Being named #1 album of the year is like winning an Oscar—it matters. Just like a good review can make someone try a new item on the Burger King Menu , it can also lead someone to discover an artist they’d never find on their own. Reviews help people find the good stuff in a crowded world.

Nicolas said about Fleet Foxes: I think the band still has some improvement to make (simplify song structures for instance)
I said: Agree 100%
And I’ve decided to prove it. Let me introduce you to DJ Hon, the “song structure simplificator”. Please listen to my own edit of “Ragged Wood”. You are completely free of preferring the original Fleet Foxes version but IMHO they simply let their own song slowly die without any help (he let the song “die in their hands” in a literal translation of Spanish). You CAN’T begin a song so vibrantly and then let dilute and finally lose this initial push.
Sorry for the imperfections on the edit (of course I’m not a studio engineer) but surely it’s enough to get the idea…


share your files at box.net

I mean they let the song die in their hands...

Spreadsheet updated! And the number one is...

Indeed, my predictions have been confirmed. Portishead is not "THIRD" is now "FIRST"

I knew it.
Well I've listend to the Portishead album after leaving it out for a few months (the first 6 tracks for the moment)
I don't know if it's the winter or what, but I really liked what I heard.
Not to the point of having them in my top 10 though.
I'd give them a 7.5 / 10

FF : 9.5 /10
TVOR : 7 / 10 (but only one listening session)

and Honorio what you did to FF looks very intersting I have to listen to it more carefully and compare it to the original version
You're like me : when I hear a song I really like, I ask myself : would I record it like that ?
We should become producers

Hey, we could be like the two producers of “Joshua Tree”, you could be Nicolas Lanois, more root-based and I could be Brian Hono, more avant-garde (well, not that much).

Yes, Portishead is more suitable for darker times, not exactly for summer beach parties ...

Nicolas, you should give TV on the Radio a second try, it's not that bad as you wrote about it earlier this year...

I'm gonna stick with FF, purely because the album does something special to me that the others don't.
For that same reason I switched back to Wilco's SBS being my favourite 2007 album. Last year I first had Wilco as album of 2007, than Radiohead for a while, but in the end what counts most is the emotional reaction to the songs. Third still doesn't do much to me, whereas Dummy is one of my all-time favourites ...

"in the end what counts most is the emotional reaction to the songs"
100 % agree. That has always been my only approach as an amateur critic. Don't care about the form, genre or anything, but the question is : does this music speak to me, not to my brain, but to an inner, deeper being ? That's the effect of a good song : it changes the perceprion you have of things, it alters your senses. You're listening to sthg good and suddenly all you see (the people around you, the view out of a window) is modified, like it was sculpted by the music. It is sthg dificult to put into words, even so in a foreign language.
Only 3 or 4 2008 albums did that to me. you'll know which ones later
And yes, if I have the time I'll give another try to TVOR. I had overreacted about them that's true.
So we have the same favorites in 2007 and 2008.

Honorio : please, not Lanois ! I can't stand the guy (although i'd probably love his record collection). looks like he turns wood to plastic musically

Well, Nicolas, I was only joking about the Lanois thing. Anyway I do like many of the lanois productions.

Yes I know you were joking ...
I have mixed feelings in fact about his productions, and I don't really like his first solo album.
What he and Eno did for "Jishua Tree" is excellent job. No question about that. Maybe sometimes a little too much emphasis, but that's U2 !!!

But take the Neville Brothers' "Yellow Moon". I can't help but thinking that the album would have been even better without all the polishing he did.
He probably helped them pick excellent material for (Dylan songs, Sam Cooke) but I find his productions a little too neat for my taste.

Well it was nice to wake up and see that my suspicions were realized. Maybe Portishead will hold onto it for a while. It was a huge jump. I would still like to see Dear science over take them both, but I doubt there's enough lists left out there.

I love Dear Science, and I think no other album this year has represented our times then this one.

*Better than this one

Totally deserved. After a few listens it's my first election for album of the year, without question.

And I'm with BillAdam, i like it even more than Dummy.