The last few years have been weird for me music-wise. It's obvious just from looking at this blog that I've made one post since my top 50 songs of 2008. Even beyond this one small, dark corner of the web, I've never published an official top-anything of 2009 or 2010. The reason is simple: full-time employment. This year was no different, really, up until just over a month ago when I decided I wanted to put together a legitimate list again. I'm back in school and have only worked part-time since late October, so it's been a great opportunity for me.
So in a fifteen-day span I managed to list to at least 86 unique albums and many of them multiple times. This list is more about those ones. I was interested in knowing which music would always have me wanting more listens. I learned to love shorter albums with shorter, more consistently interesting and varied songs, mostly because I didn't feel I had the time to reap the rewards of the more difficult listens. However, you will find a little of everything here.
I am going to conclude my introduction by saying the same thing I said after posting my top 50 songs from 2008. I've spent a lot of time fine-tuning, but no music list can ever be perfect all the time, and if I were to post my list again tomorrow, it would probably already look different from this one.
30
The Magic Place
Julianna Barwick
The Magic Place is a very unique album, different from any I've ever heard before. It's essentially loop-based music, but whether loops are actually used is not relevant. The key is that the music is about 90-percent vocals, and without going through and counting, allow me to summarize that almost all of the tracks are a cappella. Each song starts with a simple but sufficient base and builds outward from there, growing ever larger and fuller. It's an interesting take on a concept used almost exclusively in electronic music; here, the natural human voice replaces synthetic soundscapes and the contributes an innocence and newfound beauty.
29
Within and Without
Washed Out
I might be way off, but in my mind Washed Out represents the purest form of chillwave. The vocals are secondary, the entire setting of each song is well-defined right off the top, and development is slow and steady. Nothing is more important than the groove, and every atom of music, whether a vocal clip or instrumental part, is a vital part of that groove. Thus, unlike most electronic-based music, it's built more for driving than for headphones. There's really nothing spectacular here, but it's a very consistent effort, almost a textbook of form on the subject of its genre.
28
Yuck
Yuck
For the longest time, the only song I had heard from Yuck was "Get Away," and I already loved them. I pretty much felt I didn't need to listen to the rest of the album. It brought me back to a time around 1993 or 1994, when plenty of people were still trying to recreate the My Bloody Valentine aesthetic, but were also being propelled in new directions by bands like Smashing Pumpkins. The best thing about this album might not even be the sonics, though, because it features a great variety of songs, excellent pacing, and consistently good songwriting throughout.
27
The Year of Hibernation
Youth Lagoon
Probably the purest "bedroom pop" album I've ever heard. Kind of like a lo-fi, tasteful, and not crappy Owl City album. Please understand that I hate to use that comparison. The songs range from intimate to these epic things that become enormous and fill the whole house (so to speak). The vocals are suspect, but that comes with the territory. The album length is perfect, and each of the eight songs is very well-crafted and planned and brings something unique. Nothing much catchy here, but an excellent small-scale album that may outgrow itself at times but really never tries to be anything more than what it is.
26
Tomboy
Panda Bear
There were a lot of highly anticipated albums coming into 2011 - M83, Fleet Foxes, Radiohead (maybe), Watch the Throne - but for many the new album from Panda Bear was most important. We already knew he couldn't follow up with anything better than Person Pitch (right?), but we would hope anyway. Well, it is darker, as promised. I find this to be a tale of two album halves, and it's probably just as well to view it like this because the album itself feels a little less than cohesive. The first half is the good one. "You Can Count on Me," "Surfers Hymn," and "Last Night at the Jetty" in particular are all top-quality. Beyond that, it's difficult material: mostly dark or abrasive but not as interesting as one would hope or expect.
25
Days
Real Estate
Maybe the most laidback album ever. Real Estate's take on nostalgia is a little different than most, but no less effective. It feels small, like how I remember my childhood. The community, the relative insignificance of every day, the lightness of the world. The music is relatively simple, very clean, traditional and easy. Every song is clean-electric-guitar-based with accompaniments from a responsible drummer and a bassist who actually has it figured out, in my humble opinion. It's as easy a listen as you'll find, but the mood is one that almost scares me off a little bit. It's not good or bad, it's just very raw and very real. And I totally wasn't even thinking that there was a song called "It's Real" on the album as I was writing that.
24
Dye It Blonde
Smith Westerns
Neo-Beatles soundalikes craft a tight package of ultra-listenable songs despite kind of an annoying vocal philosophy. The best songs are riff-driven and are light on the choir-like cascades of voices. The song are hit-or-miss (the "hits" are spectacular), and the ambition hinted at through the first few songs seems to fade toward album's end, transforming it from possible classic to mere enjoyable sophomore album from a promising but potential-nothing band.
23
Underneath the Pine
Toro Y Moi
Underneath the Pine is similar to Caribou's Andorra in a lot of ways. First, singing is not Chaz's greatest gift. Second, he has a great knack for rhythms, but an even better sense for interesting harmonic progressions. Third, he comes up with some brilliant ideas, but he doesn't seem to be able to put them together in a powerful, cohesive song package. Fourth, neither album seemed to have great staying power - both slid down my list as time went on. I think the fourth point is probably a direct result of the third. It is tough to find songs on this album that really grab me, but it is chock-full of refreshingly innovative music. Some songs seem to be driven by unresolving tension, and these are the more awkward and forgettable moments.
22
Zonoscope
Cut Copy
It must be hard to follow up an album that is just hit after hit after hit (and by "hit" I mean awesome song, not that anyone would play it on the radio). Cut Copy performs pretty much as expected here, with maybe a little more variety than 2008's In Ghost Colours, but not as much punch. They've incorporated a bit more of the dance/club/house/I don't know what I'm talking about vibe, culminating with the gargantuan dance track "Sun God." It feels a lot longer than 11 tracks, and "Sun God" is definitely part of the reason, but I get a little lost somewhere in the middle. There are good standout tracks at the beginning and end, but sometimes the purpose of the dancier stuff kind of escapes me. I guess I "get" dance music about as much as I "get" dance itself.
21
SBTRKT
SBTRKT
Besides the fact that SBTRKT is a single artist and not a group, it reminds me a bit of a modern-day Massive Attack, a British music group bringing together a variety of vocalists to explore expansions of current branches of UK-based music. SBTRKT features some of the more interesting music in a world watered down in dubstep, its cousins and stepchildren. The vocalists are great, and so are the songs, perhaps most impressively. "Wildfire" and "Pharaohs" are especially accessible and immediate pop songs. Thanks for proving what we already knew - that the relatively young, ubiquitous, and at times already tired-sounding supergenre of UK bass music actually does have some serious promise.
20
House of Balloons
The Weeknd
It's amazing what a small change in expectation can do. I had heard the captivating "Crew Love" from Drake's Take Care, but I knew nothing else of The Weeknd when I pressed play on this one. My first listen was a terrible experience, and I thought I would probably never have another. It was mostly my fault. I was expecting something totally different, and wasn't paying close enough attention - the songs seemed to drag on aimlessly and were filled with ridiculous language. Well, the language is ridiculous at times, but I was way off on the rest of it. House of Balloons is actually a very innovative R&B record sung by a very talented young vocalist. Every song is good, and I have to give them props for featuring sped-up Beach House samples in two different songs.
19
James Blake
James Blake
In one of the stranger twists in recent memory in music, James Blake's astronomically-anticipated debut album is a pretty significant departure from what made him perhaps the most hyped artist of 2010. Here the ground-breaking dubstep producer becomes a electro-soul singer-songwriter and proves that he's actually got great singing and songwriting chops. Somehow, though, he lets a bunch of these otherwise fine songs just sort of exist, float, and wander around (I'm looking at you, "Lindisfarne I" and "Measurements"). Regardless, we'll always have "The Wilhelm Scream," one of the very best songs of the year to come back to, and the sky is the limit for him in the future.
18
Mylo Xyloto
Coldplay
I believe that after X&Y, Coldplay changed up their shtick enough to arrive halfway between what made the the world's biggest rock band and the good music they are actually capable of producing. Of course they're still over the top and still pump out the stadium-sized faux-art rock, and that's what everybody has always loved about them, right? (Look at that cover art!) One vital difference between Viva La Vida and Mylo Xyloto is that the latter sounds much more confident and comfortable. Gone are (most of) the awkward, flow-destroying songs they've clung to over the years (while an improvement on "Yes," my edit of Mylo Xyloto would not include the song "Major Minus"). Meanwhile, back are the ballads, but more toned-down and not coincidentally much more effective in the album context. I still think they have more potential than this, but in reality this may be the best album we ever hear from this band.
17
4
Beyoncé
I don't think that I had ever listened to a full Beyoncé album before, and I really didn't expect to do so this year either. How surprised I was, then, to hear hints of Prince ("1 + 1") and Michael ("Love on Top") to go along with some great pop in traditional Beyoncé style ("Countdown", which she followed up as a featured vocalist on Jay-Z & Kanye West's "Liftoff" from Watch the Throne). Even obnoxious closer "Run the World (Girls)" works wonderfully in the album context. The rest of the songs are mostly unspectacular and inoffensive, but pure vocal talent oozes through each one. To many this will be seen as the album that legitimizes Beyoncé as an artist, but it has also done a lot to show me just how incredible of a performer she really is.
16
Smoke Ring for My Halo
Kurt Vile
This album for me is all about creating a feeling. It's dominated by Vile's rough voice and muffled guitar, and it just feels super hazy. It's definitely an unconventional singing style, but it creates a singular mood better than just about any album on this list. There's enough variety to keep things interesting, and it's a grower. The songwriting approach will start to make more sense the more you listen to it. The sheer uniqueness of the whole package is a bit part of what keeps me coming back.
15
The King of Limbs
Radiohead
The lack of their trademark dynamics, only 8 tracks. I couldn't believe what was happening during my first few listens. Fortunately, the songs released afterward were very good, and what I consider to be a sort of reimagining of the album, the Live from the Basement version, included three of those and even improved on some of the recordings from the studio album. In general, the live version is the one that I am considering here because I believe it's better and I want Radiohead to rank higher on my list. It's really the lack of those super-dynamic, climactic moments that separates The King of Limbs from every Radiohead album since The Bends, and not in a good way. However, the songs are good and there a lot of really nice moments to be found as well, which is always important with Radiohead. I think Thom's influence comes through a bit too strongly in the "creative" process. Instrumentally, I don't know where Jonny's inventive and dynamic guitar playing went, but at least Colin and Phil both have good showings. Anything less than top-5 is a huge disappointment, and while this blurb has been decidedly negative, it's not just on this list in this position because it's Radiohead. I'm more critical of them than any other group because I have seen what they're capable of and they don't play to many of their strengths here. Good thing a below-average album for them is still an exceptional collection of songs.
14
Parallax
Atlas Sound
I started listening to Deerhunter in January 2007 when Cryptograms was released. I fell in love with the noisy half of that album and felt the quality kind of dipped in the more song-like second half. Then when Atlas Sound's debut came out the next year, I loved the intimate, ambient, musical-genius-in-a-basement-laboratory sound of it all, and was stunned with the number of ideas he was able to come up with and work into the album. With each subsequent release, Bradford Cox's projects have seemed to grow more and more pop-oriented, culminating with 2010's Deerhunter release, Halcyon Digest. I don't know if Parallax builds on that trend or not, but it is certainly the poppiest of his solo projects (see "The Shakes," "Angel Is Broken," "Lightworks"). It ends well with more of what I'm used to hearing from Atlas Sound with "Quark" (parts 1 and 2). If it weren't for a few throwaways that leave me wondering what he is trying to accomplish vocally or whether he is making up the vocals on the spot (I actually think he might be known for having done that in the past), this would easily be a top-ten album. As it stands, it's probably the best Atlas Sound release overall, and just adds to the staggering body of work this man has assembled: six top-20 albums, including one double album, and two excellent EPs over the last five years.
13
50 Words for Snow
Kate Bush
The seven songs on 50 Words for Snow don't so much develop as they do set scenes and invoke moods remarkably well. If merely reading the poetic lyrics from a sheet they can sometimes be cringe-worthy, but Kate Bush sells them and the music compels you to buy in. One of the most impressive things she accomplishes with this album is conveying the distinct feeling that it is winter right before it gets dark (so in the North, around 4:30 or so), and it's cloudy and possibly even windy, and just starting to snow. Obviously the knowledge that the album is about snow and is deeply thematic helps, but she has the music to match. Kate's work on the keys always paints a picture with plenty of tension and beauty in just the right amounts.
12
Take Care
Drake
Someone should tell Drake that success and excess are two completely different things. But I guess so far it has worked for him. As enjoyable as this album eventually came to be, it was an absolute struggle listening to it enough times for it to become familiar enough to properly evaluate. It is so dense and lacking variety that I somehow never realized how incredible the first six tracks are until returning to the album after a couple of weeks. There's even some great stuff later on, but I still wouldn't say that I am comfortable with the entire album as a single listening experience yet. It could have been the masterpiece a lot of people are saying it is if he had shown more variety or restraint. Even when Kanye West was overkilling his first two albums, they had enough variety to remain fresh throughout. I still expect huge things from Drake in the future; he's a talented songwriter with a distinctive style and has all the money and talent in the world backing him up.
11
Strange Mercy
St. Vincent
St. Vincent's 2009 release Actor wasn't nearly as hyped as it should have been, so predictably the music world overcompensated by heaping more praise than was due on Strange Mercy. The situation reminds me a lot of Phoenix when they released It's Never Been Like That and Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The former is an underrated, utterly consistent pop masterpiece, and the other one received more attention via overcompensation and was held together on the strength of two world-class singles. This album's two are "Cruel" and "Surgeon," and while there is other good music here, it just doesn't seem to be hitting all the pleasure centres that Actor did song after song. The same trademarks are present: the soft-harsh mix of textures, abrupt stops, and sudden load and sometimes shocking unconventional instrumental passages. In other words, her approach to music is pretty close to the ideal in my opinion.
10
Watch the Throne
Jay-Z & Kanye West
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this album since Kanye West effectively removed himself from reality back in 2008. Now, after hearing the album, the two things that more or less define the album are two elements that should have been obvious to anyone going in: the production is top-notch, and it's outrageously egotistical. There's not much for radio singles here, and that's not a bad thing, but there's a little bit of everything else. An exceptional first half is followed by a really good second half. Thoroughly enjoyable, digestible listen overall.
9
Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Girls
Unlike virtually everyone else in 2011 other than Yuck, Girls borrowed from decades other than the 1980s. Well, much of the time it was more emulation than assimilation, and no one who heard their 2009 debut Album will be surprised by this fact. This, their latest full-length, is similar in quality though it's a bit more consistent throughout. Certainly a bit front-loaded, but to be fair it can't be easy to follow up mid-album standout "Vomit." Father, Son, Holy Ghost is like an artful collage of clichés, both lyrically and musically, and as a result it may be somewhat difficult to determine its relevance or value in the modern context. It's sad to think that if this album had been released in 1971 it would have garnered a lot more attention and possibly even earned the label of "classic" in the mainstream.
8
Black Up
Shabazz Palaces
When you get past the brashness and "swagger" of traditional mainstream rap music and the more emotive flavour of some recent branches, you are left with a form that has potential for so much more than that thus far has been squeezed out of it. The strengths of Black Up to me are all about structural freedom (including total lack of structure at times) and forward-thinking production, which are allowed to shine through more than usual due to the lack of dominating personality coming through the microphone. I suppose that in a way that makes this the anti-Watch the Throne, an album that also was very digestible and featured excellent production, but was not as consistent or pleasingly subtle.
7
Let England Shake
PJ Harvey
Always a very powerful listen. If you know anything about this album (besides that it is outstanding), you surely know that the whole thing is thematically centred around the first World War. The sound is appropriately quite raw, and both music and lyrics are stunning at times. I can appreciate why this record received perhaps more universal acclaim than any other this past year, and while it is perhaps not exactly "my style", it is likely an album that will remain in rotation for years to come.
6
Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes
I've got to stop listening to this album, or one of these days I might actually believe that it's just as good as their self-titled 2008 album-of-the-year debut. This release is darker, sure, and less magical, but so real. Comparing Helplessness Blues to Fleet Foxes it sounds like real life happened somewhere in between, and the brilliant way in which Robin Pecknold's lyrics convey his struggles is a real inspiration to me personally. It's still a glorious, full, and simple sonic world that they create. That softer, stripped-down tracks like "Someone You'd Admire" and "Blue Spotted Tail" can stand out so much to me in such a near-flawless second-half says a lot about this group's songwriting ability.
5
Kaputt
Destroyer
A triumph of style and cohesiveness, Kaputt impresses by plugging in pretty much all of Destroyer's pre-existing idiosyncrasies into an entirely new/old genre, while toning it down just enough to achieve the perfect balance. Yeah, it gets to be very homogeneous harmonically, but there is actually more variety of form than in some of Destroyer's previous work. It's a great listen from start to finish, but I can't help wondering how much less special it would be if it didn't have the wonderful and colossal "Bay of Pigs" to close it out. 2006's Rubies was a great album that still seemed to leave a hint of untapped potential, but I think it is probably safe to say that Kaputt will end up being the pinnacle of Destroyer's career.
4
Replica
Oneohtrix Point Never
The best non-lyrical album since 2007 brought us Untrue and From Here We Go Sublime, and this one may be even stronger than those two. Replica stands along among ambient/drone music for its relatively listener-friendly structures, blissfully nostalgic sounds, and variety, all setting the perfect stage for its gorgeously mysterious music. "Sleep Dealer," "Replica," and "Child Soldier" could all be best-songs-list candidates. For an album of this genre, this is not a common occurrence. Daniel Lopatin's use of samples is economical, and as a result their effect is multiplied, accenting the music in just the right ways at just the right times. He strikes me as the ever-elusive (and somewhat oxymoronic) creative perfectionist, and it results in wonderful things.
3
w h o k i l l
tUnE-yArDs
I don't know. think Dirty Projectors meets Vampire Weekend meets Deerhoof meets some really crazy girl, I guess. A lot of albums this year took a particular existing genre or aesthetic and did it to perfection, but I've always been very intrigued by artists who carve their very own unique niche, especially when it's a fun as this. Much like Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca, it's easy to listen to with great focus, picking out the various subtle influences, micro-melodies, and cool rhythms. While not as accomplished artistically as Bitte Orca (trust me, coming from me that is not a knock), it does sound more fun, and really only lets up for about a minute or so throughout the entire listen.
2
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
M83
Evidently other critics are not digging this slice of 80s style quite as much as I am. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming has become a surprisingly underappreciated work, presumably due to some prevailing aversion to bombast and double albums. I, for one, always find that it flies by. Smaller transitional pieces are interspersed among traditionally-structured songs, each of which is a standout. This way of structuring the album lends as much to its night-full-of-dreams feel as the title itself, though the now well-documented half-rememberedness of the 1980s surely plays a vital role as well. In retrospect, M83's very-80s but more reserved Saturdays=Youth was only the starting point for the band's eventual musical dissertation on 1980s bombastic pop-rock; I'm not sure they can try any harder than they do here. By the way, I can't move on without mentioning "Midnight City," easily the song of the year. And also, what an injustice titling such a powerful album opener as "Intro." On the other hand, it is right up there with some of the best scene-setting openers I can think of (hmm. "Plainsong". "Everything in Its Right Place". "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)". "Intro" + "Svefn-G-Englar". maybe a fun topic for another time). It's also almost undoubtedly the best track ever titled "Intro," and there have been many.
1
Bon Iver
Bon Iver
The classic sound-expanding sophomore album. The story of his stripped-down debut For Emma, Forever Ago, a top-ten album in its own right, was too perfect not to cause some to wonder whether he'd be able to top it. What better way to answer questions that with a statement, and what better word to use to describe the best album of 2011? Bon Iver is simply one of the most grandiosely intimate albums ever, and one of the most well-written singer-songwriter albums in recently memory. Never mind that you can't understand ninety percent of the words he sings; what Justin Vernon communicates through his melodies here is curiously familiar and comforting. Upon many listens I have also discovered that it is alarmingly consistent. I struggled equally hard to choose a best and worst track, and none would be out of place on a best-of list, or even on a Grammy nomination. Nominated track "Holocene" stands a better change of winning an award than the album does, but I must say that Bon Iver is even more deserving of the big "prize" than my beloved Arcade Fire was last year.
