Link to the 2008 thread.

Link to the 2007 thread.

Link to the "new stuff worth hearing" thread.

Link to the "MP3s of the moment" thread.

This is the thread for you to post your personal favourites lists (in progress) for 2008. (There's another thread for critic end-of-year lists, award lists, all that sort of thing, once those sorts of lists start showing up.) If enough of us post our own Top Ten or Top Twenty or Top Twenty Plus Also-Rans (in progress), I'll start an ongoing tally. But I don't think it's too early to start posting our faves: at least give us your tips of things we should catch during the year-end rush. If nothing else, it's a great way to keep track of films other A&Fers are excited about.

BIT OF A DEPARTURE, though, from how we've done this thread in the past. Before, I've asked you to just make one post per person, and revise that post as you go. But it'll actually be easier to tally the updates if you'll MAKE A NEW POST EACH TIME YOU REVISE YOUR LIST. It's simple enough: just cut and paste your previous list, and then edit it with the new additions. But it'll help me keep track as we go.

Thanks!

Ron

Damion Suomi – Damion Suomi

Damion Suomi’s self-titled debut album answers the question that nobody ever asked: What if Michael Stipe had moved to Dublin and joined The Pogues? Suomi, a Florida native with the R.E.M. frontman’s voice and Shane MacGowan’s sensibilities (no word on his teeth), writes desperate little ditties about drinking yourself to death and losing everything of value in your life. This is ragged roots music featuring guitars and fiddles, and it would probably go over well in a pub where the lubricated patrons could slosh their pints and sing along. And while there’s an undeniably visceral punch to these tracks, the relentless despair and nihilism gets old quickly. “San Francisco,” with its whomping drums and tale of relational dissolution, is a rousing singalong to divorce by reason of inebriation. But when the same tale is told ten more times, with only slight iterations, the effect is merely depressing. “Nobody’s gonna save your ass except for you,” Suomi sings near the end of the album. Wrong, Guinness breath. How’s that working out for you?

Ruthie Foster – Truth

Ruthie Foster has released several albums of tasteful blues and R&B, and she doesn’t vary her tested formula much on her latest album Truth. Possessing a marvelously supple, soulful voice that recalls Tracy Chapman, she reworks Otis Redding’s “Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)” and dresses it up with a reggae beat on “I Really Love You,” adds a Stax/Volt Memphis horns approximation on “Dues Paid in Full,” and cuts loose on “Joy on the Other Side,” which sounds like an old Blind Willie Johnson Delta hymn. But for the most part this is blues and R&B with the edges blunted. It’s a little too polished and NPR-ready for my tastes, but fans of Tracy Chapman’s early work or the ‘90s albums of Bonnie Raitt will find much to admire, if not love.

Strand of Oaks – Leave Ruin

Strands of Oaks is one-man band Timothy Showalter, a self-described Indiana Mennonite turned Pennsylvania Hebrew Dayschool teacher who drives a school bus for extra cash. Since I figured there weren’t all that many of those folks plying their trade at the open mic nights at the nearby college, I decided to give him a try. And I’m glad I did. Showalter reprises the fragile, quavering tenor of a neophyte Neil Young, and although it’s been done a thousand times before, he does it well. Album opener “End in Flames” is typical: a lament to lost love accompanied by gently plucked banjo. It’s the oldest trick in the world, but this is Showalter’s lost love, and he makes you feel the particular specificity of his sorrow and regret.

Rushmore

Son Of Rambow

Be Kind, Rewind

And there's a scene in Paranoid Park where a little boy recounts a scene from Napoleon Dynamite.

More?

Cinematical looks at the year ahead for moviegoing families:.



Of this list, I'm only really looking forward to Coraline and Where the Wild Things Are at this point. Monsters vs. Aliens could be fun.

What does that even mean?

Is this a competition?

Should bands be fretting and trying to "beat" Animal Collective's effort?

This kind of language, when used to describe art, makes me want to smash something. By framing it in terms of a sport, they've effectively spoiled any interest I had in actually listening to Animal Collective's album. I remember certain albums being described as "the album to beat in 2008" last January. No one is even talking about them now.