“Rolling Stone” Turns On Its TV

noah | December 10, 2008 12:00 pm

Rolling Stone‘s year-end lists went online today, and its album rundown is topped by a relatively new band! The No. 1 record of the year in the boomer bible’s estimation is TV On The Radio’s Dear Science—although order is restored at No. 2, which is given over to the latest edition of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series collection. (Whew!) The full 50 after the jump, but first, a few thoughts.

THE GOOD: Santogold at No. 6; Ne-Yo at No. 33; The Academy Is… at No. 46. There are other surprisingly in-touch-with-the-times inclusions, but those three pleased me the most on first read. THE BAD: Carp about the list’s high quotient of people flying the Real Rock Flag as much as you want; the real tragedy here is that a list announcing the biggest music magazine’s favorite records of the year is nestled inside an issue that has on its cover an actor who has yet to release a vanity-project album. As if we needed more evidence that music doesn’t really sell, well, much of anything these days. THE WHAAAA? You guys, no one is believing the “Chinese Democracy (No. 12) is actually good” storyline. I understand this went to press way before the album’s anemic first-week sales—and the even grimmer second-week numbers—but really, putting it on any 2008 list that doesn’t have a caveat for “albums that actually exist out of time, but at least gave our reporters lots of news fodder leading up to its release” is sort of a cheat.

1. TV on the Radio, Dear Science 2. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs — The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 3. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III 4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges 5. John Mellencamp, Life, Death, Love and Freedom 6. Santogold, Santogold 7. Coldplay, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends 8. Beck, Modern Guilt 9. Metallica, Death Magnetic 10. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend 11. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes 12. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy 13. Blitzen Trapper, Furr 14. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Cardinology 15. The Black Keys, Attack & Release 16. Randy Newman, Harps and Angels 17. B.B. King, One Kind Favor 18. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey 19. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Part 1 (4th World War) 20. Kings of Leon, Only by the Night 21. Kaiser Chiefs, Off With Their Heads 22. Jackson Browne, Time the Conquerer 23. Conor Oberst, Conor Oberst 24. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals 25. The Magnetic Fields, Distortion 26. Mudcrutch, Mudcrutch 27. Brian Wilson, That Lucky Old Sun 28. The Knux, Remind Me in Three Days… 29. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago 30. Duffy, Rockferry 31. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular 32. Jamey Johnson, The Lonesome Song 33. Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman 34. Stephen Malkmus, Real Emotional Trash 35. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 36. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive 37. Nine Inch Nails, The Slip 38. Ra Ra Riot, The Rhumb Line 39. Taylor Swift, Fearless 40. Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer 41. AC/DC, Black Ice 42. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today 43. Nas, Untitled 44. The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely 45. Be Your Own Pet, Get Awkward 46. The Academy Is…, Fast Times at Barrington High 47. Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping 48. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It 49. Hot Chip, Made in the Dark 50. No Age, Nouns

Albums Of The Year [RS]