A Few Older Must Listens

I recently stumbled upon some albums from 2008 and very early 2009 that are too good not to mention and/or force on people. I've been splurging on music for the past few months, so anything that makes it to my CD player more than once a week is notable. Some of the songs on these albums might get played multiple times a day, so yeah, I would call them "must listens".

Coconut Records - Davy
Experience tells us that bands created and/or fronted by actors should suck. Jason Schwartzman's band, Coconut Records, gets a pass for several reasons. First, Schwartzman played Max Fischer in Rushmore and practically gets a free pass for life just for that. Second, Schwartzman was a musician before he was an actor, drumming for Phantom Planet when he was just 14. Third, and most important, this album is actually really good. There's nothing very groundbreaking here, just a lot of catchy songs, many of which I liked upon the very first listen. The first couple tracks, "Microphone" and "Drummer" (I'd start out with "Drummer", the track that got me interested in the first place), are particularly strong, but really the whole album is a good from beginning to end. Go Max Fischer.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Though the name is cumbersome, the music on MBAR's debut album is anything but. If you can listen to the opening track, "Buriedfed", and not be hooked, more power to you. The doubled up vocals are reminiscent of Bon Iver or Elliot Smith, and some of the material is equally as dark, but there's an energy to this music that you don't always get from Bon Iver especially. I'm not disparaging these other artists, both of whom I enjoy (especially Smith), but Robinson's debut is really impressive. The album is growing on me more and more with every listen and I highly recommend it.
Buriedfed

Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim
I wish I'd never found out that Laura Marling was 19. It's depressing for someone my age to think that someone that young could make an album this amazing. The first track, "Ghosts", is undoubtedly one of the best songs I've heard in ages. I never want to put a song on repeat--with 10,000+ songs at my fingertips at any given time, why would I want to? But I can listen to this song over and over again. And though "Ghosts" is my favorite track, the rest of the album holds its own and demands repeat listens. The last time I heard as mature a voice in someone this young was with Fiona Apple, and by "voice" I mean both the actual sound of her voice and the maturity of the lyrics. Marling is a young artist with an old soul, and as I continue to absorb this first LP, I find myself already looking forward to whatever she does next.