Before we start, I’d just like to quickly let you know that this is not a best-of list. The entire purpose of scissorkick from its inception was to avoid the kind of internal editing and trend spotting that happens all over the Internet. That’s why I personally check The Hype Machine before I post, so that the music here is as unique as you will find anywhere within the blogosphere. And I hope my recommendations from the past calendar year strike you as equally eclectic. The sheer breadth of styles on the list is clearly a result of my OCD and lack of true commitment to any one genre. If you only prefer sweet & sour with your McNuggets, this list is definitely not for you.
That being said, some of the Scissorkick Picks will undoubtedly show up on other lists you may have seenacross the gloriously and seemingly infinite World Wide Web. That’s cool, there are a lot more informed and knowledgeable bloggers out there who have spent much more time and analysis on their personal bests. For instance, the Pitchfork Top 50 isn’t nearly as misguided as in years past, but as usual it ignores more successful genre offering. However, there are no algorithms here. Just a quick scan of my scrobbled tracks and play counts. I have to assume the music I’ve listened to the most times is a solid indication of how much I enjoyed it.
Before you get to the list, and before you start emailing me about all the obvious omissions from a list that is simply a gathering of one person’s subjective recommendations, I wish to thank a number of fantastic artists who made great records in 2008, as evidenced by the number of plays for each on my iTunes/iPod. I highly recommended you seek out each of the fantastic records put out this year by: Adele, Atlas Sound, Beach House, Black Keys, James Blackshaw, Blitzen Trapper, Boris, Cool Kids, The Cure, Cut Copy, Death Cab For Cutie, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Dodos, Earth, Fennesz, Lupe Fiasco, Harvey Milk, Jamie Lidell, Jazzanova, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Metallica, MGMT, The New Year, No Age, Portishead, Quiet Village, Raconteurs, Ratatat, The Roots, The Sea & Cake, Stereolab, Subtle, Sun Kil Moon, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend.
And while I will go a little deeper into my favorite 20 records of 2008 below, before I do that I have a list of 16 records that just missed the cut. All in all, there were nearly 50 records that I thought deserved to be mentioned in this post, including the large list above. But since this is a one-man operation and I’m feeling lazy, I wanted to elaborate on just my personal top 20. Here’s a list of records that just missed the cut:
9th Wonder & Buckshot The Formula (Duck Down)
Adem Takes (Domino)
Black Milk Tronic (Fat Beats)
Black Mountain In The Future (Jajaguar)
Blue Sky Black Death Slow Burning Lights (Babygrande)
The Chap Mega Breakfast (Ghostly)
Foreign Exchange Leave it All Behind(Nicolay)
James Pants Welcome (Stones Throw)
Jay Reatard Matador Singles ’08 (Matador)
Koushik Out My Window (Stones Throw)
LindstromWhere You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)
Menahan Street Band Make the Road By Walking (Daptone)
Mr. Scruff Ninja Tuna (Ninja Tune)
Nicolay & Kay Time:Line (Nicolay)
Nomo Ghost Rock (Ubiquity)
Presto State of the Art (Concrete Grooves)
School of Seven Bells Alpinisms (Ghostly)
Now for the SK recommended 20 from 2008. This year, I’ve decided to do it in audio form, so the podcast below has about 20 songs from my favorite albums of the past year. If you want to know the Scissorkick Top 20 selections, you’ll just have to listen or download. Enjoy, and I hope you all had a great new year. Looking forward to a musically rich 2009!
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