Media and Culture/ Rants/ Reviews

2008 Music Wrap Up – Zune Free For Now

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What better way to honor the fact that I can not listen to the 30Gb of music on my bricked Zune (and for that matter the 30Gb on my wife’s as well) than to go over my list of the Good, the Bad, and the WTF music releases of 2008.  Some of these may have fallen on the cusp of 2007/2008, but if their traction was heavy on the 2008 side, that’s where I placed ’em.  It’s my blog and at least here I can do as I please.  I explain nothing here as to why I chose what I chose, because I have a lot of things I’ve been puting off for 2008 and I still have yet to even take a shower today, I’ve been ringing in the new Year early with spiked coffee, and I am depressed about my bricked Zunes.  I am curious to know what you think of my picks though.  Leave comments on this post with your picks.  I’m always looking for new music and that is one of the reasons I’ve loved my Zune Pass so much.  Thanks Andy Leonard (http://www.twitter.com/AndyLeonard) for the Stefano Barone suggestion!

The Good (Comments to Come.  Time is of the Essence!)

Santogold Santogold
Beck Modern Guilt
Ben Folds Way to Normal
Stefano Barone Particolare#Uno
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
Death Cab for Cutie The Narrow Stairs
The Kooks Konk
Robyn Robyn
Ray LaMontagne Gossip in the Grain
Mogwai The Hawk Is Howling
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
Delta Spirit Ode To Sunshine
Metallica Death Magnetic
The Black Keys Attack & Release
The Raconteurs Consolers Of The Lonely
Jenny Scheinman Crossing The Field
Portishead Third
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsallis Two Men With The Blues
The Little Ones Morning Tide
The Walkmen In The New Year
TV On the Radio Dear Science
Jakob Dylan Seeing Things
She & Him Volume 1
The Last Shadow Puppets Age of Understatement
Keane Perfect Symmetry
The Asylum Street Spankers What? And Give Up Show Biz?
John Mellencamp Life, Death, Love and Freedom
Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
Big Blue Ball Big Blue Ball
Albert Hammond Jr. Como Te Lama?
Lindsey Buckingham Gift of Screws
Seal Soul
Plants and Animals New Kind of Love

 

The Bad (Snarky Comments a Must!)

Chris Cornell Ground Zero – “Oh Chris, you have fallen so far!  Timbaland?  WTF?!”
Hinder Take It To The Limit – “Anything by these arrogant bastards, no matter how good will still suck. I’ve heard your music somewhere before by talented bands. Oh, yeah it was called the 1980s and 1990s.”
Soundtrack Mama Mia! – “Who thought that Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep could sing and where do you get those kind of drugs in the Midwest?”
Soundtrack Camp Rock – “IF @@AGE < 12 THEN Soundtrack + Disney = FAIL”
Flobots Fight With Tools – “Lyric, Beat, Repeat and Repeat and Repeat…”

 

The WTF? (The Over-Rated, The Weak Releases By Favorite Artists, The Head-Scratchers)

The Killers Day & Age – “First release great. Second, um OK. Third, ‘Are we human or are we dancers?’ lyric.  WTF?”
Michael Franti & Spearhead All Rebel Rockers – “So happy to hear they had a release this year. So disappointed there are only 2 good songs on it.”
Snow Patrol A Hundred Million Suns – “Disappointing, with a capitalized bold 24 font D.”
The Hold Steady Stay Positive – “I just don’t get the talk.  A decent bar band maybe, but the new Springsteen?  No, Springsteen is the new Springsteen.”
Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy – “Better than I thought it would be.  But Slash is obviously missing from the mix. Axl still can sing though.”
Def Leppard Songs From The Sparkle Lounge – “Making Hinder look better to me.  Oh Pyromania where art thou?”

 

I Stand Corrected – (How could I have missed this in my original compilation?)

Barry Mainlow Greatest Songs of the 80’s  – I could not even begin to sum up this release in its entirety.  I shoved an awl in my left ear after hearing 5 seconds of “Never Gonna Give You Up”.  I was Barry/Rick Rolled by The Manilow himself.