I’m back! Games post to follow in the same vein.
5.
James Blake - S/T
James Blake is a miserable git, there’s no doubting that. Spiralling coos of woe and despair. A debut that’s half made up of absolute silence. Neither his Brother OR his sister speak to him. Poor James. Singing about how depressed you are is definitely old hat in popular music nowadays, but that didn’t stop a bedroom-bound Dr. Blakenstein attempting to combine it with the increasingly-old-hat (In 2011) genre of dubstep. What a eureka moment he must have had. These steely, near infinite constructions of bass and twisted vocal samples mysteriously emit a tangible sense of human warmth. A cyborg with none of the brashness of dubstep, nor the verbose indulgence of the singer-songwriter. A definite departure from Blake’s more dance orientated EP’s of 2010, but a fascinating and unique enterprise in its own right.
4.
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
Admittedly, fans have never had to wait all that long for a new album from Sheffield’s finest, one time NME undergods the Arctic Monkeys. In a little over five years these loveable, gawky freshfaces with a creepy habit of people-watching have become the wry-smiling zeitgeist of UK indie. A household name – ‘Suck It and See’. 2011′s batch of songs is easily the band’s finest. A bittersweet pick’n'mix of saccharine 60s melody and drily inventive, yet relatable lyrics. No more – no less. Turner has pared the say-what-you-see gimmickry of their debut into something so pure you could pour it into a glass and call it a neat spirit. Timeless, but with a real kick.
3. 
Metronomy – The English Riviera
A most unexpected summer album, yet my summer album of 2011 nonetheless. Ignore palm tree icon stolen from the torquay tourist board, and The English Riviera is sour faced and quite creepy. There’s one song, that you may loosely call an anthem, called ‘The Bay’, that features the most comically funereal synth arrangement I’ve ever heard on a pop song. It’s brash in a kind of Napoleon Dynamite way, and that’s why I like it so much. The albums aesthetics are hilarious, and the songwriting is such a dramatic step-up from previous Metronomy LPs that it’s hard not to get hopelessly engrossed in this vaudeville world that celebrates our humorous British excuse for summertime so eloquently.
2.
Panda Bear – Tomboy
We’d pretty much been drip-fed this whole album months before release, such is the downside of being so in touch with your fanbase, and as such it feels more like a 2010 release. But 2011, 2010, 1969? Thanks to Spacemen 3′s Sonic Boom as producer Tomboy, the final LP is more like the appropriation of a direct laser blast of mana and vitality fired down to earth by a host of heaven’s angels. More so than anything worldly enough to stick a specific scene or genre label onto anyway. As such, Noah Lennox’s vocal showcase is a lot more immediate than the noodling which Animal Collective have made their trademark. Straightforward it may be, but not much approaches it this year in terms of euphoric weight, or the level of volume that it deserves to be played at. It’s power compels you… to grin stupidly.
1.
SBTRKT – S/T
The greatest pop album of 2011 is derivative of dubstep. Taking that statement in isolation would likely enrage the type of kid who thinks the ubiquitous genre is over-saturated, obnoxious and deeply irritating. I happen to be one of those people, but yet here it is – SBTRKT at number one. How did this happen? It’s as if this year, the genre split in two separate directions. Skrillex’s patented brand of cartoon wobble-pop, and SBTRKT’s intriguing identity that utilises the club-like, nocturnal atmosphere of dubstep but nothing else extraneous. Well, maybe the bass too. And the beats.. And it’s definitely still pop. The track Pharaohs is perfect pop in fact, and the combination of guest vocalists (Little Dragon et al) with masterful production turn this risk-taking indie record into something that’s more ‘BBC radio 1′ than ’6 Music’. So what we are able to observe here, is a surprising rearrangement of the atoms in the dubstep molecule, and it’s easily the most exciting breakthrough of 2011.
Honourable mentions:
Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow - So much serene beauty, so little time.
Battles – Gloss Drop – Rube Goldberg rhythm-rock. Wonderful or a little bit irritating. Pick your side!
The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts – More polaroid tinged party music from the best in the biz.
Radiohead – The King Of Limbs – Wait, what’s this doing here..?
