Artwork by Aishling Costello
Another year’s end, another selection of some of the best music of the 12 months just past. This took a while, apologies. For two weeks three tracks lay queued up sadly on my laptop, waiting to be joined by their peers, but I didn’t cop on properly until yesterday afternoon, putting in a marathon session in front of the screen as tinsel, wrapping paper and a growing mountain of Roses wrappers wilted at my feet. From a personal point of view we lost some musically this year – Gil Scott-Heron, Hubert Sumlin, the Small Hours and Altered Zones to name a few – but did pretty well out of the gains too. Has 2011 been a ‘good year for music’? Is that a relevant question? What is good music? Hopefully this will help you decide.
and ever onwards to prudery 2011 mix
Download, share and most importantly, listen. Tracklist after the jump.
1) Clams Casino – ‘I’m God’ (Single)
As a producer, Clams Casino owned it this year. I reckon he was the musician whose music I listened to most over the past 12 months, not by design, but rather because of his Trojan output for musicians such as Main Attractionz, The Weeknd, Lil B and A$AP Rocky. ‘I’m God’ wasn’t on his incredible Instrumental Mixtape (now available for free), but it’s way too good to ignore.
2) Cities Aviv – ‘Coastin” (Single)
3) Lower Dens – ‘Deer Knives’ (Single)
This beauty came as part of Sub Pop’s mid-year compilation and carefully intertwines shoegaze riffs and pop hooks together around an echoing trellis and up to the all-consuming crescendo.
4) Cass McCombs – ‘County Line’ (Wit’s End)
Wistful and yearning, beautiful and melancholy, there is no point in writing anything about ‘County Line’.
5) Peaking Lights – ‘Hey Sparrow’ (936)
Peaking Lights are a husband-and-wife duo based in Wisconsin and they make psychedelic dub music. If you’re looking for a properly alternative 2011 album, 936 fits the bill nicely. They’re on the same label as Sun Araw and although they probably don’t push the freak-out boat quite as far as that, they do a nice job of treading the line between mellow and loose vibes and engaging hooks, with ‘Hey Sparrow’ providing a perfect example.
6) ARAABmuzik – ‘Streetz Tonight’ (Electronic Dream)
Controversial perhaps? ARAAB’s ‘trance hip-hop’ album divided opinion this year, with some of the disembodied beats from Electronic Dream proving just too washed down and well, trancey, for some. There’s no doubt that this is difficult music – who the hell is going to rap over it for a start? But with its quaking drums and longing vocals, ‘Streetz Tonight’ manages to come across as nothing more than an instantly enjoyable listen.
7) Korallreven – ‘As Young As Yesterday’ (An Album By Korallreven)
Another good year for Swedish pop.
8) Curren$y ft. Freddie Gibbs – ‘Scottie Pippin” (Covert Coup)
First you’ve got Curren$y, who is increasingly proving himself to be one of the most consistent and prolific rappers around, lead in over this brilliantly moody and introspective beat AND THEN none other than Freddie Gibbs jumps on and absolutely kills it. One of my favourite rap tunes of the year.
9) Lana Del Rey – ‘Video Games’ (Joy Orbison Remix) (Unreleased)
Ah Lana Del Rey – providing music blogs with streams of crap to debate all year. Is she a fake? What about her lips? PR stunt? Some saw the uncovering of 25-year-old Lizzy Grant’s previous flop of a musical career coupled with her new look as music blogs’ equivalent of Watergate. As the storm raged pointlessly, ‘Video Games’ remained one of the songs of the year. And then the UK bass God Joy Orbison went and remixed it.
10) The Babies – ‘Meet Me In The City’ (The Babies)
11) Nicolas Jaar – ‘Don’t Break My Love’ (excerpt) (Don’t Break My Love EP)
12) Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands – ‘Broken Up Now’ (Golden Syrup)
Golden Syrup is my favourite Irish album of the year. Sometimes it can be hard to pinpoint Kelleher’s musical style, but ‘Broken Up Now’ is an instant hit, with its trotting bass and soft vocals.
13) The Weeknd – ‘High For This’ (House of Balloons)
14) Scuba – ‘Never’ (Adrenalin EP)
Paul Rose of Hotflush tore shit up this year. The high point on his Adrenalin EP arguably comes with the simultaneously swooping and soaring monstrosity of a break-down on the title track, which kicks in around the three-minute mark and raises hairs for another five or so. Flipside however, there is a similar stomping gem in ‘Never’, an ecstatic celebration of raised arms and screams lost to the mad rush of that galloping bassline. Dare I say it – one of the thinking man’s club tunes of the year.
15) WU LYF – ‘Heavy Pop’ (Go Tell Fire To The Mountain)
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