One thing should be apparent by now: I love the ladies. I don't really have much to add to this, so with that in mind...
15: C'mon by Low
More dudes and chicks taking vocal turns! Once again (and likely always) I favor the soft female voice. Dude takes most of the singing duties, but Chick provides some wonderful harmonizing and background vocals. Also, I should really learn these people's names. Anyway, the music is pretty chill, though not necessarily in the relaxing way. There are a couple stellar gold nuggets in here, and "Especially Me" could be my favorite song of the year.
14: Don't Rock The Boat by Des Ark
For an album so full of tongue-in-cheek anger swears (this is not the full album title, by the way) there is a surprising amount of soft vulnerability in the music. Not to say that the ride isn't uneasy, but whatever you thought Don't Rock The Boat was going to be, it isn't. And featuring only eight tracks, the one thing it definitely IS is far too short.
"Ashley's Song"
"Two Hearts Are Better Than One"
13: Strange Mercy by St. Vincent
I love me some St. Vincent, and each new album takes the goodness from the previous release and adds ample awesomeness to it. Strange Mercy takes the patented Annie Clark angularity she has perfected on her previous two albums and boosts up the groove while somehow also boosting up the aggro. There are soft moments (and Annie in a soft moment will make you drip), but it is mostly about the chunky rhythms dropping on your head like a magical snowplow at the end of a steady yo-yo.
12: Civilian by Wye Oak
2011 could have been described as the year of the fuzzy dense wispy-voiced alt-folk scene. Everybody wanted to be Grizzly Bear, and frankly a lot of it sounds the same to me. But Wye Oak does it right or -- at the very least -- differently. The music is not too ambient, the guitars drive in discernible directions, and the ladyvocals are firm and focused. Yet the atmosphere is not lost, and as you coast along track-by-track you're transported to that very specific and indescribable audio world that each great album creates.
11: The Ones Who Wait by Denison Witmer
Denison Witmer is a sneaky one. He is so unassuming in his music, his voice, his appearance... everything. And on the surface his music seems nice (like how a potted plant is nice) but not terribly special. But then you listen, and you learn the words, and Witmer's music eventually endears itself to you. The Ones Who Wait is more dour than his previous albums as it explores his feelings following the death of his father. The songs are not depressing or bleak, but merely grayishly hued. Death is a context, and these songs are about life.
"Cursing" .mp3
"Hold On"
20 - 16
25 - 21
30 - 26
33 - 31
