(some of) Larry's Best of 2008 for $5!

A few of Larry's top ten choices are available from Amazon
at a pretty good price.

$5 will buy you full album digital downloads of:

2) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes/Sun Giant EP
Timeless, haunting, beautiful... if I wasn't such a damn Anglophile, this would probably have been my number one for 2008. It was a close call. At any rate, the Fleet Foxes have crafted an amazing blend of old 70s folk rock and new-fangled, spooky Strange Country. The old folks will dig it cause it reminds them of Neil Young and Fairport Convention, and the young'uns will dig it cause it sounds like today -- an organic response to our increasingly clinical, commercial culture. (And yes, this is actually an album and an EP, and yes, they were actually released in 2007. No worries, they "arrived" this year!)

3) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
The most up-tempo and fun album of 2008. No question. I'm not convinced they'll be able to stick around through a second album, but who cares? This album is a masterpiece of glamour rock n' roll. Bowie should be jealous.

5) Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind
The best country album in several years, I wish there were more artists as talented as Hayes Carll. And to be honest, as much as I like "She Left Me For Jesus," there are far, far better tracks on this one. ("It's A Shame" might be one of the best Country songs of all time.)

There is some other stuff well worth $5 (B.B. King's "One Kind Favor" and REM's "Accelerate") and Mama Mia! there's some crap you'd have to pay me to download.

Here's the link to Amazon's 2008 top 50 discs for $5!

Edited: I should have know the "Mama Mia" link would activate the porn pirates. Comments locked.