paladisiac

In order to make this list, there has to be some high anticipation for these artists coming into 2008. For example, the CSS & Subtle albums disappointed, but those i just discovered within the last couple years and i could've easily went without and not cared. No, to make the "top disappointment" list takes a lot of past good work and promise followed by...a comparable flop.

2008 is unique in that there were few of my previous favorites that put something out this year. Plus, the overall quality of what i heard this year wasn't as good as last year -- the most disappointing that i can ever remember. (Not a flippant hyperbole -- i really can't remember as unexciting of a year of music releases.) The end result is that i can only do a top 5, as opposed to top 10, disappointments for 2008. And save for #3, i like them all. (#3 is a borderline deletion.) Given how weak this year is, 1-or-2 could even make my top 39 of the year.

So here they are. May these albums have mercy on our souls...

#	album(s)	artist(s)	explanation
05		kings of leon	Their last two albums have been a rocking version of some good interpol, as evidenced by seeing them live in 2007. This one's just a drag -- a couple rockers and a lot of middling pap aimed at rock radio. They're looking for a hit but sacrificed their mojo in the process. "Sex On Fire" is da sh|t, but wears out after a while with nothing else on the album to match its fire & intensity.
04		gnarls barkley	"St. Elsewhere" was pretty poppy for as morbid of subject material it carried lyrically. I admire how they tried a few less-than-standard-r&b-pop numbers, but they didn't succeed. Dangermouse worked outside of his comfort zone a little and Cee-lo was zany, but it didn't work. Please release another Cee-lo album!
03		tapes n' tapes	They came out of nowhere to place my top 10 a few years back. Great, poppy indie rock, rivaling the shins or new porn. Not this time around. Not one song has a good hook, or comprehensible lyrics -- not in the sense that i can't understand what he's singing, but in the sense that what he's singing just doesn't make sense. It's like they jammed anything and recorded it and were fine with that.
02		jenny lewis	Rilo Kiley released a couple good albums then jenny lewis went sorta-solo with the watson twins for an album that entwined religion & sex tongue-in-cheek with a little country twang and i thought even heaven was too low of a ceiling for ms lewis. Then came rilo kiley's "under the blacklight" which was musically average and lyrically boring with some prostition theme (or something fairly mundane) running throughout. Now her new album, which does have some of the tuneful wit of "rabbit fur coat", but not until track 5. The first 4 tracks are dawdling, half-@ssed simplistic throwaways. "Acid Tongue" through "Godspeed" recapture the magic of her first "solo" adventure, but the second half ends in a good-but-not-great ho-hum fizzle. In related news, the watson twins album was just "ok".
01		death cab for cutie / chris walla	I think I have misplaced my love of death cab based on "we have the facts" and especially "the photo album". Since then, they've diluted their sound more and more to something closer to standard pop-rock fare. Sure, Death cab still had some gems along the way, including this year's simplistic but almost-haunting "i will possess your heart", but the lyrical intricacies are gone. Kind of how modest mouse has diluted its sound from "moon & antarctica". Coincidentally, both artists sounded like they were becoming more radio ready after they signed to a major label. Chris Walla's solo album at least doesn't feign the ruse of indie rock, but also doesn't swing high like death cab does either, leaving us with a fairly good but uneventful pop album.