Happy End of the Year Everyone!
Insert some sort of summary here! Something about how much of the year was dominated by great artists scaling back on their ambition, which makes it difficult to put together a list! Say something about how other than a few exceptions, the year was made great by great artists just doing what they do. Lots of solid efforts here. Very little went beyond that though. When we get down to the top few it will shift a bit.
As always, this isn't about "best" as much as "my favorites." you know, subjective opinions that can't really be backed up by fact? I have only so many synonyms for "gut reaction" and so many ways to describe it, but that's where the order comes from. Don't try to debate it, but please feel free to share your differing opinion!
I will start with some honorable mentions. This may be a long piece. You might want to go to the bathroom. Or maybe skip over these honorable mentions if you're in a hurry and want to get to the list. But I'll do what The AV Club does when they do this sort of paragraph and bold the artist mentioned so you can see if I mention someone you dig and you can see what I said about them while skipping whatever I said about whoever else that nobody cares about.
Although if you read it maybe you'll want to know more about some of these. Maybe?
Start at the end. The Roots just put out what seems to be a great album. A beautiful story told in reverse. I just didn't have enough time to listen through it over and over obsessively (though I should have) because I was already trying to listen through my full list of 2011 music and only got through undun a couple times. My bad. But so far, it's probably as good as anything they've done in the past few years if not better than at least most of it. I better start shortening these honorable mentions, eh? The same can be said about People Under The Stairs and Phonte, although to a lesser degree. Still great albums. I think I just got a lot of hip hop at the end of the year because I realized how lacking my "best of 2011" list was looking in that particular genre. You'll see. Let's knock out all the hip hop first, shall we? Atmosphere's latest had some wonderful moving storytelling as they are wont to do. Beans put out a highly underrated album with some of the sickest production to be heard (there was supposed to be a flying lotus track on there. it wasn't on the album for some reason...but the whole feel of the album is very flylo-esque). Big K.R.I.T. had that one that had everybody raving. I probably would be too if it had hit that gut reaction or whatever. But still wonderful. I'm sure some of you will be annoyed that the Beastie Boys aren't on the list. I don't know what to say, I probably just didn't listen to it enough. I think every track is great but when listened to in one sitting it has that Beastie Boys effect on me, which is that it's too much. Hail Mary Mallon had some unique moments and some highly catchy tunes, some of the catchiest stuff I've heard from Aesop Rock yet. I think I dug it more than most people. And finally, Kendrick Lamar had some brilliant and/or heartbreaking words but for some reason I wasn't into the production. It sounded too much like whatever he is kind of working against. Very optimistic about his future though. That's the hip hop I'm going to mention. What else? Wilco put out their best album in quite some time. Get it if you dig Wilco from before Sky Blue Sky. Lykke Li put out some gold that on another day probably could have made the list (super close!). Other Scandinavians? Peter Bjorn & John had a great opening three tracks on their album and didn't really get bad per se, it just had to slow down and I wish it hadn't had to. And The Lionheart Brothers' album wasn't officially released in the United States, although I will say that that's the only thing that kept if off the list because it was a super strong album that continues to go underheard here for some strange reason. They were masters of dream pop (emphasis on pop) on their last album and this is more of a mood record that is a wonderful place that I want to visit. Yes, I want to visit the album (and Norway, for that matter). Jens Lekman's EP delivered 4 more golden tracks, everything we would have hoped for. Speaking of EPs, Broken Bells' expanded their sound just enough this year. What's next? Los Campesinos! are a band I didn't check out until this year. Their album is very catchy and I need to hear more. Neon Indian expanded on the sound of their first album to create something more resembling their outstanding live show. Nat Baldwin put out something that The Dirty Projectors should be proud of (I just wish there had been more experimentation). Feist outdid herself despite not having a pop hit. St. Vincent made it clear that I should be more of a St. Vincent fan. Mekons put out a solid effort, melding and mixing many styles as The Mekons are good at doing. Raphael Saadiq kept soul alive while Charles Bradley completely killed it (and Mayer Hawthorne revived it with sweet, sweet lovin). Tinariwen brought us another type of African music ("another type" being as opposed to last year's resurgence of Congotronics) with some absolute gorgeousness. And Real Estate put out something that was wonderful the one and only time I've listened to it (again, if I listened some more it probably would be on the list but I'm a busy man).
I hope those mentions were honorable enough for fans of the above bolded artists. All worth checking out despite not getting full-ish paragraphs below that the ranked artists will now get.
The Top 19 (yes, only 19 this year because I'm a stickler. Just put The Roots at 20 if you need a round number) Albums of 2011.
19. Washed Out - Within And Without. Yeah, pretty sexy cover they got there. The whole album just feels like the cover looks. Somewhat PG-13-rated but you get it. What does this sentence even mean? If you need me to describe the music, it's bedroom sexy electronica without being too overtly sexy. Just like I said above! Come on! OK, this is what The XX would have sounded like if they were less minimalist (they were my top album of 2009 for the record).
18. Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah. Before this I hadn't really heard of Thao OR Mirah. OK, I think I had heard of Thao (and upon further investigation, I think I'd heard Thao's "bag of hammers" song). But I wasn't really intrigued until I saw a free download of their song featuring one Tune-Yards (I'm going to just spell it that way damnit). It was like a good Tune-Yards song with more vocalists! So I got the album and it's just full of that unique indie folk music that I love so much (that first got me into such artists as Jesca Hoop). Tune-Yards did something special with production and other than a song or two, it doesn't really sound like Tune-Yards, although it has that same spirit of looseness and giddiness of experimentation.
17. Lia Ices - Grown Unknown. More of that female indie folk stuff but on a slightly higher level than Thao & Mirah. The ethereal-ness of this record combined with a certain upbeat-icity made it something both easy to listen to and, in a way, transcendent.
16. Snake Rattle Rattle Snake - Sineater. It is impossible for me to be objective about this, although this was never about being objective. But this Denver favorite's debut LP was everything it should be. It did not disappoint. I already knew & loved the songs so it was easy to get into it from the very first spin. The production keeps the energy almost as high as the live experience of this band, so give it a listen if you're not from here and want to know what Denver's up to these days.
15. Cut Copy - Zonoscope. This is dance floor ready electronic pop music. It's almost like the Hot Chip album that this year was missing. I don't know what else to say about this. It's a lot like Hot Chip. So it's highly enjoyable.
14. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges. I was intrigued by who he's played with in the past and who shows up on this album. Laurie Anderson shows up on this and that should be indication enough what you are getting. Pulsating grooves and sounds that could not (but yes they do!) come from a saxophone. It's a big honkin' thing, let me tell you. And the atmosphere created here is like going into a dark cave with some ominousness lurking here and there, and then Laurie Anderson reads a poem and you wonder how you got there but you need to go deeper just to be deeper because despite where you are and any feelings of unease it's addicting.
13. The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts. They came back in a big way this year. This album is almost as good as their first one, which is to say it is much better than their second one. They have re-discovered the balance of high energy jams and gleeful-but-lower-tempo pop hits (or should be hits).
12. Wild Flag - Wild Flag. On Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein mercilessly mocks hipster culture so much that it's good to get a reminder about what gives her such credibility. Sure, you can just listen to some Sleater-Kinney and have that be the end of it, but that band hasn't been around in awhile. So this is a nice nudge to say, yes, Carrie Brownstein still rules when she's not being ironic/funny (although she rules at that too!). On top of that, it's nice to be reminded of why I first got into the band Quasi. Drummer Janet Weiss impressed me so when I saw them live that I had to have their albums. I can't really continue with these comparisons because I haven't listened to Helium or The Minders but let's just talk about this record. This band is legit, greater than the sum of its parts, a group of people that always should have been playing together (and in some cases they have). This is a showcase of some great individual talents (particularly Janet Weiss, but the whole group is highly skilled) coming together for a great unified statement.
11. Battles - Gloss Drop. The band was halfway through what I will now think of as some great lost album when Tyondai Braxton left. This was a cause of great concern of course, as Battles With Tyondai Braxton had created some of the greatest music of our young century. But all along, this was something of a super group, and if anyone was capable of carrying on it was the remaining trio. Sure, they likely had to scale back their vision a little bit, but that is different than looking back. Battles has always been a well oiled machine of a band, always moving forward into the future. Sort of a new generation of math rock. My engineering genes, love of organized chaos, and robotic hips will always appreciate what Battles does, and I have no doubt that they will pull us into the future.
Top Ten! That's a big deal, right? Ten is usually enough for some people anyway, so if you stopped reading and just scrolled for awhile, time to pretend we're just getting started!
10. Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs Evil. Every year there's that early release that piques my interest and is that "early contender" for album of the year. This was that album this year. I was slightly late to get on the Deerhoof train; the first new album of theirs I got was Friend Opportunity (which was quite great!). Now, I don't know if this is just me or if it would be the case if others were to hear this album, but it sounds like the most accessible Deerhoof has been. Without compromising the weirdness that has always made the band something special, this album is just plain catchy.
9. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life. This is just a great story set to a punk rock background. One of those concept albums that can be appreciated on whichever level you feel like giving it at the time. Just enjoying a song here or there? It sounds great! It will get your adrenaline pumping and get you going. Wanting to hear the story? Do it then! It's a great story!
8. The Antlers - Burst Apart. When I first started reading about this new one I didn't think I'd like it as much as Hospice, because it was supposedly more electronic, possibly more poppy, which just seemed like it would be a less intimate experience. However, they don't seem to have lost anything in this expansion. The songs are still deeply personal and heartbreaking, in the same way as they are on the slower Hospice. If anything, the new expansive sound serves as a funnel allowing easier access to the devastation provided by their content. Or more surface area to the ocean of despair? I don't know, it's good.
7. Tom Waits - Bad As Me. Most everything has been said about Tom Waits over the years. Not sure what I have to contribute to the conversation. But this is just a badass record from front to back. Strong as it starts out, I think the back end is my favorite, featuring ballads alternating with some serious rockers (particularly Hell Broke Luce, the most intense song of the year). It's everything you could hope for from Tom Waits.
6. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver. This is such a pretty album for 9 of the 10 tracks. And good for him for track 10 anyway. If you will, allow me to make an outlandish comparison here. For Emma, Forever Ago was sort of his Late Registration (critically adored, great album despite its relatively limited scope). Blood Bank was his 808s & Heartbreak (experimenting with auto-tune, and while it's an interesting album it's more of a diversion than anything else). So yeah, this one is his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Using that previous experiment to expand beyond what we all thought he was capable of to create a masterwork. My only problem was that I listened to this once, recognized its greatness, filed it under "2011 contenders," and didn't listen to it much since then because I felt I should listen to potential "growers" more. I'm sorry Mr Vernon. I'm listening to it now and it definitely deserves to be at least this high and I don't mind that Pitchfork made you #1. No objections to that at all.
5. TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light. When TV On The Radio scales back, it takes them from #1 to #5. That's about as hyperbolic I can get about this band this time. Few things. I wrote an extensive review/whatever on this blog already so seek it out. I'm not sure if I said this before, but I heard that song "Will Do" an impossibly high number of times and never got sick of it. It's such a beautiful song that it will never be played out. There's plenty more on this album though, and I live for the deeper cuts. I could put "Repetition" on repeat all day. Hell of a roll this band is on.
4. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. The opening three on this are just pure glee. "Intro" (when the hell is a song called "Intro" actually this good, this much of a realized song?) followed by "Midnight City" followed by "Reunion?" These are the songs that musical moments in life are made of. I am beyond excited that I found out they are playing in Denver next year because I can just anticipate the reaction (my own and that of the crowd) at the opening notes to every one of these songs. And the dancing. And the sweating. And the absolute joy of every moment of said concert. And it's not like it lets up after this one-two-three punch. This is a double album that is just full of these moments. I recommend this to everyone. Go ahead and use that song in that Victoria's Secret commercial, as long as it spreads these songs around and gives more people a chance to experience the power of this music (although the snippet used in the commercial hardly does justice to the full song's impact) the world will be a better place.
3. tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L. There, I capitalized it "correctly" this time. I'm not sure if I mentioned this when I wrote about the concert earlier this year but here's the thing about this album. I saw tUnE-yArDs a year or two ago opening for Xiu Xiu and was blown away. So blown away, in fact, that when I picked up the brand new album W H O K I L L the day it was released I already kind of knew most of the songs. The songs were so memorable from that one opening set over a year before that I remembered them vividly. This album is what happens when someone has pure artistic energy flowing out of every pore and puts it out there uninterrupted. The fact that this has become as popular as it has is just astonishing to me.
2. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up. The packaging on this vinyl is pretty unique. The material used is some sort of plastic, in a deep black. The art is minimalist, black on black. The inner sleeve is a deep red and it looks really cool peeking through when you first start to reach in and grab it. And then the record itself is black (not that unique, admittedly) but it is very high quality, very thick vinyl. That's what we're working with here. Minimalist beats, highly poetic lyricism with hints of flare but a strong intellectual and emotional core. This is why there's no other hip hop on the list (other than quite a few honorable mentions). This almost ruined hip hop for me. Before I ever listened to hip hop I used to think it all sounded the same. Then I figured out that that was not true. But when I listen to this album, all the rest of the hip hop that was released this year, despite being highly acclaimed, kind of sounded the same to me. This reached a higher level for me and I couldn't listen to other hip hop without being somewhat disappointed (until The Roots' new album came out, at least). And I'm sure I'm still somewhat an amateur as far as hip hop goes and there is other hip hop on this level out there, I just haven't heard it. And this is my personal list. So that's why this is here.
WHOA WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE #1????? YOU WILL NEVER GUESS!
1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues. I am almost embarrassed about this. This album seems to be playing in Barnes & Noble all the time and other stores. It's probably all over the radio. This was a pretty successful album, I'm saying. And I don't know if it is particularly the "best" album of the year. OK enough trash talk (because obviously it was a fantastic album and it had to have been to top this list, let me tell you). In 2008 I hadn't heard of this band until they topped a bunch of "best of" lists for that year. I listened to their debut a little but was somewhat unimpressed. I gave them another chance when this new one came out. What is it about this album that makes it my personal #1 for the year? It's simply the fact that it relates to me on such a personal level right now. Where I am in my life, damnit that title track which was also released as a single, A SINGLE, defines where I am in my life. "If I had an orchard, I'd work 'til I'm sore." This album served as the soundtrack to my summer of working on my yard, and I know it's not that literal but "I guess I got old" and every line speaks to me directly. And the music is beautiful and all that, kind of a mix of what Fleet Foxes were on their first album and some experimentalism that I am drawn to. So damnit, this damn album gave me no choice but to put it at #1.
Have a happy New Year! Maybe I'll post more in 2012!
