Favorite albums so far this year...

[Joe Rogaine]

Anybody get the new King Khan and the Shrines Jesus!

[iAmBaronVonTito]

got it.  and good.

[Gilly]

Bumped up since it's been a few months.

I love the Fleet Foxes album, Hold Steady's ok but has one of the greatest tracks of this year in One For the Cutters, love the new Ladytron, and the Beck album is hit and miss. Another album that I haven't listened to in full yet but have liked what I've heard is The Submarines- Honeysuckle Weeks.

[Martin]

I've been listening a lot to Soul Jazz-signed Italian/Serbian producer Secondo's first album A Matter of Scale recently. It's very good. If you like stuff like Akufen you should give it a spin. Still too early to tell how it will hold up at the end of the year though.

[masterofsparks]

Worth the Weight by RPG. So good I can't stand it. I played it twice in a row end-to-end last night, which I NEVER do. It helps that it's only about 28 minutes long, but still.

[Gibby]

I really like the debut record by Wild Beasts. It's called Limbo, Panto. It mixes up bits of vaudeville, afrobeat and pop around its white guitar anchor, with take-it-or-leave-it falsetto and anachronistic British references. Most importantly, it has great songs on it. I really liked the records by Cloudland Canyon, Devon Sproule, Portico Quartet, Deerhunter, Stereolab, Belong and Ponytail.

[moderate rock]

I don't think I can say anything has really blown me away so far this year, but these are pretty damn good

Black Francis - Svn Fingers
Elvis Costello - Momfuku
Flight Of the Conchords - S/T
The Black Keys - Attack and Release

The new Cure singles are also sounding pretty good....
The B-sides to the White Stripes Conuest 7"s.

Oh and thanks for turning me on to this!

I'd also like to recommend THE VIVIAN GIRLS from Brooklyn/New Brunswick, NJ.

[herbie]

pas/cal - i was raised on matthew, mark, luke, and laura
thee oh sees - the master's bedroom is worth spending a night in
vivian girls - s/t
gentleman jesse - s/t
eddy current suppression ring - primary colours
the lodger - life is sweet
flight of the conchords - s/t
lemuria - get better

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I don't think I can say anything has really blown me away so far this year, but these are pretty damn good

Black Francis - Svn Fingers
Elvis Costello - Momfuku
Flight Of the Conchords - S/T
The Black Keys - Attack and Release

The new Cure singles are also sounding pretty good....
The B-sides to the White Stripes Conuest 7"s.

Oh and thanks for turning me on to this!

I'd also like to recommend THE VIVIAN GIRLS from Brooklyn/New Brunswick, NJ.

the black keys, attack and release is a great album. 

[jamesp]

Off the top of my head, I've enjoyed:

Mark Ronson Presents The Man in the Mirror by Rhymefest (came out at end of 2007)
The Mixtape About Nothing by Wale
The Bake Sale by the Cool Kids
New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) by Erykah Badu
Volume One by She and Him
Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
Fate by Dr. Dog
Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes

[Spoony]

Anybody get the new King Khan and the Shrines Jesus!

I picked this up because of the hype surrounding it, and I wasn't knocked out. A couple of songs were fantastic, but everything save for two songs at the end are hitting the same note. My mind wandered everywhere while I was listening to it. Hell, he should take a note from the last two Pietasters* albums. They may have been overproduced post-ska, but they had a good enough grip on the Detroit Soul medium to have a little modulation between their songs.

Is it just the one guy writing the songs with a bunch of session guys, or is King Kahn a group effort?



*did I just bring them up?

[samir]

the song about takin' his lady to dinner, which Tom played on the debate night, is mantastic.

[Spoony]

That is a great song. I also liked the one about wanting to be a woman.

Not saying I didn't like it... they just to introduce a little more spice into the pot.

C

[Martin]

I feel like such a shovel.com tool, but I do think that both the new Lindström album, and the new Flying Lotus album, are among the best this year so far. (They are both billed "Best New Music" over at shovel.) The Flying Lotus in particular is fantastic.

[emma]

That is a great song. I also liked the one about wanting to be a woman.

Not saying I didn't like it... they just to introduce a little more spice into the pot.

C

I kind of felt like that on first listen, but the more I listen to each of the songs the more I love love love each song individually. It's probably my favourite album of this year so far. I would like to be their tambourine player.

Also, Samir, I don't know whether I love or hate that you used the word "mantastic," which probably means that I love it.