It's hard to believe that 2008 is already half over. The longest day of the year (or the shortest, if you are reading this in the southern hemisphere) has come and gone, and it's pretty much guaranteed that Christmas decorations will start showing up in store windows any day now.
That being said, 2008 has already been a great year for music, and it's time for our annual half year review. The biggest question seemed to be whether or not to count Radiohead's In Rainbows, which technically got released January 1st, but all the groundbreaking stuff happened months before (so we didn't). With more than 80 artists represented, there's a little something for everyone, and more mp3s than you can shake a stick at. Got your own top five? Weigh in with a comment below.
Aaron Autrand
1. Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)
2. Cat Power – Jukebox (Matador)
3. Say Hi – The Wishes and the Glitch (Euphobia)
4. The National – The Virginia EP (Beggars)
5. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
Mark Ziemke
1. Sigur Ros – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL Recordings)
2. Black Mountain – In The Future (Jagjaguwar)
3. Sybris – Into Trees (Absolutely Kosher)
4. Common Market – Black Patch War (MASSline)
5. Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)
Bill Adams
1. The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride (4AD)
2. The Raconteurs – Consolers Of The Lonely (Third Man)
3. Black Lungs – Send Flowers (Dine Alone)
4. The Burning Hell – Happy Birthday (weewerk)
5. Constantines – Kensington Heights (Arts & Crafts)
Augie Arredondo
1. Cheap Time – S/T (In The Red)
2. Black Mountain – In The Future (Jagjaguwar)
3. High On Fire – Death Is This Communion (Relapse)
4. No Age – Nouns (Sub Pop)
5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute)
Terri Loewenthal
1. Pacific! – Reveries (Dolores)
2. ASS – My Get Up and Go Just Got Up and Went (Static Caravan)
3. V/A – Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story (Strut Records)
4. Chocolat & Akito – Tropical(Victor Entertainment)
5. Rubies – Explode from the Center (Tellé)
Kyle Lemmon
1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
2. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair (DFA)
3. Man Man – Rabbit Habits (Anti–)
4. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL)
5. Toumani Diabaté – The Mande Variations (Nonesuch)
John Barundia
1. No Age – Nouns (Sub Pop)
2. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours (Modular Recordings)
3. El Guincho – Alegranza! (Discoteca Océano)
4. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
5. Atlas Sound – Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky)
Chase Domergue
1. The Black Keys – Attack & Release (Nonesuch)
2. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (XL)
3. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement (Domino)
4. Lil' Wayne – Tha Carter III (Cash Money, Universal, Young Money)
5. Why? – Alopecia (Anticon)
Tracy Nunnery
1. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (XL)
2. Bell – Bell EP (RCRD LBL)
3. Portishead – Third (Mercury)
4. Cruel Black Dove – Full Powers (Unisgned)
5. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I–IV (The Null Corporation)
Casey Lombardo
1. The Black Keys – Attack & Release (Nonesuch)
2. Night Marchers – See You In Magic (Swami/Vagrant)
3. Futureheads – This Is Not the World (Nul)
4. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Real Emotional Trash (Matador)
5. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges (ATO)
Matt Dupree
1. Santogold – Santogold (Downtown Records)
2. HEALTH – Health//Disco (Lovepump United)
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute)
4. Bun B – II Trill (Rap–A–Lot/Asylum)
5. My Brightest Diamond – A Thousand Shark's Teeth (Asthmatic Kitty)
Raymond Ahner
1. Death Angel – Killing Season (Nuclear Blast America)
2. Saviours – Into Abaddon (Kemado)
3. Testament – The Formation Of Damnation (Nuclear Blast America)
4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti-)
5. Moss – Sub Templum (Candlelight)
Timothy Norris
1. Bauhaus – Go Away White (Bauhaus Music)
2. Robert Plant Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (Rounder Records)
3. The Black Keys – Attack & Release (Nonesuch)
4. Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely (Warner Brothers)
5. Portishead – Third (Mercury)
Jon Pruett
1. Destroyer – Trouble in Dreams (Merge)
2. Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free)
3. Ilyas Ahmed – The Vertigo of Dawn (Time Lag)
4. Atlas Sound – Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky)
5. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
Daryl Darko
1. Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts (The Null Corporation)
2. Mars Volta – Bedlam in Goliath (Universal Records)
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazurus, Dig!!! (Anti-)
4. Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonley (XL Recordings)
5. Opeth – Watershed (Roadrunner Records)
Scott Homiak
1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute)
2. The Gutter Twins – Saturnalia (Sub Pop)
3. Night Marchers – See You In Magic (Vagrant/Swami)
4. The Slackers – Self Medication (Indication)
5. Black Mountain – In the Future (Jagjaguwar)
Scott Schulz
1. Chop Shop – Oxide (23five)
2. The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely (Warner Bros.)
3. 5ive – Hesperus (Tortuga)
4. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti-)
5. Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff (Deluxe Edition reissue 2cd) (Sub Pop)
Chris Chafin
1. Danava – UnonoU (Kemado)
2. Islands – Arm's Way (Anti-)
3. Woods – Woods Family Creeps (Time Lag)
4. Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free)
5. The Sword – Gods of the Earth (Kemado)
Kevin Janke
1. Studio – Yearbook 2 (Information)
2. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colors (Modular)
3. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer (Sub Pop)
4. Black Angels – Directions to See a Ghost (Light In The Attic)
5. Dead Meadow – Old Growth (Matador)
Nicole Beckley
1. Santogold – Santogold (Downtown Records)
2. Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)
3. The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust (Vice)
4. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into (Sony BMG)
5. Jamie Lidell – Jim (Warp Records Limited)
Katie Wynne
1. The Black Keys – Attack and Release (Nonesuch)
2. Cat Power – Jukebox (Matador)
3. Dawn Landes – Fireproof (Cooking Vinyl)
4. Jaymay – Autumn Fallin’(Blue Note Records)
5. She & Him – Volume One (Merge Records)
Listen:
5ive – "Gulls" [mp3]
Atlas Sound – "Quarantined" [mp3]
Atlas Sound – "River Card" [mp3]
The Black Angels – "You On The Run" [mp3]
Black Mountain – "Tyrants" [mp3]
Bon Iver – "Skinny Love" [mp3]
Cat Power – "Metal Heart" [mp3]
Cat Power – "Song For Bobby" [mp3]
Common Market – "Black Patch War" [mp3]
Common Market – "Red Leaves" [mp3]
Constantines – "Hard Feelings" [mp3]
Cut Copy – "So Haunted" [mp3]
Danava – "Where Beauty and Terror Dance" [mp3]
Dawn Landes – "Bodyguard" [mp3]
Dead Meadow – "I'm Gone" [mp3]
Dead Meadow – "What Needs Must Be" [mp3]
Destroyer – "Foam Hands" [mp3]
Does It Offend You, Yeah? – "We Are Rockstars" [mp3]
Fleet Foxes – "White Winter Hymnal" [mp3]
The Futureheads – "Broke Up The Time" [mp3]
Hercules and Love Affair – "Hercules Theme" [mp3]
High On Fire – "Devilution" [mp3]
Jamie Lidell – "Little Bit of Feel Good" [mp3]
Jamie Lidell – "Another Day" [mp3]
Man Man – "Top Drawer" [mp3]
Mudhoney – "I'm Now" [mp3]
Mudhoney – "In n' Out of Grace" [mp3]
My Brightest Diamond – "Inside a Boy" [mp3]
My Morning Jacket – "Evil Urges" [mp3]
Night Marchers – "Who's Lady R U" [mp3]
No Age – "Eraser" [mp3]
Ponytail – "Celebrate the Body Electric" [mp3]
Raconteurs – "Salute Your Solution" [mp3]
Saviours – "Cavern of Mind" [mp3]
Say Hi – "Northwestern Girls" [mp3]
She & Him – "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" [mp3]
Sigur Rós – "Gobbledigook" [mp3]
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – "Cold Son" [mp3]
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – "Baltimore" [mp3]
Sybris – "Oh Man!" [mp3]
Testament – "Demonic Refusal" [mp3]
Testament – "DNR" [mp3]
The Gutter Twins – "The Stations" [mp3]
The Last Shadow Puppets "The Age of Understatement" [mp3]
The Mountain Goats – "Sax Rohmer Number 1" [mp3]
The Raveonettes – "Dead Sound" [mp3]
The Raveonettes – "Aly, Walk With Me" [mp3]
The Slackers – "Don't You Want a Man" [mp3]
The Sword – "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" [mp3]
Tokyo Police Club – "In a Cave" [mp3]
Tokyo Police Club – "Juno" [mp3]
Vampire Weekend – "Oxford Comma" [mp3]
Vampire Weekend – "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" [mp3]
Why? – "The Hollows" [mp3]
Wolf Parade – "Call It a Ritual" [mp3]
Wolf Parade – "Language City" [mp3]
