Writer Top Tens. The albums of 2011.
List time again. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Many’s the time I’ve browsed my local indie record store checking out the staff recommendations. It all starts with the list that closest matches your own. But it’s what happens next that counts as you’re sucked into those other selections, the ones you haven’t heard.
NB if anyones year list matches up with Mark Reeds, don’t worry. Check out Q Magazine or Rolling Stone as I’m sure they’ll be more for you! Do drop us a line though!
As to the rest, see the links provided for more detail.
Rob Gannon. (Deputy Editor.)
1. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact [4AD]
2. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse [Drag City]
3. Moonface – Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I Hoped [Jagjaguwar]
4. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo [Matador]
5. Dirty Beaches – Badlands [Zoo Music]
6. Crystal Stilts – In Love With Oblivion [Fortuna Pop]
7. Porcelain Raft – Gone Blind EP [Acéphale]
8. Sealings – Cassette EP [Italian Beach Babes]
9. Bon Iver – Bon Iver [4AD]
10. The Antlers – Burst Apart [French Kiss]
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Rob Gannon’s review of the year – Gigs
Rob Gannon’s review of the year – Albums
Rob Gannon’s review of the year – Tracks
Red On Black.
1. War on Drugs – Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)
2. The Weeknd – House of Balloons (s/r)
3. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness blues (Bella Union)
4. Tom Waits – Bad as Me (Anti)
5. Kurt Vile – Smoke ring for my halo (Matador)
6. White Denim – D (Downtown / Cooperative)
7. P J Harvey – Let England Shake (Island)
8. Josh T Pearson – Last of the Country Gentlemen (Mute)
9. Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino)
10. Laura Marling – A Creature I don’t know (Virgin)
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Brett Spaceman. (Editor)
1. Repeater – We Walk From Safety (I Am Recordings)
2. The Boxer Rebellion – The Cold Still (Absentee Recordings)
3. Jeniferever – Silesia (monotreme records)
4. Dead Guitars – Stranger (Silverbird Music)
5. Dalot – Minutestatic (n5MD)
6. I Break Horses – Hearts (Bella Union)
7. The Antlers – Burst Apart [French Kiss]
8. Black Swan Lane – Staring Down The Path Of Sound (Eden)
9. Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino Records)
10. Chapel Club – Palace (Interscope Records)
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Tim Clarke
In no particular order. Well, that’s not quite accurate. See full article for full context:
• Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino)
• Snowman – Absence (Dot Dash)
• Implodes – Black Earth (Kranky)
• The Psychic Paramount – II (No Quarter)
• Collections of Colonies of Bees – Giving (Hometapes)
• Deaf Center – Owl Splinters (Type)
• Tape – Revelationes (Hapna)
• Jacaszek – Glimmer (Ghostly International)
• Grails – Deep Politics (Temporary Residence)
• The Caribbean – Discontinued Perfume (Hometapes)
Jon Leonard (Leonards Lair)
Alphabetically:
• Chapel Club – Palace (Interscope Records)
• The Drums – Portamento (Moshi Moshi/Island)
• Masterface – Freedom Tower (Bleek Records)
• Natureboy – Natureboy (Bleek Records)
• Pandit – Eternity Spin (Lefse/Waaga Records)
• Roommate – Guilty Rainbow (Antephonic)
• Sacred Harp – Window’s A Fall (Trust Me Records, The Perfect Hoax)
• Tennis System – Teenagers (Kill/Hurt Recordings)
• Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino)
• Wild Palms – Until Spring (One Little Indian)
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Angie Mack
(As Angie has been swamped since August she offers her top five from the first half of the year. Fair enough I reckon.)
1. Pillars and Tongues – The Pass And Crossings (Endless Nest)
2. Infinite Light Ltd . – Infinite Light Ltd. (Denovali Records)
3. Giles Corey – Giles Corey (Enemies List)
4. Scott Matthew – Gallantrys Favorite Son (Groovescooter)
5. Heinali & Matt Finney – Ain’t No Night (Paradigms Recordings)
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The Indie Dad’s gigs of the year.
Blood Orange & CANT at Cargo.
Motley Crüe @ Wembley Arena.
Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All @ the Camden Crawl.
No Climate & Puro Instinct @ Madame Jo-Jo’s.
Drowning Men , Mewithoutyou & Alkaline Trio @ Florida House Of Blues.
Killing Joke @ Royal Festival Hall.
Men Of Good Fortune @ The Old Blue Last (any one of 3).
Piatcions @ 93 ft East.
Josh T Pearson @ Paris Rough Trade pop up.
John Peel Birthday gig – 14 Iced Bears , Viv Albertine , Vic Goddard , TV Personalities (even without Dan).
And finally, for your pleasure…
Mark Reeds Worst albums of 2011.
1. Lou Reed and Metallica – LULU . A millionaire pensioner mumbles about a dog’s penis whilst millionaire stadium rockers improvise formless jams around him. Your ears will never forgive you.
2. Michael Jackson – IMMORTAL . 100 minutes of remixed off-cuts and general rubbish : Dead Men can’t sue, after all.
3. Radiohead – TKOLRMX1234567 – two long CD’s of remixes : the sound of a band eating it’s own tail in boredom.
4. Peter Hook And The Light – UNKNOWN PLEASURES . The bassist from Joy Division sings 30 year old songs with a bunch of cheap clones. Unnecessary.
5. Beady Eye – DIFFERENT GEAR, STILL SPEEDING – Liam and The Blokes reheat songs not quite good enough when they wrote them in Oasis, and plodalong pubrock. Dull.
6. Limp Bizkit – GOLD COBRA . I mean, What the Actual Fuck’?
7. Red Hot Chilli Peppers – I’M WITH YOU . The world’s most boring band stubbornly refuse to split up. The cover tells you all you need to know – the audience are shit eating flies feasting on aural Prozac.
8. Nickelback – WHO ACTUALLY CARES? (not actual title). The fact this record even exists terrifies me. Please, make it stop.
9. The Vaccines – WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? The last Great Shite Hopes of the moribund indie press sound like The Libertines with a hangover and any semblance of talent sucked out.
10. Gorillaz – SINGLES . The ‘best of’ Albarn’s vacuous, brain-dead pop project that make Girls Aloud seem as cutting edge as fucking Mastodon.
For more from Jon Leonard, please visit Leonard’s Lair
For more from Mark Reed, please visit The Final Word