Top 50 Albums of 2008: #7 & 8

8. Fuck Buttons Street Horrrsing
Four minutes and forty-five seconds into Street Horrrsing the atmosphere changes for the first time. It evolves from a pretty, hypnotic drone to something a little bit more dense. For the first time on the record there's the cracked and indecipherable effect of yelling vocals through a childish microphone recorder. It's only the first of the changes in atmosphere on a record rife with them, but it's this significant one that sets the tone for the rest of the record. It prepares your senses for the unexpected, before you were just drifting along on a wave of sound but now there's something completely new and totally profound invading your ears. That is the essence of what Fuck Buttons bring to the table on their full length debut and if you can't get behind something that profound then don't bother going past the first four plus minutes of this record.
Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love for Planet Earth"
Fuck Buttons - "Ribs Out"

---

7. Marnie Stern This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That
On her debut Marnie Stern welcomed us to the world of her ridiculous finger tapping skills, but this time around Marnie has stepped up her game and allowed her vocals and the drumming of Zach Hill to share equal billing with her guitar playing. This record hits at an obscene pace with loops and fills taking over every inch of space on the recording, but as is revealed from the opening vocals part on the very first track she has put a little more effort into the actually song structure this time around. It makes for a more pleasant listen the second time around but it also takes nothing away from her skills on the fret board. Zach Hill is also as ridiculously good as always throughout this record. This hits hard!
Marnie Stern - "Ruler"
Marnie Stern - "Transformer"