The 50 Best Albums of 2008

45

Be Your Own Pet GET AWKWARD Ecstatic Peace

Jemina Pearl isn't the punk singer this generation needs, she's the snarling hellion we deserve. Get on her good side, and she'll unleash wild riot-grrrl odes to food fights and badass Valley girls, while her band pulses with the precise formulism of X-Ray Spex. Get on her bad side, and you're in for a full-blown hell ride.

46

The Academy Is... FAST TIMES AT BARRINGTON HIGH Decaydance

This soaring pop-punk ode to senior year is so thrillingly alive, it'll make you forget you hated high school. Over giant, Warped Tour-finale hooks by S*A*M and Sluggo, these emo kids capture enough wrenching graduation-day wistfulness to fill a thousand yearbooks.

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