Year In Music 2011. Top 10 List.

Oh 2011.

Usually I wax poetic about the year in music but I'll try to keep my remarks short this year. Rough year in music. Glee still sucks. Somehow American Idol got more annoying with Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez. I moved to LA and fell in love with Amoeba Records. Loving all the tribute albums that were released this year and I'm starting to get in this mix tape trend.

So onto the list.

Honorable Mentions.

Frank Ocean, The War On Drugs, Fleet Foxes and AraabMuzik

10. Toro Y Moi Underneath the Pine





This album is simply beautiful with rich layers of keyboards and vocals. It is French Pop, krautrock, chill wave and 80's funk pop rolled into one. "New Beat" has a swagger not found in their debut album. "How I Know" is the best Stereolab song in years. (Sorry Strereolab. I love you). Sure, within the album their is the prerequisite nod to the Beach Boys but so does 38% of all hipster records.

9. Shabazz Palaces Black Up



Remember Digable Planets? Remember their smoked out jazz groove hip hop that everybody dismissed as a Tribe Called Quest rip off. Shabazz Palaces might not have a unique sound either but it's a great sound. Black Up might remind you of Madvillain or Cannibal Ox and that is nothing to scoff at. Ishmael Butler crafts precise lyrics focused on attacking corporate greed and the need for a revolution if not on the streets than within our minds.

8.  Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde





Dye It Blonde was my fun record of 2011. Insanely catchy, with big hooks and often bigger choruses. It's got a skip and a hop, kick the air kind of appeal. It's a bouncy T. Rex meets a less arrogant 90's britpop sound that is far too infectious. Bravo!

7. Washed Out Within and Without




So chill wave might be the big thing or the next big thing or last years big thing. It doesn't help that it can be hard for the casual listener to differentiate between chill wave and certain forms of dubstep. I'm looking at you James Blake. Washed Out's primary focus is to let the good time roll but it's an incredibly warm and sensual album. It's great for the beach, fabulous if you have a decent pair of headphones and can work in the club.

6. The Weeknd House of Balloons




The Weeknd released three mixtapes in 2011 and all are pretty darn good in their own right but the first, House of Balloons is clearly the best. It's hard to not get excited about this new generation of R&B that isn't a retread of neo-soul, laying down jazz/funk grooves or trying to completely rip off Michael Jackson. It doesn't break from all traditional R&B conventions but embraces electronic music and indie music to a different degree. Abel Tesfaye truly explores, in a wonderful and beautiful breaking way that can be too uncomfortable when given too much thought, the recklessly over drugged and oversexed world of the scene.

5. SBTRKT SBTRKT





Sure I'll (try to) say it and not sound like an idiot but this album is wonderfully polished and glitchy. Is it dub step? I don't know. WIth vocal contributions from Little Dragon, Jessie Ware and Sampha this album is far less annoying than most dub step you will find. It's bass heavy, It has an old garage, Chicago house, club music feel to it. While records from Mount Kimbie and James Blake came off (to me) as overrated, SBTRKT feels danceable, intimate and soulful.

4. Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost





In 2009, Girls Album was my album of the year with it's simple 50's era guitar riffs and tips of the hat to the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello and Spiritualized. This album has all of those influences and then some. Throw in some Elliot Smith, early 90's guitar rock and smokey bar blues and soul. This is not Album but it is a great, great, great record that deals with heart ache, spiritual unrest and family conflict... mmm, fun, but it is.

3. Bon Iver Bon Iver





A female friend likes to remind me how much this album melts her heart. Despite the lame recommendation and the the fact the Bon Iver likes to buddy buddy with Kanye West often, this record is anything but lame and is impeccably graceful. It's simple enough that a gentle drum roll feels like rolling thunder. Their is an ambiance to this record unlike most in which the vocals or the music could simply stand alone and the album would be as lovely as the isolation it soaks in.  Bon Iver is an exploration of remorse and bewilderment. It is concrete and dream like all at once.

2. Fucked Up David Comes To Life 





It's sad to think that Fucked Up could totally sell out by changing their super appropriate name for something clever, commercial and dated. If they could replace the singer's vocal chords so he can sound more like Billy Joe Armstrong then they would be HUGE. Sure, they might be huge in the mainstream but they might suck too. Fucked Up try to live up to the early days of hardcore punk but with the exception for the vocal to me, the record sounds like a wonderfully layered classic rock album. There is little about this record that is not accessible if you have an open mind. These are songs of outrage, rebellion and sadness but you can fist pump and run up a mountain while enjoying. Kick ass record.

1. M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming





Okay this seems like an obvious choice. M83 crafted an album that has drawn comparisons to the Beatle's White Album with My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. It can be dancetastic "Midnight City" or silly, "Raconte - Moi Une Histoire." It also carries the usual M83 tricks of the trade like 80's, 80's and more 80's. Also epic, epic and more epic. It is as if Anthony Gonzalez wanted to make an 80's sound that by no means could have been produced in the 80's. I'm okay with it. Congratulations.

Why I'm Single - A Stuffed Animal Story (Not an Innuendo)

So a good friend of mine got me a Snoopy stuffed animal/toy/awesomeness from Build A Bear. This means a couple of things.

1. My friend Kim is thumbs up for getting me a really cute Snoopy stuffed animal/toy/awesomeness.
2. Build A Bear is a lot cooler than I thought for carrying Peanuts characters.
3. I am kind of lame for having stuffed animals at my age but super rad for admitting it. balance. I also have two stuffed manatees named Manfred and Manuel (Manny).

So I am currently single and I won't deny that Snoopy takes up half of the bed. Yeah, I said it. Snoopy resides on the left side of the bed on the northern territory. One morning I awoke to find him there, looking comfortable on one of my pillows. I, the selfish bastard was using three of the four pillows I own and for some reason was heavily contemplating taking the fourth pillow. Then I stopped and reflected; if i take the fourth pillow then Snoopy might not be comfortable and I would feel bad. He still resides on my fourth pillow and I plan to go to Ikea this week to purchase a fifth pillow.

thank you.

goodnight.




Please note that my social and romantic status has nothing to do with my fear of commitment, my inability to be satisfied with myself or the people I meet, my confused romantic idealism and my high standards in the pursuit of love. No, I'm not flawed.