Best Of 2008: Midyear Edition

We're just over the halfway mark for the year, so I figure now is a good time to break out a preliminary Best Of post. Since we're only halfway through 2008 and there are still (hopefully) some very good albums to come, instead of doing the ten best so far, we're only gonna take this to five in the hopes that maybe some stuff still to come will fill out the list come December.

Best Albums of 2008 (So Far)

5. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Posess Your Heart [iTunes]

4. REM, Accelerate
REM - Supernatural Superserious [iTunes]

3. Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Nine Inch Nails - Echoplex

2. Duffy, Rockferry
Duffy - Mercy [iTunes]

1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Coldplay - Lost! [iTunes]


Coldplay was in some sense a foregone conclusion at #1 as I went through this list. In my mind no one has put out an album quite as impressive as Coldplay yet this year. All the albums here are excellent and demand at least a second listen, but Viva La Vida and Rockferry have both been playing on a pretty constant run since I first heard them. Nine Inch Nails may well end up with two albums (The Slip and Ghosts) on the Best Of if things turn out badly in the second half of the year. Also note that this is the list I generated having not heard a number of albums that have gained some praise this year (Tha Carter III, Santogold, etc.). I'm gonna try to have a complete view in time for the REAL Best Of, but for now that should suit fine.

Oh yeah, and right now the frontrunner for worst album of the year goes to Weezer's "Red Album". Ugh.

Back later.

==TJ==