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Reaper's Favorite Albums of 2011 (https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=253964)

Reaper16

12-19-2011 02:50 PM

Reaper's Favorite Albums of 2011

Here it is, y'all. The highly-anticipated annual list of my favorite albums of the year. 2011 was an interesting year in music. There wasn't a single album that I personally rated 9/10. No great albums. But there were a ton of albums that I rated 8.5/10 to 7.5/10. Lots and lots and lots of really good albums. I struggled with the ordering of these albums; it seemed arbitrary at times. So that's why in lieu of doing honorable mentions this year I'm just going to do an ordered top 50. That's right, these are my favorite 50 albums of the year.

As always, this isn't meaning to be an objective list of best albums of the year. While I listen to over 300 new albums each year, I still don't listen to enough to feel comfortable making objective claims about quality. Do you think I snubbed some really great dubstep album? Did I miss out on a perfect bluegrass album? It's very likely that I did, but this is a list of my personal favorites. That's why you're going to see lots of metal albums on the list. It's also why you're going to see as many, if not more, hip-hop albums on this list. 2011 was a stupendous year for rap music.

Anyway, I'm going to be rolling these out over the next couple of days or so as I write up little paragraphs for each album in-between working on other stuff.

50.) Tune-Yards - w h o k i l l
49.) White Willow - Terminal Twilight
48.) Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sects
47.) Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification
46.) La Dispute - Wildlife
45.) Childish Gambino - Camp
44.) Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
43.) Boris - New Album
42.) Antediluvian - Through the Cervix of Hawaah
41.) Fen - Epoch
40.) Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
39.) M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
38.) Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials
37.) Wild Flag - Wild Flag
36.) Opeth - Heritage
35.) The Roots - Undun
34.) Vektor - Outer Isolation
33.) Rudra - Brahmavidya: Immortal I
32.) Tech N9ne - All 6s & 7s
31.) Lady GaGa - Born This Way
30.) Death Grips - ExMilitary
29.) Leprous - Bilateral
28.) Mr. Mother****in eXquire - Lost in Translation
27.) ASAP Rocky - LiveLoveA$ap
26.) Hades Archer - For the Diabolical Ages
25.) Cities Aviv - Digital Lows
24.) Big KRIT - Return of 4Eva
23.) Absu - Abzu
22.) Disma - Towards the Megalith
21.) Cunninglynguists - Oneirology
20.) Bon Iver - Bon Iver
19.) Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
18.) Das Racist - Relax
17.) Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning
16.) Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult
15.) Ulcerate - The Destroyers of All
14.) Cormorant - Dwellings
13.) Symphony X - Iconoclast
12.) Danny Brown - XXX
11.) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
10.) Hell - Human Remains
09.) Wolverine - Communication Lost
08.) G-Side - Island
07.) Dessa - Castor, the Twin
06.) TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
05.) Unexpect - Fables of the Sleepless Empire
04.) Sims - Bad Time Zoo
03.) Doomtree - No Kings
02.) G-Side - The One... Cohesive
01.) Astronautalis - This Is Our Science

Thanks for reading and listening. Please put up your own lists in this thread if you'd like, or talk about other year-end lists, etc. Just like you guys have done for the past few years that I've done this.

Per QuikSsurfer's request, here are links to previous year's list threads: http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=238651 (2010); http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=219784 (2009) (I would change the order of the top 15 around if I were to re-do this one); http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=202037 (2008).

QuikSsurfer

12-19-2011 02:55 PM

Link your past annual threads over the years in the OP

Reaper16

12-19-2011 02:56 PM

50.) Tune-Yards – w h o k i l l

I’m a big fan of pop music that takes risks, and this second album from Tune-Yards (aka Merril Garbus) certainly takes risks. It’s pop-rock constructed of sound loops: African rhythms and ukulele outbursts and guitars that fall and crumble apart like blocks from a game of Jenga. On top of the layered instrumentation is Garbus’ own, eclectic voice. She has an expressive range that sorta’ sounds like Janis Joplin meets Robert Plant meets that dude from Dirty Projectors. And that’s one of the flaws of this album – it is basically Dirty Projectors worship. If you can get past that, and if you can get past the grating & stupid lyrics, then this is one of the most ambitious and fun pop albums of the year.

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49.) White Willow – Terminal Twilight

I’m a sucker for symphonic prog, especially bands who are fronted by women, and that’s what White Willow gives me. Nothing particularly original outside of a general heaviness (created not by guitar tone but by mood and drums and prevalence of vocal lines). It’s melodic and pleasant and not very obtrusive, which makes it one of my top albums this year to do work during. The best part about this album is how dynamic the synthesizers are. There’s fat, warm synth sounds and cool, tinny synth sounds, and crackling, bottom-heavy synth sounds all on the same track, interplaying with each other. The clean & clear lead vocals slice through the drums and synth. It’s a very pretty record. A bit safe, but certainly enjoyable.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer (Post 8219844)

Link your past annual threads over the years in the OP

Good idea. I'll have those linked later on this afternoon.

Baby Lee

12-19-2011 03:03 PM

Only two albums I've listened to in depth this year [podcasts are taking over my life]

Jay-Z and Kanye - Watch the Throne
Adele '21'

Both are impeccible, but that buzz is why I listened to them anyways.

Need to track down TVotR's newest sometime soon.

Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:04 PM

47.) Blut Aus Nord – 777 Sects
48.) Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification

These are basically the same album. Desanctification is a direct sequel to Sects, and they play right into each other. A third and final volume will come out in 2012. So together, they take up spots on the list right next to each other. Blut Aus Nord is a French progressive metal outfit. In 2011 they have taken to numerology. The number 7 is found all over the place on this album, especially in time signatures. The music here is very hard to get your head around. It is so surprising that it jars you and leaves you sorta’ brain-paralyzed as it continues to pummel you. The sound is CRUSHING. Walls of drums and guitars bear down on you like you’re in the trash compactor from Star Wars. This album is incredibly nuanced, despite each song blending into the next and despite there being no real standout moments. If this were a best albums list then these two albums would place better. But this is my favorites list, and fact is that I don’t enjoy listening to these albums all that much. They are bewildering and impressive, but hard to love.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:09 PM

46.) La Dispute - Wildlife
La Dispute are a post-hardcore band who are sort of reclaiming the original intent of the emo movement. I’m talking about way back when emo was first applied to a subgenre of hardcore punk. Las Dispute’s songs scoff at conventional song structure; there are basically no choruses on the album at all. Instead, each song is a carefully paced narrative, with the importance placed on the lyrics and vocal performance. I don’t know the name of La Dispute’s vocalist, but he has one of the most sincere and affecting voices I’ve heard out of this scene. His lyrics are always drenched with emotion, sure, but it is specifically his delivery that moves his audience. And you will be moved. Just listen to the song I’ve linked to, album standout “King Park,” which tells the story of innocent lives taken by stray bullets. When, during the song’s crushing climax, the vocalist gives a repeated cry of “Will I still get into Heaven if I kill myself?” you will feel desperation and fear right alongside the character. This album is one of the most genuinely moving emotional experiences I’ve had listening to music this year.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:10 PM

45.) Childish Gambino - Camp

You all know the story: comedian Donald Glover proves that he can bite Weezy and Yeezy’s flows while adding his own numerous punchlines and falsetto hooks. You also may have seen the backlash to this album in publications like Pitchfork (which gave it a 1.6, mostly because it finds fault with Gambino’s stance as a kid who doesn’t fit in and has the audacity to make music about his insecurities. In a year in which Drake received tons of commercial and critical success for his “confessional rap,” Childish Gambino should receive similar praise. While Drake’s musical personal has always seemed like a put-on to me, Gambino feels very true. It’s the nature of his flaws – deep racial insecurities & a sexualization/objectification of women that stems from adolescent rejection – that makes him compelling. He isn’t glorifying these things so much as he’s working through them. Which makes this album a valuable piece of art. Anyway, the hooks on this album border on saccharine; there’s a definite cheese factor to much of Gambino’s treatment of things. But sometimes it all works in his favor, such as in the closing song of the album – a moving dramatic monologue of a bus ride home from summer camp one night. Other tracks are filled with the most audacious and clever hashtag rap punchlines and some very solid technical abilities on display. More than anything, while Camp isn’t a great album, it’s a super fun album to listen to.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:11 PM

44.) Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage

If you’ve ever heard an album from Pacific Northwest black metal legends Wolves in the Throne Room then you know what to expect here. That’s actually why this album ranks so low for me; I feel like I’ve heard many aspects of this album in their previous work. This isn’t mailed in by any means, just not as big a progression as I like to see from bands. If this is your first Wolves in the Throne Room album, then you’re in for a treat. They play a practically patented blend of traditional black metal rifbundle of stickse with more texture and mood based guitar playing. Lots and lots of folk influence, both in instrumentation and in song structure for the shorter tracks. This album reminds me of deer hunting, actually. It’s very much evoking an atmosphere of natural surroundings. It’s a very solid album, especially if you’ve never heard them before.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:12 PM

43.) Boris – New Album

Japanese titans Boris released three new albums in 2011. Unfortunately, two of them were uneven, unbalanced, and at times forgettable. Their third (and least-anticipated) is literally titled New Album, and it sees Boris trying their hand at a new sound: J-Pop. Specifically, this album is composed of re-workings of other Boris songs, only arranged through a J-Pop meets pop-rock sound and structure. “Flare” steamrolls ahead with a chorus as catchy as the pop guitars are furious; “Black Original” takes cues from Dir en Grey-style visual kei; “Looprider” tries to achieve a sort of heaviness through shine and gloss. It’s all very unusual and very fun.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:13 PM

42.) Antediluvian – Through the Cervix of Hawaah

This is one of the heaviest albums of the year. Hell, of the past few years. The sound is absolutely suffocating. This is what it must sound like to drown, to be deep in a stone cave when water rushes in because you’ve set off a trap. The guitars are liquidy but so, so dense. The vocals are buried in the middle of the mix, and they’re already in an insanely low register, so that the vocals only complicate the crushing, suffocating atmosphere that this album achieves. It’s remarkable, and I imagine that some of you could have a very emotional reaction/rejection of this album. It’s almost panic-inducing; a good reminder of the sheer emotional power that extreme metal music can have.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:14 PM

41.) Fen - Epoch

So the Pacific Northwest black metal bands (like Wolves in the Throne Room or Agalloch; the ones that blend in folk and post-rock to the form) have begun to influence black metal bands back across the pond. Fen is a band from the United Kingdom, and they are very obviously influenced by “Cascadian Black Metal.” Epoch uses the static chords and blastbeats of black metal but they create something less immediate than an album from, say, Agalloch. It’s atmospheric, yes, but also like a fog. The mood and soundscapes linger in the air and they aren’t particularly dense but they do darken things up. It’s Agalloch Lite in some ways, and that makes for an entertaining, engaging album. I’m looking forward to these guys taking a big leap in originality on future releases.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 03:15 PM

40.) Kendrick Lamar – Section.80

Kendrick Lamar is a Compton rapper with a laid-back LA vibe, but all of his music is informed by the sort of social consciousness that New York is known for. Lupe Fiasco, back with his early material, showed similar influences (albeit as a Chicago artist), but Kendrick Lamar lacks the ear for pop tendencies that Lupe has always had. Despite the significant buzz he’s built up, it’s actually hard for me to see Kendrick achieving any sustained commercial success. His music is too personal, to introspective, but simultaneously too eager to point the mirror back at society. Listen to tracks like “ADHD,” “Ronald Regan Era” or “HiiiPower”: Kendrick is the voice of the abyss, sharp and cool and always gazing back into us. On a practical standpoint, Section.80 is thrilling when its full-on dedicated to social consciousness and stirring, emotional beats to go along with. Much of the beginning of the album is dedicated to songs that are more personal, often about relationships and women, and those songs drag for me. I love about half of this album and the other half kinda’ bores me. Kendrick’s unique flow is laid-back to lullaby levels sometimes, so when the songs sound dull his flow only compounds that. But when the subject matter and beat are urgent, Kendrick is riveting. Listen to “HiiiPower,” linked below: Kendrick appropriates Kanye West’s signature “Hah?” and even some lines, as if to call out Kanye for making a mediocre album w/ Jay-Z about 1% materialism when Kanye could be making socially relevant artistic statements. Kendrick is a complex artist with a lot to say, and this album (his first full-length) is a sign of fantastic promise.

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kc rush

12-19-2011 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reaper16 (Post 8219884)

They play a practically patented blend of traditional black metal rifpillowbitere with more texture and mood based guitar playing.

"rifpillowbitere" is the best.

KCUnited

12-19-2011 03:40 PM

Good call on Antediluvian, very sick band indeed.

vailpass

12-19-2011 03:58 PM

Hey Reaper,
Props for posting OTBT music. I'm curious: where do you discover these groups in your list?

Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vailpass (Post 8220006)

Hey Reaper,
Props for posting OTBT music. I'm curious: where do you discover these groups in your list?

OTBT = off the beaten trail? Well, being on music message boards helps an awful lot. I actually hear about a ton of stuff from the music message boards at gamefaqs.com, actually. Reading all the major music sites like pitchfork.com (even when they are infuriating, which is always) helps too. Lots and lots and lots of musical recommendations from friends. Social media. Etc.

I go see a lot of concerts. I'll ask the bands who they're listening to. Etc. Just keeping my ears open all the time. But message boards are the biggest thing, I think.

Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:37 PM

39.) M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

It took me a few weeks to listen to this album. It was the album of the moment in a lot of hipster circles; circles which tend to laud albums that bore the shit out of me (Fleet Foxes, anyone?). But I gave it a try – not knowing a damn thing about M83 or their/his past releases – and found an awful lot to enjoy. This is an absolutely HUGE pop record. Like, take no prisoners and spare no sound HUGE. Throw in all sorts of electronic synth lines and samples and try to make the most anthemic electronic pop album of all time HUGE. It’s a Goddamned double-album, the classic sign of musical hubris/testicular fortitude. Take for instance “Midnight City,” linked below: it sounds like someone strapped Gary Newman and Hall & Oates with dynamite and placed them in a Honda Fit and then set off the dynamite when the car drove into Kenny G’s house. It’s ****ing awesome. Even better is “Steve McQueen,” which doesn’t have a YouTube link available for it: it sounds like an old Bowie record mixed with modern indie-pop melodies mixed with a Sufjan Stevens-like songwriting scope mixed with punishing drums mixed with Kraftwerk if Kraftwerk played xylophones. Just about every song here is huge, even the under-two-minute instrumentals. It’s actually too over-the-top for me to truly get behind. The strain of trying to be as anthemic as possible shows across the double-album length. It’s in need of a trim, but even in excess this is an incredibly fun pop album.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:38 PM

38.) Florence & the Machine - Ceremonials

The new album from Florence + the Machine actually suffers from a similar problem as the M83 album – it is trying very hard to be the biggest-sounding pop album on the planet. The songwriting approach on Ceremonials seems to be “Hey, ‘Drumming Song’ off the last album was ****ing epic. Let’s make 12 ‘Drumming Songs’ this time.” This album lacks the variance and eclectic touches that made Florence’s debut album so great to me. What’s here is plenty good: it has all of the choirs and orchestral arrangements and emotional drive and soaring vocals that made me a fan of Florence from the first song I heard of hers. The first three tracks are are good a sequence as Florence has ever put out. “What the Water Gave Me,” linked below, features basically everything that is good about Florence’s sound. Album opener “Only If For A Night” is the album’s highlight for me; it makes me feel as good as just about any song released this year. But I can’t help but feel that this album is like a Dragonforce album – it has lots of sounds that I love, but they are in so large a number that you become desensitized to it. Still, if you enjoyed Florence’s first album then you’re going to dig the Hell out of this one too.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:40 PM

37.) Wild Flag – Wild Flag

Wild Flag, as many of you probably know, is fronted by Carrie Brownstien of Sleater-Kinney. That’s enough to warrant a listen for most people. And indeed, these four mid-30’s girls have put out a super-fun pure rock album with this self-titled debut. This is no-frills rock and roll, people. Pop-rock chord progressions meets a syrupy guitar tone meets classic punk drums. The vocals are wise but winking. If there was any single album this year that I’d want to play Rock Band/Guitar Hero to it’d be this one. The whole album sounds like the band is just having a lot of fun playing music, and that is an infectious feeling that carries over to the listening experience. Listen to album opener, “Romance.” I dare you to find a more fun rock song from this year. I dare you to not sing along to its chorus.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:43 PM

36.) Opeth - Heritage

This album is actually also one of the most disappointing albums of the year. The premise is awesome: Opeth taking all of the metal and all of the harsh vocals out of their sound in order to make a pure progressive rock album. They already did this concept of sorts; 2005’s Damnation is a beautiful collection of stripped-down rock songs. Heritage by comparison is not stripped down at all. It embraces lots of classic prog music flourishes. It’s very often beautiful and it’s both challenging and something that you can study to or do work to. I guess I’m disappointed in it for a couple of reasons: the songs structures are very uneven. Passages just stop and start for no real reason. Opeth are masters of blending heavy passages in with light passages, but without the heavy passages on their palette this time around the structures get clunky. Additionally, this is an album that doesn’t progress anything. Nothing is new here. Either Opeth sounds like themselves as of late, or they sound like a 60s/70s prog band. Either way, this album feels very old. I want development, not looking back at the past just for the sake of doing it. But don’t let me dissuade you from listening to the album. It’s still really enjoyable to listen to this band weave interesting and intricate melodies together.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:44 PM

35.) The Roots - Undun

The Roots are so consistent. Each year it seems like they make a solid, enjoyable 7/10 album like its nothing at all. This year, just a couple of weeks ago in fact, they dropped something a bit more ambitious than their usual work. Undun is a concept album through and through, telling the story of a fictional urban everyman named Redford Stephens. I’m told that there is an iPad app that provides accompanying visuals, but the album is certainly good enough and the lyrics impactful enough that you don’t need visual help to understand these songs about Redford’s trials and struggles with an inner-city life that leads him to make a series of wrong decisions in his life. This is a familiar story, but one important enough to keep telling in new and different ways. You probably won’t realize it on first listen, at least not for a while into it, but this concept album is actually told in reverse. The album begins with the sound of a flatline and we come to learn that the album tells Redford’s story from death and then backwards to the beginning. The Roots found time between being Jimmy Fallon’s house band on Late Nite to put out their most ambitious and cohesive artistic statement yet and we’re all the better for it.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:45 PM

34.) Vektor – Outer Isolation

Arizona’s Vektor play a sort of hyper-musical progressive thrash metal. It has all the speed and aggression of thrash, and their vocalist has a high-pitched shriek that would make Tom Arraya of Slayer jealous. What sets them apart is their brazen, off-the-wall musical talent. I had a guitarist friend of mine, no slouch when it comes to shredding, kind of stare dumbfounded and ask “What time signature is that?” a couple of times while listening to this album. Vektor writes riffs that are just stupid complex. Listen to the track “Tetrastructural Minds,” linked below: the complexity is evident but it never gets in the way of the songwriting. That song – constantly surprising and in every way a completely classic, bad-ass thrash song – might be my favorite metal song of the entire year. The rest of the album, each track a bit overlong, doesn’t quite reach that track’s standard, but it is all a blistering, stupefying listen.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:46 PM

33.) Rudra – Brahmavidya: Immortal I

Rudra are an Indonesian metal band who write concept albums based on the Hindu faith. This is a follow-up to an album that placed in the top 15 of my 2009 albums list, and it completes a concept trilogy. It takes a few listens to understand the subtle dynamics present in this band. They play technical death metal, but there’s just enough sitar and Indian melodies to liven things up. This album sees a new lead guitarist for the band, and the overall sound has shifted from technical riffing more towards something like old Opeth, which is pretty interesting. Underneath Rudra’s unique qualities, this is a pretty straightforward metal release in some ways. But it just excels at every step.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:47 PM

32.) Tech N9ne – All 6s & 7s

Tech has always said that he’ll never go mainstream but he’d make the mainstream go Tech. That happened in 2011. Tech appeared on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV and Renegade’d the whole album. He’s had coverage in mainstream hip-hop mags and was on a BET Awards cipher with Big KRIT and Kendrick Lamar. It’s about time; the man just turned 40 years old. This new album is damn solid all the way through. He’s an old man in a young man’s game, but Tech is still the best technical rapper on Earth. Tracks like “He’s A Mental Giant” showcase his astounding musical ability with beats that are more mainstream friendly than anything he’s released since the beginning of his career. “Worldwide Choppers” is an absolute highlight of the year; that track’s speed verses (especially Busta Rhymes’ verse) need to be heard to be believed. I’d have to think that Tech is going to settle down at some point and stop releasing so much music, but as long as he keeps putting out 8/10 albums he can go as long as he wants.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:48 PM

31.) Lady GaGa – Born This Way

How does Lady GaGa follow up The Fame Monster, which was one of the most successful albums of modern times? On an artistic level, she chose to follow it up with the biggest, boldest, most personal album she could. And I don’t mean personal in terms of lyrics (though there’s that, too), but more like in terms of influences and sounds that GaGa loves. This album’s artistic project is to be a bold reappropriation of the late 80’s artists that most influence GaGa. When “Born This Way” totally rips off Madonna’s “Express Yourself” it is an intentional artistic nod. When Clarence Clemons (RIP) plays sax on “The Edge of Glory” it is because the specter of Bruce Springsteen appears throughout the entire album (but especially that track). New Wave influence? Check. Judas Priest influence? Check. Bon Jovi influence? Listen to album opener “Marry the Night.” This album is maligned in some circles, but those people are looking for different things in pop music than I am, I guess. The levels and mixes are ****ing perfect on this album. It’s dynamic and it sounds KILLER at a dance party. There are some clunker tracks here, which is a shame. Take out the horrendous “Government Hooker” and the album’s first 7 tracks are the best stretch in GaGa’s career. “Bloody Mary” is deliciously moody with techno-Gregorian chanting on the chorus, and she takes bold musical risks with the German electro track “Schibe” and the bizarre flamenco-influenced “Americano.” This album, most of it anyway, rules. **** you.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 04:49 PM

30.) Death Grips - ExMilitary

In a year of all kinds of excellent rap albums, ExMilitary is the strangest and scariest of them all. Death Grips is a collaboration between Zach Hill, Sacramento math rock dummer; and MC Ride, an ultra-aggressive rapper who pretty much looks like a homeless man. MC Ride spits/barks/yells hard bars over glitch, scratchy electronic loops and noises. This shit is ****ing lo-fi and abrasive. In some ways it’s like a Black Metal approach to hip-hop, like if Ulver moved to Compton. This is the most challenging hip-hop album of the year, but you’re all the better for accepting the challenge. This is genre-defying, convention-destroying music.

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Demonpenz

12-19-2011 05:04 PM

I am so excited now I can be extra snobby to my friends while they wallow in their new chevelle cd.

vailpass

12-19-2011 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reaper16 (Post 8220127)

Thanks for the reply; sounds like you are dialed in.
(yes otbt=off the beaten track)

Reaper16

12-19-2011 07:47 PM

29.) Leprous – Bilateral

Leprous is a Norwegian band of very talented jazz and metal musicians. They’ve got all manner of synths, horns, saxophones, guitars, etc. They’re main gig over the last few years has been the live backing band to Ihsahn (see his excellent 2010 album, After, to hear Leprous’ work before 2011). But they also have a lead singer whose soaring, rich tenor is given room to shine without Ihsahn’s presence. These tracks are progressive metal, but not in the technical-power-metal way. They remind me of early Pain of Salvation in terms of the emotions created, only jazzier. Bilateral is a shifting, virtuosic album but also an emotional and accessible one. Any fan of progressive rock should check out this album. Even fans of Faith No More or Mr. Bungle will find plenty to like.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 07:48 PM

28.) Mr. Mother****in eXquire – Lost in Translation

Yes, that is his actual stage name. And as he says on album highlight “Huzzah!,” (a song as grimy as it is pop-smart) “Don’t forget the ‘Mother****in’, without that I’m nothin’.” This New York MC is a bright star amidst a whole collection of internet savvy NY rappers that are coming up right now (Das Racist, Action Bronson, etc.) under the influence of El-P. eXquire is ****ing grimy, man. Like a new-age ODB in some ways. His songs sound like dirt and broken glass. He raps about booze a lot. And strippers. And, on “The Maltese Falcon,” makes pro wrestling references (including namedropping Savio Vega, of all wrestlers). He is at home rapping about a local chicken spot (“Chicken Spot Rock”) as much as he is the intersection of comic books and hookers (“Galactus Redux”). This is classic NY street rap, and it is ****ing awesome and it is a free download at his bandcamp site so you have no excuse not to bump this album in your headphones.

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Reaper16

12-19-2011 07:49 PM

27.) ASAP Rocky – LiveLoveA$AP

For better or worse, the internet has worked to decrease the individuality of regional sounds in hip-hop. The best example of this is the first album from blazing-hot rapper ASAP Rocky. Rocky has lived in Harlem all his life, but his musical style comes straight from Houston, Texas. This is true lean-sipping, UGK-influenced trill shit but its’ coming from a NY rapper. Rocky has a pleasant enough flow; he can ride just about any beat and he is more versatile than your average Texas rapper. Lyrically this album isn’t anything special, but the point of this album is to let Rocky ride these incredible beats. Clams Casino produces about half the album, and those tracks are some of the very best rap songs of the year. Clams (one of the freshest, best producers in hip-hop) should never work with the terrible Lil B ever again when he has someone talented like ASAP Rocky in his circle. Listen to “Demons” or “Bass” to see what I mean. I’ve linked to “Palaces,” the album opener and absolutely a top 5 rap song of the entire year for me. The beat is good enough to make me cry and Rocky rides that shit like a champ. So why is this album only #27? Because the tracks that Clams Casino didn’t produce are way less original, way less expressive, less dynamic. It’s a damn solid listen all the way through, but half the album is above-average and half the album is incredible.

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QuikSsurfer

12-19-2011 07:49 PM

YES!! Found a new artist.. La Dispute.. Absolutely love his vocals and lyrics.

Totally agree about the Wolves in the Throne Room and Opeth releases this year --- good albums but a bit disappointing considering what we've heard from them.

Reaper16

12-19-2011 07:50 PM

26.) Hades Archer – For the Diabolical Ages

Hades Archer play a particular blend of black metal and thrash that sounds like Death Angel had an ass-sex baby with Bathory. I don’t even know what that last sentence means, but it is totally true. This is blistering, raw aggression propelled by the highest riff quotient in music this year. MY SOUTHERN LORD THE RIFFS. There are so many riffs on this album and they all kick ass and they come for you without mercy or restraint. Goddamn, this is a fun metal album. Who cares what generic occult imagery and shit the lyrics are about? The rifbundle of stickse and guitar tone and pummeling drums are good enough to bring a tear to a glass eye. This isn’t a complex album, but it is really good at what it does. Which is make you headbang until you need a neckbrace.

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Backwards Masking

12-19-2011 07:53 PM

I thought Primus made a huge Comeback with Green Naughahyde.

NewChief

12-19-2011 08:06 PM

Quite a bit of overlap so far in our lists. I totally agree with your Clams Casino love. "Motivation" seriously makes me ecstatic for some reason.

jlscorpio

12-20-2011 12:45 AM

thx, reap. I look forward to this thread every year. there's a couple I'm anxious to see if/where thay placed on the rest of the list.

Pitt Gorilla

12-20-2011 01:26 AM

Awesome list, Reap. If Tech's album is that "low", I can't wait to see what is better.

Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlscorpio (Post 8221963)

thx, reap. I look forward to this thread every year. there's a couple I'm anxious to see if/where thay placed on the rest of the list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla (Post 8221997)

Awesome list, Reap. If Tech's album is that "low", I can't wait to see what is better.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it. I hope my top 25 doesn't disappoint y'all too much. :D

Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:47 AM

25.) Cities Aviv – Digital Lows

Another example of the internet allowing for interesting rap styles to appear in unlike regions, Cities Aviv is a Memphis rapper whose unique flow can perhaps best be described as “RZA but with a slight southern drawl.” It’s a free download at his Bandcamp site, so download this immediately. The sound on Digital Lows is at once very traditionalist and also supportive of the sort of forward-thinking samples that get you noticed on music blogs. It’s got the top-end keys and 808 drums of the Memphis sound, but instead of syrup-thick mid-South synths these beats use indie rock samples and video game music. Closing track “Float On” is a reappropriation of Modest Mouse’s “Float On” (and, really, it’s been like a decade since that song came out so its fair game) in a really surprising and effective way; it isn’t just a sample, it’s using the song as if it were a canvas made of found art. The whole album is very consistent, but the highlight is “****everybodyhere” (linked above), a song that samples every bit of soul EXCEPT soul vocals. In this track Aviv boasts, his voice full of swagger, “In this 8-bit world, I’m Bowser.” ‘Nuff said.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:47 AM

24.) Big KRIT – Return of 4Eva

Meridian, Mississippi’s Big KRIT is getting a lot of buzz these days. His major label debut comes out next year, but it’ll be a tall order for it to surpass this free album from this year. If someone says that don’t get Southern rap then you should give them Return of 4Eva. Krit raps about southern life and southern concerns in a socially conscious way that doesn’t forget the simple pleasures of working on your car. KRIT’s flow is very competent; he’s leagues ahead of most southern rappers in terms of technical skill but he’s also not going to blow you away. His songs don’t require technical skill to impress, though. He rides the soulful Texas-inspired beats that he himself produces. You’ve got to love a rapper who produces their own beats. I’m not sure that Return of 4Eva has the highlights that, say, LiveLoveA$AP (#27 on my list) does, but it also doesn’t have the lows. This is a very consistent album from start to finish. Bump this shit in your car, immediately.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:48 AM

23.) Absu - Abzu

Texas’ Absu are versatile masters of extreme metal. They can play pretty much anything, and on Abzu they play a blend of black metal and thrash metal that would sound a lot like Hades Archer (#26 on my list) except they replace the heavy dose of Bathory with technical death metal. This album is ****ing bananas. These drums seamlessly alternate between blastbeats and very complex, technical drum riffing. The guitars build up to an absolutely frantic pace and the whole thing gets so fast and so complex that it threatens to drive itself over a cliff. But Absu have been around for a while, and they know what to do from a songwriting standpoint to keep themselves in check. It’s a controlled chaos, and it pays dividends when you trust the band to keep everything on the rails, so to speak. Every time I listen to this album I just have an uncontrollable grin on my face.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:49 AM

22.) Disma – Towards the Megalith

Holy. ****ing. Shit. This. Album. Rules. This is a straight-up American-ass Death Metal album by a band formed by two former members of the legendary Incantation. Disma doesn’t do disservice to that pedigree. The guitar tone is nasty as all ****, like the street grime in the bad neighborhoods in Hell. There’s lots of fun tempo changes but they’re kinda’ subtle beneath the wall of sound that Disma creates. My favorite aspect of this album is the vocals. There isn’t a better harsh vocal performance this year. The dude sounds like a true Goddamned monster. Unprocessed, guttural, beastly. There’s great technical skill in addition to the sound; the vocals are a true and precise rhythm instrument here. If you really love no-frills death metal, then this might just be your favorite album of the year. I prefer my metal albums a little bit more complex and less dirty, but there is no denying how good this album is.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:50 AM

21.) Cunninglynguists – Oneierology

If you don’t know Cunninglynguists then this is the album to learn about ‘em. They’re a rap trio from Lexington, Kentucky (shout out to Idle Hour Farm!) and they specialize in spittin’. These guys are like Slaughterhouse, if Slaughterhouse could write coherent songs. Kno, Natti, and Deacon (who is also a producer) have a myriad of flows that they put to use. This album might just be their best work. Why? Because of its conceptual nature, of course. “Oneierology” is the study of dreams, and all of the lyrical content is about dreams of varying sorts and what can happen both in dreams and to them. The album’s opener features a repeating vocal sample of the Notorious B.I.G. rapping that famous line of his – “It was all a dream.” Listen to the metaphors on “Hard as they Come,” in which each verse is a dramatic monologue from a controlled substance. What ties the album together even more strongly is the lush, dream-like production. So many vocal samples all throughout the album make for a nearly ethereal atmosphere. This album nails the concept of dreaming way better than the movie Inception did.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:51 AM

20.) Bon Iver – Bon Iver

The reaction to Bon Iver’s self-titled second album seems to be one of extremes. People either really love it (Pitchfork named it the best album of 2011) or they really aren’t impressed by it (either legitimately or out of hipster backlash). I am in a middle ground that really thinks the album is damn good but not great. I really, really enjoy this album from start to finish. I’m not even a fan of Justin Vernon’s first album as Bon Iver; that stripped-down shit rarely works for me. This album though? It is way more interesting. There’s all kinds of electronic samples and synth lines and saxophones (!) and orchestral flourishes making the songs bigger, more expansive. The middle lags a bit, but the first four tracks and last three tracks continue to impress me, listen after listen. I won’t belabor this album, as enough has been written about it already in every music publication ever. It certainly has my stamp of approval though.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:52 AM

19.) Trap Them – Darker Handcraft

Almost as a rule, I dislike hardcore punk. I rarely enjoy metalcore because I hate hardcore vocals (which are just noise without any percussive sense to them) and I hate bland, boring breakdowns. But sometimes a metal album uses hardcore in constructive ways. Trap Them is a band whose career is built off of doing that. Darker Handcraft utilizes the raw power of hardcore punk along with heavy doses of Entombed-style death metal to create an album that is just punishing and unrelenting. Each song is short, the album is over in a flash, and you will have been slapped upside your head by dozens upon dozens of riffs by the time it’s all over. It’s quick and brutal and among the most fun a metalhead will have with a 2011 album. Linked is album highlight “The Facts,” which has an incredibly catch guitar riff and a super-fun intentional reference to The Misfits in the vocal line “I am that Goddamed sonofabitch!” Indeed.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:52 AM

18.) Das Racist - Relax

Das Racist released two hilarious and intellectual mixtapes last year, but some people were still wondering if they were a joke act or not. I’d like to think that anyone who has heard a Das Racist song beyond “Combination Pizza Hut & Taco Bell” would be able to tell immediately that both Heems and Kool A.D. have technical chops as rappers and that they have some of the most intelligent and artistically-relevant lyrics in all of hip-hop. A cursory listen to their proper full-length debut, Relax, confirms this. The album is a deft blend of full-on rap songs like “ Shut Up, Man” and “Selena” with pop-focused songs like “Girl” and “Middle of the Cake.” It’s all tied together by odd, worldly beats that frequently reflect the diverse heritage of Kool A.D. and Heems. As far as lyrics go, it isn’t just clever social commentary and references to authors this time around. Listen to Heems on the album opener: “What good is this cashmere if they’re still dying in Kashmir. Kushmir. There was homes, now it’s just dust here. Next year, same as this year: a rough year.” Worldly concerns are mixed in with hyper-intellectualism and hyper-awareness and there are no answers, just an accurate portrait of what is like to be young, educated, creative, and a minority in this country.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:53 AM

17.) Steven Wilson – Grace for Drowning

Steven Wilson, in the absence of a Porcupine Tree album, released one Hell of a solo album this year. It’s 2 discs (!) and Wilson considers it part of a loose conceptual album cycle with Opeth’s Heritage (#36 on my list). It does similar things as the Opeth album: it looks backwards at prog giants from the past – King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes – and wears those influences on its sleeve and also constructs the sleeve itself out of those influences and the whole shirt too is made of those influences too. It’s what you’d expect of Steven Wilson: tight songwriting (despite the length of songs), a few grand tracks, a few experiments that never achieve full lift-off. It doesn’t have the song structure issue that the Opeth album does, but it does suffer in my opinion of being too reliant upon sounds from the past. Still, this is a dynamic and enjoyable album on a number of levels. If I could like you to the 25-minute long “Raider II” I would, but instead you can settle for a 9-minute long song. Despite the flaws of these two albums, I’m excited for the third and final album in this cycle coming next year – a album that Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt (of Opeth) are writing and performing together.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:54 AM

16.) Necros Christos – Doom of the Occult

I’m having trouble describing why I like this album so much. I’ve listened to it a bunch this year, and it still holds up. This is a conventional death metal album in some ways, and in other ways it is baffling and strange. About half of the songs are really enjoyable mid-paced death metal, and the other half are instrumental interludes built off of Greek and Hungarian musical phrasing. And never the twain shall meet in this album, leaving the value here entirely to juxtaposition. But it works, somehow. Strangely. No one song is a representative sample of this album, but the shifts in mood, the rough transitions from sitar interlude to mid-paced guitar riffing, all work in an album-length context.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:55 AM

15.) Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All

Ever heard a metal band from New Zealand? Neither have I, until I came across this stunning release. Ulcerate uses guitars to create heavy post-rock soundscapes that take surprising turns. Think Pelican at their best. Only the rhythm section is incredibly technically precise. Tracks like “Cold Becoming” sound like the slow expanse of Isis combined with the precision death metal of Nile. Tracks like “Omens” (linked above) sound like Explosions in the Sky hooked up with Ansur. This album is plenty heavy, but it takes time to breath. And during that breathing it sort of sprouts wings and flies up in the air and starts gliding around cities that might be on fire. The word “epic” is thrown around entirely too much these days, but that’s what this album is: pretty epic.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:55 AM

14.) Cormorant - Dwellings

Cormorant hail from San Francisco, and they wear the upper-West-Coast metal badge with pride. What makes this album stand out? The guitar work, for one. It is very expressive and textural and emotional. It drops jangly jazz lines on top of mid-paced black metal canvasses. The chord progressions are always surprising; with most west coast black metal albums I can guess at this point where each song is going. Cormorant is not content with stagnation; each song manages to take dramatic twists without feeling forced. There’s also an incredible sense of melody on this album. It reminds me of Agalloch in structural ways, only beefier and with way more use of major scales. It sounds happier. But happy doesn’t necessarily equal unrelenting. This is heavy and it is intricate as all Hell. It’s perhaps the most expressive metal album of the year. A fantastic sophomore effort.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:56 AM

13.) Symphony X - Iconoclast

Symphony X is a known quantity at this point. You know they are going to give you fierce and technical progressive power metal riffs, clean and elegant pianos/keyboards filling out the fringes of the sound, and Sir Russell Allen’s amazeballs singing. Allen is one of my very favorite singers on Earth. He’s equally comfortable with rough-throated vibrato on aggressive tracks as he is with an expressive, gentle-yet-strong range on the more ballady tracks. Album opener “Iconoclast” absolutely smolders with pure metal intensity, while mega-ballad “When All Is Lost” (linked above) is the ultimate expression of the metal ballad: nine minutes of Allen singing like a Goddamned angel while pianos and synthesizers and bad-ass guitars combine to makes something beautiful. The song seems to climax at the 6:30 mark, but that was a false climax. That’s what Symphony X does – give you just a little bit more than you dreamed of getting. But this isn’t Dream Theater, folks. Symphony X mostly manages to avoid the cheese factor that oftentimes befalls bands with incredible guitar players. This album is overlong but otherwise excels in every single that that it does. My only real criticism is that it doesn’t represent much an evolution by the band from their previous album, 2007’s Paradise Lost. Still, this is an album to return to again and again when you’re looking for a precise blend of beauty and power.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:57 AM

12.) Danny Brown – XXX

If you know Danny Brown it is probably for being the weird rapper with the weird clothes and the weird haircut and the missing front tooth and the nasally voice. Yeah, he’s weird. He’s also one of the best, most complex rappers in America. XXX is a title with a double meaning; it references illicit substances as well as the number 30, which is the number of years old Brown turned this year. This album is a coming-to-grips with the big three-oh. The first half of the album is a frenetic, dark, but also wickedly clever descent into an alcohol and weed smoke-induced self-Hell. Watch the awesome video for “Monopoly” (linked above): the entire song is ****ing hilarious, with entire bars about literally shitting on a mixtape that someone give him, and lines like “type of ****a you see rockin’ Crocs at the ****in’ Wal-Mart” and “stank pussy smelling like Cool Ranch Doritos.” I really want to quote the entire song. And many songs are similarly funny and bizarre and twisted, like the dark “Blunt After Blunt” and the Jeezy-response “Scrap or Die.” It’s all fun and crazy, building up in chemical potency to the track “Adderall Admiral.” The next track, “DNA,” is like a cold-turkey detox. The beats become much more sparse and straightforward, and Brown drops his normal rapping voice for something deeper and more sobering (and more sober, period). The rest of the album enjoys this complete and total tonal shift as Brown explores the hereditary nature of addiction and the steps he might need to take to improve his quality of life now that he’s in his 30’s. It all wraps up with closing track “XXX” in which the craziness and Brown’s unique voice return, though measured somewhat by the self-exploration he’s undergone. Though (as you’ll see) there are a few hip-hop albums that I enjoy listening to more than this, XXX is absolutely one of the best albums of any sort to come out in 2011. This is a well-deserved artistic breakthrough.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:58 AM

11.) St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, plays guitar, in case you didn’t know. She’s not just the voice behind this album-length meditation on beauty and forgiveness, she’s also the major source of sound period. Her lead guitar here is smoking. She plays very expressively and texturally, which lends support to the delicate vocal constructions on the album. So delicate are they that they threaten to fall apart with the slightest disturbance. And they do. Because Clark creates that disturbance with her manic, frenzied bursts of lead guitar that take everything that The Edge does well and filters it through Robert Fripp of King Crimson. “Cruel is the pop-rock hit that all the blogs and year-end lists are talking about, but linked above is my favorite track on the album, “Surgeon.” In it, a repetitive and frail vocal line sits atop bouncy bass and icy keyboards before a full-on synth-funk breakdown happens during the chorus, all the while building to a crescendo of fat-lipped synths soloing on top of that funk breakdown that is growing ever more menacing by the bar. This album is ridiculously complex for pop-rock. It’s surprising and eclectic at every turn. It’s also being massively underrated on a lot of year-end lists. This seems like a career-making achievement to me.

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Reaper16

12-20-2011 01:58 AM