The Best Debuts of 2008

It's not that I don't equally enjoy and appreciate a good second or even, in case of The Fall, a fine twenty seventh LP, but I always had a special place in my music-loving heart for debut albums. It is the all-important first impression that, although not always right, is able to leave a lasting mark and make or break a young band's career. And in the case of a truly great debut, it has the ability to define an era and become the landmark of the year it was released in: 2001 will always be remembered for The Strokes' "Is this it" and 2002 will always bring to mind "Turn on the bright lights" by Interpol. Although in 2008 we didn't have a debut release of similar impact, there was a wealth of excellent and varied new music around and it looks very likely that one-third of Cool Music Central's top 30 albums of 2008 (the list is slowly coming together as we speak) will consist of new-comers' first efforts. Here's the list of the 10 best debut albums of the year (based, of course, on what we've been able to listen to so far):

Top 10 Debut Albums of 2008

1. Antidotes - FOALS
2. Crystal Castles - CRYSTAL CASTLES
3. Beat pyramid - THESE NEW PURITANS
4. Oracular spectacular - MGMT
5. Box of secrets - BLOOD RED SHOES
6. Vampire Weekend - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
7. Partie traumatic - BLACK KIDS
8. Santogold - SANTOGOLD
9. The bake sale - THE COOL KIDS
10. Fleet Foxes - FLEET FOXES

And here's one of the Singles of the Year taken from our favorite debut of 2008 - it's "Cassius" off Foals' fine "Antidotes" LP and a video with a lot of "heart":

Foals - Cassius