The 50 Best Albums of 2008

Freedom suits NIN's Trent Reznor, who celebrated the end of his major-label contract by offering this album as a free digital download. It's a hell of a deal: The Slip compresses the emotional breadth of 1999's double CD The Fragile onto a single disc filled with granite funk and stark-naked confessions.

When life's unfairness doesn't break a band, it makes for a heart-wrenching album. After the accidental death of drummer John Ryan Pike, this New York group churned out gorgeous orchestral rock anthems that find sorrow and loss are inextricable from understanding joy. Pike, who co-wrote the record, would be proud.

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