Teentoday.co.uk’s Top 11 Albums of 2008

6 comments | Published by Rach Read |

All are in our Top 11… but in what order?

2008 was not a vintage year for pop albums. There were plenty with stand-out tracks, accompanied with lots of filler (Katy Perry, Beyonce, Alesha, Keane, Pussycat Dolls), some total snoozefests (Take That, Duffy) and lots that people told us we were meant to love, but that we just couldn’t get into (Kanye West, MGMT, The Ting Tings, Lykke Li, Goldfrapp). So here’s our two cents worth of 2008’s finest - feel free to disagree and let us know your top picks though!

11. The Saturdays – Chasing Lights



The Saturdays are being touted as the great white hope of girl bands – the last bastion if the Sugababes and Girls Aloud should disappear. On the basis of Chasing Lights, I’m worried. Yes, there are some great tunes on here but they would be great tunes if my wall sung them to me – in fact, they might even be better. The Saturdays are in desperate need of personality and spark in order to elevate their slick yet serviceable pop to the next level. Up is still bloody good though.
Spin It: Up, Work, Keep Her, Why Me, Why Now
Bin It: Issues, Fall, Vulnerable

Read our full review here

10. John Legend – Evolver



I’ve long said that Legend could read the dictionary over a backing track and I’d still be in thrall to that honeyed voice. But Legend’s attempts to become the next Marvin Gaye are wearing a little thin because he has not yet managed to match the majesty of 2005’s wondrous Get Lifted. Green Light, propelled by Andre 3000’s cheeky chutzpah (btw where is he?! I need another Outkast album!), offers a tantalising glimpse of what could happen if Legend veered in a slightly funkier direction. Sadly, nothing on Evolver, despite the progressive sounding title, comes close to even trying. His piano-led ballads are still beautiful (This Time = Evolver’s Ordinary People), but you hear me Legend, I want more!
Spin It: This Time, Green Light, Satisfaction, Cross The Line
Bin It: Good Morning, Quickly

9. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue



Lewis just has a voice that makes you melt – she just seems to sing with such simplicity and feeling that it delves into parts of your soul you weren’t sure existed. Not an album that will have you raving it up until poppers o’ clock but a master-class in breathtaking beauty all the same.
Spin It: Trying My Best To Love You, Acid Tongue

8. Annie – Don’t Stop



Not technically released, but given that it’s unlikely to ever see the light of day, it seemed churlish not to award Norwegian pop sprite Annie her place in the top 11. Don’t Stop boasts songs lighter than spun sugar, a fair smattering of wit and depth that many of her contemporaries lack and the occasional utter leftfield spark (ice cream chimes in I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me) that charms. Annie’s feather-light delivery perhaps lacks the appropriate punch for power-pop like My Love Is Better but juxtaposes against the rocky duet I Can’t Let Go nicely and is the perfect fit for dreamy epics like Songs Remind Me Of You and Marie Cherie.
Spin It: Songs Remind Me Of You, Bad Times, I Can’t Let Go
Bin It: What Do You Want (The Breakfast Song - sounds as bad as it is)

7. Sugababes – Catfights and Spotlights



I can’t pretend that the Sugababes abandonment of electropop didn’t disappoint – and without the Red Dresses, Holes in The Heads and Push the Buttons of the world, Catfights does suffer. The resulting lack of energy will have you clinging as desperately onto the sole stomper (Hanging On A Star) as a bunny boiler to their ex – however, nothing but nothing will compel me to look on Girls with anything other than contempt. A gaping creative trench of a song, built solely around the strength of its sample and with little consideration for including a decent anything else, it’s a nadir in the Babes’ career. But Catfights does serve as a reminder that, once upon a time, the Sugababes (in whatever previous incarnation) were just as effective at ballads and midtempos as rave-ups. A quietly good album with some great vocals; Can We Call A Truce is heartbreaking pared-down beauty and Heidi has never sounded so heart-achingly gorgeous.
Spin It: Can We Call A Truce, You On A Good Day, Sunday Rain, Every Heart Broken, About You Now (Acoustic Version)
Bin It: Girls

6. Lemar – The Reason



I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: thank God for Lemar. The man is single-handedly keeping male British soul/r n’ b alive. His albums are always consistent, his voice is gorgeous and well, he seems a thoroughly nice chap. At ten tracks, The Reason never outstays its welcome and is a smoothly impressive record; in fact, to compare him against a contemporary, Lemar out-sings, out-funks and out-does John Legend’s Evolver at every turn. Little Miss Heartbreaker is just crying out, no, wailing loudly and bashing its fists against a wall, to become a massive hit and this album, like Catfights, deserves so much more success.
Spin It: Little Miss Heartbreaker, Weight of the World, The Reason, Mayday

5. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke



Does the album get a bit samey after a while? Yes. Does Ladyhawke’s ‘couldn’t give a shit, might as well be singing about what I need to get from Tesco later’ vocal delivery diminish the brilliance of the songs? Yes. But is this still a pretty great, cohesive, synthy sumptuous banquet of electro-indie? Yes.
Spin It: Paris Is Burning, Magic, My Delirium, Dusk Till Dawn
Bin It: Manipulating Woman

4. Same Difference – Pop



If you like your music to come with bigger smiles than a sales assistant on commission, then this is the album for you. This is pop in primary colours with hundreds and thousands sprinkled liberally on top and strikingly strong vocals from the siblings (so clean-cut that they make the Andrex puppy look a little sordid in comparison). Pop has had epic key changes thrown at it like confetti – the elongated one in Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now should be framed and hung up in a gallery, it’s that amazing. From the glorious cover art, to the perfectly-picked material, Pop practically wags its tail with pure unadulterated joy. It’s as if Steps never went away.

Spin It: If You Can’t Dance, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, We R One, Let Me Be The One

3. Girls Aloud – Out Of Control



Tame by Girls Aloud’s standards, bloody brilliant by anyone else’s. Lacking the genre-pogoing bravery of Tangled Up, Out of Control still has its fair share of electrifyingly eclectic moments in Miss You Bow Wow (a seemingly endless segue of stunning choruses), Revolution In The Head and Live In The Country. The rest of the album may see the girls on more mellow mainstream form – yet on tracks as genuinely lovely as Rolling Back The Rivers, the magnificent melancholy of The Loving Kind and whirling ecstasy of Untouchable, who’s complaining?

Spin It:Miss You Bow Wow, Revolution In The Head, Rolling Back The Rivers In Time, The Loving Kind, Untouchable, The Promise
Bin It: Fix Me Up, We Wanna Party (belongs on a different album)

Read our full review here

2. Lady Gaga – The Fame



At times, Lady Gaga really annoys me – ridiculous crotch-thrusting outfits, too much make-up, hair like straw, insisting that she’s 22 when she looks about 40. But then I remember how great her songs are and The Fame really is a remarkably strong debut album, with barely a duff track. The slightly seamy seedy edge added by lyrics that detail an obsession with fame or a predilection for rough sex complement the killer choruses (more than most artists manage in an entire career) perfectly. And suddenly, her ‘I’m outrageous, me!’ get-up just doesn’t matter anymore.
Spin It: Just Dance, Poker Face, The Fame, Money Honey, Disco Heaven, Lovegame
Bin It: Again, Again, Paper Gangsta

1. Britney Spears – Circus



Not as good as Blackout, but then again, what is? Whereas Blackout was an unrelenting dance nirvana, Circus is more a collection of great songs, with a couple of stinkers thrown in for good measure - how did the teeth-gnashingly awful My Baby, with its nauseating lyrics about smelling breath ever leave the demo stage? And Mmm Papi is so shudder-inducingly cringe-making, you’ll hang your head in shame at how annoyingly catchy it is. The sirens of Womanizer signal that Britney is back with bells on; tracks like Kill The Lights (heralding the return of ‘Princess, now Queen of Pop, Miss Britney Spears’), the strangulated vowels of Shattered Glass and the winking thrust of If U Seek Amy may steal the limelight but the experimental stutters and squeals of Mannequin and hypnotic seduction of Unusual You reveal their lustre on later listens. Meanwhile, my two favourites are mere bonuses – the Lady Gaga-penned (listen out for her on backing vocals) jaw-droppingly lovely Quicksand, which feels like it just rains gooey gorgeousness on me at every listen and the retro butterscotch charms of Amnesia (I could write an essay on this song - stuttering on the word ‘stutters’, the way that ‘butterflies’ is fragmented into two lines, that the song is about how hot some guy is that Brit ‘gets amnesia’ everytime she looks at him and then he comes to her and tells her that he can’t ‘forget about her’… that’s clever pop for you, and it’s utterly blissful). Welcome back Britney, pop missed you!
Spin It: Amnesia, Quicksand, If U Seek Amy, Shattered Glass, Unusual You, Kill The Lights, Womanizer, Mannequin
Bin It: My Baby, Mmm Papi