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:
Weekend: “End Times/Afterimage”
I am a nerd, and the way you can know this is that I keep an excel list of albums I want to check out. The list is sorted into various buckets – things I like enough to rank in some manner, stuff I haven’t heard or haven’t judged yet, stuff that isn’t out yet, and stuff that I’ve listened to and dismissed. This Weekend record, for some reason, fell into that last group when I listened to it early this year, but it is now time to admit, long after all the blogs have already jumped on and off this bandwagon, that this album is amazing. What with this and the Big Troubles record, I’m starting to think I should just pre-order everything Slumberland puts out to save myself some time. Read More…
