Albums I liked from 2011
In alphabetical order, then, I give you my 2011:
A.A. Bondy – Believers
A.A. Bondy - Believers (Album Preview) by PIASGermany
Blind Pilot – We Are the Tide
We Are The Tide by Blind Pilot Music
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Bon Iver, Bon Iver by boniver
Caveman – Coco Beware
Caveman -Old Friend by emn2
David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
davidbazan.com by David Bazan
Destroyer – Kaputt
Destroyer - Kaputt by The Line Of Best Fit
East River Pipe – We Live in Rented Rooms
East River Pipe - Cold Ground by fearurself
Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys
Elbow - Lippy Kids by gwehen
EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
EMA: California by -gaga
Feist – Metals
Feist - Graveyard by Arts & Crafts
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
vomit // girls by sexmusic
Lindsey Buckingham – Seeds We Sew
Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow by ronnierocket
The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy
13 Deep Water by themiddleeast
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Pj Harvey Let England Shake 2011 by gaia-clerici
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
R.E.M. "Oh My Heart" by Warner Music Group DE
Radiohead – The King of Limbs /
Radiohead – The King of Limbs (Live from the Basement)
Radiohead - The Daily Mail (From The Basement) by amomentofclarity
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
St. Vincent - Cruel by Posh Magazine
Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You
Viva Voce - The Future Will Destroy You by LANDSHARKPromotion
The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
The War on Drugs by NYLONmag
Wye Oak – Civilian
Wye Oak by -gaga
posted by John Gallaher @ 3:25 PM
22 comments
22 Comments:
Thanks for the generosity.
I tried Let England Shake, but I couldn't get into it. I prefer early PJ Harvey, e.g., Rid Of Me. But maybe I'll give this new album another try.
David,
Yeah, I went back and forth on it, kind of how I went back and forth on the Lindsey Buckingham. Is it nostalgia I'm liking them for, or real value?
Wilco didn't make my list, besides having one fo my favorite songs of the year "Art of Almost," becasue the rest of the album feels pretty phoned-in to me. Though the "Jane S Boyfriend" song at the end is pretty good as well, it seems to me people are liking that album because they so want to like Wilco right now.
Maybe that's what's happening with me and PJH. I'll find out sometime next year when I've either gone back to it or not . . .
I often find out much later what i really like.
It's always fun to see someone else's take on a year of music, because mine looks completely different, even if I think we're interested in the same things, though maybe in name only. Woods put out a good album this year, as did Real Estate, the new Atlas Sound is good as well.
Re: Wilco. "I Might" is the only thing I listen to with any regularity, mostly because of the driving organs.
Oh, I have a longstanding crush on Ms. Harvey, but Let England Shake drives me up the wall.
I love the music and vocals. Unfortunately, they create expectations for lyrics that are at least endurable. Instead they strike me as heartfelt, self-important, and hackneyed.
Nick Cave said some unkind things about Harvey's development as an artist. This album makes me wonder if there was more to his remarks than bitterness.
Paul
I will admit that my liking of the PJ Harvey might have more to do with my memories of Rid of Me and To Bring You My Love. But, in my defence, I will say that there is no love of Bjork's early work that could get me to make it through Biophilia.
But I'm listening to "The Last Living Rose" right now and I'm feeling kind of like bopping along. I dont' know, maybe I'll still defend it after all.
Fuzz,
Yeah, you went for Woods and Real Estate and I went for Caveman and The War on Drugs . . .
I also liked the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., We Were Promised Jetpacks, and Arctic Monkeys albums.
I used real easy criteria for my best of list this year, which is, I didn’t try to make a “best of” list. I just looked back at what I listened to the most. This list probably has a lot to do with the fact that I like to listen to music while puttering around town. Bands like Bon Iver and St. Vincent seem to make things specifically for me to clean house and shop to.
I like Hank Williams for driving around town. I don't clean anything.
Woods are just a great live band. One of the few who do better in person than their records, which have all been great since Songs of Shame.
Real Estate's new album took a few listens to click, and I still miss the swagger of their first effort, but it's this wonderful cross between The Beach Boys bubblegum pop and something like The Shins' first record.
You know what was disappointing? Fleet Foxes. I threw down on the Record Store Day single of Helplessness Blues and Grown Ocean, which were great, but the album just wasn't my cup of tea. Same with Bon Iver, but I think that's because I expected more of For Emma, Forever Ago, which I have very fond memories of whilst driving around the Rocky Mountains.
2011, like most years for me, is always a mix of some new and some old. I rediscovered tons of old punk rock I had either forgotten about, or flat out ignored.
I feel similarly about the Fleet Foxes. And, funny you should mention getting into some old punk. Some of the stuff I listened to the most wasn’t “new” this year either. I picked up the anniversary deluxe copies of Mott the Hoople’s live album and Ian Hunter’s You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, along with Sonic Youth’s “best of.”
There were a lot of surprises (Destroyer! I loved it) and disappointments (I expected much better from Iron & Wine) this year. Like most years, as you say.
We should get a radio show.
Bon Iver hit me right in the black hole of my high school memories of Bruce Hornsby & the Range, but, for me, it's like he went back there and did somethign good with it. It's like he fixed something. I will always now love him for that.
Is it just me, or do you find the albums that remain important to you are the ones that you may have been ambivalent about at first? Last year's Deerhunter album is one of those, even though their previous one, Microcastle, holds the record for my favorite listening experience ever.
Yes, let's do a radio show.
Last year's Sarah Jaffe is like that for me. I thought it a pale Sharon Van Etten. Actually, I kept getting them confused. Now I find it (Suburban Nature) one of the 2010 albums I listen to most often.
And sometimes an album I like I continue to like a lot, or even more, over time. Last year's National is like that. I still listen to it.
Maybe this means I'll like The Decemberists and the Ryan Adams next year? Nah.
The moment you had with Fleet Foxes I also had with The Low Anthem. I was waiting and waiting for it and then when it came out I was almost instantly ambivalent.
I wonder why no one's putting R.E.M. on their list this year? It was a fine album. When the critics turn on you, they really turn (watch out, Wilco).
you listen to music like a dickman twin writes poetry --retro 70s tearjerking weepies. finally, we agree. thanks for everything you do.
"retro 70s tearjerking weepies"--that's what I like. I sit in the dark blubbering to Badfinger's "Without You."
Anon,
Well I’m pretty OK with the existence of the Dickmans. Is there a retro vibe to the albums I like? Well, I’m 47 next month, so I can claim the retro as my own. The Bon Iver and the Destroyer, especially, are going back to the mid 80s for a lot of their sound, but they lyrics . . . I don’t know, the lyrics could be called skittery even. Here are the lyrics to "Kaputt," for instance:
Wasting your days,
Chasing some girls all right,
Chasing cocaine
to the back rooms of the world all night
Wasting your days,
Chasing some girls all right,
Chasing cocaine
through the back rooms of the world all night
Sounds, smash hits, melody maker N.M.E.
All sound like a dream to me,
All sound like a dream to me,
All sounds like a dream.
Sounds, smash hits, melody maker N.M.E.
All sound like a dream to me,
All sound like a dream to me,
All sounds like a dream.
Step out of your toga and look to the folk
You are a prince in the ocean,
In the pit, in the sky, in your eye.
Step out of your toga and into the ocean, look
They got your prince on the phone,
In the point, in the sky, in your eye.
To the song … I wrote a song for America, who knew?
Ohh no, ohh noo.
David,
My favorite mid-70s weepie is Eric Carmen's "All By Myself":
http://youtu.be/-o9gf_soFBM
"Love's so distant and obscure."
I meant to add to that.
yeah, that war on drugs is great.
Alone Again, Naturally is a real heartstomper. Al Stewart's stuff is also good at bringing out the meloncholy; have you ever been in the aisles of Super Saver when Year of the Cat pours out of the supermarket speakers.
There's an excellent poem up on Verse Daily this morning that kind of gets at some of your recent posts here on NTSASI, John, titled Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound, by Jeff Alessandrelli (hope I got that name spelled right).
I'd add a few albums to your list, just because. Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Dirty Radio, is a very good album by a band out of Portland I think. And Jason Isbell's new one, Here We Rest comes to mind ...
Best,
tpeterson
DJM,
I was waiting for it. I liked their earlier stuff and was wondering what this was going to be like without Kurt Vile. Turns out, it was just fine without Kurt Vile!
TP,
Today, if I were making this list, I would have switched Lindsey Buckingham out with James Vincent McMorrow. I liked it a lot when it came out, but the Bon Iver kind of wrote over the top of it, and it’s only been the last few days where I’ve been able to hear it as itself again. It’s really quite excellent.
That’s great to hear about Jeff. I met him last year and liked him a lot. Good to hear he’s up on Verse Daily. I’ll go check it out.
I didn’t hear anything about these albums. Now I’ve something to go look for. That’s the kind of homework I like getting.
I also liked the new one from Other Lives, titled Tamer Animals. My real list of albums I liked is more like 50 than 20.
I liked 2011 in music. In other ways, it was terrible. But the music was good.
Here's a very good top ten list, from Obscure Sound. I'm pleased to see Destroyer at #1. If I had ranked my top 20, I would've put Destroyer there as well.
Fuzz! They agree with you on Real Estate:
http://obscuresound.com/2011/12/best-albums-of-2011-top-ten/
Where is Paul Simon's new CD 'So Beautiful or So What'?
I heard on the radio that it's the best thing he's produced in decades.
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