2011 In Music

At the start of 2011, I Wiki’d every band I like and determined that this would be a great year for music. It was, but not like I expected. Lots of bands that I love put out albums this year, but a lot of those albums weren’t very good. On the other hand, a bunch of bands that aren’t my favorites put out excellent albums that might turn them into my favorites. 

A lot of the year’s albums I haven’t had time to listen to, partly because I was busy this year discovering a whole plethora of new bands, and also because I did the whole wiki thing again at the end of the year to round up all of the many albums I’d missed or skipped. 

I’m gonna break this post into sections. First is the “Albums I had a chance to listen to a lot” section, further broken into “Albums that rocked” and “albums that sucked.” Second is the “Albums I haven’t heard enough” section, also broken into rocked and sucked subsections. 

Albums I Had A Chance To Listen To A Lot

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Albums That Rocked

1. “To August 32nd” by Shinsei Kamatte-chan - Thanks to the Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko OP, I discovered Shinsei Kamatte-chan this year, and they quickly became my favorite band in existence. They had three albums already, all of which came out just last year, and I’d listened to them just enough that To August 32nd still felt like “fresh material” instead of being lumped into a mass of new things I was discovering. At first, I was a tad disappointed that the album contains three alt-versions of existing songs that aren’t as good as the originals. Then I got over it, because there are seven fucking amazing new tracks, several of which are among the best in the band’s discography. 

To August 32nd is an amazingly uplifting album. Shinsei Kamatte-chan is always very emotional and energetic music, and the new tracks all reach the emotional highs that characterize their best work. When one of these songs comes on my car playlist, I find myself excited and feeling satisfied with life in general.

Favorite Song: “僕は頑張るよっ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zw3YhTmjB8

2. “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” by M83 - I’ve liked M83’s other albums, but this one blew them all away. It took the 80s pop influence seen on Saturdays=Youth and perfected it, took the shoegazey sound they’ve always been known for and perfected it, and still found time to be chock full of songs that sound like nothing else they’ve done before or anything else I’ve heard. (Helps that there’s 28 goddamn songs!) This is shoegaze that doesn’t just sit around staring at its shoes but gets up and runs (excuse my corny magazine analogy). 

It’s hard to pick a favorite song here—rather, I’d pick one of each “type.” “Midnight City” or “OK Pal” for the pop hits, “Wait” for the shoegazing, and “Raconte-moi une historie” for the truly unique and dreamlike stuff. For sake of ease, here’s the one with a music video.

Favorite Song: “Midnight City” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3k_QDnzHE

3. “Turtleneck & Chain” by The Lonely Island - Not since Tenacious D has joke music been this listenable, and the D never had this level of production values and such a smorgasbord of excellent guest stars. The Lonely Island’s first album had a few great tracks along with a lot of really dumb bullshit. On Turtleneck & Chain the fraction is reversed, with just a couple of songs I deleted from the nineteen-track playlist. I expected to get sick of this album once the jokes stopped being funny, but so many tracks are so well put-together that I don’t get sick of even some stupider ones. 

And even then, there are a number of simply genius tracks. We’re Back, Rocky, Trouble On Dookie Island, Motherlover, and After Party are all songs I can blast all day long, all night strong. In terms of stand-alone tracks, this album has the biggest percentage of my favorite songs of 2011.

Favorite Song: “Trouble On Dookie Island” 

4. “The Color Spectrum EPs” by The Dear Hunter - Nine EPs, four songs apiece, means way more than I had time to fully take in this year. The Color Spectum EPs are sorta hit-and-miss, but there’s a lot of room for misses among 36 god damn songs. It’s a good thing I did get to listen to them a bit, though, or else I’d have been totally lost at their show that I drove way out of town to see. 

Favorite Song: “Misplaced Devotion (Yellow)” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSv5v-3n4rs

5. “Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light” by Earth - I hadn’t even heard this album until I started gathering materials for this post, but I listened to it five or six times in a row and am already prepared to list it here. Earth practically fathered the drone genre of metal, yet this album is neither metal nor drone. However, it still carries that feeling, with the long, repetitive, strangely soothing songs. It reminds me a lot of Boris’ Flood album, but it’s more listenable than that.

Favorite Song: “Old Black” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb-3eBlv_qE

6. “Tiurida” by Falkenbach - It would be quite forgivable if someone couldn’t tell any two Falkenbach albums apart, being as their sound is… well, we’ll say consistent. But Tiurida is subtly different from their other albums, mostly in that it feels a lot more upbeat, perhaps breaking a little farther from the black metal roots of the viking metal genre. 

Favorite Song: “Where His Ravens Fly…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJJGmRQXBc

7. “Phoenix Rising” by Galneryus - My first impression of Phoenix Rising was that it sounds almost exactly like last year’s Resurrection. But that’s not really a problem, right? Resurrection was my favorite power metal album of all time, so for me to dislike Phoenix Rising, it would need be an inferior product. It is not: as of yet, I’d consider it on par for excellence with its predecessor, though I’ve yet to listen to it enough to decide if it should share in the title of my favorite power metal album. 

Favorite Song: I don’t have one just yet.

8. “Dawnbearer” by Hexvessel - I found this band by chance on Metal-Archives, despite their being in no way metal, but rather described as “psychedelic folk.” The album treads between movie soundtrack-style songs and more catchy folk tunes, all with a definitive air of mystery and intrigue about it. It’s like everything I love about soundtracks, but actually listenable because some of the songs have vocals. Also notable for totally putting me in the mindset of being in the Undead home country in World of Warcraft.

Favorite Song: “The Death Knell Tolls” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AurdzCumxdg

9. “Simple Math” by Manchester Orchestra - I’d never heard of Manchester Orchestra until they had The Dear Hunter on their tour, but I quickly found a lot to like in Simple Math. There are slower songs on here that I don’t care about, but there’s also a bunch of rockin and heavy songs I adore. “Pensacola” and “Virgin” are both songs I’ve been blasting on repeat.

Favorite Song: “Pensacola” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtuNnEAaV2o&feature=fvst

10. “The Hunter” by Mastodon - The Hunter is probably my least favorite of the last four Mastodon albums to come out, and there are some songs on there that I outright don’t care for, but there’s also a good amount of cool fucking badass and awesome songs which were an absolute blast(eroid) to see live. 

Favorite Song: “Creature Lives” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxALZkrAIIE

Albums That Sucked

1. “New Album” and “Attention Please” by Boris - Boris released four albums in 2011, and none of them were very good. The new “Heavy Rocks” is just okay, and “Klatter” isn’t even as good as other BorisXMerzbow collaborations, but “New Album” and “Attention Please” are just terrible. I think Boris was trying to subvert their sound with these albums which are determined to be quiet, a little bit cleaner, and more catchy than their other songs, but it didn’t work out at all. This sound does nothing for me.

2. “The Great Escape Artist” by Jane’s Addiction - I only listened to this album once, and it was utterly terrible. I was never a fan of 2003’s Strays, but at least that was an album I could recognize as good. The Great Escape Artist is shit. Every song plods along at the same mid-tempo four/five minute boring pace, and it all melts together into a big sigh of boredom. 

3. “I’m With You” by Red Hot Chili Peppers - I remember reading once that RHCP had made enough tracks for Stadium Arcadium to be a triple album and had to cut a bunch off. I’m With You sounds like the Stadium Arcadium rejects, only even less exciting because the new guitarist has no presence whatsoever. I hope John Fruciante does some cool stuff on his own to make up for it.

Albums I Haven’t Heard Enough (Shortlisted)

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Albums That Rocked?

1. “Sonic Mass” by Amebix
2. “Surtur Rising” by Amon Amarth
3. “The Party All God Damn Night EP” by Andrew WK
4. “Decompositions Vol. 1 Chapter 1. Rites of Initiation” by Circle Takes The Square
5. “Carbon-Based Anatomy” by Cynic
6. “Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy” by Dredg
7. “Hisingen Blues” by Graveyard
8. “Spiritual State” by Nujabes
9. “Heritage” by Opeth
10. “Onwards to the Wall” by A Place To Bury Strangers
11. “In the Mountains, In the Clouds” by Portugal. The Man
12. “Redeption at the Puritan’s Hands” by Primordial
13. “Svartir Sandar” by Solstafir
14. “Nine Types of Light” by TV On the Radio
15. “Blood Lust” by Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
16. “D” by White Denim
17. “Celestial Lineage” by Wolves in the Throne Room

Albums That Sucked?

1. “In the Pit of the Stomach” by We Were Promised Jetpacks