50. Tombs - Path of Totality (Relapse)
49. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord)
48. The Horrors - Skying (XL)
47. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo (Matador)
46. Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital (Sub Pop)
45. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)
44. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse (Drag City)
43. Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise (Circus Company)
42. Liturgy - Aesthethica (Thrill Jockey)
41. KEN Mode - Venerable (Profound Lore)
40. Falloch - Where Distant Spirits Remain (Candlelight)
39. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
38. Krallice - Diotima (Profound Lore)
37. The Skull Defekts - Peer Amid (Thrill Jockey)
36. Obscura - Omnivium (Relapse)
35. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong (Slumberland)
34. Boston Spaceships - Let It Beard (Guided by Voices)
33. Opeth - Heritage (Roadrunner)
32. Iceage - New Brigade (What's Your Rupture?)
31. Autopsy - Macabre Eternal (Peaceville)
30. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (4AD)
29. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know (Ribbon)
28. Corrupted - Garten der Unbewusstheit (Nostalgia Blackrain)
27. Real Estate - Days (Domino)
26. The Gates of Slumber - The Wretch (Metal Blade)
25. Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1 (Southern Lord)
24. Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years (Matador)
23. The Atlas Moth - Ache for the Distance (Profound Lore)
22. Azari & III - Azari & III (PID)
21. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
20. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust (Self-released)
One of the year's more pleasant surprises came from this UK trio and their self-released CDR. I know its a lazy critical cliche at this point, but I can only best describe this as what would happen if The Beatles had ended up spending more time with Black Sabbath than the Maharishi. This is thoroughly convincing retro doom that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1971, but probably would have launched heavy metal in an entirely new direction if it had. I really hope they get an official release of this soon so people can get it without having to pay insanely inflated eBay prices.
19. Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip (Sonic Unyon)
This was another big surprise for me in 2011, but more because I expected it be awful than anything else. The band's very name itself was enough to turn me off initially, sounding like the sort of deadend nostalgia trip that has given us hundreds of woeful chillwave band names. Then I heard some early reports of the bands slavish dedication to early 90s shoegaze and, as I've learned the hard way over a lot of years, the more a band namechecks My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain, the less likely they are to actually sound like either. Fortunately I came across "Imagine Hearts" on an internet radio station one day and realized quickly that these guys actually do such names justice. Theirs is most definitely a sound stuck in the past, but they know exactly how to distill the essence of that era and pour it into catchy, timeless tunes.
18. White Denim - D (Downtown)
This Austin band has been kicking around for about five years now, releasing a string of hyperactive garage rock albums that have allowed them to steadily build a bit of buzz across the country. This, their fourth full-length, found the band opening even more doors by streamlining their sound and focusing squarely on the psychedelic rock of the late 60s and early 70s. That's not to say these songs aren't as knotty and hyper as their older material, but there is a sense of composition and focus that keeps the album a constant joy to listen to from start to finish.
17. The Cosmic Dead - The Cosmic Dead (Who Can You Trust?)
This Glaswegian quartet made a big splash on psychedelic focused blogs over the past year with this self-released cassette full of lengthy cosmic jams that oftentimes recall the best of bands like Can, Hawkwind, and even early Pink Floyd. The album has four tracks - one just under seven minutes, two that reach nearly twenty minutes, and "Father Sky, Mother Earth" an epic forty-minute jam that leaves you no choice but to sit back in your chair with your mouth open, riding it out. Really excited to see what these guys come up with next.
16. Yuck - Yuck (Fat Possum)
This London-based quartet was easily the best 120 Minutes band to appear in 2011, basically every single track on their debut album would have slotted in nicely between Sugar and Lemonheads videos. Yuck themselves draw equal inspiration from mainstays of the alternative generation like Dinosaur Jr, Galaxie 500, and Pixies (among many others), creating a debut album that sounds at once brand new and as familiar as those old mixtapes that once littered the backseat of your car.
15. Moon Duo - Mazes (Sacred Bones)
2011 was a good year for the San Francisco based Wooden Shjips outfit, but this project by Shjips' guitarist Erik Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada was the cream of an already stellar crop. While the proper Shjips 2011 album, West, was an enjoyable enough trip down the band's well-trodden psych path, the Moon Duo album finds Johnson and Yamada branching off into newer, dronier krautrock branches. Essential music for any fan of the more experimental side of rock.
14. Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels (Sony Nashville)
Yeah, I'm almost as shocked as you are to see a country album place this high on the year end list, but it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see that it comes to us courtesy of perennial via//chicago favorite Miranda Lambert. Pistol Annies finds her teaming up with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley for a tight, concise country album that hits all the right spots - believable narration, identifiable subjects, and universal feelings of frustration and lost love. As critic Alex Macpherson pointed out, paraphrasing slightly here, this is one of the best albums about the American recession we've heard yet.
13. Blood Ceremony - Living with the Ancients (Metal Blade)
Its interesting to see how many of my favorite albums of the year throw back to distinct sounds of the past, this being another prime example. Blood Ceremony cranks out 70s fueled, metal-tinged progressive rock that doesn't sound too far removed from the likes of Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and even Jethro Tull (yes, there is heavy flute presence on this album and, no, that doesn't count as a strike against it in the least). Lead singer Alia O'Brien is the bands VIP, not only for her haunting vocals, but for adding the touches of flute and organ that fill in the shadows.
12. Destroyer - Kaputt (Merge)
This one took me a long time to come around to loving, but I'm glad I gave it the time required for it to work its spell over me. I've long been a fan of Dan Bejar's solo work, enjoying his career evolution and watching him follow his muse down new twists and turns. This time around, however, I feared that he had followed a new turn that I just wasn't going to join him on - that of 80s style soft rock and light jazz. Silly me for underestimating Bejar's talents though, his compositional strength and ear for melody makes this an album just as enjoyable as any he's done in the past, even if you have to get over your fear of saxophone solos.
11. Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness (Arts & Crafts)
Over the course of four albums, Los Campesinos!, and particularly the lyrics of lead singer Gareth Campesinos, have straddled a very delicate line that separates the cloyingly twee and devastating heartbreak. When they aren't busy being too clever by half, Los Campesinos! tap into an achingly real vein of love and loss. This go-round things fall decidedly into the latter category, but as single "By Your Hand" quickly reassures, they haven't lost a step in the hook writing department. A particular standout is "Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)", a surprisingly successful comparison of the end of a failing relationship to the pain of watching your favorite soccer team lose. That the band can so expertly navigate the icy waters of adolescent angst and grown up emotion is a testament to their staying power.
10. The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)
There really aren't that many new and fresh ways that a band can incorporate influences like Dylan and Springsteen without sounding like lazy retreads of well-worn paths, but Philadelphia's The War On Drugs manage to blaze a new path by incorporating synth drones and subtle dreamlike textural shifts. The tools (guitars, drums, bass, keys) and tropes (leaving town, ditching your problems) and the same, but this is an entirely new way to approach them, I'm still surprised by how great this album sounds. And, oh yeah, original founding member Kurt Vile drops by to play guitar on a few tracks.
9. CAVE - Neverendless (Drag City)
This Chicago psych quartet (formerly trio) has always been right up my alley, releasing two albums and one EP full of Neu! inspired, synth powered krautrock jams, but this one is clearly the cream of the crop. From the seven minute opener "WUJ" to the ten minute closer "OJ", CAVE sounds more focused and driven than every before, with every note designed for maximum impact. This album does miss out on a little of the looseness of the previous releases, but makes up for it with tight grooves.
8. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost (True Panther Sounds)
While The War On Drugs used the sounds and templates of classic rock to steer their brand of indie rock down its own dronier path, San Francisco's Girls stick a little closer to formula on this record that would probably now be a part of canon if it had come out in 1974 instead of 2011. Whether its on the Pink Floyd inspired single "Vomit", complete with gospel backing singers, or on the epic "Forgiveness" with its soulful guitar solo, Girls latch onto the timeless aspects of American rock and roll and add to its long list of great tunes.
7. Wild Flag - Wild Flag (Merge)
It always bugged me that so much of the media attention around this album was focused around the "super group" thing, when that really didn't make sense here. It has been pretty clear from the beginning that, while all of the members did spend significant time in other bands, that this was an entirely new project and not some "one off" or "side project". And, thank God for that. I'd hate to think this was all we'd ever get from Wild Flag, a disc full of some of the most joyful, triumphant indie rock we've heard in some time. An absolute joy from start to finish.
6. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar (Atlantic)
This Welsh trio was another retro minded band that pushed all of my buttons, mixing the stadium ambition and guitar heroics of mid-period Smashing Pumpkins with the female-voiced poppier end of the shoegaze spectrum. Vocalist Ritzy Bryan is clearly the star here, just listen to her vocals on "Whirring" before she lets loose on her guitar with an epic solo.
5. Atlas Sound - Parallax (4AD)
Whether with Deerhunter, his full on rock band, or under the solo Atlas Sound moniker, Bradford Cox is no stranger to these end of the year via//chicago lists. The only surprise at this point is how consistent his songwriting is. Parallax represents his sort of David Bowie during his Young Americans days, looking back to early rock and roll for some inspiration but filtering it through his own unique sensibility - dig that cover photo with the classic mic. "Mona Lisa" is the best pop song Cox has ever written, but each and every song on the album is a treat. Cox is a true talent and its refreshing to hear him bring his vocals a little more to the forefront.
4. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (Sub Pop)
When Shabazz Palaces started blowing up all over the internet thanks to those first two quietly released EPs, it wasn't hard to figure out that the so-called "Palaceer Lazaro" behind the project was in reality one Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler of Digable Planets. But that only lifted one of the many shadows draped over Butler's impenetrable, mysterious brand of hip-hop. The cold, stuttering beats and Butler's flows offered few easy entrance points, but once you worked your way in, this was a world that you didn't want to leave. In a year when big names in hip-hop disappointed one after the other, it was refreshing to hear a true innovator back at work.
3. The Psychic Paramount - II (No Quarter)
These guys were another great discovery for me in 2011 and I couldn't get enough of this record. The Psychic Paramount straddle an electrified line between psych and noise rock, immediately calling to mind great bands like Acid Mothers Temple, Lightning Bolt, and Comets On Fire. Each track is a thrill ride in and of itself, so by the time you compile them into an albums' worth, your head is spinning and your brain is lost if the fuzz.
2. Mastodon - The Hunter (Reprise)
Another band that is no stranger to these via//chicago year-end wrap ups, their 2009 album Crack The Skye was my number 3 album of that year and Blood Mountain was #1 back in 2006. Interestingly enough, this outing finds the boys moving farther away from the epic, prog-rock cycles that composed those previous two full-lengths, scaling things back to focus on individual, concise songs without losing any of the punch or power. Lead single "Curl of the Burl" was still massive, but contained a sense of humor that was in shorter supply on the previous two records (it was clear these guys were having fun with song titles like "Octopus Has No Friends" and "Bedazzled Fingertips"), while "Stargasm" and "Creature Lives" show off potential new directions. It says a lot when a band can shift focus this dramatically and still toss off one of the best albums of the year. Still the best American metal band going.
1. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life (Matador)
If anyone was going to pull off a successful 78-minute rock opera in 2012, I guess it these guys stood just as good a chance as anyone else. This hyper-prolific hardcore punk band from Toronto has been tossing out albums, singles, EPs, and compilations for nearly a decade now, with tracks that run the gamut from miniature bursts of hardcore energy to epic tracks based on the Chinese Zodiac that run well into double digits. David Comes To Life finds the band striving for a whole new level of ambition, littered are the halls of rock history with failed concept albums that either don't deliver tunes worth hearing or feature a storyline that barely holds together for the first half. No problems with either here. Not only does the plot hold up extremely well throughout the duration, in fact taking a clever meta twist that may take a few listens to fully unpack, but each and every song, taken in isolation, holds up among the band's best. "Queen of Hearts" was the one that got all of the attention, rightfully so, but I count no less than eight other tracks that could have served a similar purpose with equal results. When you consider how much thought the band put into this project, adding in the non-album tracks that round out some of the characters and flesh out the world, it becomes an even more impressive feat. But, ultimately, all of this immersion means nothing if the songs aren't there and thankfully this album sounds just as great as a simple "collection of songs" completely divorced from the storyline. After my first listen I said that this had a high chance of being my album of the year, despite its release back in June - but as the year went on, nothing else even came close. Album of the year. Punk rock concept album of the year. Green Day who?
No comments:
Post a Comment