2011 in Music - TTLG Forums

Sulphur on 17/10/2011 at 18:45

(Indie-hipster wise, that is.)

So it's nearing the end of the year, and it's been quite a year musically. It's the year retro came back into fashion, in some way.

We had Bon Iver come out with a subtler, denser, richer album than For Emma, Forever Ago. I started my days listening to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LWDNE7_yB4) Perth for a good couple of weeks because it's a great song to wake up to. A song about starting new and searching. Warm and searching, like it is, in tone and content. The entire album's a knotty sprawl, that ends confusingly with an 80's-inspired ballad.

And of course, there's the retro stylings of Girls with Father, Son, Holy Ghost. I'm not a fan of indie mopeheads wailing their angst at the world with a single tear running down their cheek and rolling right off their erect penises angling 90 degrees off the brick wall of the basement they were humping, all the while in off-key falsettos, so er, I wasn't expecting to like this. But it's good. It's an ode to American rock 'n roll, and I would swear I've (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw8_lBxl3G4) heard some of these songs before, watching people slow-dancing to them at a wedding, but of course I haven't. Just parts of 'em. 'There goes my baby,' heh. There's the obvious rip-offs like Deep Purple's Highway Star being quoted in Die, and the not so obvious rip-offs, but more importantly it's not merely derivative: it sounds like a soundtrack to life. Realler, fuller, more honest than a lot of the pretentious crap I've heard from the indie scene.

The Antlers came back too. In Bon Iver fashion (do these two work in lockstep or something?) their latest is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqgDDxTr7ME) knottier, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL_9M65Ked4) denser, and less emotionally direct, but still haunting and wispy in a way that lingers at the back of your head even after the songs are long over. They cap the album off with a retro-styled kick to the nuts, which is probably my favourite ballad - song - of the year, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsOgFgc5f5w) Putting the Dog to Sleep. It's beautiful and heart-wrenchingly realistic at the same time, and effectively summarises the entire album. I love/hate it. :erg:

And then there's the mash-up event of the damn year, (http://wugazi.com/) Wugazi's 13 Chambers. I just listened to it tonight and it's already my second-favourite hip-hop album ever. (Does it matter if I've, like, only listened to two? Counting this one?) I finished listening to it, then started it over again. Yes. Listen to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzBeuWS4LhY) this. And (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0YV8lBk-90) this. No one'd believe those were a mash-up between two completely stylistically different entities if they didn't know better. Almost every single track is as sonically complete, self-consciously deployed, and as kick-ass as can be. It's epic. It's music. So put it in your car and drive to it, bitch. :cool:

Yeah, I suppose one needs to mention Watch the Throne. Generous album from two hippity-hop masters, but apart from Otis, I haven't absorbed it as easily or as completely as Dark, Twisted Fantasy. Only managed to listen to it halfway so far. I'm no hip-hopster though, so I guess more well-informed peeps can weigh in.

Also, there's Foster the People. Not linking any links 'cause I'm sure EVERYBODY has heard Pumped Up Kicks by now. Good, lightweight pop group. Decent tunes. Too much Maroon 5, though? At any rate, Pumped Up Kicks is a great song if you hate hipsters. And it's by hipsters. Paradox! Don't mind the ceiling on your way down the Penrose flight, all right.

No, it's not my top 10. I don't fucking have 10. You can help me, or consider it a top 10 beatdown if you want to, though - it'll be time for our Annual List of Musics soon enough.

So... weigh in! :D

Scots Taffer on 17/10/2011 at 22:09

It's October!! Do you have Christmas decorations up already??

june gloom on 17/10/2011 at 22:12

Ulver's War of the Roses is fantastic. It's like a more listenable version of Blood Inside, which is never a bad thing.

st.patrick on 17/10/2011 at 22:39

In descending order of how impressed I was:

Lamb - 5. I've been waiting for this since god knows when. Best post-breakup music EVER.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake. After White Chalk, I never thought she'd do it again. Yet she did, better than before.
Abbe May - Design Desire. Because Mammalian Locomotion and, honestly, that's the only reason you'll ever need.
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Commitee. I'll be damned but somehow, it's just as meaningful as their work fifteen years ago.

Honorable mention: Juno Reactor - Inside The Reactor. Remix'd.

Shit I'd rather drop dead right here and now than ever listen to again: Opeth - Heritage. More like Hemorrhage amirite. WHY oh WHY.

As usual, I'm posting this drunk outta my skull so YMMV. Not that I care, or ever will. I may pretend that it was my evil twin that posted this, though.

Risquit on 17/10/2011 at 22:54

Quote Posted by dethtoll

Ulver's War of the Roses is fantastic. It's like a more listenable version of Blood Inside, which is never a bad thing.

...noted, thank you :)

fett on 18/10/2011 at 01:57

Uh-oh. I really screwed the pooch by jumping ahead last year, huh?

frozenman on 18/10/2011 at 03:55

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

It's October!! Do you have Christmas decorations up already??

I think Sulphur must be affected by these FTL neutrinos.

This new M83 is pretty sexy although I don't remember the singing being so Animal Collective-ish

demagogue on 18/10/2011 at 04:05

You couldn't have waited just one more week for the metrosexual pick?

Edit: I actually don't care... I just wanted to observe, my word, these Coldplay fellows are still around. Has it really been another decade already?

Anyway, I guess the memorable music moment for me was Bjork's Biophilia, which was just fair musically, but I remembered back in the 90s when a few CDs had little interactive games & videos that had fun with the music, because it was the big new thing, and it was a throwback to that for this generation, which is to say I hope other bands like the idea & keep experimenting with it.

Sulphur on 18/10/2011 at 05:29

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

It's October!! Do you have Christmas decorations up already??

No, but like you, we've got plenty of palm trees to go around. It's Christmas all year.

henke on 18/10/2011 at 06:23

Quote Posted by Sulphur

Also, there's Foster the People. Not linking any links 'cause I'm sure EVERYBODY has heard Pumped Up Kicks by now.

I was like "I haven't!" but then I listened to it and I was like "oooooh yeah, this one." I've heard, and enjoyed, it when it's been on the radio.

I should weigh in on this topic as I have a lot to say about music this year but I should also be doing some work so I'll just post a few of my fave tracks of the year (with Spotify links, because you all have Spotify by now, right?):

(http://open.spotify.com/track/5yMcGu1ljz5h2imLjTkaAg) "Bottle in my hand" by Hayes Carll, Todd Snider & Corb Lund. Three of the best country musicians in the world team up for a catchy ditty about the blessed hobo life (and America's foreign politics). This is from my fave album of the year "KMAG YOYO".

(http://open.spotify.com/track/1Ynexahh8v10lTH8wiRyYN) "Hold On" by Holy Ghost! Apparently this was released 4 years ago but I didn't hear it till this year when they finally got around to releasing a full album. Daft Punk and The Rapture fans might wanna check this out.

(http://open.spotify.com/track/7ntT9X35Y8FspsqYI2qRi3) "Gangsta" by Tune-Yards. It's a-bumpin'!

(http://open.spotify.com/track/2jirOD3Qeprjrwjhr0Ulu8) "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N." by Noah and the Whale. So feelgood.

(http://open.spotify.com/track/2jirOD3Qeprjrwjhr0Ulu8) "Became" by Atmosphere. The best piece of storytelling in hip-hop this year.