There was simply NO energy or exciting events this year in music that really made an impact on me. Everything that mattered to me was either released many years before or was a record that was came in and out of my conscious musical attention. Everything that was supposed to be a big deal turned out to be boring, bland, cookie cutter indie rock music. Or even worse, 'indie' music.
The day I utter those words as a genre with any sense of actual relevance I will cry in shame. I mean come on, it's almost the year 2012, can we all burn in a meaningless fiery display of planetary implosion without bullshit? If the incoming year is as bad as this one, then maybe we deserve it. More than ever do I give great acknowledgement to the 'lower' bandcamp artists because the most noticeable and meaningful music came from them.
Not all is bad though, with this year I learned more of music in terms of what really makes it stand apart and what is worthwhile (to me of course). In a sad way the cliche that many artists are repeating the same ideas from the past is not so far away from the truth. We leave it to the future I suppose.
So without further rant or word, here is my list of best albums of 2011 in no meaningful order.
Boris - New Album
I enjoy j-pop/k-pop/anime openings and am a closet and unappreciative anime fan. But that really shouldn't matter here (it does in a subconscious way) and I was sad to witness another situation in which a band tries to experiment in a new approach to making their music and gets shit on for it. Boris are a very talented and experimental band that have a colossal amount of albums that are all different from one another. Not many bands that pull that off with a set standard of quality but Boris do seem to have it down to an art. 'New Album' was my favorite of their THREE recent records this year for the influences that seem to stem from k-pop/j-pop but still have their noise rock/experimental sensibilities intact. What more could I want?
Dads - Brush Your Teeth, Again ;)
I'm not too well endowed in the twinkle emo genre as I'd like to be (Starlon is helping me out though) but this year I tried my best to expand my horizons a lot and get familiar. Somewhere along the line in my quest I had been introduced to Dads. From the opening jangle of the guitars in 'Dan's Christopher Walken Impression' you know you're listening to something creative and a mix of melancholy and warmth. The entire twenty three minutes of it give off this feeling of "home sweet home!" and sounds entirely effortless. A record with true heart and hardship.
Giles Corey - Giles Corey
Even if the year was not blessed with a Have a Nice Life release (and we're all eagerly awaiting!) the year was treated to Dan Barrett's solo project Giles Corey. A self-titled record that contains songs of bleak melancholia, soul crushing hope and every little thing in between, 'Giles Corey' is a record that takes multiple listens to truly appreciate and immerse oneself into. Probably the darkest thing that I listened to and actually enjoyed this year (there were a lot of faux depressing albums...), this record is a true display of bare emotion. This isn't the sequel to 'Deathconsciousness' and it clearly wasn't meant to be that, but rather this record becomes its own rewarding and powerful experience altogether.
Iceage - New Brigade
When that calm intro 'piece' ends, this record never lets up on the energy and keeps hitting you over and over and over. In an another year of toothless and bland post-punk (I'm looking at you The Horrors) Iceage really brings back the filthy grime back to what once was a respectable genre. Maybe it's more noise to you or maybe it's more punk than the post variety to you, but to me this was a post-punk record that made me excited and made me mosh of my free will like a brainless idiot for the first time in many years. 'New Brigade' is noise ridden, filthy, loud, and most importantly, refreshing post-punk, and for that I am more than grateful. Favorite song? 'Rotting Heights' all the way, although Aaron likes 'Broken Bone' the most.
Dirty Beaches - Badlands
No album captured places I've never been to that were probably made up in my head so vividly than 'Badlands'. This was the album that hit my imagination more than any other and made me feel sad, happy, hopeful, resentful, and, even at times, cool. For those reasons Alex Hungtai (the guy who makes all this under the moniker) represents to me the classic role of a lone wandering traveler who is just trying to make it in life, living through the past's sounds and experiences. For that I respect and cheer him on, but for his music one is able to live and breathe, and ultimately have eternal support in what he himself creates: an immersible and relatable musical journey.
Joyce Manor - Joyce Manor
The band from my birthplace of Torrance. Maybe it wasn't such a surprise that I loved the record right off the bat because it had a nostalgic and familiar quality to it. It sounded like the old beach I used to frequent and from the moment I read that they were from Torrance I knew that the stars must have aligned for me if at least once in my life for this. Joyce Manor's self-titled is the joy and despair of being a human being with flaws and other humans to deal with in record format. If Iceage were what made post-punk this year bearable, Joyce Manor forgave pop-punk and made it acceptable to listen to (but it's more punk than pop though!). Every song has this tinge of sadness and acceptance in it, from the woahs in 'Orange Julius', the cathartic final crying out in the end of 'Call Out (Laundry)', to the final chords and riffs of 'Constant Headache', this record made youth and my hometown memories eternal for me this year.
Death Grips - Exmilitary
This could be the life and death of what was/is now known as noise rap or experimental hip-hop or whatever suits your flavor. Every track hits hard and the vocal delivery is fierce, relentless, and gruesome. Each beat cuts through speakers like ripping flesh and murders your ears. I know that perhaps this is starting to read like a stereotypical black kvlt metal description but there is no better way to describe the music's excessive and harsh nature than by using the very same method in excessive descriptive metaphor. Creative aggression at its finest.
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
(it's kinda obvious this is my album of the year from 2011 number one huh?)
I will always love Radiohead, maybe not to the point of me re-buying 'The Daily Mail' and 'Staircase' when the 'From the Basement' Blu-Ray has the EXACT SAME SONGS IN THE SAME SESSION but I do have the majority of their discography legally bought and am excited to see them tour next year with hopes for more new material.
So let me get the notion out of the way that I am a Radiohead fan of at least notable order and have listened to all their b-sides, unreleased live songs and whatever. There, I said it.
So let me begin by saying that 'The King of Limbs' is indeed what I truly wanted from the band. After the release of 'These Are My Twisted Words' in 2009, I was excited for a new sound from my favorite band. I was expecting something darker, jammier, longer, and overall less accessible than 'In Rainbows'. Now it isn't a matter of thinking "Oh I'm so cool, I like inaccessible music to look like an intellectual", but rather I truly do enjoy Radiohead when they are at their most experimental. My favorite moments in their music come from when they take the unconventional and make it conventional. So to me, this was something great in the making.
I wanted to have a mix of 'Amnesiac' and 'Hail to the Thief', something moodier, something harder to understand than say 'All I Need' or 'Nude'. As much as I loved 'In Rainbows', I noticed that in the second disc of b-sides, they really dropped the ball on keeping their experimental edge with the older songs that promised such (Think of 'Up on the Ladder').
'The King of Limbs', whether I knew it at first or not, was the answer to what I wanted all along, a moodier, experimental effort by my favorite band.
From the opening loop of that distant piano that turns into a far away ambient noise in the beautiful 'Bloom' you know this is a special record for the band. Minuscule details like the chopped up hi-hat in the glitchy reinvention of 'Morning Mr. Magpie', the krautrock meets pop hybrid of 'Little by Little', the rickety instrumentation of the wandering 'Feral', the groove filled and catchy 'Lotus Flower', the underwater piano march of 'Codex', the minimal beauty of vocal looping and guitar in 'Give Up the Ghost', and the ominously pretty sounds of 'Separator' are all ingredients that help create a record that is more than the sum of its parts.
'The King of Limbs' was the album from this year that had more than earned my excitement and expectations.
Honorable Mentions:
- Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu
This was probably the best juxtaposition of the year, if anything we got to see people get confused and others to claim to 'get it'. Whatever side you're on or if you just don't give a shit, you most likely noticed it and that's that!
- Mark Kozelek - Live At Union Chapel And Södra Teatern
I love Red House Painters and *almost* anything by Mark Kozelek, this live album he released this year had some great reinterpretations of older Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon material along with much of the great material from one of the best releases last year: 'Admiral Fell Promises'. Hope he tours near me next year for once.
- Odonis Odonis - Hollandaze
What if The Horrors still had talent and made an even noisier and raw version of 'Primary Colours' that was dark as fuck? It still wouldn't be as good as 'Hollandaze'. I'd probably have this up there but I sadly didn't have enough time to truly digest this record, still maybe over time I'll recognize this as one of the best things from the year 2011. 'Blood Feast' all the way.
- Panda Bear - Tomboy
I was actually looking forward to this release because I somewhat still enjoy listening to Animal Collective and wanted to know what a poppier version of them would sound like. Not a bad release by any means and even has its share of beautiful moments like in 'Drone' or 'Scheherezade'. What really hinders the record is it's ability to be completely forgettable. It's okay Panda Bear, you still seem to be the nicest guy from AnCo, also 'Slow Motion'? Chill jam to end all chill jams.
- Teenage Cool Kids - Sunset After Denton
I played 'Beg to Differ' a million times on my way and while I was at school. It captured my feelings of apathy, melancholy, and unwavering despair in the nights before school days in a single song. Perfection, just fucking perfection. Oh, the rest of the album is pretty nice too.
- ORGE YOU ASSHOLE - homely
Best use of saxophone and the best music I used to chill out to, would be up there if I had paid it closer attention. Maybe next year!
- My Little Underground - My Little Underground
The only combination of post-punk and shoegaze I heard this year that wasn't complete shit. It was fresh and the melodies are to die for. 'Civil' was quite a hit in my playlists.
- The Drums - Money (A song I know right?)
BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY
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