Albums of the Year 2011

Here are my ten of 2011, in reverse order.


10. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (4AD)
With her third album Annie Clark made her most accessible work yet. Its vocal hooks are displayed prominently above its often dance-ready layers that for the most part bury Ms Clark's renowned guitar work. The curated sonic textures that make up Strange Mercy are what we thought 2011 would sound like in 2001. The guitars are primarily textural complements and when they're used for melody on songs like "Cruel," they don't sound much like guitars. That's not all bad though, as Strange Mercy is likely to be the album that brings St. Vincent to many larger audiences than ever before. But just as The Suburbs showed last year, the easy listening qualities often aren't rewarded by passing time.



9. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)
Of all the the music released in 2011 this was probably the most ambitious. Saturdays=Youth was already an album of cohesive songs and themes, so when Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was bigger and deeper it was a surprise that it didn't lose any coherence. From ecstatic "Midnight City" to crestfallen "Splendor", Anthony Gonzales covers an amazing amount of ground. This wouldn't be possible without choirs, symphonies and guest vocalists, but somehow M83 went huge without going over the top.



8. James Blake - James Blake (Universal)
Because Blake's EP's, CMYK and Klavierwerke, were so strong, his full-length debut is more of an achievement award than a groundbreaking recording. That's unfortunately because somehow, he more successfully combined R&B and dubstep in these preceding EP's. Regardless, James Blake the album is still an important experience in sound and space that is already influential.



7. Radiohead - The King of Limbs (Ticker Tape Ltd.)
For such a beautiful album of rhythms and melodies, The King of Limbs managed to disappoint just about every Radiohead fan out there, even In Rainbows ones. Fans were angry about its brevity, which is a problem to me because TKOL feels like an EP rather than album of cohesive songs. Of all the Radiohead albums, none of them rock me to sleep like this one does and I find myself saying the unthinkable about a Radiohead release: why are the parts greater than the whole?



6. Austra - Feel it Break (Domino)
For a genre that immediately recalls high school, black fingernails and dark mascara, Austra somehow made "goth" accessible in Feel It Break. Whether Austra really fits the goth pop category, or if that actually means anything, is a different issue. It seems however that "goth" is most likely a button on a synthesizer. On Feel it Break nearly every sound seems synthetic, to the point of making the harmonies sound like just another programmable button. The background vocals of "Beat and the Pulse" sink into the mix so deep that you forget that they are an opera singer's warmup exercise. And this is actually the success of the album; the layers meld together into an atmosphere of dark, scary sounds that combine to make something you may actually want to dance to.



5. Wilco - The Whole Love (dBpm)
Of the established bands releasing albums this year, I did not expect Wilco to make the best. I have always known them retroactively. Their success story of defeating big music labels to self-release one of the best-received albums of the last decade has endeared them in ways that the radio couldn't. The Whole Love is good because it feels like an album in the way that few bands can do, or even attempt. The seven-minute opening track, "Art of Almost" starts in Jeff Tweedy's welcome voice and ends with screeching a guitar solo; the blasting finish makes the pretty hooks and happy harmonies of "I Might" even more endearing. And those are just the first two songs of an album that is full of sonic and emotional contrasts.



4. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch The Throne (Roc-A-Fella)
The 21st century's inevitable collaboration does not disappoint. If it feels like it's more Jay-Z than Kanye, you should recognize that it easily defeats every one of his albums since The Black Album, mostly due to Kanye's premier production chops on 12 of the album's 16 tracks. It lands a few major singles, one of which gave the world two brand new expressions "That shit cray" and "Ball so hard," and led to innumerable car dance drive-by's in Brooklyn (I saw two). The criticism of Watch The Throne isn't that it let anyone down, because it's just as big and full of one-liners as it should be.



3. Still Corners - Creatures Of An Hour (Sub Pop)
Still Corners was introduced to me as a band picking up where Broadcast left off. In a few ways this seems to be true. The ambient textures are similar and more importantly, the sense of discord is quite aptly reproduced throughout Creatures of an Hour. The vocals are sung coolly and feel fragile; a delivery that perfectly mimics singer, Tessa Murray's live performance. "Circulars" is driven by a four-note loop until the guitars and synthesizers close in claustrophobically. Even with such a cheery title, "Endless Summer" is darkened by the constant pounding of just a couple bass notes. Murray sings in a hush as if she were a frightened Alice, an appropriate character for the quiet, dystopian atmosphere of Creatures of an Hour.



2. Widowspeak - Widowspeak (Captured Tracks)
Like a book that you only need to read a page of in order to know it's good, Widowspeak is an album from a band that has found its sound. Before you even hear its great melodies and buried hooks, you hear a gentle voice and a band that uses warm guitars romantically. It could have turned out as another lo-fi, soft-rock album written around 60's vocals, but it didn't. Widowspeak's beatuy is in its details not in its layers, urgent drums and an unforgettable voice.



1. Wye Oak - Civilian (Merge)
"Lyrically, Civilian can be simultaneously pitch-black and soaringly hopeful; musically, it’s equally adept at punching and soothing." -- AV Club

Civilian somehow manages to be both of everything. It's strong but gentle in the same song. Guitars on "Holy Holy" rush in and out like crashing waves on a December beach. The title track wades in contented melodies until an angry guitar smashes through. Throughout, Jenn Wasner's deep voice anchors; a squall in Civilian's storms and a hush in its lulls. Where others add symphonies and layers of synthesizers, Wye Oak manages to describe an entire world with only agile songwriting and a guitar.