Favorite Albums of 2011 #11 through 6

11: Wire - Red Barked Tree

I've read a lot of complaints about the production on this album but I quite love the way these sounds reach my ears. It's got some really unique guitar sounds, but the this thing is full of terrific pop hooks and that's a winning combination. Some gritty guitar distortion makes for some exciting riffs, which might otherwise feel like standard alt. rock fare in the hands of less creative folks.




10: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

I can't think of much that hasn't already been written about Fleet Foxes. I think the vocals are perfect, the lyrics interesting and the guitar playing intricate. To me, Fleet Foxes sound like nature. Their music captures the spirit of glorious countryside scenery about as well as anything I've ever heard. The backing vocals are used to tremendous effect; it's the sort of music that makes me stop what I'm doing and blissfully nod in agreement.

9: Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys

I know a lot of people like Death Cab but I don't actually know many people who do. Their style has become something of a mainstream indie-pop, perhaps best exemplified by Ben Gibbard's vocals which sometimes try a bit too much to sound smart and sensitive. I've always liked them (some albums more than others) and this one is about as consistent throughout as they've been since 2003. It sounds like they're had a bit more fun in the studio, trying different things and sounding quite happy doing it. They branch out just enough to keep things interesting and have recorded some of their most exciting tracks in so doing (see title track, "You Are a Tourist," "Under the Sycamore," "Stay Young, Go Dancing."

8: Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver

I'm running out of adjectives that mean the same thing as "beautiful." I was going to use "heavenly" here, but that didn't feel like a natural part of my vocabulary so the reader may pick one: http://thesaurus.com/browse/beautiful. I don't honestly know whether this is a departure from or a continuation of the sounds on his debut; it's kind of both. It's unmistakably Bon Iver (best falsetto ever, for what little that's worth) but it's so intricately crafted that it requires close listens to catch every detail. On one hand the melodies feel a bit more straightforward but they're dressed in such a way that it's hard to catch everything that's happening with one cursory listen. In my mind, I understand how the two differ but I can't find the words. I keep coming back to how [synonym for pretty] these songs are.

7: Katie Costello - Lamplight

It's her personality that I like. I tend not to enjoy stuff that sounds like this, which I'd usually dismiss as "coffee-house music," but something in her voice makes her words so believable. The album really spoke to me, especially the track "The Weirds." She doesn't get bogged down with too many slow songs, fast songs, silly songs or sentimental songs. What ties these tracks together is her gorgeous voice and a general sense of it's-a-crazy-world-but-thing-will-be-ok. As may be evident, I love albums that I can agree with.

6: Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth

I'd be the first to admit that I am not an especially gifted music critic. The music I listen to has very distinct flavors and personalities that seem clear to me but I don't always know how to communicate them to other people. Sometimes I like albums that, to most critics, would seem less interesting, less artistically challenging, than others (this is ranked higher than Fleet Foxes, Wire and Bon Iver). I don't really care that much. I want to celebrate the music I like because some albums come to matter so incredibly much to me and there really isn't any set of rules to explain why some albums do and others don't.

Noah and the Whale play 60s/70s flavored pop with, perhaps, slight psychedelic undertones. For some reason, they sound to me like what might happen if you threw The Talking Heads and Tom Petty in a blender (plus a mystery ingredient that I can't put my finger on).

I have this blog because I love music and want to share my feelings about it, but my mind doesn't always work like a critic. That shouldn't matter, since there really are no rules to having a blog. High school teachers often told me it's never enough to simply say "I like this." I disagree. Sometimes songs can just lodge themselves firmly in my heart and tell my brain to go fuck itself (I don't like censorship). This album really lifted my spirits at times throughout the summer and it continues to do so without fail.

The list so far:
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3.
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6. Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth
7. Katie Costello - Lamplight
8. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
9. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
11. Wire - Red Barked Tree
12. A.A. Bondy - Believers
13. Russian Circles - Empros
14. Piatcions - Senseless>Sense
15. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die but You Will
16. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
17. Amebix - Sonic Mass
18. Obits - Moody, Standard and Poor
19. Austra - Feel it Break
20. Maria Taylor - Overlook
21. Old Silver Key - Tales of Wanderings
22. Mates of State - Mountaintops
23. This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket
24. Low - C'mon
25. Weedeater - Jason... the Dragon
26. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
27. Dropkick Murphys - Going Out in Style
28. Indian - Guiltless
29. WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
30. Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math