Top 5 Let Downs of 2008

We all know that ever so common feeling of anticipation, that feeling when your favorite band is going to put out that kick ass album you've been waiting to entice your ears with for ages. Well, that feeling is often met with an equally unsatisfying sense of disappointment when your favorite band hands you shit, and for $14.99 no less.

Listed below are my five biggest let downs of the year. The albums might not flat out suck (I mean, it wouldn't be a let down if Nickleback released a shitty album), but they're not what they should be (in my opinion, of course).

1. Ben Folds - Way To Normal

Ben Folds a very talented singer-songwriter, more talented than most in my book. With songs like "Army," "Song For The Dumped," "All You Can Eat," and "Bastard," it's hard for me to listen to Way To Normal without resenting it a little. Sure, one could argue that Folds is evolving--experimenting with new styles. However, there's a line between experimentation and releasing an album that only has a few tracks seemingly crafted to appeal to a certain percentage of your fan base. For example, "Bitch Went Nuts" seems to draw on Folds' signature humor, but lyrically it's somewhat pathetic:
The bitch went nuts.
She stabbed my basketball.
And the speakers to my stereo.
She called me 'cunt'
All in all, the album isn't awful, it's just not satisfying and definitely less than what a Folds fan should expect. Hopefully other good albums are still coming, like I don't know, maybe a collegial a capella CD of Ben Folds' songs...

Ben Folds: All You Can Eat (from the ep Sunny 16)
Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor: You Don't Know Me (from the album Way To Normal)

2. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreaks

With the release of his fourth studio album 808s and Heartbreaks, Kanye opens up, and the result is not good. For what it is, the album isn't awful, it's T-Pain. Considering that I was a Kanye fan, this makes for a letdown without a doubt. If I wanted to get the latest T-Pain album I would; but after Kanye's Graduation in 2007, all I wanted was more of the same.

Graduation was easily one of my favorite albums last year and with the announcement of a new album this year I was anticipating the same. Far from it. After the release of the single "Love Lockdown" I was in shock. This isn't my egotistical, award-show crashing, political rapper who actually had something to say other than "I'm going to drank all the Crunk Juice and fuck all the hoes."

It's hard for me to listen to "Love Lockdown" and similar tunes on the album without thinking of songs like "Heard 'Em Say" when Kanye didn't rely on Auto-Tune for melodic singing, but featured artists such as Adam Levine of Maroon 5 to take the chorus. Maybe I'm being too hard on everyone's favorite man to hate for Bonnaroo, maybe the album isn't that bad. But then again, maybe Kanye should take a year or two off.

Kanye West: Champion (from the album Graduation)
Kanye West: Paranoid (from the album 808s and Heartbreaks)

3. Nana Grizol - Love It Love It

Nana Grizol makes for the first truly indie appearance on my list of letdowns. I found out about Nana Grizol when at Athens Pop Fest 2007; while they didn't actually perform at the Pop Fest, I picked up a copy of Athfest 2007 where the song "Circles 'Round The Moon" stuck out to me.

Once I got home I frantically crawled the web for any recorded material I could find, a real rarity, until a friend found someone with 17 demos by the band. Most of these demos were focused around the acoustic guitar and singing of Theo Hilton, the drummer from folk-punk band Defiance, Ohio.

These demos are some of the most best sing-along songs I've ever heard while still having the deep underlying messages of an identity crisis. They are the classic songs about not wanting to grow up. On May 13th, Love It Love It was released on Orange Twin Records, and I was beyond disappointed. Where the demos presented a sincere delivery of simplistic songs, Love's overproduction is astounding.

Why is it necessary on every track to have a brass section, drums which sound like they belong in a marching band, and electric guitar? It's beyond me. The real let down of the album is that half the songs on Love are new versions of the demos-- demos that obviously shouldn't have been touched. My recommendation for this band is to go back to the basics, find out what it was that they did so well with previously, and emulate that.

Nana Grizol: Tamborine In Thyme (from the Nana Grizol demos)
Nana Grizol: Tamborine-N-Thyme (from Love It Love It)

4. Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

Next on the list is another Athens band, this one a little more well known. Of Montreal's ninth studio album Skeletal Lamping made the list for one reason and one reason only: the album is good (I might venture to say fantastic), but it is far from the follow up I expected after the masterpieces Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer and the underrated EP Icons, Abstract Thee. Don't get me wrong, Skeletal Lamping is in my top 5 albums of the year, but after hearing solid gold it's hard to accept a good follow up. The experimentation of the album is exciting at times, but at others it's not as well received. Songs such as "Id Engager," "Plastis Wafers," and "Beware Our Nubile Miscreants," are among my favorites, but could never compare to the tracks on Hissing Fauna and Icons.

Of Montreal: Gronlandic Edit (from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?)
Of Montreal: Id Engager (from Skeletal Lamping)

5. Marnie Stern - This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That

Now, you just wait one minute before you stop reading and throw all my indie-cred in the shitter--I like the album. Now you're listening, eh? The reason Marnie Stern made my list is because of her hype in the indie world and blogosphere. Marnie Stern is talented, unique, and original; her music reminds me of Deerhoof a lot, but she in no way attempts to be Deerhoof. Her album This Is It... demonstrates Stern's technical finger-tapping talent and originality but at the same time displays the product of an overly technical approach to music.

I'm not saying technical music is bad, hell I like Iannis Xenakis, but at points Stern's guitar just sounds like noise. Let's just say if you had headache, the thought of popping in some Marnie Stern might send you to the hospital.

Marnie Stern: Ruler (from This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That)


Well that about wraps up by top 5 let downs of the year... hope I didn't offend anyone.