As 2011 was SUCH a good year for music, our music writer Theo Sangster had great joy in compiling this top 10 records of the year. He couldn’t rank them so here they are instead in alphabetical order…
As 2011 was SUCH a good year for music, our music writer Theo Sangster had great joy in compiling this top 10 records of the year.
I can’t rank these, it goes against my egalitarian nature and they are all so great. So without any further ado here are 2011’s Top 10 records (the only order being alphabetical).
Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
“In 2008 Justin Vernon made one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard. For Emma, Forever Go still puts me into a bizarre form of romantic catatonic state on a regular basis, and for this reason I was a bit apprehensive about his latest self-titled offering. Upon the fourth or fifth consecutive listen however, it became very obvious that such irrationality was totally unfounded. Bon Iver has created one of the most beautiful things I have heard this year.”
Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
“Coldplay’s latest offering is a huge pop record, indeed likely to be the biggest of 2011. And this is why Mylo Xyloto works – it is a pop record; it is simple and is meant to make you happy and sad and live in memory and dream of the future. You will probably enjoy it immensely.”
Drake – Take Care
Best rap record of the year I reckon. Dense, vulnerable, forward thinking; the kid has come a long way and is only really getting started.
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
“Fleet Foxes seem to have this way of making you feel at home immersed in their rustic orchestration. The perfectly placed woodwind flourishes, shimmering string arrangements, finger-picked artistry and driving percussion call up haunting images of ghostly plains, the coast, orchards and other agricultural iconography. Helplessness Blues was truly the sound of autumn.”
Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra
“One of the most achingly wonderful RnB records released this year (hands down).”
James Blake – James Blake
“I would think that designing a house and producing a record have distinct similarities. A foundation of sorts; walls, polished windows to let the light in – the architecture always says a lot about how the architect wants his or her creation to be experienced. The empty floorboards are simply waiting to be filled with the things that indicate new life. This is what James Blake has done through his debut LP.”
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
“M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is rightly titled; life is short – but a youthful nursery-rhyme dream. It’s a theme that runs through the music and storytelling of the record, and one that should be taken to heart upon experiencing.”
SBTRKT – SBTRKT
Following an arc that stems from Burial and Thom Yorke-esque experimentation to current masters-of-minimalism such as James Blake and Jamie xx, the mysteriously-masked SBTRKT brings his own nuances to that much-misunderstood genre, “dubstep”, joining what has become a phenomenal movement into mainstream culture this year.
Washed Out – Within and Without
“Within and Without sounds like a faded Polaroid photo; you know, the one with the girl on the bicycle with her boyfriend staring at the ocean and the whole scene overexposed by the mid-summer sun. A picture can speak a thousand words; very often music speaks a similar language.”
WU LYF – Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
“WU LYF’s gang shouts and screams tell stories of regret and love and you can’t help but get swallowed up by it. As the album’s title would suggest, Go Tell Fire To The Mountain is a grandiose testament from a band who I hope get out of their not-so-quiet corner and into as many people’s headphones as possible.”
Written by Theo Sangster
31 December 2011
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