Board 8 > *Vincent's favorite 2011 songs & albums* [iconsience] [ulti]

(+) Yeah! (+)

From: Menji76 | #050
too many HM's! But I'll listen to these sometime today and post thoughts. I only know Hard as they Come.

There'll be more! Too many good stuff this year that I don't wanna leave out. They'll pop between rankings every once in a while.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/boiledgoosegifby.gif

17. Feist - Metals



Key songs:
"How Come You Never Go There"

"The Circle Married The Line"

"Bittersweet Melodies"


Couldn't find proper album versions of the bottom two songs but Feist's probably even more brilliant live, so it doesn't matter.


Feist's one of my favorite singer-songwriters. She hasn't released a bad album yet, and this one didn't change that. Metals has typical Feist melodies, but on some songs she brings a more raw, less bombastic side of her to the front. Which I like, because that makes the album feel fresh. I admit I haven't listened to this album TOO much yet, about 4/5 times, but everytime I did I thoroughly enjoyed it. It does make it hard to write about though. In the end, Metals got number 17. Not too bad for mrs. Feist!


16. CunninLynguists - Oneirology



Key songs:
"Hard As They Come (Act I)" (see previous write-up)
"Murder (Act II)" feat Big K.R.I.T.


Oneirology is one of those hip hop records that doesn't have a dull moment on it. Which is a hard thing to do, considering most hip hop records, including this one, are about an hour long. Okay, this one's 50 minutes. That's still a bit on the long side, shut up!

Just like most hip hop records these days, Oneirology has a lot of features. This can either be a good or bad thing for a record. Luckily it's a good thing here. They 'recruited' great rappers like K.R.I.T., Freddie Gibbs and Tonedeff, and you really can't go wrong with those.

But the best moments on Oneirology aren't the features, it's when either of them grabs the mic and spits a great verse. They're just an amazing trio that has amazing beats and great rap skills. That's really all there's to say about Oneirology without diving deeper in the ideologies on this record. I'm not a great analyst. In short: if you like hip hop and you haven't heard this record yet, you should kind of be ashamed. Go listen to it now!




Ugh I kind of hate these writeups but I don't wanna put off writing either because if I do that I'll probably never finish it. Check these albums out if you haven't already and you're a fan of either genre. They're really better than what I describe them to be in these writeups.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/VincentLauw/WHATCHUMEANgifym.gif

bump.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/tyler1gifuh.gif

bump

bump. Busy couple of days. More after christmas, I promise.

I think that Feist album is really good, but it starts off with a string of dull songs. I don't even get into it at all until Track 3 and 4, and then "A Commotion" just makes me want to turn it off. A shame too, because everything after that is great. "Anti-Pioneer" is really good.

I haven't really listened to anything else you've mentioned so far, except the Strokes. Pretty much you hit the nail on the head. "Under Cover..." is a great song, but the album is terribad.

The best hip-hop song this year is "Y U Mad" by G-Side, or "N****** in Paris".

DAT **** CRAY

.

Braids isn't that much like MPP-era Animal Collective. I mean, yeah, it's similar, and I'll be damned about the album cover not being similar, but Animal Collective is like... much more insane. Braids seems to follow more "traditional" song structures, too. Their synths are pretty different, and there's a more "haunting" song to it. I'd say it's the lovechild of MPP and Water Curses with a lamer vocalist (seriously, girl has nothing on Avey's pure energy and Panda's weird-ass choir attempts or whatever the **** he does).

that said it's still a cool album imo >_>

Oh, also, best part about Oneirology is the album cover. Not saying the album is bad by any means, but damn what a cover.

--
Surskit
.-#Elements of Water#-.

oh yeah, metals is fantastic.

and still haven't got the chance to listen to these songs and I'm leaving for california tonight so it might be awhile.

--
Menji~
Congrats to SuperNiceDog: "Rivalry Rumble" Guru Champion!

Bump

Bumpo

No bumping unless it's with new content.

--
Menji~
Shotgun, BANG. What's up with that thang?

I don't want it to purge! Last bump without content I promise

I lied. Don't want this to purge. But more in a few hours, really!

--
http://img.imgcake.com/dancingguygifry.gif

and the award for grossest album cover goes to

15. Toro Y Moi – Underneath The Pine



Genre: Chillwave

Key songs:
"Go With You"

"How I Know"

"Elise"


I know iconsience has heard Causers of This, but for some reason everyone decided to collectively ignore Underneath The Pine. Or maybe you guys have heard it and didn't like it.

I prefer Underneath The Pine to Causers of This though. It just flows better and has catchier songs. I feel like Toro Y Moi is still progressing as an artist, and his latest EP is a sign of that too. That was a lot more accessible than either of these records.

That said, they're both great albums and you should definitely listen to both if you like smooth, funky, weird and dreamish pop. I'm avoiding calling it chillwave, but it is what it is I guess. It's just that besides the obvious music fanates here no one will know what the hell that is. So if you like funk, pop, soul and electronic all blended into one reverby catchy chaos, give it a try!



7. Burial, Four Tet & Thom Yorke – Ego



What do you get when you put two of electronic's greatest artists together with arguably the best songwriter of the last couple of decades? Two great songs, apparantly! I have no idea how people received these, but I'm going to guess a lot were disappointed. That's their problem. Ego / Mirror is one of those releases that came out of nowhere for me, so it was really a pleasant surprise. And while I like both songs, I'm going to give the edge to Ego. It's insanely groovy and catchy. Exactly what I expected from this trio, which is not a bad feat at all.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/dancingguygifry.gif

such a great cover

--
Menji~
Congrats to SuperNiceDog: "Rivalry Rumble" Guru Champion!

great as in terrible

--
http://img.imgcake.com/tyler2gifat.gif

bump. More tonight

--
http://img.imgcake.com/tyler2gifat.gif

14. Woods – Sun and Shade



Key songs:
"To Have In The Home"

"Pushing Onlys"

"Who Do I Think I Am?"


Genre: Low-fi folk

Sun and Shade is another overlooked record because the band had already put out an album last year. Unlike Causers of This and Underneath The Pine by Toro Y Moi though, I prefer At Echo Lake to this 2011 release by Woods. But as you can tell by the placement Sun and Shade has, it's still one heck of an album.

I haven't heard Woods earlier work but I heard that's a lot darker than both of these albums. I should probably listen to those records, because I think At Echo Lake and Sun and Shade differ a lot already.

At Echo Lake was a good deal shorter and had weirder melodies. Sun and Shade still has the lead vocalist's haunting falsetto and that low fi, very distorted production, but instead of the weird melodies they replaced most of them with very Beatle-esque harmonies. Songs like Hand It Out and What Faces the Sheet are very clearly inspired by the early sixties mop top band The Beatles used to be. There's a lot of psychedelic stuff on here too, very much so on the two long instrumentals this record has.

But despite those influences, Woods manages to keep their signature sound which makes them a very unique band. They don't sound dated at all. It could be that I just love that sixties sound so much though. Combine that with folk and you're gold. I'm excited to hear what they still have in store for us.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/tyler4gifyj.gif

tag

--
http://i.imgur.com/X588V.gif

6. Arsenal – Melvin



Melvin's the only Belgian song in the top 10. It's a bit of a weird choice too, because their album was incredibly dull. Luckily there's a couple songs on it that kind of save it, Melvin being the pinnacle of Lokemo. It's an organic, warm dance pop song that has a very different feel to the usual worldsy stuff Arsenal puts out. They're a varied collective though so it's only natural that every song feels different.

This is the only song that manages to pull every string though. It's basically one of those perfect groovy dance songs that for some reason wouldn't work in a club, but it goes along perfectly with basically everything else. It switches up quite alot, not really holding on a verse-chorus-verse structure, but driving along with one verse and then going to a mesemerizing chorus that opens up as the song goes along until the bombastic, but not overdone climax at the end. Good stuff.




And the award for worst artist AND album name goes to

13. tunE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

http://www.collapseboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tUnE-YaRdS-w-h-o-k-i-l-l.jpeg

Genre: (?) Experimental, pop, electronic

Key songs:
"Powa" (see link below)
"Bizness"

"Doorstep"



I won't capitalize or put a space every time because **** that.


I hadn't heard of Tune-yards before Whokill and was pleasantly surprised when this record came out, even though it was hyped up everywhere. I expected some indie, St. Vincent-ish chick who made another indie pop record with a sweet voice. What I got though, was something quite different.

Merrill garbus is by no means a diva, and she has a unique, raw, boyish, powerful voice. You could even call it ugly. Combine that with the groovy, all over the place instrumentation and the drawn out harmonies and you have quite a colorful record. My compliments to Nate Brenner, who always manages to add a different color to a song with his grizzy basslines.

This is definitely a love it or hate it record. I could see someone being indifferent about it, because people are indifferent towards everything nowadays, but overall it'd be very divisive if you asked about Whokill in a random music community.

While we're on the subject:

5. tUnE-yArDs – Powa



Another song I recommended in sotw. It's only natural, I guess.

Powa is my favorite song on whokill and rightfully so. I'm not going to repeat myself what I said in the write-up above, so just give it a listen. It's the most catchy one, and every song on whokill is catchy, so that's definitely a good perk, and it has a great climax. You're welcome.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/smilegifge.gif

I think the worst thing that happened to me this year was attending a tune yards concert, and my Dad died this year.

Wretched. Everyone has their opinion of course!

Now that's just mean

but as I said, love it or hate it! Nothing worse than a record where everybody's indifferent, who would wanna make that

--
http://img.imgcake.com/VincentLauw/ILOVEGOLFgifva.gif

bump thingy

--
http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff512/nat_har/GIFS/SNL%20and%20The%20Lonely%20Island%20GIFS/boombox2.gif

bumpo

--
http://img.imgcake.com/VincentLauw/ILOVEGOLFgifva.gif

If you want me to keep this bumped Vincent I can keep talking **** about tune-yards

man, do I hate tune-yards. I've never seen anyone so undeserving of their success.

PSSSsssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhht. Tune-yards rocks your face off

--
http://img.imgcake.com/nio/75vinpngqu.png

12. Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra



Genre: R&B

Key songs:
"Novacane"

"Swim Good"




Some of you may be aware that I'm a pretty big fan of the trendiest music collective of 2011, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. OFWGKTA or Odd Future in short. Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Dont Give A F*** Litter Life Bacon Boys Loiter Squat Butt F*** B**** N*****s in full. Sadly, I am not kidding. Aside from the horrible, hilarious name they're a pretty talented collective and there is not one (musical) member I can give you that doesn't have skill in some way.

They're extremely varied too, ranging from Tyler and Earl's horrific rap tales, Mellowhype and Mike G's more traditional (but still fresh) hip hop, Domo Genesis' Stoner rap to The Internet's trip hop and Jet Age of Tomorrow's acid electronic jazz stuff. Sorry I couldn't find a decent genre for the last one.

And while the year has been fruitful for this collective, it has also not been very consistent. And that's why Frank Ocean, the collective's R&B singer and arguably the most talented and consistent artist of the bunch, is the only one that's featured on the album list. His mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra consists of all original material, except for the few melodies/beats he uses from Coldplay/MGMT/Eagles/Mr Hudson. And while those songs are good, American Wedding especially though it could do without the solo, it's not where he shines.

His completely original, catchy R&B songs is where it's at. Songs like Novacane, Swim Good and Songs for Women are some of the best in te contemporary R&B genre. I admit that's not really a hard thing to do, but it is an achievement nonetheless.

And I am a hundred percent sure that Nostalgia, Ultra isn't his peak either. He has released many material since then and is still working on new material as we speak. He has played a few songs live and they are magnificent. Disillusioned, for example, is a really smooth one. Recorded stuff like Thinking About You are world hits in the making, who only don't get through yet because Frank Ocean's building his way up there.

So yeah, if you're a fan of contemporary R&B at all, you will definitely like him. If you are not, huge chance you aren't, you should still give him a shot. He's alternative enough to appeal to people who don't like the usual stuff! I should know, because I don't like it either most of the time.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/boiledgoosegifby.gif

bump.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/VincentLauw/WHATCHUMEANgifym.gif

bump2

--
http://cdn.fd.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Oprahs-Bees.gif