Jaimie Hodgson 7: Vampire Weekend - Vampire WeekendĪt the forefront of US indie rock's sudden interest in Afrobeat, sharp-dressed Ivy League graduates Vampire Weekend wore the influence lightly, and with gentle humour. Their swoonsome brand of kaleidoscopic guitar wizardry saw them claim the title of 2008's indie pin-ups of choice.
On their debut set Brooklyn duo, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser offered post-nu rave slacker anthems ('Time to Pretend') alongside brilliantly freaky white-boy funk ('Electric Feel'). Sam Wolfson 6: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Over three previous albums, Kings of Leon established themselves as more than feisty pups now they looked like real men. Some even identified a sense of tenderness in their humungous riffs. The Followills claim to have put much of their fast-living behind them - and while there was no mistaking Only By the Night's thrill-seeking inner child, a certain maturity could be heard too. But even this didn't tell the whole story. Cuckolding them all, lewd first single 'Sex On Fire' seized the nation by the groin, grabbing the No 1 spot from Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl'. It was a year in which heavy rock returned with a vengeance, and Kings of Leon competed more than manfully with old-timers like AC/DC and Metallica (not forgetting Guns N' Roses). Garry Mulholland 5: Kings of Leon - Only by the Night It's so strong, sad and righteous that it made you want to go right out and love your fellow man. James Allan and co won our hearts because this was a debut every bit as brave and beautiful as The Smiths. But if someone were going to design a hit guitar band for 2008, crossing Phil Spector, the Proclaimers, shoegazing and tear-inducing anthems about the heroism of social workers was one dumb-ass way to go about it.
By the time Dalmarnock's Glasvegas had released their extraordinary debut, the excitement surrounding them was being dismissed in some quarters as 'hype'. Luke Bainbridge 4: Glasvegas - Glasvegasīritish pop music is a cynical place.
One album like this a year would see me right. Success tastes sweeter the longer you wait, but nothing tastes sweeter than deserving success. More sure-footed, but more ambitious than ever, these were life-affirming songs of love and loss, from the enchanting 'Mirrorball' to the majestic 'Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver' and the sweeping strings and singalong coda of 'One Day Like This'. They did it on their own terms, in their own time, but after 18 years the Mercury-winning Seldom Seen Kid finally secured Elbow the wider acclaim they so richly deserve. Caspar Llewellyn Smith 3: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid Rather, the marriage of Mariam's childhood love of French pop with her husband's fondness for Jimmy Page, the influence of indigenous traditions and guest spots from the likes of 'East Coast' rapper (the Somalian) K'Naan all added up to a joyous, modern album that demanded to be blasted on stereos from Bamako to Birmingham. And Welcome to Mali couldn't have been more inviting.ĭamon Albarn produced opener 'Sabali', pitching Mariam Doumbia's voice against noodling synths, but nothing else sounded quite so out there. Should it have come as a surprise that the most exciting pop album of 2008 was made by a blind couple in their fifties from Mali? It didn't to those who had fallen in love with Dimanche à Bamako, OMM's 11th favourite album of 2005, nor to anyone who had caught the duo in concert. 'Now she just makes me pay for breakfast.' Gareth Grundy 2: Amadou and Mariam - Welcome to Mali Other people latch on to the relationship side.' The idea of disappearing and dealing with your life is something some people want. He admits to being baffled by the attention of the past 12 months: 'The record is out there doing its own thing and it's cool to watch. 'There's always pain and joy to be explored, it's a matter of how willing you are to go there,' says Vernon, speaking exclusively to OMM. The pitch might've been backwoods primitive but the sound was contemporary, all magisterial drones and vocals tweaked until they became spectral choirs. An uncanny snapshot of its creator's turmoil patched together with a couple of guitars, basic drums and, crucially, an old laptop, it never resorted to cliché either. If that all sounds too perfect, the music itself was never less than true. A struggling indie musician, Vernon had retreated there to repair a broken heart, the result of splitting with the Emma of the title, emerging with nine affecting songs of love and catharsis. Appropriately, the debut from Bon Iver, alias 27-year-old Justin Vernon, arrived from the middle of nowhere, Vernon's native Eau Claire, Wisconsin to be specific, where it was recorded in his dad's log cabin during the winter of 2006. Nevertheless, music still has power: while not everyone heard For Emma, Forever Ago, anyone who did was seduced.