2011 was an exciting year for Andy Plank. He began his career in writing, the Packers won the Super Bowl, he rediscovered Comedy Bang Bang and he got big red glasses. He spent most of the 365 days between January 1 and December 31 listening to albums that came out early in the discographies of Weezer, Modest Mouse, Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World. Every once in a while, however, he stopped being so bitter about all of his favorite bands that crumpled and faltered under the pressure of becoming popular and he listened to a few new releases. Wait, just to be clear, he still thinks Jimmy Eat World is really good today. He’s already worried that some of the bands on his 2011 top ten list will betray him for overproduction and the fleeting opportunity to provide the background music for Volkswagen commercials. Some of them already have.
Andy Plank isn’t a musician like most of the cool kids who contributed lists, but he did record a couple songs for fun this year.
1) tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
Although she took her project into a professional studio to record this time, it’s still the raw, wild sounds and energy of Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs that is undeniable to me. Her voice — something between a desperate yelp and a sweetly sung whisper — is animalistic, while her lyrics convey socially-conscious messages about the creative and artistic visions inside us all, womanhood, and discontent with the American society. The album was created so that it pays special attention not only to the vocals and instruments, but also to the space that it was recorded in. whokill is a rare and inspiring piece of art because not only is it on display, but it also displays the creative process and work that went into it.
2) M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Releasing a 20-song double album is darn near asking for failure these days.
Especially one that bobs and weaves through such incredibly high-charged moments as the year’s best track, “Midnight City,” and such slow, plodding moments as “Splendor.” Especially one that features a little girl reciting a poem about becoming a magical frog. Especially when the musician that created it said before its release that it was “very, very, very epic,” and that people might hate it because it was “so over-the-top and over-produced.” Make no mistake, however, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is so masterfully good from beginning to end that it justifies all of its experiments and its self-proclaimed hype.
3) The Antlers – Burst Apart
My first listen through Burst Apart was a drop-everything moment. Thirty-five seconds into its first track, “I Don’t Want Love,” Peter Silberman delivers the most heartbreaking melody to an opening line I can remember in years. The song doesn’t stray far from there, but it remains unquestionably dramatic. As does the album.
4) Parenthetical Girls – Privilege
This is possibly my favorite top-ten pick this year — not my favorite album, but the one I’m most proud of having found and wrote about on PV. Creativity and exploration flows so freely throughout Privilege. Technically, the 2011 full-length is the combination of four EPs, two of which were released in 2010. Having had a few members on the show Portlandia, maybe the band is a bit bigger than I thought, but I’m happy to have shared the song, “YOUNG THROATS,” with a few of my friends this year.
5) Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation
Part of my fascination with this album is that it’s very obviously recorded at home with a laptop and some software. Levels are somewhat inconsistent and the vocals are downright hidden behind the music at times. That may be a deterrent for some, but the transparency of the album is refreshing to someone who’s recorded more songs in bedrooms than studios. Its bounciest, most hopeful rhythms are the main attraction to The Year of Hibernation.
6) Cut Copy – Zonoscope
From my May 16 PV review – “Zonoscope is full of familiar sounds which are not usually paired with one another, and it’s that juxtaposition which makes it inspiring. Dark, Joy Division-esque 80’s tones curl up with sunny, unmistakably Brian Wilson surf rock. Funky disco grooves are marginalized by industrial textures and patterns. Australia’s Cut Copy does all this without fear or failure. They’re not trying to slide circles through rectangles, or triangles through squares, they’re just doing it.”
7) David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
- From a June 15 PV show review – “The album is full of messages concerned with over-complication caused by today’s technology and social-media-based culture. It searches somewhat doubtfully and, in lighter moments, hopefully for simpler and more intimate and honest interactions between people.”
8) Sean Nicholas Savage – Trippple Midnight Karma
- From my May 13 Byte Size Review List post – “Hopefully there’s a disco club somewhere in the world where the DJ’s booming Sean Nicholas Savage’s Trippple Midnight Karma through his speakers. He slides “Can’t Get My Mind Off You,” between Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” and Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” and nobody skips a beat. The latest from Savage, a blend of Motown, R&B and lush, bubble gum, bedroom indie-pop, continues his soulful journey through 70s style pop music. It’s definitely worthy of plenty of guilty pleasure lists.”
9) James Blake – James Blake
- From Matthew’s July 2 PV review – “Blake blends influences from many artists into a tight sound of his own. The reverberating drum kit in “The Wilhelm Scream” hints at Peter Gabriel’s signature “gated drum” timbre; Blake’s voice resembles the rich and throaty tones of Annie Lennox and Robert Smith, but ultimately he creates an entirely individual, and excruciatingly soulful, stoic vocal approach. Blending pop tones with dub-step and electronic sequencing, his self-titled album is catapulting Blake into a leading role in 2011.”
10) Colin Stetson – New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
- If I were to make a list called, “Best Albums of 2011 Not Taking Personal Preferences Into Account,” Judges would top that list. It’s the most impressive recording of the year — one man, one saxophone, one take, one great album. He uses not only the normal sound that a sax is expected to make, but also the slamming of its keys, the pattern of his breathing, his voice as he pushes through the instrument while playing it, and the echoes of it all as it reverberates back to him in the place he recorded it. It sounds like an army of talented musicians, but this is a one-man-band in the best of ways. If someone were to tell me, “Judges should be your number one album of 2011,” I’d probably agree.
Bonuses:
Best EP – Mozart’s Sister – DEAR FEAR
Best “Unreleased” Song – Purity Ring – Ungirthed
