Quick Before it Melts

Monday 12 December 2011

Albums: 2011

When Handsome Furs’ Dan Boeckner sang “A thousand lonely kids making noise in the basement” on Sound Kapital, he was talking about all the angst-ridden musicians he encountered in his travels from Bucharest to Beijing, but he could just as easily been talking about my email inbox in 2011.  Every day brought a new batch of fresh-from-the-studio records, singles and EPs by even fresher musicians looking for their place in the world.  It’s been a fascinating year for new music, for sure.

When it came time to whittle down the list of my favourite discs of 2011, I started to think that maybe I had to expand my self-imposed restriction of just 10 albums to maybe 15, or even 20.  It turns out that wasn’t necessary at all.  I found myself faced with a handful of records, some from familiar names, some from new discoveries, that all rested in the bloated middle of the bell curve.  All were good-to-great records, but didn’t really go the extra distance to have become part of my musical existence in 2011.  I’ve never set out to make a “best of” year-end list, but rather a “favourites of the year” list, choosing records that I regularly gravitated back to, records that I could fall asleep to and then wake up and start listening to all over again.

What did I end up with, you ask?  Excellent question.  In the end–and no surprise to me–I ended up with my first year-end favourites list that is made up entirely of Canadian musicians.  QBiM has been in a constant state of evolution over these last five years, and while my listening pleasures aren’t limited to just Canadian records, my daily blog postings have pretty much exclusively featured Canadian music in 2011 (a conscious decision), and so it only seemed logical that this list would be dominated by (if not completely overrun by) Canadian music.  Anyone who’s followed the blog through the past year will not be surprised by some of the choices, but that goes to show that the music I feature here every day really is the music I listen to every day.

What follows after the jump is an alphabetical list of the 10 records that made my year, and a snapshot from the archives about what I had to say about it the first time ’round.  I stand behind those initial impressions still (which is another reason why these 10 are being centered out).  Your thoughts, opinions, and yes, even your criticisms, as always, are greatly welcomed. 

Braids – Native Speaker (Flemish Eye) QBiM January 18 2011: “Native Speaker isn’t straight-ahead pop music. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and I could imagine that there will be many who don’t have the patience or willingness to let Braids take them on this musical journey. It’s their loss.” MP3: Braids “Lemonade”

 

The Dears – Degeneration Street (Pheromone Recordings) QBiM February 15 2011: “Murray Lightburn, Natalia Yanchak and their rotating stable of Dears (this time welcoming back former members Patrick Krief, Robert Benvie, and Roberto Arquilla and welcoming Jeff Luciani to the fold) have never sounded tighter, more buoyant and contented. It sparkles with dramatic flourishes and rough edges; it smoulders with passion; it seethes with rage.” MP3: The Dears “Blood”

 

Destroyer – Kaputt (Merge) QBiM January 25 2011: “There’s no denying it, Kaputt is creepy. Creepy like a greasy haired gigolo who stares at you with eyes that don’t just say, “I want to sleep with you” but “I want to sleep with you in strange, perverted–and in some jurisdictions–illegal ways”. It’s also incredibly seductive, which is why, against your better judgment, you’re giving those same eyes back before opening song “Chinatown” reaches its sultry sax crescendo.” MP3: Destroyer “Kaputt”

 

Grey Kingdom – Eulogy of Her and Her and Her (Dine Alone Records) QBiM August 4 2011: “Burton’s nuanced compositions stand up to repeated listens; the arrangements are ornate and layered without getting fussy or crowded; the kingdom may be grey, but the clouds clearly have a silver lining. The irrepressible spring of “Oh Bijou and the Rainwater” and “Haunted” hint that there’s always something better on the horizon.” MP3: Grey Kingdom “Haunted”

 

Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital (Sub Pop) QBiM June 29 2011: “Sound Kapital may have Not-Safe-For-Work cover art, but the music inside could easily be classified as NSFS (Not Safe For Sitting). The beats are viral (see “Repatriated”, the best dance-pop-punk hybrid tune of 2011) and the synths seductive (“What About Us”). It’s sleek, modern, and designed to connect physically, intellectually, and emotionally.” MP3: Handsome Furs “Repatriated”

 

Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune (Arts & Crafts) QBiM September 26 2011: “Oh Fortune finds Mangan’s heart tucked safely back into his chest and off his sleeve, and that suits his songwriting extremely well. The album’s themes of loss, sadness, aging and hanging on to your youth are emotional enough on there own that Mangan doesn’t have to overplay the sentiment. Lyrically, he’s still writing from a first-person perspective, but there’s often a sense of detachment, as if he’s more narrator. For me, that makes these songs much more interesting, and encourages repeated listens.” MP3: Dan Mangan “Oh Fortune”

 

Marine Dreams – Marine Dreams (You’ve Changed Records) QBiM November 8 2011: “…great records are the result of making music that you want to hear and enjoy first and foremost, with little pause as to whether the kids are going to dig it in Dartmouth. The muscled guitar solo at the centre of “We’ll Get Her Back in Your Arms” radiates the joy and self-satisfaction that I imagine Kehoe had playing it. It’s really just a slip of a song: two spare verses and a make-shift, one-line chorus, lasts less than three minutes, but man, when that guitar solo comes in, the song starts punching above its weight, delivering a knock-out closing.” MP3: Marine Dreams “We’ll Get Her Back In Your Arms”

 

Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath the Willow (You’ve Changed Records) QBiM April 4 2011: “It all comes down to the combination of performer and song, a magical alchemy that hits the right balance between emotion, intelligence and integrity. Daniel Romano‘s new record, his second solo album in less than a year, ticks all the boxes of what makes not only a great country record, but a great record, period. Sleep Beneath the Willow catapults the Attack In Black frontman/Daniel, Fred and Julie contributor into the circle of great Canadian songwriters.” MP3: Daniel Romano “Hard On You”

 

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing (Paper Bag Records) QBiM March 1 2011: “On Departing, Nils Edenloff’s songwriting and singing is as sharp as ever, Paul Banwatt’s drums are still the propulsive backbone to the band, and Amy Cole’s keyboards shimmer and sparkle as they add that extra special something on songs like “North Star”…The Rural Alberta Advantage has done is crafted another vibrant and electrifying record in the vein of their last, but with a life all its own” MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage “North Star”

 

Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting (Paper Bag Records) QBiM February 7 2011: “I don’t think Young Galaxy could have picked a more transparent title for their third record than Shapeshifting. Maybe calling it The Record Where We Change Everything About How We Sound and How We Record Music would have been more obvious, but I think that would be too much to fit on the vinyl and CD spine. That being said, Shapeshifting is the Young Galaxy record that sounds perfectly comfortable in its own skin.” MP3: Young Galaxy “We Have Everything”

 

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