Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #25 - #21

OK, so my excuse for missing yesterday is quite shit - I got too pissed after work and fell asleep - but I'm not the first person to set an audacious plan in motion, without properly assessing the workload, then utterly fail to deliver. I don't see anyone calling up Sufjan Stevens and asking when he's planning to release albums for the other 48 states. Even Robyn's 'Three Albums in One Year' turned out to be 'Two Small Albums and One Better Album Made Up Mostly of The Other Two Albums.' So, on account of not being The Weeknd, here is another delayed installment of The Single Most Relevant List Ever Published On This Blog.



#25. The Field - Looping State of Mind

There's something beautifully un-show-y about the way Axel Willner goes about his business. The identical
albums covers - being black, this one is the plainest yet(!) - the total lack of press, the continuing exploration of a rich but extremely narrow sonic idea. The first thing most of us knew about the production process of Looping State of Mind was that it was finished, and that we were listening to it right now. So, yes, it's another The Field album of ambient house built almost entirely from micro-loops and minimal beats. And it's just as good as the other ones, and there's still no-one else who's doing this to anywhere near this standard.

#24. Yuck – Yuck

The various lines between influence, homage, pastiche, imitation and outright thievery may fluctuate wildly from year to year, but there's no getting past the fact that Yuck sound more or less exactly the same as Dinosaur Jr. There's really not a lot of wiggle-room there. But does that really matter? I really, really like Dinosaur Jr. And this gloriously catchy debut is - whisper it - as strong as anything J Mascis and co. have ever put out.

#23. Cut Copy - Zonoscope

After their insanely hyped debut, this follow-up limped out way back in February to be met by a mostly huffy reception and forgotten almost immediately. Not sure what everyone was expecting - after seeing the ace cover, possibly something good enough to flood Manhattan - but you're all missing out. Though not exactly a giant leap forward, Zonoscope reveals Cut Copy as master craftsmen, canny experimenters [I'm so uneasy with that word, but I can't think of a better one] and expert handlers of a build and release.

#22. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

Appropriately for an album with the audacity to call itself Apocalypse (even if Bill Callahan is kind of taking the piss), everything here is on a grander scale than before; longer songs, bigger ideas, a wider sonic canvas. Apocalypse also sees Callahan at his most relaxed and confident, his voice stronger than ever, his humour and his idiosyncracities just as sharp as they were back when he was calling songs things like 'Dress Sexy for My Funeral.'

#21. The Horrors – Skying

'Hey. Did you check out that new Horrors album.'

'Nah man, I don't like that goth punk shit.'


'But they're not goth punks now! They were shoegazers for one album, and now they've cut their hair and they properly sing, and use big synths and horns and loads of really lush production, and they're properly like a psychedelic pop band, like Simple Minds or something - '


' - Simple Minds? Those fags who did that Breakfast Club song? - '


' - and they even.. what? Oh, yeah, them.'


'Yeah, I'm not gonna do that.'


'...'


'I hate you, Steve.'

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #30 - #26

Alright, alright, I'm sorry I missed a day. This shit takes longer than it looks, alright? And, shockingly, I had loose and ultimately ill-advised plans. I know you're all relying on my 12 Days of Christmas framework so you'll know exactly when to destroy your tree, so I'll make up for it by doubling up as soon as I get another hour or so to myself. 2012 guys, 2012..

Incidentally, this is the point at which I consider pretty much every album to be essential listening. Let me know how strongly you disagree!


#30. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong

Their self-titled debut album was an almost impossibly loveable time capsule, a blur of heart-on-sleeve hooks and witty literate come-on's that in ten years time will almost certainly be mistaken for a late 80's album. For the follow up, they've added bold swathes of colour, bigger choruses and cranked up the guitars,  giving Belong a more defined stamp of identity.

#29. James Blake - James Blake

As far as Blakey goes, I'm an oddball. I'll always hold up last years Klavierwerke EP as his best work. Though James Blake doesn't quite nail the otherworldly, dreamlike atmosphere and incredible use of space of its predecessor, but what it does do very well - and who saw this coming? - is the kind of haunted, fragile singer/songwriter stuff that you might find on For Emma, Forever Ago. Kind of ironic that the only good song on his latest EP was the Bon Iver collaboration then..

#28. Little Scream – The Golden Record

This one came out of nowhere, assisted by seemingly every helpful musician in Montreal, and has kind of missed the boat by about three years. A shame, because if it had come out around the same time as Feist, Emmy the Great, Marling et al were releasing their debuts, it'd have made Twilight money. As it stands, it'll just have to settle for being better than all the albums they released this year.

#27. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient


Channeling the spirit of Springsteen, Dylan and Petty through a widescrean, beat heavy filter and dressing it up with swathes of guitars, the second War on Drugs LP manages to sound like both an album of 'big' tunes and one complete suite. I guess that makes it this year's '59 Sound then..
  

#26. Real Estate - Days

It may sound remarkably similar to the self-titled debut, but Days is an entirely different beast; it's just really sly about it. The laid back, lazy vibe is now more insistent and tied to conventional structures. The riffs which were little more than loose guitar jangle are still loose and jangly but are now much more clearly defined and memorable. Where hooks were previously hazy and buried in the mix, here they're bold and direct. Basically, Days really has its shit together.

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #35 - #31

Disclaimer: Wordpress' weird attitude to which youtube videos is starting to become problematic. For most of these clips, assume there's a proper music video on youtube somewhere.


#35. Cults - Cults

It twinkles, it's pretty, Lily Allen likes them, ahhhhh. Right? Not really. Cults may have embraced their aesthetic wholeheartedly, but it's the indelible hooks and the sinister edge underlying it all - the Jim Jones clips that bookend 'Go Outside', the subtly masochistic video for 'Abducted' - that make Cults such an intriguing pop act.

#34. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

It's no secret that stadium rock sucks a fat one in 2011, but it's worth remembering that when it's done well it can be utterly exhilarating. They may be a few thousand seats per gig short of their ideal home, but The Joy Formidable's debut showed us that it's possible to play massive without being a total asshole about it.

#33. Radiohead – The King of Limbs

In many ways, the smart money was in the hands of everyone who coughed up for the vinyl release; that way, it's actually easier to listen to Side B over and over again with exerting yourself too much. Though the first four tracks are hardly bereft of merit, the second leg is comprised entirely of the Head at their very best. We've been spoiled by them in the past, but for now the world is better to the tune of about 16 minutes of music.

#32. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo


About as relaxed as it's possible for a great road trip album to be. It's kind of odd for an artist this prolific and dedicated to his craft to sing about being a lazy bastard so much, but it all imbues Smoke Ring for My Halo with an easy, personable vibe. It sounds like anyone could do it; dare you to try.

#31. Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place

Armed with not much more than a loop pedal, a handful of instruments and her unearthly voice, Julianna Barwick has somehow managed to construct heart-stopping soundscapes that don't come out of your speakers so much as emerge from the atmosphere around you. Call her the hipster Enya if you must, but I for one vibe on 'Caribbean Blue' roughly once a month..

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #40 - #36

#40. Beyonce - 4

Man, it's great to have the Beyonce back who really wants it. Though the collaboration list is a mile long, that voice is the star: vocally, this is easily the best album of the year. But best of all, she finally sounds like she has something she wants to sing about: Jay-Z, being married to Jay-Z, having Jay-Z's baby...

#39. Suuns - Zeroes QC

A dark, oily prog-krautrock machine: the musical equivalent to a Xenomorph. It's insane that a debut album can sound as inventive as this, especially as it's also so carefully edited.

#38. Grooms - Prom


There's no way an album with that title, featuring the lyrics '17 is the whole world / In my room / The Smiths and girls', made by two people who met on Friendster should be any good at all. And yet, the first time I listened to Prom, I let it loop twenty times before I put something else on.

#37. Kendrick Lamar - Section 80

The return of the rapper-as-poet. Paints an impressionist picture of a generation of bored, disenfranchised 'crack babies' losing themselves in meaningless sex and casual drug use, via snapshots of parties, hangouts and encounters. ADHD is the rap single of the year, comfortably.

#36. Liturgy – Aesthetica

The best, funniest way to become the most blogged about black metal band of the year? Be absolutely the opposite of everyone else in your scene, piss off everyone by being totally unapologetic about this, and then be better than everyone else.

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #45 - #41

And now, a blog that needs no introduction.

#45. Danny Brown - XXX


He raps like he's losing his mind, his jeans are too skinny for 50 Cent, and his haircut is too hipster for.. hip-hop at large, basically. But Danny Brown's debut mixtape is one of the most complex and interesting in recent memory. On side one, he gets 'drunk as fuck' feels 'irritated when [he's] not sedated' and gives incredibly detailed oral sex. On side two, it all catches up with him, he's compromised by his neuroses and XXX becomes a powerful concept album.

#44. Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation

It takes a lot to stand out in the market of warbly, lo-fi indie-emo, but Trevor Powers nails it here. Tackling soaring crescendos and widescreen emotions with a childlike sense of innocence and security, this is 2011's answer to The Antlers' Hospice or Perfume Genius' Learning.

#43. Wild Flag - Wild Flag


2011 absolutely stunk for supergroups. Superheavy? Smith and Burrows? Lou Reed and Metallica? So once again, I find myself thanking some higher power for Sleater-Kinney, half of whom make up Wild Flag. More than any other rock band in 2011, Wild Flag were fun, exciting and utterly free of pretension.

#42. Araab Musik - Electronic Dream

Took the current belt-holder for Least Cool Genre - wassup, big room trance - and turned it into something essential, sometimes by simply laying his own ideas over entire songs: Kaskade, Deadmau5, Ian Van Dahl. Pretty brave in a year where every other notable hip-hop producer was just pushing out instrumental tapes.

#41. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Sounds every bit like an old Nuggets tape buried under the shed and recovered sometime around 2030. Unlike too many other releases owing a debt to a bygone age, UMO succeeds simply because the quality of the songwriting is so consistently high.

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 #50 - #46

Now that my conscience is clear (if I hadn't managed to get a mention in for that Hooray For Earth track, I would probably have bludgeoned myself to death in my sleep) it's time to crack on with the list proper.

And so, gents and ladies, I present you with part one of my Top 50 Albums of 2011: #50 - #46

#50. Bright Eyes – The People’s Key

If this is to be the last Bright Eyes album (as Conor never seems to tire of telling us it will be) then it makes for a fitting eulogy. A little more discipline and a more clearly defined through-line might have made for a better album, but there were few like it in 2011 to quietly burrow their way into your head and stay there.

#49. Woods - Sun and Shade

It's starting to get a bit silly, this: 'Oh, is that another great release from Woods? It must be April again.' After At Echo Lake's breakthrough success, Sun and Shade is more of the same, interspersed with lengthy psychedelic freak-out passages. All of which is much of a muchness, really: this is just another great Woods record.

#48. Washed Out - Within and Without

Like all the best EP's, 2009's Life of Leisure established a signature sound beautifully but didn't do a great deal with it. With his debut proper Ernest Greene stepped up to the plate admirably, delivering the quintessential chillwave album and possibly liberating the genre from ridicule for good.

#47. Cat’s Eyes – Cat’s Eyes

Confirmation, if any were needed, that Faris Badwan lives and breathes this shit. The decision to pair up with soprano/composer/mulit-instrumentalist Rachel Zeffira was inspired, as was making their live debut in the Vatican, but what stands out most about Cat's Eyes is the impeccable, lush production.

#46. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow

Aerial was, by all accounts, a misfire. *Oooh* too soon? This, however, is much more like it. Though a world away from the pop bombast of Hounds of Love - it opens with what basically amounts to half an hour of piano and voice improvisation - 50 Words for Snow is gripping and beautiful in a way that few other artists are capable of.

Music: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 - Honorable Mentions

So, first of all, I'm rethinking this blog a little bit..

Mainly, this is because I've not been writing creatively much recently, seeing as I've been thinking so much about #business (been some exciting career developments, innit) and #music. 

Luckily for all of you, sitting in your wi-fi enabled hovels, weeping, desperate for BLOGS MORE BLOGS, I'm going to start writing blogs that have literally nothing to do with creative writing, and have to do with other things like music and films and books and wassever. 

But first of all, there's the small matter of my end of year album list: now entering it's third year! None of you have complained loud enough for me to stop doing it, and Kirsten's claims to have heard of none of the artists involved have only spurred me on to be even more pretentious than usual.

I'm tying this in to the 12 days of christmas, because I'm a sucker for ceremony, and if I leave it any longer I risk slipping even further into irrelevancy. Mainly, this is a direct reaction to the fact that I posted my 2009 list one by one throughout June and fucking July 2010.

Today, I'll be listing a few albums that didn't make the Top 50, but who took up a significant enough part of my year that it'd be a disservice not to mention them. Each and every one is very much worthy of your time.

Let me know what you think: have you listened to any of these albums? Do you also have strong opinions either way about them? Do you reckon they're too low/too high? Do you have any speculations about which other albums might feature further up the list? Do you know what's happened to my dog? Either way, I'd love some feedback. 

So, without any more stalling for time... 

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Does what Gaga does best: delights her fans and infuriates everyone else.

Braids – Native Speaker

Hugely promising debut that's not afraid to experiment.

Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Just think of her as Robyn with guitars.  

The Rosebuds - Loud Planes Fly Low

It's the indie rock Rumours! As raw as a band this sweet could possibly get.

Wye Oak - Civilian

The other great female-led rock band to cover Danzig in 2011

Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne

Wildly uneven, but the peaks are as stellar as you'd expect.

Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

His best to date. Still cripplingly earnest, but the stepped-up production only serves to make the whole affair more endearing.

Pure X - Pleasure

The most impressive guitar album of 2011 to feature absolutely no showing off whatsoever. Blissful.

Hooray for Earth - True Loves

Exciting and eclectic, and features one of the very best singles of the year.

Thundercat - The Golden Age of Apocalypse

The great electro-funk lounge jazz album you never thought you wanted to hear.

A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP

A blistering, brilliantly produced debut that somehow lived up to the hype.

Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder

The fact that this guy is younger than me is the stuff of nightmares.

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

A rarity in 2011: a true original. A bass saxophonist using circular breathing and himself as percussion. Check out the vimeo link if you want to fear for a man's life.

(http://vimeo.com/27871846)

Grouper – A I A : Alien Observer

I had a nightmare earlier this year about meeting a woman at the bottom of the ocean. She made music that sounds exactly like this. 

Dirty Beaches – Badlands

Like stumbling drunk through the best rock 'n roll bar you're too young to have ever visited.

Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

A natural successor (even - whisper it - superior) to Jay Reatard.

Slow Club - Paradise

Surprisingly hard and uncompromising follow up to their beloved-but-twee-as-fuck debut.

TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

A huge disappointment, but still good enough to make it onto this list. Coasting TVOTR are still TVOTR.

Egyptrixx - Bible Eyes

Refreshingly subtle and beat-light debut. Features another one of my favourite singles of the year.