Friday, December 19, 2008

ITP: Top 10 for 2008

This ran in today's Herald. Expect a more detailed list (Top songs/albums/reality shows) posted here next week.

1. Crystal Castles, “Crystal Castles.” This forceful debut pushes electronic music into the mainstream like Ladytron did earlier this decade.

2. Passion Pit, “Chuck of Change.” Inevitable stardom for our local synthpop boys became apparent 45 seconds into opener “I’ve Got Your Number.”

3. Hercules & Love Affair, “Blind.” The full album fails to live up to this six-minutes of nu-disco brilliance, but how could it?

4. MGMT, “Oracular Spectacular.” With two great, anthem-like singles in “Kids” and “Time to Pretend,” who cares if the rest is filler?

5. The Virgins, “The Virgins.” Overlooked party’s-over album for New York City’s about-to-end decade of decadence.

6. Hearts Revolution, “Switchblade.” LA-turned-NYC duo’s scratchy, glitch-filled electro holds up as album cuts and explodes when remixed correctly (as by LA Riots, Flosstradamus).

7. Black Kids, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You.” It turned out Black Kids had only one good song - but what a song.

8. Does It Offend You Yeah? “We Are Rockstars.” Note to DIOYY: Stop the Killers-like wannabe cheese-pop and keep making pounding dance-floor bangers.

9. The Golden Filter, “Solid Gold.” Internet-only synth-disco track from anonymous NYC duo blew up the blogs and left us wanting more. Bring it on.

10. The Presets, “Apocalypso.” Corny lyrics aside, this Australian duo made one of the best electronic albums of 2008 - and that says a lot.

1 comment:

  1. wzup. you should put a zip file of all these joints, sir! that woulda made my day.

    DCtoBC.com. i'm over in boston, too. yzr.

    ReplyDelete