It's ALIVE! Best Summer Albums of 2008

Aaaand were back from a very long self imposed hiatus. I've decided to start writing this again, but I am not making any promises in terms of format. I'm just going to write what I want. If you don't like it, you can shove it. But you don't like it, you love it (thanks for that line, Rivers). And on that note I'd like to count down my top 5 Albums of Summer 08:


5. Weezer - Weezer (The Red Album)

I might like this album better than I like the Green Album. It's no Pinkerton or Blue Album, but it's pretty fun. The first four songs are incredible. The rest of the album is fun and enjoyable. A good summer jam, but nothing too legendary. Just another very solid album from a band with a very solid career. The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived shines above the rest with a seemingly endless amount of movements and crescendos, and includes a spoken word breakdown that is responsible for the quotation featured in the intro of this post.


4. Cookin' Soul - OJAYZIS (Oasis vs. Jay-Z Mixtape)

So much damn fun. Fans of either artist will enjoy the reinterpretation produced by Cookin' Soul. Although neither the best free album of the summer, nor is it the best mashup album of the summer, OJAYZIS is blast and a half. The mixtape begins with a live performance of Wonderwall by Jay-Z from this years Glastonbury Festival. From there, the hits start rolling, and there is no looking back.


3. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

When the first song of an album released in mid July has a chorus that exclaims "We're gonna build somethin' this summer!" you know your in for some good old fashion summer jams. Although it's no Boys and Girls In America, Say Positive is an incredibly good album. Hitting on many of the very themes and ideas that define summer, this album is a great summer soundtrack for excessive amounts of drinking, smoking, grilling, roadtripping and well, building shit. Over-all, Stay Positive is more than just a great summer album, it is easily one of the best albums of the year and a worthy follow-up to the nearly perfect predacessor.


2. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

You do the math:

Every fun song you've ever heard

- The songs that appear on Night Ripper

+ Summer

x The best mash-up artist I've ever heard

= Feed The Animals

'Nuff said.


1. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III

Club jams? Check. Social and politcal commentary? Check. Guest appearances galore? Check. Song about being an extra-terrestrial? Check. Best Summer Album of 2008? Hell yes. Tha Carter III, in addition to being probably the best album of the year and perhaps one of the best rap albums of all time, it's one of the most fun rap albums I've ever heard. This album's balance of style and substance is unparelled. It's original, vicious, funny, poignant and above all, brilliant. From where I'm sitting, there is only one song on this album that doesn't have the potential to be a real hip-hop classic. Coming in at a whopping 77 minutes, this album does two things that rarely happen in the world of rap: live up to hype, avoid fluff. I say this as a music listener/critic who used to think Lil' Wayne was a talentless hack: Tha Carter III is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and it is most certainly the Best Summer Album of 2008.


Peace.