Bryan Reed’s 2008 Top 10

Bryan Reed’s 2008 Top 10

1. Mount Eerie (with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire) — Lost Wisdom (P.W. Elverum & Sun)

Lost Wisdom moans and creaks like an old wicker-seated chair. It’s tender and imperfect, and for that it’s hauntingly intimate. Phil Elverum’s worn tenor embraces Julie Doiron’s warm vaporous timbre, as sheer sheets of easy chords and Fred Squire’s whispered electric guitar steam some kind of comfort from Elverum’s lonesome ruminations. The record itself seems born directly of the earth, as though its players were mere vessels for generations-old sounds to come groaning out of the ether — delicate, affecting, and beautiful.

2. WHY? — Alopecia (Anticon)

3. Earth — The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord)

4. Nomo — Ghost Rock (Ubiquity)

5. Mamiffer — Hirror Enniffer (Hydra Head)

6. Fuck Buttons — Street Horrrsing (ATP)

7. Harvey Milk — Life … The Best Game in Town (Hydra Head)

8. Fucked Up — The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

9. Grampall Jookabox — Ropechain (Asthmatic Kitty)

10. The Dodos — Visiter (Frenchkiss)

Bryan Reed is a Charlotte-based freelance writer, quarterly magazine editor, and music contributor. He knows how to “shuffle.”

Next critic’s “Best of 2008” list: Michael Andrews…