TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2011

As 2011 draws to a close, it's that time of year to look back at the music from this past year and highlight the true standouts. As I mentioned half way through the year, and still holds true today, I have been excited by the diversity of great music this past year...music that takes me places. And that really is the magic and gift of music and the artists that create it.

10. Nick Lowe, The Old Magic

Over the past few albums, Nick Lowe, has completed a transformation from punk and new wave rocker, that defined not only him, but a generation of British artists in the '70's, to a crooner with a subtle and refined way about him. With his last album, At My Age, Lowe found a voice and a groove that seemed so natural, it made it almost impossible to listen to the younger Lowe and believe that it was the same person. On The Old Magic, Lowe not only matches what he accomplished on that album, he surpasses himself. Once again, drawing inspiration from '50's country-tinged standards and ballads and easy-going rockabilly songs, Lowe sings and moves with grace and warmth through this collection of eight original songs and three covers. Every song on The Old Magic sounds and feels classic, timeless, and familiar, which makes listening to this album so completely satisfying. I absolutely love this album.

9.  The Antlers, Burst Apart

Burst Apart is another spectacular album by Peter Silberman and The Anters. Relationships don’t seem to come easy to Silberman. Being loved and/or not being loved haunts him and he struggles through these songs to make sense of what he wants or needs. Carrying and conveying the weight of his words and feelings is Silberman's dynamic and emotional voice (especially when he goes up into his falsetto range), and his gorgeous and lush guitar work. Burst Apart is an album that stick in your mind long after you stop listening. You can read a more in-depth review of the album here.

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8. Angus & Julia Stone, Down The Way

Brother and sister, Angus and Julia Stone's sophomore album, Down The Way, was huge hit in their home country of Australia, ultimately capturing the Album of the Year award and Single of the Year award at the Australian Record Industry Awards in 2010 and rightfully so. Down The Way is a charming album with beautiful and subtle vocals and music. This is an album that has remained on high rotation for me with their song Yellow Brick Road being a highlight.  

7. My Morning Jacket, Circuital

My Morning Jacket has played with the sound of their music and the space in which they have been creating it for the past decade. While I am a huge fan of the band, I have felt at times the music, and especially Jim James' vocals, were set just too far back with too much reverb. For their sixth studio album, the band took up shop and recorded in a church gym. The result is a sound that is naturally open and airy and sounds just great. The collection of songs on Circuital is also more cohesive and focused than the musically ambitious and diverse last album, Evil Urges. Getting back to their southern rock roots, this is the album that I wanted back in 2008.     

6. Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Bon Iver's self-titled album was one of most amazing listening experience that I have had this year. Justin Vernon, the mastermind behind Bon Iver, delivers a breathtaking album that is bigger, bolder, and significantly more ambitious than his debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago. With a newly installed, expansive sound, Bon Iver creates a musical landscape that is sonically rich and beautifully textured. This is an album that can and should be explored over and over again. With each listen there is more to discover, making for a special and unique listening experience each time. Plug yourself into this album with some good headphones and allow yourself to be taken away by this one.

5. Noah & The Whale, Last Night On Earth

Last Night On Earth, Noah & The Whale’s third studio album, is a loose concept album, although not quite in the traditional sense. Inspired in part by Charles Bukowski’s The Last Night of the Earth Poems, Charlie Fink writes about different characters over the course of a night, many of them looking to make a change in their lives or simply wondering what else might be out there. It’s a big change from the very personal songwriting of the band’s previous album, The First Days of Spring.

There is a great mid ’80s rock anthem feel to these songs, with influences like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty coming through. But it never feels like the band is pressing too hard to make the songs bigger than they need to be. “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.,” “Tonight’s the Kind of Night,” “Life Is Life,” and “Waiting for My Chance to Come” all have big choruses and melodies.

Honestly, one song is better than the next and singing along becomes an automatic reflex when the music starts. Last Night On Earth is a great album and easily my favorite Noah & The Whale album.

4. Jonathan Wilson, Gentle Spirit

Jonathan Wilson’s Gentle Spirit sounds like an album that could have been made in Laurel Canyon in the early ’70s. Wilson had become deeply immersed in its music and history and described his inspiration as “that golden late ‘60s, early ‘70s period when rural and urban sensibilities colluded in producing some of rock’s most imperishable recordings.”

As a longtime student of Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, its musical heritage, and its Canyon culture, Wilson wanted his musical ideas to “echo many of an earlier generation.” You can hear that influence throughout Gentle Spirit, with elements of folk and psychedelic rock alongside the laid back sound of early ’70s Laurel Canyon. The songs are spacious and unhurried, filled with acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, harmonies, and long instrumental passages. But it never feels like Wilson is simply trying to recreate the past.

Gentle Spirit is slow burning, mellow, laid back, and beautifully played. It’s an album I can put on, settle into, and happily stay with for the next hour and fifteen minutes.

3. Metronomy,  The English Riviera

Metronomy’s The English Riviera is a kind of love letter to the English seaside. Joseph Mount, the driving force behind the band, describes the album as inspired by both his hometown of Totnes in Devon and his romanticized idea of the English Riviera. As a teenager, he would drive around the seaside towns of the area blasting Ace of Base from his car.

There’s plenty of electronic pop, synthesizers, funky bass lines, and some wonderfully eccentric musical ideas throughout The English Riviera. It’s unmistakably British and a little quirky. Eccentric, slightly avant garde leaning British pop has always been my thing, which is perhaps why I’m immediately drawn to it. I just love this one.

2. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine

Scottish singer songwriter Kenny Anderson, who records under the name King Creosote, has a prolific body of work, releasing more than forty albums since 1998. Now he has teamed up with English electronic composer and producer Jon Hopkins to create Diamond Mine, a beautiful reflection on the people, town, and landscape of Fife, where Anderson lives.

The album brings together Anderson’s quiet, soulful songs with Hopkins’ electronic music and field recordings of everyday life in Fife. Conversations, footsteps, birds, and sounds from local shops and cafés become part of the music, giving the album a real sense of place. Anderson and Hopkins come from very different musical backgrounds, but everything fits together beautifully.

Diamond Mine is warm, intimate, and unlike much else I’ve heard. It’s an absolutely beautiful album and a great example of what can happen when two very different artists find the right way to work together. This is a very special album.

1. Destroyer, Kaputt

Daniel Bejar is not an artist particularly interested in repeating himself. Recording as Destroyer, he moves through indie rock, glam, folk, and electronic music, often changing direction considerably from one album to the next. But nothing he has done before really prepares you for Kaputt, his ninth album.

Kaputt finds Bejar drawing from the softer and more polished sounds of the late ’70s and ’80s. There are elements of Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry, but also soft rock, sophisti-pop, and smooth jazz. Synthesizers and guitars are everywhere, but what I especially love is all of the trumpet, saxophone, and flute. There is so much happening in these arrangements, yet Bejar somehow brings all of these different sounds together.

I love Kaputt and my appreciation for it grows with each listen. It's quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite albums and one that I never seem to get tired of listening to. There really isn't another album that sounds quite like it.

And if you can get your hands on the European edition, the nearly 20 minute The Laziest River is a must. It’s a largely instrumental piece that moves through several different sections. For me, it takes Kaputt to a whole other level.