Best Albums of 2008: #3: Deerhunter: Microcastle

3. Deerhunter: Microcastle

Deerhunter is a really good band from the ATL, and I really admire the way they started from incredibly humble roots and ended up where they are now. I was listening to Microcastle on the way to LA on the plane’s XM radio a few weeks ago, and it occurred to me that the speed of technological development has made such encounters almost inevitable. If it hadn’t been Deerhunter, it would have been the Black Lips or another successful local band.

Truthfully, this is the first album of theirs that I could actually get into. It has a lot of stylistic variety, and this may be what has given it some more mainstream appeal and contributed to its popularity. I just really feel like there isn’t a song on this album that could have been made in a different historical moment, and that’s why there’s something about it that stays with you and makes you quietly say, “wow” to yourself long after the disc has ended.

Related posts:
Best of 2008: #4: The Walkmen: You & Me
Best of 2008: #5: Gentleman Jesse and His Men
Best of 2008: #6: Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Best of 2008: #7: Okkervil River: The Stand-ins
Best of 2008: #8: MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
Best of 2008: #9: Streetlight Manifesto: Somewhere in the Between
Best of 2008: #10: M83: Saturdays=Youth
Best of 2008: #11: TV On the Radio: Dear Science
Best of 2008: #12: Mount Eerie: Lost Wisdom
Best of 2008: #13: Cloud Cult: Feel Good Ghosts
Best of 2008: #14: Ratatat: LP3
Best of 2008: #15: The Submarines: Honeysuckle Weeks
Best of 2008: #16: Grand Archives: S/T
Best of 2008: #17: Yelle: Pop-up
Best of 2008: #18: Parenthetical Girls: Entanglements
Best of 2008: #19: The Gaslight Anthem- The '59 Sound
Best of 2008: #20: Billy Bragg- Mr. Love and Justice
Best of 2008: Intro