a.m.p.m.'s favourite albums of 2008

Aside from the obvious quartet of MGMT, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend and TV on the Radio, here are 10 albums (in no particular order) that knocked my socks off in 2008:

1. Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
Born Ruffians - Badonkadonkey

2. Why? - Alopecia
Why? - These Few Presidents

3. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
Titus Andronicus - Arms Against Atrophy

4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

5. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles - Air War

6. Grand Archives - The Grand Archives
Grand Archives - The Crime Window

7. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Frightened Rabbit - Old Old Fashioned

8. Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too
Lindstrom - Grand Ideas

9. Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Chad VanGaalen - Cries of the Dead

10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer

Rock Steady

Stay Positive, the new album from Brooklyn's the Hold Steady has a lot to live up to. Their last album, Boys and Girls in America collected a large fan base and found itself as Pitchfork's #5 album of 2006. As such, there was a lot of buzz this week as the entire new album, due out July 15, leaked and began being reviewed and posted by blogs worldwide.

However, the band's label, Vagrant Records has seemed to clean up the mess as well as can be expected, and relatively quickly as well. Most (if not all) of the blogs that have posted tracks from Stay Positive have since taken them down, and re-directed all of the hungry eyes toward the band's myspace, and the streaming of the first single, 'Sequestered in Memphis'. The track continues to borrow from the band's most likened legend, Bruce Springsteen, only trading in the eastern sea board nostalgia for a little taste of the south.

The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Live at Emo's, Houston)

- bbbykmbrly.