here we go. commentary, criticism, shout-outs here. in alphabetical order, we present, the extremely, unbelievably short:

the dirty canuck's top albums of 2008

1. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
i didn't like In Ghost Colours the first few times around. my initial attempts to listen to the whole album were in late June when i'd put it on while stuck in my cube late at night, working on version 36 of a PowerPoint for the clusterfuck project. this was probably not the wisest decision, since i ended up associating the album with negative feelings for the rest of the summer. when i moved to the UK in September, i started listening to a lot of dance music again and Cut Copy's album was often in the mix. and man, was i surprised by how good it was. this was the music of the dancefloor, a wonderfully precise mix of pop, rock, house, and electronic music that made you want to move. the production on the album is superb. Tim Goldsworthy of DFA did a great job of being considered and deliberate without letting the work feel cold or calculated or detached. in fact, that's one thing that surprised me - how warm this record sounds. Cut Copy was a pretty decent band before In Ghost Colours, but they never really blew my mind. pairing them with a top-notch producer seems to have done the job, though. every time i put this album on, the cK on my jeans totally gets rocked the eff off.

2. The Organ, Thieves EP
though The Organ broke up in 2006, this year, they released this posthumous EP to tie up the loose ends of songs that they'd written but never recorded. Grab That Gun was an atmospheric, haunting, melancholic romp through broken hearts, in the style of the 1980s post-punk/new-wave Holy Trinity. Thieves continues in this tradition from that first Hammond organ chord to the last note strummed by the guitar. i lose it every time i hear the bridge to "Even in the Night" or the point at which the jangle pop of "Oh What a Feeling" turns into a wholly danceable, hymnal vocal, church chords track a la The Arcade Fire or when Sketch's gasped vocals on "Fire in the Ocean" are matched in their insistence by the drumming. the EP isn't perfect; there are weaker moments to be found. mostly, it's a bittersweet release. there's enough talent in these six songs to make you sad that they weren't able to hold it together to put out another full length album. i guess the Organ are just one of those bands. they make you love them after just one record and then break your heart. alas. at least i've got a good soundtrack to mope to.

3. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
when i first heard that the indie rock kids were wetting themselves over a band with the name "Vampire Weekend", i thought they were kidding. a few weeks went by. i kept seeing praise for the band pop up in my RSS reader, but i never bothered to click on a story. i figured "eh, i'll figure them out eventually". at the time, i was listening quite a bit to what i though was a clever, if not slightly pretentious, musically talented band playing well instrumented, complex, Paul Simon/Beatles/Beach Boys inspired pop music that was light and airy and perfect for a spring and summer in New York City. turns out that the band was actually Vampire Weekend. turns out that i need to label things on my iPod. even now, months after the hype, the backlash, the re-hype, and the move-on to other, newer, shinier things, i still get all spazzy when i hear "A-Punk" or "Oxford Comma" (about which i do give a fuck, thanks). i still get confused at the first part of "M-79" thinking "when did i put classical music on my iPod?". i still find myself singing "Walcott, don't you know that it's insane?" to myself. there are certainly weak spots on the album, but they are rare and only weak when compared to the much stronger singles. other than The Organ's EP, this was the only album i didn't have to try to like at all. i just liked it. in a year where i made it through maybe 7 albums all the way, the fact that i liked this one straight away is a testament to the talent. good job, kids. those Ivy league degrees done you good.