Top 21 Albums of 2011

Back when I was blogging my ass off about music I would draw out my little year-end list over the course of the whole month of December, making people come back each day just to see which record I valued more than the one that had been written about the day before. It was mean to do to my loyal readers, but hey I was chasing those hits like every other blogger was. This year, since I’m not blogging full-time I’m just gonna lay it all out on the line for you guys in the odd chance that anyone still cares what I have to say about music. So here you go, my list of the best albums of 2011….

1. Fucked Up David Comes to Life; Hardcore music has been around for a long ass time, pulsing and pounding through basement venues for ages as kids moshed and screamed along. The thing about hardcore is that few have ever truly played with the rules of the genre, bending them at their own will to create something more unique than the genre generally allows. Fucked Up defy all the rules. They make 12-minute epics and write concept albums about a dude working at a light bulb factory. Yet they also manage to stay true to the genre in the wailing guitars, the guttural screams of Damian Abraham, and the power with which the music hits. I have not dropped the needle on a single record more than I have on my copy of David Comes to Life this year. And really isn’t that the true definition of what you consider the best?

2. Wild Flag Wild Flag; If you thought we wouldn’t reserve a high place of praise for a band featuring members of Helium, the Minders, and Sleater-Kinney, than you’re just out of your own fucking mind! We were excited about this record before we even got a taste of it, but once we did there was rarely a day gone by before we were listening to it and rocking out with it. “Romance” may well be our favorite song of the year, other than “Party Rock Anthem” of course (hah).

3. St. Vincent Strange Mercy; Everything I’ve read about Annie Clark usually mentions how she’s one of the best lady guitarists on the planet. Fuck that. She’s one of the best guitarists on the planet period. I don’t care if she has lady parts or boy parts, the music coming from Annie Clark is stellar, the songwriting is imaginative and powerful, the voice positively unique, and with each successive album it just keeps on getting better. 

4. The Antlers Burst Apart; What you thought just ‘cause I hung-up the blogger tag I would give up on my favorite discovery from that time? You thought wrong boys and girls, I am still one of the biggest and oldest members of The Antlers fan club. Even if Burst Apart lacked the emotional kick to the gut that Hospice had, it showed off the band’s growing powers and talents nicely and showed that these guys weren’t a one-trick pony and weren’t gonna fall victim to some sort of supposed sophomore slump. 

5. Eleanor Friedberger Last Summer; I nearly went through 2011 without hearing this record! What the hell was I thinking??? I love The Fiery Furnaces and even though Eleanor didn’t have her brother along for the ride this time out it doesn’t make much of a difference. The last few weeks this has been in heavy, heavy rotation trying to make up for lost time and pushing its way up my own personal charts. Now if only I had been listening to it earlier 2011 might have been even better than it already was!

6. Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch the Throne; Anticipation and hype can be a bitch. When rumors of a Jay-Z/Kanye collaboration first surfaced people were touting the biggest record since The Beatles hung it all up, and though it didn’t quite hit those levels there’s not a soft track on this thing. Before I started making this list I kind of felt it was a soft year for hip-hop, but making it proved me wrong and no rap album was better than this one. 

7. Destroyer Kaputt; At this point I think it’s safe to say that the parts of The New Pornographers may have finally surpassed the whole. Dan Bejar continues to out pace all the other members of that “supergroup” and Kaputt may wind up being his defining opus. Yeah, there were already contenders for that title in his breadth of work, but Kaputt manages to take our breath away with each listen. Must be the sax work. 

8. Dirty Beaches Badlands; The aesthetic of this record has been utterly mesmerizing to me since my first listen to it. It seems to have a sound and style that is completely unique to itself, but it also manages to sound really familiar at the same time. The lo-fi filter, the garage feel of the guitar, the rockabilly crooning, it combines so much that we’ve enjoyed in the past into a single, unifying sound and we just can’t get enough of that. 

9. Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost; Not quite as immediate as its predecessor, Father, Son, Holy Ghost took me just a little while to truly get into but when I finally did it became one of my most played records of 2011. I’m gonna have to say I still enjoy the songs on Album ever so slightly more, they were just slightly more catchy, but as a whole this record has a vibe and a story to tell that definitely formed a connection with my ears. It just took a little more time than I initially thought it would. 

10. The Weeknd House of Balloons; This is probably the most soothing record of the year, whatever that means. The subtle, quiet way this record goes about its business is what draws me into it. House of Balloons is gentle on the ears and immediately draws the listener deeper inside. I may not be the most open to R&B, but this managed to crossover and connect with me thanks to its bedroom feel and the overall style of the sound. Thanks to everyone who kept talking about it, finally getting me to open my ears to it!

11. Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation; Out of all the artists on this list few were as unheralded and unknown prior to 2011 as Youth Lagoon were. Still, thanks to the praise of countless blogging peers, Youth Lagoon not only got into my ears but stayed there throughout much of the year thanks to their endearing songs. Truly a breakout year for them, and a band I’m thankful to have heard and added to the in rotation column. Can’t wait to see what these guys bring to the table in the future.

12. Iceage New Brigade; Even though I skipped the major music festivals this year (a first in a very long time for me) I still heard all the buzz about who was doing what and what I should be making note of. Iceage were absolutely one of the most buzzed about festival bands and listening to their 24-minute long debut you can hear every reason why being pummeled directly into your ear canals. So I guess the hype machine still works in some ways, though I still probably didn’t need to read about it on every blog this side of the Atlantic, ten times a day, for the entire duration of the CMJ Music Marathon. Great record though. 

13. Shabazz Palaces Black Up; If Watch the Throne won the commercial rap wars of the year, Shabazz Palaces certainly took home the gold in the indie hip-hop world. Less direct, less catchy, but no less important (maybe more so when we look back 10-years from now) Black Up is the sort of record that takes a minute to get into. It’s built upon deeper, more meaningful lyrics and beats that drive home the message of the words. While Jay-Z and Kanye West are touting their wealth, Shabazz Palaces are touting their spirituality and taking on the folks wearing $1,000 t-shirts. 

14. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Mirror Traffic; Fresh off the whole Pavement reunion thing, Stephen Malkmus returned to his still active band and released a record that made us remember exactly why we bought tickets to see his original band 9-months ahead of time. Malkmus misses no beats and writes some of the best songs out there so no one should be surprised that he and his band of cohorts released one of the finest rock efforts of the year. 

15. Childish Gambino Camp; Fuck you Pitchfork! Fuck you NBC! Fuck you Spider-man! Can’t we all just acknowledge the absolute genius that is Donald Glover and start devoting our lives to worshiping the wise-cracking MC? This record is ridiculous, almost ridiculous as the panning it got from a major music website. Whatever, I’m sure Glover will be fine, and I’m sure I’m not the only one that will be bumping this record for a while. 

16. Atlas Sound Parallax; For the past few years Bradford Cox has been practically unmatched in the breadth of his output. It seems every year either Deerhunter or Atlas Sound grace these lists in abundance and this year is no different. With each passing record it seems Cox learns a little more about himself and dares himself to continue taking chances while his peers just aim to stay the course. He also continues to grow emotionally, to be able to open himself up and stop living behind the gimmicks of his artistic early days (like wearing dresses and having nervous breakdowns on stage). Now the music speaks for itself and with each record it gets better and better.

17. Cults Cults; Did this appear in a commercial for some Apple product? I can’t remember, but it feels like it did. Cults were pretty ubiquitous this year, they even provided some of the soundtrack to my most played video game of the year (MLB ‘11, not all that exciting unless you happen to be me). So it was pretty hard to ignore them now that it is year-end time. And why would we? They made a record of catchy pop tunes that forced even the most awkward of hipster boys to want to move their feet. Never a bad thing in any context, even if the dance moves aren’t always the best.

18. Times New Viking Dancer Equired; Criminally underrated. You guys all slept on Times New Viking this year because the whole lo-fi thing has been barreled over by whatever the current tendier sound is (chillwave, still?), but this record kicks ass! All of a sudden Times New Viking are no longer the youngsters on the block, but veterans that know how to surround gentle pop tunes with loud and abrasive sounds that totally throw off our ears at first until we’ve listened to the record over and over again. Then those pop tunes emerge from the walls of noise and lodge themselves deep into your brain until you don’t even notice a fully embedded they’ve truly become.

19. A$AP Rocky LiveLoveA$AP; As I mentioned with Watch the Throne, before I sat down to make this list I feared that hip-hop would be under represented as it usually is on my own personal year-end lists. Instead it seems like I spent most of my year listening to hip-hop when you look at the entirety of the list. Hell, if it all sounded like this it might become the only thing I listened to! Though, apparently, I am still missing out on some of the further underground awesomeness of the current hip-hop landscape. Still, this record is a great listen and it definitely caught my attention and held it through to the end.

20. The Roots Undun; As good as Undun most certainly is, it’s probably not even the most memorable thing The Roots have done this year. I mean they did perform “Lyin’ass Bitch” as the walk-on music for Michelle Bachman during their day job this year. Still, Undun reminds us yet again why we all should adore The Roots and bow down before their greatness. 

21. Radiohead The King of Limbs; Another year, another Radiohead album making yet another year-end list. If they release a record there’s a good chance it will always make a lot of these things no matter how the record compares to their past efforts. Deal with it.