TOP 2008 • 30-21

30. Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz

"Bombadil's stunning debut album combines a love of international folk with homegrown mountain-blues, played with a good-time rollicking feel perfect for road trips and lazy summer days."
Tim Newby, Paste Magazine

Trip Out West (MP3)

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29. Michael Holland - Simple Truths And Pleasures

"Simple Truths And Pleasures is a rare example of truth in advertising, a paean to a time when music was made for back porches and barn raisings instead of beer commercials."
Darryl Smyers, Dallas Observer

San Souci Women (MP3)

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28. Ashton Shepherd - Sounds So Good

"Sounds So Good lives up to its title as a sort of concept album about the trials of being a young housewife in a rural community. [...] Shepherd excels by singing the hell out of everything, as if that's what it takes for a young woman to be heard."
Stephen M Deusner, Pitchfork

27. Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity

"The quartet succeeds in doing what they do best—blending American music genres with ease and enthusiasm. [...] it’s a nice reminder of what was so wonderful about alt-country in the first place."
Michael Franco, PopMatters

Here's To The Halcyon (MP3)

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26. Joey + Rory - The Life Of A Song

"Joey + Rory will delight anyone who's still retro enough to think that when it comes to country, the only electric guitar you need is a pedal steel."
John Lupton, Country Standard Time

25. Marah - Angels Of Destruction

"Angels sounds definitive: swaggering (through and out of the barroom), celebrating (in spite of adversity), rocking (and rolling)."
Steve Klinge, Magnet

Santos de Madera (MP3)

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24. Taylor Swift - Fearless

"Like many country-pop albums of the 2000s, the pop heavily outweighs the country -- there aren't fiddles here, there are violins -- yet Fearless never feels garish. [...] One of the best mainstream pop albums of 2008."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic

23. Tyler Ramsey - A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea

"A Long Dream is a Loch Ness sort of creature: you don’t see one very often, but it gives off the kind of vibrations that these chipper morning hours exude and even suggest the clearings that a fisherman in a small and silent rowboat could come upon as he paddled toward a virgin shore, before the deer had awoke to drink, before any sun had spilled over the trees and onto the sandy shore."
Sean Moller, Daytrotter

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22. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

"Narrow Stairs est encore un très bon album à mettre au crédit de l’un des groupes indés les plus intéressants de sa génération."
Christophe, Indiepoprock.net

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21. Brothers and Sisters - Fortunately

"Any old sadcore band can set you staring at your shoelaces, but getting listeners to contemplate mortality while happily humming and tapping their toes is something subversively special."
Joshua Love, Pitchfork

You're Gone (MP3)

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