When I compiled my original Best Of 2008 list last December, it was a snow day. The sky dropped about a foot, maybe a foot and a half of fluffy white stuff and we lowly sub-compact drivers could go nowhere. Between ranking albums and locating album art, I took a stroll around town with my camera. The above image comes from that trek. Overall, I was pretty happy with last year’s list but, in revisiting all the albums from 2008, I now see quite a few …

Glistening Pleasure follows the path of other recent hyped artists like MGMT, Cut Copy and White Williams thanks to Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (NPSH) adding in substantial dance-ridden glam, output through flambuoyant vocals and new-wavey keyboards. Guitar riffs hone in on the minimal—they lack full strums that plague many artists—thus, they encompass the definition of “riff” and are truly plentiful in soundscape.