Even with my open distaste for most everything Edmonton, it would have been an outright travesty to leave Afterparty Babies off of my top 5 list. This ex-Pitchfork scribe is pretty much poised to inherit the crown from reigning Canadian heavy weight K-os … and rightfully so. As one of the most creative lyricists on the planet and blessed with a complementary and unique flow; 2008 was the year Cadence Weapon became a pop culture juggernaut and Afterparty Babies was his left-hook.
One of the creative obstacles for many solo singer-songwriters hailing from the barren prairies is the constant comparisons to the legendary Neil Young. It is a curse that dogs many artists throughout their career. Luckily, Chad VanGaalen appears to be that one lingering oddity. On Soft Airplane, Van Gaalen has this unique ability to channel Young’s earlier energy and mystique with a healthy dose of modern day pop references and even a synthesizer to fashion a record as oddly memorizing as the classic After The Gold Rush.
Is it possible to choose between two unique artists who obliterated their own self-contained molds in 2008? On the one hand you have a genuine pop culture phenomenon releasing a lo-fi record dealing with heartbreak and loss. Then on the other hand you have a poetry slam prophet teaming up with the king of 90’s goth-electronica (Trent Reznor) to release a high energy wake-up call to society? Not really, you just give them both a nod for shaking up the pop music landscape.
Somewhere between Frandz Ferdinand and The Scissor Sisters is a charmed place where The Friendly Fires toil. It’s an enchanted setting filled with irony, catchy pop tunes and British sensibilities. With their self-titled début, Friendly Fires let us into this magical location and subsequently gave marketing gurus around the world a soundtrack for trendy product plugs for next two years.
It took a little over five years for the once condemned music genre of mash-ups to transition from kitschy fad to critical sensation. And we have Girl Talk’s Feed The Animals to thank for this. Fusing what could possibly be every single popular track to be released in the past fifteen years into one seamless record is an impressive feat. Pulling it off, while creating the catchiest, bombastic and jaw dropping record of the year is a feat of bewilderment. This will be the one guilty pleasure from 2008 that lingers in everyone’s playlist for years to come.
While undeniably hilarious on the small screen, Flight of the Concord’s eclectic blend of folk music/mockumentary humor does not transition nearly as well once you remove the visual component of their shtick. Yes, their YouTube clips are hilarious and songs like ‘The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)’ & ‘Business Time’ do have more longevity than most of the other tracks, but the majority of this self-titled album wreck seems lost with out it’s visual counter parts. Songs like ‘Bowie’, ‘Robots’ and ‘Hip-Hopopotamus vs. The Rhymenoceros’ are just plain annoying on the headphones. If Flight of the Conchords want to move forward with more satirical rock albums, they should really examine Tenacious D’s classic self-titled release for a couple of pointers.
