Part I

2007 was a fantastic year. We will all miss it. However, there is hope on the horizon! Leading sources tell me that we have plenty of Brit meltdowns on the menu to spice up our lives in the coming year. Also, Uggs will be in. Still.

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So, what should you be on the lookout for in ’08 the Great? Here are 10 albums that will excite your cochlea in all the right ways.

2008: Potentially Good Albums

29 February 2008: The Mars Volta released yesterday The Bedlam in Goliath. Admittedly TMV is something of an acquired taste (for me, at least), but after Frances the Mute, I’m def willing to give their latest a listen (as I’m writing this, in fact). The first track hits you pretty hard with in-your-face vocals and drums, and settles into an interesting bass- and guitar-focused verse. All in all, “Aberinkula” has some great chords and guitar riffs (With a minute left, the guitarist goes into some funky Arabian-inspired sound that definitely catches the ear)

5 February 2008: Jack Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” hits stores. Most likely, it will be more of the same. But hey! that’s not so bad. His other stuff is def listenable, and if he hits us with another Flake or The News, I will be satisfied.

26 February 2008: Beach House comes out with “Devotion”. This is a pretty obscure pick, but their self-titled debut was an incredibly textured and musically-intriguing album—enough so that I’m eager to see what they come out with next. (Apparently the album was leaked in December ‘07… If I resolve my moral dilemma on the side of downloading it illegally or not, I’ll let you know what I think.)

May 2008: Death Cab for Cutie will release “Narrow Stairs”. And if that sentence doesn’t make your heart go a-flutter, then I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done for you. Transatlanticism is probably in my Top 5 Albums, period.

Early 2008: As of late 2007 (according to their blog) Coldplay was in the studio working on their latest. Since they haven’t made a musical misstep once in the past 10 years, it’s fair to say that their newest will blow our collective mind.

Fall 2008: Although they recently came out with the B-Sides Sawdust, which has some great tracks (Shadowplay is probably the best), The Killers are expected to release a third studio album this autumn. They received some criticism over their sophomore album Sam’s Town, but in all honesty, I thought that “Sam’s Town” certainly equaled Hot Fuss and might have even outshone it a bit. The key with The Killers, for me at least, is to listen to their stuff twice through before making a judgment. Invariably I have been a little doubtful after the first listen, and then found myself obsessively looping the album.

2008:

“Title TBA” – The Postal Service. Though the Ben Gibbard & Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) collab was originally a one-shot deal, it appears that another album is in the works. If it has half the musical genius of the first one, I will definitely be at least on Cloud 3 or 4.

“Title TBA” – The Raconteurs. Jack White rocks, and I want more of his music.

“Title TBA” – Muse. Like The Killers, their got some flack for Black Holes & Revelations, and again I’ve found that the album is a lot better than most think. Map of the Problematique has one of the best hooks in recent memory, and quite a few of the other songs exhibited classic Muse badassedness. That said, I have full confidence in their forthcoming effort.

And now, for the big finish:

“Title TBA” U2.

Enough said.

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