Top Albums of 2011 - No. 1

1.  David Comes To Life – Fucked Up

Let me preface this with the following statement:  I had never heard of this band until a month and a half ago.  I received an email one day informing me of a sideshow that the band was playing at Melbourne’s East Brunswick Club (they were here supporting Foo Fighters).  Intrigued by the name I did some research, found out who they were and upon hearing their music, immediately fell in love.  Needless to say, I purchased a ticket to the aforementioned gig and was treated to one of the best shows I have ever been to.  Not only this, but their latest album, David Comes To Life, has become my musical highlight of 2011.  A concept album set in the not-too-distant future, the story revolves around David Eliade, a young man working in a light bulb factory.  He is shaken out of his daily routine when he is handed a pamphlet on his way to work by activist, Veronica Boisson.  The two instantly fall in love and she drags David into her anti-government activities. Together, they build a bomb designed to blow up a government building. This bomb fails to destroy the targeted building but does kill Veronica in the process.  From here, David’s grieving process is explored as well as his possible guilt in killing his lover.  The album does an incredible job of exploring and making the listener feel the youthful exuberance of young love and the danger of living on the run as the couple try to topple the totalitarian regime they live under and moves seamlessly into David’s internal struggle after Veronica’s death.  This is no simple feat given that many bands have attempted something similar in the past and failed.  The band seems to have an unfailing ability to tap into the universal experiences of love, loss, fear and death and express these experiences clearly and viscerally, almost forcing the listener to be drawn into the narrative and David’s plight.  Put simply though, Fucked Up have delivered an album with more focus, passion and heart than any other artist this year and this is why David Comes To Life is my favourite album from 2011.  I know it’s a huge call, but this album deserves to take a place next to The Who’s Quadrophenia and Pink Floyd’s The Wall as one of the greatest rock operas of all time.

Honourable Mentions for 2011

Kiss Each Other Clean – Iron & Wine

Little Hell – City & Colour

The King of Limbs – Radiohead

The Harrow & The Harvest – Gillian Welch

Circuital – My Morning Jacket

Angles – The Strokes

Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins – Jim Ward

One – TesseracT

Mission Bell – Amos Lee
Bad As Me - Tom Wait
Revelator - Tedeschi Trucks Band

Top Albums of 2011 - No. 2

2.  Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Bon Iver achieved something special with his 2008 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago.  It was an album so intimate, it was no surprise it was created by one man during three months of self imposed exile.  Everything that seemed to have driven Justin Vernon away from civilisation poured itself into song, creating a masterpiece of heartbreak and disillusion.  It was so good, and so popular, that it seemed a follow up could only crash and burn.  So what did Vernon do?  He took a few years to let everything settle.  He released a slightly experimental EP, he collaborated with a few friends on the Volcano Choir side project and he worked with one of the most well known musicians in the world, Kanye West.  It seemed as though he was doing everything he could to avoid following up For Emma, Forever Ago.  But here we are, at the end of 2011 and Bon Iver’s second album is one of the finest releases that I have heard this year.  So how did he manage to pull off the impossible and create an album that sits comfortably along side his debut?  He simply followed his instincts.  He didn’t try to replicate For Emma, Forever Ago as he is in a much different place than he was in 2006/7 and an attempt to recreate it would have fallen flat because it would have been an album by a man pretending to be who he use to be, not who he is.  Therefore, where his first album was a reflection of who he was then, so is Bon Iver a reflection of who he is now.  He has done nothing more than follow the sounds in his head and my, aren’t those sounds beautiful.  The soaring harmonies and the obscure lyrics are still intact, but the musical expression is much larger than it was before.  The result is an album that twists and turns and plays with the listeners expectations and leaves them with no option other than to begin it all again, particularly after the stunning closing tracks; Calgary, Lisbon, OH and Beth/Rest.  For best listening, use some big headphones and enjoy.

Top Albums of 2011 - No. 3

3.  No One Gets Lost Anymore – The Smith Street Band

This band was a recent discovery for me.  I saw them support Canadian hardcore band, Fucked Up, in November and was blown away by their energy.  Usually when you see support bands, they are either an ill fit, or they just don’t seem to have that intangible quality that makes them engaging.  Well, Melbourne’s own The Smith Street Band have that quality in spades.  Their music could probably be best described as punk; and to be clear, I’m talking the old The Clash style punk where the word “punk” fit the attitude, rather than the actual music.  To further their connection to the Melbourne punk scene, this album was also the very last album recorded at Melbourne’s Arthouse, the launching place for many well known Australian punk bands (sort of our own version of New York’s CBGBs).  The striking thing about this album is how refreshingly honest it is.  It seems to me that many musicians are trying to make music that is universal in order to appeal to as many people as possible, and as a result, their music becomes thin and emotionless.  Here, the lyrical content focuses solely on vocalist Wil Wagner’s journey through life in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.  He sings, specifically, about his experiences and leaves very little to chance (take, for example, The Belly of Your Bedroom where Wagner confesses, “And I know that I’m a liar / And I can’t fill your desires with a body that’s always going to let the both of us down”).  The benefit of this is that he manages to make a much greater emotional impact than other vocalists who try to be too broad and, therefore, wind up sing about nothing.  On top of this, Wagner delivers his vocals in a thick Australian accent.  While to many this may be off-putting, to me it furthers the honesty of the music.  How could he sing and be so open about himself and his life, and then try to hide behind an accent that he doesn’t use when talking to his friends in a bar?  Where many Australian bands seem to be too concerned with fitting in with the cool indie Triple J crowd, The Smith Street Band are doing it their own way and have come up with one of the best albums of 2011.  You can pick this one up at Poison City Records.

Top Albums of 2011 - No. 4

4.  Safer Than Reality – Aliases

As with anything that has been over-hyped, the “djent” genre had its fair share of failures and disappointments this year.  The metal sub-genre seems to have already created its own backlash with many bands trying to distance themselves from the dreaded “D word”.  However, there were also a few shining lights that justified the hype, none of them shining brighter than the debut release from British band (with a French vocalist), Aliases.  Having been born out of the ashes of the revered SiKth, Aliases let loose the most interesting and exciting metal release of 2011.  I should say though that, for me, Aliases only real connection with the djent movement is their association with UK label Basick Records.  Their sound is something much more akin to the spazzed out take on math metal produced by The Dillinger Escape Plan.  While their music is, without a doubt, highly technical, it does not descend into the boring drone that some djent bands finds themselves trapped in.  Aliases deliver songs that are hard, aggressive, in your face and not once, do you feel as though they are just going through the motions.  Much of the credit should go to the spectacular riffage of main man PIN (of SiKth fame) and his partner in fret board freak outs, Leah Woodward.  The unexpected twists and turns that each song takes leave you wondering how, exactly, they remember which section comes after each one that came before.  The true highlight of this album though, is Jay Berast’s vocals.  Where many djent vocalists switch between guttural growling/screaming and super clean vocals, Berast uses his full range and blurs the lines between the two, which means that he avoids the monotony of constant barking and the inevitable “whine” that comes with vocals that are too clean.  Overall, this is an extremely exciting release that can only be a strong indication of things to come.  Let’s just hope the band doesn’t go the way SiKth did and fall apart just before conquering the metal world.

Top Albums of 2011 - No. 5

5.  Suck It And See – Arctic Monkeys

As with any band that bursts onto the scene without any real evidence of having “paid their dues”, Arctic Monkeys have just as many detractors as they do fans.  Regardless of your position on the merit of Arctic Monkeys, Suck It And See is a fine album.  Having begun with the observational humour of Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not which was reinforced by the follow up Favourite Worst Nightmare, Arctic Monkeys decided to get serious and work with the great fire-headed one, Josh Homme, on 2009’s Humbug.  This album proved that Arctic Monkeys were much more than one-trick-ponies and established them as a band that just might have some longevity.  And so it is that this year’s Suck It And See shows Arctic Monkeys continued evolution.  Where Humbug was very much concerned with darkness, Suck It And See brings the band back out into the light.  Arctic Monkeys find themselves dabbling in jangle pop and they are doing a fine job of it.  Alex Turner’s inimitably witty words are still intact, but where previous albums focused on observing the world around him, Turner has turned the observations inward with many of the songs dealing with failed relationships and broken hearts.  Whether or not these are based on actual occurrences is inconsequential, Turner makes you feel it by pointing out the ridiculousness of it all, as well as the inability to forget about it.  Take the brilliant Love Is A Laserquest as an example.  After asking the absent former lover a series of questions about retaining certain beliefs on love, Turner then admits, “I’ve tried to ask you this in some daydreams that I’ve had, but you’re always busy being make believe”.  He’s not trying to disguise the hurt, he’s just pointing out the hopeless situation for what it is; absurd to anyone not directly involved.  The music that backs all of this up is deceptively simple, with no single player standing out, and showcases the band’s ability to work together and serve the song.  With this album, the songs are number one and for the first time, Arctic Monkeys don’t sound as though they are trying to prove something.  They’re just making great music.

A Welcome and a Statement of Intention...

Starting a blog is something that I believe has many risks and negative connotations to it.  On one level, you risk yourself by putting your thoughts and your work out into the ether for anyone to trawl through and make comment on.  On another level, there’s something egotistical about putting everything out there assuming that people you don’t really know will be so moved by what you have to say that you simply must publish it.  It is with these two things in mind that I feel the need to justify what I intend to do with this blog and why I have been moved to create it.

What I intend to do with this and the reasons for creating it are inextricably linked, but also very simple. I intend to keep a blog of reviews for new albums and live shows that I attend.  Occasionally there may be a retrospective review or an article about my personal thoughts on certain aspects of the music industry, or even film or theatre reviews, but the focus will mostly be on music.  Why? Because I enjoy doing it, and a friend urged me to do it.  Simple.  What I am not attempting to do though, is present myself as an all-knowing god of music.  I make no claims to be anything other than a fan of music.  I hold no qualifications, nor do I have any connections within the industry.  I am merely someone who has enjoyed music for much of his life (like anyone else in the world) and therefore, I make no claims at being unique.  There is absolutely no reason for my opinions to be held any higher than anyone else’s.  The reason for this blog existing is pure hobby.  Therefore, this blog will never claim to be anything more than my own personal musical journey through 2012 (and beyond should I keep it going).

As such, this blog will be focused on music that I am interested in and will never attempt to trash things that are outside my usual musical experience.  The reason for this is that I find that it is easy to put down something you don’t understand.  It took me a long time to realise this, but I believe there is merit in every kind of music produced.  For me, good music is something that elicits some kind of emotional response.  If it makes me feel something, I like it.  For other people, music is about the technical prowess of a performer and their control over the instrument, for others it’s the ability to make them move and dance.  Whatever reaction people want to get from music, there is an artist out there to fulfill that need.  This being said, I will endeavor to never put down any artist about their music.  That’s not to say there won’t be negative reviews, but these reviews will focus on the artist’s inability to make me, and only me, feel something.  That is not to say that the music is bad, it’s just not music for me.

The kind of music that this blog will cover will be revealed over the next few days.  Beginning tomorrow, I will be counting down my top five albums of 2011.  Each day a new album will be revealed with a mini-review until my favourite album of the year is unveiled on New Year’s Eve.  On New Year’s Day I will publish an article about the year to come and the things that I am excited to see and hear in 2012.

So, finally, thank you for reading this far (I know it’s long and in this world of the internet and instant gratification, the chances of someone reading this much are very slim).  Hopefully you will join me in the coming days and beyond.  Before signing off, I’d like to leave you with this quote from Pixar’s 2007 film Ratatouille and it is with this quote in mind that I will try to write my reviews and opinions -

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment…[b]ut the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”