2011 Albums Discussion

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Albums are the ultimate artistic statement aren't they? If you don't think so, you're wrong. Nah, I kid the movie/video game/book fans out there but only because I have less respect for them than my fellow music snob brethren. Nothing personal, you understand. 2011 has turned up a bounty of great albums from all across the board (and some crap too, thanks Radiohead!) so I feel I couldn't hold back my opinion on the records of what is shaping up to be a fine year for music. Not that I'm especially withdrawn about my opinions on music but shut up, I meant on this forum. Besides, from the looks of the other topics in the music section you guys need a little bit of enlightening on good music. Again, I kid, what fun we're having. So feel free to discuss, unleash the inner music snob. Everyone has an inner music snob. Except Phil Collins fans, those people are doomed. I'll get the ball rolling with a brief, off the collar list of my favourite LPs released this year.

1. Space Is Only Noise (Nicolas Jaar, Minimalist Techno) 9.4
2. Gloss Drop (Battles, Experimental Rock) 8.8
3. Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Girls, Indie Pop) 8.8
4. Helplessness Blues (Fleet Foxes, Folk) 8.6
5. Strange Mercy (St Vincent, Experimental Rock) 8.5
6. Towards the Megalith (Disma, Death Metal) 8.4
7. In Love with Oblivion (Crystal Stilts, Shoegaze) 8.4
8. Return of 4eva (Big K.R.I.T, Hip Hop) 8.4
9. Belong (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Shoegaze) 8.3
10. Cole World (J. Cole, Hip Hop) 8.2
11. Kaputt (Destroyer, Indie Pop) 8.2
12. New History Warfare Volume 1 (Colin Stetson, Experimental Rock) 8.2
13. SBTRKT (SBTRKT, Dubstep) 8.1
14. Aesthethica (Liturgy, Black Metal) 8.1
15. Smother (Wild Beasts, Indie Rock) 8.0
16. New Brigade (Iceage, Post Punk) 8.0
17. James Blake (James Blake, Dubstep) 7.9
18. Watch the Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West, Hip Hop) 7.9
19. Underneath the Pine (Toro Y Moi, Indie Rock) 7.8
20. Rythmatic Eternal King Supreme (REKS, Hip Hop) 7.8
21. Ravedeath, 1972 (Tim Hecker, Ambient) 7.8
22. Demolished Thoughts (Thurston Moore, Acoustic Folk) 7.7
23. Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (The Beastie Boys, Hip Hop) 7.7
24. Zonoscope (Cut Copy, Dance) 7.7
25. House of Balloons (The Weeknd, R&B) 7.5

Of course I haven't got everything yet. Still waiting on securing a copy of the new Wolves in the Throne Room or the new Laura Marling. I hear that the new Absu is pretty good. Oh and I gotta get the new Bjork

EDIT: Because I have the disturbing compulsion to sort and organise, I've decided to add scores to the list out of a possible 10.

Last edited by mrPOSTMAN on 21 Oct 2011, 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

Rap isn't music.

good:
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing
Say Hi - Um, Uh Oh
Beirut - The Rip Tide
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
Britney Spears - Femme Fatale
Destroyer - Kaputt

didn't care for (change my mind):
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
Ampere - Like Shadows
Bit K.R.I.T. - Return Of 4Eva
Classified - Hand Shakes and Middle Fingers
Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care
Fleet Foxes - Heplessness Blues
Gus Gus - Arabian Horse
Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth
The Antlers - Burst Apart
Weerd Science - Sick Kids
Space Is Only Noise - Nicolas Jaar
Björk - Biophilia
godawful:
Iron & Wine - Kiss Eachother Clean


I need to listen to something more than once to figure out my opinion most of the time, so the middle list is likely to change. I want to try Björk's again. The first listen felt sleepy-lazy and odd. But Björk isn't really my cup of tea (i really wanted to like it though). Listening to James Blake's now. I still need to hear Battles, Crystal Stilts, J. Cole, Jay-Z/Kanye, The Weeknd, Tom Waits....

2010 was better.

Yeah, I've heard good things about that one. A number of sources say it's her best so far. That wouldn't be so surprising, she's never been an album-centric artist.



Nicolas Jaar take a little while to grow on you. But I'll come clean, if you didn't like KRIT or Fleet Foxes after one or two listens it's probably a lost cause.



Yes! This! I was astounded at how bad this thing was. It's not the worst this year but the sting is especially painful knowing it's coming from Iron & Wine. How the might have fallen eh?



Just for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy alone I'd agree.

This last July I selected fourteen of my better songs from the past thirty years to be my first new album since 1994, titled When you ride over sharps, you get flats!. I am working on getting better quality recordings of these songs. For now, some of them are recent recording attempts at home with cruddy recording equipment, and some are from the past with cruddy or cruddier recording equipment, but at least I have something up there to represent these songs. I sing better now than I did twenty years ago, although I am still not known as The Bicycling Singer.

The style is alternative rock and roll. Many of my songs are in the style of the classic rock of the late 1960s to the late 1970s, but with some metal, punk and reggae influences thrown into the mix. I don't know yet how soon before I get recordings good enough for me to consider this a finished album, but this is a 2011 album so it might fit in this thread. Get past the cruddiness of the recordings and at least check out the lyrics to some of the songs. Peace

Check out Red Hot Chili Peppers new album. Not great but better than most of the crap out today.

Okay, granted, it's not OK Computer or Kid A, but I still think The King of Limbs is a pretty decent album, a hell of a lot more ambitious and beautiful than a lot of other stuff that's popular these days. The live version of "Bloom" they performed on The Colbert Report moved me so much.

I understand we all have our own tastes. I'm cool with that. I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong, because I recognize discussions about musical taste are subjective. If you're going to dismiss it, though, could you at least cite some specific reasons? You know, just because I'm sort of curious about your reasoning for singling them out?

The production was the biggest problem for me. To me it felt like a really second rate clone of Flying Lotus' stuff. Some of the looped samples they recorded were not used very well, some felt like they went on without a break in the wall. Atmospheric building is all well and good but the word "build" implies some development. From the outset Radiohead decided to loop these samples and damn anyone who notices how annoying it is. The vocals were a real let down too, I know Thom Yorke has never exactly sounded focused, his biggest draw is how organic he feels. And I get that. But this was just lazy. He hollared and moaned and crooned through the songs with seemingly no structure or purpose. He unintelligably wails his way through the record (the vocal mixing making damn sure you hear him, perhaps out of acknowledgement for the lousy production) so loose and so mush mouthed it really became something of a chore to tolerate, let alone enjoy.

But that's just me. If you liked it, that's fine. This is just the opinion of moi.



To what "crap" are you reffering?

I second that. Actually I really like this album, I didn't know what to expect with the new guitar player, but I find he delivers. The songs have a really "big" production sound to me

I'm listening to the new Julian Lennon album (John's son) "Everything Changes"...very talented man. Voice is eerily similar to John's, but the music is his own. Can get Beatle-esque at times, but for the most part, he has his own style.

I really like the song "Factory of faith." Has a great groove to it.

I will happily post my list here once the year is over, but right now I'm still hoping for some gems to come out. it's been a decent year in music but not even close to 2010 so far, hopefully these last 2 months will see some good albums surface.

*edit oh and you stole my thread idea.

I don't know, this year for me has been somewhat a disappointment. There were a lot of albums that were highly anticipated, but just didn't move me much. I did love the Fleet Foxes album though. Strange Mercy had to grow on me. Got to go through the archives.

BAD AS ME BY TOM WAITS.

YES THIS POST DESERVES CAPS.

I've had it in my itunes for a while but haven't listened to it yet. I'm intrigued now though since caps.

Yeah that's a good one, the bass line is very cool, maybe one of my favorites off the album. I actually like every song on the album, there are not too many albums I feel that way about, even by RHCP