1. TV On the Radio – Dear Science
2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
4. Portishead – Third
5. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
6. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
7. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
8. Glasvegas – Glasvegas
9. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War
10. Lil‘ Wayne – Tha Carter III
11. White Denim – Workout Holiday
12. Santogold – Santogold
13. Nas – Untitled
14. Laura Marling – Alas, I Cannot Swim
15. Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
16. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
17. Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster…
18. Arthur Russell – Love Is Overtaking Me
19. The Bug – London Zoo
20. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
21. Late of the Pier – Fantasy Black Channel
22. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!
23. Q Tip – The Renaissance
24. Neon Neon – Stainless Style
25. Santogold – Santogold
26. Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash
27. Mount Eerie – Dawn
28. Duffy – Rockferry
29. July Skies – The Weather Clock
30. Cass McCombs – Dropping the Writ
31. Thalia Zedek Band – Liars and Prayers
31. The Walkmen – You and Me
32. Metronomy – Nights Out
33. Dark Captain, Light Captain – Miracle Kicker
34. Sian Alice Group – 59.59
35. Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement
36. Estelle – Shine
37. Benge – Twenty Systems
38. LadyHawke – Ladyhawke
39. Abe Vigoda – Skeleton
40. Marnie Stern – This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That
41. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
42. The Roots – Rising Down
43. Coffins – Buried Death
44. Sway – The Signature
45. Spiritualized – Songs in A&E
46. Melanin 9 – Hi Fidelity
47. The Felice Brothers – The Felice Brothers
48. Mystery Jets – 21
49. Justice – A Cross The Universe
50. Young Jeezy – The Recession
Arthur Russell ist auch hier dabei (#18).
Zur Nummer Eins:
Tim JonzeDear Science, TV On the Radio’s third album proper, managed to pull off something rather special: it boldly took guitars where no album had gone before. And it did so with more creativity, daring and flair than any record since Radiohead’s OK Computer.
From ambient to Afrobeat, hard riffs to handclaps, this was a new rock recipe. Opener Halfway Home was a giddy expanse of psychedelia, a rush of blood to the heart as well as the head that pitted Beach Boys harmonies against the computerised rock of – here comes another ‚Head comparison – Planet Telex. Elsewhere, lead single Golden Age showed us the shape of funk to come, all Prince falsetto and free jazz brass-blowing, whereas the gorgeous, reverb-laden Family Tree referenced the ghost of slavery with evocative mentions of „the gallows of your family tree“.
Although the lyrics were often playfully oblique, Dear Science was still a timely album. Here was a multi-racial band releasing a record on the eve of Obama’s election victory with lyrics critical of the Bush regime yet full of hope for the future. You certainly didn’t get that with this year’s Pigeon Detectives release.
It is a record whose melodic appeal is obvious from the first play, without ever feeling like it had to chase trends or, in fact, make any kind of artistic compromise whatsoever. It’s a bold declaration of what popular music in 2008 could be.
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To Hell with Poverty