The 50 Best Albums of 2008

21

Kaiser Chiefs OFF WITH THEIR HEADS Universal Motown

These Brit-rockers' third album is ingenious hooks (the falling-chord riff in "Half the Truth") and irresistible surge (the pulse of "Good Days Bad Days"), but the fun comes in barbed wire. "It's cool to know nothing," Ricky Wilson sings, with a menace that suggests he will never believe it.

22

Jackson Browne TIME THE CONQUERER Inside Recordings

Time reconciles Browne's two passions as a songwriter: current events and interior drama. "Off of Wonderland" is a fond reminiscence of the late Sixties, while explicit accusations like "The Drums of War" and "Where Were You?" are the sound of an older, wiser man with fighting spirit to spare.

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