So, based on that list, I now present my 50 favorites of 2011:
#50: SBTRKT - s/t
post dub; soul
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#49: Old Apparatus - s/t
electronic; minimal
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#48: Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctification
black metal; industrial
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#47: The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
shoegaze; maximal alternative rock
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#46: The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum
progressive rock; EP compilation
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#45: Daniel Striped Tiger - No Difference
post hardcore
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#44: Iceage - New Brigade
post punk; grimy
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#43: Destroyer - Kaputt
dreamy shit; jazz fusion
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#42: A Hope for Home - In Abstraction
progressive and hardcore; atmospheric
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#41: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
>implying this isn't folk
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#40: Rival Schools - Pedals
post hardcore; punk
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#39: Acid Mothers Temple - The Ripper at the Heaven's Gates of Dark
psychedelic rock
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#38: Hardcore Tano*c - Hardcore Syndrome 5
hardcore anime techno; dub; club; dance
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#37: Glassjaw - Our Color Green & Coloring Book EP's
post hardcore; alternative rock
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download (Coloring Book)
#36: Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning
oldschool progressive rock; dat mellotron
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#35: Peste Noire - L'Ordure à l'état Pur
black metal
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#34: The Middle East - I Want That You Are Always Happy
alternative folk
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#33: Beirut - The Riptide
indie; electronic; nerdy
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#32: Tyler, the Creator - Goblin
swag rap nigga
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#31: Iroha - s/t
shoegaze; ambient; dub
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#30: Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
samplecore; chill; electronic
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#29: Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
grind; crust; hardcore
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#28: Cynic - Carbon Based Anatomy EP
progressive; orchestral?; avant garde as fukk
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#27: Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
experimental folk; swamp
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#26: Does it Offend You, Yeah? - Don't Say We Didn't Warn You
electronic rock; pop
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#25: Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/The Dream
garage rock
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#23: Jami Woon - Mirrorwriting
post dub; pop
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#22: Radiohead - The King of Limbs
radiohead eh
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#21: Starfucker - Reptilians
electronic; pop; chill
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#20: Tartar Lamb II - Polyimage of Known Exits
avant-garde; noir; jazz-ambient fusion
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#19: Patrick Stump - Soul Punk
nightlife pop; generic electronic shit nikka
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#18: Dir en Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
experimental/alternative metal; grind
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#17: Bubblegum Octopus - Bad Happy
synth; falsetto + death growl; "picopop"; experimental electronic
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#16: Phideaux - Snowtorch
classic progressive rock
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#15: Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction
progressive metal; humor
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#14: Gorillaz - The Fall
experimental; hip hop; "bleep bloop" electronic
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#13: Portugal. the Man - In the Mountain, In the Cloud
alternative; experimental; pop psychedelic
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#12: Hiromi - Voice
progressive; virtuoso piano
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#11: Touche Amore - Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me
post hardcore; wave
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stoner rock; experimental metal
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We all know Boris. They're one of the most sporadic groups out their. They've been known to try and mix us up before, and it's gotten to the point where people expect them to create or recreate a genre with every release. And they do little short of that with Heavy Rocks...2. In my opinion, it beats out it's prior incarnation, as well as the other Boris albums among the stoner rock area. Purple is spectacular from start to finish, and what could I expect otherwise from one of the most creative, talented, groups out there today.
#9: Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - Deaden the Fieldspost rock
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They call it post rock, but this is something done the same and in a different way entirely. There are time signatures, but I'd be a fucked slut to find and figure them. Eve if I could find them, for even one instrument, there's only about four more to figure out differently. These guys are in synchronization, and you'll never know because they're all playing a separate song. Easily the best post rock album of the year, beating anything with the word "crescendo" strapped to it, Deaden the Fields are virtuoso's of their instruments strapped together and writing at maximum speed.
#8: Zechs Marquise - Getting Paidpsychedelic; instrumental; ambient; progressive; funk
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Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the genius mastermind behind The Mars Volta, has a family. And like him, the power of music runs through their veins. Zechs Marquise is comprised of both Rodriguez-Lopez's brothers, and their friends, and they stay close to home without holding onto big bro's hand. Getting Paid, their sophomore LP, is a bit more condensed than the debut, but at the same time it's mega powerful. They've taken the slow dances out of the equation, and left only the psychedelic, the progressive, the funky, some of the ambient and the electronic, and they've put it all in the crazy as fuck boiling pot, and after a couple minutes it set aflame. More than that, it exploded, killed everyone in the nearby radius by way of melting their head, and while it was at it, Getting Paid picked up the survivors and melted their brains into a liquid goop. This is the instrumental piece to see, kids, forget the trip to the zoo.
#7: Subrosa - No Help for the Mighty Onedoom; stoner metal
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I've already written a review for this album, so most know what I'm talking about here, but just in case, how about a recap:
suddenly! then came Subrosa, heroes of their genre, with no fear! To show their bravery, they shamelessly - no, more, with pride! - made a doom/stoner metal album that wasn't full of references to ganja. The words "weed" and "dope" weren't even in the title! Then, they took it a step further! By mixing their female vocalists, their violin pieces, and a number of classic doom formulas and even a handful of dirty riffs, they released the best metal album of the year! What sorcery is this? From Salem they must be! WHABAM, Subrosa to save the day.
post punk
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From Japan hail OGRE You Asshole, self professed fans of Modest Mouse, and definitely of their influence. With the wave of post punk music coming out of the far east right now, and with this being their fifth and most satisfying LP yet, OYA have all the right to claim the crown as kings of the Japanese alternative music scene. Homely is the happiest you've ever been in years. It's smooth jazz fused with your dreams and eastern influence - and who could hate that mix? Not me.
#5: 88Kasyo Junrei - SYG88progressive; psychedelic
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I can't understand them, but from what I've seen in those music videos
and that cover, I don't know if I want to. What I do understand is that the music is good. It's experimental, it's psychedelic, it's progressive, it's funky and it's three talented dudes making something we've seen before in format we haven't. It's catchy, it's complicated, it's classic.
#4: Battle of Britain Memorial - The Aftermath of Your Bright Beings
post rock; post hardcore
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This was one of the first albums I found when I started my list in June. BoBM are post rock - they use crescendo as extravagantly as the best of their kind, which, right now, sleepmakeswaves are the guys to go for if you're looking for that sweet crescendcore - and they are hardcore - they scream, they feel, and they make you feel just as the wave bands further stateside have been doing as of late. Aftermath of Your Bright Beings tells a story, and in only six songs it shows more variation than double albums and the longer winded single LP's have all year. Those bands depending entirely on your feelings to get appreciation should take a note from Battle of Britain Memorial.
post hardcore; acoustic
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Defeater are the post hardcore act of the year, and there are varying reasons why. They've got variation in the right sense - each song feels like they're in the same vein, but remain interesting, catchy, and they never depend on one leg to keep up, which was my main strife with La Dispute's Wildlife - but most easily to blame this for might be one of two things: they're move from the genre's big brother, as Defeater were, only just two years ago more screaming and less melody, and because the concept here is rich, and reading the book makes that poured in emotion stab your heart harder.
chamber pop; electronic
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A consistent, filling electronic/singer songwriter/chamber pop album by a master DJ. The songs are atmospheric, they feel natural, they're often a range of emotions without being a range of sounds.
fucking amazing
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Cosmic Birth was the first album released this year that I bought. Actually, for me, Ak Ak hold a lot of "firsts of 2011". For instance, I finally decided to start listening to albums released this year in February, when I saw the alternate cover for the second remixed ("<bmbz>") version, which is basically the same except there is a skull in the center and the tint has been turned entirely green - a really bright green that might hurt your eyes.
The original Cosmic Birth was the first album I heard from 2011, or at least it was the first I heard since I had embarked on my own journey, that of dominating the year's overwhelming amount of releases. At the time I thought the album was very mediocre. Silly Bears just didn't strike the right chord with me, Island bored me so terribly that I had almost completely lost interest, and by the time A AAA O A WAY had finished I had as well, and mostly due to how weird it was to me then.
I changed a lot in the next couple months though, and the only thing that really kept coming back was Shinju. I listened to it so often that it's my second most listened album on my last.fm, and it's only a few plays behind The Bedlam in Goliath.
The real crime here isn't that Ak Ak didn't immediately click with me. I think that's normal. Especially since last February I had only just started really trying with music - I had found pitchfork that passing December, and just in time to watch LCD Soundsystem give their last show. Since then, I've denounced P4K (P$K?) as my least favorite source of musical critique. I also listened to over 300 albums and formed my own opinion, and a well ranged taste. This has been one of the most exhausting years of my life, and not only because of music, but I digress. The real crime I've committed is that I didn't figure out that I actually really liked Shinju until November.
You see, it was around November that I figured that, since the year was nearing an end, I really should ask myself which album was my person of the whole year. It was an extremely difficult question - one I'd been poking around for the last five months - but when I really asked myself, no album seemed as varied, as complete, and as satisfying as The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT. Every listen took a bit out of me, and least of all the breath of fresh air I gaped for each time the album ended. I recall thinking to myself on more than one occasion this year that So It Goes was my favorite The Flaming Lips song - seriously at first, but upon discovery, only jokingly. And I did the same thing with Cast a Net, except for I mistook it for a Fleet Foxes song. I don't know about anyone else, but Fleet Foxes and The Flaming Lips share only one thing in common in my eyes: the letter "F."
When I did finally realize the error of my ways, it sort of hit me that I had connected to these songs without even knowing it. I'd been humming Light Emerges to get myself to sleep at nights, or to get through whatever shitty task I had at hand. Sometimes, I hummed it while listening to other albums, which ended up being one of the signs I've been using all year to tell myself, "this is shitty, what you are listening to right here." Shinju was a huge grower, it took too many listens to properly count to really appreciate, but when I did it was sort of a punch in the face, and the palm was full of stubborn gratitude. Things really made sense. As much sense as Akron/Family don't make, things made sense.
And now that I've closed 2011, let me take a quick look forward, to 2012. I'm already terribly excited for Foxy Shazam's newest album, The Church of Rock and Roll, which releases the 24th of January I think. mewithoutYou have announced recently that they're in the studio recording LP5. I've also been basically freaking out about a new The Mars Volta release for the past four months or so, and am patiently awaiting it's release. I've no good reason to, but I also have the strangest suspicion that Infected Mushroom, HORSE the band and The Hives will make moves next year. As of right now Kayo Dot's newest release Gamma Knife hasn't released - it was supposed to have released somewhere near Christmas day, so I've decided it will be the first release on my 2012 list - but from what Toby Driver has been saying, I've gotten the impression that he's excited to make more frequent releases, if smaller, which means I can hopefully expect a new release from him in the next year, which is great, because everything Driver touches seems to turn to gold. Coyote was my album of the year in 2010, in fact. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of other bands that will have great releases next year, and even though I'm excited, I'm also a bit sad to close 2011 down. It feels like I'll have to sort of forget all of these amazing albums. I know I won't of course. It's just that everyone remembers their first time.
~flyingtraps
