MY TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2008!

10.) John Mellencamp - Life, Death, Love & Freedom
9.) Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
8.) Beck - Modern Guilt
7.) The Fireman - Electric Arguments
6.) Nas - Untitled
5.) Coldplay - Viva La Vida
4.) Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
3.) Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
2.) TV On the Radio - Dear Science
1.) Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreaks

Now, I obviously didn't hear everything and seeing the end of the year Top 10 lists in the big music mags turned me on to a couple of these albums (admittedly, I'd been reluctant about TVOTR, but once I heard that album.... god damn!....). I have not really listened to Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend (though it seems you either love them or think they are the worst fucking band ever) but wouldn't mind giving them a chance.

Yesterday, I picked up Dylan's latest bootleg series and even though I haven't really absorbed it all yet, I wouldn't add it to a best of the year list because everything is from the past -- different versions of songs we've known for some time now.

Kanye's new album is simply brilliant. I can't think of a better word to describe it. Yes, he's kind of a dick. Yes, he waaaaaay to full of himself. Yes, he is annoying. But this album is the "Blood On the Tracks" of our time. The pain is real. The loss of his mother has destroyed him. It comes through every note on the album, auto-tuned or not (an effect I happen to love, by the way). As I sit here trying to describe it I realize how overwhelmed that album makes me feel.