Year-end lists have never been my forté. Lists in general are something I tend to agonize over for much longer than is sane. Yet, here we find ourselves at the beginning of a new calendar year. The holidays are over, the hangovers have been recovered from and there are just enough brain cells left to contemplate the music of the last 12 months. Truly full of future classics, this past cycle.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
Sloan - The Double Cross
A lot of people like to hate on these guys. They've managed to rock pretty relentlessly for 20 years, long after most bands would have given up. Sure, not every one of their 10 albums has been outstanding, but this one certainly is. Four songwriters blend together on one of the most immediately replayable discs of the year.
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
This is by Radiohead. That lone fact is enough to allow it's presence on the list. There's more. It's self-released, experimental, funky, craggy art. These Brits have balls.
Active Child - You Are All I See
I guess you could call this moody white-boy nü-R&B. I call it an album that is affecting as it is danceable, perfect for blissed out summer beaches and chilling winter walks alike. One listen to "High Priestess" and my mixture of hope and despair is enough to make me want to create through destruction.
Miracle Fortress - Was I The Wave?
This one took me by surprise. I remembered how much I loved the Miracle Fortress album
The Five Roses, so I went to seem them/him back in the spring. The new batch of melancholic tunes, like the Talking Heads if David Byrne had been more into rave culture, caught me off guard and had me reaching into my wallet to make sure this would be in my collection immediately.
TOP 11 ALBUMS OF 2011
11. Das Racist - Relax
There's nothing I can say about Das Racist that hasn't already been said. Suffice it to say that in a year of pretty spectacular rap music from the likes of the Odd Future collective, Drake and Nacho Picasso, these guys managed to shoulder above the rest and put their unique brand of crazy on a slab of wax that will be on heavy rotation at my house for a long time to come. Greedhead, people. Watch out.
10. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
That thing where I put on a record and get instantly transported to the mindset of my teenage self: when everything was much simpler but SO MUCH more difficult. When a glance, a brush past in the hallway of high school, or a few words could turn my whole consciousness inside out and the only way to think about it is to rock out in my room. That thing.
9. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
Not only did Timber Timbre perform one of the best live shows I was able to bear witness to this year, but this album proves both that the last one wasn't a fluke, and that people like supernatural swampy doo-wop music a whole heckuva lot. I want this album to be played at my funeral, not because it's morbid, but because it's so damn life-affirming.
8. The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
Everything on the album is impressive. The production, the songwriting, the musicianship. All combining to make me feel like I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen on hallucinogens from the other side of a wall in a dirty basement. This album takes hold.
7. tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L
Merrill Garbus is a genius. It would be very easy to assume she is insane. Unfortunately, not the case. Merrill Garbus is just a genius.
6. Bry Webb - Provider
This unexpected gem from Constantines firebrand Bry Webb came, for me, out of nowhere. In hushed tones, sometimes even difficult to hear, Webb unfolds songs of fatherhood, love and the burden of responsibility that pack enough punch to leave the testosteroniest among us blubbering in a ball on the floor. More of this, please.
5. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
2 discs of lush, mostly dancefloor-ready crowdpleasers. Sure, they're aimed at the cheap seats. But sometimes it's in the cheap seats that you end up making out for the entire show and have an even better time than when you paid way too much money and ended up right next to a total bro who tried to sell you meth. My point is that this is an excellent album full of excellent songs.
4. Austra - Feel It Break
From the first time I heard "Beat and the Pulse", the first taste of this electro-goth project from Katie Stelmanis, over a year ago I had a feeling whatever full-length followed would end up being one of my favourite records. I was right. Turns out I know what I like, and what I like is dark disco.
3. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
Wasn't sure if I should include this. I mean, it's pretty underground. Most people haven't heard of these rappers and they'll probably just end up being flashes in the pan. Oh well.
2. BRAIDS - Native Speaker
These upstarts from Montreal-via-Calgary have managed to create something so absolutely unique that not only does it defy classification, but I can say that with a straight face. Best live act of the year by far, BRAIDS will seduce you and then leave you feeling kind of dirty afterwards. Hypnotic, angelic, flirtatious, anthemic polyrhythmic proto-post-punk for a new generation. Or something.
1. Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister
Finally busting out of the scrappy mold he had long been placed in, Shotgun Jimmie delivers a tight set of sugary power-pop that deserves to be heard by everybody. This is top of the heap for me simply because of the many things I found myself listening to in 2011, Transistor Sister was the album I found myself turning to the most. Now let's get drunk and flip the record over again.
