Best of 2011

Hey Kids,

A little bit quicker pulling this together this year.  As usual, just in time for all your holiday needs.  I think this might actually be the 10 year anniversary of the list if you can believe it.  Way back when this started, I would actually listen to "CDs" and would send this note out in a mass "e-mail".  Barbaric.  It is definitely sobering to look back at that list from 2002.  It's a reminder of what this list is for me in a lot of ways: a snapshot of where I'm at in life and the general mood I've been in for that year.  Nothing carries time and place memory like music.  That list from 2002, taken in my heady mid-20's, seemed to coincide with getting an actual job (and disposable income) and the birth of the Current (89.3 FM in Minneapolis for those that don't know).  Anyways, it's a great list including some all-timers for me (The Walkmen's "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me" and Hot, Hot Heat's "Make Up the Breakdown").  All in all, my lists probably haven't changed that much: still an angry, "young" man given over to fits of introspection who likes his baroque touches to music as evidenced by my #1 for 2002:

So, for those of you who might be new to this, this list started among a bunch of us who were into our music as a way to talk about what we'd been listening to over the year and to be introduced to new music.  No snobs here, the idea's not to be "that" guy who always puts Yo La Tengo at the top of his list.  The way it generally works is I post my list and then you, the viewing public, a) read it and mock me, b) bin it, or c) read it, write your own list, and post it in the comments below.  That last one is preferred, of course.  I always go with a top 10, because I'm an engineer and I like nice round numbers, but feel free to post whatever you want (Top 1, 5, 100, whatever provided it's a whole number).  Only rule is that all the albums have to come from 2011.

So, my list for this year feels a lot sparser than previous years.  Between moving countries (again) and a non-stop travel schedule, I haven't actually picked up that much music.  So, I'll be keen to see everyone else's lists to give me some idea of what I've been missing.  I haven't even had a chance to listen to the new Bon Iver, the Dears, Decemberists, or Portico Quartet.  In normal years, those would have gone without saying.  So, if you're wondering where some of those albums are, it's just that I haven't gotten around to 'em yet.  But, of the ones I have gotten to, there've been some real winners (not Charlie Sheen) this year.  Now, because Facebook notes sucks, you'll have to copy and paste the YouTube links below into your browser to see videos of the tracks.  The better way to do it is to check out this playlist of tracks off my list.  Anyways, with that, on to the list.....

10.  Tom Vek - Leisure Seizure

Kind of an appropriate one to kick off the list, given that the guy who introduced it to me (Mark Jones)  I actually met while stuck in a snowed-in Dublin airport trying to get out to North America at the end of last year.  Vek's an interesting character, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist that hasn't done anything for the last 5 years.  This is a near-perfect downbeat album, zippy enough to keep you from getting depressed, but still containing lyrics like "what you perceive as life is no more than a chore".

9. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome

This is such a fantastic concept album.  Leave it to Danger Mouse to come up with it.  All original songs on the album constructed around spaghetti western hooks.  He enlists Italian composer, Luppi, and the string quartet that used to work with the likes of Ennio Morricone.  There's something undeniably mysterious about the spaghetti western sound but I love the fact that it's not a soundtrack.  The songs all stand on their own adding the voices of Jack White and Norah Jones to fill out the ensemble.  It's great rainy day music.

8.  Tom Waits - Bad as Me

I only wish I could place it higher.  How much I love Mr. Waits.  It's everything you want out of an album from Tom: great poetry, tongue-in-cheek humor, his singular delivery, the feeling that you're in a revival meeting, etc.  It's not great from beginning to end like Bone Machine or Closing Time, but you can't expect him to match those efforts every time out.  All the same, I think Kyle Roeckeman once said that Tom Waits gets on this list even if he did nothing but "fart into a microphone".  Rest assured, this is way, way better than that.

7. Sin Fang - Summer Echoes

Everyone's probably sick of hearing me talk about this guy.  His album 2 years ago (Clangour) was my run-away #1.  To this day, that's one of my top 3 albums of all time.  No joke.  I just love the way he composes songs.  There's always so many interesting pops and buzzes and whirs thrown just under the surface of the usual interpretation.  But it never sounds like an affectation.  He's never too melodic with his voice, but he has this rapid fire delivery that for some reason or another just sticks with me.  Now, again, this album isn't up to the same heights as Clangour, but it's still pretty awesome.  Plus, he wears a lace doily as a beard in all the videos from the album.  Which is.....something.

6. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Little surprise that this is on here.  First, it's the 5th year in a row a Swede makes the list.  Second, I have a total crush on Lykke Li.  And, finally, I've been talking about this album all year.  There was a period in June and July where I didn't listen to much beyond this.  She's got the perfect voice to communicate being wounded.  Her voice always sounds just a little bit fragile, but never weak.  It's a testament to her voice that a lot of her songs actually sound a lot better with minimal instrumentation (like the "Live on the Moon" sessions that produced "I Follow Rivers" linked here).

5. The Horrible Crowes - Elsie

Maybe I'm just getting too predictable, but this is the third time that Brian Fallon shows up on this list.  While the Gaslight Anthem has gone from Mike's secret favorite band to selling out big venues, maybe this side project of the lead singer can stay a bit under the radar.  And, you know, the formula really hasn't gone anywhere.  He's always going to sound like Springsteen but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.  There's a lot more angst on this album making me think that Mr. Fallon's gone through a bit of a rough patch but man does it play well.  The end of "Go Tell Everybody" when he starts softly saying "I was a man of great sympathy.  I loved you baby, but tonight all my sympathy is gone" and then progresses to scream it by the end.  Man, I've been there.

4. Anna Calvi - S/T

Just saw this tiny dynamo play at Vicar St. in Dublin.  All 5 feet of her beats the hell out of her guitar and erupts with this Maria Callas kind of voice.  It's actually quite shocking.  Classically trained on the violin, she's self taught on the guitar and is quite possibly the best guitar player I  have ever seen live.  And she does have a bit of this Pixies-type style where she'll go from quiet, quiet, quiet and then...all of a sudden....LOUD.  But whereas Frank Black was screaming, Anna's actually got this great operatic voice.  She was discovered and produced by Brian Eno so, you know, there's probably something here.  She's fantastic.  Get this album.

3. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

This is where the baroque touches start coming in.  While Tom Vek and Lykke Li might sound better as minimalists, M83 is big, produced, ensemble opulence.  Everything about this album is big.  It's a double LP with some 22 tracks on it.  Lots of layers, time changes, and lots of long, drawn out tracks.   It's the type of space-pop I can get behind.  There's plenty of dreaminess in the vocals, but the music underneath it is more melody and production and less music that will put me to sleep.

2. Wugazi - 13 Chambers

This would be #1 if the only criterion was the album I listened to most this year.  This album's accompanied me on many, many flights this year.  The purists might balk because it's a mash-up, but it's my list.  If nothing else it combines three of my all-time favorite musical figures in that the Minneapolis collective, Doomtree, took over a year to merge two of the best albums of all time (Wu-Tang's "Enter the 36 Chambers" and Fugazi's "13 Songs".  If there's any question about how perfectly they got the worlds of rap and punk to come together listen to Nowhere to Wait at the 2 minute mark to 2:50. It's almost a seamless launch into that sample everyone knows from Waiting Room.  If it's not enough that the album combines Doomtree, Wu Tang, and Fugazi, add the fact that, since the entire album is sampled, Doomtree gives the album away for free download on wugazi.com.

1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Only slightly sheepish that my choice for best album of the year was also the album that took the Mercury Prize.  There's just so much behind it.  One, it's deep: a concept album about World War I and its effects on England (and the world), you can tell that PJ had gotten totally immersed in it.  She apparently studied the topic for a couple of years.  Two, she was meticulous with the music and lyrics.  Everything has a purpose (like the bugle cry in "The Glorious Land").  Finally, as if it needed anything more, she built a short film for each of the songs on the album.  It is, by any measure, a complete project.  Not a weak song in the bunch and given the scope of the project, Polly Jean takes the top spot for 2011.