Yer Mam!'s Top 50 Albums Of 2008: 50-46

Okay, it's the turn of the albums now, starting the countdown with numbers 50 through 46. In addition, there'll be the occasional little post about albums that didn't make the list, as a kind of added bonus. Let's get it started...

50. 2562 - Aerial (Tectonic)

The austere cover is no red herring, what lies inside is stark and forbidding. It's also one of the most thoroughly listenable 'head music' albums of the year. Dave Huismans doesn't take us for an easy ride through Aerial's ten tracks, but it's as enjoyable as it is bumpy. Huismans' heady debut full-length appropriates Rhythm & Sound's dub techno ('Redux'), skippy Seiji-like broken beat ('Enforcers') and the unrefined bass pressure of Pinch ('Techno Dread') to make for an intoxicating, suffocating listen.

If it frequently comes off as scrappy, jumping from one stylistic quirk to the next from track to track, that's part of the charm. Huismans is really trying something here and Aerial's been integral to the dubstep genre's forward motion this past year. It's a cavernous, surprising record that manages to be both texturally harsh and inviting in its make-up.

2562 - Morvern (mp3)

2562 - Greyscale (mp3)

Bonus: Pattie Blingh And The Akebulan 5 - Brother: The Point (2562 Remix) (mp3)

49. Bun B - II Trill (Rap-A-Lot)

Anyone expecting the southern rap version of a candlelit vigil for Bun's late UGK counterpart, Pimp C will be disappointed by the fiery II Trill. Maybe it's because he's missing Pimp's clownish flow as a counterpoint, but Bun B has never sounded as filled with ire as he does here, due in part to the ear-buzzing, coked-up production from the likes of CHOPS, J. Rotem, Scott Storch and Mr Lee, amongst others, that sets Bun's stentorian bark in a suitably forthright context, but mostly because of B's clear anger at his sidekick's passing.

The guest list is massively impressive, with most of Southern Rap's major players popping up throughout. Lil' Wayne makes his obligatory guest spot on the superb 'Damn I'm Cold' and serves as a remarkably able Pimp C replacement, whilst David Banner puts in a verse better than anything on The Greatest Story Ever Told on elegy to the South, 'You're Everything'. Lupe Fiasco also proves himself a perfect fit to the Southern style on 'Swang On 'Em', while Chamillionaire actually doesn't sound too bad on 'Underground Thang'. Overall though, it's Bun B himself who shines through and it's a great start to his death-enforced solo career.

Bun B - You're Everything (feat. Rick Ross, David Banner and 8Ball & MJG) (mp3)

Bun B - Get Cha Issue (mp3)

Bonus: Watch the video for 'You're Everything' on youtube.

48. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (Illegal Art)

It's absolutely futile reviewing a Girl Talk album, when the only real way to experience them is first-hand, where you're bombarded at first by the sheer outrageousness of the samples. The more you listen, the more difficult it becomes to separate these songs that you've known for so long from the new context that Greg Gillis sets them in. Hearing 'Paranoid Android' now, for instance, you can't help but think of Jay-Z spitting 'Roc Boys' over the top and, for me at least, Faith No More's 'Epic' will forever be twinned with 'Drop And Gimme 50'.

Feed The Animals is more proof of just how smart Gillis is. He's got a magnificent ear for the best bits of pop songs, but the joy of the album doesn't just lie in the thrill of acknowledgement, it's in the way Gillis constructs new perfect pop songs entirely from old ones. Each track here has a life of its own outside of the mix-y nature of the album. That said, Feed The Animals is best served whole, preferably at a party and that's what's really great about it.

Girl Talk - What It's All About (mp3)

Girl Talk - In Step (mp3)

Bonus: Watch the rather good fan-made video mash-up for 'Still Here'. You can link to videos for the rest of the album from there.

47. The Kills - Midnight Boom (Domino)

I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to pair The Kills with producer, Armani XXXchange, but thank the gods they did, as the Spank Rock-er injects the primal boogie of VV and Hotel's previous albums with a renewed rhythmic focus and an ear for odd percussive noises. Midnight Boom is all about the rhythm and bounce of great pop music, but it's never at the expense of a good hook. The Kills' latest has memorability by the pound and some of their best songs to date.

'Cheap and Cheerful' is all bubblegum, brain-dead sexuality and all the better for it, the metronomic kraut-pop of 'What New York Used To Be' sounds both vacant and heartfelt in equal measure, whilst 'Tape Song' smoulders and struts better than anything on their previous two full-lengths. The real highlight though is the stunning 'Last Day Of Magic', one of the best rock songs of the year. Midnight Boom is a stylistic leap-forward from a band that needed it most. More please.

The Kills - What New York Used To Be (mp3)

The Kills - M.E.X.I.C.O. (mp3)

Bonus: 'U R A Fever' live on Later With Jools.

46. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)

Amidst all the backlash against Vampire Weekend, a lot of people forgot what made them sit up and take notice in the first place. VW are a pretty great pop band, despite the vaguely trustafarian air about them and their none-more-white appropriation of African highlife music. Nobody sniffed, however, when Talking Heads did it. Not that I'm comparing Vampire Weekend to that band in the slightest, but you can't ignore David Byrne's influence on this almost pitch-perfect, breezy indie-world-pop record that never outstays its welcome and always tickles the ear in ways that very few other high profile debuts did this year.

Familiarity may have bred a little contempt, as tracks like 'A-Punk', 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' and 'I Stand Corrected' were damned inescapable this past summer, but Vampire Weekend still stands up as a brilliant pop record in a sea of mediocrity. That's all albums like this need to be really and this was the best of its kind in 2008.

Vampire Weekend - M79 (mp3)

Vampire Weekend - Walcott (mp3)

Bonus: 'Oxford Comma' live at this year's Glastonbury.

Yer Mam!'s Guide To Essential Summer Listening, Or: Can Anybody Think Of A Better Blog Post Title Than That?

Hello there, faitful readers,

I know you've probably all been refreshing this page constantly for the last four weeks in the vain hope that it may at some point be updated, but I've been quite busy/lazy (delete as applicable, depending on how well you know me) lately and have let the blog gather dust. A thousand apologies. That's all about to change (I know I've said that before, but I really, really mean it this time) as over the next week or so, a flurry of posts should appear here on all kinds of music that's been tickling my ears while I've been away.

Bloggerpalooza was a blast - seems so long ago now - so thank you to everyone who came down. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing it again at some point in the not-too-distant future, so keep 'em peeled.

Anyway, seeing as we're edging towards the summer months - although you wouldn't be able to tell from the gale-force winds lashing past my windows at the moment - and seeing as music and nice weather go together like Ashlee Simpson and that tool from Fall Out Boy (ooooh, topical!), I thought I'd tip you off to some tunes and albums that should be rocking your barbecues and box socials from June through to September. Let the sunshine in...


Strut are on a superb roll at the moment. I guess it's a making up for lost time thing, but after the Disco Not Disco, Funky Nassau and August Darnell compilations, the next on the roster is a more streamlined follow-up to the 3-disc Nigeria 70 comp released by the label back in 2001. Subtitled Lagos Jump: Original Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife & Afro-Funk, Nigeria 70 is a timely, funky document of Nigeria's musical legacy, leaning heavily on the highlife sound that's recently been appropriated by the likes of Vampire Weekend, High Places and Yeasayer.

Packaged with some of the best sleevenotes I've ever seen, Strut have really done their homework again. I'd write more about it but the Cosmic Disco boys have covered it better than I ever could already and, well, the music really speaks for itself. All I can do is urge you to seek out this thrilling, succinct collection of some of the best, funkiest music West Africa has to offer. Check out the samples below. They should be all the convincing you need.

Dynamic Africana - Igbehin Lalayo Nta (mp3)

Ify Jerry Crusade - Everybody Likes Something Good (mp3)


Robert Owens is inarguably the greatest vocalist in the history of house music. 'Bring Down The Walls', 'Tears', 'I'm Strong', 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes', etc. All great tunes. His latest solo album, Night-Time Stories slipped by without much fanfare back in February, a sign, I guess, of the lessening cultural impact of modern house music. While electro, disco and techno continue to thrive and be lauded at every turn, the perception of house as a dying artform seems to be worryingly more cemented with every passing day.

It's not a school of thought to which I subscribe as there are still lots of producers doing great things in the house spectrum (Arto Mwambe, Marcus Worgull, Laurent Garnier with his new 12" on Innervisions), but most of those guys are cross-pollinating, incorporating elements of techno and electro whilst jackin' as hard as they can. Owens pulls together some of house's best producers for Night-Time Stories, and the overall effect is of the house cognoscenti thumbing their noses at the tastemakers in a highly-replayable act of defiance with the great soulman at the helm.

Owens pulls out all the stops here, summoning up some of his best vocals in years for collaborators such as Wahoo, Atjazz, Simbad, Charles Webster, Jimpster, TJ Kong & Nuno Dos Santos and Marc Romboy. It's also remarkably fresh, frequently breathing life into tired old tropes. Owens saves his best for Ian Pooley, with the unifying, twilit gospel of 'I'm Chained' (one of my favourite tunes of the year so far), but he delivers great turns for the aforementioned Kong & Dos Santos (the unbearably deep 'Merging'), Webster (the florid, yet moody 'Never Give Up') and Romboy (the light-fingered Booka Shade-isms of 'Back To You'). Even the house-heads may have dismissed this as more of the same, but they'll be missing out on one of the more surprising full-lengths of the year.

Robert Owens - Merging (produced by TJ Kong & Nuno Dos Santos) (mp3)

Robert Owens - Now I Know (produced by Atjazz) (mp3)


When Pimp C died late last year, I feared that the upcoming Bun B solo effort, II Trill was going to be a mawkish, teary affair, endless .40s being poured on the kerb and all that. I was wrong, as Bun has offered forth the best tribute to his late partner possible; a record that keeps the UGK flame alive in a suitably fiery manner. The production (from names such as J.R. Rotem, Clinton Sparks, Jazze Pha, CHOPS and Scott Storch among others) is cavernous and Bun is on fire on pretty much every track.

The supporting cast reads like a who's-who of Southern hip-hop (as is the norm for UGK-related projects), with Rick Ross, David Banner, Lil' Wayne, Z-Ro, 8-Ball & MJG, Young Buck and more weighing in with some great verses. Outsider Lupe Fiasco even proves himself adept at the Southern style on 'Swang On 'Em' and Mya crops up on surefire pop-rap hit of 2008, the S.O.S. Band-sampling 'Good II Me', while Chamillionaire fits like a glove on 'Underground Thang' (replete with the only Pimp C verse here). Bun's rhymes are as complex and winning as usual, ensuring this bass-heavy opus rocks trunks and clubs from now until doomsday.

Bun B - Good II Me (feat. Mya) (mp3)

Bun B - Swang On 'Em (feat. Lupe Fiasco) (mp3)

Bonus: S.O.S. Band - Just Be Good To Me (mp3)

And if that lot don't turn you on, you ain't got no switches.

Back later in the week with more sunshine picks.

JMx