The Malone Rainja’s 2011 Music Picks

By Sean Malone | December 25, 2011 at 4:39 pm | 2 comments | [2011 MUSIC PICKS]

10. Bon Iver – Bon Iver


I almost left this one off, but I felt like I would be remiss not to include an indie album that has received praise and attention from so many varying corners of pop culture. Singer/songwriter Justin Vernon’s home state of Wisconsin declared not one but two separate Bon Iver days (in Milwaukee and Eau Claire respectively) in honor of the band and the album’s increasing visibility. Vernon also appeared on several Kanye West tracks, worked with several side projects (Volcano Choir and Gayngs namely) and was interviewed and performed on the Colbert Report. Yes, it’s been a whirlwind couple of years since Vernon went to a cabin in the Wisconsin woods and created his own version of Walden. His sophomore release under the moniker Bon Iver is the antithesis to 2008’s For Emma, Forever Ago in nearly every way imaginable. This self titled album is packed with everything Vernon could dream up putting on a single record: horn sections, a large backing band, two drummers (at times), violin, drum machines, a strange relation to geographic locations (both real and imagined), and an organ sound straight out of a Bruce Hornsby song. It’s not quite the mess it appears to be on paper, but once everything is mixed in with Vernon’s striking and sometimes grating falsetto delivery you might be left at a loss to make sense of it all. Make no doubt about it, this is an important album and its got the mainstream (not to mention the Grammy Awards) sniffing around anyone who appears earnest enough to sport ratty clothes, a beard and an acoustic guitar. The more I listened to this album, the harder I found it to comprehend. This is an album that is both challenging and frustrating, but the two need not be mutually exclusive.

9.  The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
The War On Drugs – Brothers by user3659716

The War on Drugs’ sound is traditional only in that it simultaneously hints at a number of seminal artists. Within the folds of a Slave Ambient track you might hear traces of Dylan or Springsteen even as the dense and droning song melodies most often owe more to post-punk than they do to any sense of Americana. Singer/songwriter Adam Granduciel finds himself without former partner Kurt Vile (who left the group amicably to pursue his solo career, see #5) on this release and it brings a focus and continuity to the album that the band’s two previous releases lacked at times. Granduciel’s vocals most often recall Bob Dylan or Lou Reed (and are sometimes strikingly similar to Vile’s), but are much more restrained and melancholic than either artist ever has been. I’ll confess, I’ve told several people that this is what I always hoped and imagined Arcade Fire would sound like. Both groups exist by way of a marriage of the classical pretensions of folk and popular rock and the more challenging aesthetics of post-punk, but the difference lies in how they create catharsis. Slave Ambient seems to draw its name primarily from its song structures which eschew popular notions of tension and release while somehow still sounding alarmingly vintage. The songs (like the War on Drugs waged by the U.S. government) unfurl without any notion of time, as if they will whirl on forever even as the final and unceremonious ending is in sight.

8.  Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
Lykke Li – Get Some by LykkeLi

The Swedish pop/indie singer takes a step towards a retro 60s feel with this, her second full length album. While the approach is a refreshing costume change from some of the material on her first album that treaded dangerously close to vapid mainstream pop, pairing the neo-Phil Spector girl-group sound with lyrics and stories about depression and lost youth seems the real genius stroke here. Each song hums with reverb, vintage vibraphone and harpsichord, filled in by the songstress’s thick and nearly baritone vocals. As Lykke Li’s music has matured and become more varied, so have her lyrical takes on love and relationships; songs about relationships without passion or predatorial sex (“I’m your prostitute/You gon get some”) are both tragic and somehow beautiful coming from a young woman in her early twenties. It may or may not be third wave feminism finally asserting its grasp on the gender stereotypes of pop music, but it certainly offers a different perspective from the hegemony espoused by the naïve waif or outright whore of the current American pop paradigm. No, Lykke Li will probably never get played on American Top 40 but that may be a triumph rather than a loss. She has more to say than Lady Gaga ever will and she does so without becoming a postmodern cartoon or a pop caricature that can be packaged and worshiped by gay men. Real female artists take heed.

7.  The Weeknd – House of Balloons
The Weeknd – High For This by The_Weeknd

With three mixtapes in 2011, Toronto’s The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) burst onto both the indie rock and hip-hop blogosphere. House of Balloons was by far the most accomplished of the releases and was available as a free download through the band’s website. The album/mixtape pays homage to mainstream r&b at the turn of the century (with some overtones of Drake), but turns the corner in its eccentric approach, presentation and song variety. While other artists in the genre are content with covering love, sex and drugs in a matter of fact manner, the Weeknd does so in a much more visceral and occasionally disturbing way backed by tracks that hint at techno and electronica. Tesfaye’s tales of drug abuse are intertwined with sex so much so that it seems necessary to be high to even exist in this world; drugs are not fun, they are necessary to escape and experience something real. Running through each track is a dark undercurrent that is emphasized by the drony and nearly ambient production . House of Balloons is full of r&b balladry ripe for Radiohead fans; if you can imagine Aphex Twin working with R. Kelly and the Neptunes, then you have a point of reference for the Weeknd.

6.  Destroyer – Kaputt


Dan Bejar (also of the New Pornographers) is known simply as Destroyer in his solo incarnation. Kaputt (his tenth full length release under the moniker) is his most accomplished and focused album yet. Although you’re not likely to hear it while you’re out anywhere in this universe, this is most certainly lounge music for people on ecstasy. Imagine if the cantina scene from Star Wars was set in the 80s and included music written by David Bowie and New Order (in its more subdued moments). Behar’s somewhat comical and sleazy Destroyer persona takes us in and out of a world where you can still have a slight lisp that adds more to your perspective than it detracts (“I’ve sthumbed sthrough the books on your shelves”). At times Destoyer sounds like a creepy and perverted lounge act with a penchant for Beck-style whole album takes on different genres. The difference here is that as much as we all loved Midnite Vultures, we knew Beck was smirking throughout the entire thing. Bejar, however, believes wholeheartedly in what he does; the only irony to find here is in the eye of the beholder (or the ear, as it were). Gone is much of the more traditional guitar-based work from earlier Destroyer releases, instead replaced with an airy, reverb-heavy electronic smooth jazz that is fitting with the lyrical tales Bejar spins about chasing girls and cocaine, going to the opera and writing poetry. There’s something tragic and yet enchanting about this sound and the entire song cycle; Bejar reimagines common themes of desire and loss inside a world where everything is over-sensualized and elevated. As listeners we can’t help but follow along mystified. Is it all tongue in cheek? That’s a secret Bejar will never tell.

5.  Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
Kurt Vile & The Violators – On Tour (Live) by The 405

Singer-songwriter (and sometimes member of The War on Drugs, see #9) Kurt Vile has an affected and monotone drawl that is reminiscent of Dylan, Lou Reed and Springsteen all at once (appropriately, he is from the valley of “The Boss” outside of Philadelphia). His fourth full length release and second for Matador Records shows him fine-tuning his lyrics and his mostly downbeat but ethereal folk-inspired numbers. Tracks like “Baby’s Arms” and “Puppet to the Man” are classic rock reinvisioned by a literate burnout and nihilistic hippie. Vile’s mish-mash of influences is equally as entertaining as his mostly half-hearted and ironic self-derision (“I bet by now/ You probably think I’m a puppet/To the man/Well, I’ll tell you right now/You best believe that I am”). Throughout Smoke Rings For My Halo, he takes aim at religion (“Jesus Fever”), society (“Society is My Friend”) and the music business itself (“On Tour”), but Vile typically ends up back where he started, staring at his disheveled face in the mirror. It’s only appropriate for someone who appears to feel as trapped by the ennui of his own mind as much as he is by the contradictions of the outside world.

4.  Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Girls – Vomit by artsandcraftsmx

The second full length release from Chris Owens and his band Girls is a genre bending work that expands the group’s sonic output without sacrificing Owens’ impish persona in the process. Father, Son, Holy Ghost sounds like most of what was good about alternative rock in the 90s  (a simultaneous attention to melody and attitude) and some of what was good about classic rock in the 70s (a commonality and appeal to the average person) put together in a Magic Bullet™ and poured out to the delight of young and old alike. To call the album nostalgic really misses the point of what Girls do so well; they make music that is immediately accessible and largely familiar without being obviously derivative. This starts out as more of an electric album than either their debut (simply titled Album) or last year’s EP Broken Dreams Club which left some (myself included) wondering whether Owens had maxed out his navel-gazing abilities. His lyrics are specific and somehow vague at the same time, which alludes to the larger referential qualities of the music itself. On “Alex,” Owens mumbles about a girl with some plain qualities over a Dinosaur Jr./Lemonheads style mid-tempo romp (“Alex has blue eyes…a boyfriend…a band…black hair”) that lead the singer to feel both ambivalent and somehow compelled. In this and most of his songs, Owens is the epitome of a laconic storyteller; he tells you just enough to keep you interested but leaves you questioning both your conception of him and the focus of his gaze.

3.  Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know


This young woman’s output over the past three years is really unprecedented. The title “precocious” no longer applies to someone in their early 20s, but Laura Marling still manages to astound regardless of her age (she was only 16 when a member of the British folk group Noah and the Whale and had just turned 18 when her first album, Alas I Cannot Swim, was released in Britain). Her second album in as many years, A Creature I Don’t Know represents less of a watershed moment than 2010’s maturity-affirming I Speak Because I Can, but succeeds on its own laurels for particularly that reason. Where I Speak… felt like someone discovering their gifts in-full, A Creature I Don’t Know sounds like the singer-songwriter coming into full possession of them. “Sophia” is arguably the most moving and dynamic song she’s ever written; and the rest of the album hints at a variety and confidence that Marling previously struggled with. Fresh out of her work with the members of Mumford and Sons (not to mention out of her relationship with Billy Mumford himself), Laura sounds like a woman finally comfortable with her abilities even as she struggles to make sense of her relationships and day-to-day life.

2.  Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne
Who Gon Stop Me by fifthorder

Calling this album a monstrosity of zealous hedonism is really an understatement. When you have two of the biggest names in hip-hop double-billed on one release, you should expect nothing less. What’s a surprise, however, is how well putting Jigga and Yeezy together for an entire album works. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this was an equal effort from both stars; at the outset it’s clear this is a Kanye created album that employs Jay Z in somewhat of a starring role. At one point, Kanye confesses during “Made in America” that, “Niggas hustle every day for a beat from Ye/What I do? Turn around gave them beats to Jay/And I’m rapping on the beat they was supposed to buy/I guess I’m getting high off my own supply.” After the critical triumph that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was, Kanye found himself with the need to do something more commercial without sacrificing the positive reviews and reputation he’d gained from the more serious end of the music world. Watch the Throne fits that bill perfectly and allows Kanye’s occasionally distracting and annoying self-obsession and paranoia to take a back seat to Hova’s swagger. A couple tracks pass before Jay really lets loose, but by the close of “Niggas in Paris” he has redeemed himself for each insipid sequel to The Blueprint we’ve had to wade through over the past ten years. In every sense of the word this is a triumph and a return to form for Jay-Z. Where most of his work since The Black Album has leaned towards being overly commercial, repetitive (how many times can we hear about a middle-aged media mogul selling crack in his street days?) and even boring, Watch the Throne sounds as if it has instantly reinvigorated the over-the-hill rapper. West’s brilliant and on-point production take center-stage here more than anything, but Shawn Carter is no fool. He knows that great beats will win over more people and give him more street-cred than riffing back and forth about dealing crack for the umpteenth time ever could.

1.  St. Vincent – Strange Mercy


To fully appreciate how great this album is, you might need a refresher on Annie Clark’s (AKA St. Vincent’s) career up to this point in 2011, which marks her third full length album release. Her debut, Marry Me, was a tuneful but somewhat stereotypical female-indie synth-pop album in which Clark sounded slightly naïve and doe-eyed; 2009’s Actor was a bit more atonal and expansive but sacrificed some of the melodic qualities of her earlier work in favor of more progressive structures. That brings us to this year’s Strange Mercy which is nearly a perfect marriage of both. Gone are the stylistic experiments and pretension of her earlier releases, replaced instead by an overwhelming cohesiveness that compliments her advanced songwriting skills and highlights her classically trained talents (she attended Berklee School of Music in Boston), including her guitar shredding abilities. The listener might be tricked into believing a majority of the sounds on the album are synth based, while in reality much of it is Clark’s guitar run through any number of effects pedals/processors. The first single, “Surgeon” (lyrically, at least in part an homage to Marilyn Monroe) is groovy, downcast and progressive all in the span of less than five minutes. If that sounds chaotic, it’s because it is and it serves as a microcosm for the album. Clark crams in more depth and tension into these songs than she ever has before but it works because so much of it is focused around melody (“Cruel” alone has nearly five differing counter melodies that weave in and out of each other). And there you find the beauty of this music, on first listen it sounds chaotic and exhilarating but after awhile you realize it’s all very tightly structured and meticulous in production and songwriting; that’s one of the definitions of great music in any genre. And that makes for an amazing album any year.