Slipped Discs 2011 – Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation

Artist: The Go! Team

Album: Rolling Blackouts

Label: Memphis Industries

US Release Date: 2011-01-31

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/3/3154588.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

The Go! Team
Rolling Blackouts

There’s really no concise way to sum up what you’re hearing when you listen to Rolling Blackouts, despite the unmistakable Go! Team-ness of every single one of their songs. It’s difficult to parse the common bond between the marching band-inspired noise-pop of “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.” and the jangly ’60s girl group charm of “Ready to Go Steady”, or the link between the shoegazey masterpiece “Buy Nothing Day” (featuring Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, for extra street cred) and “Yosemite Theme”, which would nestle comfortably among the J-pop fantasias of the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. The Go! Team is a band willing to serve up an homage to just about everything, as long as it’s big and bombastic and crackling with energy; the X factor is rapper/vocalist Ninja, whose attitude-laced delivery forms a linchpin for the group’s chaotic sound. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a 2011 album I had more fun with than Rolling Blackouts. Billy Hepfinger

 

Artist: Rachel Goodrich

Album: Rachel Goodrich

Label: Yellow Bear

US Release Date: 2011-02-21

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/r/rachel-goodrich-album-cover.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Rachel Goodrich
Rachel Goodrich

Miami-based songwriter Rachel Goodrich is quirky and fun. Her second full-length album veers all over the map from silly little ditties like the 30-plus second “G-Dino” to the junkyard clank of a feminine Tom Waits on “Fire”. However, the album’s centrepiece is the mesmerising “Let Me Go” — a tender and yearning piano ballad that commands the listener to sit up and pay attention. “Let Me Go” is so good and sweet, in the best pop sense, that I consider it my No. 1 pick for Song of the Year, which is astounding considering the relative obscurity of the artist and the klatch of great songs that came down the pipes in 2011. “Let Me Go” gives the loopy Rachel Goodrich a centre of levity that shows just how versatile and capable of a songwriter that this artist is. You’ll probably laugh and sing along to most of this record, but when you get to “Let Me Go” you’ll probably be (and justifiably so) shedding real tears of joy at the touching pain that Goodrich conveys through her rending of the song. On its own, “Let Me Go” alone makes Rachel Goodrich a vital and important statement from a maturing, budding young singer-songwriter. And the rest of the album is pretty damn good, too. Zachary Houle

 

Artist: The Great Book of John

Album: The Great Book of John

Label: Communicating Vessels

US Release Date: 2011-08-16

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/t/the_great_book_of_john.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

The Great Book of John
The Great Book of John

Ladies and gentlemen, with the arrival of the sophomore album from Birmingham, Alabama’s Great Book of John, I can happily announce that America finally has its own Radiohead. Or Radiohead if they were cross-bred with a country rock band. The Great Book of John is a consistently strong album, one that turns up the amps a few notches from their debut, and lead singer Taylor Shaw has an impressive vocal range that recalls the swoop and grandeur of one Thom Yorke. What makes this an indispensible album, though, is the broad range of songwriting — from choppy, piano-led rockers (“Brown Frown”) to American pastoral (“Wise Blood”) — that gives the band an indelible stamp of their own. The Great Book of John is an album that one won’t grow tired of, with its odd sonic curveballs here and there. Even though it may draw comparisons to a certain British band, it is a fully realized work of its own. Zachary Houle



 

Artist: Ha Ha Tonka

Album: Death of a Decade

Label: Bloodshot

US Release Date: 2011-04-05

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/t/tonka.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Ha Ha Tonka
Death of a Decade

Ha Ha Tonka’s 2011 album is an intricate balance of playful musicianship paired with some of the year’s finest lyrical wordsmithery. Each track is a vignette and their lyrics present a continuum of emotions and histories that drive the narratives. The band toys with genre, constantly changing their sound and manipulating stale musical conventions thus keeping the music fresh and engaging. Their sound clearly stems from the band’s origins in the Ozarks, but arguably also takes influence from old-timey, classic rock and roll, and contemporary indie rock. Still, they maintain a clear and distinct sound despite a diverse influence base. These are just the band’s roots, and Ha Ha Tonka masterfully takes these pieces and creates a musical whole that is unwavering. Ha Ha Tonka stands apart from the rest with their ability to musically and lyrically sadden, enrage, tickle and enchant listeners in one album, sometimes even in one song. Elisabeth Woronzoff

 

Artist: Hail Mary Mallon

Album: Are You Gonna Eat That?

Label: Rhymesayers

US Release Date: 2011-05-03

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/h/hail_mary_mallon.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Hail Mary Mallon
Are You Gonna Eat That?

Are You Gonna Eat That? is a bizarre ode to Typhoid Mary, the disease carrying cook who just wouldn’t stay out of the kitchen. Why Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic took such interest in her story is unclear, perhaps as a tribute to the perseverance of the unlucky or maybe it was just a good platform for food jokes. In any case, the duo executed it perfectly, crafting an album of witty two-man word play over swaggering beats with cuts by Big Wiz. Aesop’s long been known for being deep, complicated and inaccessible, but Are You Gonna Eat That? is refreshingly lighthearted, giving the impression that he and Rob were just trying to make each other laugh. In doing so, they found a middle ground between being profound and flippant and delivered one of the most refreshing underground hip-hop albums of the year. Kevin Curtin

 

Artist: Handsome Furs

Album: Sound Kapital

Label: Sub Pop

US Release Date: 2011-06-28

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/9/9384.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Handsome Furs
Sound Kapital

Dan Boeckner has urgent things to say. He growls and yells, singing low and fast like a speeding bullet, but he never sacrifices gravity or emotional connection. In 2011, his band the Handsome Furs (just him and his wife Alexei Perry) released Sound Kapital, an album defined by brittle drum machines, pumping synthesizers, and searing slices of Boeckner’s guitar. This spare palette is filled out by Boeckner and Perry’s intensity, which provides a purity of purpose that explodes out of the speakers. It’s a hard hitting album, but it never collapses beneath the weight of Boeckner’s fears and exhortations. Elias Leight

 

Artist: I Break Horses

Album: Hearts

Label: Cooperative Music

US Release Date: 2011-10-18

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/i/i_break_horses.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

I Break Horses
Hearts

The Swedish invasion continues! Seriously, when it comes to imperial, futurist pop the Swedes are so far ahead of the game, the game is a dot to them. Hearts sounds like it was sculpted from glaciers by unicorns and wizards with lasers ‘n’ holograms, in some magical crystal palace far beyond a thousand snow-capped mountains within deepest Narnia. It’s a perfect winter album. Breathtaking, sparkly, dreamy, childlike-yet-wistful, intimate-yet-out-of-reach, fragrantly elegant and huggably heartwarming. In fact, it’s such a ‘complete’, snowflake-unique record in itself that the main problem is how they’ll push forward without breaking the spell. For now though the golden winter sun is illuminating. That this special record is steadily snowballing a cult following through whispers and satisfied sighs is great relief as this beautiful, strange début deserves to break more than just Horses’ Hearts. Be brave, drop one hit of “Winter Beats” and brace yourself for Cupid’s arrow. Matt James

Idle Warship and more…

Artist: Idle Warship

Album: Habits of the Heart

Label: Fontana

US Release Date: 2011-11-01

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/i/idle_warship.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Idle Warship
Habits of the Heart

For the past decade, Idle Warship, the duo made up of Talib Kweli and Res, relegated their music to their MySpace pages or respective solo albums. Finally they released their first full-length album Habits of the Heart and it’s one of the year’s unrivaled collaborative efforts. Res’ voice harkens back to the great jazz ladies, such as Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald, while Kweli offers his dependable musical virtuosity. Pairing Res’ sound to Kweli’s eclectic mix of instrumental and electronic beats creates a flawless merging of organic and synthetic sound. Whether it is a stylistic smooth R&B ballad, a dance song based in electronica, a classic hip-hop flow clearly influenced by the Philadelphia sound, or just a simple mambo, this album is impossible to categorize. Each track is its own self-contained art piece and that makes the entire album fun, addictive, and so worth the wait. Elisabeth Woronzoff

 

Artist: Joy Kills Sorrow

Album: This Unknown Science

Label: Signature Sounds

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

UK Release Date: 2011-09-19

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/j/joy_kills_sorrow.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Joy Kills Sorrow
This Unknown Science

2011 wasn’t exactly a real breakout year for bluegrass music — there were no O Brother, Where Art Thou?-type albums leading a charge — but this long-player from a young Boston-area band makes the case that you can still do new, astounding things with old-timey music, and do it joyously. From the opening mandolin trills of “Reservations” to the, well, sweet ballad “Such Sweet Alarms”, This Unknown Science is like taking a journey into the past with a youthful, unbridled energy that makes everything seem current and fashionable. The songwriting is ace, the musicianship is stellar, and the female-fronted vocals hit you like taking a spoonful of honey. In short, This Unknown Science seems to exist on its own planet, and is an enjoyable ride from start to finish. On a personal note, I had this album in my CD player alarm clock from September (its release date) to December of 2011, and it was a giddy pleasure to wake up every morning to this. This Unknown Science, being a country-ish, bluegrass album, may be a bit of an anomaly in 2011 releases, but it definitely holds its own and marks an important leap forward in Americana craft. No one is making music quite like this, and that’s what makes this disc so special. Zachary Houle

 

Artist: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

Album: From the Stairwell

Label: Parallel Corners

US Release Date: 2011-03-01

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/k/kilimanjaro_darkjazz_ensemble.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
From the Stairwell

You remember those ‘magic eye’ autostereogram computer art prints, where there would be a sheet of dancing Snoopy’s and, if you looked at it long enough, you’d eventually see a 3-D image of Woodstock smoking a joint or something? From the Stairwell is like that, only far more rewarding. You can break the album down into its constituent parts, like the tasteful electronic manipulations and cool drumming Gideon Kiers, the smoky bass and piano of Jason Köhnen, the ethereal vocals of Charlotte Cegarra, the shimmering guitar work of Eelco Bosman, and the impressive orchestral credits goes on. Yet, in doing so, one misses the point of From the Stairwell. The eight lengthy collaborations here evoke something intangible, something tribal and stirring. The album sets a mood, spreading sensations of film-noir betrayal and espionage, breathing on the listener’s neck until they can’t help but dart a look over their shoulder. Few groups today have this visceral of a telekinetic charge. Alan Ranta

 

Artist: Kronos Quartet / Kimmo Pohjonen / Samuli Kosminen

Album: Uniko

Label: Ondine

US Release Date: 2011-02-01

UK Release Date: 2011-02-28

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/misc_art/k/kronosquartet-pohjonen-kosminen-uniko.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Kronos Quartet / Kimmo Pohjonen / Samuli Kosminen
Uniko

Uniko is a seven-movement suite, a collaborative effort between the Kronos Quartet, accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and percussionist/electronics guru Samuli Kosminen that is not only a fantastic work in its own right but is a stunning display of equality in a cooperative effort. Of the six musicians involved, not one steals the show and not one gets left behind. All instruments swirl together perfectly, allowing an intense, dramatic mash-up of World and classical music to float to the top. Kosminen’s use of digital noises can’t get any further from being a hindrance and Pohjonen’s wordless vocalizations work the same way: taking nothing from and always adding to the mystery of Uniko. Like most great pieces of music out there, this is stuff that blurs the lines without going out of its way to do so. It just rolls out like it is, and that’s what makes this joint effort such an overlooked masterpiece. John Garratt

 

Artist: Ladytron

Album: Gravity the Seducer

Label: Nettwerk

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

UK Release Date: 2011-09-12

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/l/ladytron2.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Ladytron
Gravity the Seducer

While drawing praise for its technical craft, Ladytron’s 2011 release has been underappreciated, in comparison to the extensive popularity of the band’s three previous albums: Light & Magic, Witching Hour, and Velocifero, which saw crossover support for the band’s embrace of an edgier, electro-rock hybrid sound. Gravity the Seducer is a resolute return to basics, evidenced by a determined live set in which the band comes out of the gates with “Ritual”, the hardest edged of three instrumentals on the album. Gravity the Seducer emphasizes a mesmerizing atmospheric texture, presenting soaring vocals on the part of Helen Marnie in the album’s opening track, “White Elephant”, while Mirage, hearkens back to synth-pop roots, warm vocals over a track that would be at home on OMD’s Dazzle Ships. “Ritual” is the most distinctive, an ominous and lush track that in minor key, sounds like an instrumental followup to Blondie’s club classic “Atomic”. While some fans prefer the band’s recent catchy hooks, with the exception of well-received single “Ace of Hearts”, Ladytron has crafted a gorgeous work with deep tracks that provide shades one might expect to accompany a Kafkaesque movie soundtrack, reminiscent of a 2011 breakout artist, Still Corners, who draw inspiration from French new wave and Italian horror. While the term ethereal vocals is sadly overused, “Ambulances” should serve as the poster child for its proper use, while “Melting Ice” features an intoxicating combination of atmospherics with an irresistible electronic back-beat. Dennis Shin

 

Artist: Hugh Laurie

Album: Let Them Talk

Label: Warner Bros.

US Release Date: 2011-09-06

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/h/hugh_laurie5.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Hugh Laurie
Let Them Talk

It doesn’t take many listens to Let Them Talk before it becomes abundantly clear Hugh Laurie has the chops to pull off this excursion through the best of American blues. The Doctor is in, and he’s very much at home with the music he’s covering here. Clearly this is a labor of love for Laurie. On the title track he lets his voice and piano tell it all, and holding that song up to the light on its own merits it seems to completely sum up his motives. “Let them whisper because they know not what’s between you and I,” he sings. “I’m gonna keep on, I’m gonna keep on loving you ‘til the day that I die.” Give the album a chance and you’ll be converted. By the time Let Them Talk has played out in its full glory, you’ll have forgotten this is a blues album by an actor. It’ll be more “where’s this guy been all these years?” Jonathan Sanders

 

Artist: Loka

Album: Passing Place

Label: Ninja Tune

US Release Date: 2011-12-06

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/l/loka.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Loka
Passing Place

Since the release of Fire Shepherds in 2006, Loka has experienced a rebirth. Co-founder Karl Webb walked away from the project some time ago, leaving Mark Kyriacou to flesh out the official Loka line-up with four members of their touring band. As a result, Passing Place has more ideas and a far richer sound than its predecessor. There’s an effortless late ’60s mod bachelor pad soundtrack vibe now, where Fire Shepherds leaned more towards sparser yet lengthier jazz explorations. Passing Place is graphically cinematic and hauntingly beautiful, yet thoroughly groovy, taking the orchestral jazz of One-Armed Bandit by labelmates Jaga Jazzist to a more polished and fully-realized place. You can see the movie this album was meant to score as you listen. Alan Ranta

Lydia Loveless and more…

Artist: Lydia Loveless

Album: Indestructible Machine

Label: Bloodshot

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

UK Release Date: 2011-09-12

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/b/bs188_lydia_cvr.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Lydia Loveless
Indestructible Machine

So yes, there was more to badass female country than Miranda Lambert (either solo or with the Pistol Annies). Coming on like Exene Cervenka covering The Virginian-era Neko Case — and with a liver-shriveling drinking habit to boot — 21-year-old Loveless established herself as a Girl Not to Mess With on her stellar second album. (As if the gasoline-chugger on the cover wasn’t enough of a tip-off.) Whether raising her own rebel flag (“Bad Way to Go”, “Can’t Change Me”), feeling a mite introspective (“How Many Women”) or, uh, getting stalked by Steve Earle (“Steve Earle”), Loveless, on Indestructible revealed herself as a passionate woman with plenty of fuel to burn. Stephen Haag

 

Artist: Nick Lowe

Album: The Old Magic

Label: Yep Roc

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

UK Release Date: 2011-09-12

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/n/nick_lowe_the_old_magic.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Nick Lowe
The Old Magic

As the possessor of one of music’s more charmed — and charming — second acts, Nick Lowe has, over the past decade-and-a-half or so, become pop’s answer to bonsai: crafting pristine (but decidedly warm and humane) albums without a note out of place, at a when-I’m-good-and-ready pace. The Old Magic marks five albums in a row where Lowe has embraced this approach, and they’re all elegant beauts. Totally unconcerned with the prevailing trends, Lowe finds deep truths in simple couplets of even simpler-sounding songs (“House for Sale”, “I Read a Lot”) sets his mortality to a boom-chicka beat (“Checkout Time”), turns a wanderlust ode into a disco-lullaby (!) on “Restless Feeling”, nearly floats off the ground with joy on the burbling “Somebody Cares for Me” and even gets a little cheeky on a cover of Jeff West’s “You Don’t Know Me at All”. Be sure to pay attention to both keywords in the album’s title; goodness knows Lowe definitely has. Stephen Haag

 

Artist: Daniele Luppi and Danger Mouse

Album: Rome

Label: Capitol

US Release Date: 2011-05-16

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/r/rome3001.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Daniele Luppi and Danger Mouse
Rome

Opening with a soaring marriage of Pink Floyd acoustic guitars, lush strings and operatic vocals, the “Theme” to this quasi-soundtrack album introduced one of the most compelling releases of the past year. Recorded over a period of five years in Italy, with both vintage gear and musicians with connections to the original spaghetti western soundtracks (most notably The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), master producer Danger Mouse and arranger Daniele Luppi achieved a milestone with this collection of moody and hypnotic western soundtrack pieces. In addition, they recruited Norah Jones and Jack White (in one of his best vocal performances in quite a few years) to lend vocals to nearly half the record. Standout tracks include the acoustic driven “Black” (which made an appearance in this year’s finale of Breaking Bad), the melodic paranoia of “Two Against One” and the choir-driven swing of “Rose With the Broken Neck”. Josh Antonuccio

 

Artist: Laura Marling

Album: A Creature I Don’t Know

Label: Ribbon Music

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

UK Release Date: 2011-09-12

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/l/laura_marling_-_a_creature_i_dont_know.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Laura Marling
A Creature I Don’t Know

So Laura Marling is still just 21 years old, a remarkable fact considering that A Creature I Don’t Know is already Marling’s third record, one that finds her entering what sounds like a middle period of artistic maturity. Marling’s fellow Brits are wise to the singer-songwriter’s gifts, as Creature shot to number four on the British album charts, although Yanks were slower on the uptake. Working again with producer Ethan Johns, Marling lets her vivid alto drift over ten gorgeous jazz-folk originals. The Joni Mitchell comparisons have never made more sense than here, yet, young though she is, Marling sounds astonishingly assured as both a writer and performer all her own on an album, amid a growing number of nu-folk wannabes, as impressive as any you’re likely to hear. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Mates of State

Album: Mountaintops

Label: Barsuk

US Release Date: 2011-09-13

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/4/41yconcvgtl._sl500_aa300_.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Mates of State
Mountaintops

Mates of State’s latest, Mountaintops, continues the path laid out by their previous albums, particularly 2008’s Re-Arrange Us. The duo’s greatest strength lies in their sheer enthusiasm. Their songs are frequently upbeat and insanely catchy, and Mountaintops is no exception. While Mates of State surely know how to write a great hook — “Total Serendipity” is a perfect example with its handclaps and jaunty piano — some of the more low key moments on the album also turn out to be standouts. Songs like “Unless I’m Led” and “Desire” are still well-crafted pop songs, albeit more subtle, yet they contrast nicely with the more energetic tracks on the album. Mountaintops proves to be another solid and genuinely enjoyable release in Mates of State’s output of already terrific albums. Jessica Suarez

 

Artist: Mekons

Album: Ancient & Modern

Label: Bloodshot

US Release Date: 2011-09-27

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/m/mekons_lo_res_album_cover_1.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Mekons
Ancient & Modern

The Mekons are a critical and fan favorite, earning plaudits as much for their heady approach to songwriting, their unwavering social criticism, and their self-deprecating wit, as for their musicianship. Mekons maintain a long distance relationship anchored by Jon Langford and Sally Timms, fixtures of the alt-country music scene in their adopted Chicago, and various bandmates, including original member and lead singer Tom Greenhalgh across the pond. Perhaps because of the myriad of art and literature references or their puckish humor (Sally Timms and friends bumrushing the stage as Art Brut impostors at the Hideout block party in Chicago, attempting to fool some unsuspecting fans by repeatedly pounding out a percussive beat while chanting “We Are Art Brut”), the band doesn’t receive their just due for crafting beautiful songs. Ancient and Modern, the band’s 18th release over 34 years, may just change that. In tongue in cheek style, the album offers up a musical history lesson spanning a century, (1911-2011) offering a stunning indictment of a British society on the brink of collapse, embarking on the Great War that would permanently damage a Lost Generation. The band that famously declared it has “Never Been in a Riot” characteristically spurns the didactic or over the top stadium ready anthems, in favor of a contemplative style that by romanticizing the last relics of a bygone Edwardian society moments before the collapse, amplifies the tragedy. The opening track, “Warm Summer Sun”, is stunning, Tom Greenhalgh’s warbling vocals offering up a punkish snarl, a glimpse at a misguided soul exiting the cricket pitch, creating a sense of foreboding that sneaks up on the characters, as they stagger from a sense of entitlement towards an inevitable fate, which Tom wails is “the unimaginable health in front of me”.

Curiously, Ancient and Modern‘s anticipation of the calamity, through measured tones, finds the band just ahead of the prevailing zeitgeist, at a time, when the economic crisis have shaken faith in the global economy. As one of the most introspective, reverent, and spiritual releases of the year, Ancient and Modern’s song cycle is a thing of beauty, zipping forwards and backwards across the century, the sad reflection of “Warm Summer Sun”, giving way to the upbeat, glam rocker of “Space in Your Face” signaling the present day, followed by Sally Timms crooning to the vaudeville shuffle of “Geeshie”. Timms’ vocals offer a contemplative, gothic take on the angst of northern Welsh coal mining in “Ugly Bethesda”, while “I Fall Asleep” is a melodramatic ballad in which Sally and Tom offer a steadast reaffirmation of what appears to be false hope. The title track is the album’s centerpiece, with rich instrumentation and Sally’s spoken word reading lending a powerful gravitas, before giving way to a bone chilling chorus that captures the patriotism of an empire on the eve of war. By cycle’s song, the character’s fate sneaks up on the listener, with the soldier in Arthur’s Angel caught in no man’s land. Dennis Shin

Frank Ocean and more…

Artist: Frank Ocean

Album: Nostalgia, Ultra.

Label: Self-released

US Release Date: 2011-02-18

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/f/frank_ocean.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Frank Ocean
Nostalgia, Ultra.

On one hand, it’s easy to see how Odd Future crooner Frank Ocean’s debut mixtape could be overlooked. 2011 was a banner year for free album releases, notably the Weeknd’s Mixtape Trilogy. Ocean’s skill was also overshadowed by the domineering presence of Tyler, the Creator, the controversial rapper whose presence at the VMAs last year helped put Odd Future on the path to greater stardom. Yet, Ocean’s debut is a more powerful recording than anything either of those two artists put out last year. While there is much to be said of the excellence of the Weeknd’s recordings, Tyler’s over-the-line offensiveness can’t hold a candle to the complex portrait of reminiscing that is Nostalgia, Ultra.

Whether it’s the brief vignettes in which Ocean turns over the side of a cassette tape (including a particularly humorous one involving Radiohead), or even the masterful sampling of classic songs (“American Wedding”, which samples “Hotel California”), Nostalgia, Ultra is a forward-thinking record that doesn’t forget to look back. The album feels like a glimpse into who Ocean is as a musical artist, both in his original songs and his takes on the songs of other artists. His take on Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” doesn’t sound like a boring straight-rip of that British band; it sounds like him. He blurs the line between homage and uniqueness so strongly that he makes something almost entirely new. There were many great artists distributing their music freely over the internet in 2011, but Ocean was the best of them all. Brice Ezell

 

Artist: Old 97s

Album: The Grand Theatre Vol. 2

Label: New West

US Release Date: 2011-07-05

UK Release Date: 2011-07-04

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/5/51-2fh-jdgl._sl500_aa300_.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Old 97s
The Grand Theatre Vol. 2

Dallas stalwarts Old 97’s are one of those rare bands that keep churning out reliably stellar rock n’ roll over the years without ever getting flat-out famous. They don’t have to work dayjobs, but they ain’t rich. You hear them on NPR and see them on Jay Leno, but your mom doesn’t know who they are. Which all might serve to be perfect scenario for fans, because the band gets to write great music and record it and tour behind it, without ever turning into asshole divas or imploding into their own Behind the Music episode. The Grand Theatre, Volume One rocks much harder than its last two predecessors, 2008’s Blame It On Gravity and 2004’s Drag It Up, and shows off co-founder Murry Hammond’s fabled-but-seldom-displayed Oasis fixation. Occupying that rare space of comfort-level success affords the freedom to throw it all in: Hammond’s Britpop love, frontman Rhett Miller’s smart-guy literary leanings, Ken Bethea’s melt-the-chrome-off-the-trailer-hitch guitars, and drummer Phillip Peeples’ unerring knack for sewing it all up with the beat. Jennifer Cooke

 

Artist: Only Son

Album: Searchlight Searchlight

Label: Red

US Release Date: 2011-01-18

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/s/searchlight.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Only Son
Searchlight Searchlight

“It’s magic, ’til you know how it works,” Jack Dishel sings. “Nobody wants to see how you do it.” Such sentiments eloquently sum up what makes Searchlight such a special listen. This is an album where the rare alchemy of genre experimentation meets with honest songwriting talent to form a rarity in today’s world: innovative pop music. The album as a whole is impeccably arranged, with each song playing as well on its own as it does as part of the complete song cycle. Searchlight proves that Jack Dishel is truly a songwriter of note, and he’s got the skills to keep us guessing while continuing to create pop music of the highest order. Whether you heard the album and forgot it after its January release, or you’re discovering the music for the first time, there’s plenty worth exxploring here thanks to Dishel’s unique, quirky arrangements and many deceptive hooks. Jonathan Sanders

 

Artist: Orchestre National de Jazz

Album: Shut Up and Dance

Label: Bee Jazz

US Release Date: 2011-04-26

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/o/orchestrenationaldejazz2010_jdj.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Orchestre National de Jazz
Shut Up and Dance

The title of Orchestre National de Jazz’s album of John Hollenbeck compositions is a little misleading. Shut Up & Dance makes it sound like you’re about to get nagged into enjoying yourself at some hip-shaking club, but that’s not what we’re dealing with at all. France’s Orchestre National de Jazz adds Hollenbeck to its ever-growing pile of musical tributes that continue to not only shift the meaning of jazz but make ONJ so difficult to peg stylistically. The group’s sound is untouchable, bordering on absurd just how well they take turns in the heat of the music. John Hollenbeck’s pieces are the stuff of a creamy paradox; never going the well-worn path but also never, ever sounding unnatural. If Orchestre National de Jazz isn’t considered a national treasure in France, it should be — and Hollenbeck himself deserves more grants. They should have called this album Shut Up & Listen, because that’s all you feel like doing while it’s playing. John Garratt

 

Artist: Pettybone

Album: From Desperate Times Comes Radical Minds

Label: Damage Done

US Release Date: 2011

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/t/ttybone_-_from_desperate_times_comes_radical_minds.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

Pettybone
From Desperate Times Comes Radical Minds

As indebted to Bratmobile and Heavens to Betsy as Black Flag and Fugazi, these four women from London upstaged their male peers by delivering 2011’s finest, most incendiary punk debut. The album’s ferocity is undeniable, captured brilliantly by producer Kurt Ballou, but while Pettybone’s rage is arguably its most immediately arresting characteristic, the band shows a lot more depth than mere caterwauling and complaining. The compositions are cerebral and articulate, with lyrics that say a lot more than most young punk bands are capable of these days (“We will take the passivity and tear it apart / We will do our thing rather than waiting”), and as exemplified by standouts “To Hell With This Culture” and “Northern Line”, are capable of well-timed dynamics as opposed to tossing out the same old d-beats time and again. Adrien Begrand

 

Artist: The Phoenix Foundation

Album: Buffalo

Label: Memphis Industries

US Release Date: 2011-06-14

UK Release Date: 2011-01-24

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/music_cover_art/t/the_phoenix_foundation_buffalo.jpg

Display as: List

Display Width: 200

The Phoenix Foundation
Buffalo

Buffalo was one of the most understatedly powerful albums of 2011. The fourth album from the Kiwi band saw them working their mixture of jam-band looseness, and wistful atmospheres and neo-psychedelic textures to near-perfection. This sort of amalgam is common these days, from Animal Collective to Gang Gang Dance, but Buffalo was special in its own way. It was evocative yet calming. Those who took this calming effect for indifference were merely fooled by the album’s placid surface, one that was actually broken to heartstopping effect on final track “Golden Ship”. Buffalo was the aural equivalent of being washed onto a strange, unknown island and quickly finding it to be a place you wanted to stay for a long time. John Bergstrom