Here is my highly-subjective, personal list of favorite albums of 2011.
Wild Flag – Wild Flag | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Romance” (mp3)Rarely do supergroups like this one meet their expectations. But the members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium, and The Minders combined to surpass expectations. On their self titled debut, Carrie Brownstein’s punk guitar and Mary Timony’s grunge riffs dominate but all four musicians meld together perfectly to create ferocious and powerful music. This band picked up where Sleater-Kinney’s last album, The Woods, left off but then added to the sound.
Alexi Murdoch – Towards the Sun | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Towards the Sun” (mp3)This is the second album by Murdoch and his first since 2006. He was featured on the soundtrack to the film Away We Go. With his tender picking and swooping vocals, he sounds like a complacent and more contented version of Nick Drake. His music is nearly as engaging as Drake’s, but Murdoch has a more placatory sound without the dark undertones. It sounds familiar, even on the first listen.
Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers – Starlight Hotel | CD MP3
Download “If I Can’t Trust You With a Quarter (How Can I Trust You with My Heart?)” (mp3)This honky-tonk songstress is backed by an assiduous band. Her songwriting brings to mind Loretta Lynn, but her voice has the timbre of a young Emmylou Harris. The way she drawls out lines like, “The way you love me, darlin’, suits me just fine,” you know she’ll be raising more than a few barns with this album.
Yuck – Yuck | CD Deluxe CD Vinyl Deluxe Vinyl MP3 Deluxe MP3
Download “Rubber” (mp3)This four-piece band plays music that is heavily influenced by the alternative bands of the 90s. The guitar driven music has riffs that summon Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. references. Their self titled debut is a tight and compact set of explosive dirges, shoegaze songs, and melodic guitar prowess.
Dead Man Winter – Bright Lights | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Nicotine” (mp3)Dave Simonett is the lead singer and guitarist of Trampled By Turtles, an all acoustic band. He also now fronts Dead Man Winter, a band that allows him to explore more amplified music. There’s still an acoustic basis for these 11 songs that are steeped in Americana. The band adds a diverse set of instrumentation with layers of guitars, lap steel, banjo, and fiddle. The best songs, like “Get Low,” and the opening track, “Nicotine,” play like burning rock that will be hard to put out.
Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Stone Rollin’” (mp3)The former singer of Tony! Toni! Toné! is back with another album of classic soul music. This set drips with a retro sound that perfectly captures the energy of the original R&B and soul revues and is the year’s best album of that genre.
The Cave Singers – No Witch | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Swim Club” (mp3)
Download “Black Leaf” (mp3)For their third album, this folk rock trio release another set of addictive songs. No Witch has a little bit more production than their last album (a favorite from 2009) but that ends up being a good thing for this consistently alluring album. The vocals are direct and focused to the center of the mix while the guitarwork travels between ripe folk and aggressive blues lines.
Library Voices – Summer of Lust | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Generation Handclap” (mp3)The duo of Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer share instruments and vocals on these eclectic pop songs. They blend acoustic and electronic instruments into catchy and upbeat music and mix modern and nostalgic sounds into indelible songs.
Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Culture of Fear” (mp3)The DJ duo of Eric Hilton and Rob Garza has returned with a new album that mixes trip hop, jazz, and other styles. There is a deep groove to the music and vocals that have a strong sense of conscience. It’s a diverse album with multiple guest vocalists and rounded out with a stellar set of studio musicians.
Scattered Trees – Sympathy | CD MP3
Download “A Conversation About Death on New Year’s Eve” (mp3)
Download “Love and Leave” (mp3)The lead singer of this sextet from Chicago wrote Sympathy after his father passed away. The songs have unworldly outlooks. The music sounds as if Thom Yorke had taken the shells of early Radiohead songs and used the current cast of Wilco as the backing band.
The Decemberists – The King is Dead | CD CD/DVD CD/DVD/Book Vinyl MP3
Download “Down by the Water” (mp3)The King is Dead is the most straightforward album The Decemberists have created. With the addition of Peter Buck on three tracks, there are obvious allusions to R.E.M. in the music. This album also includes the most harmonica blowing of the band’s catalog. The overall effect is a more traditional, front porch approach to the band’s folk rock style. While the long rolling prose style of Colin Meloy’s lyrics are not very prominent, The King is Dead is still a decidedly catchy Decemberists album.
Andy Friedman – Laserbeams and Dreams | CD MP3
Download “Coming Home (Drifter’s Blessing)” (mp3)This singer-songwriter’s influences can be recognized from the blues-styled lyrics to the Leonard Cohen delivery of his deep voice. This album was supposedly recorded within 24 hours. Perhaps that’s what gives the songs an immediately tangible feeling.
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Vomit” (mp3)After last year’s Broken Dreams Club EP (a TWSIS favorite of 2010), Girls returns with their second full-length album of decidedly retro music. This one has a large and diverse sound. The band moves through rock influences – jangly ‘50s pop, layered ‘60s chamber pop, anthemic ‘70s hard rock, ‘90s shoegaze, to name a few of the most prominent styles. With the addition of a gospel choir on most of the songs, Owens already ethereal sounding vocals take on an additional spiritual quality.
Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Love the Way You Walk Away” (mp3)Blitzen Trapper continues to deliver the catchy folk rock sound that has made them a favorite at TWSIS in past years (2008 & 2009). The band owes as much to classic rock as country and folk music. The sextet layers acoustic, electric, and slide guitars, piano, banjo, and harmonica with gated drums that give the songs a pristine percussive sound. Eric Earley’s vocals have a wild but controlled swagger over top the musical concoction.
Michael Dean Damron – Plea from a Ghost | CD MP3
Download “The Day Brian Piccolo Dies” (mp3)Michael Dean Damron is the frontman of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House. His solo albums have the same raspy voiced, outlaw country music as I Can Lick Any SOB, but are little more stripped down with a bit more acoustic guitar. Of his solo and SOB albums, this is one of his best batch of songs with great lines like “Goddamn, you devil, you can’t have my soul/ It’s belongs to John Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and The Rolling Stones” in “The Devil Meets the Long-Haired Weirdo.”
Dengue Fever – Cannibal Courtship | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Cement Slippers” (mp3)The combination of psychedelic rock and Cambodian pop music has given Dengue Fever a unique sound. On Cannibal Courtship, the band’s fifth full-length release, the songs lean a little more towards the pop side of things and add up to being one of the band’s most appealing albums.
The Baseball Project – Volume 2: High and Inside | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Panda & The Freak” (mp3)I’ve become a sucker for these albums of catchy baseball nostalgia by the indie supergroup of Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Linda Pitmon, and Peter Buck. On this second album, they wrote songs about Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, baseball nicknames (especially them 2010 Giants), Pete Rose, and Bill Buckner, and simply being a fan of the sport.
Generationals – Actor-Caster | CD MP3
Download “Ten-Twenty-Ten” (mp3)The duo of Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer share instruments and vocals on these eclectic pop songs. They blend acoustic and electronic instruments into catchy and upbeat music and mix modern and nostalgic sounds into indelible songs.
Hayes Carll – KMAG YOYO (& other American songs) | CD Vinyl MP3
KMAG YOYO, Hayes Carll’s fourth album, is yet another country inflused album that highlights his songwriting prowess. His Texas drawl, crackling voice, and Dylanesque songs are accompanied with a perfect mix of guitars, banjo, and lap steel.
Bahamas – Pink Strat | CD Vinyl MP3
Download “Already Yours” (mp3)Pink Strat, Afie Jurvanen’s debut album under the name Bahamas, was released in Canada in 2009 and finally being released in the US this year. The guitarist, who has toured as a hired picker for Broken Social Scene solo artists like Jason Collett, Feist, and Amy Milan, creates affecting pop music that would not be out of place on a playlist with those aforementioned members of BSS.
Honorable Mentions:
David Bazan – Strange Negotiations
Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup
Boat – Dress Like Your Idols
Solomon Burke & De Dijk – Hold On Tight
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – It’s a Corporate World
DeVotchKa – 100 Lovers
Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
Lifeguards – Waving at the Astronauts
Richmond Fontaine – The High Country
TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
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