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Thursday 25 December 2008

Best Of 2008 (#15-#11)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE - The countdown continues...

15. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular


The first five songs are fantastic, the sixth is average, and I didn't like the last four, but in general, this album is good. Thrown in with the insanely brilliant Time To Pretend, followed up with single-worthy songs Weekend Wars and The Youth, and returning up for the brilliant Electric Feel and my personal favourite (after Time To Pretend), Kids. Then I just found it hard to like the rest.
SCORE: 6/10


14. Hadouken! - Music For An Accelerated Culture


I was unsure about this album - but I was pleasantly surprised after a few listens. A really heavy electric album, after a while it gets to you. An interesting new band. The pace never lets up, and every song is good, save for Game Over and What She Did, which are the only ones I didn't really like. But songs such as Liquid Lives and Crank It Up are insane.
SCORE: 7/10


13. Feeder - Silent Cry

After some fantastic albums, at first I was not best pleased with Feeder's sixth offering, but considering, it is actually a quite good album, just not in obvious ways. The opener We Are The People is great, a few hiccups follow, save for Itsumo, until the brilliant middle part of the album: Silent Cry through to Who's The Enemy, which saves the album from a bad score. Then I just didn't really find the ending tracks that interesting. But generally, good, despite being the worst from the band in a while.
SCORE: 7/10


12. OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud


After hearing Apologize and Stop And Stare, I was really looking forward to this album. And it is well worth it. The first five tracks are great, and the only three songs that don't keep up with the brilliance are All Fall Down, Tyrant and All We Are. But even they aren't bad. The closing pair, Someone To Save You (one of the best) and Come Home really gets you. If you count bonus tracks (as I've got) - Dreaming Out Loud is great, Something's Not Right Here is not.
SCORE: 8/10

11. Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns

Snow Patrol's albums have got gradually better, starting with the completely awful Songs For Polarbears, which I honestly thought was a B-side album at first, to the reasonable When It's All Over..., up to the absolutely fantastic albums Eyes Open and Final Straw. However, this new attempt is not quite up there. It has typically good Snow Patrol songs, mixed in with a new sound. The first four are good, then the fifth track just is out of place and not good at all. The sixth track is absolutely brilliant (Please Just Take These Photos...) and the following one isn't that good, but then it builds up from the slow Planets Bend Between Us to the great Engines, to the great rock song Disaster Button, and then closes with the sixteen minute epic (which is sort of a cheat considering it's three songs in one) The Lightning Strike, which is surprisingly good.
SCORE: 8/10

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