Top Five Albums of 2008: Two and Three

This was certainly a good year in music. While not as ridiculously strong as 2007, 2008 had more than its fair share of fantastic releases. Over the course of the next week ScooterDMan, Evan Mix and myself will list our picks for the best albums of the year. Underneath our own reactions to each record will be takes of the other members of this little musical triumvirate.

2: Calexico - Carried Into Dust

With Carried to Dust, Calexico perfectly marries traditional Mexican sounds with modern indie-rock cool and sweet pop hooks. Joey Burns' vocal is an intriguing mix of Art Garfunkel, Jakob Dylan and Ben Gibbard and the song styles seem to evoke these elements as well.

A listing of best tracks of the album would simply be a reproduction of the tracklist, however a few are of particular note. The progression of subdued, whispered verses to bright, pop-filled chorus (and back) in "Two Silver Trees" (not to mention "Falling from Sleeves") is striking, as is the sheer amount of Garfunkel-channeling going on in "The News About William". The cool, folky "Writer's Minor Holiday" is a sublime addition to my list of favorite songs of the year while the sad-yet-sultry tango of "Inspiracion" provides a perfect introduction to the gentle Mexican picking in the smoky-smooth "House of Valparaiso." Perhaps most striking, however, is the sweet country twang resulting from the duel vocals of Burns and Pieta Brown on "Slowness."

Despite the apparent myriad styles present on this album, the band is able to blend them together such that every song, while sounding slightly different than its peers, still sounds like Calexico.

3: Portishead - Third

Of all the albums on this list, Third is the most technically accomplished. The three members of Portishead are master craftsmen, and the laser-like precision of their songwriting is matched only by the steady, surgical deftness of their execution. This record is a menacing, foreboding hurricane of deep rhythms and harsh, tense guitars. The sound is cavernous with each accenting element - be it short burst of spacey synths, or isolated, forlornly strummed guitar riffs - contributing to the overall feel of a heavy, overbearing power lingering just beneath the surface. Beth Gibbons' tremulous trilling is poignant throughout, providing a high-pitched counterpoint to the music's base of dark melodies.

Through three tracks the album offers an audible gathering of clouds and darkening of skies, and the pent-up energy shows its first sign of release in stand-out track "The Rip." It begins, as the record, slowly but builds quickly as musical phrases are repeated with greater and greater accompaniment. "Plastic" is the record's last eerie, harried gasp before the plunge of the deliberately chaotic "We Carry On." The eye of the storm arrives with the melancholic bluegrass leanings of "Deep Water". Gibbons' warbling is soft and vulnerable (Be Good Tanyas-esque) in this short respite before launching into the malevolent batterings of "Machine Gun." "Magic Doors" unveils piano chords in major, revealing the first signs of lightening sky as the weary, resigned "Threads" finishes the record and attempts to pick up the pieces remaining after the preceding onslaught.

It's difficult to quantify in words the weight of this album. It sounds like traveling 20,000 leagues under the sea in a Ford Focus. Like walking against the wind across a frozen tundra in wet boots. It's like listening to gravity.

Third is equal parts staggering enormity and pin-point accuracy; at once delicately reedy and unfathomably deep. Simply put: the most stark and startling release of 2008.

Keep checking back in to find out the rest of our picks for the five best records of the year.

© Eric Atienza 2008 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

Back To Top