Number 1!: Never Trust a Happy Song by Grouplove
Summer music for the fall, winter, and spring. This is a ridiculously good, immediately engaging album. Upbeat but with variable sounds, from dancy synth-soaked gems to songs to send you into melancholic introspection, there’s an amazing breadth of energy on this album. Track 11 is chants, “It’s a Cruel and Beautiful World, but I’ve got my girl” and the sentiment comes across throughout the album on an ultimately positive note. “Colours” might be the best intense indie rock song I’ve ever heard. Why is this number 1? Because if I made a list of the top 25 songs of the year, half, if not more, of this album would make the cut. It’s that good.
“Tongue Tied”
“Betty’s Bomb Bell”
Number 2: Bon Iver by Bon Iver
I am not going to try and describe this album, because I’d neeed a whole new langauge, and a lot more time, to do so. But if music was religion, Justin Vernon is a God among muscians. And his music just as ethereal, righteous, and untouchable. This album is … gorgeous. It is the soundtrack to your first yawn on a Sunday morning, if that makes sense.
“Holocene”
“Michicant”
Number 3: The King is Dead by The Decemberists
These guys have been a favourite band of mine for a decade now, so I was thrilled to see them put out their best album ever, as a follow up to 2009′s jarringly different (and not-my-favourite-of-theirs) The Hazards of Love. They’re right back on track, and Colin Meloy, a pioneer and one of our best living songwriters, has never sounded so comfortably at home and consistently bang on before. The “old Decemberists” (Castaways and Cutouts, Her Majesty, Picaresque) had a distinct sound, but here they’ve really melded alt country and that “old Decemeebrists” sound of theirs into something just slighty brand new enough to fell fresh and familair all at once. Indie country? Whatever it is, it’s full of hooks that compel you to sing along at red lights. Speaking of getting back to roots and keeping it simple and free, the album was recorded in a converted oregon barn.
There is no good reason why I am not making it number 1. There is no good reason at all.
“Down by the Water”
“Don’t Carry it All”
Number 4: Everything is Saved by David Wax Museum
The best new voice in folk music of the year, although they descibe themselves as “Mexi-Americana” for the mexican vibe David Wax caught while in Mexico. He graduated Harvard and moved there to steep his folk sound in that of Mexico’s. He moved back to Boston, met up with a homeshooled girl, “raised on good music” named Suz Slezak, just as she was getting back from touring the world on a Watson Fellowship. David told her to track down a donkey jawbone (a traditional percussion instrument from Veracruz) and join his band. Voila. The best man-woman musical duo since Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. Whatever happen to Damien Rice after Lisa left?
“That’s Not True”
Dawes’ Second album Nothing is Wrong was one of the buzz albums of the year, and unlike most, it lives up to the buzz. It’s an album that grows better with every listen, has you picking a new favourite track each time, and is an album for “early Wilco” fans who need to listen to something other than Wilco already. They’ve mastered the catchy chorus and sing-along bridges throughout. They’re a band of brothers, yes, but their names are Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, so I’m not sure why they’re called Dawes. Something about them cutting their old band name — Simon Dawes — in half, after a change in sound and bandmates. And I think they clipped the album title, too. I think Nothing is Wrong is short for Nothing is Wrong with this Album. (Har har.) Go get this album if you liek Americana, bcause it’s the best album of its pure genre in years. There’s some great lines there too, Goldsmith’s a wordsmith.
“Time Spent in Los Angeles”
“So Well”
CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP 100 ARCHIVE
Great job, Chad, Appreciate the time you put into this list. Lots of new artists (to me, at least), more than a few downloaded already.
Pingback: The Authoritative Top 100 Albums of 2011 |