Best of 2011 – SOUND BITES

I waited till 2012 to finalize my albums list — all my lists — partially due to laziness, being busy, the holidays… but mainly because I’m not sure what the hurry is. I don’t do this for the web traffic (clearly), so I gave myself a little more time to decide than usual. (And as long as this goes up before the Village Voice’s Pazz n’ Jop, I don’t feel delinquent.) So here’s my list, the top five or so have been a lock for almost half a year, but the rest were in flux right till I hit “publish.”

In addition to MP3s and buy-it links, I’ve included links to stream the albums in full where possible. Most of that comes courtesy Spotify, a very handy (and free) service you should get if you don’t already. Anyway, here we go:

1) Destroyer – Kaputt (Merge)
Dan Bejar has long made epics on tinny keyboards, but here goes fully widescreen — complete with ’80s sax — and it all sounds like a (beautiful) dream to me. Released in January, Kaputt has been my favorite album of the year for the entirety of 2011.

MP3: Destroyer – Kaputt

Buy it | Spotify

2) Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls (Slumberland)
“Found Love in a Graveyard” made my Favorite Tracks of 2009 list and have been waiting a full-length ever since. The band does not disappoint. There’s not a dud in Veronica Falls‘ 36 minute running time. New songs are equals to early singles which appear here in newly recorded versions that might actually improve on the originals. This is haunted pop, a brisk October breeze that calls for a nice cardigan.

MP3: Veronica Falls – Misery

Buy it | Spotify

3) Metronomy – The English Riviera (Because Music)
After making 2008’s best album, Joseph Mount turned Metronomy into a real band and explored new sounds and styles on The English Riviera. There’s still the signature twitchy disco, but the expanded sonic palette suits the new Metronomy. It’s a better album than Nights Out, but it’s also a better year for music.

MP3: Metronomy – The Bay

Buy it | Spotify

4) Baxter Dury – Happy Soup (Regal)
A chip off the old block(head), Baxter Dury goes pop on his third album, with spare arrangements and production style that recall early new wave/post punk or the vibe of old Studio One 45s, which gives upbeat tracks real snap. And on more melancholic numbers (“The Sun,” “Hotel in Brixton”), there’s a dreamy warmth. Like his father, Dury is a keen observer and has a way with words — even if they tend to get stuck in his mouth. But that too is part of his charm.

MP3: Baxter Dury – Trellic

Buy it | Spotify

5) Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin (Trouble in Mind)
While Charlie & the Moonhearts made some fun, garage-y records, nothing they did suggested Cronin had a record like this in him. (Touring in Ty Segall’s band probably upped his game a bit.) His solo album is just great song after great song, big hook upon big hook, wrapped up in fuzzy basslines and killer harmonies.

MP3: Mikal Cronin – It is Alright

Buy it | Spotify

6) Cat’s Eyes – S/T (Cooperative Music)
Take one very tall, very skinny frontman of The Horrors, add a classically trained soprano/multi-instrumentalist and fold in a mutual love of ’60s girl groups and you get one of 2011’s most unexpected delights. Cat’s Eyes debut hangs in an ethereal limbo between the Shangri-Las and Ennio Morricone. Not a bad place to be.

MP3: Cat’s Eyes – The Best Person I Know

Buy it | Spotify

7) The Caretaker – An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (History Always Favours The Winners)
As The Caretaker, James Leyland Kirby explores the relationship between music and memory and with this album turns his focus to Alzheimer’s. Apparently, the area up there where music memory is stored is the last to go. Sampling old 78s from the ’30s, Kirby has made one of the most lovely, thought-provoking albums of the year.

MP3: The Caretaker – Cameraderie at Arm’s Length

Buy it | Bandcamp

8. Big Troubles – Romantic Comedy (Slumberland)
On their first album, Brooklyn’s Big Troubles were Totally Shoegaze and you could play a drinking game spotting the references. For their first album on Slumberland, the boys went to North Carolina to work with legend Mitch Easter which is a pretty inspired pairing. (And draws comparisons to Moose, who did the exact same thing 20 years ago.) The album drops the distortion and most of the other pedals in favor of crystalline, jangle-n-harmony pop. Near perfect.

MP3: Big Troubles – She Smiles for Pictures

Buy it | SoundCloud | Spotify

9) Total Control – Henge Beat (Iron Lung)
Australian indie rock supergroup boasts members of Eddie Current Supression Ring which is what brought me to them in the first place and turn out to be just as good as that band in a much different way. Henge Beat‘s a real corker of a debut album. It divides its time between motorik synth workouts, jittery post-punk and more Eddy Current style stormers, with a nice layer of repetition repetition repetition coating the whole shebang.

MP3: Total Control – See More Glass

Buy It | Bandcamp

10) WhoMadeWho – Knee Deep (Kompact)
Initially known for their weird costumes and theatrical stage show, Denmark’s WhoMadeWho have just gotten better as a band, laying down some serious grooves. Speaking of serious, Knee Deep gets into some heavy inner monologues but keeps you dancing. The band call this a mini-LP, but at nearly 50 minutes that’s almost twice as long as your average Ty Segall album. A more “proper” full-length is due out this month! Bring it on.

MP3: WhoMadeWho – Nothing Has Changed

Buy it | Stream it

11) I Break Horses – Hearts (Bella Union)
It wouldn’t be a year end list without some shoegazy sounds from Sweden, so here we go with the debut from this duo from Stockholm which is a hazy knockout. Maria Linden, who sang for more traditional noisemakers Blackstrap, finds something much more special in the miasma here.

MP3: I Break Horses – Hearts

Buy It | Stream It

12) Crystal Stilts – In Love with Oblivion (Slumberland)
This record was a long time coming, as most of these songs date from the Frankie Rose era of the band and it’s hard to listen to songs like “Sycamore Tree” and “Through the Floor” and not see her standing behind the kit with that relentless drumming style of hers. But that is really neither here nor there. A better record than their debut in every way, In Love with Oblivion also bring Crystal Stilts out of the murk, allowing for bright melodies amongst the gloom. You need a little sunshine to make the best shadows.