It hasn’t been an amazing year for music, but surely an entertaining one. Lots of new acts jockeying for position amongst the wily veterans, and plenty of debate even as early as June over love ‘em-or hate ‘em titles such as King of Limbs and James Blake’s eponymous debut and where they belong in the year’s final canonization of greats. Honestly, I can’t remember a year in recent memory when I’ve found so many hyped records I’ve disliked or been entirely disinterested in so many times. Cults? Pass. Tyler, The Creator? Garbage. Even Sub Pop’s universally-praised debut for Shabazz Palaces bored me. The saviors from my musical banality have consistently been experienced groups who know what they’re doing and get praised for their music and not being arrested in LA and starting riots. Sounds curmudgeonly, sure, but we do listen to music for the music, right?

11. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (LL)

One of the best break-up albums I’ve heard in years. Stinging thematic content mixed with Li’s Swed-pop is a potent combination.

10. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light (Interscope)

On the surface, a laid-back, almost unassuming record, but TVOTR are good at layering depth, and the album delivers something new after every listen.

9. My Morning Jacket – Circuital (ATO)

As close as a band can be to returning to form without abandoning lessons learned from previous experimentation. Another classic MMJ recording.

8. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Bella Union)

Following up a masterful debut with another masterpiece. These guys made it look easy.

7. Panda Bear – Tomboy (Paw Tracks)

A derivation from earlier work; more electronic, ethereal. But no less beautiful and no less moving.

6. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (Rough Trade)

You’ll be hard-pressed to find another quality collection of alt-rock songs like this all year. The antithesis of their sprawling rock opera, with abounding singles.

5. The Black Lips – Arabia Mountain (Vice Records)

With nods to everyone from The Rolling Stones to the Ramones, working with Mark Ronson turned out to the be the best thing to ever happen to The Black Lips.

4. Destroyer – Kaputt (Merge)

Dan Bejar is a mad genius. His music teeters between layers of irony and sincerity and where it ultimately ends up doesn’t matter because it’s all so good.

3. Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong (ATO)

It’s a slide guitar away from being an outright country album, at least back when country music meant fantastic songwriting instead of lowest common denominator pandering and a colossal drawl. A nearly flawless album.

2. White Denim – D (Downtown Records)

The album clocks in at just over 35 minutes but it packs an unreal punch. Energy and hooks to spare, one of the biggest surprises of the year so far.

1. tUnE-yArDs – W H O K I L L (4AD)

Addicting is the best way to describe Merrill Garbus’ music. Her distinctive voice and arrangements get in your head like nothing else will.

Canada was something of a no-mans land in music at the beginning of the decade. The break-through acts that would give credibility and attention to the Toronto music scene (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Feist etc) had either yet to form or were toiling away, building up their name, but The Stills from Montreal mixed their French-Canadian heritage with a UK-influenced sound, arriving on the New York scene in the midst of its hyped and glorious ascendancy.

There was no question that The Stills had found themselves in the right place at the right time, with a sound and style fully formed and enough songs in their repertoire to elevate them above the rabble. Quickly signing to Vice records, they released the critically received Rememberese EP that spawned the Public Image Limited lifting “Still in Love Song”. It was the perfect song for that moment. A catchy, brooding and bitter song, the self-referencing 80s influences standing strong, and where similar bands like The Strokes were pushing image over art, and Interpol were angling for the esoteric and austere, The Stills were pure electricity, with songs that would explode in a shower of sparks, giving rise to comparisons with The Chameleons, The Pixies and Echo and The Bunnymen.

Their debut album Logic Will Break Your Heart was an astonishing release that exceeded expectation. A dozen songs honed to perfection, songs that teased and toured the depths of human emotion with epic choruses of apocalyptic romantic urgency, The Stills maintained these were desperate times but it wasn’t time to let go. With a follow-up album Without Feathers released in 2005, and their latest album Oceans Will Rise released in August of 2008,  Webcuts caught up the band late last year and spoke with vocalist/guitarist Tim Fletcher to indulge in a little history revision.

Webcuts caught The Stills play their very first show at the Buffalo Bar in London in 2003 having oddly picked up on them from the radio relentlessly playing “Still in Love Song”. The show itself was a double-bill with Ireland’s The Thrills, which a member of the band made light of at the time, suggesting all they needed were The Kills and they’d have the complete set. It was an impressive debut on that tiny stage, highlighting unreleased tracks like “Gender Bombs” and “Lola Stars and Stripes” that would feature prominently on their forthcoming album. The songs were in a similar vein to that of “Still in Love Song” — epic guitar-driven tracks with big choruses infused with melodrama. It was only a brief half-hour set, but they had quickly made an impression. Tim is lost in thought for a second as I jog his memory.

“Oh yeah, I remember that show. That place was tiny. At that point when we first played in London it was spring of 2003. We’d been playing around since 2000/2001 in various forms and various recorded forms… on heiroglyphics, parchments… We came back a few months later, and played with TV on The Radio that was really rough, I lost my voice, and my throat was bleeding and I had a throat infection and all kinds of record company people were there for all labels, and it was super important show and I stood up there and lost my voice. Which was kinda cool in the end”.

From an outside perspective, The Stills seemed to come out of nowhere, shifting back and forth Montreal to New York, playing shows and building a name for themselves, making friends with bands like Interpol who adopted the band and took them on tour. Both bands shared a similar aesthetic presentation that distanced themselves from the garage rock reinvention that was happening around town, and it wasn’t long before the band had begun making enough waves to sign with a new label and put out their first single.

“From the very beginning the band started playing as a four piece and within two months we were signed to Vice records and that’s how we rose to prominence initially. They put out the first EP and the first album, within a few months of each other. We were in New York at the time, hanging out with friends and artists and, some of them were mutual friends of ours and the Vice people and it just worked out like that. We were their first domestic signing and they wanted to make a great debut record as their first step”. With a critically received debut album (Logic Will Break Your Heart) under their belts, the band began long tours around North America and Europe, releasing several follow-up singles (“Lola Stars and Stripes”, “Changes Are No Good” and a re-recorded “Still in Love Song”) to great response.

The unexpected departure of guitarist Greg Paquet when the band returned to Canada to work on the second album cast some doubt on the future of the band. In most cases, a departure like this from a band riding a wave of success can be disastrous but the band used it to their advantage. “He was a really smart guy with a lot of different interests and he was eager to pursue a lot of different avenues and do other things with his life. He got a lot out of being in a band and learned a lot from it and wanted to move on. At the same time we happened to be changing and evolving as a band”.

Paquet’s departure would see a dramatic change in the band with Fletcher being removed from the microphone while drummer and songwriter Dave Hamlin took his place on guitar and a new drummer was hired. Keyboardist, Liam O’Neil, who had been touring with the band over the last 12 months became a full-time member. I ask whether Paquet’s departure was a catalyst for the game of musical chairs that would follow.

“A little bit. Liam was already in the band since the beginning, but he became a little more in the forefront, and we got a new drummer and Dave stepped up to the forefront and started singing and playing guitar as well, but he’d always written a lot of songs and played guitar and sang, so it was not a strange or unexpected move. The only reason he played drums in the beginning was because we didn’t have a drummer”.

A misconception at the time that worked against the band when Without Feathers was released was Fletcher’s role as the frontman and that since he sung the songs, he also wrote them. When it came to the writing of the song that featured on the first album,  much of the material had been written before the band had started, and the songs which were attributed to the group as a whole, were largely written by Hamelin.

“I wrote three songs on that record personally, and Dave wrote the other nine songs, so that’s how it broke down for that record. I’d write my parts and lyrics and Dave would do the same and that’s how it functioned”. When it came to the release Without Feathers, the songwriting for each song was made clear, and the dominance of Hamelin on vocals was seen as The Stills evolving into an entirely different band that were broadening their sound, which some fans found distracting.

“I can see how it could be could be a confusing record for a Stills fan who expected a band of the same people making the same kind of music,” Fletcher asserts, “but we’re all into varying types of music, like the most simple catchy pop to really avant garde fucked up experimental compositions and our interest exist everywhere in between. The second record is more of a kinda rootsy The Band, Neil Young, Dylan vibe and we needed to get that out.”

When a band goes through such extreme changes it begs the question as to whether toes were stepped on and the decisions agreed on being entirely amicable. Being the one who was forced to step aside on vocal duties for Without Feathers, Fletcher, having no doubt fielded inferences like this in the past, didn’t hesitate in his response. “We’re a family, and The Stills are a refuge to try things out. We’re young in our career and we haven’t shown our different sides yet. I think each step will make itself more clear in time. The more records we put out, the more people will see that we have a lot to try and a lot to get out. So having Dave sing the record was a necessary step that needed to happen”.

At the time of the release, many critics found the album less than impressive, laying fault on the direction the band were moving into and the sweeping changes that preceded.  New songs like “In the Beginning” and “Destroyer” were aiming for a more generalised rock and roll sound — with hammond organ fills and acoustic guitar. The band were quoted at the time that they didn’t want to write Logic Part 2, but when they started debuting new material live, it came as a surprise to some people. Fletcher takes the criticism in his stride.

“We’re very reckless in our approach to record making, I guess. It keeps it interesting, and you’re nothing if you don’t feel some kind of precipice. If you don’t feel some kind of potential fall and failure. You should set it up that, not all records need to be that, but we like to have that kind of urgency”.

More on page 2…

2008 was without a doubt an exceptional year for music. Without revealing too much from our list below, there were outstanding sophomore efforts by Beach House and Long Blondes, debut albums by a stunning array of new acts like Crystal Castles, Glasvegas and Fleet Foxes, and albums from iconic acts like TV On The Radio and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds that cemented their standing in modern music.

There was some belief that since so many of Webcuts favoured acts had released albums in 2007, that 2008 was going to be something of a layover year, but even a few months in as the new releases begin to flood our desks we knew we were in for a treat. Now here for your reading pleasure is Webcuts class of 2008.

An album of unexpected pure pop delights, She & Him was a collaboration between the delicious actress Zooey Deschanel and singer-songwriter Matt Ward. This collection of 60s inspired tunes written by Deschanel were sugar sweet and lushly rendered. Traces of the Beatles and the Beach Boys were caught lurking beneath Ward’s arrangements and the strength of Deschanel’s voice only added weight to the credibility of this project. This wasn’t just another Hollywood actress trying her luck as singer. Their duet on Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold On Me” was only one of many highlights. We can only hope for an expedited Volume 2 in the near future. (Craig)

Brooklyn’s Santi “Santogold” White had the kind of year most artists only dream about, as a decade of working in the music business, the savvy utilisation of MySpace and the support of bloggers bore prodigious fruit. Her debut album Santogold impressed with its myriad styles — from Ska and Dub to 80s new wave — themes of empowerment and good old fashion boasting. (Caleb) Full review.

The darkly titled Oceans Will Rise did much to address the balance between The Stills of Logic Will Break Your Heart with The Stills of its disappointing follow-up, Without Feathers. From the menacing beauty of the gold-painted skull on the album sleeve to the buoyant melodies that weave through the songs in waves, there was much more to this album than met the eye. The Eastern European feel of “Snakecharming the Masses” built around a tribal-sounding rhythm that paired with the subtle swell of Fletcher’s vocals found The Stills in the grip of self-discovery and invention. (Craig) Full review.

Truth be told The Kills’ — transatlantic duo Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince — third album was an uneven affair. For every perfectly formed relationship drama e.g. “Last Day of Magic” or chilling tale of letting go such as “Black Balloon” there was the dirge-like “M.E.X.I.C.O” or throwaway “Sour Cherry” – but when the dirty drum machine beats, bluesy garage rock and Mosshart’s channelling of Polly Harvey and Karen O gelled it was well worth the price of admission. (Caleb)

Evil Urges is an awesomely confounding record. It’s not quite Kiss Unmasked, but songwriter Jim James without his cloak of reverb, pushing out a falsetto vocal was an altogether unexpected moment. Even with the reassuring knowledge that this was the new My Morning Jacket album, it was one that leapt styles and influences in a way no previous album had. The electro-dance touches of “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream” offered more evidence that My Morning Jacket were breaking away from convention with Evil Urges being their most outward attempt to gain wider recognition and distance themselves from the staid Skynyrd Southern Rock pigeon-holing. (Craig) Full review.

I’m From Barcelona’s first album enraptured many its sing-a-long anthems and cheery demeanor which helped to dispel the notion they were merely a novelty act, but it was one so full of sugary twee pop you could almost feel the calories piling on. Who Killed Harry Houdini? was the sugar rush comedown, an album with soft focus production and an air of detached melancholy. While the elements that made us fall in love with I’m from Barcelona remained – sweet melodies, multi-backed choruses and varied instrumentation – the downbeat tempo combined with vastly improved lyrics full of detailed character vignettes to create a work of greater sustenance. (Caleb)

When viewed next to their debut, “Couples” is of a different class and from a different age. The Long Blondes always seemed hemmed in by their own aspirations and you can only go so far with pop culture knowledge and a keen sense of wardrobe. They had advanced beyond expectation and fashioned an artistic statement that is more than just a magnifying glass on our lives but a cultural and historical commentary wrapped up in one. It was inventive, intelligent and exciting. A rare case of pop music with brains, presented with a conviction that is almost unbeatable. Unfortunately, a paralysing stroke which befell guitarist/songwriter Dorian Cox would sadly bring an premature end to this great Sheffield band before the year was out. (Craig) Full review.

Webcuts was on hand recently to see TV On The Radio debut their new album live in front of a packed and heaving audience at Cargo in London. The expectation ahead of Dear Science and the anticipation of those waiting within (not to mention the hundreds locked outside) provided for an entertaining and exciting show. New tracks like “Dancing Choose” and “Crying” got their first airings while reworked versions of old classics like “Wolf Like Me” and “Staring At The Sun” proved that TV On The Radio are constantly evolving and constantly moving forward.

Currently amping up audiences all across America, we caught up with Jaleel to ask him about the recording of Dear Science and the current state of TV On The Radio affairs.

How are you holding up? The tour hasn’t been too stressful so far?

It’s been stressful (laughs). It’s been a little stressful, but you know it puts us to good work.

Is it getting harder or easier this making albums and touring them?

It’s a progression. In some ways it’s a lot easier without nine people crammed into a six person van, as was the case for a little while.

When you’re in the studio are you conscious of a point of not repeating yourself? Was Dear Science an easy record to get out?

It’s funny. I’ve been asked that question a few times. Different people have different motivations with what they make and what they do. It’s not too difficult for us to not repeat ourselves because we have no desire to. I just can’t find the aesthetic motivation to do it. It’s not what we get out of music. We don’t get any kind of challenge from doing the same thing over and over and over. In a way, no, that’s not the difficult part. It wouldn’t be any fun to do it otherwise.

So was there an idea in mind for when you went to make Dear Science and what kind of record it would be?

We really wanted to make a record that got finished (laughs). As long as we were able to make a record that got finished, we were willing to accept wherever that lead us.

It seems like TV On The Radio’s ‘pop album’. There seems to be a bit more buoyancy about this record.

It’s something that’s come up a lot. I guess I didn’t realise how depressed we are (laughs). The problem with that is we’re not so morose that’s it’s all a melancholy lament. That’s what people expect from us, but to us it’s a kind of a surprise, but we’re obviously multi-faceted people and there’s a lot of different shades to our personalities. Maybe it’s kind of new, as a voice of TV On The Radio, but as far as I know, and the other people in the band and what work they’ve done, I feel like it’s an aspect of our personalities that only existed in each of us as?un-medicated voice.

Even the slower songs like “Family Tree” don’t seem as dense though. There’s a real elegance about those tracks.

Elegance is an excellent trait. I feel that “Family Tree” is my favourite song on the record. I think also there’s a bit of maturity that happens, with the whole arc of this band’s success, whatever that is. It’s really surprising, we never expected much success out of it. I joined the band thinking I was going to drum for a friend of mine and have to go back to my job as a bartender. I never expected this and didn’t think it was some great moral leap, we’re kinda inept in how to do what we do. Everyone in this band is kinda out of their element. We’re limited in our approach to music. Tunde was never really a musician. Dave’s not really a guitar player. I’m really a guitar player, not a drummer.

Dear Science also sound pretty loose for TV On The Radio – “Red Dress” is kinda funky, and “Dancing Choose” as well. It even goes the playful step further of rhyming “action pose” with “axl rose”.

Yeah that still cracks me up, but that’s ok to crack yourself up sometimes.

Is Dear Science a bit more of a personal record then for a band who wrote “Dry-Drunk Emperor” about George W. Bush in an election year especially, there doesn’t seem to be anything that overt on Dear Science. There’s sex odes like “Lovers Day” on this record.

I don’t really write the lyrics and a lot of times that’s how the political context comes across. A lot of that is borne out of conversations and dialogue that we have amongst each other. You want to feel like what you’re doing is your making a sound, a universal global validity that’s not just about you and your girlfriend. With politics especially, you run the risk of being didactic and sometimes it can be at odds with the music for us musicians. If you’re so hell-bent on pumping your political message down someone’s throat quite often you lose the message. So maybe we’re conscious to not do that, to not take that step of making political stances rather than musical stances.

I guess inbetween writing TV On The Radio songs, you guys all keep really busy on the side and even between records there’s always a lot of projects going on. It would take days just to talk about them all, but I do want to quiz you on one thing that not only your bandmate Dave Sitek produced but also you played on, the Scarlett Johansson record.

Of course. I knew that was going to come up. I guess you had to ask (laughs).

Well let’s face it, Dave Sitek is on every second record that comes out, but you pick and choose a bit more yourself, but the pair of you teamed up for Tom Waits covers. How was it for you guys working outside the realm of TV On The Radio and doing a project like that with those songs in particular?

Well, I can only speak personally, but really the thing that impressed me about the whole experience was the lack of hubbub, you know. I didn’t know what to expect, I’m not in that world of a-list starlets which has gotta be super insane. I kinda expected it to be a little more entourage-y. I was definitely impressed. It was just me, Dave, Scarlett and the musicians that were playing. There wasn’t any special treatment or catering or handlers or any weird stuff like that. It made me feel a lot more comfortable about working on the project.

It was reassuring for us as well to see the end result. It’s nice to read that you guys were doing the album with Scarlett as it obviously could’ve gone so wrong with any other people.

I’d heard some previous attempts and it was a little weird.

It’s a good family Jaleel, and I hope that you can bring at least part of that extended family back to Australia at some point.

It’ll be great. I can’t wait to go back to Australia.

Brooklyn art/beat innovators TV on the Radio return with their third album, a soulful slice of inspiration and invention, moving away from the doom and desperation of 2006′s Return to Cookie Mountain to give us their own potent and poignant sign o’ the times.

TV on the Radio’s chief technician David Sitek once said in relation to the public’s reaction to their sound and approach to their music “Are they trying to half-ass every genre and ape every style they can? The answer is yes.” and this is something more noticeable on Dear Science than any other of their past releases. This is a dance record, or at least TV on the Radio’s idea of a dance record. Sharp rhythms, bright brass sounds and high falsetto vocals frame the overall feel and clarity of the album.

The uptemp opener “Halfway Home”, with its “Surfin’ Bird” ba-ba-ba-ba’ backing vocal, brisk beats and handclap rhythms, finds vocalist Tunde Adebimpe lamenting a lost love or something deeper, the sense of dread and desperation constantly hangs overhead, yet when the music breaks free from the words, this song literally takes off. “Crying” follows suit with a funky bassline and slick guitar riffs that give way to another falsetto chorus. Despondency and the desire to rise up is an old protest singers trick, this time Kyp Malone urging that its “Time to take the wheel and the road/From the masters/Take this car/Drive it straight into the wall”.

Adebimpe loses himself on “Dancing Choose”, double-timing lines in such a blur that only a lyric sheet can determine what’s being said. It’s alive and up front, sax heavy and shifting, and at the shortest track on the album packs the biggest punch. The influence of Prince weighs large on “Golden Age” with its jungle rhythms and strings, Malone shadowing the purple one in the vocal delivery, the message here is a simple one — fuck war, let’s dance — “There’s a golden age coming’ round/Blowin’ up like a ghetto blaster”. “Stork and Owl” and “Family Tree” cut the power and brings the mood down. The latter finding TV on the Radio at their most touching and moving. Stuttering beats and strings, piano chords like ripples from the ocean reach for an emotional mood. “We’re hanging in the gallows of your family tree”.

In an album with too many highlights, Dear Science closes on a true get down and dirty moment with “Lovers Day”. “Call off work let’s lay/it’s lovers day!” demands Malone (in a duet of sorts with Katrina Ford from Celebration) before getting explicitly suggestive. I’m searching my mind but I still can’t find another line to compete with ‘”Ball so hard we’ll smash the walls”. Amongst the strong messages that fill the lyrics of “DLZ” and “Red Dress” with its “Hey Jackboot! Fuck your war!” defiance, TV on the Radio can still get down to a different kind of business.

It’s not hard to realise that Dear Science is the album TV on the Radio have been promising to deliver since Young Liars. It’s a soaring mainstream effort that captures the mood of the moment and one that will reinforce their position as one of the important acts of the decade.