15 Things from 2011

As I mentioned before, I wasn't entirely enraptured by 2011's music. Quite a few high-profile releases came and went (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes) and several solid releases from other excellent acts did likewise. I guess I'm just feeling particularly obstinate in my lukewarmness. Many of my favorite things from last year where discoveries of noticeably older acts -- a forthcoming list. For some odd reason, my appreciation for music often devolves into singles-infatuation rather than concrete albums. While I still believe, or at least assert, that a release should be considered in its whole, some reptilian vestige in my brain continues to be fixated with little snatches of tunes here and there. Several of my favorites from 2011 ended up overshadowing their home albums. A common theme you'll probably notice is "I don't recall anything from Album x except this track 'y'". Given this unfortunate tendency, I'll focus on tracks alone, despite some legitimately enjoyable full experiences.

I've wasted enough paragraph as it is. Begin!

15) Danger Mouse/Daniele Luppi/Jack White/Norah Jones -- "The Rose With a Broken Neck"/"Black"
I'm a mild fan of both Danger Mouse and Jack White's body of work, so I was fairly excited to get Rome in the mail. Despite some middling reviews, the neo-Spaghetti Western theme held my attention fairly well, even if the "soundtrack" angle was a tad underplayed. The grime and gravitas of, say, a Leone picture doesn't translate through the decidedly polished sounds of Burton and Luppi. However, both men are excellent at crafting a track, and Jones and White are still no slouches in performance.





14) overlord -- "Battle Hymn of the Romantic"
One of the more obscure acts I discovered last year, overlord is a fairly innocuous, if oddly-named, band  from Brooklyn. In Soviet Russia, My Heart Breaks You had a nice bouncy, pleasant sound that was quite appealing initially. However, the album wasn't that long-lived in my mental jukebox, with the exception of the second track. "Battle Hymn of the Romantic would be my choice for the highlight -- a straightforward, bright single with just enough complexity to find a niche in the brain.



13) Man Man -- "Piranhas Club"
Man Man is known for their frantically energetic live shows and this track from Life Fantastic certainly displays that weird sensibility. Piranhas Club is an odd mixture of upbeat lunacy and laid back, instrumental cool. Just reading that sentence doesn't make a lot sense, but to be fair, this band demands that. Tear his limbs off!



12) Pepper Rabbit -- "Rose Mary Stretch"
I was able to catch Pepper Rabbit at CMJ. Unfortunately, it was to be their last show, as they broke up in December. On the bright side, they put on the best show during that week. "Rose Mary Stretch" is a good encapsulation of their aesthetic. It's lightweight and drifting, but there's an odd power underlying the notes. The volume at their final show made them uncharacteristically loud, which brought out this power in full force.



11) Smoove & Turrell -- "Slow Down"
This is a bit of an odd choice, at I'm usually not one for Soul-ish music. Coupled that with my first impression, which regarded the two as a sort of regressive equivalent to Gnarls Barkley. After a few listens, my opinions shifted. While less *now* than Burton and Green, S&T are undeniably talented in what they do. A lot of energy and enough sense to point that in a meaningful direction never hurt anybody.



10) Battles -- "My Machines"
Gloss Drop proved to be a good display of the band's elasticity. Bereft of their founding guitarist/sometime frontman Tyondai Braxton, Battles made an admirable show of finding a stride that could have easily been missed. Bringing in a host of guest musicians, Battles went a somewhat lighter approach, but still maintained their art/math rock enthusiasm. My initial favorite was the Adult Swim-plasterer "Ice Cream". On repeated listens though, the Gary Numan-fronted "My Machines" grew on me. The slightly dark edge is a nice counterbalance to the hyperkinetic sound that permeates the rest of the album. Another point in its favor is the spatially ambiguous music video:



09) Decemberists -- "This Is Why We Fight"
Moving in rather Country-esque direction, The Decemberists' The King is Dead and followup EPs were a good entry point for what had previously been near-ignored in my genre territory. The hyper-earnest "This Is Why We Fight might have been too affected to get my full enthusiasm, but regardless, I'm still enjoying the song a year later.



08) M83 -- "Midnight City"
This album spent a good month and a half on top of my college station's charts. Let me be one of many who will defend those weeks as deserved. M83's cleaned-up chillwave act is not anything particularly unique, but it held a lot of appeal for those new to the sound or jaded by its predecessor acts. The dreamlike themes added a lot of punch in the nostalgia department, which helped ensure Hurry Up, We're Dreaming's continued place in the consciousness.



07) Movits! -- "Sammy Davis Jr."
I believe I have Colbert to thank for raising this Swedish act's profile enough to merit the station finding this gem. To be fair, I shouldn't downplay the group's raw appeal. Part of the fun in hearing swing-inspired, Swedish hip hop is self-explanatory. "Sammy Davis Jr." also has a cool, skittering organ riff and saxophone solo done right. Not much to the band beyond the fun, but do you need to ask for more?



06) The Vaccines -- "Wolf Pack"/"Norgaard"/et al
The Vaccines, on my peripheral knowledge since 2010, had a fairly sold debut last year. The British old-school Rock and Roll aesthetic was a shot in the arm (forgive the necessary pun) after efforts from the Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes had failed to reach me. The exuberant style --almost neo-surf at many points -- benefited from truncated lengths. Hearing lightweight songs about sex and drugs doesn't work all that well when the sound is sludgy and overlong *coughSuckItandSeecough*. It's good to see a band use that knowledge to their advantage.





05) John Maus -- "Believer"
The bedroom aesthetic might have been in full force last year, but John Maus was able to remain mentally relevant enough to ensure his place on the list. The polished lo-fi approach to electronica was oddly unsettling in the first few listens, but something about We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves became compelling enough to reverberate in my subconscious. I've brought up this album in numerous other posts, but it still gives me enough enjoyment to merit inclusion.



04) Memory Tapes -- "Yes I Know"
 Another chillwave-esque release, Player Piano got a far more tepid reception than it deserved. While a lot of critics compared it unfavorably to Memory Tapes' (admittedly stronger) preceding album, I found it to be a fairly solid midsummer entry. "Yes I Know", a cold, mournful track, was the highlight. It probably won't be a decade highlight, but it's more than enough keep me excited to receive Dayve Hawk's next album.



03) Okkervil River -- "Rider"
Okkervil River is one of those bands that I'm comfortable name-dropping, but for some reason, never quite took hold in my head. Whenever listening to them, the tend to just whisk away without leaving a clear memory. "Rider" is a notable exception to this trend. Frontman Will Sheff introduced the song as "It's like the kind of lullaby that you sing to your kid after you've been out sort of galloping across a great swath of a continent just like, burning down villages and killing people". Not sure how well that holds, but the pounding keyboards and percussion react with some fantastic imagery. I guess that's pretty close to Attila.



02) Princess Chelsea -- "Cigarette Duet"
Continuing my impression that every band birthed from New Zealand is a force for good, Princess Chelsea had a pretty strong reaction at the station. After hearing nothing but praise from my boss, I checked out "Cigarette Duet" and was hooked. I'm a sucker for a good (almost) organ riff, but also ambivalent about the whole twee aesthetic. Somehow, the cutesy angle gets relayed into some odd, slightly twisted songs. I realize that sort of juxtaposition is hardly unique, but Princess Chelsea does a fantastic job adding another twist to the unsettling child-adult circus mashup.



01) Tycho -- Dive
This is the only entry I'm completely given to endorse as a complete album. Tycho's mellow chillout electronica was a welcome addition to the end of a long year, and I fell for it very quickly. The synths instantly evoke the dusty lines and heady intoxication of a dream ever better than M83 or any of the chillwave acts from this year. I don't have any complaints about this release. It's probably not for everyone, but anyone remotely interested in soundscapes or IDM will find something to love in Dive.