My Top Five Records of 2008

It’s time to declare my five favorite albums of the past year.  

As usual, I’ve only heard a fraction of the great music out there…in fact, music’s landscape is so broad and deep that I’m probably not even aware of my new favorite band yet.  

Presented here, however, are the five records released this year that made me glad I have a car stereo and can still turn it up to 11…

 

This is perhaps my favorite Drive By Truckers record and that’s saying a lot.  This album reminds me of the bygone era of vinyl records…I wanted to put it on a turntable.  It’s thick, dark, and substantial.  This is one band that rarely fails to deliver and continually makes me long for the days I bought my records at Musicland.

 

 

Damn if the Crowes didn’t come out with their best record since The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.  Warpaint finds the Robinson brothers sounding more comfortable with each other and their band than they have sounded in years.  Blues rock from the heart and the gut.  Freak ‘n Roll.  

 

 

I don’t want to get into it.  I’m aware of how this makes me look, but I have to be honest – I dig this album.  I must state “for the record” it’s my only Neil Diamond album, and in the hands of producer Rick Rubin these songs are as intimate and contemporary as anything out there.  If you want to poke fun, go ahead…I’ll go to the mat for Diamond and espescially for this record.  You must know also, I’m not a young man anymore…  

 

 

Another band from my past that emerged this year with one of their best albums ever.  Chrissie Hynde has taken the sound of the Pretenders to a perfectly fitting country rock with a punk edge that totally makes sense for these guys.  This is an amazing record.  (I must confess that I’m eternally in love with Chrissie Hynde…)

 

 

It seems like Lucinda is always on my top five list.  Little Honey, however, is quite a novel approach for her.  It’s actually a rather raucous record that sounds like a good bar band smoking the joint down.  A welcome detour from Williams featuring the amazing Buick 6 as the backing band.  It also features a duet with Elvis Costello and the vocals of Susanna Hoffs (another “eternal love” of mine).  Lucinda and Susanna backed by the Buick 6 – what’s not to love?