Show us your list! Best CDs

A definite down year for the list of CDs compared to 2007, unless you count some of the releases on the cusp (like Radiohead's) and count some very recent releases (like Lucinda Williams' and Ryan Adams') that show up on virtually no lists.  In fact, for 2008, I'd say #1 is the remastered two-CD collection "The Sound of the Smiths" and #2 is "In Rainbows."  Call me maudlin, call me pale ...

In order

Kathleen Edwards-Asking For Flowers

Donora-Donora

Jenny Lewis-Acid Tongue

Matt Mays & El Torpedo-Terminal Romance

Old 97's-Blame It On Gravity

Lohio-History, The Destroyer

Okkervil River-The Stand-Ins

Radar Bros.-Auditorium

The Hold Steady-Stay Positive

Shannon McArdle-Summer Of The Whore

Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel-Dual Hawks

Earlimart-Hymn And Her

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Mudcrutch-Mudcrutch

Elliott Brood-Mountain Meadows

The Swimmers-Fighting Trees

Lightspeed Champion-Falling Off The Lavendar Bridge

The Baseball Project-Volume 1

Kaiser Cartel-March Forth

Foxboro Hot Tubs-Stop Drop And Roll

10.  Basick Sickness – Get Some.  OK, so I am not much of a rap fan.  Actually, I don't like rap at all.  Or I didn't, I guess I should say.  At the request of one of our other opening acts, Basick Sickness was added to a November show of ours.  I didn't expect to like them.  But I did.  I took home their CD and it was amazing.  Yeah, it's rap, but amidst the brilliant electronic textures, you can find plenty of heavy guitar and a metal attitude.  This is the only local album to make it to my top 10.  I'm embarrassed by that.  I gotta get out to see more local bands when we're not playing.

9.  Wednesday 13 – F—k It, We'll Do It Live.  I'm also not much of a live album fan.  Today, music is so perfected in the studio, it's impossible to like how a live recording sounds after you've gotten used to the studio versions of the songs.  Well, impossible for most artists, but not for Wednesday 13.  This album – recorded just two days after we played with W13 in Pittsburgh – captures such an incredible energy that you don't mind the instrumental flubs and the occasionally rough vocals.  And having all your favorite W13 songs in one album has value of its own.

8.  Guns N' Roses – Chinese Democracy.  This is the one we've all been waiting for.  If Axl was ready to release it, it has to be the best album of all time, right?  After listening to the first few tracks, I thought it just might be.  I really dug how electronic sounds were integrated into songs with crunchy guitar and how the vocals had a bit of a mean streak – and, in the case of the title track, a little old-school Ozzy influence.  But as the album went on, the songs seemed to get longer, and softer, and less catchy, and…zzz.  Oh, sorry, I fell asleep.  It's not that the back half of the album isn't good, I just would prefer to hear a Guns N' Roses album that sounds like a rock album and not a Broadway musical.

7.  Metallica – Death Magnetic.  This album was hyped as a return to the '80's sound of Metallica, which was welcome in my book after St. Anger – an album I just could never listen to.  They pre-released a few singles before the album dropped, so I had to buy them.  I grew to like "The Day That Never Comes" despite the fact that Metallica blatantly ripped off their own music (e.g., Fade To Black and One) to cobble together this song which I thought sounded a little…insincere.  Right off the bat, however, I loved "My Apocalypse."  Unfortunately, when I downloaded the rest of the album, I couldn't find a song I liked as much as "My Apocalypse."  A lot of the songs are simply forgettable.

6.  Simple Plan – Simple Plan.  I stumbled upon Simple Plan's second album, "Still Not Getting Any," a couple of years after it was released.  It's more poppy than the music I typically listen to, but I have a deep respect for songwriters who can compose hooks that stick in your head whether you want them to or not.  I really liked that album.  Their self-titled album came out this year, so I bought it simply on the strength of their last one.  "Take My Hand" is my favorite tune off of this one and shows that these guys still know how to write great hooks.  I didn't think the song quality was as consistent as it was on the last album, but it's still a good album.

5.  Motley Crue – Saints of Los Angeles.  I didn't have high expectations for this one.  But I thought that the title track is one of the Crue's best tunes ever.  "Face Down In The Dirt" is another killer track.  Amidst some filler, you can find some good songs like "Chicks = Trouble" and "This Ain't A Love Song."  I really liked their 1997 album "Generation Swine" with its sonic experimentation, but you won't find much of that here.  The Crue don't stray far from their roots on "Saints of Los Angeles," so if you like old Crue, you'll like this one.  

4.  Saliva – Cinco Diablo.  Saliva is a band that I fell in love with the first time I heard them.  I loved their album "Every Six Seconds" when it came out.  Their later albums were good, but didn't have tracks quite like "Your Disease" or "Click Click Boom."  I was a little disappointed in their last album, "Blood Stained Love Story," because it seemed like their guitars didn't quite have the growl that they had before.  When I listened to the first track off of Cinco Diablo, I was thinking that I should have just downloaded a few songs instead of wasting my money on the entire album.  "Family Reunion" has a whiny chorus that just grated on me!  But, fortunately, the rest of the tracks redeemed the album in a big way.  With "Hunt You Down," Saliva's guitars are not only growling rawer than ever, but Saliva sounds more *** than ever, which is beautiful!  "Judgment Day" is another awesome song with a cool story line about being a soldier at war.  It sounds like Sevendust would sound if they hadn't lost their mojo when Clint Lowery left after they released "Seasons" four painful albums ago.  "Forever and a Day" is a well-written ballad with a great melody in the chorus.  There are some rip-offs here, though.  Some of the songs had me asking myself "Wasn't this song on the last Saliva album?  And the one before that, too?" They borrow Motley's "Girls, Girls, Girls" in their song "Southern Girls" (just sing "Sou-thern-Girls" instead of "Girls, Girls, Girls" and you are singing this song).  And how no one tried to stop them from stealing Criss Angel's whispered "Are you ready?" in "I'm Coming Back" is beyond me.  But despite that, this album is definitely one of the best of the year.

3.  The Dogs Divine – Way of Life.  What do you get when you mix Pantera with old Guns N' Roses?  You get The Dogs Divine.  Combining intimidating metal with party-rock, The Dogs Divine have put together an album that too few people have heard but should hear.  With sing along anthems like "Ugly" to lyrical tributes to their influences on "Heroes" to sludgy tunes like "Are You Ready" to even the obligatory ballad "Rest of My Days," it's hard to not like something about "Way of Life."

2.  Butch Walker – Sycamore Meadows.  The Marvelous 3's "Ready Sex Go" from 2000 and Butch's "Left of Self-Centered" from 2002 are among my favorite albums of all time.   I still listen to them regularly today.  Great, great albums.  Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely like 2004's "Letters."  It had some great material on it, like Butch's signature tune "Mixtape" and "Don't Move."  But it was a little mellow compared to what I was expecting.  Then, 2006's "The Rise And Fall Of…" really fell short of my expectations.  It had a little too much Tom Petty influence for my taste.  Plus, if there's anything that Butch excels at, it's writing ballads but there wasn't one good ballad on that album in my opinion.  Were Butch and I growing apart?  I thought that could be the case, especially after downloading "The Weight of Her" before "Sycamore Meadows" was released.  It was like Tom Petty came back to life and possessed Butch.  What?  Tom Petty's not dead?  Oh, sorry.  It's just that his music gets played so much on WDVE in Pittsburgh.  That station plays such crusty old music that I thought you had to be dead to get airplay on it, but I digress…So, would Sycamore Meadows drive more distance between me and my favorite Butch releases?  Absolutely not!  Now, don't be mistaken, this record doesn't rock.  At all.  But the songwriting is absolutely genius.  Butch gets his ballad on throughout and makes up many times over for the lack of a good ballad on "Rise."  "Ships In A Bottle" has perhaps the catchiest chorus of all time.  "Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car, Thought of You" has an interesting story line woven through a simple, melancholy keyboard piece.  And "Ponce De Leon Ave." is quite funky with its disco groove.  Simply put, this album is a clinic in songwriting.

1.  Wednesday 13 – Skeletons.  Wednesday 13's last studio album, "Fang Bang," was super-inspirational to me.  In terms of music, that is, not life.  But it's a classic, in my mind.  As you've read here, so many of my other favorite bands go downhill after I find an album of theirs that I like a lot.  Wednesday was destined to follow in their footsteps, right?  Wrong!  "Skeletons" is nothing short of incredible!  It's heavier and darker than "Fang Bang," but at least as good in quality, if not better.  This album is full of fist pumping anthems.  Few albums are good from beginning to end, but this one – with the exception of "My Demise" – is packed with great songs throughout.  It's 1 on my list, what else do I need to say about it?