For someone to compose this masterpiece in only 28 days… that alone deserves to be number one. To do it for NPR’s RPM Challenge and then not get end of the year recognition, especially from them, is MADNESS!!!! Absolute madness. I was knocked out when I first listened to the album’s teaser – the song samples, only lasting a few seconds, were enough to obsess about. I was dying to hear the complete version of what promised to show this haunting artist’s genius and complexity in a lustrous new light – his edgy side unhinged through an opulent, saga-like sound. The electronic mad scientist I would often see on stage – unplugged from reality and rocking the fuck out – is finally on record. The detail of his vision and the intensity of his execution are honestly otherworldly. Track by track, the album surges through raw emotion, with most songs being bright enough to get you moving. On “Let Go,” I can feel the anxious, manic energy of Son Lux’s demand for perfection – scrambling to piece everything together in time. “Rebuild” is the best song he has created yet and ends the record on a note of “wait until you see what’s next!”
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Sunlight peeking through clouds and casting shadows, watery shores, bare skin, and floating in in the middle of nowhere – the music of Washed Out belongs in the movie The Beach. Its refreshing, alleviating quality makes it a put-on-at-anytime album. A calming sleeping aid, sexy mood music, neutral morning tunes, a palette cleanser – whatever it is, it plays its role perfectly. It can appear non-confrontational or even unnoticeable at first, but its romantic, sultry ways evoke the feeling of Duran Duran’s “Come Undone,” and will sweep you off your feet. Whenever “Far Away” comes on, I think, this is an album to make love to. PS – Get the bonus tracks for the record, they are phenomenal.
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Thinking about how awesome The Raveonettes are pisses me off because they never get the credit they deserve. The duo creates such alluring music together and their voices have serious soul-melting power.
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I didn’t love this album as much as I do now until I saw it unwind live through an absolutely hypnotic performance. After the success of
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I only just listened to Future Island’s 2010
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Yet another band I can’t believe I hadn’t heard until this year! The reason I checked them out was because a friend told me that at times they sounded like Radiohead fronted by Lauryn Hill. I love Little Dragon for not having a one-track style, even within a single song – and overall, for being quirky and tons of fun. Their musical formula is noticeably deviating – like someone recorded their jam sessions, but somehow its all spot-on and completely organized in its own way. The songs have made me stop in my tracks and pay attention to what’s happening within them. Yukimi Nagano has become one of my favorite female vocalists – she never compromises her vocal style for the music, but she will take herself to a different level to enhance a song. I feel like Janelle Monae can be overload – as she is all over the place with her musical identity – but Yukimi is consistent about branding her unique Swedish-Japanese vocal chords. You have to hear Little Dragon’s Daytrotter Session – it’s SO good!
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First off, “Coastal Brake” is mind blowing. Five minutes and thirty-five seconds of electronic perfection – and easily, one of my favorite songs ever made. I have spent many nights laying in the dark and taking in the magnificence of every instrumental track. Tycho makes music that sounds crisp, sunny, and delicate. He offers an intelligent perspective to the genre with being meticulously conscious of his craft – and making his deep artistic understanding apparent, in sound and in graphic design. Fans of Boards of Canada will be fans of Tycho – and he’ll leave you breathless.
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This is the album that I danced the most to in 2011. It’s so ironic when you compare it to her first album, which one could literally fall asleep to. Made only two years apart, her two records are worlds apart –
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The wild card on my list (as there should always be one). Much like The Knife’s
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My 2011 equivalent to Digitalism’s 2007 album
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Long before acts like Joanna Newsom came along, there was PJ Harvey with her magical songwriting. She has always set herself apart as a singer and a musician, and it’s amazing to see her tale telling only become stronger. The layout of this record draws out a world of fantasy and rebellion. It’s placed in the past but holds a place in the future; it gives old characteristics a fresh polish. Maybe it’s just PJ’s voice, but I’ve felt that parts of the album sound like The Knife if they ceased the electro and got folky on us. The album glistens and bruises with its triumphant tone, exposing an entirely new skin for PJ and rearranging the bookmark on her career – with the story being far from over.
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This album has a distinct sense of self to it. Immediately, it did not feel like the norm for Feist – as though she is now creating freely and doing what she wants without regard. It’s full of ups and downs and there seems to be more edge to her music now. It certainly doesn’t sound as hopeful as anything she’s put out before – melancholy, in a Cat Power kind of way. There is no true catchy, pop nature to the record, so the newfound darkness is what drew me in to listen to certain songs over and over again. This mixture of bold, big sound with her usually lovely voice and sweet song leaves a satisfying record, and a great return for Leslie Feist!
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Minimalistic, repetitious prog electronica has never sounded so good! The well-crafted loops and winding microbeats give a stimulating radiance to the album. The subtleties are really beautiful and when songs reach their full momentum, the patient buildup quickly turns into a thrilling pay off. This album can wind you down or hype you up – either way, you will find yourself zoned out, in an almost drug-like state, which can get as mystic or transcendent as you will allow.
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Working as a showcase of sorts for his twenty-year career, the way a “best of” or retrospective album would – this record is the most interesting yet from Buck 65. The many hats he wears as an artist is reflected in this contrasting collection of new songs. Yet, you find that he hasn’t put the emphasis of this album on himself – but on the variety of vocalists he’s featured to command the tracks. Buck set out to pay more attention to choruses and concentrate on writing songs, in the most beautiful way he can – keeping in mind that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. You either get how he sees things, or you don’t. For me, he is truly the definition of extraordinary – and he is the one guy that can successfully pull off anything and everything. Sometimes, the artists that you respect the most become the ones that you analyze the least – it’s the feeling that they give you which you can take away that matters most.
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Alias is the man. But he has always been the man, so this is nothing new. He has come from being a solid rapper, to focusing on his beat style, to concentrating on his music’s ambiance, and finding a balance in using vocal collaborations to brand his creative outlook. This album encompasses his strengths and shows off how much he has mastered, presenting us with a straightforward and more powerful Alias. The tone of the album is more upbeat than ever – perhaps because he has recently become a father for the first time – and has more soul than anything he’s ever produced. I love the late 80’s and early 90’s hip-hop/r&b feel to the songs. The album is simply so sick.
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For a long time, I didn’t want to fall into the hype and straight out refused to give him the time of day. “The Wilhelm Scream” honestly bored me at first, and I did not anticipate the rest of the album to be any better. Late into the year, I was finally convinced into giving it just one listen – and damn it, I loved it right away! Blake’s way of delivering lyrics and snagging them onto what sound like defected layers of music becomes an engaging listening experience. I find the album to be very heartfelt – putting many moody references and sensual sensations on the table. Many of his lines grab a hold of me – my favorite being,
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The Handsome Furs are more direct in their dance-oriented, explosively fun sound on this album. I find myself singing along to every song, thinking, “FUCK YEAH, HANDSOME FURS!” The tracks burst into one another and are progressive and uplifting – even when the lyrics are not. I want to believe that the electrifying energy behind this husband and wife duo’s strongly bonded musical chemistry reflects the happiness in their marriage and the unity of their wild personalities. They rock the shit out of the many colorful noises found on
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I love you, Björk! I am not yet sure where this album stands within her discography for me yet, but I am very, very happy with it. “Crystalline” has to be one of her best EVER songs to date! She encompasses the kind of genius that the world has yet to understand. Within that, she also consistently outdoes herself and
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I honestly tried to avoid putting this on my top because I felt that it would come off as predictable – like it was some necessity to give a RH album praise if they released one – so their place on this list has nothing to do with being relevant or my years of loving them. It’s a fantastic album, fit for these dub-heavy times, and I found myself going back to it often! Many people think it was a change of direction – and even though it is a bit more glitchy and maybe not as relatable as some of their material, it’s still very Radiohead.
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Moby finally made the perfect Moby album. I feel like this album is what long time fans have been hoping for, because it is concentrated with the things we love most about him. If you’ve never really cared for Moby or even if you straight up don’t like him, you need to give this album a chance. It’s breathtaking in its beauty and epic in its electronics. The music of
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I feel guilty about giving this album any recognition. Daft Punk was reportedly very unhappy about its release – which is entirely understandable. It definitely is fucked up that they had no say in who would be remixing their original work, especially considering it was to be an official release, sold commercially, and would be successful (or at the very least receive a ton of interest.) Still, I enjoyed the shit out of the record. Many of my favorite electro/dance artists – The Glitch Mob, Boys Noize, Com Truise, M83, etc – played their part on the album and played it very well. The songs are insanely bangin’ to begin with, but we all know that any Daft Punk song is the perfect canvas for a remix. I feel that these artists just stepped it up and amped up the techno spirit, giving their take on what the original material would have been, if it wasn’t limited to being a movie score.
