Number 6: Morning Comes by Cuff the Duke
2011′s been a great year for music. So many good bands have been raising the bar of what to expect from them. Like Cuff the Duke. There are some perfect songs on this album, and it was produced by Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, and you can hear that: how this album is like Blue Rodeo for hipsters. It’s a fantastic sound, and a good mix of slow burners and infectious alt-country songs with catchy, sing-along choruses. It’s an album about the “change, confusion, and loneliness” that accompanies losing someone. This narrative will continue into their next album, as Morning Comes is considered to be the first of 2 linked albums. “This album is the low and the next album will be the high.”
“Standing on the Edge”
“You Won’t Look Back”
Number 7: El Camino by The Black Keys
Every time I get sick of hearing and hearing about The Black Keys they release another outrageously good album. There aren’t many contemporary straight-up rock and roll bands, and there doesn’t need to be when these guys are putting out front-to-back great albums like this. I said “Holy shit” out loud when I first heard “Sister.” I really did.
“Lonely Boy”
“Sister”
Number 8: Seeds by Hey Rosetta!
Hey Rosetta!’s seeds is a very accomplished album, musically. The song structures are both ambitious and catchy; two very different and often opposing feats. They’re not just throwing songs down for the sake of an album. These are multilayered, meticulously crafted songs. Even Baker’s lyrics. It’s not something you see much of these days, these sort of epic songs with pre-choruses and post-verses and outros and the like. If I didn’t even like the music (but I do!) I’d till see the merit in peoples’ outcry that they never won this year’s Polaris Prize. because they should have. It’s the trajectory of their career. Their first CD had them take over Newfoundland. Their second had them take over Canada, and with Seeds, they’ve taken over the world — From WLT takeaways in London to the fact there’s even an Australian wine named in their honour (Red Heart). They’re the contemporary band that finally made it out of Newfoundland. God knows there’s been many in the past who should have, like Fur Packed Action.
“Young Glass”
“Welcome”
Number 9: Mysterious Power by Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Furman’s Voice, and this music, was so reminiscent of the movie, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I had to double check there was no conenction. There’s not. Ezra Furman isn’t even 25. Young and bursting with life, and it comes off in his ripe, rich rock songs, bleeding with life the way The Pixies did. Love this album, can’t believe it didn’t get more attention in Canada this year.
“My favorite thing in all of rock ‘n’ roll is that pleading, eager voice full of sweetness and pain,” Furman says. “You can hear it in the Smiths, in Jonathan Richman – the personality is right there in their songs, and is open-hearted and is asking you to open your heart. I want every minute of all of our records to be about that.” – Ezra Furman
“Mysterious Power”
“I Killed Myself but I Didn’t Die”
Number 10: Days into Years by Elliott Brood
It was the tragedy of death that breathed new life into Elliott Brood, for Days into Years. On their first European tour, Elliott Brood tried for a shortcut between venues, and accidentally stumbled on what inspired this album: the band’s collective reaction to driving through a Military Cemetery in northwestern France.
“We were taking back roads to avoid the toll roads in France, which can be brutal. We’d been passing by these historical war places and we decided to pull over and take this one in. The cemetery had a huge effect on us. We decided then and there we’d make a record about it one day. One of things that struck us was the fact young Canadian men were lured to enlist with the promise they’d get a free trip to Europe, get to meet some girls, then be back in Canada in a few months. [But] thousands didn’t return and many were still stuck in those trenches four years later. I knew all about it from reading books, but when you actually visit a place where the battles were, it hits you a lot harder. “
Among the 11,500 soldiers buried there, more than 1,000 are Canadians from the First World War. Using historical events in their songwriting is nothing new to Elliott Brood; they’ve always been rootsy music rooted in storytelling, but this is the first time a theme runs through an album front to back. And that thematic consistency also imparts more of a consistency in sound than is found on their other albums. This is an album with a story, an album that’s about something, and an album of the year. Their frenetic “death country” energy is more pronounced than ever. Days into years is a step in a new direction, with new instruments like piano and electric guitar, and yet altogether familiar. And really, a new direction was the only way to follow their 2008 fresh take on folk. That hoe down for hipsters sound. The sound here still has that full-bodied rockin’ stomp vibe, but while their previous albums have been defined by a handful of standouts like “Write it all down for You,” this one is defined by a consistency, front to back, and a sound they’ve been evolving towards, naturally, for years.
“Will They Bury Us?”
“West End Sky”
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