happy 2009.

2008 goes out as one of the most blissful years for
music in existence. The Tough Alliance came to us
late in 07, and their Sincerely Yours label emerged
this year as one of our most beloved, managing to
casually place pop gems into our unexpecting hands
(ears?) that quickly became some of our most loved
songs of the year, and maybe, ever. Air France’s
No Way Down EP marked the start of the Swedish
Summer Beach Party 08, where foreign CFCs and
the Chernobyl hangover dissolved the Mamma Mia!
workprint into something warped and exquisite. It
was as much of a dream as anything else, about
imagining an impossibly idyllic place through sounds
that could never have been performed that way in
real life. So Air France became an idea of bliss,
whatever that may be to you right here in the
present: the sunny beach, the expansive countryside,
the virgin snow, speeding down the Don Valley in the
TT. Drifting in and out of musical genres, from pop to
electronic to afro-beat and back again. Sort of like a
dream? No. Better.

And then there was M83. Saturdays=Youth came in
with the spring and stayed all year, reminding us of
those bent-out-of-shape nights that were getting
further and further in between as we got another
year older. Me & you, over something to do? Could
this be true? That would easily be Cut Copy’s In
Ghost Colours. As spring turned into the decadence
of summer, In Ghost Colours synthesized the
looming divide between rock and electronic music
and left us feeling ever so haunted. Coming in nearer,
reaching down deeper to grab the whispers here as
we floated overseas through the seasons of change,
this is what was playing in the background of our
lives and we were unbelievably lucky to have it.

So here it is, 2009. Happy New Year from us to you.
We await, with nothing less than faith, anticipation,
excitement.

HBWG Best Albums of 2008.

1. M83 – Saturdays=Youth
2. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
3. Air France – No Way Down
4. Portishead – Third
5. Tricky – Knowle West Boy
6. Foals – Antidotes
7. Van She – V
8. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
9. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke
10. Morgan Geist – Double Night Time