The best of 2011 - #2

Sorry for the delay, but here we are: the penultimate album of last year, and although 2011 is rapidly receding into the mists of the past, this album will be in heavy rotation on my iPod for quite some time, and I doubt very much that I'm alone in that.

 #2 - Robbie Robertson - How to Become Clairvoyant

Robbie Roberson has been producing (in every sense of the word) amazing music for decades, from the classic hits with The Band to his impressive solo repertoire, and he's clearly not nearly done yet.
How to Become Clairvoyant ranges from the spiritual exploration of Straight Down the Line to the melancholy wistfulness of the title track to the nostalgic poignancy of an aging (aged?) hippy, which teeters on the edge of outright despair, in When the Night was Young.
Throughout all, Robertson sprinkles the prefect lick, riff and harmony in exactly the right spot, as only he can. 

The other thing amazing thing about this album is the number of musicians that appear alongside Robertson on many of the tracks. When you can attract names like Eric Clapton, Tom Morello, Steve Winwood and Trent Reznor, it's pretty clear how respected, and inter-generational, your music is.


Not that Robertson is new to collaborations, obviously, but he doesn't just rehash what's been done before, either in terms of his musical partners (although who wouldn't want to hear another track backed by Peter Gabriel?) or in terms of the music itself.


There's a general style and feel to Clairvoyant that harkens back to his amazing 1987 solo debut, but does it in a way that makes both albums feel new, rather than aging this one.


It's awesome. Listen to it. All of it. Over and over again.


Possible my favourite (in a really, really tight race) track on the album – Straight Down the Line:

The best of 2011 - #4-5

Here we go - breaking into the top 5.

In the last few weeks, I've heard several people who normally are pretty bang-on about these things say that 2011 was something of a dismal year for music, but I can't see how that's even possible, unless the requirement for a good year in music is for Arcade Fire to release an album, or for Nickelback to not release one...

Either way, it was awesome, and my top 10 are so close together in general that even as I'm posting these I'm still shuffling them around as we speak.

But as we get closer I'm just running out of albums. I've got five left, so I guess I'm on to the top five with not a ton of wiggle room.

#5 - The Decemberists - The King is Dead

See... this is what I'm talking about. Until I started writing the second portion of this post, The King Is Dead was number three on my list. Now it's number five, because as stupendous as it is, it just can't go ahead of #4, and I couldn't bear to put it ahead of what is now number three... or maybe number two... but I digress. Back to The Decemberists.

This was a *really* early addition to 2011's catalogue, released just about an entire year ago now, and it's so good, so satisfying and so easy to listen to that it feels like it's been around a lot longer than that.

As a big, big fan of words, I can't help but admire Colin Meloy's wordsmithery when it comes to some of the phrases involved in this album's songs. He's able to be folksy without being dumbed down, but is at the same time able to keep the words elevated without resorting to pomposity.

Unlike me, apparently.

Anyway, since The Decemberists were really not on my radar at all before the release of this album, I haven't got a lot of history with them, or much insight into where/how The King Is Dead fits in with the rest of their discography, but I can say that they've won themselves a new fan. Hard.

#4 - Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What

Every now and then I stand in awe of people who can just blatantly fly in the face of the idea that everyone has a somehow limited amount of excellence in them. Then 2011 rolls around and Paul Simon of all people releases a brand new album.

People who have been writing worldwide hits and inspirational examples of musical brilliance for very nearly a half-century really ought to have run out of awesome by now, but apparently it's just most of them that do that. This guy, on the other hand, apparently has loads of awesome left over for the world to enjoy.

This album, in addition to being an example of Simon's enduring mastery of songwriting, is a more spiritual exploration than is usual for him. While there are hints and allusions to his previous work (the "bomb in the marketplace" reference in Love is Eternal Sacred Light tying back to Graceland's Boy in the Bubble nicely) the overall tone is much more pensive, personal and introspective.

It's not a complete departure, though, and still has musical echoes of the African percussive/rhythmic elements that made Graceland such a groundbreaking venture. That's where Dazzling Blue comes in, the track that I thought would be the best choice for a standout example song, although you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't give serious attention to the entire album, particularly The Afterlife and Waiting for Christmas Day.

The best of 2011 - #6-7

The saga continues with my entirely-unasked-for top 10 albums of 2011.

#7 - Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2

After the mind blowingly rad preview video featuring Will Farrell, Jack Black, Elijah Wood, etc, it was hard not to be at least a little deflated on the first couple of listens, but after the initial rebound from the overhype, things have settled in nicely for HSCP2.

Who would have guessed that three white Jewish boys who started out as an unremarkable NYC punk band would end up becoming one of the most influential, enduring and important hip hop acts ever?

I think what I like about this album the most is how hard the Beasties make you work, consistently, to get into one of their new offerings. Each album is different in a way you likely wouldn't have expected.

Take their previous three albums:

• Hello Nasty (1998) - Sci-fi inspired, electronically laced, and awesome.
• To The 5 Boroughs (2004) - Simpler arrangements, less production and awesome.
• The Mix-Up (2007) - This is an instrumental album from a rap group. Yup. You heard me.

Which brings us to HSCP2, with its heavy voice effects, noisy layering and driving percussion all over the place, it's a new step, and one that maybe only the Beastie Boys could pull off with this much chutzpah.

#6 - The Black Keys - El Camino

After the atom bomb of rock that was Brothers, it was up in the air whether people would still be too wrapped up in it to give El Camino the attention it so richly deserves, and although critics have taken to it like Mayans to human sacrifice (too soon?), a lot of people aren't ready to bump Brothers from its heavy rotation spot just yet.

But they should. Once again, The Black Keys prove that you don't need the bells and whistles of rock production, a huge mini-orchestra (I'm looking at you, highly overrated Arcade Fire), or a crippling reliance on exhausted, recycled, cliched rock riffs and lyrics (you know who you are, Theory of a Nickel Creed bands) to make it in music today.

The imagined conversation that must have happened somewhere along the line in the youths of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney:

"You: learn guitar. You: learn drums. Good. Now, make something that nobody will ever want to stop listening do."

And then they did. Twice.

The best of 2011 - #8-10

So... about timing.

I had originally intended to spread these posts out, and have them finished by the wrap-up of the year, but instead of that, I decided that I would give people something to read in the doldrums of early January, so that's why I'm doing the bottom chunk of my top 10 today, and then I'll devote a bit more space to #6 and #7, and then give each of the top 5 their own posts, and rightly so, because they're all rad.

Yeah... that's the way it went. It completely wasn't that I just forgot to get on these posts early enough. Nope. Not that at all.

Anyway, so here are the bottom three of the best 10 albums of 2011. They're good stuff. I'm including a video for one stand-out track for each, but as you might imagine, you don't get on a top-10 list without having more than one awesome song, so I'd recommend giving the entire albums some serious listening time and attention. Do it. You know you want to.

Without further ado -

#10: Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes

Listen to this pretty much anywhere, but make sure you slap it on while you're driving at least once.

Good old fashioned rock and roll - heavy guitars, great licks and anthemic choruses - without the rampant Nicklebackishness that drives so many people to schmaltzy indie "rock" lately.

Presenting: Bakersfield.



#9: Hugh Laurie- Let Them Talk

Man... is there anything Hugh Laurie can't do? From British comedy genius (do yourself and your unsplit sides a favour and spend some time with Fry and Laurie and Blackadder) to prime time American medical drama crusty genius to blues great.

He's always been an awesome musician, and all of House's reflective piano diddling has been Laurie himself rocking out, so for people who've been paying attention, there's no surprise that this album is great, but with the collection of classic gospel/jazz/blues tunes, and the selection of talented guests, Laurie's got himself an awesome offering in this one.

Presenting: St. James Infirmary



#8: Cake - Showroom of Compassion

Have you ever tried to describe Cake's music to anyone? It's really, really hard.

"Well... the singer sortof talks, but he's singing, and there's a trumpet, but no ska or shout choruses, and there's a lot of percussion, but usually only stuff that's used once or twice per song... here. Just listen."

That tends to be how it goes. Yes, it's hard to describe a lot of bands' music with ease and do it justice, but something about Cake has always been distinctly other from other bands active at the same time, which results in a timeless quality to their tunes. You hear a solid Cake track for the first time, and the next time you hear it, it's like you've always been listening to it.

Presenting: Sick of You

The best of 2011 - the rest

'Tis the season for a lot of things, but chief among them is weighing in to the wild and wondrous world of listing your own personal top 10 list for music produced/released over the past year.

As you've probably guessed, I'm in.

Before fully launching into my 10 favourite albums of the year, I should give the nod to those that got honourable mentions - those that contained a few gems and/or were by bands that I generally like, but that didn't actually contain quite enough solid Grade A tunes to warrant a top 10 appearance.

Those other notables include (in no particular order):

Weird Al Yankovic - Alpocalypse
Flogging Molly - Speed of Darkness
Blink-182 - Neighborhoods
Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs
Dropkick Murphys - Going Out in Style
The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain
Travis Barker - Give the Drummer Some
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Tao of the Dead

Some of these really surprised me by not actually making it on to my top 10, particularly Travis Barker, Trail of Dead and the new Foo Fighters, all of which have been on heavy rotation on my iPod since they came out, but there you have it.

I'll be back in a day or two with my #10 album. Until then, I recommend (highly) that you follow some of those links if you've not had the pleasure of making those artists' acquaintance, and introduce yourself to their awesomeness. It'll be worth it.