Chunklet magazine has been doing absolutely hilarious takedowns of the other media’s TOP X of 2011 lists.
I definitely fell for a calmer blissed out texture this year. My top 2011 albums for the year are easily:
Destroyer - Kaputt
Simply outstanding and completely transporting. I do get warm and fuzzy from people bringing back the smooth AM Gold sound with projected emotions bubbling just underneath. I say projected b/c allegedly large portions of this album is just Dan Bejar singing random lyrics for the hell of it. It works for me.
Take pills, for instance, I heard they’re no good for you. “I won’t and I never will,” she said…
Washed Out - Within and Without
All I know that ‘chillwave’ is a completely ridiculous term.
completely unintelligible lyrics…too find the light too gaaa?
Okkervill River - I Am Very Far : This was my introduction to the band. This balances out the previous lower energy favorites. I don’t articulate well about music but thier music just feels enveloping. Even when drowning in half hearted wailing it never sounds like they are reaching for anything artificial or calculated.
Piratess
Wake and Be Fine
Telekinesis -Twelve Desperate Straight Lines : Nothing more than very tight pop that always leaves me jarred when the album is over after 33 minutes.
Please Ask for Help
Car Crash
In another news 2011 was the year I finally caught up with 2010’s Two Door Cinema Club (thanks for the tip in the Spotify thread, charmtrap) and 2009’s La Roux
This is only what I listened to at my PC while browsing
sidebar: Making posts like this remind me why I don’t actually watch videos. Who are these people?
Great album. Isbell and McMurtry are labelmates, IIRC, and they toured together last year. Amazing show.
(Cross-posted with the other music thread since one of the albums has been mentioned here a couple of times.)
I recently bought the following two albums on vinyl and they both came with free MP3 download codes. Since I already have the MP3s of both, they’re of no use to me. So if anybody would like either or both of these albums, please PM me. They’re single-use only, so first come, first served.
The Thermals - Personal Life claimed
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Here We Rest
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Incidentally these are both in my “best of 2011” list, even though Personal Life was released in late 2010. I didn’t buy it until 2011 so it still counts.
Edit: bought another album that I already have, so added it to the list.
I really haven’t been following much recent music since like late 2009 … so I only have 2 ‘recent’ albums I’ve been repeatedly listening (which I suppose is best of 2011?) Bon Iver and Wilco. and maybe like Adele (the basic top 10 tracks on her 21 album… wait is that a 2011 album? hmm) and er… Cobra Starship?
I haven’t even caught up with my indie pop faves Los Campesinos! or that last Grates album.
btw the Wilco Whole Love album is awesome to drive with! It’s got more variety than there last album and even Sky BLue Sky.
I heard a few of the tracks on the Destroyer album and some of Mates of State… both sound really good so i guess its they’re in my top 10… i dont think i listened to ten albums this year!
Apologies for the straight-up list with little content – I can’t work up the energy to do a more thorough review, and really I’m no good at that sort of thing. I’m dumping my list of most-played albums from the past 12 months straight out of Listen.FM – so only some of this was released in 2011. I listen to the vast majority of my music on my home pc or through my iPod, so this list is very representative.
Village – Local Moves (I believe this was free on their website, and a Triggercut recommendation. Its really good.)
Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines (so catchy)
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (I’m a PJ fan, and this was better than her last album, imo)
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
Glossary – Long Live All Of Us (not as good as their last album, Feral Fire, but still really good southern’ish rock)
Wilco – The Whole Love
Laura Veirs – July Flame (This is from 2010 I think, and is easily one of my favorite albums from the past few years)
Stephen Malkmus – Mirror Traffic
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Warpaint – The Fool (I think I really liked the single, Undertow, and thought the rest of the album was ok)
Toro Y Moi – Causers Of This (2010 release I believe, I’m surprised I listened to it this much)
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (really surprised at this one being so high on the list, thought it was good not great)
Wye Oak – Civilian (this really grew on me, like it a lot)
The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient (sounds a lot like old U2 in places, but I liked this quite a bit)
Apex Manor – The Year Of Magical Drinking (this I really like, and would move up the list if this was a “best-of”)
Nadine – Downtown Saturday (early 2000’s alt-country album that someone described as fitting alongside Son Volt and Whiskeytown. Its not Strangers Almanac quality, but its really good, I probably like it better than most of the Son Volt stuff)
Bobby Bare Jr. – A Storm - A Tree - My Mother’s Head (holy shit I like this a lot, released in 2010 though)
Okkervil River – I Am Very Far (I really like
The Kills – Midnight Boom (older album I believe, my first of theirs)
The Rosebuds – Loud Planes Fly Low (I don’t remember why I got this, but I’m really glad I did – mellow and catchy)
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Glossary – Feral Fire (2010 release, still going strong for me)
Yuck – Yuck
Foster The People – Torches
These two are fairly recent purchases for me, so didnt make the list above but I like them enough to give special mention
Tune-Yards
St. Vincent
There’s a really nice video series about the Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin on Pitchfork TV today.
Best album of the late 90s? If you ask me it is.
[Oops, this was the wrong thread to post that in. Sorry]
Thank you for mentioning The Joy Formidable, Rightbug! I love it. I find myself confounded by EMA. I’ve listened to the entire album on Spotify now and I can’t decide if I like it or not.
Fashionably late! Wall of text!
10. Tombs – Path of Totality
Any album that kicks off with a beast like “Black Hole of Summer” is aces in my book. It’s to Tombs’ considerable credit that the album scarcely lets up over the course of its twelve tracks, yet doesn’t wear out its welcome. The riffs are consistently huge, and the feel of the album as dour as any in recent memory. In other words, perfect for me.
9. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
At this stage of their career, it would be boring to note that Mogwai have given unto us yet another quietly brilliant album if that album weren’t so goddamn good. Despite the ominous title, Hardcore feels more upbeat than 2008’s The Hawk is Howling. It’s relaxed, but not relaxing. I would have more to say about it, but I’ve only just gotten it.
8. Boris – Attention Please
Boris and I have come a long way since I bailed out of one of their concerts after four songs—due as much to the moshing assholes as to the somewhat soporific performance. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate the willfully obtuse delights Boris provides as they careen from genre to genre, sound to sound on their stupidly prolific musical journey. Attention Please is, to me, by far the better of the two albums Boris dropped on the same day early in 2011. It ranges from atmospheric weirdness (on the eponymous opener) to ambient soundscapes (“You”) and gorgeous, raw, energetic rock (“Spoon”). None of the songs sounds particularly similar, yet every one sounds natural for Boris. Well done.
7. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
A confident sophomore album that retains all of the passion of their self-titled debut and adds a considerable degree of execution. The track-to-track flow is masterful; witness the anthemic opener “Beautifuluniversemasterchampion,” moving to the riotous “Gangs (Starting Never Stopping),” and on into the menacing “Search:Party:Animal.” Centerpiece “7 Billion People All Alive at Once” is alternatingly lush and playful, two feelings one doesn’t expect to get from a band that supposedly plays “math rock.” Album closer “Lifeproof” is worth the price of admission by itself. Can’t wait to see what they do next.
6. Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence
I’m very happy to see Asobi Seksu return to form after 2009’s disappointing Hush. While Fluorescence doesn’t quite see the band attain the lofty heights of 2006’s Citrus, it’s nevertheless a damn fine album. Yuki Chikudate turns in her best vocals to date, although I’m not wild about the production on them. James Hanna’s guitar work boldly recalls My Bloody Valentine, and similarly manages to hold up quite well. Asobi Seksu can be maddening—Fluorescence contains some terrible missteps (“My Baby” is throwaway pop fluff; “Leave the Drummer Out There” takes a bizarre turn through lounge music; and “Deep Weird Sleep” is a pointless instrumental interlude that frankly sounds like it belongs in a Zelda game and leads into the similarly pointless “Counterglow”), but they can hit such amazing highs. As a sucker for shoegaze, masterpieces like “Ocean” and “Pink Light” were guaranteed to slay me, but the album also features a couple of perfect dreampop pieces in “Perfectly Crystal” and “Trance Out.” The ability to swing so easily between those two types of songs has always been Asobi Seksu’s strong point; if they could just drop the filler, I have no doubt they could put together another album for the ages.
5. Sloan – The Double Cross
Sloan shouldn’t be this good anymore. The Double Cross is the tenth album in their twenty-year run. Chris Murphy’s lyrics are somehow getting worse, and Patrick Pentland’s songs aren’t getting better. Yet they continue to hit it out of the park with tightly constructed songs that manage to sound comfortably familiar, yet more nuanced than what they’ve done before. In the Sloan democracy, my vote has always been with Andrew Scott, and here he’s responsible for the album’s brilliant penultimate track, “Traces.” That said, the real standout on The Double Cross is Jay Ferguson’s “Green Gardens, Cold Montreal.” Sorry, Andy.
4. Cave In – White Silence
A triumph. Their first album since 2005’s Perfect Pitch Black, the opening of White Silence literally screams with confidence as Cave In shed the major-label-induced alternative rock of their middle period for a return to the brash, aggressive sound of their youth. The alternative influence isn’t lost, however; for all the dissonance and screaming (of which there is plenty on highlights “White Silence” and “Serpents”), the album is packed with tuneful, melodic brilliance amidst all the cacophony—“Sing My Loves” is probably the best example, and “Summit Fever” packs a slew of monster riffs that skew more Chavez than Converge. And I can’t say enough about closer “Reanimation,” a plaintive, beautiful capstone on a most excellent return.
3. Jesu – Ascension
I had this album pegged as the year’s best long before it even came out, and it very nearly was. Such is my confidence in Justin K. Broadrick’s genius, and, despite my high expectations, he always delivers. Of all his various projects, Jesu is the one that appeals to me most, with its shoegaze-meets-sludge-metal sound that in Broadrick’s mind constitutes “pop.” The opening trio of songs (“Fools,” “Birth Day,” and “Sedation”) is as good as any Jesu has put together, and the rest of the album is dotted with some perfect tracks (“Brave New World”; “Small Wonder”; “December”; and “Ascension”) and some merely average ones (“Broken Home”; “Black Lies”; “King of Kings”). As you can tell from the track titles, this is a bleak record, and I wouldn’t suggest it as an entry point to the Jesu catalog. That said, Broadrick is doing amazing things under the Jesu moniker; tackle the Silver EP and Conqueror LP first, then come wallow with me in Ascension.
2. True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth
The guitar sound that opens this album is the stuff of dreams. No album this year created more with less. I had intended at this point to discuss the standout tracks, but that would be silly. This album is a booming, brooding masterpiece from start to finish. It must be heard.
1. Russian Circles – Empros
Russian Circles are the most exciting band going. It’s that simple. As with my favorite album of 2010 (Torche’s Songs for Singles), the only criticism I can level at Empros is that, at six songs running forty-one minutes, it’s not nearly long enough. Where their previous two albums (Station and Geneva, also masterpieces) saw the band slowly evolving its sound, Empros is a quantum goddamn leap forward. “309” opens the album with a daringly raw, driving riff that’s a far cry from the sheen of Geneva, and the song manages quite a few turns before fading out in first menacing, then gentle fashion.
Indeed, Empros is full of twists and turns that I didn’t know Russian Circles had in them. Mike Sullivan’s opening guitar figure on “Mladek” runs away with the Riff of the Year trophy, and earns it even more when the same figure returns two-thirds of the way through to herald the song’s descent into a shrieking, nearly black-metal conclusion. “Schipol” spends a leisurely three minutes wandering through a folk-apocalypse before erupting. “Atackla” also develops patiently, building around Dave Turncrantz’s peerless drumming. “Batu” is all atmosphere—until the 3:50 mark, when it resets to cramped, muted guitars; military-precise drums; and a strident, declaratory bass line. This, too, begins to build, back into the atmosphere, until collapsing abruptly into four minutes of gentle ambiance.
Ambiance that leads into the much-ballyhooed appearance, for the first time ever in a Russian Circles song, of vocals, on finale “Praise Be Man.” That the song, so quiet, beautiful, and simply-arranged, manages to fit so perfectly at the end of what is unquestionably the band’s heaviest and most complex work to date is remarkable. It’s also fitting that the vocals are delivered by bassist Brian Cook, whose excellent playing is easy to overlook amidst the flashier work of Sullivan and Turncrantz. “Praise Be Man” is emblematic of the band itself—far more than the sum of its parts, regardless of how brilliant those parts are.
Honorable Mentions
More than ten great albums in a year? Madness! Yet it is so. Foremost among the almost-best is the excellent sophomore album from Helms Alee, Weatherhead. It’s a big step forward from their rough-but-enjoyable debut (Night Terror, which I nevertheless recommend) and hopefully portends great things for the future. Also worthy of recommendation is that other Boris album, Heavy Rocks. It’s…well, it’s a Boris album. Heavier than Attention Please and quite good, indeed. Finally, ex-ISIS bassist Jeff Caxide, under the moniker Crone, released a splendid, formless ambient album, the aptly titled Endless Midnight.
Also, Battles would probably have made the list if I had yet gotten around to listening to Gloss Drop. One of these days.
And what of the year’s disappointments? One still manages to rate an honorable mention: Mastodon’s The Hunter. I know, I know, it’s their “pop” album and it’s all “concise” and whatnot. It’s no Blood Mountain or Crack the Skye, and it doesn’t try to be. And, really, it’s quite good. I can understand a band taking a step back from monster concept albums, letting their hair down, and just rocking out. Ultimately, unfortunately, The Hunter is good, but not great.
Cave In had a new album last year? And it was good? Well hot damn! I haven’t heard anything new from them since Antenna, which I thought was mediocre. I’m excited to hear that they went back to their harder style.
Indeed! It’s not quite Until Your Heart Stops heavy, but it’s at least in the ballpark.
I’m listening to this on Spotify now, and holy shit… way heavier than I expected, and it rules! Sing My Love is currently blowing my mind. Thanks for the heads up!
Nice list sinfony! I agree with you on the best tracks on Sloan’s new album, but I think I got more mileage out of the opening trio of linked songs than you did. “Follow The Leader” into “The Answer Was You” into “Unkind” is an awesome triple wallop.
I’m with you on “Follow the Leader” and “The Answer Was You.” “Unkind” kind of kills the flow for me.
I really enjoyed albums from M83 and Fucked Up this year, but Portugal. The Man’s “In the Mountain in the Cloud” has been playing on my drive home for months.
This is phenomenal – Thanks. I’ve been listening to the album non-stop since you posted it.
Glad to hear you’re enjoying it! I’m amazed they seem to be so unpopular. This album has an incredible radio-friendly sound. Even the indie music publications have been ignoring them.
I’m not cool enough for this thread.