Review of 2008

[tomskerous]

Top Gigs
Frost at the Peel
Kylie at the O2
Frost at Summer's End
It Bites at CRS...finally.

Top (original) Albums
Frost - EIMA
Girls Aloud - Out of Control
It Bites - Tall Ships
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Guillemots - Red
Imelda May - Love Tattoo
...to be updated after tomorrow when the pressies get open.

Top (new to me) Albums
Captain - Welcome to Hazelville
Guillemots - Through the Window Pane
Feist - The Reminder
Eno/Lanois/Brook - Apollo, Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold.

[Philadelphia]

Top gig was definitely one of the King Crimson gigs I saw at Park West in Chicago.
I'll need a bit more time with the albums, but I must say that No-Man's Schoolyard Ghosts is a front-runner.

[johninblack]

Well, I've had a long think and now I have a headache. Top gig this year other than Frost* goes to.........The Stranglers at the UEA. Very closely followed by Motorhead and Saxon at the UEA and IQ at Summers End and It Bites At The Peel and Spock's Beard at Islington Academy. The truth is all the gigs I've been to this year have been wonderful and to single out "the best" was a very difficult task.

[LivingForever]

I completely forgot - I saw Muse headlining V, that was my second top gig of the year after PT!

[RWA]

I completely forgot - I saw Muse headlining V, that was my second top gig of the year after PT!

No it wasn't! You completely forgot about it!  :lol:

[tomskerous]

Ooooh, and Chic and Mavis Staples were just blinding at Womad.

[L33VEY]

Without wanting to be different....

Best concert was Queen + Paul Rodgers (twice at the O2) - having seen Queen with Freddie back in the 70's I was really suspicious about PR, but he did a great job.  Their album was patchy, but then I struggle to name a Queen album that wasn't.

Best albums are curiously all rooted in this forum - nobody's mentioned Ghost Circus "Across the Line" yet.  Also Unifaun - great to hear someone honestly respect Genesis.
On the non-prog side, RWA put me onto Dannielle DeAndrea/Gaha and the "Leaving the Ozone" that she sang on keeps getting replayed  :shock:

[Lacklight]

Album of the Year for me is The Tall Ships. So many great songs.

With gigs it's a bit harder to single out, but Alter Bridge at Brixton, Frost* at Summer's End, Testament at Download, It Bites at The Point and Thunder at The Astoria are all stand outs.

[Lerxst]

In no particular (but possibly the correct) order are here some of the great things I heard in 2008:

1) EIMA - FROST*
2) The Tall Ships - It Bites
3) The Thirteenth Star - Fish
4) Chinese Democracy - GNR
5) Watershed - Opeth
6) Revelation - Journey
7) Ever Changing Times - Steve Lukather
Live from nowhere in particular - Joe Bonnamassa
9) Death Magnetic - Metallica
10) Metamorphosis - Magenta
11) In Silico - Pendulum
12) Happiness is the Road - Marillion
13) Nil Recurring - Porcupine Tree
14) The Slip - Nine Inch Nails
15) Good to be bad - Whitesnake
16) Live in Gdansk - David Gilmour
17) Black Ice - AC/DC
18) Performing this week - live at Ronnie Scott's - Jeff Beck
19) Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp
20) Dark Angel - The Reasoning

p.s. I've yet to acquire the Rush and DT Live albums which I suspect would have made the top 20.

[RWA]

Best albums are curiously all rooted in this forum - nobody's mentioned Ghost Circus "Across the Line" yet.

Completely forgot about that one!  

Also Unifaun - great to hear someone honestly respect Genesis.

Now I did forget to mention that one indeed because I've been listening to most of the tracks since 2007. I kinda forgot the album was eventually released in 2008. Anyway, absolutely marvellous piece of work.  8-)

On the non-prog side, RWA put me onto Dannielle DeAndrea/Gaha and the "Living in the Ozone" that she sang on keeps getting replayed  :shock:

Same here. Very nice laid back music. And you can't beat real orchestration, can you?

[keithd]

Best albums are curiously all rooted in this forum - nobody's mentioned Ghost Circus "Across the Line" yet.

[/quote]Completely forgot about that one!  

Me too, and I bought Circles as well. Both definately in my top 5  

[Brom]

This thread is getting dangerous.....

Klystrons anyone? - very important gizmos!

A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube (evacuated electron tube). Klystrons are used as amplifiers at microwave and radio frequencies to produce both low-power reference signals for superheterodyne radar receivers and to produce high-power carrier waves for communications and the driving force for modern particle accelerators.

Klystron amplifiers have the advantage (over the magnetron) of coherently amplifying a reference signal so its output may be precisely controlled in amplitude, frequency and phase. Many klystrons have a waveguide for coupling microwave energy into and out of the device, although it is also quite common for lower power and lower frequency klystrons to use coaxial couplings instead. In some cases a coupling probe is used to couple the microwave energy from a klystron into a separate external waveguide.

[Rockmelter]

I don't think I have anything more to add apart from Protest the Hero's 'Fortress'. Has nobody here heard it or you just didn't like it? I love the album and I definitely need to hear the other one.

[tomskerous]

This thread is getting dangerous.....

Klystrons anyone? - very important gizmos!

As featured in your plain old domestic microwave of course.

Personally I'd love to have had a go of a MASER.

[Ash]

This thread is getting dangerous.....

They made the serial derailers moderators and this is what happens...