It was a superb year for music listening and adding a Sonos system transformed listening habits at our place. Having access to on-demand streaming of millions of tracks from Napster as well as hundreds of radio stations made it easy to listen to just about anything we wanted to hear—from 70’s schlock pop to opera. And we now have our dinner party game of pass the Sonos controller to choose the next tune we’ll listen to.
I loved reading reviews of new releases in the Tuesday paper and, without leaving my chair, queuing up the cds on Napster/Sonos, which lead to many purchase (and not-to-purchase) decisions.
I thought that my cd buying ways might be reigned in with access to Napster, but it actually had the opposite effect as I purchased about 50 more cds this year than last. Although, an eMusic subscription fueled many downloads of independent releases. Take a look at what I did pick up this year, here.)
No doubt the largest portion of my listening was devoted to Soma FM’s Groove Salad channel (“A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves”), which was the soundtrack to just about every evening.
Continuing a tradition, here’s a list of my favorite (purchased) albums from the past year. As usual, I have way more than a Top Ten list.
[BTW, you can get a 27 track iMix of my favorite tracks from the albums below on iTunes, “E. Wayne’s Favs of 2008”.]
Wayne’s Top Ten of 2008
- My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig Lazarus Dig!
- B.B. King – One Kind Favor
- Ryan Adams – Cardinology
- Boston Spaceships – Brown Submarine
- Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
- Shelby Lynne – Just a Little Lovin’
- Randy Newman – Harps and Angels
- The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
- Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Best of the Rest (New Music) 2008
R.E.M. – Accelerate
JJ Grey & Mofro – Orange Blossoms
Howard Tate – Blue Day
The Baseball Project – Volume 1 Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
Robert Pollard – Is Off to Business
Rodney Crowell – Sex and Gasoline
Jim White – Transnormal Skiperoo
Al Green – Lay It Down
Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
Susan Tedeschi – Back to the River
Buddy Guy – Skin Deep
Billy Bragg – Mr Love & Justice
Black Mountain – In the Future
Ray Davies – Working Man’s Cafe
Calexico – Carried by Dust
Lindsey Buckingham – Gift of Screws
Theivery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
Nada Surf – Lucky
Chris Walla – Field Manual
Los Lonely Boys – Forgiven
Favorite Reissues of 2008
Titan! – It’s All Pop
Bobby Womack – The Best of Bobby Womack – The Soul Years
Nick Lowe – Jesus of Cool (Bonus Tracks)
Mott the Hoople – Old Records Never Die: The Mott the Hoople/Ian Hunter Anthology
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue
Ry Cooder – The UFO Has Landed
Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs – Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006
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Your list looks great, Wayne, and once again highlights the musical differences we have. That said, the new Calexico album is great (thanks!), and of course, oldsters like Randy Newman, Al Green, Buddy Guy and Billy Bragg always warm my heart. The Bootleg Volume 8 of Dylan tunes interests me, if only because I have not liked very much of his material from those very years: 1989 to 2006. And Black Mountain? Well there is fine psychedelia coming out of this local band. Nick Cave is someone who I must check out on a serious level – I can just feel it. (By the way, I am a massive fan of the Kinks, circa 1964-1979. I picked up the Ray Davies solo album you mention but had to take it back used a couple of days later. Not enough edge for a rough-and-tumble sort like me.) Thanks for your list, Wayne!
It’s obviously necessary to break the news here, and thankfully all of this little sideshow, rather distracting stuff– songs, bands, and these minor figures (like Dylan)– will swept back into the tide of history and forever suspended in 2008 come 2009: Yes, that’s correct, the Dead are set to tour again! That’ll make next year’s top ten list a cakewalk E Wayne and helpfully attenuate all those urls to just one: http://dead.net/dead09. ’nuff said. keep on truckin.
It’s obviously necessary to break the news here, and thankfully all of this little sideshow, rather distracting stuff– songs, bands, and these minor figures (like Dylan)– will be swept back into the tide of history and forever suspended in 2008 come 2009: Yes, that’s correct, the Dead are set to tour again! That’ll make next year’s top ten list a cakewalk E Wayne and helpfully attenuate all those urls to just one: http://dead.net/dead09. ’nuff said. keep on truckin.
Another eclectic list that we’ve all come to expect from Dr. Wayne. I’ve got six of your top ten on my playlist (Jacket, King, Escovedo, Newman, Raconteurs, Cutie). I’ll have to check out the others. For a more subdued, less edgy list here is my Top 21:
Perry’s Top 21 Albums (does anyone still call them albums?) of
2008
#21 Sonny Landreth – “ From the Reach” — 21st century blues
#20 Jessica Simpson – “Do You Know” – Risking what remains of my credibility, give this a listen, especially “Remember That”
#19 Solomon Burke – “Like A Fire” – fine R&B from a legendary R&B singer
#18 The Mother Truckers – “Let’s All Go To Bed” – A great blues bar band that sounds good on CD (not an easy thing to do). Grab a beer and rock on.
#17 The Baseball Project “ Frozen Roes and Dying Quails” – Some catchy tunes with great lyrics about our favorite pastime
#16 George Strait –“Troubadour” – Another classic Strait album.
#15 John Mellencamp – “Life, Love Death and Fredom” – John delivers rich, dark tunes; a huge departure from earlier work
#14 Rusty Truck “Luck’s Changing Lanes” – in the style of Poco and early Eagles; great Americana Rock
#13 Lenny Kravitz – “Love Revolution” – Lenny does his retro rock thing with absolute perfection.
#12 BB King – “One Kind Favor” – This album will go down as one of his best, and during his 82nd time around the sun
#11 The Raconteurs –“Consolors of the Lonely” – Blues for the post modern set; retro 70’s, southern rock, garage rock, it’s all of these and more
#10 AC/DC – “Black Ice” – If you like AC/DC you’ll love this album
#9 JJ Grey and Mofro – “ Orange Blossoms” – Southern soul and thick funk = some great swamp music
#8 Ry Cooder – “I, Flathead” – a concept album with the right amount of country, rock, blues and weirdness; when the going gets weird, in comes Ry Cooder
#7 Lindsay Buckingham – “Gift of Screws” – This what Fleetwood Mac would sound like if they put out an album; some great guitar playing by Lindsay
#6 Los Lonely Boys – “Forgiven” – A wonderful combo of blues, soul, rock, and Santana.
#5 Buddy Guy – “Skin Deep” – From the opening track to the end, this album is scorching; a must for red hot blues fans
#4 Dr John and the Lower 911 – “The City That Care Forgot” – The “NightTripper’s” ode to “The Big Easy” and he’s pissed! Great stuff!
#3 Jackson Browne – “Time The Conqueror” – Browne rolls out his vintage sound for his best work in years; if you like the Browne of the 70’s, then buy this.
#2 Edgar Winter – Rebel Road” – His best album, ever. Great blues and rock played and sung (and screamed) as only Edgar can.
#1 Al Green – “Lay It Down” – Just when you think he can’t get any better, he puts out this album; a must for Al Green fans
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Wayne,
I know I am a bit late jumping in on this post, but here are my two cents.
I concur with My Morning Jacket, Nick Cave et. al, Alejandro Escovedo, and Thievery Corporation.
Ray Davies, Calexico, B. B. King, and Buddy Guy are all some of my favorites–I have to make it a point to hear their entire releases (the same goes for Mother Truckers, as I’ve only heard a song or two streaming from Minnesota Public Radio’s station, The Current).
Also on my list are the latest from TV on the Radio, Julieta Venegas, Santogold, Stephen Marley, Kings of Leon, Nortec Collective (Tijuana Sound Machine), and Fleet Foxes.
Here’s to a New Year with significant change in our society.
I can’t retrieve Wayne’s Favs of 2008. I don’t want to miss this edition, as I have most of the others. Can you go the old tech route and burn me a CD or Pando me?
pmm
Will do, that was in the plans but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I did receive Perry’s Picks (and the Perry Little Xmas) discs and I’m enjoying them.