Alex's Favorites of 2008 Feature by Alex Harisiadis
2008 was sort of a mixed bag for me in terms of music. I was introduced to some great new artists, let down by some familiar ones, and was blown away occasionally. Sadly, whether through happenstance or actual dearth of quality releases I wanted to hear, I could not come up with an actual ranked list. While the aforementioned reasons played a part in my inability to come up with a traditional year-end list, a significant factor was the fact that one release was head and shoulders above everything I heard this year. That honor goes to the mighty TORCHE, who released an absolute classic in the form of Meanderthal. That album struck so many different chords – uplifting, mischievous, claustrophobic – but TORCHE never lost sight of their roots. For that reason, coming up with some sort of ranked order was rendered moot.
But, lest you you think that I listened to one record all year, there were many other releases which caught my attention and I felt warranted mention in this year-end list. A brief write-up for each release can be found at my Tumblr blog Black T-Shirt & Jeans. However, more importantly, I spent a few hours surfing YouTube and finding live renditions of my favorite songs from each album. So, after you read some of my other superlatives for 2008, click on over to my blog (accessible via the collage below) and enjoy!
FAVORITE SONGS OF THE YEAR (In Alphabetical Order)
AMON AMARTH – “Live For The Kill”
ARSIS – “Servants To The Night”
CLOUDS – “Heisenberg Says”
CRYSTAL CASTLES – “Courtship Dating”
CULT OF LUNA – “Ghost Trail”
CUT COPY – “Hearts On Fire”
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – “Grapevine Fires”
DISFEAR – “Testament”
ENVY – “An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction”
FIREWIND – “Maniac” (Michael Sembello cover)
GOJIRA – “Toxic Garbage Island”
LADYHAWKE – “Paris Is Burning”
MGMT – “Electric Feel”
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM – “The ’59 Sound”
THE SWORD – “Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians”
THURSDAY – “An Absured And Unrealistic Dream of Peace”
TORCHE – “Fat Waves”, “Healer”
UNEARTH – “We Are Not Anonymous”
MOST ANTICIPATED FOR 2008
1) BARONESS
2) MASTODON
3) KYLESA
4) Watchmen & Star Trek
5) President Obama
6) Drinking scotch
7) x21STxAMENDMENTx world tour
8) More awesome iPhone applications
9) Possibly getting a next-gen console
10) Visting Napa Valley
