The Best of 2011
Some will look back on the music of 2011 and bemoan its lack of true greatness, its apparent inability to speak for the turbulent, revolutionary times it represented. This was a year of remarkable worldwide upheaval and while some artists like PJ Harvey and Merril Garbus delivered fiercely political sentiments disguised as pop music, the consensus seems to be that today's art fails to imitate today's life. Rather than a glut of angry or cynical reactionary records, there was an abundance of truly beautiful albums released this yea; simple, unfettered song-cycles that serve as wonderful escapist devices. Maybe that's what we really need right now. There are, of course, plenty of ways to escape, not all of them beautiful. Here they are: Recoil's best album selections for 2011.
Andrew Watson
Beirut
The Rip TidePompeii Records
I'd been waiting through two full-lengths and two EPs for Zach Condon to deliver the kind of consistently enticing set of songs I knew he was capable of – and he finally did it in 2011 with The Rip Tide. The arrangements are clean and casually elaborate; there is little to get in the way of Condon's impeccable croon. “East Harlem,” “Goshen” and “Vagabond” represent, in my opinion, his finest work to date. That this wonderful album flies by too swiftly may be its only real flaw.
Destroyer
Kaputt
Merge
Dan Bejar may be an acquired taste, but if there were ever a decent entry point into his strange canon it's Kaputt. A clear nod to the smooth new wave-y jazz of late period Roxy Music, Kaputt finds Bejar at his most relaxed. He claims to have recorded the vocals whilst laying on a couch, and I believe him. Many folks can't – or won't – accept this latest guise of his as serious, and maybe it isn't, but it sounds utterly magnificent.
Fucked Up
David Comes To Life
Matador
Canadian punk group with (nearly) unprintable name and giant, hairy, hollering front-person crafts epic, 80-minute rock opera about true love, earns the hearts of kids everywhere, simultaneously re-writes the rules of hardcore punk and alt-rock, wins praise from nearly every source imaginable, shocks themselves. Yes, Fucked Up had a bash of a year. “Under My Nose,” “The Other Shoe” and “Turn The Season” in succession? Christ.
Akron/Family
S/T II The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT
DEAD OCEANS
I was fully prepared to unlike this album as much as I unliked the last couple Akron/Family releases – too far into the hippie-sphere for my taste – but I was instead bowled over by it almost immediately. Akron/Family's debut album is a stone classic and Shinju TNT is their next best effort; easily the best thing they've done since becoming a trio. Noisy raveups give way to meditative balladry before bailing out in favor of tribal dubstep. Stir and repeat. The Family returns with a peaceful vengeance.
Low
C'mon
Sub Pop
Low have been doing pretty much exactly what they do for two decades now. We should no longer be tripping over superlatives in our attempts to describe their wholly unique approach to pop music, yet we do still. The word “slowcore” is overplayed and, frankly, doesn't quite apply anymore. Low specializes in manufacturing uplifting thrust out of gradual and hushed moderation. C'mon is as beautiful an example of the power inherent in their sound as anything they've ever done.
M83
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Mute
This could have ended disastrously. Anthony Gonzalez makes great gobs of gooey, doe-eyed, cinematic synth-pop. That he would explicitly state his desire to create a double album on par with Mellon Collie may have been akin to scripting his own elegy. Instead, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is endlessly listenable and majestically crafted. There are occasional missteps, but even those possess a certain charm. “Midnight City” and “Steve McQueen” are Song of the Year candidates.
PJ Harvey
Let England Shake
Vagrant Records
This is a difficult record to listen to thematically, dealing as it does with wartime and the human sacrifice made in its stead. It is a record very critical of traditional England, yet Harvey chooses to encase her critiques in beautiful, often chilling environs. When the bugle call from the Regimental March goes warbling through “This Glorious Land,” the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. People just don't make records like this. “England's dancing days are over.”
Ryan Adams
Ashes & Fire
PAX-AM/Capitol
Ryan Adams has arrived at a point in his career where he is no longer expected to release masterpiece after masterpiece. Artists as prolific as Adams are given more leeway in those terms. Besides, nobody likes to see an artist stuck on repeat, trying to revive past glories. Ashes & Fire is a gorgeous record, modest yet meticulous, under-stuffed, and brimming with honesty and depth. It is a masterpiece – his third (unofficially) – and I cannot stop listening to it.
The War On Drugs
Slave Ambient
Secretly Canadian
It's almost too easy to play the reference game when listening to this album (Dylan! Petty! Springsteen!) – so I don't really bother. I just sit back, fire one up, and let this thing wash over me. Which it does, unequivocally. Turns out these guys didn't really need Kurt Vile! Slave Ambient is as piece-perfect a rock record as I heard this year, each part flowing effortlessly to the next. It is at once soothing, stimulating, and stirring. I am simply in awe of it.
Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues
Sub Pop
I was slightly ambivalent about this record (particularly in comparison to its predecessor) until I happened to catch the Foxes in concert. Holy crap, was I off. Helplessness Blues talks of sadness and failure, but is projected in a manner intended to lift you directly up out of your shoes and propel you skyward. It's a very immediate and incredibly human sounding record. It is, as one writer from the Guardian pointed out, “almost laughably beautiful.” Robin Pecknold might be a genius.
Rookie of the Year
Youth Lagoon
I had just about had it with bedroom-pop sorrow boys until I heard Youth Lagoon's debut record. Trevor Powers has a real gift for melody and restraint – he often limits his songs to a steady pulse, repeating keyboard pattern, and heavily reverbed vocal. Yet, the effect this record has is a lasting one. Charming and lovely, the whole thing ends way too soon and literally begs to be re-administered.
Fondest Farewell (tie)
R.E.M. and LCD Soundsystem
Two monumental and beloved bands met their finale this year in stunningly different fashion. One rented out Madison Square Garden and streamed its four-hour final show/ dance party into the interwebs, properly ending a riotous ride on an extremely high and cantankerously funky note. The other released a brief press statement. I'll let you figure out which is which. R.I.P. R.E.M. & LCD.
Coolest Re-invention
R&B (Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Drake, Clams Casino, A$AP Rocky, etc)
I don't claim to know the first thing about any of this, but I am intrigued nonetheless. R&B and hip-hop has been long overdue for a reassessment of purpose and motivation. It seems to be happening finally, with the big-baller pimp baloney going the way of the dinosaur and web-savvy, eclectic-eared young producers taking over the airwaves. This can only be good for the industry. Shit is hot, too.
Most Devastating News
Kim and Thurston Break Up.
I am still wrestling with this most unfortunate news. What it means for the future of Sonic Youth notwithstanding, these two, their relationship with each other and the band, have always been held in my eyes as an example of how things can go incredibly right. Twenty-five years is certainly a long time to sleep next to any one person, and I wish them both happiness going forward, but a part of me died when I read this.
Eric Mitts
The Black Keys
El Camino
Nonesuch
In the rock world, 2011 belonged to The Black Keys. Entering the year on the rise of last year’s Brothers, the Akron, Ohio, duo hauled in Grammys, while their bluesy-garage rock crossed from underground fan favorite to radio regular. Their success reflected both the retro fascination that filled much of the year’s best music, as well as the online power-shift of indie artists infiltrating the mainstream. El Camino raced out of the gate upon its release last month a lean, mean, 38-minute machine, revved up on classic guitar riffs, tricked out with Danger Mouse’s vintage production, and ending their year as unstoppably as they started. Look for the veteran duo to take their victory lap this spring (hitting Van Andel Arena March 18).
St. Vincent
Strange Mercy
4AD
An indie siren in every eerie, mythological sense, Annie Clark lures listeners in with her lush arrangements and beautiful melodies, before battering them against the rock of her guitar. Wearing her heart – and her anxieties – on her six-string instead of her sleeve, Clark emerged as the year’s most beguiling songwriter; the twisting mysteries and metaphors on Strange Mercy, her third and best album to date, running as deep as the squiggly grooves. Fascinating and ferocious has never sounded so fun.
The Naked & Famous
Passive Me, Aggressive You
Somewhat Damaged
Across the international dateline, The Naked and Famous released their amazing debut in 2010, so forgive its inclusion here since it took until 2011 for the album to officially land in the U.S. The group’s rare balance of infectious synth-rock (“Punching In A Dream,” “Girls Like You,” etc.) and harder-edged industrial-punk spanned the disc from beginning to end. Forget more famous (no pun intended) retro-futurists like MGMT, Foster The People, and Passion Pit: “Young Blood” is the sound of now.
Foo Fighters
Wasting Light
RCA
In a year when Nirvana’s Nevermind celebrated its 20th anniversary, Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters released their best front-to-back rocker in a decade. Officially reuniting with longtime guitarist Pat Smear, the band’s three-axe-attack showed just how hard these middle-aged icons still rock, while the brooding build of the shadowy “I Should Have Known” (featuring former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic), and Grohl’s breathless wail at the end of “Walk,” proved how important Foo Fighters still are to themselves, and to rock music.
Mastodon
The Hunter
Reprise
Having mastered the elements on their first four albums, Mastodon let loose. The Hunter stood out immediately as the Atlanta metal band’s wildest, yet most accessible album of its already critically acclaimed career. The disc’s ridiculous song titles quickly clued longtime fans into the much more freeform approach the band took, abandoning the massive, concept-album structures for shorter, meatier cuts, and following their instincts into the unknown. Their skills still without question, or equal: Mastodon has slain the beast of expectation.
Adele
21
XL/Columbia
There was no bigger voice in 2011 than Adele. An unexpectedly universal star in a year that subdivided stardom into web-stream subgenres more than ever, Adele brought disparate music fans together by bringing them close to her heart. Bowling them over right from the start, with the retro powerhouse of “Rolling In The Deep,” she bared her heartache in a way that no amount of social networking could match, becoming the perfect voice for her young generation, while sounding beyond her years.
Tyler, The Creator
Goblin
XL Recordings
Rap can’t fight its future any more. The mainstream might want the likes of Drake to play heir to the throne (currently shared in disgusting excess by Kanye and Jay-Z), but that fantasy of old-school big pimpin’ just didn’t fit 2011’s harsh realities. Not like the question-everything uncertainty and blogger bigotry of L.A. hip-hop collective OFWGKTA. Online, their rise has become the stuff of meme legend, and this year, as their most visible “star,” Tyler gave commercial viability to their viral ubiquity.
The Joy Formidable
The Big Roar
Atlantic
With so much instantly available, sensory overload has become an unavoidable side-effect of modern music. Rather than shy away from that, Welsh trio The Joy Formidable embraced it with the wall of sound onslaught of their debut, overwhelming eardrums with layers of fuzzed-out guitars and double-pedaled drum work. Stuffed with short blasts and frenzied feedback epics, the set’s surprising hooks recall the best of ‘90s alt-rock/shoegaze, while making the rising new band too good, or just too loud, to ignore.
little hurricane
Homewrecker
Self-released
It’s no surprise that 2011 was filled with the blues. With foreclosures spreading like a natural disaster, a ballsy, dirty-blues debut like Homewrecker offered just the right amount of courage and comfort in its ache. The San Diego boy-girl duo have drawn immediate White Stripes comparisons, but have clearly found their own call-and-response voice; especially on the closing battle cry, “Give ‘Em Hell,” a song so simple, yet defiant enough to unintentionally underscore the stand-your-ground-if-nothing-else frustration of the year’s Occupy movement.
Small Brown Bike
Fell & Found
No Idea Records
No band encapsulated Michigan in 2011 better than Marshall’s Small Brown Bike. Reuniting their original lineup for their first album together since their 1999 debut Our Own Wars (and their first overall since 2003’s The River Bed), SBB sounded older and wiser, but played with more spirit and conviction than post-hardcore bands half their age. Fell & Found reminded how it takes hitting bottom in order to truly look up: defeated and defiant, providing the perfect perspective for a year defined by transition and so-called “recovery.”
Best Local Release
The Crane Wives
Safe Ship, Harbored
Grand Rapids, Mich.
With dozens of local bands releasing well-recorded efforts perfectly capturing the widest variety of sounds this area has heard in years, it’s even more of a surprise to have one act soar over all the rest the way The Crane Wives did. The group’s amazing harmonies, and array of influences (appealing to fans of indie, folk, blues, swing, rock and pop), all came through on their debut, a fully-formed full-length with its best song at its heart. They’re poised to launch any time they want, so catch them before they become bigger than this town. And hey, Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists), in case you’re reading this: next time you come to GR, your new opening act is right here.
Most Welcome/Weirdest-named New Venue (TIE)
The Pyramid Scheme and The Dirty Hippie
When The Pyramid Scheme opened in April, it expanded the awesome atmosphere of The Meanwhile, and combined it with the underground legacy of co-owner Jeff Vanden Berg’s label, Friction Records. Curiously designed and exceptionally diverse with its excellent bookings, it has exceeded all expectations as GR’s most unique destination. Younger, wilder, and, well, dirtier, The Dirty Hippie grew just as organically. Following a brainstorming session at The Musicians Cooperative in October, twin-brothers Vinnie and Tyler Trierweiler took on the task of opening an all-ages venue, and broke all the rules. Online reality show, operating on the barter system (occasionally), and hosting more parties than concerts, its place (at the old Skelletones location) flies in the face of everything in the best way.
Most Emo Moment of the Year
MXTP Announces It Will Close at the End of January
Late last month, MXTP revealed their four-year run will come to an end. Celebrating their farewell all this month, leading to their final weekend Jan. 27, 28 and 29, the all-ages venue leaves the scene stronger, and sadder. It’s hard not to have mixed feelings about MXTP. When looking back on what the venue meant to many young music fans – or their unwavering support of local music going so far as to open up their stage as a practice space – it’s easy to gloss over how self-marginalized MXTP had became, booking almost entirely Warped Tour-approved screamo/pop-punk, or worse (Web-star trash like Millionaires, or washed-up MTV teen-crushes like Ryan Cabrera). It had its place, and its moment, and Grand Rapids won’t soon forget.
Biggest Wet-Blanket of the Year
Thunderstorms Slam Prospecto Musical Showcase and Boiling Pot Oktoberfest
What should have been 2011’s best weekend of independent music and cultural expansion, ended up one big, wet mess. Leave it to the weather in West Michigan to leave fans cold, dousing the excitement of the venue-hopping element of Prospecto, and almost completely washing out Boiling Pot’s outdoor community event. Really, how often does West Michigan have two completely stacked music festivals – both in their second year and inadvertently competing with each other – during a time of the year when people can actually go? Adding insult to injury, the weekends before and after were idyllic Indian Summer days. Here’s hoping both are back in 2012 to battle the elements again.
Biggest Bass Drop/Bluegrass Party Ever
Electric Forest Festival
Dub step might be done before the clock strikes midnight, but for a moment in 2011, it ruled the world. And at its high-decibel epicenter: the Electric Forest Festival. Hardly the only summer festival to feature all its bass wobbling glory, Electric Forest emerged as dub step’s ideal destination. Revamping the Rothbury Festival site (the Double JJ Ranch opened all its amenities for a summer camp meets rave-like experience), Electric Forest had all the stuff stoned college kids want to brag about experiencing years from now. Its epic light shows burned into the back of retinas well into the mornings-after, it offered just the right amount of chill and WTF moments to make its return, June 28 through July1, highly anticipated.