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Re: Blender: Best of 2008
The Top 144 Songs of 2008
144. Shaquille O'Neal, "Kobe, Tell Me How My Ass Tastes"
143. R.Kelly, "Hair Braider"
142. Love as Laughter, "Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz"
141. Baby Dee, "Big Titty Bee Girl (from Dino Town)"
140. Ghostland Observatory, "Dancin' on My Grave
139. Ratatat, "Mirando"
138. The Cool Kids, "Delivery Man"
137. Ryan Leslie feat. Kanye West, "Diamond Girl (Remix)"
136. Gym Class Heroes feat. The-Dream, "Cookie Jar"
135. Sarah Silverman feat. Matt Damon, "I'm Fucking Matt Damon"
134. Love is All, "I Ran So Far Away"
133. Panic at the Disco, "The Green Gentleman"
132. G-Unit, "Rider Pt. 2"
What’s that, you say? You didn’t get enough ridin’ the first time around? Well, have we got some news for you!
131. Noah and the Whale, "5 Years Time"
130. Gnarls Barkley, "Run"
129. The Black Angels, "You in Color"
128. Shwayze, "Buzzin"
127. The Black Keys, "Psychotic Girl"
126. Carolina Liar, "I'm Not Over"
125. Tokyo Police Club, "Your English is Good"
124. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, "Real Emotional Trash"
123. Ladytron, "Ghosts"
122. Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown, "No Air"
Groundbreaking physics research by Drs. Sparks and Brown reveals a shocking negative correlation between good lovin’ and breathable oxygen.
121. Bullet for My Valentine, "Hearts Burst Into Fire"
120. Shearwater, "Rooks"
119. Bobby Creekwater, "Fucking Up My Cool"
118. Jazmine Sullivan, "Bust Your Windows"
117. Christina Aguilera, "Keeps Getting Better"
Xtina gets her jock jams on, riding a stomping, Staples Center–sized beat to sing about being a “superbitch.”
116. Vivian Girls, "Tell the World"
115. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, "Dead Right"
114. Yael Naim, "New Soul"
113. Busta Rhymes, "Don't Touch Me"
112. Crystal Castles, "Crimewave"
111. Fujiya & Miyagi, "Knickerbocker"
Bizarre, groove-tastic U.K. techno guaranteed to leave you craving some Ben & Jerry’s.
110. Foo Fighters, "Let it Die"
109. Ida Maria, "Oh My God"
Norwegian garage-rock starlet suffers catchy-ass existential crisis.
108. Eagles of Death Metal, "(I Used to Couldn't Dance) Tight Pants"
107. Maino, "Hi Hater"
So, all you haters out there think you can sneak past this Brooklyn MC undetected? Like he won’t hear your canteens of haterade clanking? Like he won’t smell your Eau de Hater wafting? Pffft. He sees you! Hi, hater!
106. LCD Soundsystem, "Big Ideas"
105. Heidi Newfield, "Nothing Burns Like a Memory"
104. Deerhunter, "Nothing Ever Happened"
103. Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight"
102. Marnie Stern, "Shea Stadium"
101. Fall Out Boy, "I Don't Care"
100. Madonna, "She's Not Me"
99. Rehab, "Bartender Song"
98. The Raveonettes, "Aly, Walk With Me"
97. Okkervil River, "Lost Coastlines"
96. Jaguar Love, "Highways of Gold"
95. Cold War Kids, "Something Is Not Right With Me"
94. The Airborne Toxic Event, "Sometime Around Midnight"
93. Hercules & Love Affair, "Hercules Theme"
92. Sam Sparro, "Black and Gold"
91. Sugarland, "All I Want to Do"
Ever have one of those days where a smokin’-hot cowgirl drags you back into bed to knock Tony Lamas just one more time? Us neither, but this is what it probably sounds like.
90. Cat Power, "New York"
89. Jim Jones, "Splash"
88. The BPA, "Toe Jam"
87. Los Campesinos!, "Death to Los Campesinos!"
86. Paramore, "That's What You Get"
85. Discovery, "Orange Shirt"
84. The Raconteurs, "Salute Your Solution"
83. Of Montreal, "Id Engager"
82. El Perro del Mar, "You Can't Steal a Gift"
81. Big Boi feat Mary J. Blige, "Somethin's Gotta Give"
80. Delta Goodrem, "In This Life"
79. Drive-By Truckers, "You and Your Crystal Meth"
78. Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon, "Dangerous"
77. Rodriguez, "Sugarman"
A recently unearthed stoner celebration of “silver magic ships” that deliver “sweet Mary Jane.” Dude, the ’60s must have been awesome!
76. Ludacris feat. Chris Brown and Sean Garrett, "What Them Girls Like"
75. Passion Pit, "Better Things"
74. Pop Levi, "Semi-Babe"
73. Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
72. Portishead, "Machine Gun"
71. Beyonce, "If I Were a Boy"
An epic girl-power sing-along about how B’s life would be different if she had a unit. (Difference No. 1: Jay-Z probably wouldn’t be taggin’ that.)
70. Brightblack Morning Light, "Hologram Buffalo"
69. T-Yarm, "Staycation (Girl)
68. David Byrne & Brian Eno, "Strange Overtones"
67. Lupe Fiasco, "Superstar"
66. Fleet Foxes, "White Winter Hymnal"
Don your softest drug rug, throw some vegetarian chili on the campfire and cozy up with this weird, hippie-tastic ode to wintertime beheadings.
65. The Killers, "Losing Touch"
64. Rihanna, "Disturbia"
There have been approximately 34,968,401 songs written about how love can drive you insane. In the last month alone. But on her finest moment since “Umbrella,” our favorite Barbadian captures the unhinged rush of a cwazy crush.
63. M.I.A., "Paper Planes (DFA Remix)"
62. Yacht, "Summer Song"
61. Keri Hilson, "Energy"
60. The Kills, "Last Day of Magic"
59. Ciara feat. Ludacris, "High Price"
58. Nas, "Be a Nigger Too"
57. Kate Nash, "Foundations"
56. Wale, "The Freestyle (Roc Boys)"
55. Nickelback, "Gotta Be Somebody"
54. No Age, "Eraser"
53. Pink, "So What"
52. Weezer, "Pork and Beans"
51. Nine Inch Nails, "Discipline"
50. Britney Spears, "Womanizer"
49. Benji Hughes, "You Stood Me Up"
48. Gang Gang Dance, "House Jam"
47. Izza Kizza, "Millionaire"
46. Beck, "Gamma Ray"
When gamma rays hit David Banner, he turns into the Incredible Hulk. When they hit Beck Hansen, he turns into Marc Bolan.
45. Lloyd, "Girls Around the World"
44. The Magnetic Fields, "California Girls"
43. Three 6 Mafia, "I'd Rather"
If you were confused about where these Memphis goofballs stand in the havin’ sex vs. gettin’ some head debate, this rowdy single makes their position clear (hint: It ain’t missionary).
42. Miley Cyrus, "7 Things"
41. Wolf Parade, "Language City"
40. Big Boi feat. Andre 3000 & Raekwon, "Royal Flush"
A reunited OutKast and Wu-Tang’s cameo king drop the hottest rap song ever to sample a toilet.
39. Scarlett Johansson, "Falling Down"
38. Alicia Keys, "Teenage Love Affair"
37. The Hold Steady, "Sequestered in Memphis"
36. Vampire Weekend, "A-Punk"
35. Santogold, "Lights Out"
34. Chris Brown, "With You"
33. The Ting Tings, "Shut Up and Let Me Go"
32. Rev Theory, "Hell Yeah"
Does this song effing rock?!?! We believe you already know the answer to that question!!?!
31. Duffy, "Mercy"
30. Rick Ross, "The Boss"
Thus far, ye have gazed upon sundry bosses of varying stature, size and comportment. Entereth Rick Ross, he of Florida Lande, son of Hrothgar and doubtless a boss possessed of the greatest power and girth that ye have gazed upon thus far.
29. Solange Knowles, "Sandcastle Disco"
28. Jonas Brothers, "Lovebug"
27. Metallica, "All Nightmare Long"
26. Robyn, "Handle Me"
25. Kings of Leon, "Sex on Fire"
24. Ashton Shepherd, "Takin' Off This Pain"
23. Metro Station, "Shake It"
22. Mariah Carey, "Migrate"
Geese do it. Swallows do it. And on this song, when the club gets lame, Mimi does it—heads for warmer climes/flyer after parties. All the while, Danja’s airy beat ingeniously mimics her upper-octave trills.
21. Kanye West, "Love Lockdown"
20. Kid Rock, "All Summer Long"
19. Jay-Z, "Jockin Jay-Z"
18. T-Pain feat Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It"
17. MGMT, "Electric Feel"
16. Lil Wayne feat Static Major and Kanye West, "Lollipop (remix)"
15. Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love"
14. T.I., "Whatever You Like"
13. Lucinda Williams, "Real Love"
12. Chairlift, "Bruises"
A Steve Jobs–approved indie-pop jam about how falling in love is like falling on your face.
11. Usher, "Moving Mountains"
10. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold"
9. Pink, "So What"
8. Lykke Li, "Little Bit"
7. Death Cab for Cutie, "Cath…"
Hey, ladies! Ever been like, Man my boyfriend is a total schmuck loser—whoops—I just married his schmuck-loser ass? On this stuttering guitar jam these indie kings feel your pain.
6. T.I. and Jay-Z feat. Kanye West and Lil Wayne, "Swagga Like Us"
5. Coldplay, "Viva La Vida"
4. Estelle feat. Kanye West, "American Boy"
3. Flo Rida, "Low"
2. M.I.A. , "Paper Planes"
Armed with only a Pineapple Express trailer, Seth Rogen did what buckets of Blender love (see last year’s songs list) couldn’t: turn this Sri Lankan art-hop saboteur’s Clash-jacking immigration anthem into a pop smash. 50 Cent hopped on a remix, Rihanna covered it live, Kanye sampled its rhymes and we just went, “Told ya so!”
1. Lil Wayne , "A Milli"
Re: Blender: Best of 2008
Top 33 Albums of 2008
33. Hayes Carll, Trouble in Mind
He’s kind of a loser, and dim like an old truck’s headlights: When his girl leaves him for Jesus, Hayes Carll vows revenge if he sees Him around town. In a long Southern tradition, this 32-year-old Texan is just playin’ possum: His unshaven romps mix in banjo or feisty slide guitar, finding comedy and tragedy in barrooms from Beaumont to Henrietta. He’s the only Americana singer-songwriter with tour sponsorship from The Onion.
Download “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart,” “I Got a Gig,” “She Left Me for Jesus”
32. Taylor Swift, Fearless
How much heartbreak can anyone cram into 18 years? If you’re Taylor Swift, a lot. Boys are to this Nashville blonde what booze is to Homer Simpson: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. The kicky twang pop on her second album shows she’s country by accident as much as by design; if her parents had moved to L.A. instead of Tennessee, she could have been Avril Lavigne. But Avril never wrote a song as smart as “That’s the Way I Loved You.”
Download “You Belong With Me,” “Fearless,” “That’s the Way I Loved You”
31. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
By now, the style is well established: Nick Cave rants and croons a torrent of literary lyrics like a fallen preacher possessed by Satan, as the Bad Seeds roar and sway. Still, their 14th album is one of their toughest—sardonic and roof-raising, with garage-rock riffs punctuated by blisters of noise, it’s often darkly riotous, as when Cave sings about a woman with two black eyes who “filled herself with panda blood to avoid all the confusion.”
Download “More News from Nowhere,” “We Call Upon the Author,” “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”
30. Young Jeezy, The Recession
Young Jeezy owes Ben Bernanke a thank-you. In a more bullish year, this collection of dope-boy anthems would have been standard trap-rap—enjoyable but hardly revelatory. But with the economy in freefall, Jeezy’s coke-dealing boasts are more than descriptive; they’re instructional. Half the time he’s the hood Jim Cramer, teaching would-be hustlers how to get rich. The other half, he’s the hood Walker Evans, chronicling the miseries of those who don’t.
Download “Vacation,” “Put On” (feat. Kanye West), “My President” (feat. Nas)
29. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It
You could spring for the 10-CD Motown Collection or volume 10 of The Complete Motown Singles, both issued this year, both big enough to crush a muskrat. But R&B singer Raphael Saadiq has lovingly distilled Motown into a finger-snapping disc that breeds the sweetness of Smokey Robinson with the bounce of the Supremes. “C’mon Stevie,” Saadiq calls and Stevie Wonder plays his breezy harmonica. Everything should be that easy.
Download “100 Yard Dash,” “Sure Hope You Mean It,” “Calling”
28. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
On his fourth and finest solo CD, the one-time slacker prince of ’90s indie rock unleashes the flat-out guitar album he’s been promising since the demise of Pavement. Malkmus evidently wasn’t being ironic about the magnitude of his love for obscure Swedish psychedelic bands—this album should come with a lava lamp and a skull bong. He delivers the breezy ballads that have become his specialty, but the show-stoppers are guitar raves “Elmo Delmo” and “Baltimore,” which ramble on into freak-jam territory without any hint of virtuosity to spoil the laughs.
Download “Dragonfly Pie,” “Elmo Delmo,” “Baltimore”
27. Mariah Carey, E=MC2
Mimi went to R. Kelly School! Here she is, videotaping sex on “Touch My Body”; hankering for a key in her ignition on “I’m That Chick”; cribbing a Da Nang hooker’s catchphrase on “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”—goodbye butterfly, hello freak. And that’s only part of her grooming: She’s shorn her lines of melismatic paroxysms, favoring clipped, bouncy phrasing and staccato, minimal beats. It’s her sleekest, sultriest record yet.
Download “Migrate,” “Touch My Body,” “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”
26. Usher, Here I Stand
Huh? Usher, whose great topic has been sweet, sweet infidelity, devotes an LP to … monogamy? Newly married, he approached Here I Stand as a wedding gift (he sang the title track to Mrs. Usher on their big day). But matrimony doesn’t have to end kinkiness. He bangs his lady in public on “Love in This Club,” then plays the girl in a naughty role swap on “Trading Places.” With the agonized “Moving Mountains,” his accomplishment is even greater—he makes relationship trouble as enthralling as a one-night stand.
Download “Trading Places,” “Moving Mountains,” “Love in This Club”
25. Santogold, Santogold
Santi White’s career path as a punk singer, record exec and songwriter for Ashlee Simpson all combine in Santogold. A black Brooklyn hipster who loves ’80s music and warbles like an art student schtupping a lemur, White is often compared to her pal M.I.A., which undersells her originality. This debut hopscotches from R&B to indie rock like a Friday-night bar crawl in Awesometown; all she needs is her own Pineapple Express trailer to set her off.
Download “Lights Out,” “L.E.S. Artistes,” “You’ll Find a Way (Switch and Sinden Remix)”
24. The Roots, Rising Down
This Philly hip-hop crew’s eighth studio album, named for a landmark study of global political violence, is as hard and tight as a fist. Arms dealers, child soldiers, greenhouse gases, pharmaceutical giants, racist plutocrats—all find their way into rapper Black Thought’s cross hairs, over synths that menace like a coming storm and snare cracks from ?uestlove as loud as rifle shots. Dark, paranoid and unforgivingly grim, it’s an all-too-apt soundtrack for 2008.
Download “Rising Down,” “Criminal,” “I Can’t Help It”
23. The Cool Kids, The Bake Sale
On their debut EP, Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish appeased late-’80s hip-hop fans and wet-behind-the-ears hipsters of their own generation with spare, zap-clatter beats, rat-a-tat Fruity Pebbles shout-outs and a wardrobe that consisted almost exclusively of day-glo buffalo plaid and high-top Jordan II’s. That’s Stupid, a follow-up mixtape, is a must-download supplement, further proving how much swagger these Chicago boys can wring from a snare, a clap and a Sega Genesis reference.
Download “88,” “A Little Bit Cooler,” “Gold and a Pager”
22. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
The thing about being rock’s biggest neurotic? You not only weep about bad press, you take it to heart. After critics dissed Coldplay’s X&Y as a U2-aping gas factory (psst! they were sorta right!) the band decided to rethink their sound from scratch. The result is their messiest album yet, high on oblique images, low on wedding-vow sentiment, full of unfamiliar sounds. There’s African riffing, string-choppy disco, thudding hip-hop—for a band so pedicured, it’s a thrill to hear them refusing to add up.
Download “Yes,” “Reign of Love,” “Lost!”
20. Wale, Mixtape About Nothing
Jerry Seinfeld is Wale’s Scarface—the hero he gets his life lessons from and can’t stop quoting. On this breathlessly clever collection of clattering conga beats, the Lil Wayne–endorsed D.C. smartass raps like a Jewish standup: “What’s the deal with makin’ money?” Wale (pronounced wall-AY) asks. “My account is like a brunch at a synagogue,” he brags. “Get it, y’all? That’s a lot of bagels!” It isn’t all laughs. On “The Kramer,” Michael Richards’ racist tirade inspires an astounding meditation on the N-word, white boys who use it and black self-hate.
Download “The Opening Title Sequence,” “The Kramer,” “The Feature Heavy Song”
19. Katy Perry, One of the Boys
Kisser of girls, haver of boobs, scourge of boys who change their minds like girls change clothes, the California pastor’s daughter was the mall-rock subversive of the year. From the Pilates techno of “Hot N Cold” to the boyfriend blow-off “Ur So Gay” to the lesbo-lite lip locks of “I Kissed a Girl,” she messes with gender and genre stereotypes, shows a sweet side and with her confrontationally bi-curious pop, stirs up more bloggers than any other act.
Download “Hot N Cold,” “Self Inflicted,” “Fingerprints”
18. Ponytail, Ice Cream Spiritual
What kind of punk band would we expect from Baltimore, home of The Wire and a football team named for an Edgar Allan Poe poem about madness? One that perfectly blurs violence, insanity and fun. In Ponytail’s weirdly hot, totally incoherent noise, lunatic imp Molly Siegel sounds like a girl scout on a three-state killing spree, growling into waves of guitar blather and drum boogie. Ugly: It’s a new kind of sexy.
Download “Beg Waves,” “Sky Drool,” “G Shock”
17. Conor Oberst, Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst has been on the road since before he was old enough to drive the van. But on this travelogue, recorded in a mystical Aztec valley, the emo elf behind Bright Eyes begins to write songs from outside the confines of his bedroom. He’s characteristically wordy, elocuting his ride-the-high-country rambles like he’s playing for a Scrabulous high score. But “Moab”’s dusty wisdom sums everything up: “There’s nothin’ that the road cannot heal.”
Download “Sausalito,” “I Don’t Want to Die (in the Hospital),” “Moab”
16. Be Your Own Pet, Get Awkward
Pity the disaffected 21st-century teen. Friends still backstab, crushes still cheat, food courts are still la-hame. In this heavy-meta era of Juno and emo, irony rules, and the old-fashioned teen tonic called angst has gone kinda flat. These Tennessee thrashers have it both ways, spiking genuine lunchroom anxiety with tongue-in-cheek horror slapstick. This is a grisly parody of teen rebellion—see the student-slaughter parable “Becky,” which was banned by BYOP’s label and later released on an EP—that rocks hard enough to double as the real thing.
Download “Super Soaked,” “The Kelly Affair,” “You’re a Waste”
15. Bon Iver, For Emma
Bon iver is French(ish) for good winter, but Justin Vernon’s was pretty bleak. For three frostbitten months, reeling from the bust-up of his band and his relationship, he retreated to northwestern Wisconsin, hibernating in his dad’s cabin with nothing but an acoustic guitar and some recording gear. These nine songs, relentlessly spare and hopelessly forlorn, shiver with an isolation even company can’t fix. They’ll haunt you long after spring has broken.
Download “Skinny Love,” “The Wolves (Act I and II),” “For Emma”
Re: Blender: Best of 2008
14. Jenny Lewis, Acid Toungue
Rilo Kiley’s fox in chief filled her 2006 solo debut with redemption tales and pleas for “the grace of God.” No. 2 is plenty graceful, but God has been evicted from the premises. “It’s a bad man’s world, and I’m a bad, bad girl,” Lewis teases. Whether the music’s Southern-gothic folk or Appalachian blues stomps, sins of the flesh abound. It’s great, naughty fun, but if you suspect there’s a sucker for love hiding beneath the straps and garters, you’re right.
Download “Pretty Bird,” “See Fernando,” “The Next Messiah”
13. Al Green, Lay It Down
Here’s the most 1974 album of 2008. Unlike recent producers who tried to update his sound, Roots drummer ?uestlove and organist James Poyser take the emperor of bedroom soul back to his gently percolating early-’70s grooves, with strings and horns. Reverend Green pays them back with his most spine-tingling secular performances in ages. Even the dents and scratches time has added to his voice have become weapons in his arsenal of seduction.
Download “Just for Me,” “Lay It Down,” “What More Do You Want From Me”
12. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
After a decade of woodshedding, these grizzled Kentucky mountain men have become freewheeling Southern rockers—old-school formalists who get their jollies tweaking old-school forms. This fifth studio album is their boldest yet: a funky, space-age jam odyssey captained by singer Jim James, whose wolf-howl falsetto sounds like Prince rehearsing inside a missile silo. Confusing for the hacky-sack circle at Bonnaroo; fantastic for the rest of us.
Download “I’m Amazed,” “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream (Pt. 1),” “Highly Suspicious”
11. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
Their lyrics can be wussier than an asthmatic 12-year-old at a dodgeball convention, but musically, these Northwestern nebbishes have been hitting the heavy bag. Over the most propulsive riffs of their career, Ben Gibbard sighs about disintegrating relationships and missed opportunities, his towering dissatisfaction finally finding a squall to match. And as the nearly nine-minute stalker jam “I Will Possess Your Heart” proves—uncharacteristically, gratifyingly—wusses can sometimes be creepy, too.
Download “No Sunlight,” “I Will Possess Your Heart,” “Long Division”
10. Fall Out Boy, Folie A Deux
Has Pete Wentz ever posed for one of those posters that encourage kids to R-E-A-D? The FOB lyricist is Gen Y’s most word-crazy rock star, brimming with puns, self-reflexive nods and homespun koans. Here he adds smack-you-in-the-face slogans to his arsenal: “Boycott love!” “Detox just to re-tox!” “If home is where the heart is then we’re all just fucked!” The arrangements are luxuriously overblown, the guitars Who-jumbo, Patrick Stump’s sing-alongs plentiful and plump—a perfect balance between neurosis and swagger.
Download “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes,” “America’s Suitehearts,” “The (Shipped) Gold Standard”
9. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
At Columbia University, these Topsider-rocking smarties boned up on postcolonial theory, West African beats and fly WASP honeys with Martha’s Vineyard summer homes—their findings are collected on this debut, which cheekily narrates a life of blueblood globe-trotting, hyper-literacy and lust while Afropop guitars bubble, harpsichords crinkle and beats bop. “M79” traipses from Central Park to the Khyber Pass. This isn’t trust-fund tourism, though: They invoke Cape Town as lovingly and knowingly as they do Cape Cod.
Download “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance,” “Oxford Comma,” “Walcott”
8. Randy Newman, Harps and Angles
Part satirist, part sentimentalist, Newman disguises his poisonous attacks as brief monologues by (hilariously) horrible men. His favorite joke is that, as tenderly as he croons and drawls, these characters—oligarchs, aging sleazebags, well-intentioned racists, Republicans—are going to hell when they die. But his lush, sweet-country- and Dixieland-tinted orchestrations are expert and adoring, and this brief album’s two straightforward love songs are among his most unguarded.
Download “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” “A Piece of the Pie,” “Feels Like Home”
7. Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping
The weirder Kevin Barnes gets, the more fun this Georgia band’s records become. Here, he’s having a personality crisis—his falsetto-crooning alter ego Georgie Fruit, a “black she-male,” has mostly taken over—and he’s so obsessed with sex he can’t think straight. The result is a nonstop suite of twitchy, horny, peculiar songs that constantly change direction, most often into psychedelic glam-rock or pitter-patting synth-pop, but keep swerving back toward the dance floor.
Download “Id Engager,” “For Our Elegant Caste,” “Beware Our Nubile Miscreants”
6. Robyn, Robyn
Ten years ago, this Swedish R&B girlie shared a producer with Britney Spears, had a couple of hits and ended up on the scrap pile of discarded blondes. This assertive bow shot is her from-nowhere comeback. Breathy and tough, riding sparks and jolts of electro pop, she lifts her skirt and offers a “taste of vanilla” but also talks gutter—at least, as gutter as they talk in Sweden. She also gets sweet, offering to knit and bake for a dude who’s broke but can make her vanilla melt.
Download “Konichiwa Bitches,” “Bum Like You,” “Be Mine!”
5. Hot Chip, Made in the Dark
These U.K. synthesizer-rock noodlers used to work a Jekyll & Hyde dynamic: Their albums were careful, crafty; their live shows were Patrick Ewing–sweaty. On their third album—inspired, they say, by metal and R. Kelly—Hyde hits the dance floor and humps Jekyll’s girlfriend. This is sexy robot disco sporting a low-end a mile wide. Alexis Taylor coos and croons politely over the impolite thump. His proudly nerdy, left-field subjects—great friendships and the life lessons to be gleaned from old WWE matches—keep the party delightfully off-kilter.
Download “Ready for the Floor,” “One Pure Thought,” “Wrestlers”
4. Metallica, Death Magnetic
In 2008, Metallica rediscovered the furious teenage versions of themselves deep in the shag of Rick Rubin’s beard. This return to the Land of Shred doesn’t just pick up wheretheir precision-tooled metal left off years ago, it returns harder and sometimes even faster. Kirk Hammett rips like a school of piranha, James Hetfield bellows with a finesse he developed in their squishier era and the whole album crackles like a backyard lightning strike.
Download “Broken, Beat & Scarred,” “That Was Just Your Life,” “The Day That Never Comes”
3. TV on the Radio, Dear Science
War, financial collapse, Sarah Palin. The coolest band in NYC faced a scary year by throwing a party at the edge of the abyss. Singers Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe soulfully evoked the “end of forever,” and producer Dave Sitek wrought an anxious, shape-shifting future funk. But the secret was thick, juicy songs that transcended the arty putzing of previous TVOTR records to shout down the whore of Babylon with dire urgency.
Download “Golden Age,” “Crying,” “Family Tree”
2. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
Through the magic of laptop mixology, Gregg Gillis comes on like a wedding DJ from Alpha Centauri, sampling hip-hop and rock and cheesy pop at warp speed until it turns into time-tripping group-sex fan fiction: Jay-Z meets Radiohead! Styx meet Janet Jackson! Rod Stewart meets Rich Boy! Sometimes it’s bizarrely moving, as when he loops UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem” over a Journey piano solo. Releasing this gem online the week after he finished it, Gillis reminds copyright lawyers to stay off his back or he will attack, and you don’t want that.
Download “Set It Off,” “Play Your Part (Pt. 1),” “Still Here”
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
It didn’t seem possible, but Lil Wayne found whole new ways to shock people this year. For one thing, he actually released an official album, generously cutting his label in on mixtape-fueled fan frenzy. But he also got even crazier, indulging the depraved depths of an imagination nobody can match. He kicks it like a sensei all over this instant classic, whether he’s operating on hip-hop in “Dr. Carter” or spitting Alcatraz bars in the goth guitar ballad “Shoot Me Down”—and no matter who remixes our song of the year, “A Milli,” Weezy sounds tougher than Nigerian hair.
Download “3 Peat,” “Let the Beat Build,” “Mr. Carter”
Re: Blender: Best of 2008
CD... what a hit.
Yeah, saw Blender's list yesterday. I was wondering why I hadn't seen it yet. Thought it wasn't out yet. When I checked their site and saw they had it, I knew GNR wasn't on the list without even looking because it would have been plastered at all the sites if they were included.
I was actually a bit surprised because Blender has always been pro GNR. It really shows how this album failed to connect with people.
Also, I think M.I.A. is the first person to make a 'Best of' list twice with the same song.
- Communist China
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Re: Blender: Best of 2008
Not surprised to see GnR absent, glad to see NIN's 'Discipline' on there. I don't really have any respect for Blender at all but they're good enough lists, I guess.
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