Best And Worst Albums of 2011

I'm not sure I could compare it to anything in particular... it's pretty nice ambient/electronic pop music, but most of the tunes are composed of corporate jingles and background music (the last song uses a sample of the Wii main menu music, for example), which sounds nice but actually it's kind of creepy. Which is the point, really. Very thought-provoking album. I think you'd like it a lot, give it a shot!

Seconding Wildlife by La Dispute...brilliant album, that.

Hey kids! I've just compiled a ranked list of this year's releases I've listened to and commented on it! Read it here! Try to not die with overexcitement!

edited 31st Dec '11 4:21:11 PM by Litis

You're rather picky in your music tastes.

Are you saying this because you don't see any hip-hop?

Looking at all of these indie bands permeating the thread, I'm reminded of how pedestrian my preferences are.

I'm going to say Kimball Jamison.

No.

Favorite Albums (No Particular Order)

• Circuital - My Morning Jacket
• Wasting Light - Foo Fighters
• Undun - The Roots
• Nostalgia, Ultra. - Frank Ocean
• Strange Mercy - St. Vincent
• The Hunter - Mastodon

Ceremonials—Florence + the Machine

My earlier list of year-end favorites needs to be revised. Position is approximate.

1. Axial: SiMBiOSE**
   For the third year in a row, my favorite album is a completely free one. Will the wonders of modernity never cease? This Brazilian electroacoustic ensemble's prior two albums were careful balances of melody and ambience, with so much negative space that the music itself sounded outright fragile. This time, Axial is not fragile at all—if the opening track's glitchy electronics (filling the space behind Sandra Ximenez's vocals) don't make this clear, then the drum'n'bass-influenced freakout that drops a minute later certainly will. However, even at the heaviest (\"Lelê\" or \"Padê Onã\") the songs are still capable of floating on the breeze like butterflies. Robot butterflies, with gatling guns under their wings.
2. Arkona: Slovo**
   This Russian band takes a schizophrenic approach to their brand of folk metal. Masha alternates between clean vocals, death growls, spoken vocals, and whispered vocals (and on several songs she's even backed by a choir); acoustic guitar and balalaika alternate with riff-tastic electric guitars; and the proceedings are sprinkled liberally with flutes, bagpipes, orchestral strings, and atmospheric synths. Songs switch gears from beautiful to brutal to bouncy (and back again) without warning—often just in time to yank the rug out from under you for foolishly thinking you'd finally figured the band out. It's every bit as messy as that description sounds, but it's an incredibly compelling mess. Even if (like me) you don't know a word of Russian.
3. A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Cervantine**
   Jeremy Barnes and his fellow world music lovers (this time, they're mixing Romani, Middle Eastern, and Mariachi influences) are not settling, no sir. Unlike Darkness at Noon, there's no meandering filler tracks within earshot, and unlike their last album, Délivrance, there's a far greater variety of tempo. Even at its fastest, Cervantine lacks the franticness that characterized Délivrance—if anything, the mood on this album is surprisingly sensual. Yes, I did say sensual, and yes we are still talking about a band that has a tuba player instead of a bassist.
4. My Brightest Diamond: All Things Will Unwind**
   Shara Worden's debut, Bring Me the Workhorse, was a dark pop masterpiece; her followup A Thousand Shark's Teeth was more classical-influenced and, frankly, a confused mess. Here, Worden has found her way again, and has written the album that Shark's Teeth tried (and failed) to be. The music is airy, with subliminal percussion, with the strings and woodwinds darting in and out unpredictably—it seems random, but is very deliberately arranged to swoop and soar, and to deliver Shara's lyrics (her rawest and most personal yet) directly to the space between your ears.
5. Korpiklaani: Ukon Wacka**
   These folk-metalheads have been consistent ever since their roster stabilized. If you've heard Tales Along This Road, Tervaskanto, or Karkelo, then you already have a pretty good idea of what this album sounds like, albeit this one is a degree harder than any of those. Musically and lyrically, this Korpiklaani outing is more serious than their detractors—and even some of their fans—give them credit for, but they aren't going out of their way to win over any detractors, either. They're just very confident, both in their songwriting chops (for the first time, all of Jarvela's original lyrics are in his native Finnish), and in the fact that angry political rants (the Peer Günt cover \"Päät Pois Tai Hirteen [Cut Off Their Heads or Hang Them]\"), tales of mighty warriors slaying vampire giants (\"Surma [Death]\"), and odes to intoxication (\"Tequila\") all make perfect sense on the same album.
6. Julianna Barwick: The Magic Place **
   I don't like ambient. I love this album. That's how amazing it is.
7. Winter's Fall: At All Angles**
   The band's sound is more alt-rock than alt-country, and they hail from California rather than the Midwest, but Peter Winter Stanley can (and does) out-twang nearly any singer you'll hear on country radio—a feat which will doubtlessly scare away many listeners. Oh well, their loss.
8. SMOWMINE: LAMINATE PET ANIMAL**
   Gotta agree with Saeglopur on these guys. Screw popular opinion: baroque pop is only dead if we let it die, and Snowmine is here to prove it. Everything on this album is either hushed or shimmering—the aural equivalent of sunlight glinting off the surface of a stream that flows through the middle of a snow-covered forest. Even the baroque touches (an orchestral swell here, group vocals there) exist to support that mood rather than to overwhelm the listener—this is, after all, a pop album, and a darn good one.
9. MAP & Katie Dooley: loneliness is dangerous**
   Funny thing: MAP's last album, Speechless, was almost entirely instrumental, yet this album—centered around Katie Dooley's vocals—feels more like post-rock than Speechless ever did. Josh Dooley paradoxically treats his sister's vocals as just another musical instrument and makes that instrument the focal point of any given song. When it works, it's sublime, and these moments make even the filler tracks worth sitting through.
10. Danielson: Best of Gloucester County**
    Not a Greatest Hits collection, in spite of the title. With this album, Daniel Smith has written something accessible and almost radio friendly—an awe-inspiring (and somewhat frightening) accomplishment for the baroque-folk songwriter whose voice is that of a child and whose middle name is \"acquired taste\". However, this album also has the misfortune of being the followup to Smith's apparent magnum opus, Ships—the same restraint that makes Best Of so accessible, holds it back from attempting the dizzying heights that Ships scaled.
11. Ben Lear: Lillian: A Folk Opera **
    A last-minute addition that may or many not creep higher up this list as I give it more listens. Initial impression: Lear is a baroque-folk musician with a knack for catchy melodies and big, sweeping climaxes. Apparently he's a friend of the aforementioned Snowmine.

May not actually count, but still worth mentioning:

1. The Prayer Chain: Humb**
   Is this a 1995 album or a 2011 album? Basically, The Prayer Chain's 1995 album Mercury is widely considered a classic of the underground Christian rock scene—but it was also the victim of Executive Meddling. This year the band took the original master tapes and rereleased the album exactly as they would have 16 years ago if the the label executives had allowed them. Upon listening to Humb, it's immediately clear why the label balked: this album was an attempt at commercial suicide by a band that suddenly realized they hated the industry they'd joined. The mastering is raw; hooks are nearly non-existent; slow-burning grooves and occasional drones predominate. But those who listen all the way through will hear the desperation boil away, until only peace and hope remain.
2. Sounds Familyre Records: A Familyre Christmas - Volume 4 **
   Weirdest Christmas album ever? Maybe not, but it's up there. What else would you expect from the friends and family of Daniel Smith (from the aforementioned Danielson)?