Trace Invader: My favorite albums of 2008

This is a list of my favorite albums of 2008, the ones I go back to again and again. I'm limiting it to 12 so I don't end up missing sleep growing this list, finding myself at the beginning of 2009 before it's posted.

Lil Wayne
Tha Carter III
"Bitch, [he's] the bomb like tick tick"

I just thoroughly enjoy this album, over and over again. Lil Wayne's auto-tune croaky voice, killer beats, and original rhymes don't get old even though I have this album on repeat. It's like a guilty pleasure that just happens to be innovative and intelligent even though it's really friggin fun. If you've been resisting buying this album because it's overhyped, just give in and get it!

Highlights:
*3Peat
"Yeah, I got game like Stuart Scott
Fresh out the ESPN shop
And when Sports Center popping, everything stopping
But you can't fool me I know what you watching

Me! You watch me
You watch me 'cause I be
Weezy, must see TV
C3!"

*Mr. Carter feat. Jay-Z
*A Milli
*Got Money
*Comfortable feat. Babyface
Babyface reminds us with his sublime voice "If you don't love me, somebody else will." Lessons for life from Weezy!

*Tie My Hands feat. Robin Thicke
"I knock on the door, hope isn't home
Fate's not around, the luck's all gone
Don't ask me what's wrong, ask me what's right
And I'ma tell you what's life"

Shoot Me Down
This song has a dark melody and D. Smith's haunting harmonies in the chorus
"Drum sound like a naked gun, I switch clips with my thumb
Then I pop another clip in and aim at his vision
'Cause Wayne is his vision, 'cause Wayne is the mission
I'm aimin' at a mirror"

*Dontgetit - sampling Nina Simone's "Misunderstood" - with some pretty great insights about Al Sharpton and discrepancies in American justice. Just listen to the whole dope-fueled rant.
"I was watchin' T.V. the other day, right
Got this white guy up there talkin' about black guys
Talkin' about how young black guys are targeted
Targeted by who? America.

You see 1 in every 100 Americans are locked up
1 in every 9 black Americans are locked up
And see what the white guy was tryin' to stress was that
The money we spend on sendin' a mothafucka to jail

A young mothafucka to jail
Would be less to send his or her young ass to college"

Matthew Ryan
Matthew Ryan Vs. The Silver State

Matthew Ryan is a singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania who also put out an album as part of Strays Don't Sleep in 2007 (music I also like a lot but sometimes find a little saccharine). His voice is raspy and fragile and his lyrics are poetry, reminiscent of Springsteen at his most mellow.

Highlights:
*American Dirt
"Honey, I swear it's not my fault
They shut us down, the big door was locked.
The bigger the dream, the bigger the trap
The bigger the black in disappointment.

I crossed my fingers 'til they were broke
I threw a brick the arc formed so slow
And on the TV outside the mall
In my defense...

I move through days like I were a knife
My eyes were blue, now they're bruises
A silver cross on tan wet skin
I'm thirsty thinking I should climb in
...Heaven knows, I'm by a thread"

*It Could've Been Worse
"Her blonde hair was a setting sun
Her mascara was born to run
You got scared when she started to show
One more thing you'd have to let go

So you stood on that bridge
Overlooking old crappy town
Snow was falling slowly all around
You smoked a quick cigarette
But I'll never believe
That you jumped and just ended there
The note you left read 'Look everywhere
You'll never bury me.'"

*Jane, I Still Feel the Same - a gorgeous song about loss
"All the cars on the boulevard
I watch their taillights disappear
And all the days that I've been sleeping through
Awake to remind me that you're still not here
And you'll never be again.

You were a good thing
You were a good thing
In a world gone wrong"

*I Only Want To Be the Man You Want
"I only want to be the man you want
The ring you twist, the song you hum
I only want to be the man you want

...You wave goodbye beside the things you think will get you by
You should land now, hummingbird
Maybe you should land now, hummingbird"

*Closing In
"You put your hand in mine
As the plane took off
You said 'you don't know how lucky you are'
Now I know I was

Maybe I'll go for a walk
Maybe I'll go to Hell
Maybe it's just that we're the only ones that save us from ourselves"

*Meet Me By the River - this song brings me to tears every time
"Anchors away
I promised I'd stay
Against my every instinct
I'm in the black 'til the day sinks

I woke up down, down to that dirty part inside me, down
I just want to stay clean.. clean
You don't know what that means
You don't want to know

Meet me by the river
I'm sorry MaryJane
I thought that things could be different
What else can I say?

But I recall...
Watching you walk down the aisle
And I recall the way your flower girls made your mother smile
We used to smile"

Frightened Rabbit
Midnight Organ Fight

This Scottish trio, whose songs I've posted on my blog earlier this month, are a bass-free indie rock band who manage not to sound like every other bass-free indie rock band. It doesn't hurt that they have a kick-ass drummer and above par songwriting.

Highlights:
*The Modern Leper - the most poppy track on the album with a chorus that worms its way into your brain
"Is that you in front of me?
Coming back for even more of exactly the same?
You must be a masochist
To love a modern leper on his last leg"

*I Feel Better
*Good Arms vs. Bad Arms
"I decided this decision some six months ago
So I'll stick to my guns but from now on, it's war
I'm armed with the past and the will, and a brick
I might not want you back but I want to kill him

And leave the rest at arm's length
Keep your naked flesh under your favorite dress
And leave the rest at arm's length
When they reach out, don't touch them
Don't touch them"

*Fast Blood
*Old Old Fashioned

*The Twist
"You twist and whisper the wrong name
I don't care nor do my ears
Twist yourself around me
I need company, I need human heat
I need human heat

Let's pretend I'm attractive and then
You won't mind, you can twist for a while
It's the night, I can be who you like
And I'll quietly leave before it gets light"

*Head Rolls Off
"When it's all gone, something carries on
And it's not morbid at all
Just when nature's had enough of you
When my blood stops, someone else's will not
When my head rolls off, someone else's will turn
And while I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to earth"

*Backwards Walk
"I'm working on my faults and cracks
Filling in the blanks and gaps
And when I write them out they don't make sense
I need you to pencil in the rest

I'm working on drawing a straight line
And I'll draw until I get one right
It's bold and dark, girl, can't you see?
I done drawn a line between you and me"

*Keep Yourself Warm
"Can you see in the dark?
Can you see the look on your face?
The flashing white light's been turned off
You don't know who's in your bed

Oh, you won't find love in a
Won't find love in a hole
It takes more than fucking someone
To keep yourself warm"

*Floating In the Forth
"And the door shut, shut
I was vacuum packed
Shrink wrapped out of air
And the spine collapsed
And the eyes rolled back
To stare at my starving brain

And fully clothed, I float away
(I'll float away)
Down the forth, into the sea
I think I'll save suicide for another day"

Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago
Debut album from Justin Vernon. Simple and beautiful acoustic guitar-based songs.

Girl Talk
Feed The Animals
Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) puts together such unlikely mash-ups as Biggie/Elton John, Lil Wayne/Metallica, and Jay-Z/Radiohead. There's even some Kelly Clarkson and Chicago sampled in there. Pure, unapologetic, smart, booty-shaking fun.