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:
Say Hi: “Dots on Maps”
Since discovering Say Hi several years ago, I have listened to their songs 570 times, according to last.fm, which does not take into account the five or six times I’ve listened to their new record, um, uh oh, since I got it in the mail on Saturday, or how many times I’ve listened to various CDs in my car. The only bands I’ve listened to more are Prince (not a band, but still), the Hold Steady, and the Mountain Goats. And that seems about right.
Which is to say that Eric Elbogen makes pretty much the exact type of beautiful pop music that I love – compact songs with memorable lyrics and little hooks around every corner. Not sure how the rest of the year will shake out, of course, but I have a feeling this record will end up near the top. Fantastic – and extra thanks to Barsuk for getting it to me four days early.
Phoenix and Say Hi: Sometimes Better Live
Say Hi's Oohs and Aahs
I discovered Say Hi en masse about a year ago, picking up all their albums at once and settling on Impeccable Blahs as the best of the bunch by quite a stretch. However, the most recent record is pretty excellent too, and they played several of its songs on a Daytrotter session last May, which I just got around to listening to now. One of its songs in particular is excellent live – all crunchy, lively guitar and non-stop beat. Read More…
The 25 Best Albums of 2009
Yep – it’s that time of year. The release calendar is a wasteland through the holidays, there are at least 3 albums I’m really looking forward to in January, but in the meantime, we’ve got a month or so to decide on the best records of the year. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been listening and relistening to the year’s crop, jockeying position, and here’s the deal.
The Top Ten:
This has been sitting at #1 since I first heard it late in 2008 on imeem (and trust me – no one gives less of a crap about imeem than me – that’s how much I wanted to hear it). Then they got picked up by a label, released it, I bought it the day it came out on iTunes, they got picked up by another label and it was rereleased, and then they went on tour and came nowhere near here. Oh well. The album – it’s a blast of guitars and noise and lyrics written as if nothing mattered but girls. It makes me feel like it’s 1995 and I’m much younger than I am. It has the line “we run the gauntlet / must get to France / so we can french kiss some French girls,” which is ridiculous. But then that same song has the lyrics “she had wet hair / say what you will / I don’t care, I couldn’t resist it,” which makes total sense to me.
This one came out of nowhere, but if you can’t trust Merge with power-pop, than what can you trust them with? So it’s a total summer record – big hooks, catchy choruses, ba ba bas and la la las, and though it does make me want a new Beulah record pretty badly (or at least for Miles Kurowsky to finish his solo album), it also pretty much rules all by itself.
3) Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer
The title is untouchable, the album art is hideously awesome, and it’s totally the catchiest thing Spencer Krug has ever done outside of Wolf Parade. I’ve enjoyed all his records, but this one is by far the easiest to love, with the most memorable songs, not the least of which is the 10+ minute suite that closes the record and manages to one-up the also pretty awesome “Kissing the Beehive” at the end of the last Wolf Parade album.
4) Handsome Furs: Face Control
The other guy from Wolf Parade (Dan Boeckner), with the second best Wolf Parade side-project of the year. But it’s close – this easily outstrips his first record as Handsome Furs, with songs that aren’t as claustrophobic or mannered. And the promo shots he and his wife took for promotion of the record are hotttt.
5) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: s/t
Three new bands in my top 5, which bodes well for the future. This one is a total throwback – this record could have been released at any point in the early 90s and I wouldn’t have batted an eye. It’s also incredibly catchy and fun and addicting – AND they released three singles with b-sides AND an EP this year. An embarrassment of riches.
6 ) The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come
It’s not Tallahassee, or Get Lonely, or Heretic Pride, but it’s a new Mountain Goats record, and so far, that gets it into my top ten by default.
There really aren’t any tricks left up Yo La Tengo’s sleeves at this point in their career, but their ability to spit out late-period gems that don’t sound warmed over or derivitave is positively shocking at this point. This record should have been their Steel Wheels or All That You Can’t Leave Behind or something, but it’s at least as good as any of the past 5 records, all of which are pretty damn good.
8 Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Honestly this record doesn’t belong as high as it is on its collective merits (most notably because of its atrocious sequencing) – there are at least 5 songs that I could take or leave. But the other 5 are so good that they make you forget the weak spots, with the record’s true triumph being “Lisztomania” – easily the best song of the year.
9) Say Hi: Oohs and Aahs
I went back and looked; if I had heard of Say Hi in 2006, Impeccable Blahs would have been my #2 of the year (albeit a distant second to Boys and Girls in America). As it is, I had fun discovering them this year, and this record is pretty good too.
This was my sleeper – I heard it pretty early in the year and didn’t care much for it, but by the end of the year it was the record that I put on every time I wanted to hear something new but didn’t have anything specific in mind.
The rest:
11) The Thermals: Now We Can See
After The Body, The Blood, The Machine, I was really hoping this record would be better.
12) Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Vs. Children
13) The Dodos: Time to Die
Not nearly as good as the last record, but “Fables” comes a pretty close second to “Lisztomania” as song of the year.
14) David Bazan: Curse Your Branches
For the faint of faith.
15) Dead Man’s Bones: s/t
Ryan Gosling follows in the footsteps of Zooey Deschanel (or Don Johnson, if you will), and makes a surprisingly good album. Really.
16) Bishop Allen: Grrr…
17) Built to Spill: There is No Enemy
18) Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
19) The Veils: Sun Gangs
20) The Drums: Summertime!
21) White Rabbits: It’s Frightening
22) The Decemberists: Hazards of Love
23) An Horse: Rearrange Beds
24) The xx: s/t
25) Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!
Say Hi: Bits of Impeccable Blahs
Say Hi: Impeccable Blahs. See - vampires. Told you.
As a semi-professional music appreciator, there are few things more rewarding than finding a band that a) you love, b) you hadn’t previously heard of, and c) that has already released a bunch of records you can dive into immediately. All three of those conditions were in play for me this year when I discovered Say Hi (previously Say Hi to Your Mom) and Oohs and Aahs.
Oddly, I had actually gotten one of their albums as a promo several years prior, when I wrote news for a prominent online music publication and was on their masthead: a perfect scenario for getting yourself on the list of every publicist in indie rockdom. I didn’t listen to every promo I got during that period, though I did keep an eye open for things that looked interesting and would generally at least give them a cursory listen. With this one (Ferocious Mopes), I actually remember liking it enough to give it a couple listens, but ultimately it didn’t stick, and it got buried in my promo pile.
So one Tuesday earlier this year, I was trolling through the new releases on Emusic, and I came across a new album by Say Hi on Barsuk. I was curious if it was the same band with a shortened moniker, which it was; I was also curious if it was any good, which it definitely was. They had advanced considerably from Ferocious Mopes – part of it was the instrumentation (live drums, more varied sounds in general), but more than that, it was the songwriting, which, although a touch still more precious than sincere, managed to stuff hooks wherever there was room, for catchy little bursts of pop grandeur.
So I ended up getting all of their albums over the span of a week or two, and for nearly a month straight, Say Hi was almost all I listened to. I’d start to play something else, and then think, “you know, I’d really rather listen to Say Hi.” They skyrocketed up my last.fm profile – currently sitting right below Prince and the Hold Steady but in front of Sunset Rubdown, which is kind of impressive. Or nerdy.
Anyway, after many listens, I settled on Impeccable Blahs, their fourth record, as the hands-down best of the bunch – it’s supposedly about “everyday vampires,” which I think means that Eric Elbogen wanted an excuse to use vampire metaphors for an entire album, but with or without that conceit, it’s a small masterpiece of pop songwriting, and would easily be #2 or #3 on my album of the year list if it had been released this year. Here’s a couple highlights – enjoy!
