My Top 5 Albums of 2008: No. 1 …Yes, That Girl From the Movies

She and Him — Volume 1: This is another album I ignored — for months and months, because, really, Zooey Deschanel? Stick to acting, sweetie. But then — in a desperate move to burn off the last of my monthly eMusic downloads, I gave in … and within days, Scott was threatening to light himself [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: No. 2 …Yes, the Guitarist Dates Kate Moss

The Kills — Midnight Boom: This was the first album of the year that Scott finally broke down and said, “Can we please listen to something else? Please?” It was the soundtrack to endless Saturday afternoon top-down MINI drives this summer, from wineries in the west to nights out in DC. You’ll immediately see why [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: No. 3 … Yes, You Heard Her on ‘Gossip Girl’

Santogold — Santogold: I ignored this album for the longest time. I kept thinking, “Santogold? Really? That’s just going to be M.I.A. Lite.” I was wrong — she might be more palatable M.I.A., but at the same time, M.I.A. should maybe take a few notes — the hooks here are bite-sized, danceable perfection, without all [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: No. 4 … The Year of the Animal

Dr. Dog — Fate: 2008 was the year of bands named after animals, for sure — I considered Fleet Foxes and Sea Wolf (before I realized that album came out in late ‘07) for this list as well — but this is the one that stuck out most. If you’ve seen My Morning Jacket or [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: No. 5 … No, I Can’t Stop You From Calling Them Bon-er Iver

Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago: I treasure this album because it reminds me of the trip Scott and I took to Pittsburgh this year; while in town we were searching out a venue for live music, and Bon Iver (who we’d never heard of at that point) had played locally the night before [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: Honorable Mention

The Rural Alberta Advantage — Hometowns: This album just came out in November, so it’s hard to tell if it will truly stand the time test, but in the past month, I’ve had it in heavy rotation. I’ve seen the band compared to Neutral Milk Hotel, which is pretty accurate — lead singer Nils Edenloff’s [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008: First, The Snubs

No one is more surprised than me that these three didn’t make the cut. All are artists who’ve made this list in the past, but for various reasons — the biggest one, I think, being solely that I searched out newer artists throughout the year — didn’t do it for me this year.
Death Cab for [...]

My Top 5 Albums of 2008

There is really truly only one requirement for getting onto my year-end list: An album has to withstand the test of time, which, for me, means many repeated listens. (It’s not unusual for me to sit at work listening to just one album for an entire day [thanks to the fact that [...]

How Quickly Time Flies

December 8, 2007

December 6, 2008

We made much wiser clothing choices in 2008, but we still froze our asses off.