'08's Music to Love More Than Music: Love, Pt. 4

Love (<)
The Ettes - Look At Life Again Soon
Fuzzy distortion punky groove rock. This album sounds similar to their first album, but that's just fine, because their first album was pretty darn good. They remind me of The Raveonettes on Whip It On, meaning it's very stylized and intentional sounding. They know what works for them, and they're gonna milk it for all it's worth.
The Ettes - To Arms

Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow, and Blue
I felt that this was another "Carib-indie" album that came out this year (the other being Vampire Weekend), but it, for whatever reason, didn't get as much press. It might be because it, admittedly, isn't as masterfully sculpted as VW's, but I think that's, to some extent, the point sometimes. They're a little more lo-fi than VW, and their songs aren't as full, but it totally works for them
Born Ruffians - Little Garçon

Great Northern - Sleepy Eepee
Great Northern, for some reason, is one of those bands that no matter what they do, I'm going to think everything they touch is gold. Okay, if I honestly don't think that if they were to come out with anything I'd like it, but so far I just seem to have this bias toward anything that they've created, and this EP is one of those things. Ethereal and smokey, the EP is a teaser for me, because, while it's nice to have a EP-reissue of an EP that I'd never be able to get a hold of otherwise, what I really want is a full length (have I mentioned my prejudice against EPs before?). It's good.
Great Northern - Summertime

M83 - Saturdays = Youth
One of the more well sculpted albums of the year, M83 has a firm grasp on what 1980's pop music sounds like. The entire thing is like a bad acid trip remission if I 1) was born in enough time to have done acid in the 1980's and 2) did acid. I had a hard time really getting into it because it was so masterfully sculpted to sound the way it does. It's flawless. Because of that Flawlessness, it's great, and it's not great. Like the 80's? you'll get down to this.
M83 - Skin of the Night

The So So Glos - Tourism/Terrorism
Righteous punk music with a message, as it ought to be. Their sound would have fit well, as far as I can tell, somewhere in the states in the early 1980's (but that's just one outsider's perspective). I really attached to the sound of his voice for some reason. The lyrics are another point that really drew me in, mostly because of their awkward delivery and the lead singer's fairly righteous message haha. Check out my favorite track:
The So So Glos - Throw Your Hands Up

The Kills - Midnight Boom
Man, I really liked this album when it came out, and seeing them at Monolith made my respect for this group shoot up, but after a while the songs kind of seemed to be a little ... empty. There is a lot of fuzz and distortion a la Jesus & Mary Chain, but the substance just doesn't seem to be there. That said, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Kind of a conflicting opinion, but that's why it's not higher or lower on the list.
The Kills - What New York Used To Be