Genusfrog's Top 8 Albums of 2008 in Order of the Essential Cuts of Pork

The Knuckle

Glasvegas - Glasvegas [BUY]

There is really no cut of pork quite like the knuckle. You can deep fry it, grill it, bake it, steam it, heck even boil it and you'll always have a giant bone underneath it to give someone a good beating with. Which is really what Glasvegas has done for me since I discovered them in July. Yes, it's given me a very big bone for five straight months.
Glasvegas - Go Square Go

Spare Ribs

Starflyer 59 - Dial M [BUY]

I used to ask my mamma why pigs had spare ribs. She told me that pigs like to give each other a good ribbing, and that if I had ever given anyone a good ribbing, it would become apparent to me why I would need to have a spare rib lying around. Like me, she's brilliant. That's why every time I dial M, it's for mamma.
Starflyer 59 - Minor Keys

The Rump

The Bookhouse Boys - The Bookhouse Boys [BUY]

There's a Mexican saying that goes "Once a rump, always a rump". Oh wait... no, no. I think it was "Once bitten in the rump, twice shy in the pie". Eh, that's not it? You sure? What? You mean Mexicans don't have any sayings about rumps? What a useless language. Anyway this mariachi surf rock album is a good kick up the pig's arse. What? Of course it's a language you dumbass.
The Bookhouse Boys - Dead

The Pig Head

The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound [BUY]

I'm telling you, the pig's head is a legitmate cut of pork. Just like how The Gaslight Anthem is a legitimate Bruce Springsteen covers band. Yeah. Oh, you don't think so? Well, let me organise you a pig head sandwich. No, serious. "Honey. Can you bring out a coupla those sandwiches we had last night? Oh, they're finished? Don't bother then. Oh, you're already halfway at it? Okay. Thanks, honey!". She's chopping a few more pig heads for us. What a catch, my wife.
The Gaslight Anthem - Meet Me By The River's Edge

The Belly

Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul [BUY]

Last night, I had a dream where Noel Gallagher told me that Dig Out Your Soul is about digging out pork belly. Why? Because bellies are fat and chewy. And if you torch it with fire, it all melts into lard. And that's exactly what this album is. It's fat and chewy. But when I torched it with fire, like heck did it turn into lard. Damn Gallagherian metaphors always burning a hole through my cd collection.
Oasis - Falling Down

Loin Chop

The Explorer's Club - Freedom Wind [BUY]

When I was four, I stood beside my favourite butcher and asked him "if a pig is never cut up, would you still call its loin chop a loin chop". He told me that my philosophical musing was erronneous, and that the "chop" in "loin chop" referred not to the way it was cut but to a seal that all pigs have. Which made me so happy. I never knew that pigs and seals were friends.
The Explorer's Club - Do You Love Me?

Collar Butt

British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? [BUY]

Pigs are just beautiful animals. I mean, in the world that I live in, the collar and the butt are about as intimately yoked as a French maid with her lady boss. But somewhere inside a pig there lies a cut of pork that you and I call the collar butt. Which can only mean one other thing. French pig maids and their lady bosses get along like a burning sty.
British Sea Power - No Need To Cry

Pig Feet

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement [BUY]

Now there's really no reason why The Last Shadow Puppets album should be likened to the feet of a pig - with the possible exception that the record cover depicts a hot girl with legs and the picture on its right depicts the foot of what should have been a damn fine-looking swine. No prizes for guessing which one I'm taking to bed with me tonight. Mmmmmm... salty.
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Meeting Place