2008: Albums You Should (Potentially) Buy

Eva Kurtz-Nelson: With their massive webs of references, allusions, and incongruous images, Destroyer lyrics beg to be deconstructed. As an English concentrator, that’s part of why I’m so excited about Trouble in Dreams, the Destroyer (aka New Pornographers collaborator Dan Bejar) album coming out March 18. Destroyer isn’t all about the lyrics, however, as the album’s first single “Foam Hands” shows. It’s not as verbose as most Destroyer tracks, but it’s gorgeous, catchy, and heartfelt, and like the best Destroyer songs it reveals a compelling new detail every time you hear it. Whether it’s term-paper dense or something totally different, I don’t think Trouble in Dreams will disappoint.

Alex Spoto: Akron, OH’s The Black Keys recently announced a tour and an April 1st release date for their fifth full-length, Attack & Release, due out on Nonesuch. The album was originally intended to be a collaboration between the Keys, Ike Turner, and Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse, but with Turner’s death this past December the duo went ahead with Danger Mouse at the production helm. Surely this combination will mean a more modern-sounding take on the Keys’s robust brand of rootsy blues-rock. The Keys’ tour includes an overdue visit to the Northeast in May, with support from Buffalo Killers, the excellent vintage-rockers from Cincinnati.

Ben Bernstein: Louisville, Kentucky exports two things worth my attention: baseball bats and My Morning Jacket. Two albums ago, this five piece put out "It Still Moves", an album of soulful southern rock that encompassed jam band soloing, a laidback country sound, and a soulful fury that hasn't been seen since the Allman Brothers. Their follow up, 2005's critically acclaimed Z, sounded like Lynyrd Skynyrd mixed with the Flaming Lips. Lead singer Jim James wowed listeners with his vocals, which could be soaring or gritty but always felt pure, and their lyrics and sound took on an extraterrestrial quality. On their next album, Evil Urges, James promises more gospel influences and listeners should look for even more experimentation and variety.

Bob Short: After decades of falling in and out of print, late Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue will receive the super-deluxe reissue treatment from Legacy this spring. Bored with The Beach Boy's devolution into an oldies act, the youngest Wilson brother recorded this coke rock classic, filled with lush arrangements and his gruff vocals. Reportedly, the bonus material will include scraps of the oft-bootlegged Bambu sessions, an album never completed at the time of his drowning at 39.

Monica Carvalho: After four years of replayed songs and no news, the boys are back in town. The boys that would “do anything” for you. The boys that are “addicted” to you. The boys that are sorry they are not “perfect.” That’s right, I’m talking about Simple Plan. With the release of their new single, “When I’m Gone,” these Canadian rockers have put themselves back on our radio airwaves and iPod playlists. It’s been a few years, but have no fear—Simple Plan still knows how to write a good song. In “When I’m Gone,” off their self-titled album to be released on February 12^th, the boys hang onto their catchy pop rock sound and display the high energy that has made them so popular.