Buy New or Used through amazon   OR   @ eMusic 1. Avett Brothers/I and Love and You: These shaggy bluegrass underdogs make some questionable choices, going for big production and an even bigger sound, and somehow come up with a kind of a masterpiece. Chock full of fantastic songs – epic piano ballads and twangy rockers – this album sounds like they’ve been planted, tended, watered, blossomed, and grown ten feet high. Stunning.   Buy New or Used through amazon 2. Wilco/Wilco (The Album): Every hipster critic’s favorite target, this lean, muscular pop-oriented set stands up to anything…

     Buy New or Used from amazon 1) Various Artists Take Me To The River: A Southern Soul Story 1961-1977 (Ace/KentRecords) Pricey import that matches the hype. Almost uniformly slow-burning but still the best soul box since Rhino’s 1997 Beg, Scream & Shout!, hands down.       Buy through amazon   OR   @ eMusic 2) Tinariwen Imidiwan: Companions (World Village) After 2007’s comparatively studio-driven Aman Iman: Water is Life, Mali’s masters of desert psych-blues strip it back down to the roots. Heady and addictive.      Buy New or Used through amazon 3) Various Artists Where the…

  Click to see Scott Dellamore Pooplist 2008 in PDF   Think Adobe acrobat reader takes too long to load and robs your system of resources? You need a better .pdf reader – try Foxit Reader,or the somewhat jankier, but even smaller Sumatra reader

As I now go back and decide which records moved me the most in 2008, I realize how stark and bleak all of it was. A musical colon cleanse is in order. Where is that late night infomercial when you need it? It used to be for every brokenhearted album, I’d find a ray of shinning musical light. Not this year. Has the doom and gloom just taken us over, or have I just not realized it’s been like this along? My pointer finger has become hardened by skipping songs on the iPod that do not work for the mood….

I suspect a lot of people will address a lot of big issues. Allow me to be more myopic. I’ve been doing this thing for seventeen years now. That’s a solid career for anyone. However, just like an artist or an athlete, we PooPsters suffer poor years. Consider this my Knocked Out Loaded, my ‘85-’86 Jordan, my vomit year. Joe Namath’s knees and Steve Earle’s needs. I faced some serious health issues as the new-year dawned and as my weight plummeted to 120 lbs. I lost not only my ability to eat but also my taste for new music. Astral…

Recordings 08:   Buy New or Used via Amazon C.W. Stoneking- King Hokum   Buy New or Used via Amazon Red Stick Ramblers- Made in the Shade   Buy New or Used via Amazon The Sacred Shakers (eilen jewell’s gospel band) – the sacred shakers   Buy New or Used via Amazon Living is hard: West African music in Britain 1927-29 honest jons records, UK   Buy New or Used via Amazon Bollywood Steel Guitar on Sublime Frequencies

or…. My Retro Can Beat up Your Retro Steering clear of politics and death. Just music; hooks in the mouth, holes in the cheek and the wind blowing through. A lot, maybe too much, of what I liked this year piles on the MC5, Johnny Thunders, Only Ones, psych-garage or Tin Huey, but I prefer it to sounding like Seals and Crofts, America or Bread. The WNPR list was pretty close to the one in Pitchfork; both had me suppressing the gag reflex.   But New or Used via Amazon 1. Simone Massaron featuring Carla Bozulich- DANDELIONS ON FIRE  …

Well, where did 2008 go? I know there were a lot of babies around. Of course, Nat and I had our new bairn, Finn Arden. Already, we can tell that she’s going to be just as much of a character as her brother, Declan. She’s a trip. Meanwhile, he’s always off on some adventure … slaying dragons, battling on the pirate ship, or racing to put out the fire. Talk about action-packed! With these two, there seems to be a near-constant cacophony of sound that threatens to envelope the house like a tornado. It does make it hard to hear…

  Buy New or Used via Amazon Portishead – “Third” (Mercury/Island) What’s that? How long did you say they’d been away? 10 years? And to come back so strong? Ooooofff!   Buy New or Used via Amazon Santogold – “Santogold” (Downtown / Atlantic) Diplo featuring Santogold – “Top Ranking” – A Diplo Dub mix tape (find it on the torrent sites) With Santogold vocals over a few choice tracks. Bouncy mix all the way through.   Buy New or Used via Amazon Franco – “Francophonic: A Retrospective Vol. 1 1953-1980” (Sterns) Two CD set, well chosen, good notes, decent sound….

The top 8 of 08’, top eight of two thousand and eight, 8 records in 08’ that are deemed GREAT. Here we are. Quite a year I must say. This time I bring you my usual diverse list of records, however this year I will not bore you with the cliché of “close but no cigar/2nd fiddle” titles, nor will I consume your eyes & brains with the list of “letdown” releases. Instead I give to you the crème de la crème, the SHIT, the best of the best, the PoOp. Put on your napkin, pull up a plate, sharpen…

Three of my top ten are of the reissue variety. And one is a compilation of folk guitar instrumentals from 1966 through 1981. That leaves a paltry six releases over the course of twelve months that inspired me enough to pick my head up and take notice. What should I make of this? Well, 2008 wasn’t the easiest year for pretty much anyone I’ve talked to and I’m sure the same can be said for you folks here. So I’ll cut the artists and labels some slack. Let’s all hope we all see a little light by the end of…

(*No real order here. Just the way I could remember things.)