DimeBag

2011 ends in just a few short days, which means a whole new year of music to look forward to. First though, we have to look back at the music from this year. The most important of all lists? The best albums of the year.

Top 10 best/my favorite albums of 2011:

1.   Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver – What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said a thousand times. This is simply an amazing album.  It’s production is untouchable. There is no limit to what Justin Vernon will do to a track to make it perfect. A French horn thrown in for a measure? Sure. A little autotune here? Why not.  The sound of this album is hard to describe. Although many of these songs sound quite different (like a heavy metal Civil War on Perth to an 80s throw back on Beth/Rest), there is still an underlying sonic theme. It almost puts you somewhere. An abandoned mansion comes to mind. Or maybe Iceland. Or maybe just somewhere mental that can’t really be described visually. It’s been nominated for six Grammies and I wouldn’t be surprised with some wins. It’s won for me anyway. Album of the year.

2.   Radiohead – King of Limbs – Radiohead is my all time favorite band. Therefore, a little crack formed in my heart when this album came out. Seen as a disappointment by critics and fans right away, some left it and never came back. But this thing does as all Radiohead albums do. It grew. It took a little longer than most of their albums, but months after its release, I love this album. Made up of mostly independent sounds, it was astonishing that they could be put together to form actually AWESOME music (see: Bloom). From the krautrock of Morning Mr. Magpie, to the glitch-step of Feral, to the classic piano ballad of Codex, this is a welcome addition to the Radiohead catalog.

3.   Tyler the Creator – Goblin – If you aren’t already a Tyler the Creator/OFWGKTA fan at this point, you are either a normal human or haven’t been paying attention to the internet. This shit is vile, sick, and awesome. Tyler’s got an unreal flow and rhymes. It’s really long and he’s still figuring out exactly who he is as a rapper and person. Still, between the beats and the mic, this is a pretty damn good first proper album. Oh yeah, and YONKERS

4.   Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch the Throne – One of the things that I hate most about nearly all mainstream hip hop is the subject matter. The vast majority of it is centered on rappers bragging about how much money and much luxurious shit that they had. Yes, both Hove and Ye spend literally this entire album bragging about just that. Yet, it only makes this album even better. Much to the opposite of last year’s My Beautiful Dark TwistedFantasy’s grandiose, these are pop length rap songs, by they kill it. Between the fantastically sampled Otis, the dubstep of Who Gon Stop Me and OF COURSE Niggas in Paris, this shit cray.

5.   M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – What a big album. 80 minutes of synthy dream pop stretched over two discs. It’s a cool idea: two “brother-sister” albums with the same amount of tracks and a counterpart for each song. Oh yeah, and the music. Thick electronic s and reverby vocals make a sound of dance music in a space station. It’s really long, and some of the interludes are pure filler, but this thing put out the best dance music of the year.

6.   tUnE-yArdS – W H O K I L L  - It’s a shame that I just discovered this mere days ago. It’s hard to give this a solid list placement, but hell I’ve been playing this nonstop since I got it. I love this girl with all my heart. I don’t know even exactly what genre this falls into. Just listen to it. It’s great. It really is. Really. I could see this being my number one if I had given it more time to settle.

7.   Death Grips – Exmilitary – Pushing the boundaries of hip hop like no one has ever done before. This is almost unexplainable. High fucking intensity, high fucking volume rap with an MC who just screams his rhymes to you. That sounds pretty undesirable, and for most it probably is. But for those who get this, man, what a treat. And the Link Wray and Pink Floyd samples don’t hurt either.

8.   Battles – Gloss Drop – I was pretty nervous when I heard that Tyrondai Braxton had left Battles last year. I figured that Battles was all but done, and I had pretty low expectations for this going in. But hey, Gloss Drop rocks. With a lead single like Ice Cream, you can’t go wrong. Super awesome and unique sounding guitar riffs and super awesome and unique sounding drum beats dominate this thing. Admittedly, it is not quite as good as their debut Mirrored, but they exceeded my expectations tenfold. And of course there’s the music video for My Machines. Nothing competes with that.

9.   Hella – Tripper – The greatest math rock band in the world finally makes their return with this LP. Stripped back down to just Spencer Seim and Zach Hill (in my opinion, the best drummer in the world), the duo return to form for intense, balls to walls, mind numbing, avant-garde, and somehow catchy (???) tunes. They even bring down the speed a little for the first time in the careers for songs like Yubacore and Netgear, which go nicely with the regular ones like Headless and Psycho Bro.

10.   Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil – Noise pop kings (and queen) came back with a new one in January. It’s almost a bit poppier than normal, yet less poppy at the same time. Hard to explain. Listen. Mighty Barracks, Super Duper Rescue Heads and the last 30 seconds of Secret Mobilization are highlights.

A few albums considered for the top 10 that didn’t quite make the cut:

Wilco – The Whole Love – The best thing about this album is that it is a bit of a return to the weirdness of Wilco. “Dad rock” as Wilco’s sound has been called, is too boring without some experimentation. The early albums had it, and it got lost somewhere around Sky, Blue Sky. It’s not back completely, and this is no Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (a sheer masterpiece). But hey, we’re getting there.

The Strokes – Angles – Pretty classic Strokes sounds. People didn’t give this enough credit. Yeah, it’s not

“Is This It?”, but people need to stop thinking they can match their unreal debut. Just listen to these songs as they are and forgetting the comparison, and this a quality post-punk record.

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost – About half of these tracks are really great. Honey Bunny, Die, Alex, and Vomit are all killer. Most of the other tracks however…meh. It’s not that I don’t like ballads, but these are literally just straight rip offs. Critics like to say that this band “pays homage”. No, they’re just rehashing. But those good tracks up there, they’re really, really good. Some salvage achieved.

Giraffes? Giraffes! – Pink Magick – A math rock band from my state of New Hampshire??? Yes way. This duo recently released this really solid album a few months ago, and it demands some acknowledgment.

Drake – Take Care – Another album that I just recently got a hold of. Truth be told, I’ve only heard it once and I don’t have much to say yet. It didn’t feel right not throwing this up here, because there is definitely something about this that I really do appreciate. I’m sure that it would be regardless of when in the year that I got it.

Cults – Cults – A quality debut from this noisy pop band. A collection of somewhat similar sounding tracks, this is not super ambitious. However, these tracks are all very solid. Abducted, Go Outside and You Know What I Mean are highlights.

Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See – Seven months later, I’m still not sure how I feel about this. A true non-biased opinion from me is hard to achieve because of how high my hopes were for this. Arctic Monkeys’ direction has been going farther and farther away from where I wish it would since the second album, and this is the culmination of that. Although this wasn’t what I wanted from the band, this is still a good, safe listen. All the songs hover at around a 6 out of 10. Not killing me, but not blowing me away by any means.

Andrew Jackson Jihad – Knife Man – And so returns the resident heros of folk punk. With the regular caliber if heart wrenching lyrics and anxious vocals, the new album is much like the ones before. However, they stray a bit from the normal sounds of AJJ and bring it a little more punk than folk. And the lyrics are the best that they’ve ever been.

Of course, I didn’t just listen to music released in 2011 this year. There were plenty of albums that I discovered that I had never heard before or just finally got around to listening to. So here’s my list of my top 10 most listened to/favorite non-2011 albums of this year:

1.  Tera Melos – Patagonian Rats (2010) – An unbelievable math rock album. It has earned the distinction of being my all time second favorite math rock record (behind Hella’s Hold Your Horse Is). These guys have found the perfect balance between skill and experimentation with listenability and catchiness. This is the ideal album for anyone who is not yet in the math rock scene or has been reluctant to give it a go. The numbers don’t lie, this was my number one listened to album in 2011.

2.  J Dilla – Donuts (2006) – This album was a very second. 43 minutes of often instrumental and super short hip hop beats may seem boring on paper. But my god, these are the most infectious beats you’ll ever hear. Dilla takes ancient soul and R&B samples and puts them on a whole new level. Recommend for anyone ever.

3.  Wavves – King of the Beach (2010) – Amazing surf pop from a band that I know will keep being one of my favorites for a long, long time.

4.  Tyler the Creator – Bastard (2010) – The first release from now pretty damn famous Tyler. Yeah, the production is pretty flat, but the beats are super unique and of course, Tyler kills it on the mic.

 5.   Best Coast – Crazy for You (2010) – A short album of short surf-pop songs. Catchy as all hell, she just makes it work so damn well.

6.  The Decemberists – The Crane Wife (2006) – A great folk-rock release. Simple as that.

 7.  John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (1965) – Jazz always bored me growing up because you always only hear the traditional standards. They suck. You want the real stuff? This is it. For sure.

8.  LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007) – Dance rock with some real heart.

 9.  Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain (2005) – A collection of super inaccessible yet unbelievable noise rock. Not for the faint of brain.

10.  37500 Yens – Astero  (2007) – The only release from a little known French math rock duo. Real great stuff regardless

There were a few albums that I got hyped up for this year that just did not deliver. Here’s a short list of albums that kind of let me down this year:

Childish Gambino – Camp – A lot of hype about Donald Glover and his rapper aspirations. My hopes were high, and boy was I surprised. This thing just sucks.

Bomb the Music Industry! – Vacation – Maybe I’ve just grown out of this pop-punk sound. I don’t know, but this thing really didn’t thrill me much.

Black Keys – El Camino – These guys have a nice sound and everything, but it just gets so boring. They’ve been recording the same song for the last six albums, and It. Never. Changes.

Primus  - Green Naughyde – I was super excited from Primus’s first album in 12 years. The musicianship is great, but these songs all have pretty much the same tempo, same structure and they just don’t seem to want to try very hard.

In no real particular order, I give you some of my favorite tracks from 2011:

Jay-Z and Kanye West – Niggas in Paris – THIS SHIT CRAY

Tyler the Creator – Yonkers

Perth – Bon Iver

Wavves ft. Zach Hill – both Glued and Horse Shoes

Radiohead – Lotus Flower

tUnE-yArdS – My Country

M83 – New Map

Wilco – Born Alone

Hella – Headless

Girls – Honey Bunny

Kreyashawn – Gucci Gucci

Deerhoof – The Mighty Barracks

Death Grips – Takyon (Death Yon)

Drake – Headlines

Burial, Four Tet &Thom Yorke – Ego

Battles – Ice Cream

Arctic Monkeys – Black Treacle

So what do you guys think? Did I miss anyone? Put someone somewhere that didn’t deserve it? Screw up in a big way? Lemme know, and here’s to a magnificent music in 2012.