This post wasn’t supposed to happen. This year has been spent writing, not for the blog but for a higher purpose, and I’ve found that the perfect accompaniment is jazz. As a result the majority of the year has been spent blissed out listening to classics like No Room for Squares by Hank Mobley, Straight Life by Freddie Hubbard, Mingus at Carnegie Hall, The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan, Bill Evans live at the Village Vanguard, and many many more. As a result I don’t think I listened to anything from 2011 until August, fully expecting to go a whole year without bothering with anything modern. The long delay meant I went on a rampage. It was around then that I heard my number one album of the year, and everything else released this year has been eclipsed by it.
When I say it’s my number one album I’m not even scratching the surface of how how much I love it, how much it has come to mean to me. The last album that shook me up that much was Joanna Newsome’s Ys; another ambitious project that transcended the concept of the album. The discovery of this towering achievement has more than made up for some disappointments, most notably the kinda boring Parallax by Atlas Sound (a shame considering Bradford Cox is coming off the triple whammy of Microcastle, Logos and Halcyon Digest) and the way-too-short The King of Limbs. I can see that Radiohead are experimenting with new delivery systems and song-delivery systems, but even with the supplementary release of Supercollider/The Butcher, the way in which the album was distributed to fans was more exciting than the album itself.
Other than that the year was good enough, I guess. Frustratingly two of the year’s highlights — Undun by The Roots and Days by Real Estate — came out so late that I’ve not had time to fully appreciate them. This happened last year with Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which I only listened to seven times before making my list, and then listened to about 70000 times in the next three months. Amazing stuff. I hope that happens with Undun and Days too. I’m really pleased at how lovable Days is, after giving Real Estate’s previous, eponymous album an award for Best Debut. That was good; Days is magnificent. A little sample is included below, among many many others.
Best Albums:
15. Gutter Rainbows – Talib Kweli
14. Wolfroy Comes To Town – Bonnie “Prince” Billy
13. Undun – The Roots
12. Mountaintops – Mates of State
11. Tomboy – Panda Bear
10. James Blake – James Blake
9. Mirror Traffic – Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
8. Slave Ambient – The War on Drugs
7. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
6. Watch The Throne – Jay-Z and Kanye West
5. Days – Real Estate
4. We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves – John Maus
3. Let England Shake – PJ Harvey
2. Smoke Ring For My Halo – Kurt Vile
1. David Comes To Life – Fucked Up
Most Essential Free-To-Download Mash-Up Album of the Year, If Not All Time: 13 Chambers – Wugazi
Best Album I Only Listened To Because It Was Nominated In The “Token Jazz Album” Slot In The Mercury Music Prize And Turned Out To Be A Bit Of A Cracker: Good Days At Schloss Elmau – Gwilym Simcock
Album I’m Kinda Resisting Now Despite All Of The Pitchfork Fapping But May End Up Loving Eventually If I Can Ever Get A Bead On It: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – M83:
Best EP: So Outta Reach – Kurt Vile
Best Singles
10. Honey Bunny – Girls
9. Broken Record – Katy B
8. Midnight City – M83
7. The Wilhelm Scream – James Blake
6. Lift Off – Jay-Z, Kanye West and Beyonce
5. Getting Nowhere – Magnetic Man (feat. John Legend)
4. Supercollider – Radiohead
3. The Glorious Land – PJ Harvey
2. A Little Death – Fucked Up
1. Holocene – Bon Iver
Best Album Tracks
10. Kool On – The Roots (feat. Greg Porn & Truck North)
9. Soft – Washed Out
8. The Shakes – Atlas Sound
7. Ain’t Waiting – Talib Kweli (feat. Outasight)
6. Stick Figures in Love – Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
5. Tomboy – Panda Bear
4. Three Blocks – Real Estate
3. Maracas – Mates of State
2. Peeping Tomboy – Kurt Vile
1. Serve Me Right – Fucked Up
Best Video: Lotus Flower – Radiohead
Best Star Cameos in a Video For a Song Featuring The Word “Blowjob”: Jack Black, Gary Cole and Maria Thayer in Senator by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Most Confounding Earworm Lyric Featuring A Questionable Slang Word For A Lady’s Private Bits: Matter of Fact – John Maus
Best Album Tracks That Should Have Made It Onto This Year’s Best Album Tracks List But Sadly Both Featured On An EP Last Year And Thus Are In Contravention Of My Arbitrary Rules But Here’s The Videos For Them Anyway Because They’re Amazing, Really Seriously They’re So Amazing You Have To Watch Them Right Now: Baby Missiles and Come To the City- The War On Drugs
Best Opening Track: Perth – Bon Iver
Best Closing Track: Believer – John Maus
Most Valuable Player of 2011: Kurt Vile
So that’s 2011, a year dominated by a shouty man and an absurdly overcomplicated narrative about terrorism and love beyond death, eclipsing even the discovery of Kurt Vile, who I’d never heard before this year. If you haven’t heard Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life yet you can sample the whole thing on YouTube. Pretty much every tune on it could’ve found its way onto one of these lists; the richness and complexity of it is breathtaking, and that’s even before we get to the seemingly infinite multitude of hooks. Everything here is recommended, of course, but if you’ve missed out on Fucked Up (or Kurt Vile, or John Maus), your year in music is incomplete. Trust, bruv.
