Got myself revved up for my year-end 2008 Top Five/Ten/Honorable Mentions of Music this weekend when I inexplicably realized how much music I had left pretty much unturned. More fool I, but I’ll get to some bullet-point quickie reviews a paragraph or two down the line to give some proper nods.
Before that, though, a confession: For better and worse, came to the sad conclusion that while 2008 didn’t live up to the promising musical expectations I had by mid-year, when so many great releases were coming at a machine-gun pace, I couldn’t be more hopelessly mainstream.
Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark: With the huge leap forward he made on his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, hard to believe the Diamond’s technically in the swan song phase of his career.
Marah – Angels of Destruction: Combine the brilliantly loud sloppiness of the Replacements with the angel-in-the-gutter weariness of Springsteen’s 1970s glory years and what’s not for me to love?
The Baseball Project – Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails: Well-timed coincidence that I finally got around to sharing Looking for Oscar, my love letter to 1970s baseball, the same year that this album hit the airwaves. The ultimate ode to America’s favorite pastime.
Metallica – Death Magnetic: Brutal in the best definition of the word. Not that I’m complaining with an album on which producer Rick “That’s right, I can do little wrong” Rubin mines the best aspects of every phase of Metallica’s career to make an album that damn near rivals Master of Puppets or …and Justice for All.
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