B&C's Best Albums of 2011

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I just listened to Kaputt for the first time. I would have liked it a whole lot more without the endless saxophones.
 
And see that's very nearly my favourite thing about the album. I was actually a little bummed when I reached Bay of Pigs and it didn't have any.

You'd probably like Rubies though, if that's the case.
 
I wasn't implying you were a passionate R.E.M. fan. Just pointing out music is highly subjective.

Which two Destroyer tracks?


No, no, I get it.

Ok, so I downloaded:

title track Kaputt
and
A Savage Night at the Opera

To be clear, both were good tracks, but I was waiting for the click and it didn't kick in.
 
Collapse Into Now absolutely, 100% should not have been anywhere near our top 30, and I say that as a massive REM fan who's been listening to them for like 7 years now.

Ok, well I could say the same thing about The King of Limbs. The album has five very good-to-great songs, but IMO none of them reach the peaks of the best In Rainbows tracks, and the remaining three tracks really come off like filler/b-side material.

Collapse Into Now has just as many standout tracks, even if they're not breaking new ground. I'd feel comfortable putting It Happened Today, Mine Smell Like Honey, Walk It Back, Every Day Is Yours To Win, Alligator Aviator... on any compilation.
 
No, no, I get it.

Ok, so I downloaded:

title track Kaputt
and
A Savage Night at the Opera

To be clear, both were good tracks, but I was waiting for the click and it didn't kick in.
You should listen to the first four tracks of Rubies. Those four songs are exceptional and very different from the two tracks you mentioned.
 
lazarus said:
Ok, well I could say the same thing about The King of Limbs.

You could, and I'd agree with you. I didn't contribute to KOL's placement.

I do think it's reactionary to even suggest that Collapse is the better record, simply because it matched very low expectations. I know KOL was disappointing, but Codex alone is 50 times better than anything on Collapse, which was a well made career retrospective but didn't do much to add to the REM canon.

Replace KOL and Collapse with some Weeknd and Pains of Being Pure At Heart, then replace Mylo Xyloto with a pile of dogshit and you've got a damn fine list here.
 
I do think it's reactionary to even suggest that Collapse is the better record, simply because it matched very low expectations.

Precisely why I didn't put it on my list. I enjoyed Collapse, but ultimately I felt it was sort of paint-by-numbers R.E.M. Uberlin was a standout track for me, but primarily because it sounded like something from Life's Rich Pageant.
 
I think we need to remember that this is a sampling of what people have heard throughout the year, not of everything out there. For some, the sample size may only be 15 to 20 albums. Of course I think that Tim Hecker and Crystal Stilts put out better albums than Coldplay this year, but I can't expect most people to have heard those.

And if we're talking about expectations, I think it's safe to say that if KoL had been released by any other band, no one would be complaining about the top five placement. Almost all of the negative comments about it on here have been made in comparison to Radiohead's past albums or styles rather than of KoL's songs themselves.
 
I'm guessing even if I had submitted a list, Bjork wouldn't have placed. Oh well.

And KoL would have been ever higher. :reject:
 
You should listen to the first four tracks of Rubies. Those four songs are exceptional and very different from the two tracks you mentioned.

This is very, very true.

Not sure if you're an early-70s Bowie fan, tourist or Kieran, but if you are, Rubies is definitely worth giving a spin.
 
Good job on all the lists.

Here's my too late to get tallied two cents in the form of a top 15. (I included the release dates of discs, which I always find interesting & helpful to note.)


1. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues 5.3.11
It doesn’t get much groovier than a hymnal like this – music that’s poignant & prescient & already in the wind. Timeless & timely, pastoral & dreamy, mythic & mined from a Simon & Garfunkel-meets-CSNY lithe harmonic lyricism, forever reminding us that our indie-music hipsters are all hopeless retrophiles in disguise, friends of flannel & vinyl & infinite integrity.

2. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now 3.7.11
This earnest & generous, grand & great Georgia band—Stipe, Buck, Mills, & Berry were there back-in-the-day, when the early 1980s saved us from the late 70s. It’s bittersweet to hear R.E.M. return to their best, refuse to tour, & announce a breakup—all in a rather mellow & businesslike it-is-what-it-is manner. The writing is on the wall of “All The Best,” a farewell note that clocks in at under three minutes & is all about “showing the kids” how it’s done just “one more time” but not “overstaying [their] welcome.” Strange how I turned this album off when I found out R.E.M. wouldn’t tour, only to turn it back on after they’d announced their retirement. Oh my heart, what great art they gave us. Oh my heart, how we will miss them & always listen to them!

3. My Morning Jacket – Circuital 5.31.11

4. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow¬ 2.1.11
A sound as haunting & harrowing as their namesake powers an alt-folk/alt-country train into a Southern gothic station. Joy Williams and John Paul White team-up for a fierce female-male duo that bears striking resemblance to the everybodyfields.
5. Anthony Hamilton – Back To Love 12.13.11
The retro-soul resurgence feels huge right now, so fans of Marvin Gaye or Al Green have plenty to choose from. Records by Mayer Hawthorne & Raphael Sadiq also registered as simultaneously worthy of tugging at your heart & shaking your bones, but Anthony Hamilton’s gravity has game in this genre for me. Hamilton’s sanctified tenor sizzles between the sexy & the spiritual with that special sincerity that could send one to pray in the sanctuary or play between the sheets, sometimes from the message & sound found in the same song.

6. Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong 6.7.11
Dig Dawes: lazy, shimmering, southern California guitar rock that’s as surprisingly unpretentious as anything from California could be. Memorable, heart-pounding-&-fist-waving love songs make these mates the perfect peers of other earnest west coast bands like Delta Spirit.

7. Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials 11.1.11
Diva in long flowing designer gowns floats across football stadiums like an angel. Her siren sound sears the sky from East Lansing to Nashville, owning the opening spot on the U2 360 tour with chanteuse charisma. Indulge & then forget Stevie Nicks-Kate Bush-Sarah McLachlan-Annie Lennox-Enya comparisons. The latest sacred sonic offering from Florence Welch & crew startles & stuns with the best connection of head, heart, & ears.

8. Tedeschi Trucks Band – Revelator 6.7.11
Channeling the likes of Bonnie Raitt or the Allman Brothers Band, this husband-wife team fronts an expansive entourage that seems tailor-prepped for a blues-rock caravan to the festival circuit. Each song reverberates the whole body as instant classic; please dance around the house when listening.

9. The Black Keys – El Camino 12.2.11
No bull, all balls, hard blues: the Black Keys continue to refine & revise & redefine a classic American sound with craft & confidence that transcend. The band are nearer & dearer to this critic in a most literal sence, after they followed the hint dropped by Jack White, relocating to Nashville from the Midwest, continuing to make our “Music City” as much the south’s rock city as its country music city.

10. TV On The Radio – Nine Types Of Light 4.11.11

11. Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto 10.24.11

12. The Rapture – In The Grace Of Your Love 9.2.11

13. Gungor – Ghosts Upon The Earth 9.20.11

14. Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What 4.12.11
Such groovy, worldly sustained brilliance by an elderly singer-songwriter giant seems unreal. Ethno-mystical songs about Christmas, universal love, & meeting the afterlife bump & hum along with Simon’s superior lyrics & vocal delivery—just divine.

15. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead 1.18.11
The Decemberists are just one of those intelligent-arty rock-nerd phenomenon-curiosities—I’m sure I am supposed to like them, but every time I tried to get more into them, I couldn’t quite wrap the headphones around their sound enough to stay for repeated listens. While I am not sure how long The King Is Dead will stay with me, it’s just an amazing arch of a folk-rock record. The whole world is a “Calamity Song,” & this record attunes our fears while making us more fearless with a call to clarity as soothing & singable as “This Is Why We Fight.”
 
And if we're talking about expectations, I think it's safe to say that if KoL had been released by any other band, no one would be complaining about the top five placement. Almost all of the negative comments about it on here have been made in comparison to Radiohead's past albums or styles rather than of KoL's songs themselves.

Disagreed. I didn't dislike KoL because it was made by Radiohead, but because the music just wasn't very good.
 
Disagreed. I didn't dislike KoL because it was made by Radiohead, but because the music just wasn't very good.

Well, saying that the music "just wasn't very good" isn't a terribly convincing argument. There is as much, if not more, sophistication of structure, attention to sequencing, originality in instrumentation and layering, and diversity of style on KoL as any other album released this year - even more so, I think, than its most frequent point of comparison, In Rainbows. Maybe it didn't speak to you personally, but it has all the hallmarks of a well-crafted album.

I always wonder whether these sorts of lists are more about "the best" albums of the year or "the favorite" albums of the year. To me at least, not liking an album does not necessarily make that album "bad." I can think of plenty of albums for which I do not necessarily care while still recognizing the talent and quality that went into them.
 
I always wonder whether these sorts of lists are more about "the best" albums of the year or "the favorite" albums of the year. To me at least, not liking an album does not necessarily make that album "bad." I can think of plenty of albums for which I do not necessarily care while still recognizing the talent and quality that went into them.

:up:

Whenever I make "best of" lists, I am going basically by what my favorite stuff was in that time period. Sure there may be albums "better" out there in technical terms or whatever, but the stuff I pick is stuff that I personally enjoyed because it was fun or I could relate to it or the songwriting appealed to me or whatever. I don't know much about technical perfection, I don't focus a lot on the music's place within historical context of its time period, I sure as hell don't give a damn about being "cool" or "hip" with my choices. I just go with, "I liked this and I think it's worth hearing." Period. End of story.
 
This is very, very true.

Not sure if you're an early-70s Bowie fan, tourist or Kieran, but if you are, Rubies is definitely worth giving a spin.


I will keep that in mind for some stage, down the line, thanks.

I'm not really a fan of early 70s Bowie, as it happens. Prefer late 70s Bowie.
 
And if we're talking about expectations, I think it's safe to say that if KoL had been released by any other band, no one would be complaining about the top five placement. Almost all of the negative comments about it on here have been made in comparison to Radiohead's past albums or styles rather than of KoL's songs themselves.
I don't think this is a fair argument.

While I wouldn't say there is any specific track on KoL that I dislike per se, there also isn't one that really moves me at an emotional level; it's a very cerebral record compared to the more visceral In Rainbows, IMO.

Also, whenever I listen to KoL, I can't help but think that the entire record was recorded while Radiohead were hopped up on adderall or something. It seems like so much attention was made towards the tiny details, that the band sort of forgot about the larger picture (the songs as a whole) - so while the tunes themselves are not wholly deficient, I don't feel as though the individual pieces measure up to something greater than the sum of its parts.


:twocents:
 
1. Washed Out - Within and Without (13)
2. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes (12)
3. Destroyer - Kaputt (11)
4. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (11)
5. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (11)
6. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams (9)
7. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost (9)
8. The Black Keys - El Camino (6)
9. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far (4)
10. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints (3)
11. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (3)
12. Bon Iver - Bon Iver (3)
13. Real Estate - Days (2)
14. Zola Jesus - Conatus (2)
15. Cults - Cults (1)

LOL. Definitely NO.
 
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