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12-19-2011, 02:50 PM | |
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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). Last edited by Reaper16; 12-20-2011 at 11:00 AM.. |
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12-20-2011, 02:33 PM | #76 | |
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Quote:
I keep a running list of favorites that I update every three months. It helps me keep track of how much albums are rising or falling in estimation over time. I spend a lot of time and energy into the ordering. I put a lot of unnecessary stress on myself making sure that I'm giving a fair shake to recent albums and early-year albums. |
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12-20-2011, 02:41 PM | #77 | |
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Quote:
Wow, just wow. I've NEVER heard vocals like that before. I dislike most Post-Hardcore because typically the vocalist is just screaming his head off being a reerun. I know because I've had the unfortunate circumstances of playing aside a lot of these bands in the Kansas City area when it was all the rage a few years back. This kid reminds me a lot of Zack De la Rocka. He has a terrifying, yet mesmerizing voice... and an extremely odd way about going at vocals. Instead of finding words that rhyme, or setting up certain structures... he just reads it as it is on paper and lets his emotion of tone do the talking. As a vocalist myself, I find this method easy and hard to do at the same time. Lyric/harmonies/chorus structures are all a part of the writing process, and a lot of times make writing a lot harder than just jotting down what your thinking on a piece of paper and calling it good. It's also easy to over-critique lyrics and change/mash them up multiple times until you feel something makes more sense/ sticks to the storyline / or removing easy to use words such as "I, we, you, them, etc". SO in turn, makes the process more difficult and time consuming. This kid bypasses some of the most tedius things in vocal writing and just seems to sing word for word what he's reading... the thing is, he presents PASSION about his story, and as a listener... you WANT to hear how it ends. Which makes the last line of the song fucking awesome. Because he didn't want to see how it ends. As I listened, I thought about how awesome this vocalist could be if he went with a more traditional way of writing vocals, but at the same I loved what he did because I respect what it takes to do, and it is something that is new to me. Although I'm still skeptical about listening to an entire album of this style. Thanks for the link reaper. |
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12-20-2011, 02:47 PM | #78 | |
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Quote:
EDIT: I ended up not liking the album. I've heard this done too many times so it brought me nothing I've not already heard a zillion times. The band while solid, did nothing incredibly technical that stood out, and the vocalist ended up being yet another typical prog-metal style with an over use of vibrato. While some prog lovers just LOVE and DROOL over that kind of vocal, I can't ****ing stand it... it always sounds so forced. Last edited by Molitoth; 12-21-2011 at 08:33 AM.. |
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12-20-2011, 03:03 PM | #79 |
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love this thread
Death Grips is fan ****ing tastic, thanks for the tip
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12-20-2011, 03:34 PM | #80 | |
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12-20-2011, 03:41 PM | #81 | |
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12-20-2011, 03:46 PM | #82 |
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Might not be your type of music, but I have been digging Dawes-Nothing Is Wrong. It's been my favorite album all year.
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12-20-2011, 03:49 PM | #83 | |
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Quote:
This was an album that was a very challenging initial listen, but has grown on me tremendously. As much as I have come to really like the album, the material is even much better live. For instance, I felt "Raider II" on disc was overindulgent and needed some editing, but live it was absolutely epic ... my jaw literally was agape. You make a very good point about relying too much on sounds of the past. From the first listening, I was sitting there going, "That sounds like 'Devil's Triangle' on 'In the Wake of Poseidon,' that sounds like something from 'Red,' that sounds like 'Cirkus' on 'Lizard ...'" Still, I really like it, more so than "Insurgentes" (which isn't bad). |
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12-20-2011, 04:18 PM | #84 |
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Their first album was fantastic. I haven't listened to the second though.
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12-20-2011, 04:22 PM | #85 |
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12-20-2011, 10:39 PM | #86 |
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Das Racist is good stuff. I got a leather jacket, I got a little hat on, I'm drinking carbonated water by the quarter gallon, I drive an eagle talon....
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12-21-2011, 08:36 AM | #87 |
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12-21-2011, 08:44 AM | #88 |
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Listened to the second album last night. It's not as good as the first (imo), but it's still solid. I prefer Middle Brother's album for 2011 (Middle Brother, if you don't know, consists of the singers from Dawes, Deer Tick, and Delta Spirit).
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12-21-2011, 10:18 AM | #89 |
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I keep trying to read Reaper's list but I never can get past #42.
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12-21-2011, 10:58 AM | #90 |
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Their previous album Enter the Vulva of Vishneka was superior, imo.
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