Where The Fountainhead felt dense and unique thanks to Ayn Rand’s very mechanical writing style, Atlas Shrugged passes into the realm of tedium.  It’s often simply too repetitive, too long-winded to be as great as its predecessor.  The characters, too, feel like slightly less interesting versions of the main cast of The Fountainhead — only Howard Roark is a better protagonist than Hank Rearden and Dominique Francon is a more interesting lean, steely leading lady than Dagny Taggart.  Maybe it’s just the order I’ve read the books in.  But so far, Rand hasn’t deviated from The Fountainhead enough to grab my attention the way she did the first time.

The politicians and typical members of society are still as overbearingly disgusting and small-minded.  And while I haven’t expected certain plot points that have developed throughout the book, the general course of the narrative seems very predictable, which makes the hundreds of pages of blatant delaying action all the more frustrating.

We’ll see if it blows me away in the second half.

Even so, I manage to find out about good bands eventually, and this year I was lucky enough to discover some really extraordinary music.  The list of bands I found out about is far too lengthy to expound upon, but the few albums that I became obsessed with that were actually released in 2008 are deserving of far more praise than I can heap upon them.  So here they are, more or less in order of their ability to change your life, rock your face, or soothe your soul.  In fact, they can probably do all that shit.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

If there was an album more amazing than Vampire Weekend released in 2008, I didn’t hear it.  Instantly refreshing, endlessly catchy, and almost criminally upbeat, this album exudes originality and is everything an indie band could aspire to.  Plus, it was released on my birthday last January — how cool is that?

There’s a little bit of everything in here.  “Campus” is a love song for college days gone by (something that feels wonderfully current for this student), but even weightier songs like “Walcott” manage to retain a cheerful sensibility while dropping lines like “Fuck the women from Wellfleet.”
 

Vampire Weekend have established themselves as the most promising new band on the scene.  If they somehow manage to top their self-titled debut with a sophomore release, it’ll be history in the making.

The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely

It’s like Jack White took the rock and blues bottled up in his soul, accumulated gradually over the years from his work in The White Stripes, and poured it out in Consolers of the Lonely.  The album absolutely blows away the group’s first effort, Broken Boy Soldiers, which was a decent enough rock album in its own right.  Consolers of the Lonely is a full-blown, unconstrained rock album with some wonderfully bluesy undertones.  It feels a bit chaotic at times, but the chaos is always wonderfully utilized, and with the exception of a few moments of overboard screaming guitars, it’s a powerhouse on all fronts–lyrically, instrumentally, and vocally.

It’s hard to pick a standout when every song is so good.  “Salute Your Solution,” “Consolers of the Lonely,” and “You Don’t Understand” me are all wonderful, but when the album rocks out on “Hold Up” or takes it back a notch on “Rich Kid Blues,” it’s just as effective.  Through all the wonderful tracks, though, the bizarre but absolutely amazing “Carolina Drama” always kept me coming back for more.  I can’t really tell you why.  Just ask the milkman.

Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

I listened to Ra Ra Riot’s self-titled EP earlier this year, about the same time I discovered Vampire Weekend.  Ra Ra Riot is definitely another fantastic up-and-coming indie band, but I didn’t realize until just a few weeks ago that they had released their first full-length album, The Rhumb Line, this August.  Needless to say, it’s fantastic.

While my favorite song is likely still “Each Year,” Ra Ra Riot did a great job of filling out their six song EP into a full release.  A few things draw me to the band more than anything else — lyrically and vocally, they’re an absolute powerhouse, thanks to singer Wes Miles, and the inclusion of strings in rock music gets me every time.  Throw a violin and a cello into a rock setup and put the instruments into the hands of talented people, and wonders will come out.

I had the opportunity to see Ra Ra Riot live at the 40 Watt in Athens just a few weeks ago, and it was an incredible show — probably one of the highlights of my year.  And the thought of my copy of The Rhumb Line on vinyl still makes me a little giddy.

The K-Macks – Welcome, Everybody

It’s time to give some serious props to a local group, whose presence in the Athens, Ga. music scene excites me for a couple reasons.  The first is that, well, they’re really good.  The second is that these guys went to high scool with me, and it’s exciting to see them create something so full of heart and soul.

Kevin and Max have been playing music for years, but Welcome, Everybody is the first time I’ve really heard their work in a concentrated, refined form.  At first, I liked it, but thought it could be better.  But it kept sucking me back in, and after every listen it got better and better.  The fact that they’re my most listened to artist of the last few months is a testament to the staying power of Welcome, Everybody, and to how deceptively great it is.  Far too often I find myself wrapped up in the poignant (or slightly depressing) lyrics, hardly paying any attention to the instrumentation beneath it all.  Kevin’s scratchy voice leads most of the songs, but when the pair trade out or combine their powers to form Captain Planet, it’s quality stuff.  Above all, the album just feels unusually real, and that sincerity is what truly raises it above the pack.

If you pick up a copy (and I heartily recommend it), make sure to stay tuned through the end for a hidden track.  You won’t want to miss it.

But now that’s all done like Christmas turkey.  Or Christmas salmon, as i happened to experience this year.  Hrm.  But let’s backtrack a bit to the main point: the lack of updates, and how that dire and unfortunate situation will soon be remedied.  No sooner had I returned home from my last final than a friend showed up, ready to commence our delicately-planned and hotly-anticipated Christmas break gaming marathon.

Experiences with each entry in our marathon will be documented in turn, and those we didn’t get to shall, I suspect, be attacked shortly, as soon as designated family time comes to a close.  You can also look forward to a new music post highlighting a few albums of 2008 I felt were really exemplary.  It’s such a cliche it’s almost not even worth pointing out it’s a cliche, but I’ll refrain from making lots of best of lists and just say why a few albums are especially kickass.

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