Those are my eyes staring at you. They allow me to see you clearly through this screen. No, don't click there, it will take you away from my online space.
Let me start again, I am Wyatt and I am a software engineer. I am also a process theologian, author, music hipster, struggling artist who enjoys thinking outside of your finitude. I am not as pretentious as that line makes me sound. If you have some spare time read more about me.
Before I say why If Children is the best album of 2008 (even if it is a re-release), let me first explain why you should consider me an authority on the subject of best albums.
First and foremost, I listen to music, new music, daily, constantly, and have been doing so for half of my life. Secondly, my taste in music is stellar, I am a hipster in this way, just trust me when I rate music. Finally, I listen to a wide range of music, a wider range than you do, trust me on this, like I said I am a music hipster.
I tried to be objective when deciding the best album of 2008. One of the ways I did this was to send my friends songs and to hear their responses. Everyone who I consider to be a credible source who listened to Wye Oak said that they sound excellent. This was a large predictor for me that they would have the best album.
Another criteria for this rating is novelty. I consider this probably the most important reason to like a band and an album. Novelty in music I think is completely underrated. Wye Oak in general, and If Children in particular is original. I give them a 4.5 our of 5 in this department. The minus .5 is only because for whatever reason Jenn reminds me of Kim Deal, but only slightly.
The next factor for me, and should be for everyone, is the amount of resources that a band has and their resultant sound. While Wye Oak does have a good label (Merge), they are only two people. And yet, the music that they create is more consistently good than a band like Arcade Fire. Which leads to another factor, that all of the tracks on If Children are great to listen to, repeatedly even.
As my last point indicated, If Children can be listened to on shuffle or repeat, or both. All tracks are great to listen to, enough said.
Finally, I picked their album in part because I want to support a newcomer to the big time who rightly deserves it. If Children is their debut album, and we should all buy it.
Here is a track from If Children for your enjoyment.