Top Albums of 2011: #6 thru #10

January 21, 2012

#10) The Antlers – Burst Apart [Frenchkiss; released 5/10/2011]

“I’m not gonna die alone…I don’t think so.”

“Putting The Dog To Sleep”

It’s impossible to discuss Burst Apart without first mentioning this album’s predecessor Hospice, my #2 Album of 2009. Perhaps that’s a bit unfair, but when you release an album as stunning as Hospice, there’s bound to be some call backs, and well, concerns as to if a follow up release can vindicate all the praise lavished upon this young group. With Burst Apart, The Antlers have proven their music can be just as emotionally resonant without the help of heavy subject matter in highly conceptual form. Part of that is due to Peter Silberman’s falsetto which is still as fragile as ever while remaining inviting. The songs on Burst Apart are more standard in their song structure making this disc an easier listen than Hospice, but it doesn’t give up the haunting atmospherics that makes their music so striking. Now a fully realized band, Burst Apart is their first album written as a whole, not just Silberman, and it’s easy to see how this group has gelled together to form a band that can now stand on their own merits as musicians and not just kings of sorrow.

[“I Don’t Want Love” – Burst Apart]

#9) Cults – Cults [Sony; released 6/7/2011]

“I think I want to live my life and you’re just in my way.”

“Go Outside”

The concern with bands who land a major label deal due to an internet hit in their infancy is pretty obvious. Does this band really have the songwriting chops to produce an entire album of this stuff? Or will they just be another one-hit internet wonder that’s all too common these days? (We’ll soon get that answer about Lana Del Rey.) It’s a question that unfairly sets a band up for failure, with seeming loads of criticism heading their way from the start due to all the skepticism. For Cults, they put any of those concerns to bed immediately on their debut album with opening track “Abducted”, one of the best songs of the year, and followed it up with an album full of potential singles that can all stand right up there with “Go Outside”, the song that catapulted them to the forefront of indie-pop. Cults is an album that displays all the catchiness and hooks of a band sure of themselves, and well, extremely good pop songwriters. Are the songs derivative? Sure. But the use of 60’s girl-pop influences do convey a sense of nostalgia on this record that makes it so charming and deeper than what you hear on the surface. There’s a bit of tragedy and heartbreak in the lyrics and a sense of vulnerability in Madeline Follin’s vocals, but she doesn’t beat you over the head with it like some of her genre peers can’t help but do. Cults is a mature and masterful album, the year’s best debut, from a band that still has a lot of room to go. They’re here to stay.

[“Abducted” – Cults]

#8) Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues [Sub Pop; released 5/3/2011]

“So now I am older than my mother and father when they had their daughter. Now what does that say about me?”

“Montezuma”

The sophomore album from these woodsy harmonizers is one that overcame quite the obstacles to even see the light of day. After their highly successful debut album in 2008 (my #3 album that year), Fleet Foxes began work on their follow up, but a bout with writers block from lead man Robin Pecknold didn’t help things along. Neither did the scrapping of every song after the initial recording, which meant starting from scratch in the studio. This well-documented recording process for Helplessness Blues is a testament to the painstaking efforts put forth by Fleet Foxes in creating their art. But when released, the final product is an album full of lush folk songs that sonically expands on everything these guys were doing with their debut, creating a truly beautiful album. The songs on Helplessness Blues have been polished to perfection, while not sacrificing their intimacy and contain all the majesty that made these guys so endearing in the first place.

[“Grown Ocean” – Helplessness Blues]

#7) St. Vincent – Strange Mercy [4AD; released 9/13/2011]

“Best, finest surgeon, come cut me open.”

“Surgeon”

I’ve always wondered what it would be like if a successful but relatively non-mainstream artist showed up on American Idol in front of the audition panel.  It would kind of be a dream of mine to see the panel have no idea who the artist was, get on their high horse and criticize in their usual condescending way, unaware the whole time that the musician in front of them has already seen loads of success and contains more talent in his or her pinky finger than any of American Idol’s winners in its run. The thing is though, this isn’t what would happen with with Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent. Clark has a gorgeous face, a killer voice, and can absolutely whale on the guitar, all of which is pretty evident right away. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear such complex yet accessible tunes coming from an artist like St. Vincent. Strange Mercy is her third full-length and contains all her usual sweet yet anxiety filled songs that make her one of the most sophisticated songwriters going today. The formula remains the same on most her songs here: a tender verse/chorus buildup into a freak-out of sorts all the while capturing the introspection of a songstress at the top of her lyrical game. With all due respect to Adele (and others), there isn’t a female artist creating more interesting music in the world today. And it’s getting time that we need to start thinking about dropping the female qualifier.

[“Surgeon” – Strange Mercy]

#6) tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l [4AD; released 4/19/2011]

“There’s a freedom in violence that I don’t understand, and like I’ve never felt before.”

“Riotriot”

Let’s get this out of the way: this is a weird album and Merril Garbus is a strange woman. But that’s what makes her tUnE-yArDs project so appealing and intriguing. This is the second album from Garbus following up her breakout debut BiRd-BrAiNs in 2009 which announced her presence as an experimental-pop artist, but limiting her to just a pop musician doesn’t do nearly enough justice to the type of music Garbus is creating here. What she’s done on w h o k i l l is create an “everything but the kitchen sink” album, blending so many genres that it’s really too many to even list. She has a clear knack for songwriting and despite all the bizarre tunes, they really are some damn good pop songs. Garbus carries a confidence on w h o k i l l that is evident throughout, but never once hints at self-indulgence, and dismissing Garbus as another freak-folk musician is to dismiss her talent in some of the simplest ways, most notably her voice. All you have to do is listen to a track like “Powa” with it’s lo-fi production and numerous musical techniques throughout which all leads to an fantastic vocal breakdown where Garbus hits a note that can only be described as Mariah Carey-esque. Weird yes, but when it’s this fascinating, it’s a welcome oddity.

[“Powa” – w h o k i l l]

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Top Albums of 2011: #11 thru #25

January 20, 2012

The Countdown can now begin with my 15 albums that make up #11 through #25. There’s really no logic governing which albums I chose to do a write up for here. I didn’t want to write something about all of them, but felt like a few deserved a little blurb.

#25) Cut Copy – Zonoscope

The first half of Zonoscope is as good as anything released in 2011. That’s not to say the second half is bad, it just can’t quite keep up with the lush synth-pop scattered throughout the first 5 or 6 tracks. Cut Copy’s previous album was a critical darling, and as a follow up some think Zonoscope falls short, but it’s still full of hooks and for me confirms the great songwriting ability from this Australian dance-rock band.   Opening track “Need You Now” is one of the best songs of the year and the kind of song most artists spend their whole career trying to create. For Cut Copy, it’s second nature.

[“Need You Now” – Zonoscope]

#24) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong

#23) Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

#22) EMA – Past Lives Martyred Saints

#21) The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck

#20) TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light

#19) Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

#18) The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

While Kurt Vile may have released a more critically acclaimed album in 2011, what his former band did with Slave Ambient should not be ignored. Slave Ambient is the 2nd album from these guys, and first without Vile (who wasn’t that integral in the band’s sound anyway). It’s an atmospheric album, but one that’s also subtly infectious with song after song of  memorable melodies channeling Americana heroes such as Petty, Dylan, and Springsteen.

[“Baby Missiles” – Slave Ambient]

#17) The Field – Looping State of Mind

#16) Destroyer – Kaputt

I’ve always been quite intrigued by Dan Bejar. As a member of indie-pop super group The New Pornographers, he’s always struck me as the odd man out. To me, that group has been more of an avenue for Carl Newman to flex his power-pop muscles, while Bejar merely sprinkles in his style of avant-garde indie-rock. He seems to save his creativity for his Destroyer project, and Kaputt does nothing to disprove that. You really never know what you’re going to get from a Destroyer album, and a 80’s style soft rock record certainly fits the bill. It’s still a Destroyer record through and through, and with talk that he may be retiring the moniker, it’s a hell of a way to go out.

[“Kaputt” – Kaputt]

#15) Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

This is an album I expected to get a lot more love when the end of the year lists came out, but for some reason it quietly went into the night and after it’s February release was seemingly forgotten. It’s for that reason that I consider the 5th album from these experimental psych-folk rockers the most underrated album of the year. Akron/Family has never been short on ambition and with this, their second “self-titled” album, they’re showing that they’re always ready to reinvent themselves, yet remain accessible.

[“Another Sky” – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT]

#14) Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

#13) Yuck – Yuck

Oftentimes when wearing your influences on your sleeve you can get buried by them. Not so for these young Brits, as they’ve packed their debut album full of 90’s era grunge and indie rock, but managed to create something of their own as well. And as much as everyone loves to analyze everything about an album, sometimes it’s refreshing to find a record like this that’s  just so damn fun to listen to and conveys such exuberance from the artist that it’s impossible to not sit back and enjoy it for what it is. It can be nostalgic if you want it to be, but Yuck mixes enough modern indie-rock with the old that it’s not a prerequisite for enjoyment.

[“Georgia” – Yuck]

#12) Drake – Take Care

I think what fascinates me the most about hip-hop is that in most genres, self-indulgence is often criticized the most as to what holds an album back from greatness (see Ceremonials from Florence + The Machine), but in hip-hop it’s a characteristic that is to be lauded and what usually allows an album to excel. Take Kanye’s masterful album last year, which will go down as maybe the most over-indulgent album I’ve ever listened to, but it had enough self-deprecation that it was obvious Kanye knew what he was doing by pointing out his own narcissism. Drake’s album Take Care, is the finest hip-hop release of the year, and succeeds largely on it’s own indulgence, but whereas Kanye’s album had an almost satirical self-assuredness, Drake’s is just immensely personal. Self-absorbed, sure. But in the hip-hop world, that’s what drives success.

[“Headlines” – Take Care]

#11) Wye Oak – Civilian

This is one of my biggest surprises of the year. It’s not that I was down on Wye Oak or anything, I just didn’t expect to love this album as much as I did. I specifically remember driving around one day with this album playing on my ipod and thinking to myself “OK, this is really good album.” It was possibly my most listened to album of 2011, thanks in large part to songs that engage with their beautiful yet tension filled melodies. It’s amazing how rich of a sound this Baltimore duo can get out of their scaled-down tunes, while still keeping the intimacy that makes them so pleasing. There’s a depth and darkness to each song on Civilian that took Wye Oak to a new level that most likely surprised everybody but themselves.

[“Holy Holy” – Civilian]

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Top Albums of 2011: Honorable Mentions

January 19, 2012

Honorable Mentions:

Let’s get things started with my Honorable Mentions for 2011. These are not necessarily the next highest ranked albums after my Top 25, but rather just some albums that I wanted to give extra attention to for one reason or another.

———-

Feist – Metals

In 2007, Feist broke out in grand fashion with her fantastic album The Reminder (with a little assist from Apple), and while Metals isn’t quite as immediate as its predecessor, it may actually be a more cohesive and complete album. You won’t find a “1234” on this release, but what you will find is a gorgeous set of songs, beautifully produced, that on repeated listens could very well be more fulfilling than anything in the Leslie Feist catalog.

[“The Bad In Each Other” – Metals]

———-

My Morning Jacket – Circuital

This  is the kind of album My Morning Jacket needed to make after the disaster that was Evil Urges. (Now, let’s never speak of it again.) Jim James and crew got whatever the hell that was out of their system and returned to what they do best. It still doesn’t reach the heights of their best work, most notably 2005’s Z, but I really don’t expect them to ever get to that level again. Instead, we have an album full expansive southern rock tunes with just a hint of their psychedelic tendencies…just like we want them.

[“Victory Dance” – Circuital]

———-

James Blake – James Blake

Quite possibly the year’s hipster darling, James Blake released his debut album in 2011 to a great deal of buzz thanks to his very well received EP’s of 2010. A full album of Blake’s dubstep tunes is quite a lot to take in, but if you’re willing to take an hour with some headphones in, it’s easy to see the ability of this 23 year old Brit. The best description I’ve heard of Blake’s style, and one I like to pass on, is that of a Dubstep version of Bon Iver. He creates some incredibly sparse tunes, that somehow have so much depth beneath the surface. His version of bedroom pop is a divisive one among music lovers, but it’s hard to deny his inventiveness as you listen to his tunes, including a pretty excellent Feist cover.

[“Limit To Your Love” – James Blake]

———-

Wilco – The Whole Love

Much like the My Morning Jacket release, what I’m really praising here is a return to form. It’s not that I’ve hated Wilco’s last few albums, they’ve just been quite boring and pretty great examples of a band mailing it in. However, The Whole Love is Wilco’s finest release since 2005’s A Ghost Is Born, which is not something I was expecting…at all. They seem to be rejuvenated a bit here, offering more of the experimentation that made their early albums so intriguing. A more adventurous Wilco is a more interesting Wilco, and we are all the better for it.

[“Art of Almost” – The Whole Love]

———-

The Felice Brothers – Celebration, Florida

I have to give a shout out to some of my personal favorites, The Felice Brothers, by mentioning just how impressed I was with the direction the group went with their latest album Celebration, Florida. These guys were poised to benefit from the recent success of The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons, which I was quite ready for since I believe The Felice Brothers have been creating much more interesting folk music than their peers (especially Mumford), so it was quite a shock to see them depart from their folk roots and experiment with a more electronic dancehall sound. It doesn’t always work, as their ambitions do get the best of them at times, but I’ll be damned if I don’t respect the hell out the effort.

[“Ponzi” – Celebration, Florida]

Dishonorable Mentions

In the last few years, I haven’t really had a need for this category, and this year is no different really, but it’s a tradition so I’ll put something here anyway. Calling these Dishonorable Mentions is pretty harsh as they’re really not that bad. However, I don’t envision it to be quite as controversial as last year.

The Strokes – Angles

This certainly isn’t a bad album. It’s just one that was completely unnecessary. The Strokes released an amazing album in 2001 that ushered in an era of garage band Rock ‘n Roll, then followed it up with basically a carbon copy, and fizzled out with an uninspired third album. For some reason, they thought we really needed them to reunite. I suppose Angles is a bit better than it’s predecessor, but who really cares? It’s evident they don’t. Just call it a day, guys.

[“Under The Cover of Darkness” – Angles]

———-

Tapes ‘n Tapes – Outside

I present these guys as a great example of the hype machine getting a little bit out of control (see also, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). When Tapes ‘n Tapes released their debut album in 2005 it was for some reason a critical success. I liked it alright, but found it a bit overrated. Their follow up album in 2008 pretty much vindicated my concerns by getting slammed critically and being labeled as a sophomore slump. (Personally, I thought it was on the same level of their debut…but whatever.) Well, with Outside, they’ve done nothing to really disprove that they were a mediocre band all along that for some reason found undeserving success on the internet blogosphere.

[“Freak Out” – Outside]

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Top Albums of 2011: Eligible Albums

January 18, 2012

Yes, I’m fully aware that the last post on this blog was my 2010 Mixtape, meaning it’s been an entire year since I’ve made an update. Hopefully in 2012 I’ll find more time to post, but 2011 was full of traveling for work (Atlanta, Wilmington) and for fun (Europe), as well as buying a house, among other life stuff…so yeah, my time was limited. However, I did still listen to a lot of music, and far be it from me to keep my Top Albums rankings from my multitude dozens of fans. I can only imagine the backlash. So over the next few days I’ll be unveiling my rankings, although I’ll probably keep my writeups a bit shorter than usual and won’t stretch out these posts over a week and a half like I’ve done in the past. I’m only expecting to make about 5 or 6 posts for this years recap. And as usual, I’ll kick it off with a list of the albums I got in 2011, and thus, the albums that are eligible.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 74 albums…70 of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, Soundtracks, Live Albums, Holiday Albums, or B-Side/Rarity type releases as albums eligible for my list. The 70 albums in 2011 is the smallest amount of albums I’ve had eligible in quite some time, although it’s still probably more than I need, but I’m a music junkie and just can’t help myself. Of course, there’s plenty of albums that I never got around to procuring, so yes, there’s going to be very worthy albums that don’t make my list. Get over it. After the jump, you can see the list of all albums I purchased, in order of release date. Also, over to the right, you can see the schedule over the next few days as I continue the countdown. Enjoy, and thanks for indulging my, uhh, indulgence.

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