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KEXP started its countdown of the top 90.3 albums of 2008 as voted on by listeners.  The countdown usually ends around 5:30.

I am going to go not too far out on a limb and predict that Fleet Foxes will take the number one spot this year. 

Lucky for them there’s no new Radiohead release this year, ’cause everybody knows that Radiohead takes the top spot in this poll every year they put out an album.

Fleet Foxes is a good choice, but the real winner came in at number 17 on the KEXP countdown:

… and everybody knows that Nick takes the top spot on my list every year he puts out an album.  Some things never change…

There sure were a lot of great albums released in 2008.  Several of my favorite artist put out some of their best music ever, and they are the ones at the top of this list of the top 25 albums of 2008: 

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
2. Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
3. Jim White – Transnormal Skiperoo
4. The Duke Spirit – Neptune
5. Devotchka – A Mad and Faithful Telling
6. Sons and Daughters – This Gift
7. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club – Cipher
8. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
9. Paul Weller – 22 Dreams
10. Tricky - Knowle West Boy
11. Saul Williams – The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
12. Jakob Dylan – Seeing Things
13. The Moondoggies – Don’t be a Stranger
14. Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
15. The Kills – Midnight Boom
16. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
17. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
18. Mudhoney – The Lucky Ones
19. Wussy – Left for Dead
20. The Pretenders – Break up the Concrete
21. The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band -The Whole Fam Damnily
22. R.E.M. – Accelerate
23. Flogging Molly – Float
24. Hank III – Damn Right Rebel Proud
25. Dandy Warhols – Earth to the Dandy Warhols

I’ve surfed around and looked at lists put out by Mojo Magazine, Uncut Magazine, Paste Magazine, and NPR.  What I found is that people seem to prefer softer, soulful sounds this year.  My list has a lot of entries that buck that trend.  That’s probably because this year, for me anyway, was an intensely nerve racking year.  During the very long primary season and general election, I found myself mostly listening to music that matched my high level of nervous agitation throughout the whole process. 

Anyway, there are a few polls out there where you can still cast your votes for best albums of 2008.  I’d start with the KEXP Top 90.3 poll because it closes tomorrow.

And Mojo Magazine. 

If I find any more open polls, I will add them.

KEXP completed its pledge drive yesterday evening during which they played songs from their countdown of the top 903 albums of all time as voted on by listeners.  I suppose I should mention again that spent too much time trying to come up with my top-ten and missed the voting deadline.  (see related post).

I have been a KEXP supporter since 1987 so I have a pretty good idea of what they are about.  That said, it was no surprise to me that a Radiohead album was chosen as the best album of all time.  I say that because I think that every year Radiohead has put out an album, they’ve been number one on the list for those years.  I’ve never been a big fan of them, but thousands of the stations listeners are. 

Here are the top 40 albums on the list:

1   Radiohead – OK Computer
2   The Clash – London Calling
3   The Arcade Fire – Funeral
4   Nirvana – Nevermind
5   Pixies – Doolittle
6   Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
7   The Beatles – The White Album
8   U2 – The Joshua Tree
9   Radiohead – The Bends
10 Pixies – Surfer Rosa
11 Radiohead – Kid A
12 The Beatles – Abbey Road
13 Jeff Buckley – Grace
14 The Beatles – Revolver
15 Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinois
16 The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
17 Pearl Jam – Ten
18 David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
19 The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
20 Radiohead – In Rainbows
21 The Cure – Disintegration
22 Elliott Smith – Either/Or
23 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
24 The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
25 Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique
26 Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
27 Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted
28 Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
29 My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
30 The Postal Service – Give Up
31 Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica
32 Built to Spill – Perfect from Now On
33 Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year
34 Weezer – Weezer
35 The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
36 The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
37 Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
38 The Replacements – Let it Be
39 The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico
40 Belle & Sebastian – If You’r Feeling Sinister

You can view the whole list here or you can download KEXP Top 903 Albums that I created in Excel from the list.

Yesterday when I was listening to the top 25, I kept waiting for one of the all-time greatest albums ever to be played, and it never was.  I was shocked to find that Patti Smith’s Horses was not in the top 25, not in the top 50, not even in the top 100!  It placed number 104 and was played at 5:34 a.m. Friday.  I began to wonder who the hell I was sharing this radio station with.  Seriously.  What’s up with you guys?

Take a look at the top 40 again.  Those of you who know Horses inside-out would probably agree with me when I say that it is far superior to at least 30 albums on that list, and it’s fifty times better than the album that came in at number 15.  So again, what’s up?  Is it a generation gap that I’m dealing with?  Probably not… There are other albums from the seventies and earlier on the list.  Did people just forget? 

So, Patti, if you happen to come across this blog post, I just want you to know that in spite of a disrespectful placing of Horses on this list, we in Seattle love your work and can’t wait for you to come visit us again.

And if any of you KEXP DJs read this, well all I can say is please play more Patti Smith and play it often.  Your listeners are in need of some schooling.

Enough about that.  Here are some brief notes about some of the artists that placed several times:

Tom Waits had ten albums listed; his highest was #63, Rain Dogs.
REM had ten albums listed; their highest was #67, Murmur.
Talking Heads had eight albums listed; their highest was #54, Stop Making Sense.
Beck had eight albums listed; his highest was #43, Odelay.
David Bowie had eight albums listed, his highest was #18, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.
Neil Young had seven albums listed; his highest was #65, Harvest.
Bob Dylan had seven albums listed; his highest was #26, Blood on the Tracks.
Radiohead had six albums listed; their highest was #1, OK Computer.

And the greatest living composer of music today, Nick Cave, had six albums listed (including the GRINDERMAN album); his highest was #333, The Boatman’s Call.

One last note:  Today I went out and bought my first Radiohead album.  I picked up OK Computer and I am listening to it as I write this.  I’m trying to figure out what all the fuss is about.  While I’m doing that, you all should be listening to Patti Smith and Nick Cave.

KEXP is having a fund drive now and during the drive they are playing the top 903 albums of all time as voted on by their listeners who submitted their lists of top-ten albums.

I meant to vote in the KEXP poll, but I agonized for so long over my list that the deadline passed before I could vote.

And you may ask yourself, what’s so difficult about naming your ten favorite albums?  Well… in many cases it’s difficult to select one album from an artists entire body of work.   What’s the best Dylan album? The best Springsteen?  The best Neil Young?  The best Nick Cave?  Should you choose more than one album from your favorite artists?  How would a list of top-ten albums of all time look if it included three from Dylan, two from Springsteen, three from Nick Cave, and two from Neil Young?  I could easily make that list.  You might be able to create a similar list from the works of your four favorite artists.

Should you stay within the realm of folk/blues/pop/rock/soul or should you include jazz and classical?  Should you care about what era the music was made?  I ask because it would be very easy for me to list the ten best albums from each decade beginning with the fifties and ending with our current decade.  So by not including something from all five decades, would you or I be ignoring great works because they are too old or too new?

Those were all difficult issues for me to resolve.  My wife said I was overthinking it.  She suggested I just go through my albums and pick my ten favorites.   Okay… but that’s a huge stack to sort through.  It would take me a whole lot longer to that than it’s taking me to write this.

So in the end what I came up with is what’s probably obvious to people who don’t dwell on these types of decisions like I do.  I started thinking of the albums that I never tire of hearing and that I listen to quite often.

Here’s the list is in alphabetical order because it’s impossible to rank them numerically:

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique/Tristia, Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (1997)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Let Love In (1994)

Mile Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Alejandro Escovedo – Gravity (1992)

P.J. Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995)

Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

Patti Smith – Horses (1975)

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

That’s ten.  It wasn’t easy because my first draft was twice as long, so I’ve left off at least ten more really great albums that deserve to be on this list.

What albums are on your list of the Top Ten Greatest Albums of All Time?  I want to know!  Please click on “Comments” below this post heading and tell me.

Thirty years ago Patti Smith released one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded.

Patti Smith will be in Seattle this weekend taking part in the ROCKRGRL Music Conference and performing at The Crocodile Café on Friday night with Lenny Kaye.

She will also be appearing live on KEXP 90.3 FM at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Tune in!!! You out-of-towners can listen live on the internet by clicking on one of the streaming player options on KEXP’s site.

Update: I bought the 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of Horses/Horses today. I’ve listened to Horses about 5,397 times, so I put the CD that was recorded live in London on June 25, 2005 on first. I just finished listening to it, and it’s outstanding. I’ve always wondered why Patti hasn’t put out more live recordings, because her shows are always incredibly inspiring performances.

The package includes an extensive 32-page booklet of photos and liner notes that includes this bit about the live recording:

That Horses now closes with a 3rd cover (…beyond Van Morrison and Cannibal and the Headhunters…) and that cover is the Who’s My Generation. That on the night of her Meltdown, the night when Patti’s band played all of Horses from cover to cover, for the first time, live, in the order it was recorded, Patti revealed the corrosive irony that dare not speak its name: That Our Generation had given the world George Bush.

Go buy the album now.

I have been slammed with things to do at work and at home, so I haven’t had much time to post anything for a few days. I do have some opinions about Bolton, Roberts, Rove, etc. and will get something up soon.

In the mean time, I came across this page about a theory of intelligent design involving The Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendage via a link on Bob Harris’s site that I have to pass on.

Enjoy.

Oh, and I know many of you out there are big fans of KEXP, the best radio station in the WORLD! So I’ll pass this on too. They are doing an online survey and if you have about ten or fifteen minutes to kill, well then take part in the survey.