Best albums of 2011

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

I looked a couple pages back and saw no best of 2011 thread, so here goes:

CSS album

can't help it, I really like most of it and its far better then anything I expected from her

I wonder if anybody here even knows who she is?

-well, there are my 8 for 2011
what about yours?

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

Lolz just kidding

really digging that Girl With The Dragon Tattoo soundtrack.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

Wow, I posted this thread on a site to another artist* and got way more responses to it. However, in doing so, I realized the 2 over sights to my list:

can't believe I left of this one off, its in my top 3 for this year for sure, go listen to it now!
& one that just missed my top 8:

look, overcoming the fact that I wanna do her, I really like a lot of her songs, you might too

*this could be because the artist in question has a younger fan base than Moz, you know, people that have actually listened to 10(or more) NEW albums this year, unlike many here...

 

[Worm]

I think the problem, Robby, is that many fans don't listen to albums anymore. I can't recall too many I play, back to front, even from "the olden days" of classic albums. If I had to pick the tops of 2011, I guess I'd go with Tune-Yards, Gang Gang Dance, The Wild Swans, and maybe Destroyer and Metronomy. I don't feel strongly about any of those as albums, per se. Lots of good tracks from those groups and many others, though.

 

[Peterb]

I think the problem, Robby, is that many fans don't listen to albums anymore. I can't recall too many I play, back to front, even from "the olden days" of classic albums. If I had to pick the tops of 2011, I guess I'd go with Tune-Yards, Gang Gang Dance, The Wild Swans, and maybe Destroyer and Metronomy. I don't feel strongly about any of those as albums, per se. Lots of good tracks from those groups and many others, though.

Worm, I believe you are correct about people not listening to albums, they now listen to lists of their favourite songs. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I think this is a bad thing. I compare it to watching a film on the telly as opposed to the cinema. In both cases, the piece that you are listening to or watching has power over you. At the cinema you have to shut up and stay where you are, the film will not stop for you to pop out for a cup of tea, in a sense, it demands your respect. Same with an album, you have bought 12 songs and you have to listen to them all, and if there are some you don't like first listen, you are constrained to give it another go (how many songs have you learned to like after repeated plays?). With lists, you get the songs you like with no need to make the effort where the song may demand it.
I don't like dissing modern innovations ("things were better in my day!") but I think the album (and the cinema experience) are good things that deserve to endure and not be eclipsed by the iPod list and home cinema.

 

[Worm]

Worm, I believe you are correct about people not listening to albums, they now listen to lists of their favourite songs. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I think this is a bad thing. I compare it to watching a film on the telly as opposed to the cinema. In both cases, the piece that you are listening to or watching has power over you. At the cinema you have to shut up and stay where you are, the film will not stop for you to pop out for a cup of tea, in a sense, it demands your respect. Same with an album, you have bought 12 songs and you have to listen to them all, and if there are some you don't like first listen, you are constrained to give it another go (how many songs have you learned to like after repeated plays?). With lists, you get the songs you like with no need to make the effort where the song may demand it.
I don't like dissing modern innovations ("things were better in my day!") but I think the album (and the cinema experience) are good things that deserve to endure and not be eclipsed by the iPod list and home cinema.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I would only add that many newer artists are not adept at programming full albums, because at this point our listening habits are also reflected in the artists' arrangements of their work. Not as much thought seems to be going into albums qua albums. They know listeners are listening to tracks moreso than whole albums. So it's not just the listeners who are changing.

 

[Peterb]

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I would only add that many newer artists are not adept at programming full albums, because at this point our listening habits are also reflected in the artists' arrangements of their work. Not as much thought seems to be going into albums qua albums. They know listeners are listening to tracks moreso than whole albums. So it's not just the listeners who are changing.

Yeah, I'd go along with that.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

well, yeah, I have a confession to make, some of the albums I have listened to "in their entirety" only 3 times, others a lot more than that
thats why this list is really a composite of about half albums I have played a lot of, and half that I have played a few songs off of a bunch of times

 

[Worm]

well, yeah, I have a confession to make, some of the albums I have listened to "in their entirety" only 3 times, others a lot more than that
thats why this list is really a composite of about half albums I have played a lot of, and half that I have played a few songs off of a bunch of times

Ah-ha!

Actually, I figured you'd listened to half of them, and just stared at the covers of the others...

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

Ah-ha!

Actually, I figured you'd listened to half of them, and just stared at the covers of the others...

well, I do watch a lot of some of them on youtube, does that count?

ps: just noticed that 90% of the albums I posted are by female vocalists, I believe this to be not entirely an accurate portrayal of my listening tastes, since I listen to Moz/Smiths, APB & Cebo more than anyone else. However, they had no 2011 albums..

 

[Emil]

I haven't listened to many albums released last year but I suppose I can list those that I have. Top three would be:

1. Let England Shake by P J Harvey
2. Apocalypse by Bill Callahan
3. Wounded Rhymes by Lykke Li

I've also listened to:

Metals by Feist
Believers by A A Bondy
Father, Son, Holy Ghost by Girls
50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush

 

[still ill life]

Write About Love by Belle and Sebastian

That one is from 2010 though.

 

[Urban the swede]

That one is from 2010 though.

Uh huh, and they are B&S for short and that could well stand for bullshit in this case.

Most political correct album cover of 2011:

Deportees from Sweden with a muslim woman from Somalia.

 

[Emil]

That one is from 2010 though.

Oops, my bad.

 

[Qvist]

For me, it's

Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (can't resist the close harmony takeoffs, it's like singing in a choir)
Kate Bush: 50 words for snow (fully her best effort since Hounds of Love)
Austra: Feel it Break (OK so it's rather retro, but it's my kind of harmonies and her voice is so great)
Destroyer: Kaputt (There is something morrisseyesque there)
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 (the sort of minimalism that seems to have a direct line to the musical enjoyment centres of what passes for my brain)
Mogwai: Hardcore will never die, but you will (arguably one of their best albums. And the album title is in their very best tradition of piss-taking directed at their own genre, in which other bands think nothing of naming albums He has left us, but sometimes a shaft of light graces the corner of our rooms)

Hm, it's not every year half of your top six is Canadian.

 

[Ms Valerie Gina]

I totally agree with Destroyer - Kaputt! It's a great album. I haven't gotten tired of it yet.
Also,
Class Actress - Rapproacher
Real Estate - Days
Gauntlet Hair -s/t
Rihanna - Talk That Talk omg this album is so good! Nothing else can get me going at the gym or on running path quite like this album LOL

Your thoughts?

 

[Qvist]

I thought Real Estate and Gauntlet Hair were OK, the last two are sort of outside my field of enquiry.

 

[Peterb]

For me, it's

Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (can't resist the close harmony takeoffs, it's like singing in a choir)
Kate Bush: 50 words for snow (fully her best effort since Hounds of Love)
Austra: Feel it Break (OK so it's rather retro, but it's my kind of harmonies and her voice is so great)
Destroyer: Kaputt (There is something morrisseyesque there)
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 (the sort of minimalism that seems to have a direct line to the musical enjoyment centres of what passes for my brain)
Mogwai: Hardcore will never die, but you will (arguably one of their best albums. And the album title is in their very best tradition of piss-taking directed at their own genre, in which other bands think nothing of naming albums He has left us, but sometimes a shaft of light graces the corner of our rooms)

Hm, it's not every year half of your top six is Canadian.

Hey Qvist, how are you?
I bought the Kate Bush album shortly before Xmas. Now, I like 'The Kate' but this album I did not get on with. But you like it? Maybe I should persist and give it a few more listens.
Did you like Aerial?

 

[Worm]

I wonder if anybody here even knows who she is?

Ramona Flowers?