2008: number 10

It's that time again, the time when I unnecessarily stress myself out trying to come up with my top ten albums of the past 12 months. I could wax nostalgic here about the past 12 months, about what all the music meant to me, about the implications of this list being comprised almost solely of electro, with the exception being an album about, well, fucking, but that would be super gay. So without further ado, and with hopes that this will make up for my lack of posting, the first entry in my top ten of '08 that possibly no one cares about:



Kleerup, Kleerup
I first caught word of Kleerup when a couple years ago when he teamed up with 2007 favorite Robyn for her hit track “With Every Heartbeat”, a song that has since appeared in single form, on the 2007 UK release of Robyn, and this year on Kleerup’s self-titled debut album. And admittedly my expectations weren’t incredibly high when the album appeared on my radar earlier this year, considering that, for all intents and purposes, “With Every Heartbeat” is basically a Robyn song with sick ass beats, and I just wasn’t sure he could pull it off on his own. But pull it off he did, laying down track after track of dreamy, Italodisco-tiged electropop that proved him as a formidable talent in the field. Standouts include “Until We Bleed”, a mournful, downtempo “duet” with another 2008 breakthrough artist, Lykke Li (love her, but the album wasn’t strong enough to make this list – look for her in my planned top singles); “3AM”, a Moroder-esque track featuring Marit Bergman that admittedly sounds a bit like the Neverending Story theme; and “Longing for Lullabies” with Titiyo, the Hunden & Pipan remix of which (again, wait for the singles) proved to be one of this year’s biggest jams.


Kleerup ft. Lykke Li, "Until We Bleed"