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The Best Albums of 2008

By Soundcheck

December 15, 2008

What was the best jazz album of 2008

  • Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, 50th Anniversary (Sony/Columbia) (50.0%, 19 Votes)
  • Ahmad Jamal - It’s Magic (Birdology/Dreyfus Jazz) (18.0%, 7 Votes)
  • Avishai Cohen Trio - Gently Disturbed (Razdaz) (16.0%, 6 Votes)
  • Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema (Blue Note) (13.0%, 5 Votes)
  • Lizz Wright - The Orchard (Verve Forecast) (3.0%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 38

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What was the best world music album of 2008?

  • What’s Happening in Pernambuco: New Sounds of the Brazilian Northeast (Luaka Bop) (37.0%, 11 Votes)
  • Orchestra Baobab - Made in Dakar (World Circuit/Nonesuch) (30.0%, 9 Votes)
  • Nortec Collective - Bostich + Fussible: Tijuana Sound (Nacional Records) (13.0%, 4 Votes)
  • Cheb I Sabbah – Devotion (Six Degrees) (10.0%, 3 Votes)
  • Toumani Diabate - The Mandé Variations (World Circuit/Nonesuch) (10.0%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 30

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What was the best pop or rock album of 2008?

  • TV on the Radio, “Dear Science” (DGC/Interscope) (39.0%, 26 Votes)
  • Santogold, Santogold (Downtown) (22.0%, 15 Votes)
  • Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend” (XL) (21.0%, 14 Votes)
  • Lil’ Wayne, “Tha Carter III” (Cash Money) (9.0%, 6 Votes)
  • Coldplay, “Viva La Vida Or Death and All His Friends”(Capitol) (9.0%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 67

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What was the best classical music album of 2008?

  • Schoenberg/Sibelius Violin Concertos, Hilary Hahn, violinist, Swedish Radio Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon) (35.0%, 13 Votes)
  • “Hommage à Messiaen;” Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (Deutsche Grammophon) (22.0%, 8 Votes)
  • Simone Dinnerstein, piano; J.S. Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816; Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach; Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (Tela (22.0%, 8 Votes)
  • “Gomidas Songs,” Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano / Serouj Kradjian, piano / ChamberPlayers of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra / Eudard Topchjan, conductor (Nonesuch) (11.0%, 4 Votes)
  • Jennifer Koh, violin; Reiko Uchida, piano; “String Poetic” (works by Higdon, Adams, Ruggles, Harrison) (Cedille) (11.0%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 37

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| Posted in Critics Week 2008

Comments

Comment from DeAnn Berger
Date: December 16, 2008, 3:36 pm

sigor ros’s
með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
takes the cake.
:)

Comment from Faille
Date: December 16, 2008, 6:31 pm

Where is Skeletal Lamping? :-\

Comment from molly
Date: December 16, 2008, 6:49 pm

yes….sigur ros’ album is enchanting! also on my list:

Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
Cat Power – Jukebox
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Gary Louris – Vagabonds
Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

Comment from sally
Date: December 18, 2008, 3:41 pm

O’deaths’
Broken hymns, limbs and skin.

Coldplay?
are we serious?

Comment from Martin
Date: December 18, 2008, 5:23 pm

I voted for the “Gomidas Songs” because it’s the only one of your nominees I heard. Isabel Bayrakdarian’s concert at Zankel Hall in October was quite beautiful.

Examples from her film of this material can be seen on YouTube.

Comment from Jeremy Shatan
Date: December 20, 2008, 9:31 pm

World Music:
Kasai Allstars - In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate the Head of His Enemy

Pop Rock
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
(voting for one album only was painful - hated eliminating TV On The Radio, Bon Iver, The Walkmen, etc.)

Classical
Brooklyn Rider - Passport

Didn’t vote on Jazz because I didn’t buy any Jazz released in 2008.

What about categories for Hip Hop and Reissues? This was a great year for reissues if you consider Tell Tale Signs (Dylan), Cold Fact (Rodriguez) and Pacific Ocean Blue (Dennis Wilson) to be in that category - some of the best releases of the year, period.

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