Well, this post is a month late, but I figured I’d follow up the first half of my 2008 year end list by actually finishing the second half, which is below the jump. Again, this is all just opinion, but the following are what I consider to be the 10 best albums of last year.

10.) Hercules And Love Affair – Hercules And Love Affair

Just to be clear from the start, Hercules And Love Affair’s self-titled debut is probably the strangest electronica album to see the light of day in years. It’s a record full of discothèque dance floor ditties with vocals provided by Antony Hegarty (of Antony and The Johnsons fame), a genderqueer opera singer whose first love is the work of Andy Warhol. It also features lyrics and vocals provided by !!!’s Shannon Funchess, and the interplay between Funchess and Hegarty makes for some of the most interesting vocal hooks one is ever likely to hear, on the dance floor or otherwise. It’s also an electronica record that positions itself against the grain of modern electronic music; the songs are tightly structured and the sequencing is mostly comprised of live instruments instead of synthesizers and drum machines. Closer “True/False Fake/Real” is a four and half minute faux-pop song that makes fun of every electronic music trope that has ever existed, from the silly spring noises that wedge themselves between its archetypal girl-group vocal loops to the angular bass line and its extended, layer-building breakdown. “Hercules’ Theme” is straight out of the ‘70s, and could fit itself nicely alongside any song ever written by such notorious disco kings as the Bee Gees or Curtis Mayfield. And most of the lyrics not supplied by Hegarty are written about Greek mythology. It’s an awkward, endearing record that sounds great on and off the dance floor, and it completely revitalizes and reinterprets the art of “intelligent dance music.”

9.) Grails – Take Refuge In Clean Living / Doomsdayer’s Holiday

Grails are a Portland, Ore.-based post rock band whose main aesthetic trick is to shoot eastern world instruments through western world effects pedals in order to create haunting, culturally-confused dirges that evoke unnerving emotions in their listeners. They’re also absurdly prolific; 2008 alone saw them releasing two full length records, and they’ve released four LPs in the last two years. Take Refuge and Doomsdayer’s Holiday are the darkest Grails records yet; they sound like they were recorded in the bowels of hell, on broken instruments crafted by the devil himself. However, even in the midst of the doom and gloom evoked on the two albums, the band still manages to find levity, especially on each of the record’s respective closers, “Clean Living” and “Acid Rain.” “Clean Living” is an extended organ drone with an eerie pulse of otherworldliness running through its entirety, and “Acid Rain” is an eight-minute long guitar jam with angelic vocals that float distantly above their instrumental backdrop. The best way to understand Grails’ sound is to listen to the group; their aesthetic channels classical composers and contemporary rock music alike. If Rimsky-Korsakvov and Godspeed You! Black Emperor had a lovechild, it would be Grails. They are the band to watch in the post rock world, the harbingers of hope in a genre that is barely holding on to its last threads of life. 

8.) Flying Lotus – Los Angeles

Flying Lotus’ latest release comes from the same school of beat making as work by DJ Shadow and Madlib, but Los Angeles doesn’t sound anything like Endtroducing… or Shades Of Blue. Rather, it’s a mostly instrumental hip-hop record that flutters along whimsically and arrhythmically, and it keeps the listener guessing where the hundreds of crackling vinyl samples will go next at all times. Likewise, “hip-hop” is a relative term in relation to Los Angeles; Flying Lotus is constantly changing things up, flitting between genres and styles and beats per minute, with tracks like “Parisian Goldfish” coming at the listener straight from the dance floor and ready to boogie. The last two tracks on the record also feature prominent vocal performances; “Testament” is a sleazy, dive-bar style hallelujah to old time R&B, and closer “Auntie’s Lock / Infinitum” is a bouncy, playful, childlike lullaby in the same vein as “Ponytail” from Panda Bear’s 2007 release Person Pitch. At the bottom of everything, Los Angeles can’t really be described as anything except for a nearly perfect instrumental samples record, and it proves the power of a medium that constantly surprises; The album is equal parts Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy and DJ Shadow in the beats department, and it’s a dizzying, mystical adventure that captivates every time it gets listened to.

7.) Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours

This record is the perfect example of a “grower.” Let’s be honest; frontman Dan Whitford’s voice is untrained and abrasive, and always on the flat side of every melody the band makes. However, it’s also a voice that drips with sincerity, a concept almost incomprehensible in dance music, and for that reason alone it plays out as extraordinarily refreshing and cathartic in a genre normally filled with singers trying to make themselves sound more mechanical than human. Granted, Cut Copy shows their indebtedness to Daft Punk right from the get-go; Opener “Feel The Love” is full of twinkling synth samples and a vocoded choral hook that sounds like it could have been culled from any song the French House masters have ever created. The album’s 15 tracks are also mixed together seamlessly—another French House staples—but in the case of Cut Copy, it feels like the seamless quality of the album reinforces the notion that it needs to be listened to as a whole. That’s not to say the record doesn’t have its stand out tracks; “Feel The Love” is one of the most shimmery, summery, feel-good songs one is ever likely to hear, and single “Lights And Music” likewise pummels the listener with enough endorphins and dance hall tropes to make it virtually irresistible. The album as a whole, however, is something more special and more cohesive than most electronic records could ever hope to be. It’s an homage to the sweet sounds of summer, to taking the dance floor onto the beach for a midnight masquerade, to keeping emotion firmly planted in a musical format filled with robots. In Ghost Colours is as ethereal as its name implies in a lot of ways, but at its root, it’s a deeply human record that touches a nerve that the band’s major influences probably don’t know even exists.

6.) The Dodos – Visiter

Admittedly, my infatuation with The Dodos and their sophomore LP Visiter likely stems largely from the fact that I was privileged enough to witness their live show standing two feet away from lead singer/guitarist Meric Long. In a quaint dive bar whose max capacity barely breaches 100, a friend and I were lucky enough to get to spend the fourth of July hanging out with the San Francisco three-piece, talking to them about their music, their tour van, and their love of vegetarian cuisine.

So yeah, my judgment of the band is probably very biased, but it doesn’t affect the fact that Long is one of the most amazing guitarists alive today, especially given he’s in his mid-20’s and he seems more or less to be self-taught. His technique, which combines awkward open tunings with breakneck finger picking patterns, is a spectacle to behold; oftentimes his hands move so quickly it’s impossible to tell precisely what he’s doing, but the sound comes out with perfect clarity, and his feverishly aggressive picking frenzies are layered with overtones and polyphonic threads worthy of respect from fans of classical music and guitar rock alike. “Paint The Rust,” Visiter’s literal and ostensible center piece, demonstrates the band’s style perfectly; Long grinds out extraordinarily fast-paced picking patterns on an acoustic guitar tuned to open-G, seamlessly blending distortion and reverb and slide work in a seven minute-long song full of arpeggiated fireworks, while drummer Logan Kroeber pummels his mic setup with a combination of rattling snare hits and taps from his signature tambourine shoes. Despite functioning on record as a two piece, the band’s repertoire is broad and diverse, and their penchant for making pretty, challenging, intelligent guitar pop seems unprecedented, especially in a year so full of electronic music and overproduced escapism.

5.) Beach House – Devotion

Beach House is one of those miraculous bands that manages to bury serious lyrics about love and loss beneath lush instrumentals full of bubblegum pop kitsch—without sounding gimmicky or fake. Sure, Singer/organist Victoria LeGrande has a voice that is almost indecipherable in the upper registers and borders on histrionic during every one of the band’s choruses, but there’s a touch of sincerity in her tone that makes her singing feel very personal and relatable. Her lyrics drip with menace and lust and confusion, and her reverb-drenched croon sounds both angelic and acidic at the same time (especially on “sad” songs like “Gila” and “Heart Of Chambers”). There’s also a masculine quality to her singing, which makes the band’s songs feel strangely androgynous and universally applicable. Guitarist Alex Scally flexes his muscles a bit more on Devotion than he did on the band’s self-titled debut, and the album is so much the better for it. His electric slack-key work on opener “Wedding Bell” grabs the listener within 10 seconds of the record’s beginning, and with strong slide work on songs like “Gila” and “Holy Dances,” Scally’s contributions to the band’s arrangements prove themselves to be just as invaluable as Victoria’s saccharine, cherubic voice. Devotion is a beautiful, syrupy, subtle record, a feel-good album for anyone with a soft spot for pop music; contrary to most pop music however, Beach House’s arrangements and delivery push their pop songs over a precipice so they end up becoming more than they started as. Every song has to run its course to be fully appreciated, and the album is structured to grow in the same manner. And the three-stroke climax to the record, which culminates in the dance-y, sugary waltz “Astronaut,” is enough to make listeners’ breaths catch in their throats. 

4.) Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.

If the various Atlas Sound releases in 2008 demonstrated singer/guitarist Bradford Cox’s ability to channel his emotion into beautifully orchestrated pop gems, his third record with his full-time band Deerhunter proves the boy still knows how to rock as well. Microcastle isn’t the polar opposite of Let The Blind Lead, but it does feel like a full band affair, and not simply the product of Cox’s overactive, extremely gifted mind.

Much of the beauty of Microcastle lies in its internal conflict; it’s a record full of ’60s era psychedelia pitted against My Bloody Valentine-esque shoegazing and Sonic Youth-y distortion squalls. The opposition is evident on record, but it becomes even more overstated live, when the band seamlessly juxtaposes their poppiest songs from Microcastle (“Never Stops,” “Little Kids,”) with their more experimental work from 2007’s Cryptograms (“Octet,” “Red Ink”). Granted, that experimental streak still shows itself on Microcastle, most prominently on the three-song suite (“Calvary Scars,” “Green Jacket,” and “Activa”), but for the most part the record finds the band having reigned themselves in from their druggy days, and they’re all the better for it. Oh, and Microcastle also comes packaged with a bonus b-sides disc… a quarter of which is better than the actual record. The band is absurdly prolific, and disturbingly consistent, and worth checking out no matter what kind of music you most enjoy. Deerhunter put their influences into a blender when they record, and their output sounds distinctly their own, a beautiful amalgamation of all things good in rock, pop, noise and more. 

3.) The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound

Those not in the know often operate under the assumption that punk is dead, and has been since—depending on who you talk to—the deaths of Sid Vicious, Kurt Cobain, Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone. Those same people probably didn’t get a chance to listen to The ’59 Sound, which is hands down the best punk record in maybe a decade. Of course, on The ’59 Sound punk is a relative term; the band is on the record just as indebted to Bruce Springsteen as they are to Black Flag, but even walking the fine line between punk rock and rock rock, The Gaslight Anthem have with The ’59 Sound revitalized a fading musical genre in an invigorating and inspired way. From the Dickens-indebted opener “Great Expectations” and the fast-paced four-on-the-floor call and responses of the title track to the ridiculous Tom Robbins shout-out “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues” and the black-and-white pastiche poetry of “Casanova, Baby!,” The ’59 Sound is a mature punk record full of mature punk songs for maturing punk-lifers. It’s an incredible record full of lead-hearted laments about a dying culture and a dead era that is as literary as any record by any snobbish indie band around. In the words of esteemed punk rock webcomic artist Mitch Clem, The Gaslight Anthem are “upping the punx!… whatever the hell that means.”

2.) TV On The Radio – Dear Science

TV On The Radio are a band completely unafraid of pushing boundaries with their music, and with their latest release, they’ve expanded their palette even further than ever. 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain saw the band exploring Shoegaze and Afrobeat music with heavy polyrhythms and relentless, reverb-laden guitar squalls, but Dear Science might disappoint fans expecting more of the same from the Brooklyn group. In many ways, Dear Science is more a reworking of the band’s older material like 2004’s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes; it’s a record full of weird, neo-classically orchestrated pop songs which ooze with soul underneath the dueling vocals of singer Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist Kip Malone, but their interplay is tighter than ever, and the band’s mélange of musical influences feels so seamless it’s hard to tell they are blending anything together at all. Opener “Halfway Home” sets the stage for the record; it finds Adebimpe crooning in his trademark baritone a lyrical batch of sweet nothings over an aggressive, rocked-out loop of doo-wop ooh’s and aah’s, while the dueling guitar work of Malone and producer/guitarist Dave Sitek clings heroically onto the tones explored by the band on Cookie Mountain. From there the record switches gears with the extraordinary “Crying,” a song full of teary-eyed lyrics and cathartic falsettos that leave the listener holding on for dear life while the band squawks out pseudo-funky disco melodies on synthesizers, drum machines, and brass instruments. The strings and brass on the record show the most progress; TVOTR have been incorporating classical elements into their music from the very beginning, but never before with the confidence displayed on Dear Science. Half the time it borders on cocky; the pizzicato strings on “Stork & Owl” plink and plop with such schmaltz they almost seem like a joke, and the band ends the record with a veritable scherzo, the histrionic and sexy “Lover’s Day,” which disintegrates from a love song about making love into a full on anthem complete with marching band drum rolls and brass blitzes. The cockiness works though, because TVOTR have always been a band concerned with making people uncomfortable and provoking heavy thoughts in listeners; now they’re simply inducing the same results with an added weight, sounding more like wise old grandfathers in the rock game rather than earnest apprentices to the lost art of storytelling through song.

1.) Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes / Sun Giant EP

Every once in a great while, a record comes along that carries so much emotional weight it becomes impossible for critics to talk about it in an even remotely unbiased manner. The twin Fleet Foxes releases from 2008 are precisely these kinds of records for me, and so I can only say they consumed my musical interests for the year far more deeply than any other releases. According to iTunes, I’ve listened to both the Sun Giant EP and the self-titled LP over 150 times… and that’s not counting countless vinyl listens, and listens on my iPod. Given that collectively the two discs span the course of an hour, that means I spent literally over a week of 2008 listening to nothing but Fleet Foxes. Their music is a kind of harmony-drenched, homespun Americana that seeks to prove absolutely nothing; rather, it’s music that simply needs to be listened to for its own sake, because it never fails to make the listener feel good, connected, and completely at peace with everything in the world.

The five-piece Seattle band has become known for their stunning live shows (and believe me, they are stunning), which perfectly showcase the band’s many talents; every member of the band excepting lead guitarist Skye Skjelset is constantly harmonizing with every other member, and the four part vocal barrages which wash over the listener like a wave of serenity are enough to make most people melt. If you can get through half of the LP without getting shivers down your spine, you’re a stronger person than me. The band’s self-titled debut is a nearly perfect record, and even the relative misstep song “Meadowlarks” has a sort of endearing appeal with its seemingly out of place lo fidelity.

Produced by Phil Ek, both releases are covered with reverb; it’s the folk equivalent of gospel music, sung for the listener by the newborn saviors of modern Americana. Fleet Foxes are also the nicest band ever; they’re always wandering around Seattle, trying to act like normally people in spite of being one of the few indie bands to ever have a #1 selling record on iTunes for over a month. I can’t say enough positive things about their music and their personalities, and I can’t actually find the words to describe what their work does to me. Suffice to say, if there are two releases from 2008 that everyone needs to hear, these are the two.