TRACTOR FACTS' TOP 10 ALBUMS AND 30 FAVORITE SINGLES OF 2008

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Welcome, all who care, to the third annual TRACTOR FACTS music awards. As mentioned previously, on this blog, everyone is welcome to either send me links of their own Top 10 Albums etc. for 2008, OR, you may just post them in the comments section. This is supposed to be fun, so don't sweat being fancy or cute or nothing. Enjoy!
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TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 200810. Loyalty to Loyalty - Cold War Kids

The Cold War Kids have now properly prepped themselves in allowing album number three to be their "great one". Album number one - a collection of EP highlights - was strong, and album number two, Loyalty to Loyalty, is stronger. Nathan Willett's lyrics can charm you ("I haven't slept in weeks/I've been up chasing my childhood with a pen"), make you use your dictionary (did anyone else know what "cryptomnesia" meant?), and sometimes make you cringe ("I'm like Sisyphus in the sun"), but peaks and valleys are to be expected when you're chasing greatness.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Mexican Dogs", "Every Valley Is Not A Lake", "I've Seen Enough"

9. Rip It Off - Times New Viking

Happy accidents and brilliant mistakes are delicious because there's no logical explanation for their occurrence. Take Times New Viking's music, for instance. Some have explained away the sand paper sound quality of Rip It Off as a homage to early 90's low-fi, a time when every Hayden and their Butterglory thought they were the new Sebadoh. But really... isn't this just a case of three burnout/stoners/retards not knowing (or caring) how to record music? Not that it matters, because the songs are great. And you won't understand a word unless you take a magnifying glass to Rip It Off's DIY lyric sheet. Not that it matters, though, because the songs are great.

FAVORITE SONGS: "(My Head)", "The Wait", "The Early, 80's" "Mean God",

8. Weezer (RED) - Weezer

There was no greater triptych of songs this year than "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived", "Pork and Beans", and "Heart Songs". Each track is flawless to a fault, and each one leans into the next like teammates in a baton race. That trio makes up the mini-masterpiece of 2008. In fact, tracks 1-6 & 10 are arguably Rivers Cuomo's finest moments. Why, then, did he let the other band members contribute their own tunes? Well, he's a nice guy, that's why. (But remember what happened to Belle and Sebastian post-If Your Feeling Sinister???). Luckily, their weight isn't enough to sink eponymous album # 3, and, in the end, Weezer still makes a case for why dictatorship in a band is best.

FAVORITE SONGS : "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived", "Heart Songs", "The Angel and the One"7. Brighter Than Creation's Dark - Drive-By Truckers

And yet, here is a band that makes the case for democracy in a band. After losing their best - in my opinion - songwriter in Jason Isbell, the Drive-By Truckers bumped bassist Shonna Tucker up to join Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley as the third member of the DBT's songwriting hydra. (Not since Teenage Fanclub has a band been blessed with so much separate songwriting talent). Brighter Than Creation's Dark is the Athens, GA band's most ambitious album yet, ranging from careful, lovely ballads to drunken bumbling couplets like : "Totally screwed, while chicken wing puke eats the candy apple red off his Corvette/Three dimes down and 25 cents shy of a slice of the Doublemint twins". I don't know either, but it plays cool coming from the sounds of southern drawl. These guys are lifers. I have a feeling that if the current songwriters took off, their cousins or offspring would take up the reins and it would be back to cool business as usual.

FAVORITE SONGS: "The Righteous Path", "That Man I Shot", "The Purgatory Line", "A Ghost To Most"

6. Distortion - The Magnetic Fields

Wanna know how to get forgotten by people who compile lists like this one once that time of year rolls around??? Release your album in January, give it one of the worst album covers imaginable, and be an overall sourpuss in interviews. Stephin Merritt did all those things, but knowing him it was probably all part of a big facade he enjoys putting on. I get that people are turned off by that and/or his seemingly impersonal songwriting, but with Distortion, Merritt plays it like the great ones always do... drops some brilliance on the table, walks away, and quiets the haters.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Old Fools", "Drive On, Driver", "I'll Dream Alone", "Zombie Boy"

5. Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. - Deerhunter

I'm not sure if this follows in the tradition of your typical double-album format, or if Deerhunter front-dude/brainchild Bradford Cox just wanted to give his fans a twofer deal. Regardless, Microcastle seems to be the half that dominates discussions of the album, mostly for the fact that it's a broad, clean, and melodically precise departure from the band's previous standard noise rock. In many ways, Microcastle sounds like the obvious next step from the music Cox did for his solo project Atlas Sound. Sure, there's filler (I still don't get the inclusion of tracks 6-8 on Microcastle), but there's enough overflow elsewhere to make up for it.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Never Stops", "Little Kids", "Nothing Ever Happened", "Backspace Century", "Vox Celeste"

4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Nope, it's not used as frequently as that pesky little "Beatle-esque" label is, but ever since Pet Sounds became hip again in the 90's, bands have been anxious to get christened as having that "Beach Boys sound". But what The High Llamas, the Elephant Six crew, and others mostly went for was emulating the Brian Wilson "sound", not so much the songcraft. Granted, the craft of Brian Wilson is isn't easily emulated, and I would be a goofball to suggest that Fleet Foxes successfully do so. But what this band does do, mainly behind the tutelage of young wunderkind Robin Pecknold, is branch off from the Wilson tradition of interlocking melodies and direction to create one of the most tuneful albums of the year.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Ragged Wood", "He Doesn't Know Why", "Your Protector", "Oliver James"

3. Year of the Gentleman - Ne-Yo

Ne-Yo harkens back to the days of the R&B singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist when the twelve song album was simply this year's suite du jour of artistic necessity. Like Smokey Robinson and Prince, Ne-Yo has so many songs and evolving ideas coming off of his fingers that he must relegate a good portion of them to buddies. But with Year of the Gentleman, Ne-Yo keeps the best of the recent batch in his own pockets and spins out a track-to-track stunner.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Fade Into The Background", "So You Can Cry", "Lie To Me"

2. Feed the Animals - Girl Talk

A few weeks ago I jokingly called Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) the best songwriter of our generation. Upon reflection, I soon realized that that might not be so lofty a claim. Of course, that goes up against what your definition of "songwriter" or "song" is. Many would immediately disqualify Gillis from such a category, well, because he doesn't actually write music (I would debate that as well, but I'll save that for another time). Instead, Gillis splices recognizable hooks from everybody from The Ghetto Boys to Styx to Of Montreal, and creates a seamless stream of dance anthems that can double as a pop album you'll lose your head over. On the first listen - it's fun; on the second - your giddy; and on the third, fourth, fifth etc. - your jaw is on the floor and your head is hella bangin'.

FAVORITE SONGS: The whole goddamn thing!!!

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: 808s & Heartbreak - Kanye West

I went through the same pendulum of emotions with Kanye West as many a pop music lover did when he came out the moment The College Dropout debuted at #1 and proclaimed himself the end all be all of modern pop music. Yes, we live in sarcastic, cynical times. Equally, we are a culture that loves hyperbole (best ever/worst ever, love/hate, etc.). These two cultural curbs have combined to make us rightly suspicious of a person just crying wolf whenever he proclaims himself "the voice of my generation".... Or whines when he doesn't get enough Grammys... Or dresses up as Jesus Christ for the cover of Rolling Stone.

But you know what? I think Kanye wins. Late Registration was great, better than his debut. Graduation was his best album yet, a stone classic. And now 808s & Heartbreak tops them all. You could argue that all of Kanye's previous albums - especially Late and Graduation - best his recent work in grandeur, but what 808s & Heartbreak does, that previous records did not, is chart a personal and artistic progression simultaneously, making for both a thrilling pop listening experience and witness to a fascinating pop idol transformation.

Moreover, Kanye West's humility on 808 evens out the braggadocio he wears on his public sleeves. In fact, some of his lyrics make you ponder how much of that chest-beating persona is simply theater (the opposite of Bob Dylan's famous shrug-of-the-shoulders deflectiveness). I have no clue where Kanye West goes next. Folk album? Thrash metal? Country pop? Who knows. But I'm almost positive it will defy expectations, and I'm unquestionably confident that it will (again) be great.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Say You Will", "Amazing", "RoboCop", "Street Lights", "Coldest Winter"

To visit previous year's winners, click below:

TRACTOR FACTS Top 10 Albums of 2007.

TRACTOR FACTS Top 10 Albums of 2006.
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30 GREAT SINGLES OF 2008

"Hero" - Nas
"See You Again" - Miley Cyrus
"Love Lockdown" - Kanye West
"Closer" - Ne-Yo
"Pork and Beans" - Weezer
"Disturbia" - Rihanna
"House of Cards" - Radiohead
"Machine Gun" - Portishead
"Sex on Fire" - Kings of Leon
"Fools" - Dodos
"Gobbledigook" - Sigur Ros
"Tessellate" - Tokyo Police Club
"Oxford Comma" - Vampire Weekend
"Many Shades of Black" - The Raconteurs
"Forever" - Chris Brown
"A Milli" - Lil Wayne
"All Around Me" - Flyleaf
"Love Is Noise" - The Verve
"Violet Hill" - Coldplay
"Northern Downpour" - Panic at the Disco
"Gamma Ray" - Beck
"Courtship Dating" - Crystal Castles
"Fast Blood" - Frightened Rabbit
"Everyone Nose" - N.E.R.D.
"Transformer" - Marnie Stern
"Touch My Body" - Mariah Carey
"That's What You Get" - Paramore
"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" - She & Him
"The '59 Sound" - The Gaslight Anthem
"Stepping Stone" - Duffy