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Honorable Mentions
Talkdemonic - Ruins
936 - Peaking Lights
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure
Class Actress - Rapprocher
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Soft Metals - Soft Metals
Washed Out - Within and Without
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Gus Gus - Arabian Horse
My much belated list of the best albums of 2K11
Cover art of YACHT’s Shangri-La (Link to official TeamYacht website)
I could lie to you and tell you that I listened to, considered, and dismissed from consideration all of the critical darlings of the past year in music. However, as the last sentence suggests, I would be lying. Bon Iver, the newest Pitchfork champion, does not make an appearance on this list, though I will fondly remember hearing snippets from his universally-celebrated sophomore album on the sound system at several DC-area Starbucks - an odd choice for languid summer afternoons in the Mid-Atlantic. Similarly, the self-released debut by The Weeknd didn’t resonate with me, its on-the-nose hyper-debauchery a bit “too-cool-kid” for my temperament. By far the biggest disappointment for me, however, was James Blake’s eponymous LP, the recipient of an endless chorus of critical encomium that needled my sensibilities mercilessly throughout the year. If post-dubstep is supposedly some exciting new frontier in the London electronic music scene intent on rescuing dubstep from the purgatory of moribund electronic sub-genres like jungle, trip-hop, and acid-house, then please, gods, let that whole house implode. Or, before resorting to that, consider championing an alternative avenue of progress, such as the tribal, orientalist, if ultimately orthodox dubstep of Shackleton, whose Fabriclive mix is one of my favorites of the year. Regardless, James Blake’s mutilated Anthony Hegarty vocals and capacious beats between which I could idle semi trucks constitute no way forward and no way, to my mind, to have spent this past year.
However, I gave all of these albums short shrift, singularly (or very nearly) focused as I was on this year’s YACHT output. It is almost unfair of me to consider other albums in a year in which YACHT releases an album, such an unapologetic fanboy I am that the dynamic electro-pop duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans could easily release a collection of largely unlistenable dreck, and, enthrall as I am to YACHT (the band, the religion, the…what have you), I would probably still sing its praises. Fortunately, this is not the case with this year’s offering. Shangri-La is in many ways a victory lap, a celebratory follow-up to 2009’s equally indispensable See Mystery Lights. Inasmuch as that album, focused as it was on good/evil, theist/atheist dichotomies and supplanting those tired old debates with new religions, was Jona’s album, Shangri-La, also a theme album, though this time squarely informed by the futurist yearnings of a true science fiction reader, is very much Claire’s. Moreover, she takes on most of the vocal duties, her husky tenor leaving Jona to man the guitar and, well, probably to continue dancing on stage in white, megachurch pastor suits like the true son of David Byrne. The one-two punch of “Utopia” and “Dystopia,” formally linked in a great, highly stylized video tableau, revives the struggle with insurmountable dichotomies explored on See Mystery Lights, but redefines the discussion as a largely secular one. “Dystopia” gets my tip for song of the year, its hip-hop scramble of an intro, stutter-stop vocals, metallic synths and beats that drop like the atom bomb providing a frightening, cautionary tale for the 1%. Each and every song bears riches, with the dark, murderous synth and lyrics of “Love in the Dark” finding a counterpoint in the raucous possibilities of “Paradise Engineering.” “One Step” takes an incrementalist approach to corporeal desires, while “Tripped and Fell in Love” is a back-to-business synth symphony. Check it out.
As far as everything else goes, I decided, ultimately, not to recuse myself and to list below what I view as the other great accomplishments of the year. I love the kinetic, unhinged nerdery of math-rockers Battles, whose Gloss Drop delivers a fecund trove of rock fiction, of sounds and ideas that could truly revive guitar-based music from the morass of genre retread hell (retread garage rock, retread psych rock, retread blues rock, and, worst of all, retread beardo-emotional rock) that it has manifested in of late.
m83 and Gang Gang Dance both released synth masterpieces, with m83 continuing to determine the contours of a maximalist heaven and Gang Gang Dance congealing its myriad tribal/orientalist/mystic influences into a collection alternatively spastic and remarkably coherent. The Field’s Looping State of Mind is a brilliant, far-roaving rumination on producer Axel Willner’s particular brand of exploratory ambient house. Bjork delivered on her ambitious project with a collection of songs about elemental constructs in nature, the highlights of which include “Crystalline,” whose lovely tone-poem like refrain transitions, incredibly and unexpectedly, into a jungle breakdown that leaves one wondering if she’s shacking up with Goldie again. EMA sounds like Kim Gordon’s awesome post-undergrad daughter, carrying on the family craft like the progeny of a fabled family of witches.
I’m not going to summarize the rest of my findings, but I listened to and enjoyed all of these albums a great deal this year, which was, all in all, a very satisfying one.
However, I gave all of these albums short shrift, singularly (or very nearly) focused as I was on this year’s YACHT output. It is almost unfair of me to consider other albums in a year in which YACHT releases an album, such an unapologetic fanboy I am that the dynamic electro-pop duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans could easily release a collection of largely unlistenable dreck, and, enthrall as I am to YACHT (the band, the religion, the…what have you), I would probably still sing its praises. Fortunately, this is not the case with this year’s offering. Shangri-La is in many ways a victory lap, a celebratory follow-up to 2009’s equally indispensable See Mystery Lights. Inasmuch as that album, focused as it was on good/evil, theist/atheist dichotomies and supplanting those tired old debates with new religions, was Jona’s album, Shangri-La, also a theme album, though this time squarely informed by the futurist yearnings of a true science fiction reader, is very much Claire’s. Moreover, she takes on most of the vocal duties, her husky tenor leaving Jona to man the guitar and, well, probably to continue dancing on stage in white, megachurch pastor suits like the true son of David Byrne. The one-two punch of “Utopia” and “Dystopia,” formally linked in a great, highly stylized video tableau, revives the struggle with insurmountable dichotomies explored on See Mystery Lights, but redefines the discussion as a largely secular one. “Dystopia” gets my tip for song of the year, its hip-hop scramble of an intro, stutter-stop vocals, metallic synths and beats that drop like the atom bomb providing a frightening, cautionary tale for the 1%. Each and every song bears riches, with the dark, murderous synth and lyrics of “Love in the Dark” finding a counterpoint in the raucous possibilities of “Paradise Engineering.” “One Step” takes an incrementalist approach to corporeal desires, while “Tripped and Fell in Love” is a back-to-business synth symphony. Check it out.
As far as everything else goes, I decided, ultimately, not to recuse myself and to list below what I view as the other great accomplishments of the year. I love the kinetic, unhinged nerdery of math-rockers Battles, whose Gloss Drop delivers a fecund trove of rock fiction, of sounds and ideas that could truly revive guitar-based music from the morass of genre retread hell (retread garage rock, retread psych rock, retread blues rock, and, worst of all, retread beardo-emotional rock) that it has manifested in of late.
m83 and Gang Gang Dance both released synth masterpieces, with m83 continuing to determine the contours of a maximalist heaven and Gang Gang Dance congealing its myriad tribal/orientalist/mystic influences into a collection alternatively spastic and remarkably coherent. The Field’s Looping State of Mind is a brilliant, far-roaving rumination on producer Axel Willner’s particular brand of exploratory ambient house. Bjork delivered on her ambitious project with a collection of songs about elemental constructs in nature, the highlights of which include “Crystalline,” whose lovely tone-poem like refrain transitions, incredibly and unexpectedly, into a jungle breakdown that leaves one wondering if she’s shacking up with Goldie again. EMA sounds like Kim Gordon’s awesome post-undergrad daughter, carrying on the family craft like the progeny of a fabled family of witches.
I’m not going to summarize the rest of my findings, but I listened to and enjoyed all of these albums a great deal this year, which was, all in all, a very satisfying one.
- YACHT - Shangri-La
- Battles - Gloss Drop
- m83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
- Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
- The Field - Looping State of Mind
- Shackleton - Fabriclive 55
- Bjork - Biophilia
- Destroyer - Kaputt
- Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
- EMA - Past Life Martyred Saint
- Underworld - Barking
- Cut/Copy - Zonoscope
- Tune-yards - Who Kill
- The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love
- Justice - Audio, Video, Disco
- The Juan MacLean - Everybody Get Close
- Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972
- Brian Eno - Drums Between the Bells
- Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
- Panda Bear - Tomboy
Honorable Mentions
Talkdemonic - Ruins
936 - Peaking Lights
Ford & Lopatin - Channel Pressure
Class Actress - Rapprocher
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
Soft Metals - Soft Metals
Washed Out - Within and Without
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Gus Gus - Arabian Horse
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