Glasgow as the world capital of tongue-in-cheek twee pop of the sort that is found on this EP. While a playful giddiness typical of the genre (if it can be considered one) is evident here, it belies a deadly serious earnestness. On "When the Water Gets Old (And Freezes on the Lake)", David-Ivar Herman Düne almost entirely drops the self-effacing wit and observational humor that pervades the EP, letting the ache it conceals show through. As is the case with their Swedish non-countrymen, the tiniest measure of bitterness makes the rest all the sweeter.

Mehcommendations resume

Mehcommendations will resume tonight at midnight with my review of Herman Düne's I Wish That I Could See You Soon EP.

Resuming shortly

Mehcommendations will resume shortly, probably by September 2nd. I didn't get the job in Berkeley, so my planned relocation won't happen until after the new year. The good news is that the next four months will be relatively uninterrupted, leaving me time to recommend as much of 2008's best music as possible.

In the meantime, I'd like to stimulate some discussion here. I just read the latest edition of Popless at The A.V. Club website. Noel Murray discusses, among other things, his difficulty in convincing others of Prefab Sprout's excellence.

I've had many similar experiences. I've been a Peter Gabriel since I was fifteen years old - more than half my life. But persuading my peers to acknowledge his genius has always been a challenge. My friends and I were listening to Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure, Christian Death, Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance and the like. In comparison, Peter Gabriel appeared mainstream, at least superficially. But having fallen in love with Security, I knew that Gabriel was the true oddball out of the bands I enjoyed. From 1980's Peter Gabriel 3 to 1992's Us, he adeptly married pop, prog, industrial and so-called "world music" in often startling ways.

I managed to win over a couple of friends who had previously refused to believe Gabriel was anything more than an uninspired major label pop artist. How did I do it? My weapon of choice was (and still is) the mixtape. Selecting a few choice tracks from almost every album released up to that point, I carefully built an iron-clad case. My more reasonably minded friends were forced to capitulate.

So here's where the discussion comes in. I'd like to hear about artists you adore, but whom your friends (or others in general) have been reluctant to embrace. How would you make your case? What evidence of their greatness can you present? I'm opening up unmoderated comments, so please keep it civil

Hiatus

You may have noticed that I have gotten a bit behind of writing recommendations and have deleted the dates from the Coming Mehcommendations sidebar. This is because I am preparing to relocate to California in about a month. I hope to start blogging again very quickly after the move is finished. There's still a lot of music to recommend so I'll try to make this break as brief as possible.

The Twilight Sad: Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did

An EP primarily composed of alternate versions of songs on a previously released album ordinarily wouldn't warrant a recommendation from me. Except when, as is the case here, the alternate versions are as extraordinary as the originals. James Graham's alternating deadpan brogue and soaring croon are still present, but the arrangement are, in most cases, now slightly overshadowed by thick slabs of drone. The songs are longer and seem more orchestral in comparison to the originals from Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Additionally, the EP is capped off with a cover of Beach House's Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time". At more than triple the length of Beach House's version from earlier this year, The Twilight Sad brings an additional measure of gleeful moroseness to an already maudlin song. Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did is a phenomenal release in and of itself, let alone as a companion to a stellar album.

DeVotchKa: A Mad & Faithful Telling

DeVotchKa first came to my attention with a recommendation from a trusted fellow blogger. Admittedly, I was more curious about their cover of Siouxsie & The Banshees' "The Last Beat of My Heart" than about anything else on their Curse Your Little Heart EP. Other than the aforementioned cover, I have to admit that I found little that impressed me at the time. I felt that the Balkan-rock fusion sound was being done better by contemporaries like Gogol Bordello and A Hawk and a Hacksaw. However, A Mad & Faithful Telling has handily won me over. The new album shows a great deal more dimension than the EP did. In particular, "The Clockwise Witness" and "Transliterator" are impressive examples of more evolved and nuanced sound. A Mad & Faithful Telling could be a critical and commercial breakthrough for this woefully underrated band.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Lie Down in the Light

With its uncharacteristic (at least for Will Oldham) optimism, Lie Down in the Light can be thought of as the conceptual sequel to Oldham's 1999 masterpiece I See a Darkness. The murky production of I See a Darkness is now replaced with a clarity that Oldham began to hint at with The Letting Go. The rich horn arrangements, the harmonies with Ashley Webber, the more abundant major key melodies and the upbeat lyrics shine sunlight into long-darkened corners of Oldham's psyche. Lie Down in the Light is probably the first Bonnie "Prince" Billy album that could be considered a worthy follow-up to the finest alt-country record of the 90s.

Kleerup: Kleerup

Swedish producer Andreas Kleerup is clearly fond of working with an array of female vocalists, but his music is more than just a showcase for the talents of Robyn and Lykke Li. The instrumentals sprinkled throughout his debut show that Kleerup doesn't need vocalists to hide his flaws, but chooses them carefully to enhance his strengths on certain songs. Last year's single with Robyn, "With Every Heartbeat", is certainly a coup for both of them and it might have been tempting to team up for an album-length collaboration. But the song only shows one side of Kleerup's music and he apparently has many more sides to show us. Diversification is how he avoids losing his own identity among a bevy of talented Scandinavian singers.

HEALTH: DISCO

To tell you the truth, I didn't really connect with HEALTH's eponymous debut. With the exception of "Crimewave", I couldn't find much on that album that moved me. DISCO, a remix album of tracks from HEALTH, however, introduces a greatly needed measure of diversity. If "Crimewave" was any indication, HEALTH's strengths are brought out by collaboration, and DISCO does nothing to dispel this conclusion. Additionally, it avoids the pitfalls that most remix albums fall into because HEALTH decided to treat it as an album in its own right, rather than a promotional gimmick for the album proper. The tracks are sequenced for listenability, avoiding the monotony that plagued the debut.

Titus Andronicus: The Airing of Grievances

Titus Andronicus combine the social and political defeatism of punk's early days with 60s pop tropes. The result is an unusually fun and compelling album in spite of its overwhelming pessimism. Titus Andronicus have a knack for weaving melody and low-fi arrangement to create what are essentially pop songs, abrasive as they may seem at first. Their sound reminds me somewhat of the Thermals or The Exploding Hearts, but it is actually much closer in spirit to The Pogues at their creative peak. This stellar debut at once shows off the band's talent for genre study and their own idiosyncracies.

diskJokke: Staying In

If Sweden has been hoarding all the attention lately, it isn't because her neighbor to the west doesn't have anything to offer. Take, for example, Joachim Dyrdahl aka diskJokke. His debut, Staying In, is some of the best Norwegian electronic since Biosphere. It even eclipses Röyksopp's phenomenal The Understanding, which is saying quite a bit. diskJokke's style has clearly been influenced by Kraftwerk's dancier albums from the late 70's and early 80s, but it is infused with a pristine quality that could be described as glacial. Dyrdahl leaves nothing to chance, agonizing to get every last detail exactly as he wants it, with every beat and beep serving the whole. It's disco that's equally well-suited for the dancefloor and the solitude of the bedroom.

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend is a very rare kind of album - the kind that is actually as popular as it deserves to be. My ex-Goth instincts want to rage against the pop music status quo, choosing to pursue bands that were absurdly obscure and avoiding anything being played on even the alternative stations. I discovered Vampire Weekend's EP last year via Emusic and I was proud to have found out about a great band before having even read any reviews about them. My pride turned to indignation when I started hearing "Mansard Roof" on one of the Sirius alternative stations at my gym, of all places. I remember thinking, "Best new music? I've been listening to them since July." But transcendantly great music can never be hoarded for long, especially since Vampire Weekend's debut full-length more than delivers on the promise of the EP. Their South African-tinged college rock is literate yet sincere, with extraordinarily catchy songs that wear their Peter Gabriel influences proudly. I hope their success doesn't spoil their next effort, as it has with so many bands previously saddled with the unfair expectation of saving rock.

Honorable Mehntion #4

The Postmarks: "Six Different Ways" (from By the Numbers)

In the sixth installment of The Postmarks' free piecemeal covers album, they have chosen a well-loved Cure song. Usually bands who cover The Cure end up biting off more than they can chew, attempting to emulate The Cure's style on some level. The Postmarks, on the other hand, take the song in a completely different direction. Preserving only the melody and the lyrics, they base their own version on piano and horns. It's an endearingly maudlin affair and they succeed in making the song even sadder than The Cure did.

Paavohaarju: "Italialaisella Laivalla" (from Laulu Laakson Kukista)

This song is much more down to earth than most of Paavoharju's music, eschewing experimentation in favor of simplicity. The melody is uncomplicated but heart-rending. Even for those of us that don't understand Finnish, the mood of longing for earlier days comes across loud and clear.

Beck: "Gamma Ray" (from Modern Guilt)

"Gamma Ray" captures much of what I've always enjoyed about Beck and has been lacking from his more recent work. The lyrics features superior puns and wordplay to any song he's done since Sea Change. Stylistically, it's not as schizoid as his earlier work, but it's a more than competent exercise in straightforward psych/garage rock.

Atlas Sound: "Bite Marks" (from Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel)

I haven't quite bought into the Atlas Sound/Bradford Cox mania that has overtaken the hipster crowd as of late, but I can admire a sublime track like "Bite Marks". The song is tenuous and barely manifest; it continually materializes and dissolves in a foam of static. This track reaffirms the late 80s 4AD aesthetic and cements Cox's place among his labelmates.

Bear in Heaven: "Shining and Free" (from Red Bloom of the Boom)

Weird, gauzy and dissonant, "Shining and Free" seems to fall about midway along the spectrum between Slowdive and COIL. While the percussive crescendo at the end puts me off slightly, the majority of the song is unexpectedly alluring.

Albert Hammond, Jr. "Feed Me Jack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Peter Sellers" (from ¿Cómo Te Llama?)

While the production on "Feed Me Jack" is a little overbearing and does the song few favors, the melody rescues it from the tedium that overwhelms most of Hammond's sophmore solo album. It would have been extraordinary as a simple vocal/piano track, but the embellishments reduce it to nearly excellent. However, it's still the best track on the album.

Lykke Li: Youth Novels

Youth Novels is yet another in a long string of intelligent, nearly infallible pop albums to come out of Sweden in the past few years. Lykke Li's sound falls somewhere between the more bubblegum aspects of Robyn's self-titled album and the craftsmanship of Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block. The resemblance to the latter is no coincidence; Youth Novels was admirably produced by Björn Yttling. Yttling's production largely stands back and lets Lykke Li strut her stuff, providing more scaffolding than distraction. And unlike most pop produced in the U.S. these days, the substance of the songs is the selling point. If Lykke Li is part of a Swedish invasion force bent on world domination, let me be the first to defect.

Spiritualized: Songs in A&E

After the so-so Let It Come Down and the abysmal Amazing Grace, I had become convinced that J. Spaceman's best days were behind him. I wasn't entirely sure that I would even take a chance with Songs in A&E, but I'm glad I did. Spiritualized's latest album, much their masterpiece Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, is an epic meditation on mortality. However, while Ladies and Gentlemen pondered the real danger of going too far in pursuit of a high and never coming back, A&E is about slow deterioration and eventual quietus due to illness. The specter of death hangs in the background, and in some cases the foreground, throughout. Even while singing about the fire within, Spaceman sounds as if it may soon be extinguished permanently. It is likely that the tone of A&E is influenced by Spaceman's recent life-threatening illness. It seems that his near miss has caused him to find his purpose once again.

Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer

Wolf Parade's second album, while not as immediately rewarding as Apologies to the Queen Mary, is a more fleshed out realization of ideas introduced on the debut. At Mount Zoomer is a more challenging record, requiring more of the listener's attention, but it's well worth the effort. The ramshackle pop of Wolf Parade's early EPs is now more carefully honed with greater attention to detail. Each listen reveals previously unnoticed layers of dissonant tension and resolution. At Mount Zoomer is fully consistent with what I call the Great Canadian Clusterfuck sound, which includes associated acts like Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Handsome Furs, etc. However, the album represents a stylistic departure from the intersection of these groups into Wolf Parade's own unique territory.

Girl Talk: Feed the Animals

Two years ago, Girl Talk's Night Ripper brought legitimacy to the art of mash-up and created a massive new audience for the genre out of the indie crowd. The excitement of the record was in its juxtaposition of every form of popular music of the last forty years, pushing all the buttons at once and exposing the common thread that ran through it all. Feed the Animals continues along these lines, but with less urgency. While it is slightly less exciting than its predecessor, Feed the Animals more than makes up for it with moments of genuinely sublime beauty. Many of these moments results from pairings of rap/hip-hop tracks with rock: T.I. with Sinéad O'Connor, Pras with Yo La Tengo, among others. In some ways, Feed the Animals is more daring than Night Ripper in its use of samples more likely to invite lawsuits. Hopefully Metallica, Prince and others can appreciate Feed the Animals in the spirit in which it was intended and not be as litigious as they have been in the past.

Destroyer: Trouble in Dreams

Destroyer's eighth album is probably one of the most straightforwardly "pop" albums that Dan Bejar has ever been involved with, as far as Bejar can be straightforward. All of the things that make a Destroyer record enjoyable are still intact: abrupt changes of direction, impenetrable lyrics, extraordinarily complex arrangements. One element present on Trouble in Dreams lacking from most Destroyer albums (or at least the ones I've heard so far) is brevity. With few exceptions, Bejar and company manage to encapsulate their ideas in under five minutes. However, it just wouldn't be a Destroyer record without epic, multi-part songs, and Trouble in Dreams has two of their best so far. "Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night's Ape)", in particular, seems short despite its length because of its Disintegration-like hooks.

SoiSong: qXn948s

SoiSong is the newest project of Throbbing Gristle/COIL founder Peter Christopherson and bandmate Ivan Pavlov. qXn948s is their first official recording, sold initially at shows on their first European tour, but it is expected to be available for purchase online soon. In the meantime, abrieviated versions of the tracks can be heard on their Myspace page. The music reminds me of COIL's lengthier ambient pieces, such as "How to Destroy Angels", but decidedly more Southeast Asian in influence. These four tracks, particularly the breathtaking closer "Jam Talay Sai", make me eager to hear more from SoiSong.

Smart Growth: Surrey

This Baltimore band has been getting a lot of well-deserved attention recently, thanks to Pitchfork Media plugging their track "Immigration Reform". Surrey is available for free download through the band's Myspace, but it would still be worth the average price for an EP, should the decide to sell it. Stylistically, it reminds me a lot of Battles, with lots of polyrhythmic synths and drum machines. Smart Growth also sample liberally from recognizable Phil Collins/late-period Genesis throughout the five tracks, but I'd argue that they handle them more competently than Collins has in twenty years.

Neon Neon: Stainless Style

Gruff Rhys, of Welsh psych-pop juggernauts Super Furry Animals, is proving to be even weirder and more versatile than most thought. His collaboration with Boom Bip, as Neon Neon, was anticipated to be a straightforward intersection of their respective styles. The result, however, is much deeper than that. Stainless Style is a concept album about John DeLorean that captures more than his rise and fall. It also convincingly adopts numerous musical styles from the late 70s and early 80s to portray the culture of money and blow that ruled American business at the time. While Stainless Style is fairly consistently great throughout, Neon Neon's best moments are when Boom Bip figures most prominently, such as on greedy, lustful hip-hop tracks like "Trick For Treat".

Shearwater: Rook

Shearwater's rise to greatness over the past few years has been woefully overshadowed by Jonathan Meiburg's other equally awesome band, Okkervil River. Rook signals their time to step out into their own spotlight. With this album, Shearwater establishes a sound that is different enough from Okkervil River's to warrant its independence, as Meiburg leaves his former colleagues behind to focus on his own work full-time. Rook is more delicately assembled, more intense, more emotionally wrought than Okkervil River's past two albums. Also present is a more direct sense of disappointment, as opposed to the seething resentment and self-deprecation of Black Sheep Boy and The Stage Names. Rook might just end up at the top of my year-end list a few months from now.