New Bon Iver and Andrew Bird

Let's face it. 2008 sucked for new music. Nobody's albums were as good as their previous ones. Luckily, there were a few great newcomers like Bon Iver, whose amazing For Emma, Forever Ago is Beard Crumbs' official choice for album of the year. (Even though it first came out in '07, most people are counting the re-release date on Jagjaguwar.) Some other top newbies were Fleet Foxes, The Accidental, Santogold, She & Him, and in case you haven't turned on your radio in a year, Vampire Weekend was undeniably catchy.

Bon Iver is already back this month with a new EP. Why not make a full album? Who knows, but you can go have a listen to the four song Blood Bank EP at MySpace. It's damn good stuff, but let's hope he got the Kanye out of his system with that last track. You can pick this up on January 20.

Update: The full EP is no longer on MySpace, just the title track.

Double Update: Grab a free MP3 of "Blood Bank" here.



Another sign that 2009 will be a better year in music is Andrew Bird's upcoming release, Noble Beast. This guy is good. Really good. But don't listen to what some dumb blog says, go see for yourself... they've got the whole album streaming on NPR. The record -- along with the instrumental deluxe-edition disc Useless Creatures -- is also out January 20.

Triple Update: Noble Beast is no longer streaming on NPR, but is on MySpace.

For what it's worth, the 'Crumbs did like a few other albums in 2008. Most notably, Death Cab, Beck, The Black Keys, and although they were once again over-hyped, TV on the Radio had some stellar tracks. What do you guys think? Any faves of '08 or anything looking good for '09?