Pop Stops Picks the Best CDs of 2008

FOR THE PAST 20 years around New Year’s Eve, I’ve published a “Best of the Year” summation of my favorite albums released that year in my weekly Pop Stops column. Last year was the first time that list didn’t appear in print in The Star Newspapers and/or the Illinois Entertainer magazine… This year will probably be the first time I don’t list 25 releases. Not because there weren’t 25 great albums this year but… after The Star Newspapers died last November (thus eliminating the print outlet for Pop Stops), I stopped writing regular CD reviews and thus didn’t listen to nearly as much new music! My original intent when The Star disappeared and Pop Stops was left homeless was to keep posting the column online, just with a little less frequency. I intended to go from weekly to monthly posting… but… it’s now been 8 months since my last Pop Stops review!

I’m afraid that my writing focus completely switched this year from music reviewing to working on my novels. I finished my third horror novel, The 13th over the summer, and then spent the fall on a promotional bookstore tour for my first novel, Covenant, which was released in paperback by Leisure Books at the end of August.

Over the past year, I’ve still listened to lots of music. I’ve written numerous CD reviews in my head… but never quite got to the keyboard with most of them.

One of my favorite songs of the year actually is the title song to an indie movie — “Zombie Love” — and thus there’s no soundtrack to put on my best of list (but go to the website and you can hear a bit of this hysterical production from a campy short film)

But while I’ve really enjoyed singles from Madonna, Pink, Britney Spears and others this year… I’ve not had a chance to hear those full albums (so they’re not represented in the list below). Without the pressure of turning in a weekly column, I’ve been listening to a lot of my older favorites instead of the dozens of new discs each week. So my list is certainly not as well-informed as most of my previous end-of-the-year summations, but that said, I did discover some great new artists this year. Here’s what stuck in my CD player in 2008:

* * * TOP 15 ALBUMS OF 2008 * * *

1) Katy Perry One of the Boys (Capitol): Katy Perry’s bubblegum pop debut is more than the best album of the year – it’s probably the best pop release of the past five years. Her big hit “I Kissed A Girl” is just one of a dozen gems on this amazing, fun, smart and sassy CD. My personal favorite track is “Hot and Cold.”
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2) Counting CrowsSaturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (DGC): The Crows continue to craft vibrant, literate guitar pop, and their latest is no exception. From the playful word dodge of the single “You Can’t Count on Me” to a love song to “Los Angeles” (“it’s a really great place to get a taco”), Adam Duritz and the Crows are in fine upbeat form on this one.
( ½)

3) KerliLove Is Dead (Island): Cool alternative pop-rock for the goth set, Estonian singer-songwriter Kerli crafts an exotic flavor of pop on her debut, which cleverly mixes girlish vocals with a more powerful Evanescence style delivery on a well-layered production of rock guitars, strings and keyboards. Kerli ranges from a twisted Alice in Wonderland style when she sings of “a little creepy house in a little creepy place” to heartwrenching belting vocals on rite of passage stuff as she bemoans “Love is dead, love is gone, love don’t live here anymore.”
( ½)

4) M83Saturdays=Youth (Mute): This was the “dreampop” album of the year. Lush with synthesizer washes and angelic background vocals, and featuring the catchy single “Graveyard Girl,” this is the perfect late night chill disc. My favorite Internet radio station, Auralgasms.com, played the heck out of this CD this year.
( ½)

5) RobynRobyn (Interscope): I was prepared to hate this disc when I first put it in, since I’m no big fan of R&B. But Robyn is a blast. From the over-the-top rap intro extolling her brilliance to the electropop goofball rap of “Konichiwa Bitches” (“wanna thrilla in my nilla you’ll be killa bee stung/wanna taste the vannilla? better watch your tongue”). She sing-speaks her way through the first few songs before delving into more Madonna pop territory and then some retro-techno funk. This is a disc just dying to be played start to finish on the dance floor.
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6) Charlotte Sometimes Waves & The Both of Us (Geffen): Rounding out my “girls of summer” is Charlotte, who has the kind of instantly memorable, quirky delivery as Regina Spektor, but pairs that with a dozen songs that are pure sugar – catchy, sing-song stuff that belies the often dark flavor of her lyrics.
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7) Pussycat DollsDoll Domination (Interscope): OK, this is probably the frothiest bit of throwaway pop on my “best of” list, but damn it… it’s cheesecake fun! From the thumping beat and little girl wishes of “When I Grow Up” (when I grow up I wanna be famous, I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies/ when I grow up I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have boobies”) to the show stealing guest appearances by Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott, this was definitely the radio album of the year after Katy Perry – who Missy Elliott actually references in “Whatcha Think About That.”
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8) The Cure4:13 Dream (Geffen): Robert Smith and the boys intro-ed their latest album by releasing a single on the 13th of each month all through the spring and summer, so fans knew half the album by the time it came out! Featuring more of a guitar than a keyboard focus, 4:13 Dream shows off all of the band’s various styles from the Disintegration-esque buildup of the bell-drenched opener “Underneath the Stars” to the “Friday I’m In Love” style pop of “The Only One.”
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9) SwitchesLay Down Law (Interscope): With pounding beats, punky guitars and lots of background “oh-oh-oh” vocals, Switches slips back and forth from power pop to punk pop with a Brit twang that’s just simple arena rockin’ fun.
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10) KeanePerfect Symmetry (Interscope): Keane no doubt disenfranchised some fans in love with the piano-powered dreamy pop of their first couple albums with the release of Perfect Symmetry. Instead, the band expanded its artistic attack on their latest disc, opening with a synthesizer bleep and a revival of the ’80s electronic sound (you can hear Bowie and Icehouse in these hooks). Perfect Symmetry is the evidence of a band not inclined to sit still. They take listeners on a joyful ride.
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11) Dana & Susan RobinsonRound My Door (Threshold): Breezy folky pop with some Cat Stevens vocal flavor.
( ½)

12) Deborah BonhamDuchess (Atco): The sister of the late John Bonham (of Led Zeppelin), this Bonham will bring to mind Alannah Myles with her blend of bluesy, ’70s-style bar rock. Organic, shot-and-a-beer jamming here.
( ½)

13) The FratellisHere We Stand (Interscope): Great three-chord, struttin’, Beatle-y Brit power pop.
( ½)

14) Jill Tracy and the Malcontent Orchestra The Bittersweet Constrain (125 Records): Pianist and ringleading singer Tracy puts together a cabaret melange of darkly eerie, cinematic musical dreams on her latest independent release. This time around, she sings of being “haunted by the thought of you” while adding in odd instruments to her piano-drums-bass core band like the sarod, harmonium, and Chapman Stick.
( ½)

15) Mobius BandHeaven (MISRA): Strangely earthy techno pop with shades of Kenna in the vocals.
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About John Everson

John Everson is a Bram Stoker Award-winning horror author with more than 100 published short stories and 14 novels of horror and dark fantasy currently in print. His first novel, Covenant, won the Bram Stoker Award for a First Novel in 2005. His sixth novel, NightWhere, was a Bram Stoker Finalist in 2013. Its sequel, The Night Mother, was released in June 2023.

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