The top 10 albums of 2011

Before I start my top ten, let's just have a quick discussion about some of the honourable mentions and disappointments of the year.

First the negative: I despised Bon Iver's 80's baiting self titled record and it seems I'm largely alone in this. Bon Iver fans carried on like a bunch of whiney Justin Bieber acolytes against anyone who didn't think it was the greatest record since Sussudio and to all those BI fans I'd respectfully like to tell them that their taste is in their arse (I think I just lost a lot of readers right there - oh well). Iron and Wine went in a similar direction but I couldn't even listen to that record all the way through - I lived through the 80's once and I ain't going back. While some people don't like fingernails on blackboards, the particular sound that makes me cringe is metal scraping on concrete or St Vincent (sorry Adam). I actually think her music is getting worse (if that's possible) and really don't understand the fuss. Post-rock took a hammering this year with a just ok Explosions in the Sky and a good but unmemorable Mogwai record (sorry boys and Katie, that EP is boring). Jane's Addiction's first album in eight years was unfortunately not worth the wait and thank the Buddha Ben Gibbard split up with that She & Him girl because the music he makes when he is happy is pretty poor. Too harsh? It's a blog, get over it.

In the positives, The Antlers and My Morning Jacket both produced amazing records. The Foo Fighters record had no other ambition other than to rock your socks and succeeded while the Black Key's late in the year El Camino was a transcendent blues rock triumph. The biggest surprise was how enjoyable the Beastie Boys latest record was after years of so-so output. Yuck and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart kept the grunge flame alight while Tycho provided escapist mood scapes for recreational drug users. My second favourite Australian album of the year was Seeker Lover Keeper, a supergroup that was an excellent addition to a year which had a slew of strong releases by female artists. Anyhow, enough gibber jabber, here's the list:


10: Low - C'mon
Known for their hushed slowcore aesthetic, Low's excellent C'mon record was where they embraced their inner-Neil Young and rocked the fuck out. The eight minute Nothing but heart should put to rest any ideas that Low are anything other than consummate musicians following their muse and this album is peppered with a number of highs. Sure it's still slow moving but it's slow moving in the way a lethal snake moves - deliberate and deadly and ready to strike when you least expect it, this is a great rock record.


9: Wire - Red Barked Tree
In a pretty quiet year for quality punk and hardcore, post-punk lifers Wire showed the kids how to do it. Red Barked Tree sounded forward thinking, vital and an evolution of their sound while somehow sounding exactly like Wire should. For a bunch of men in their fifties, their message of environmental and financial destruction was no different from what they've been singing about for years but it seemed oddly prescient this year. Essentially, Wire were the occupy movement before the occupy movement existed but they are as astute and accomplished with their music as they are with their politics.


8: The Middle East - I Want That You Are Always Happy
The Middle East was a short lived band from Townsville whose debut album is nothing short of amazing. The record twists through a number of genres but with a solid indie-folk basis, it is unrelentingly moving without conceit or any self awareness. There is a beauty here that is strangely rare in Australian records and my bet is that being a younger band they grew up on a steady diet of Radiohead and Australian indie rock (for example, The Go-Betweens). Those reference points are obvious but not overwhelming and the Middle East walked their own oddly gorgeous step until they dissolved without a trace mid year.


7: Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
I came late to the Ty Segall party but was floored by this record which sounds like some classic rock nugget that got lost somewhere in the 70's but oddly timeless at the same time. The psyched out tales of domesticity and love are all the better for the ramshackle instrumentation and off kilter delivery. However, what shines through is the heart in these songs, there is real love here in both songwriting and delivery which makes Goodbye Bread one of the most joyous and fun records of the year.


6: Feist - Metals
It's probably poor form to say an artist sounds better because their latest album sounds more like someone else but I'm the king of poor form so there you go. On Metals, Feist has edged closer to the soul sound Cat Power that has been mining for the last few records and she's all the more brilliant for it. Feist's voice is at times sensual, angry and powerful in a way that is absent on The Reminder. If anything, there is a lot of fight and retribution on this record and that passion bleeds through the speakers. Further, I'd say it's one of the most beautifully orchestrated and produced records of the year with a production that is as broad as it is intimate but what shines through most is the singular and expansive passion of Laslie Feist herself.


5: Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Tom Waits has always sounded like some rough hemmed circus barker from the depression era and thanks to the fucked world banking system, Waits is finally in time with his dark obsessions. As such, he sounds reinvigorated and devilish on Bad as me railing against the man, the wars we needlessly fight and general bad behaviour all round. Many of the narratives in this record are based on the poor man's point of view where hope is somewhere else (Chicago apparently), the hard times are hardest and darkness stalks every street. Somehow Waits sounds ebullient and focussed despite the material, a pure force of gravel voiced revelry, but most of all, this album is endlessly entertaining and fun to listen to. Waits hasn't sounded so vital in years and reminds us that he is one of the most singularly unique artists still releasing records today.


4: Wild Flag - Wild Flag
We all know that gender politics in music suck arse but Wild Flag (like Sleater-Kinney before them) blow all that 'pretty good for a girl band' shit out of the water - they are great band period. With so many big name rock bands failing to make a connection this year, Wild Flag just kicked down the door and announced where the party is happening. What's great about this record is that many of the songs themselves are about being in love with music which as music fans is something we can all relate to. The songs range from nuggets era break downs to White Rabbit-esque psych freak outs (Glass Tambourine) but they are never less than captivating and soulful. Easily the best rock album of the year by a mile.


3: James Blake - James Blake
Nothing splits the kids in the room like a record that on first listen is either revelatory or incomprehensible. To me, coming somewhere between Antony's sense of otherworldly melodrama and For Emma, Forever Ago's hushed aesthetics, James Blake's music is simultaneously unsettling, spellbinding and gorgeous. While it's not impenetrable, James Blake ultimately rewards repeat listens and the music slowly reveals its inherent complexities and subtleties. While the auto-tuned vocals, tilted loops and sparse instrumentation may seem alien, the record is extremely intimate and affecting as if the technology between the music and listener acts as bridge to the soul rather than a deterrent. If anything that exactly what this is, 21st century soul music.


2: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
After the puritanism and austerity of 2007's White Chalk, PJ Harvey turns war correspondent reporting on the ills of modern England. While she speaks of the past, the record ruminates on the cultural shifts and complexities of the modern state but its focus extends beyond ol' blighty into a more universal narrative and can be easily understood outside of this context. However, it is a peculiarly British record. I returned to my childhood home in England this year and saw the disarray of country - the sense of what it is to be English in the face of cultural and social change. This is the struggle at the heart of Harvey's narrative, not just the literal war the UK is engaged in but the battle for British identity. As always, Harvey's gift as a lyricist is that she can get to the truth of any topic with raw verve and insight but here it is particularly frank and brutal:

Withered vine reaching
From the country that I love
England, you leave a taste
A bitter one

The music itself is deceptively simple but closer examination reveals layers of vocals, samples and sounds that almost seem incidental to the music itself but subtly enriching from a measured distance. To me, this is a deeply personal album that speaks to a sense of identity I share with my family and my English community but it is a candid exploration of this without sentiment or mercy. England does indeed shake and wither under Harvey's pitiless examination and the result is this exceptional album.


1. Gillian Welch - The Harrow And The Harvest
The first time I heard this record I knew it would be my favourite of the year and with each subsequent listen, this became clearer and clearer. Gillian Welch and partner David Rawlings have created a master work which has rewarded fans who have patiently waited eight (count them, EIGHT!) years since her last record. There is a pared down asceticism on this record that could have been the musical equivalent of Lars Von Trier's Dogme 95 manifesto: two voices, two instruments and simple production with no bells, whistles or artificial flourishes. In lesser hands such confined instrumentation could have been a handicap but Welch and Rawlings create whole worlds that are haunting, dangerous and gorgeous. Some of the songs sound as if they have been could have been written a hundred years ago and rediscovered on some crackling old 78 but it never feels like a hokey journey in nostalgia or simple folk or country.

The narratives here are ultimately explorations of adult issues and themes of betrayal, love, loss and change dominate the album. These are tales that come from experience, the exuberance of youth long dimmed and the weariness of life underpins each of these tracks. Welch's voice is an exquisite instrument, her phrasing and tone is flawless and is ably supported by Rawlings' sympathetic backing vocals. Rawlings guitar playing is particularly great on this record, elevating the simplest songs and almost a running counterpoint to the vocals such as on The Way it Is. At the centre of the record though is fantastic songwriting and at a brief ten songs, each one is memorable but also plays a part in the larger narrative of the album. Like any great record, I feel that your understanding of it will change as you change and there is a lifetime of enjoyment ahead of anyone who embraces this record. It is an album that is ageless but will stay with you long after you switch off your stereo.

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Review catch up: Gillian Welch - The Harvest and the Harrow

What do Jane's Addiction and Gillian Welch have in common? Apart from being awesome, their respective last full length releases of new material was in 2003. Welch recently said the delay was because she'd written a bunch of songs in that time, but didn't think they were strong enough to release. That tight quality control is reflected in The Harvest and the Harrow which features ten exquisite songs of Welch and partner David Rawlings at their best.

Musically, you know what you're getting here: bare bones acoustic folk/country but even in the sparest of musical settings, Welch's voice beguiles and fills the open space with such beauty and grace that it can make your heart stop for a second. There is a purity and expressiveness to her voice that is unforced and natural - no Idol hysterics to be found here. However, the compelling on this record is the focus of the lyrics - dark meditations on betrayal, love, temptation and the past. Welch is exploring adult complications here which hit you later in life - friends left behind, loss and the inevitable conclusion of bad decisions made in the past. However, Welch is not peddling nostalgia but rather reflection on where we lose our way.

The music ranges from jaunty folk (Scarlet Town, The Way It Goes) to a knee slapping hoedown (Six White Horses) but the general music palette is slow burn ballads which allow Welch to shine. The highlights include the bitter betrayal in The Way It Will Be, the tale of a man lost to progress in Hard Times and the aforementioned The Way It Goes, a kind of Appalachian folk equivalent to Walk on the Wild Side.

There is no change in direction Welch and Rawlings on this record, it's business as usual and if you're not on board with this style of music there will be nothing here to convert you. However, there is rarely weak moment on this album and if you ever loved Welch, this is easily her best album after Time (The Revelator).

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A song a day: Gillian Welch - The way it goes

The Harvest and the Harrow is certainly one of my favourite albums of the year and I particularly love the rollicking The way it goes. The song recounts the tales of various characters and the growing alienation with the narrator. Each chorus ends with a variation of 'there was a time when all of us were friends.' Even in death, Gillian is not safe:

When you lay me down to rest
Leave a pistol in my vest.

Death is a prevalent theme on the album but the connotation that there is something or someone sinister beyond the grave shows that the territory Welch explores is tougher than this Earth. As the song says, that's the way that it goes I guess...

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Undiscovered continents

Two exciting discoveries today. I went to visit a friend with links deep within the dark heart of the music industry and they had a copy of the new Gillian Welch album which I listened to once during the visit. The Harvest and The Harrow is it's name (the internet already knows this) and it sounds pretty fantastic. It's safe to say Welch and Rawlings haven't gone electro-clash and the album sounds similar to the previous records. On first listen though, the songs sound stronger than on Soul Journey and I think this may be a possible contender for album of the year. No I don't have a copy. No I won't upload it even if I did.

The second discovery was I finally got around to listening to the last Wire album Red Barked Tree. I'd listened to it once when it came out and liked it but never really got back to it. Listening to it today was a revelation. The album sounds like a descendant of the more commercial 154 sound and it is great. The band sound more refined and relaxed than on their other reunion records but listening to the lyrics they are still as angry as ever. "They clip their speech, they clip your wings" and "Please take your knife out of my back," are just a couple of examples. Best songs for me are Please Take, Bad Worn Thing and Two Minutes. They're playing with the vigour of a band half their age and it just fucking rocks. Nice one lads.

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What Do You Look Forward To?

In a recent post, I was lamenting the musical prospects for 2011 and then Radiohead, Mogwai and PJ Harvey pop albums in my lap. So in that spirit, here's a list of new musical exploits that I'm looking forward to in 2011...


Cat Power - TBC: I recently heard from a Cat Power concert attendee that she played some new songs which were amazing and 'worth the wait.' Despite rumblings the album might not come out until 2012, I'll immediately buy any album she releases.


Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys: I've been a recent convert to Death Cab and think they're pretty good. Apparently their new album is going to be less guitar-centric and using more synths. So I guess this year we finally get a new Postal Service album.


Bob Mould - See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody: As a big (BIG!) Bob Mould fan, the idea of an autobiography sounds amazing. If my superficial knowledge of Mould's life is anything to go by, it should be a cracker. Small town (NY) boy move to Minneapolis and forms seminal melodic punk band Hüsker Dü with Grant Hart and Greg Norton. Mould and Hart try to outdo each other in the songwriting department and also struggle for leadership of the band creating one of the most fertile songwriting battles since Lennon-McCartney. Wracked by addiction and infighting, the band splits acrimoniously after the suicide of their manager. Mould goes into the wilderness and produces the autumnal solo album Workbook, a largely acoustic based album a thousand miles from the Hüskers. Mould also forms Sugar, a power pop trio that rode the wave of grunge to give Mould some well deserved credit/cash for a movement he had a hand in influencing. Outed by Spin magazine in 1995, Mould has gone onto have a successful solo career post-Sugar in both rock and also dj'ing bear parties around the states - go Bob.

The thing about Bob is that even though he seems quite mellow now, when I first started following his career he seemed like the most intense person on the planet. Seriously, the most upbeat thing about his second solo album Black Sheets of Rain is the title. So if the autobiography captures any of the drama of these years at all, it will be a very insightful and moving account of life in the music underground. The book is co-written by Michael Azerrad who wrote the amazing Our Band Could Be Your Life, an account of punk and hardcore in the 80's (seriously, it's worth buying for the Butthole Surfers chapter alone). I was a little surprised by this as Mould comes off as a little unsympathetic in that book but whatever, at least he's not Greg Norton. I thought Hart and Mould hated each other but they seem like best buddies compared to Hart's appraisal of Norton recently (and Frank Black for that matter - sensitive Pixies fans beware).


Foo Fighters - Wasted Light: While I'm crapping on about Bob, he makes an appearance on the new Foo Fighters album (above) which I find very exciting. The other reason I'm excited is because whenever Grohl plays with Josh Homme, he tends to come back and make hyper aggressive Foo Fighters albums (the last one being One by One after drumming on Songs for the Deaf). The rockin' White Limo already appears promising so bring the RAWK!


Queens of the Stone Age - TBC: OK, so recording hasn't even started (although songwriting has) and recent live shows have apparently been underwhelming. But the re-issue of the first album has got Josh Homme back into his robot rock mindset and a near death experience has apparently made him approach life in a vulnerable and reflective way. Should be interesting.


Gillian Welch - TBC: She hasn't released an album since 2003. Could this be the year?


Radiohead - The King of Limbs 2: Radiohead conspiracist theorists are speculating that there is a Amnesiac-esque companion album to the King of Limbs. Good luck with that but I like your thinking.

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