1. Favicons.  For those of you who don’t know, favicon is that little image at the top of the browser, next to the name of the website.  It’s the tiny purple “f” on the Facebook site, the peace sign on Craigslist, the red “M” envelope on Gmail.  They’re called favicons because they are icons that show up on your Favorites list, obviously.  Favicons used to be a great idea, terribly executed.  Originally they were .ico files, which were specially designed by Microsoft.  Which meant that you had to make the icon with some Microsoft Icon Maker program, which meant that a lot of sites didn’t have favicons because they didn’t want to use Microsoft’s stupid program.  Also, there was no HTML support for favicons; originally you just put them in the root directory of your website and, I guess, the browser was supposed to say, “Hey, that’s a favicon!  Woo!” and save it for you.  This led to lots of inconsistencies.  Sometimes a favicon would work on my bookmarks, sometimes it wouldn’t.  Other times, I would have the wrong favicon for a certain site, or multiple sites would use the same favicon, which was the wrong one.

But now … now favicons have W3C support, and their own little bit of HTML, and they sit and stay perfectly on your browser, which means I can move on to my next point:

2. Bookmark Toolbars.  Now that favicons work so well, I don’t need to label my bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar anymore!  I can just have the icon sit there, instantly telling me which site is which.  This means that I can put twice, if not three times as many bookmarks on the toolbar, saving me, oh, about two seconds of navigation time, which is silly but still pretty awesome.  Another thing that helps me with this new awesomeness is

3. Better ALT tags!  ALT tags are the little popups that show up when you hover over a link, or an image, or a bookmark.  These used to suck.  I won’t go into detail, but just take it from me when I say they used to suck.  They were poorly supported, and sometimes were just worthless.  But now, if I forget what a particular bookmark is on my toolbar, I can hover over it and it’ll show me the URL, and I’ll instantly remember.  Thanks, ALT tags!

4. RSS feeds.  Again, another thing that was implemented before people really understood how awesome it is.  RSS feeds are like newspaper articles, and you’re building your own newspaper.  You pick and choose what you want to read, and set it up through RSS feeds.  Google, as always, has an excellent application called Google Reader which handles RSS feeds so well, you won’t need anything else.  And if you use Blogger to blog, the blogs that you follow show up on Google Reader automatically.  It’s almost magic.

5. Email.  Email used to suck compared to IMing.  But now both are integrated and everything is awesome.  That’s all I have to say about that, I just wanted to have five items instead of four.

Now, if only Torrents could be as cool as these things are now, the world would be a better place.  Someday, Torrents … someday.

That being said … Way to Normal kicks ass.  Kicks.  Ass.  It’s like Ben culled his classic energies from BFF’s first and second album, with the experimentation of the Fear of Pop stuff, along with his own maturity and musical impressiveness.  I haven’t listened to it enough to give you a track-by-track rundown, but a few points: Dr. Yang sounds like a BFF first album song.  Cologne sounds like if Reinhold Messner was bumped up about ten notches.  It’s beautiful.  Errant Dog is a BFF first album type song too.  The song with Regina Spektor is one of the most perfect pop songs I’ve heard in a while.

I got the Japanese import, so it’s got some bonus tracks, one of which being a “Piano Orchestra” version of Cologne, which may be better than the album version.  I also got “I Made It Up on Stage,” which is a six song bonus disc for the deluxe edition that showcases some brilliant songs Ben and his band made up on the spot, live on tour.  They’re great.

I think this album might be on my top ten list of the year.  I’ve never had a Ben Folds album on my top ten.  I’m excited.

I know what you’re thinking. “Josh,” you’re saying to me, “that’s the gayest thing I’ve ever heard.” But when I say that I like all types of music, I mean it, goddammit. I like dance music, I like classical, I like rock, I like indie. I like a lot of stuff. So get off my back, man. Just get off.

Anyway, I have decided to compile my annual Halfway Through the Year Best of 2008 in light it being, well, the middle of the year.

Top Ten Albums Halfway Through 2008

10. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
I know what you’re thinking, and I may very well be that gay, but I don’t care! The new Coldplay was produced by Brian Eno and it’s a lot more powerful than their last two (three?) albums. What it sacrifices in the atmosphere created in albums like Parachutes (and maybe only Parachutes), it more than makes up for in passion and tightness. I like this political slant that Coldplay is working on — hell, Chris Martin’s “Make Trade Free” Sharpie statement on his face were more interesting than the band for a while there. It’s good to see that they’re using that anger and passion for their album. The government is really shit right now and doing some pretty awful things and no one is singing about them (compared to the 60s, at least).
Favorite songs: Viva la Vida, Strawberry Swing

9. Umbrella Tree – The Church & the Hospital
Talk about going from weird to weirder. Umbrella Tree is a Memphis-based band that I learned about from a friend on the /orate board, and I quickly grew to love their debut, What Kind of Books Do You Read? because of it’s quirkiness and yet general accessibility. I think that’s key in a “quirky” band. If you’re not accessible than you’re not as listenable and therefore not as popular, simple as that. And their debut was very accessible. The Church & the Hospital, on the other hand, is not as accessible, and for that I must dock them points. It is, at a lot of time, very weird, and sometimes is hard to grasp. “Nursing the Patience” is one of those songs (and the title, I can only assume, was meant ironically). Other songs, like “1054″ and “A New Job with the Police” are typical Umbrella Tree songs, with interesting rhythms courtesy of Derek and beautiful-if-sometimes-strange harmonies between Jillian and Zach. I can only imagine that this band is incredible live (if they will ever do a national tour…).
Favorite songs: 1054, Schitzophrenia, A New Job with the Police

8. Flight of the Conchords – s/t
I thought twice about putting this on the list, for two reasons. One, a lot of it has already been heard, and two, a lot of it is only funny if you’ve seen the HBO show. But it is only halfway through the year and I don’t have a lot of albums available, so I put it on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great album, and a lot of the songs that Jemaine and Bret create are not only funny but also just really good, but when the year is over I have a feeling they’ll be swallowed up by … something. Not sure what though. But you owe it to yourself to go but the first season of their HBO show, cause it’s great.
Favorite songs: Foux du Fafa, Ladies of the World, Robots, Inner City Pressure … oh it’s all good.

7. Fleet Foxes – s/t
YAY FLEET FOXES. I first heard them through their Myspace, clicking on a song called “Blue Ridge Mountains,” which immediately made me fall in love with them. They’re some kind of neo -Appalachian mountain folk group, with plenty of lovely harmonies and really cool and interesting chord progressions. They range from full band songs to quiet fingerpicking songs like “Oliver James” with just Robin and a guitar. If last summer was the season for rocking (Spoon, anyone?), then this summer is for nice riverbed folk songs and singalongs, and Fleet Foxes may be leading that singalong.
Favorite songs: White Winter Hymnal, Ragged Wood, He Doesn’t Know Why, Blue Ridge Mountains

6. Vampire Weekend – s/t
I have a lot of self-titled albums on my list. Anyway, Vampire Weekend is the newly hyped band that everyone loves, because their music is just so catchy. Their band name is horrible but at least it sticks in your head. When I first heard this album I though it was pretty quaint, nice but not great, and so I put it aside. And then I saw them play “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” on Blogotheque, and I said, “That is the coolest song ever,” and I was a little disappointed that it was the last song on the album. But that made me listen to the whole thing again, and I realized how great the album as a whole was. It’s mellow, which is pretty unusual these days, what with everyone wanting to get their opinions across. If Viva la Vida is a political album, this is a chill out album. But what am I saying, you probably already have it.
Favorite songs: The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance, Oxford Comma

5. Hercules & Love Affair – s/t
I think this is self-titled. I don’t remember there being a title on the album. Anyway, I was wondering when I was going to get to some electronic albums, and here we go. This album is like stepping into 1970s Paris. I don’t really know how else to explain it, other than there are songs on here that I didn’t think I would like, but then I get entranced by them anyway. It’s not a very dancey album, by any means, but it certainly makes you want to groove. I’m not sure how you groove, but once I figure it out I’ll pass it along. It must be a miraculous thing.
Favorite songs: Hercules’ Theme, Blind, You Belong

4. The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
Yay for John Darnielle. After a bazillion albums produced by himself with a tape recorder, guitar, and sometimes a Casio keyboard, he’s finally made the big time, with a full band. And Heretic Pride showcases his band skills more than any of his previous studio albums. While there are drums, bass, and sometimes strings and other instruments on those albums, none of them congeal as well as this one does. From the opening strum of “Sax Rohmer #1″ to the fantastic buildup of “Michael Myers Resplendent,” this album is fantastic, full of John’s nasally vocals and stories about the kind of people you wish you could meet but never do.
Favorite songs: Sax Rohmer #1, New Zion, Autoclave, Michael Myers Resplendent

3. Lykke Li – Youth Novels
I first heard about Lykke from an ex-girlfriend. Who woulda thought? And to be honest, I only checked her out because my ex said she reminded her of me. That’s how self-centered I am. But anyway, I got this album and was entranced by it. It’s definitely one of those albums you have to sit and listen to with your headphones, the lights off, that sort of thing. It opens with a pseudo-song called “Melodies
& Desires,” where Lykke speaks about what she wants you to do. And like all good Scandinavian artists, the lyrics are just slightly nonsensical. They make sense, but every once and a while she’ll say something and you’ll go, “What?” But after that track comes “Dance Dance Dance,” which will hook you immediately. And the rest are just as catchy. It’s lofi, it’s catchy, and it’s amazingly good. Go get it!
Favorite songs: Dance Dance Dance, I’m Good I’m Gone, Little Bit

2. M83 – Saturdays = Youth
I used to own M83′s other album, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, and I never really enjoyed it, other than “Run Into Flowers” (I think that was the one), which was pure bliss. So I didn’t check out Saturdays = Youth for a long time, thinking that it would be the same stuff from before. Eventually, though, I got sucked in, and had a listen. The first track, “You Appearing,” is misleading. It’s an intro track, a buildup track for the rest of the album, and it worried me at first, because I was like, “Yep, same ol’ M83.” But then “Kim & Jessie” came on, and I was hooked. Immediately. Hooked. I’ve never heard a song that beautiful and yet so poppy at the same time. It’s 80s reminiscent, it’s got some weird sounds, and the vocals don’t make any sense, but it’s beautiful. And the rest of the album follows suit. Non-English speakers using English for lyrics is still silly (“Up!” is a good example of that), but it’s all so gorgeous and utterly listenable that it doesn’t matter. Even “Skin of the Night,” which sounds like something Phil Collins might’ve dreamt up, is amazing. This album is great. That’s all I have to say about that. Even “Midnight Souls Still Remain,” which is essentially an 11 minute long trance song, is good. It accentuates the album perfectly. It’s like a cooldown period. Go get it! Right now!
Favorite songs: all of them!

1. The Dodos – Visiter
The Dodos played here in Boise on July 2nd, and I missed the concert because I was at the plasma center all day. That’s another story. I was happy, though, because a number of my friends attended the concert and now they love the Dodos, and that makes me happy because I love the Dodos. Visiter is quite possibly the best example of a perfect freak folk album. They’re better than Animal Collective. That’s right, I said it. I love Animal Collective, but sometimes that shit is hard to listen to, but every single song on Visiter is listenable and good. Really good. Meric Long can play guitar like no one else, and Logan Kroeber, an ex-metal drummer, uses his perfect timing to construct brilliant percussion behind the guitar. The result is gorgeous. How they are able to create such vibrant landscapes out of their guitar and drums, I’ll never know. “Red and Purple” is such a blast of a song, it seems weird that it’s two guys doing all of it. But they are. Meric Long makes me hate playing guitar, because I know I’ll never be as good as him. Even their earlier stuff is great, as is Meric’s Dodo Bird EP. I don’t know what else to say. This is my favorite album of 2008. So far. I recommend it heartily.
Favorite songs: all of them!

Okay, so that’s it. I hope you do yourself a favor and check out these artists, and if you don’t like them, well, I don’t need to know that, okay? Okay.

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Now playing: Lykke Li – Dance Dance Dance
via FoxyTunes