Best (Favourite) Music of 2011

Posting a year-end list in December is, for me, an admission of defeat. It goes against my real feelings about year-end lists and their potential viability and reveals me as an all-too-willing cog in the grips of the blog-o-sphere hype machine. Which is no huge reveal. I am easily one of the most hyperbolic (and nonsensical) writers on the internet and Forest Gospel is not even a blip on the radar of music taste-making--as well it shouldn't be. So I suppose it's not a big deal if I allow myself to get sucked into the pomp and confetti of the season.

Still, I really love these albums and respect the talent and energy of their creators. I see them as adopted children and, that said, have reservations about ordering them: announcing who I love the most. That and I'm hesitant to provide any definitive list of who stands to be recognized and how to create such a list honestly. In all reality, list-making is a flippant endeavor: within a day my list can flip over on top of itself, removing handfuls of solid picks for unsteady ones and vice versa.  If I posted this list tomorrow it would be different.  So, it stands to be noted that in the time I've been working on the list, hordes of worthy albums have, at one time or another, been moving around on the list.  Albums from Lawrence English, Julianna Barwick, Nat Baldwin, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Car Seat Headrest, Thundercat, Thee Oh Sees, Millipede, Pete Swanson, Lee Noble, Tim Hecker, Emuul, Sharks' Teeth, Matthew Cooper, Bill Orcutt, etcetera, etcetera, all worthy of and at some point securely placed deep in the list.  Time and proximity to the albums always plays a factor and so it should be recognized that these albums and others (surely many that I haven't even heard of) are worthy of attention. 

Is this introduction pathetic enough yet?  I take it all back.  This is the definitive list of the best (not favourite) albums of 2011.  Other lists are subjective, this one is not.  Read and weep:

25. Grouper -- A I A

The gauze-mouthed queen of all-things-ghostly one-ups herself.

Grouper: "Alien Observer"
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24. Chad VanGaalen -- Diaper Island

I'll always love Chad VanGaalen.  I don't know why exactly, but I'm simply enchanted by the man.  And Diaper Island, despite the regrettable album title, takes what VanGaalen produced in Women and lets it bleed into VanGaalen's own wonderfully twisted world of Canadian-born indie rock.

Chad VanGaalen - Sara by subpop
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23. Ezekiel Honig -- Folding In On Itself

Headphone candy for texture fiends.

Subverting the Memory Of Your Surroundings by ezekielhonig
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22. PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake

Love PJ Harvey.  Let England Shake is her best album (even with that awkward sample on "The Glorious Land").

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder by Vagrant Records
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21. Destroyer -- Kaputt

I don't know why exactly--everyone seems to love this album--but I'm pretty embarrassed by it.  But it's so good.

Destroyer | Kaput
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20. Grooms -- Prom

I simply can't shake the nineties.  Apparently neither can Grooms.

Grooms 'Prom' by kaninerecords
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19. Sandro Perri -- Impossible Spaces

Lush, perfect, soulful pop music.

Futureactive Kid Part 1 by Constellation Records
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18. Battles -- Gloss Drops

Don't be deceived, Gloss Drop is the best Battles has ever sounded.

Battles - Africastl
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17. Sparkling Wide Pressure -- Fragments of a Sound I Can Not Erase

Resplendently composed, experimentally-minded post-rock with near unrivaled prettiness.

Sparkling Wide Pressure - The Time That is Right by kimdawn
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16. Iceage -- New Brigade

Scandinavian punk rock with gloriously jagged edges.  An obsession.

Iceage - You're Blessed by What's Your Rupture?
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15. Red Horse -- Red Horse

Ridiculously percussive, cluttered and full of primal noise and aggression.  In competition with #4 for most violently played album on the list.

Part Three by _type
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14. Robag Wruhme -- Thora Vukk

There has been some really incredible "electronic" albums this year from the likes of Vladislav Delay, The Field, Demdike Stare, Andy Stott and RxRy. Really really great.  But none as good (in my mind) as Robag Wruhme's Thora Vukk.  This album really belongs in my top ten, but I don't want to reformat this list...

Robag Wruhme - Pnom Gobal

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13. Chris Rehm -- Worries, etc.

Chris Rehm proves for the second year in a row that he's poised to succeed white-noise elder-statesmen like Tim Hecker, Fennesz and the like.  Worries, etc. digs in deep for that special industrial grit that Rehm is particularly talented at mining.  (Also worth noting, his noise-pop band Caddywhompus's The Weight EP.)


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12. Deerhoof -- Deerhoof Vs. Evil

This album is so good.  Don't people know that this album is so good?  Deerhoof are unstoppable.  Deerhoof for president.

Deerhoof - No One Asked To Dance by Polyvinyl Records
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11. Sean McCann -- The Capital

Sean McCann can't stop making the best experimental beauty-drone records on the planet.  Of which The Capital is evidence.

Sean McCann - The Vanilla Maiden by ForestGospel
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10. The Caretaker -- An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

Hauntingly charming, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, is, as an album title, the most fitting description of this very special album.

The Caretaker: "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World"

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9. Dixie's Death Pool -- The Man with Flowering Hands

Volcanic, hallucinogenic, and beautiful.

Dixie's Death Pool - Sunlight Is Collecting On My Face by Drip Audio
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8. John Wiese -- Seven of Wands

Seven of Wands is John Wiese opening up his cluttered noise shrapnel like an accordion, allowing more space than ever before to slip between the crushing textures of which Wiese is the master.  Subtle and meditative is not something I ever thought I would sat about Wiese's music, yet here I am.
  John Wiese 'Scorpion Immobilization Sleeve' (PAN 22) by •PAN•
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7. Blackout Beach - Fuck Death

Carey Mercer, Frog Eyes front man and evil genius behind Blackout Beach, is my hero.  Possibly because he refuses to make a bad album.  Cursing death has never felt so empowering.

Blackout Beach "Beautiful Burning Desire" by DOJAGSC
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6. St. Vincent -- Strange Mercy

So good.  St. Vincent, the sweetheart of American indie rock, just keeps getting better and better with each album. 

St Vincent - Surgeon
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5. Julia Holter - Tragedy

Julia Holter's debut album, Tragedy, is one of the most entrancing, creepy and gorgeous albums I have heard in a long time.  Mixing squalid drones with all varieties beautiful pop music, the album is like a never-ending well of treasures.

Julia Holter - Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art
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4. Black Pus - Primordial Pus

Brian Chippendale's Black Pus moniker has long been one of my favourite noise rock projects around, and with Primordial Pus I am beginning to wonder if I like his solo project even more than his work with legendary Lightning Bolt.

Black Pus - "Favorite Blanket, Favorite Curse" by ForestGospel
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3. Shabazz Palaces -- Black Up

When hype meets expectation.  The best hip hop album I have heard in almost a decade.

Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... by subpop
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2. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges

Colin Stetson's minimalist, apocalyptic jazz on New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges is gargantuan and beastly, trenchant and disarmingly beautiful.  Such an amazing album (and one that should be consider equally with the also-amazing 10", Those Who Didn't Run).
  COLIN STETSON - The stars in his head (Dark Lights Remix) by Constellation Records
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1. Graham Lambkin -- Amateur Doubles

The only album (aside from Strange Mercy) that I didn't feature on the blog prior to making the list. And it's the best. So, essentially, the year-end list is now simply a frame for featuring Graham Lambkin's Amateur Doubles. There are reasons why I haven't posted about the album yet. Most notably the fact that it was barely released, like, this morning (maybe a little earlier). That and it's almost impossible to describe exactly why Lambkin's particular brand of sound collage is so potent. The volatility of the scraping textures and the odd, frighteningly beautiful bleeding between mumbling voices and fractured, muted melodies cutting in and out of the recording. Did I mention that the album--a masterpiece among Lambkin's discography: a discography of masterpieces--was recorded in a Honda Civic? Amateur Doubles affects me in a way no other album this year has, or could expect to.


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