danaSkully’s Best Records of 2011
my list…best songs up next…
1. Atlas Sound: Parallax
Bradford you made your best record yet! I can’t help feeling, like I’m sure most indie music fans do, just so proud of my boy.
2. Cults: Cults
I know it’s trendy and Cults totally got overblown for a hot second, but this record is just so fucking catchy. Also did you hear that NPR interview where Bob Boilen forced Eno to listen to “Most Wanted”?
While I probably wouldn’t pick this as the record to talk to Eno about, it’s a strong one. From the “Love is a Cult” suicidal girl group vibe to the neo-Wall of Sound production to the excellently laid out track arrangement to the Robert Longo inspired cover art, it’s kind of just… perfect?
3. PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
I was (figuratively) electrified the first time I saw Harvey live, in 2000. Eleven years later she can still send chills down my spine. Clad in ghostly white Victorian garb, she was a much different incarnation of Polly Jean than I saw back then, but still unrelentingly creepy. And brilliant. I’ve never stopped loving her (I even like those records no one talks about like 2007’s White Chalk), but I’m pleased the world (from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to kids in the record store in my hometown) started to listen to her once more.
4. WILD FLAG: Wild Flag
Mary Timony. 2/3 parts Sleater Kinney. I knew this record would be utterly fantastic as everyone in the band is AMAZING, but I didn’t know how much it would ROCK. Like dude rock. Even my boyfriend—not a huge Sleater Kinney fan, never heard of Timony—was in awe. I kind of just want to call Carrie Brownstein and say “THANK YOU.” I feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to get her number, right?
5. M83: Hurry Up We’re Dreaming
This record has the best song of the year on it (“Midnight City”) and it’s a French dude’s nod to Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Win/win. Save for that one song with the children in it (why does every M83 record have one of these songs?!) it’s the perfect record for riding out of your hometown and into the Big City.
6. Beat Connection: Surf Noir EP
This band’s combined age is like 38. Chillwave is so pervasive even the kids are doing it! Luckily, Surf Noir is really good, solidly produced, sparkly chillwave from Seattle. And they named themselves after an LCD Soundsystem song, which is so something I would have done when I was 17. I’ve been saying this since their first single “Silver Screen” came out earlier on this year, but I really do think this is the next big thing. Listen to the EP here so you can agree with me.
7. Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes
I kind of liked Lykke Li, until I saw the video of her doing an acoustic version of “I’m Good I’m Gone” with every other person in Sweden who makes music (Robyn!) and occasionally breaking out in a chicken dance. LOVE. Then this record came out and I felt justified in my LOVE. Not a cute pop chanteuse anymore, the diminutive singer took on an Altman-like dose of Southern Gothic on Wounded Rhymes. It works!
8. Washed Out: Within and Without
Apparently I really like chillwave now. This record was on repeat for months. I still use it to calm me down during rush hour subway hell. I have heard mixed thoughts on it (a lot of people find it cheesy or bland or “Chillwave by the numbers”) but it just works for me.
9. Soft Moon: The Soft Moon
This band actually does goth-y post punk better than a lot of bands that actually made music in the goth/post punk era. A well-articulated album of gloomy, hazy sad-person bliss. Anachronistic, yes, but this kind of throwback—one with big nods to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnyman, and Seventeen Seconds era Cure— I have no problem with.
10. Cut Copy: Zonoscope
Cut Copy made the best Duran Duran record ever.
