I will become this animal, perfectly adapted to the music halls.

Noble Beast - Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird's lyrics are very atypical. Perhaps this has to do with his song-writing process, explained in this blog he wrote for the New York Times. The sometimes erratic lack of melodic uniformity that characterizes "Noble Beast" reinforces the familiar themes Bird continues to explore. I love his preoccupation with science and biology, the chaos and chemistry of the mind and body, our relationship to what is outside of us and the possibility for evolution. His words fit together in clever, delicate ways that remind me of mathematical equations due to their precision. The usual motifs are still present; however, this album feels like Bird traveled back in time and is coming to terms with these realities from a simpler place. The album is a bit of a throwback to pre-"The Mysterious Production of Eggs" releases; less pop, more folk. It’s good, but not spectacular. I really have to get a copy of Useless Creatures, the bonus instrumental album.

Stand-out moments, which are many, include the beginning of "Ellegy," "Oh No," the last 2.5 minutes of "Not a Robot, But a Ghost," "Unfolding Fans" and "Anonanimal." The latter is my favourite song by far.

Some 2008 albums that I really like paired with appropriate reading material.

Pocahaunted: Island Diamonds

.

The first time I listened to this record I fell into a semi-conscious dream state. I dreamed that I was being fucked in a lake late at night by a mystery man in some sort of hallucinogenic state; I looked back at the shore and realized there were dark hooded figures watching from the beach. A pleasant dream turned [strangely] erotic nightmare. This album sounds like the soundtrack of a David Lynch film.

Top Track: Gehetto Ballet. Eerily reminiscent of the music from The Shining. This brings me great joy (...and fright. The two co-exist for me).

Read with: H.P.Lovecraft for fun times. It'll make his stories more frightening and prose more tolerable.

Grouper: Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Predictably bleak, multi-faceted, melancholic, textured. Whenever I listen to Grouper, I imagine floating alone in a warm ocean. Perhaps my extreme love of this record reveals a subconscious desire to return to the womb!! Oh, Freud, you bastard. This is a record of isolation and consolation.

Top Track: Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping.

Read with: Don’t read, just sleep and smoke.

Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

Succinctly expresses all the usual anxiety, depression and angst appropriate to artists, coupled with the fatigue that sets in when we stop romanticizing it. Simultaneously: heavily nostalgic, paralyzing, soothing and unsettling. Music for passive aggressive sadomasochists who stay indoors a lot and write poetry inspired by fragmented memories of childhood (aka: me on a bad day).

Top Track: Quarantined. “I am waiting to be changed.”

Read with: Embarrassingly naïve journal entries from early adolescence.

Valet: Naked Acid

My favourite addition to the neo-psych (bullshit?) genre. J’adore music that meanders. Look at how beautiful that picture is. I can almost feel it.

Top track: Fire

Read with: Virginia Woolf. This album is pretty much the musical equivalent of Woolf’s prose.

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire: Lost Wisdom

Phil Elvrum. Is. [a] God. This record is incredibly short and painfully beautiful and extremely bittersweet. This, along with former Microphones release The Glow Pt.2, is a perfect break-up record. Almost on par with Elliott Smith in terms of melancholy. Sob sob. This picture is actually the cover art for Mount Eerie Pts. 6 & 7, and I love it. The photo and the record.

Top Track: You Swan Go On

Read With: Michael Ondaatje’s “The Cinnamon Peeler” or Ted Hughes’ “Birthday Letters.” Or [insert volume of poetry that deals predominantly with themes of regret, loss and nostalgia].

Hauschka: Ferndorf

My introduction to neo-classical composers who create music that is minimal, delicate and incredibly beautiful.

Top Track: Alma

Read With: Borges. There is a parallel structure going on. A complexity and surface minimalism coupled with a playful attitude.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the releases I loved of 2008. "Best-of" lists are bullshit. Perhaps the others will come later.