Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. IV)

The list keeps on rolling, as we edge closer and closer to the number one album. But before we continue, here's what's been spotlighted so far.

30. 4- Beyonce

29. The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

28. Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

27. Alien Observer- Grouper

26. Step Brothers- Don Trip & Starlito

25. Cole World: Sideline Story- J. Cole

24. Weekend at Burnies- Curren$y

23. Suck It and See- Arctic Monkeys

22. Celestial Lineage- Wolves in the Throne Room

#21 The Whole Love- Wilco

No other band on this list could hate success more than Wilco. As soon as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was labeled perfect by a frothing music-press in 2002, Jeff Tweedy and company had to be nervous. Their subsequent albums would be compared to it, the record serving as a cruel musical measuring-stick. The album cast a shadow taller than the buildings on that minimalist cover.

“You won’t set the kids on fire, oh but I might,” trills Tweedy on the infectious “I Might,” recalling the days when his band was the thing “the kids,” were listening to. The track is Wilco in single-mode, delivering a catchy piece with an experimental twist. With a marching band drum beat, heavy guitar strumming, and Farfisa organ, “I Might,” sounds like a 60s garage rock cast-off. The song would be a dead-ringer, were it not for the scrawls of guitar puncturing its pop credence.

Elsewhere on the album, Wilco returns to the alt-country terrain they once galloped across, summoning the magnetic “Black Moon.” The track starts with classic country fingerpicking, pedal steel tagging close behind. When Wilco takes the turn toward country again on “Open Mind,” they retreat back to their Summerteeth days. “I would love to be the one to open your mind,” Tweedy sings. When people hear that “Wilco sound,” this is what is winding through their ears.

In the almost ten years since YHF, Wilco has released four albums, each disturbingly-declared by a cadre of critics to not be up to par. On “Standing O,” Tweedy obscurely strikes back, saying “I’m not the same as almost anyone.” Anyone in Wilco’s place would have gotten lost in that massive shadow, releasing tepid record after record, diminishing results the only thing to show. The thing is Tweedy is isn’t anyone and Wilco isn’t content with staying in the shadows.

"Open Mind"

#20 Bad as Me- Tom Waits

After nearly 40 years since his first album dropped, Tom Waits doesn’t need us anymore. He’s been a critical darling from the start, has had a degree of commercial success and seen his songs covered by more-popular acts like Springsteen and Johnny Cash. Waits has done all of this while remaining relevant, re-inventing himself just when he was starting to stall. When you have a career like Waits, there’s no reason to keep going when you’ve proven yourself time and time again, but the prickly performer has never done what’s been expected.

When that banjo first starts plucking away and the devilish horns kick down the door, you know this is a Tom Waits record. “The seeds are planted here, but they won’t grow,” he growls with that ungodly-voice. "Chicago" has Waits written all over it, with propulsive percussion and stabbing guitar licks. As the vapors float away, a rude organ clatters and an irregular drum-beat takes a two-by-four upside our head, launching “Raised Right Men.” Musically the song is mid-80s Waits, with the singer simultaneously possessed and on the edge of tears. The speedy 1-2 punch is slowed and then we rejoin on the other side with the 1950s-styled “Get Lost.”

As chaotic and blistering as Waits’ career has been since he made the switch to experimental-rock artist, he is still at his best hearkening back to his time spent in the 70s. A time when he was Tom Waits, singer-songwriter. “They pay me not to come home, keeping me stoned, I won’t run away,” he croons on “Pay Me.” Over a measured accordion and flamenco-flavored guitar, Waits offers one of the most moving tracks of his career, a track that comes to realize that “all roads lead to the end of the world.” When he's done, a melancholic piano carries us into the carnival night the song recalls.

Every facet of Waits is on full-display with this album, ornately-crafted. On Bad as Me, we hear Waits the former-drunk, Waits the hopeless romantic, Waits the howling-demon, and Waits the insincere storyteller. This incarnation has the last-laugh with “New Year’s Eve,” a rambling-narrative of the scene just before the ball drops and another year enters the books. “Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind,” goes the familiar chorus. Waits may be a mercurial musician, but he’ll never be forgotten. He’ll always be around, the last man left at the holiday party, standing with his “records in a brown paper sack.”

"New Year's Eve"

#19 Live, Love, A$AP- A$AP Rocky

       

$3 million. A$AP Rocky signed a deal for more than $3 million. When fellow New-Yorker The Notorious B.I.G. signed his deal with Bad Boy, he couldn’t have imagined such a colossal contract. When Biggie signed he had what’s been called the greatest rap demo tape of all-time, A$AP had two singles and a mixtape in the works.

Fortunately for A$AP that mixtape became the strongest to drop all year. Rocky could’ve gone the way of Papoose, signing a massive deal and failing to earn his keep, but he doubled-down on what made his initial singles so successful. If Step Brothers is a mixtape of regional transcendence, then this tape by the kid from Harlem is one of regional rejection. NYC has been the mecca of rap since the get-go and if you came up there people expected you to sound a certain way. The last time an artist showed this much disrespect to the Big Apple style, RZA was commanding his Wu-crew to “bring themotherf***ing ruckus.” Though this tape will never approximate the greatness of Enter the Wu-Tang, it’s a similarly much needed slap in the face to a city that’s slowly dying.

 The tape itself is a veritable who’s who of indie-rap producers, featuring the haunting lushness of Clams Casino, the slow-blaze of DJ Burn One, and the Three 6 Mafia-aping Spaceghostpurrp. Though he pulls together disparate beatsmiths, Rocky’s sound is beholden to the city of Houston. This is chopped-and-screwed music at its most tolerable and given the music, Rocky spends plenty of time talking about sipping “purple drank,” and “puffin’ purple weed.” “Trilla,” referencing a phrase originally crafted by H-Town natives UGK, sports a sample that would be right at home on a DJ Screw tape, the creator of the style Rocky so lovingly embraces.

Working with a cast this impressive makes Rocky’s job all the easier. He stays close to tried and true rap topics of: money, fame, drugs, and women, but with these beats it doesn’t matter. “Demons posted all around me, I can’t beat ‘em on my own,” he raps on the show-stopping “Demons,” knowing that that $3 million deal might just cost him more than it earns. On closer “Out of this World,” he references Jay-Z, one of the few times another NYC rapper is recalled on the tape’s 56 minutes. Rocky may never be the king like Jay, but being the king doesn’t matter to him. If the NYC scene is dead as Rocky suggests in the hook, he’s content to “let it rest.”

"Demons" (unofficial)

 

Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. III)

And you thought I'd take a break for Christmas? How wrong you were. You know the deal by now, here's the third part of my Top 30 Albums of 2011, with a little recap.

30. 4- Beyonce

29. The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

28. Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

27. Alien Observer- Grouper

26. Step Brothers- Don Trip & Starlito

25. Cole World: Sideline Story- J. Cole

#24 Weekend at Burnie's- Curren$y

 

 

Work ethic. It’s a phrase you might not think to associate with a stoner-rap performer like Curren$y, but in reality it’s what’s distinguished him from every weed-rapper this year. In 2011 his output has resembled his hooks; stunningly-simplistic, but impossibly-effective. In just one year, the man known as “Spitta,” found time to drop: 3 well-received mixtapes, a posse-album, and his third major label release, Weekend at Burnies.

If you had to use a word to describe Spitta’s rap style it would have to be slippery. “Them haters trying to deplete my shine like Venetian blinds, but son do what sun do: rise,” he raps on “You See It.” At first listen, the clever turn blows right by, the wonky beat masking the brilliancy of the line. Given Curren$y’s tendency to ramble around the beat, instead of staying on point, it’s an example of missed-genius, that happens all too often in the New Orleans rapper’s world.

Hazy beats envelope most of this album, with “She Don’t Want A Man,” being the stoned-summit. Even for a man who specializes in hypnotic music and thorough descriptions of “lighting up,” the beat here is incredibly alluring and the story unusually detailed. Here he examines the breakdown of an unfaithful relationship, showing signs of guilt at the track’s end. “Say something talking heavy on her heart today. Telling her the situation is wrong and she should walk away. Cause her feelings was coming into play,” he raps. Curren$y may have the mind and lungs of a stoner, but he has a heart of gold.

"She Don't Want A Man"

#23 Suck It and See- Arctic Monkeys

 

The Clash. The Smiths. Oasis. England has had a long history of declaring the latest emerging rock-band saviors of the form, torch bearers of Lennon & McCartney. Some did everything to avoid the comparison (The Smiths) and others relished it (Oasis), but couldn’t stand the intense heat of the spotlight. Then there’s the Arctic Monkeys.

From their first record which was publicized to the point of parody the Arctic Monkeys have had an intolerable hype surrounding them. They avoided the sophomore slump with Favourite Worst Nightmare, dropping it just a year after the fastest-selling album in British history. They took a hard-left turn with third-album Humbug, embracing psychedelic sounds, a move many “kingmakers” balked at. In many ways, this decision was their biggest move to date. It’s a move that allowed them to pull-back from the public and make a record on their own terms, with little opinions as to what an Arctic Monkeys record “should sound like.”

And what a sound this record has. It’s a remarkable blend of everything the band has laid to wax before. There’s the punk-meets-clubber tone of “Library Pictures,” the indelible garage-rock chorus of “The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala,” and the creeping psychedelia of single “Don’t Sit Down Because I’ve Moved Your Chair.” This blend would be bland without a full-working Alex Turner, who fires on cylinders for the album’s 40 minutes. Opener “She’s Thunderstorms,” sports a lucid-guitar line, not far-removed from the Stone Roses’ discography, and Turner’s most soulful singing to date. His decision to dial down for the number, one of the wisest choices the Sheffield-group has made. 

As fast as our music scene moves, England moves at twice the pace. Bands come and go at a moment’s notice; not surprising considering this is the country that has birthed nearly every-important band of the last 30 years. With that, the Arctic Monkeys have been forgotten in some circles. “I want to build you up, brick by brick,” Turner sings intently. Though the press may have “built them up,” the Arctic Monkeys have succeeded on their own terms by moving at their own pace. Spurning the past and steadfastly-staring toward the future.

"She's Thunderstorms"

#22 Celestial Lineage- Wolves in the Throne Room

 

I hate black-metal. I hate it for the same reason many seem to have such a disdain for reggae, because I often see little variance between artists. For me, one loud and overbearing scream is often indecipherable from another. That is to say little of the lyrics, that are often so obsessed with Satanism it borders on the absurd. Many consider this album, the fourth by Washington-natives Wolves in the Throne Room to be firmly in the grounds of black metal, but its inclusion on the list says otherwise.

It all begins with the chiming of a bell, rusty and distant. Soon we hear the jostle of chimes, a swelling synthesizer, and the apparent pitter-patter of piano. Jessika Kenney’s self-described “clean vocals,” rise up triumphantly, announcing the foreboding doom just-off in the horizon. “Redness in the east beyond the mountain, the wheel begins to turn anew.” As her angelic voice floats away, electric guitar cruelly comes forth and darkness sets in. With an on-time drum-breakdown by Aaron Weaver, brother Nathan begins to snarl and shadows rain down. “Black clouds bring rain,” he screams, fully-aware of the stormy sensations his band is capable of producing. The triumphant gloom of “Thuja Magus Imperium,” gallops on for 11 minutes and when it’s over, we’re left with what could be described as Godspeed You Black Emperor! converting to a black-metal band.

The majesty of the opener seeps into every nook of this LP. Several times, the unadorned sounds of nature can be heard with rustling leaves and howling winds. The brutality of the vocals is often buoyed by a pastoral presence, the lyrics finding a warm-home out in the elements. “A temple of wet earth and rough stones erected in haste,” is recalled in “SubterraneanInitiation.” This is music forged from fire in the bitter cold.

Other records in 2011 may be better, but I haven’t heard a more epic album this entire year. The ebb and flow of this record is as massive as a major river, the band dialing down from their wall of noise to the plucking of a harp in an instant. Few bands are capable of making dread and doom sound alluring, but on Celestial Lineage Wolves in the Throne Room found a way. This is a release that breaks forth from the shackles of black metal, defining the sedate sub-genre on its own terms.

 "Prayer of Transformation"

TOMORROW! TOMORROW! THERE'S MORE PICKS TOMORROW!

 

Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. II)

With the year coming to an end, I've decided to roll-out my Top 30 Albums of 2011 list. Yesterday, I gave you pt. 1, so today here's pt. 2. Before the jump here's a recap of what there's been so far.

30. 4- Beyonce

29. The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

28. Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

#27 Alien Observer- Grouper

Imagine if you will for a second that you’re drowning in the midst of a great ocean in the dark. The waves slowly roll over you and you start to sink, just before you do a soothing hum enters your ear. A smile comes to your face and you are at ease, your impending doom no longer seeming to matter. This is the imagery I conjure up when listening to Grouper.

On one half of a double-album that serves as her sixth official LP, Grouper has recorded six tracks of mind-numbing austerity. Opener “Moon is Sharp,” comes in heavy with mountains of reverb and Liz Harris’ voice rises up out of the ether. Her shy voice is the alluring eye of the hurricane. After the six-minute drone has ended, you’re left thinking you’ve spent hours floating on that same listless sea.

In what I argue is the album’s strongest spot, Grouper’s vocals ride a trembling keyboard line to a dark distant planet. “Look into the night sky, looking towards the big lights, looking out to be free,” she sings on “Alien Observer.” That longing soon becomes despondence as Harris realizes she’s an “alien observer,” in a world that isn’t hers.

Grouper’s has often been lauded for her ability to draw up the sublime from the sorrowful and this work is no different. It’s a record that can make you cry tears of joy one minute and bitterly weep the next, the severity of the reverb-heavy music often dulled by that serene voice. It’s a faint voice that calls in the dark night, calling you to a home you’ve never known.

"Alien Observer"

#26 Step Brothers- Don Trip & Starlito 

 So much of this mixtape is the kind of dumb-fun you rarely hear in rap anymore, where two rappers spit as if their lives depended on it. Some of these lines are Lil Wayne levels of absurdity, with ‘Lito stating at one point that “I don’t get as high as I used to… Vince Carter!” “Money talks and mine will never go hoarse,” Don Trip declares with a snarl on opener “Boats and Ho’s.” For more than an hour, the duo talks and rarely do they “go hoarse.”

 

Part of the dumb-fun of this mixtape comes with the inclusion of samples from the Will Ferrell “classic” Step Brothers. Rather than bend to the will of such an oddball inclusion, Trip and ‘Lito zig-zag at a stupefying-pace, dropping a touching track just when you expected another knucklehead banger. Over a hypnotic vocal loop and clacking drum machine, Don Trip becomes a dealer cognizant of the damage his career is doing to his community. “She’ll get high no matter what; I might as well be the man. Might as well take the dope and hit the trap with a plan. Had to get my ass in and provide for my fam,” he raps on “5th Song.” His consciousness gets the best of him and he reminds himself “that’s somebody’s girl.” ‘Lito seals the deal on the emotional cut, remembering a fallen friend “in a box.”

For two guys who had reportedly only known each for a year or so before, this mixtape is marvelous. The Tennessee MCs make it sound too easy, trading bars as if they known each other since birth. That camaraderie carries this regional work to impressive heights. Though it may be cut from the cloth of Southern trap-rap, the Step Brothers mixtape transcends its locale, “making something out of nothing, like pottery.”

"5th Song"

#25 Cole World: The Sideline Story- J. Cole

 

The title of this album masterfully encapsulates J. Cole’s own rap career. Late last year as his brilliant Friday Night Light mixtape was about to drop, Jay-Z announced New Orleans-rapper Jay Electronica’s signing to his Roc Nation imprint. The slight was practically foreseen by Cole who bitterly protested “it was supposed to be your moment,” on the intro. For Cole, the signing was just another case of him being “sidelined.”

Cole’s coming into the game now, to continue that sport’s metaphor and throughout this album, he rarely drops the ball. Track after track, Cole spits some of the most inspired verses of his career over his jazzy-piano and drum-heavy production sound. I’ve long respected Cole for keeping away outside producers, honing his soulful snark in a musical vacuum. It’s a move that pays off-well for the most part, though the dubstep-driven “Mr. Nice Watch,” and hit-single “Work Out,” represent two marked whiffs.

Any mistake Cole makes on the album is forgotten the moment “Lost Ones,” comes on. The track is the most personally intense rap song I’ve heard all year and should become Cole’s calling card. This abortion narrative details that personal decision from both sides, Cole himself giving voice to the man and the woman. “You’ve got some nerve to come up to me talkin’ ‘bout abortion,” he fiercely says as the woman, his voice nearly giving out under the weight of the emotion. The track represents everything Cole has come to be known for, heartbreaking-introspection, emotional-honesty, and clever turns of phrase. “I run the town, they tried to call me underground,” Cole raps on “Dollar and a Dream III.” Cole’s days of laboring in the underground are long since passed. He’s come into the game and isn’t giving up his spot anytime soon.

"Lost Ones"

THE SHOW GOES ON, TOMORROW.   

Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. I)

So to get the ball rolling on my list of the Top 30 Albums of 2011, I'm dropping the first three reviews for this list. Periodically until the year ends, I'll be unveiling the rest of my list so keep checking in for updates. Now let's get started.

#30 4- Beyoncé

Almost immediately on “1+1,” the opener to Beyoncé’s fourth album, the R&B diva swoons “I don’t know much about algebra, but I know one plus one equals two. And it’s me and it’s you.” With that one line, Beyonce recalls the ebullient soul of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” But where that song was ultimately uncertain “if this one could be with you, what a wonderful world this could be,” Beyoncé is all-knowing. Where she was once “Dangerously in Love” she is now comfortable if still “crazy”, crooning her conviction over a simple guitar figure. 

Comfortability is the tale of 4, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for laziness. With that comfortability comes a new confidence in Beyoncé, seeing her pursue bold new ideas down their respective rabbit holes. “I still need you, why is that,” she wonders on the sparse “I Miss You.” It’s one of the tenderest tracks of her career and possesses little more than metronomic drumming and slow rolling waves of synth, simplicity giving way to sentimentality of the highest order. Elsewhere, she plays shape-shifter in the infectious “Countdown,” driving throw a litany of beat drops and switches. It’s a track endemic of the album as a whole, no longer having to look for love, Beyoncé is free to follow her muse, letting stability give way to startling creativity.

"Countdown"

 

#29 The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

“What I loved most she had so much soul,” it’s a line any hip-hop head knows all too well. For anyone who’s followed Common it’s undoubtedly what they’ve loved so much about the Chicago MC as well. With the release of 2008’s Universal Mind Control, he traded in that soul for staid electro-beats courtesy of the Neptunes. Their cold-rugged thunk a far-cry from the warm rays of soul Common’s lines were often bathed in.

When it was first announced that the 2011 follow-up The Dreamer, The Believer would be entirely produced by old cohort No I.D. I was ecstatic. The Chi-city producer laced Common with some of the greatest beats the Alt-rap world had seen at the time and Common masterfully fit in. This new release picks right-up where the duo left off, beginning with “The Dreamer,” which sports a driving drum-beat No I.D. has staked his career on and a hypnotic vocal loop. “You can live the dream, just believe in it,” Common proclaims in the bridge. Throughout this record, he balances his hip-hop dreams with what 20 years in the game have taught him.

Clearly all that time has taught him well and Common is in top form throughout. He spares full-force with a furious Nas on “Ghetto Dreams” and soars on the epic ELO-sampling “Blue Sky.” “Do they end up in a coffin because we haven’t taught them,” he wonders on the John Legend feature “The Believer,” turning in his most impressive performance in years. It’s a question Common can’t help but ask. He’s been “teaching” his whole career and the rap-world still has so much to learn. “Let us dare to dream,” Maya Angelou boldly proclaims on “The Dreamer.” Common has spent his time dreaming of a hip-hop world he has yet to see, but he still steadfastly believes. Maybe one day he can still “take it all back,” like he promised all those years ago. All we can do is dream.

"Blue Sky"

#28 Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

 

At one point on the Just Once EP, a silence emerges I could spend hours talking about, where the lush violin and cold piano give up the ghost leaving us alone with singer Tom Krell. Time seems to stop. “It’s like there’s no air, no air, no air” Krell despondently sings. He goes on to say he “wasn’t in any pain,” but we know better from listening to the whole track.

"Suicide Dream 2 (Orchestral Version)

This is an EP of a frightened and despondent man, hopelessly lost. Where previous HTDW efforts hid that hopelessness under mountains of reverb and tape hiss, this work trots out Krell’s pain for all to see. The orchestra that plays with such warmth throughout only serves to show us how cold Krell’s world truly is. Lyrics are still obscured, this time by the still proudly lo-fi orchestra, but it doesn’t matter, one listen to that voice on a track like “Suicide Dream 1,” tells us all we need to know.

This is music transfixed on the past, every mistake made blown-up and analyzed to an overwhelming degree. When the brief respite of “Decisions,” comes at the EP’s end, it’s too late. It’s a moment of glory, frozen in a troubled time.

TO BE CONTINUED

     

The Motto

"The Motto," which appeared on the deluxe edition of Drake' Take Care now has an accompanying visual. The video is a straightforward West-Coast tribute, but curiously features Young Money member Tyga who was nowhere to be found on the original track. The appearance is no doubt move to drum-up publicity for Tyga's forthcoming debut Rise of the Last King. Check out the video below.

Echoes of Silence

In a surprise move, R&B artist The Weeknd aka Abel Tesfaye has released his 3rd mixtape of the year, the long-awaited and promised Echoes of Silence. Like House of Balloons and Thursday, the mixtape is rife with hazy drug-riddled crooning and features 9 tracks. My personal pick for early favorite is the warped "Initiation," which debuted back in October. You can get the mixtape right here.

It's only a matter of time before these tracks get the big-budget video treatment of tunes like "The Knowing." In the meantime, enjoy the still incredible "unofficial" video for "Wicked Games."

"Wicked Games"- House of Balloons

Free Gucci

It's that time of year again, when the snow piles up, the cold winter winds whirl about, and perpetual parolee Gucci Mane gets out of jail. The Atlanta-rapper and mixtape juggernaut was released from jail yesterday after doing a bid for violating parole. At this point, the Fulton County Jail is like a second home for Gucci, who goes through it like a revolving door. In an interview with XXL, Gucci went on record to say "this is the last time I think I'll ever be in jail." If this is true, the rap world will be better off, having one of its perennial weirdos back again.

Below is the video for Gucci's "Lemonade," undoubtedly one of his catchiest and most well-crafted songs to date.

"Lemonade"- The State vs. Radric Davis