Here’s to 2011 – the Best Albums of the Year
So 2011 wasn’t like 2010, when Titus Andronicus worked its way inside my head and wouldn’t leave and LCD Soundsystem continued to be, by a number of measurements, the best band in the world. And it wasn’t like 2009, when Japandroids and Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Telekinesis exploded into the world and Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug released their finest moments (so far) respectively, as Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown. Instead, 2011 had a different kind of satisfaction – mostly steadily great bands releasing solid records, up and down the list. There are notable exceptions (Weekend, Big Troubles, Cloud Nothings), but for the most part, music in 2011 seemed to me a bit like comfort food – nothing to challenge you too much, but it never lets you down.
With that said – here’s Part 1 of Song-o-Matic’s end of year list:
The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (a record review)
It’s a special sort of gift that my favorite songwriter is still making good music, let alone some of the best of his career, into his second decade of songwriting. Have you heard a Prince album lately? Sure, I can go back and listen to Dirty Mind whenever I want to, but I have to be contented with one or two good songs an album nowadays… not so with the Mountain Goats, who have just released one of the best albums of his/their career with All Eternals Deck.
The high water mark of John Darnielle’s songwriting is pretty damn high – it’s pretty hard to find a weak spot in his post-Coroner’s Gambit catalog. But where the past couple Mountain Goats records have had their flaws Read More…
Telekinesis: 12 Desperate Straight Lines
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I wait all year for a moment like this – putting on a new album that’s been sitting on the release calendar for months, tantalizing me. Often, of course, these moments are anticlimactic – not disappointing, always, but it’s hard for a record to live up to whatever hype I’ve built up for it in my head. For most of the year, I’m listening to albums I thought would be great but are merely good, or great albums I didn’t even know were coming out, or albums I thought would be boring and are, or the occasional complete bomb.
So it’s moments like this – putting on the new Telekinesis record and having it kill from the first notes of acoustic guitar that grace album opener “You Turn Clear in the Sun,” then having every song barrel forward like front/onlyman Michael Benjamin Lerner is afraid if he slows up, you might stop listening. Read More…
The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
While you’re reading: The Arcade Fire: “We Used To Wait” (right-click to download)
It’s one thing when a band labors at their craft for a number of years, eventually creating an album that could rightly be called a masterpiece. I feel like it’s not hard to evaluate those bands – Yo La Tengo’s Ride the Tiger is boring, Electr-o-pura is a masterpiece. They spent multiple years and multiple albums figuring out how they wanted to make music, and they eventually made something that would stand the test of time. It’s a good story, but it’s to be expected. It’s how it usually works.
But when a band hits with full force the way the Arcade Fire did with Funeral… it’s hard to know what to expect next. Read More…
