The good
1) Planningtorock - W
The album got some (limited) internet exposure thanks to this guy. I agree completely with his review. Yes, it's mostly a rip-off from Fever Ray and The Knife, it has silly lyrics, etc. But you kno what? I don't mind. No, it's actually not as good as Fever Ray/The Knife, but it doesn't have to be. It's a very solid album if you enjoy weirdo-electro (yes, I invented that term) as much as I do. The album peaks in the middle, with Manifesto, I Am your man, The Breaks and Living it out, even though my favourite combo of songs is at the very end: Janine and 9.
I was going to see Planningtorock at Pukkelpop, but we all know what happened. That's why The Breaks reminds me so much of that ("we break too easily...")
And by some crazy coincidence, this album also appears to be my most played album on last.fm!
2) James Blake - James Blake
My second most played album of 2011! It took me a while to get into most of the album, and I still don't like every song, but it's still so much better than another album I bought at the same time (Jamie Woon's Mirrorwriting, which is, apart from the awesome Night Air, horribly boring and repetitive). I'm rediscovering this album now that I have some good headphones (the way this album should be heard really). Bass is so, so good. The wubwubwubwub-ness on Limit to your love...yum. I think Unluck might be my favourite song though. Lovely flow.
He's also one of the few people I saw live. That would almost automatically make it gig of the year, but really, it was great. If Planningtorock is weirdo-electro, then this is geek-electronica. Now with added bass!
3) Radiohead - The King of Limbs
It's a very nice little album isn't it? I like it because it's similar to Thom Yorke's solo album, which I liked a lot. I really love Bloom, Lotus Flower and Seperator. I haven't really listened to the album that much, but right now, I prefer it to In Rainbows.
4) Luke Haines - 9 1/2 Psychedelic meditations of British wrestling of the 1970s and early '80s
Did I get the title completely right? Another album I haven't listened to that much, even though I'm one of the lucky 1000 people who actually got the physical release of the album (it includes a small calender with artwork his wife did). Not that it's bad, I think Luke Haines is a better songwriter now than he was 10-15 years ago, but the subject matter is a little too out there for me. It's still fun to listen to, but I've no idea what he's talking about, and more importantly why. Plus, I'm still not bored with his latest album. I still get randomly addicted to Klaus Kinski.
5) Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
To be honest, this one probably wouldn't have been in my top 5 if I had bought more albums in 2011, but I certainly enjoyed it more than the five I'll mention further down. Comparing it to Youth Novels, it sounds much richer, but it also lost some of the first albums charm and innocence. I still listen to the first album regularly, but I can't see myself going back to this one much.
The not-so-good
1) Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia
So P-wo's boyfriend asked P-wo to marry him, so he made a happy fluffy bunny album about love and crap like that. Bleurgh.
Okay, it's not a bad album at all, but it's just more poppy than I'm used to. It's pretty much The Magic Position (the song) spread over 11 songs. Which, like I said, isn't bad, but it's also not very exciting. And when I listen to P-wo, I want to be excited.
2) Justice - Audio Video Disco
I bought this without even hearing one song on it, and...I was quite surprised. In a "wtf, this isn't the right album!" way. But apart from the fact that it's nothing like the first album, it's really not bad at all. Most of it sounds a bit 70s psychedelica/electronica, but it reminds me a lot of Daft Punk's Discovery. Especially Helix, which is probably my favourite song. But it's really not an album I'll listen to a lot.
3) Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
Yes, Ace of Hz is vintage Ladytron...but the rest of the album...I dunno man. I didn't care much for the last album either, but now they lost me completely. Okay, almost completely, it's not a bad album, it's just...meh compared to the first three. I usually lose interest in a band after the fourth or fifth album, so it makes sense!
4) Björk - Biophilia
I only listened to it a couple of times - enough to decide that I won't buy it until I can get it cheap. And even then...I don't know. The good thing is that I get a Medulla vibe from it, the bad thing is that it's nowhere near as exciting as Medulla. It mostly sounds boring, tired and cliché. Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I was expecting something revolutionary...and what I listened to was just another Björk album. It seems to have gotten mostly positive reviews, so maybe it's just me.
...the iPhone app is pretty cool though!
5) Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
This one should actually be in the "not good at all" category, but I'm not going to make that for just one album. I bought this after hearing Night air (which I still love muchly), but the rest of the album is just too boring, too repetitive, too poppy, too unexciting. Miss-buy of the year.
The old-but-good
1) Health - Disco2
A couple of years ago, I bought both Health albums - don't know why, I hardly listened to them really. I saw this remix album for about €3, and remember hearing good things about it, so I picked it up. And I'm very, very happy I did. This pretty much became the soundtrack of my summer. I think it sounds pretty summery really, it's fairly uplifting and very 'light' for a remix album. I don't even have a favourite track on it, I pretty much like them all, there are only one or two I don't care about. Looking back at my 2010 list, I'd say it should be in my top 5 for sure.
2) Yelle - Pop-up
Don't ask me why I started listening to this again, I really don't know. Maybe Singstar has something to do with it, and the fact that I finally figured out how I should sing the songs the Singstar way. Anyway, I've been listening to the album so much, I didn't even feel the need to buy her new album. Or maybe that's because I wasn't very impressed by it when I heard a lot of songs live last year. Les Femmes is my new favourite (it's about how a girl being with another girl is sweeter than being with another boy - reminds me of Britanny and Santana from Glee heh), although I still can't get over the fact how clever A cause des garçons is for just a dumb pop song (men might objectify women, but women's mags are just reinforcing the stereotypes, "if you don't wear make-up and high heels you'll never find a man!" etc.)
3) Richard O'Brian - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
After some...personal experiences, I have a newfound appreciation of Touch-a touch-a touch-a touch me. And I watch the film at least twice a year. The soundtrack is one of my favourite shower albums really. And when I listen to it on my ipod while on the bus or train, I always have to stop myself from singing out loud.
4) HTRK - HTRK
Somewhat similar to Yelle, I know they have a new album out, but I'm still not bored with this one. Also, about every song on it has at some point been my favourite song on the album. Right now, it's still between Rentboy (very sweet, in a very, very, very dirty way), Disco ("my jeans are getting tight") and Waltz real slow (that bass, and that all-consuming guitar noise - very sexual). And the song that made me buy the album (Ha) still rocks. It's really one of my favourite albums of the last 5 years or so. It's just so sleazy and sexual and dirty and...
5) Daft Punk - Tron:Legacy OST
Picked this up while I was in Köln in January because I couldn't find it over here. I'm one of those people who love Tron:Legacy. Yes, it has awful characters, dialogues, story, etc., but oh boy, it looks SO good, and that music!! Obviously End of line and Derezzed are the highlight of the album (the only bad thing about them is that they're so damn short!), but there's plenty of good stuff on it.
And what am I looking forward to in 2012? New Goldfrapp, The Knife, Daft Punk (well, hopefully!), and...that's about all I can think of. I plan to go to more gigs and festivals though.
I agree with you about Lupercalia. I think I've only listened to it properly once, haha. Maybe I should give it another try though? (Maybe not)
ReplyDeleteBjork, I still haven't listened to. Volta I didn't like that much anyway (although it has a few good songs), and I'm really not feeling like I want to spend money to get something which might be more disappointing. Hmm.
...Are you happy now?
Also, seeing as you compared King of Limbs to Thom Yorke's solo stuff, which do you prefer? I agree with the comparison, but I MUCH prefer Thom's solo stuff - I think maybe just because the songs are much catchier? But the King of Limbs is a nice album :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard comparing a 5 year old album which I listened to a lot to a recent album I've only properly listened to 6 or 7 times. I prefer his solo stuff, yes, but not by that much. Probably because I've grown tired of some songs (there's only about 4 songs left that I like, I usually skip the rest), and King of Limbs is new and more exciting.
ReplyDelete