Top Twenty Albums of 2011

January 27th, 2012
  1. Bon Iver: Bon Iver
  2. EMA: Past Life Martyred Saints
  3. tUnE-yArDs: w h o k i l l
  4. Real Estate: Days
  5. Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
  6. The Weeknd: House of Balloons
  7. Jay-Z and Kanye West: Watch the Throne
  8. Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica
  9. Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo
  10. PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
  11. Drake: Take Care
  12. Blut Aus Nord: 777 — Sect(s)/The Desanctification
  13. Iceage: New Brigade
  14. Gang Gang Dance: Eye Contact
  15. Danny Brown: XXX
  16. M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
  17. Clams Casino: Instrumental Mixtape
  18. The Antlers: Burst Apart
  19. Kendrick Lamar: Section.80
  20. Point Juncture, WA: Handsome Orders

What an exciting year to have an ear to the ground. Though they may fall short of constituting a trend or inspiring an investigation, the quirks of this year’s list that jump out at me are:

1. the high hip hop quotient. Somehow 2011 was the year when I finally embraced hip hop’s supplantation of rock as America’s popular music, though it could easily be argued that this shift became palpable as long ago as, say, 1999. To put it another way, this was the year when hip hop finally stopped seeming like something inherently not “for me,” something I have to work a little harder to enjoy. Though I’d always been willing to put in the work in the past, there’s simply no need anymore. Hip hop now sounds as natural and organic to me as any other style, which is quite valuable in a world where its presence grows still larger every year with no end in sight.

2. the high fresh blood quotient. Observe just how many of these terrific records are their artists’ first or second releases. There really aren’t a lot of firmly established names on here, and those that do appear really earned the spot (Let England Shake just has to be PJ Harvey’s best album since To Bring You My Love). What I mostly see instead are some rather shocking debuts (EMA, UMO, The Weeknd, Iceage), and some (perhaps equally shocking) sophomore quantum leaps (Bon Iver, tUnE-yArDs, Real Estate, Drake). What’s more, four of these entries were free downloadable mixtapes, which is most definitely a record (no pun intended) as far as these lists of mine go, though one that I expect could be shattered as soon as 2012. [This figure is obviously highly correlated with the list's strong hip hop presence; a huge Thank You to the hip hop community for continuing to be the front line in the movement to decouple music from commerce.]

The songs list now demands my full attention, though it may be another week or two before it’s out of the oven. Spoiler alert: Bon Iver wins.

Top 100 Songs of 2010

December 28th, 2011
  1. Robyn: Dancing On My Own
  2. Tame Impala: Alter Ego
  3. Arcade Fire: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
  4. Caribou: Odessa
  5. Deerhunter: Desire Lines
  6. Best Coast: Our Deal
  7. Robyn: Call Your Girlfriend
  8. Tame Impala: It Is Not Meant to Be
  9. High on Fire: Bastard Samurai
  10. Kanye West (feat. Pusha T): Runaway
  11. Beck and Bat for Lashes: Let’s Get Lost
  12. Panda Bear: Slow Motion (Single Version)
  13. Big Boi (feat. Cutty): Shutterbugg
  14. Neil Young: Peaceful Valley Boulevard
  15. Vampire Weekend: Run
  16. Jay Electronica: Exhibit C
  17. Best Coast: Boyfriend
  18. Kanye West: All of the Lights
  19. Joanna Newsom: Good Intentions Paving Company
  20. Tame Impala: Desire Be, Desire Go
  21. Wavves: King of the Beach
  22. High on Fire: How Dark We Pray
  23. Tame Impala: Solitude Is Bliss
  24. Gorillaz (feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def): Stylo
  25. Tame Impala: Expectation
  26. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Round and Round
  27. Deerhunter: Fountain Stairs
  28. Janelle Monáe (feat. Big Boi): Tightrope
  29. Owen Pallett: Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
  30. Das Racist: hahahaha jk?
  31. Deerhunter: Helicopter
  32. Vampire Weekend: Cousins
  33. Janelle Monáe: Oh, Maker
  34. The Morning Benders: All Day Day Light
  35. Caribou: Bowls
  36. The-Dream: Yamaha
  37. Abe Vigoda: Crush
  38. Kanye West (feat. Kid Cudi and Raekwon): Gorgeous
  39. Deerhunter: Coronado
  40. Janelle Monáe: Locked Inside
  41. Arcade Fire: Modern Man
  42. Joanna Newsom: ‘81
  43. How to Dress Well (feat. Yüksel Arslan): Decisions
  44. Julian Lynch: Stomper
  45. Vampire Weekend: Giving Up the Gun
  46. Yeasayer: I Remember
  47. The Walkmen: Torch Song
  48. Cee Lo Green: Fuck You
  49. The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock: Colouring of Pigeons
  50. The National: Conversation 16
  51. Daft Punk: End of Line
  52. Two Door Cinema Club: What You Know
  53. Arcade Fire: Empty Room
  54. Janelle Monáe: Cold War
  55. Broken Social Scene: Forced to Love
  56. Robyn: Hang with Me
  57. No Age: Glitter
  58. Menomena: Tithe
  59. Best Coast: Crazy for You
  60. Kanye West (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver): Monster
  61. Beach House: Lover of Mine
  62. Sade: Soldier of Love
  63. Arcade Fire: Ready to Start
  64. Women: Locust Valley
  65. Broken Social Scene: World Sick
  66. Gayngs: The Gaudy Side of Town
  67. Zola Jesus: Night
  68. WU LYF: Heavy Pop
  69. Broken Social Scene: Sweetest Kill
  70. Das Racist: Shorty Said (Gordon Voidwell Remix)
  71. Owen Pallett: Tryst with Mephistopheles
  72. The National: Bloodbuzz Ohio
  73. Robyn: Get Myself Together
  74. Sleigh Bells: Tell ‘Em
  75. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Butt-House Blondies
  76. Lil Wayne (feat. Cory Gunz): 6 Foot 7 Foot
  77. Julian Lynch: In New Jersey
  78. Teengirl Fantasy: Cheaters
  79. Beach House: Zebra
  80. Twin Shadow: At My Heels
  81. Japandroids: Younger Us
  82. Sleigh Bells: Infinity Guitars
  83. Lady Gaga: Alejandro
  84. The National: Lemonworld
  85. Tame Impala: Lucidity
  86. High on Fire: Fire, Flood & Plague
  87. No Age: Valley Hump Crash
  88. MNDR: Fade to Black
  89. Department of Eagles: While We’re Young
  90. Best Coast: The End
  91. Janelle Monáe: Faster
  92. Earl Sweatshirt: Luper
  93. The Futureheads: Dart at the Map
  94. The Walkmen: Angela Surf City
  95. Beach House: Walk in the Park
  96. Kylesa: Spiral Shadow
  97. LCD Soundsystem: All I Want
  98. Julian Lynch: A Day at the Racetrack
  99. Dom: Living in America
  100. Oneohtrix Point Never: Returnal

There. Let us never speak of 2010 again.

Top Twenty Albums of 2010

December 28th, 2011

I’m back, bitches.

  1. Tame Impala: Innerspeaker
  2. High on Fire: Snakes for the Divine
  3. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest
  4. Janelle Monáe: The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
  5. Caribou: Swim
  6. Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  7. Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea
  8. Best Coast: Crazy for You
  9. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
  10. Robyn: Body Talk
  11. Beach House: Teen Dream
  12. Vampire Weekend: Contra
  13. Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
  14. Das Racist: Shut Up, Dude/Sit Down, Man
  15. Big Boi: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
  16. Nachtmystium: Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. II
  17. Owen Pallett: Heartland
  18. The National: High Violet
  19. Gil Scott-Heron: I’m New Here
  20. Julian Lynch: Mare

In spite of the nonzero amount of joy that these albums delivered (my No. 1 is particularly near to my heart), 2010 was a shit year for pop music, and in fact the only reason it took me an extra year to get this list (and my forthcoming song list) together is because I simply couldn’t summon the will last January to wade through the year’s vast swamps of mediocrity. I’ve now finished the job, but as the moment has passed and these albums are officially old news, it feels a bit silly to talk about them. It would have felt sillier, though, to ignore the true gems of 2010 just because the year happened to disappoint on the whole, let alone to abandon this cherished tradition of mine forever just because of one bad year. So please receive this list and its forthcoming successor as nothing more or less than the necessary prerequisite to the 2011 lists, about which I’m actually excited.

Addenda

February 11th, 2010

The first six weeks of 2010 have exposed me to three metal albums from last year that I really wish I had heard in time to mention in the metal paragraph attached to my Top Albums of ‘09 list. They’re all so good that I’ve decided to dedicate a new post to their public exaltation. So here you go: fans of metal, please treat yourselves to The Great Cessation by Yob, Gambling on the Richter Scale by Kowloon Walled City, and the fabulously-titled Dimensional Bleedthrough by Krallice. All getting a lot of attention from my ears lately, and all acting as a perfect complement to the dismally wet miasma that is February in Portland.

I don’t think I’m going to bother with a Top 100 Songs of the 2000s list. Too much work. And you all already know how I feel about “All I Need” and “Kim & Jessie.”

Top 100 Songs of 2009

January 8th, 2010
  1. Bat for Lashes: Daniel
  2. Dirty Projectors: Stillness Is the Move
  3. Animal Collective: My Girls
  4. The Gregory Brothers: Auto-Tune the News #5
  5. Bon Iver: Blood Bank
  6. Dirty Projectors: Two Doves
  7. Grizzly Bear: While You Wait for the Others
  8. Grizzly Bear: Two Weeks
  9. Fuck Buttons: Surf Solar
  10. Bear in Heaven: Lovesick Teenagers
  11. Grizzly Bear: Ready, Able
  12. Washed Out: Belong
  13. Phoenix: 1901
  14. Washed Out: Feel It All Around
  15. Mastodon: Oblivion
  16. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Tenure Itch
  17. Bat for Lashes: Sleep Alone
  18. Camera Obscura: French Navy
  19. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Zero
  20. The Very Best (feat. Ezra Koenig): Warm Heart of Africa
  21. YACHT: Psychic City (Voodoo City)
  22. Wild Beasts: This Is Our Lot
  23. Fuck Buttons: The Lisbon Maru
  24. Bear in Heaven: Ultimate Satisfaction
  25. Grizzly Bear: Cheerleader
  26. The Mint Chicks: Hot on Your Heels
  27. Fever Ray: Triangle Walks
  28. Passion Pit: Little Secrets
  29. Memory Cassette: Asleep at a Party
  30. Big Boi (feat. Gucci Mane): Shine Blockas
  31. Neon Indian: Deadbeat Summer
  32. Phoenix: Lisztomania
  33. Memory Tapes: Stop Talking
  34. The xx: Crystalised
  35. Dirty Projectors and David Byrne: Knotty Pine
  36. Yo La Tengo: Avalon or Someone Very Similar
  37. Volcano Choir: Island, IS
  38. St. Vincent: Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
  39. Mastodon: Ghost of Karelia
  40. Discovery: So Insane
  41. Sonic Youth: Antenna
  42. The Drums: I Felt Stupid
  43. Bat for Lashes: Glass
  44. Destroyer: Bay of Pigs
  45. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Ramona
  46. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Young Adult Friction
  47. Polvo: Beggar’s Bowl
  48. Beach House: Norway
  49. Cymbals Eat Guitars: Tunguska
  50. Morrissey: Something Is Squeezing My Skull
  51. Dinosaur Jr: I Don’t Wanna Go There
  52. Benoît Pioulard: Idyll
  53. Passion Pit: Moth’s Wings
  54. Pictureplane: Goth Star
  55. No Age: You’re a Target
  56. Raekwon (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and GZA): House of Flying Daggers
  57. Isis: Hall of the Dead
  58. Best Coast: Something in the Way
  59. Cass McCombs: You Saved My Life
  60. St. Vincent: The Strangers
  61. Joy Orbison: Hyph Mngo
  62. Atlas Sound (feat. Noah Lennox): Walkabout
  63. Best Coast: When I’m With You
  64. Zombi: Spirit Warrior
  65. The Flaming Lips: Silver Trembling Hands
  66. Animal Collective: What Would I Want? Sky
  67. Atlas Sound (feat. Laetitia Sadler): Quick Canal
  68. Silversun Pickups: Growing Old Is Getting Old
  69. tUnE-yArDs: Sunlight
  70. Los Campesinos!: The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future
  71. Solange: Stillness Is the Move
  72. Future of the Left: Arming Eritrea
  73. Cam’ron: My Job
  74. The xx: Basic Space
  75. Slayer: Playing With Dolls
  76. Japandroids: Young Hearts Spark Fire
  77. Ganglians: Valiant Brave
  78. St. Vincent: Actor Out of Work
  79. Delorean: Seasun
  80. Annie: Songs Remind Me of You
  81. Magic Johnson: Las Malas
  82. A Place to Bury Strangers: Keep Slipping Away
  83. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Soft Shock
  84. Think About Life: Havin My Baby
  85. Megadeth: The Right to Go Insane
  86. Dinosaur Jr: Pieces
  87. U2: Breathe
  88. Slayer: Beauty Through Order
  89. John Talabot: Sunshine
  90. Yo La Tengo: Here to Fall
  91. Megadeth: How the Story Ends
  92. Small Black: Despicable Dogs
  93. Wilco: Bull Black Nova
  94. Julian Casablancas: Left & Right in the Dark
  95. Antony and the Johnsons: Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground
  96. Lady Gaga: Bad Romance
  97. Four Tet: Love Cry
  98. The Flaming Lips (feat. Karen O): Watching the Planets
  99. Dykeritz: Chasing the Wheel Away
  100. Alice in Chains: A Looking in View

100?

January 6th, 2010

I don’t think I can limit myself to fifty songs this year. I’ve narrowed the list down to 100 and can’t be arsed to narrow any further.

So look in the next few days for a Songs of ‘09 list, double my usually-preferred length, showcasing an unprecedented panoply of artists from Annie to Zombi.

Top Twenty Albums of 2009

December 31st, 2009
  1. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
  2. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
  3. Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
  4. Bear in Heaven: Beast Rest Forth Mouth
  5. Mastodon: Crack the Skye
  6. Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
  7. Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions
  8. Bat for Lashes: Two Suns
  9. St. Vincent: Actor
  10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
  11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz!
  12. Dinosaur Jr: Farm
  13. The xx: xx
  14. Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx … Pt. II
  15. Sonic Youth: The Eternal
  16. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
  17. The Flaming Lips: Embryonic
  18. Kylesa: Static Tensions
  19. Slayer: World Painted Blood
  20. Memory Tapes: Seek Magic

Major calisthenics were demanded before I could arrive at a final order for these twenty gems, but I made it. What a terrific year!

Notes:

Grizzly Bear utterly dominated the competition. I feel strongly about every one of these, but I can’t remember another year—at least not recently—when my #1 towered so high above the rest of the list (maybe 2004?). Veckatimest has purchased real estate next to some of my all-time favorites. Way to go, guys.

It was an unusually strong year for metal, with three albums of undeniable heavitude (four if you count the majestic Monoliths & Dimensions; notice that I balk at the opportunity to put the band’s name in parentheses) moshing their way into the top twenty. Honorable mentions for 2009’s contributions from Isis, Shrinebuilder, Khanate, Skeletonwitch, Baroness, Converge, Coalesce, and, most delightfully, Megadeth’s pummeling Endgame, which is their best in perhaps twenty years.

Many of my favorite rock bands of the nineties, from an array of genres, made strong showings this year, with Yo La Tengo seeming to turn over a new leaf, Dinosaur continuing to roll as confidently as ever in its new (old) incarnation, and Sonic Youth releasing its punkiest album ever. And though I didn’t get quite as swept away by Embryonic as some other folks might have, its ambition and foggy darkness made it more than satisfying. A few other entries in this category deserve an HM: Polvo’s In Prism, Built to Spill’s There Is No Enemy, Wilco’s Wilco (The Album), and, yes, U2’s No Line on the Horizon. I’ll keep my mouth shut about the Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam albums. Oops. Guess I didn’t do a very good job of that.

Finally, as to new sounds: this glo-fi thing? I am over the moon for it. Washed Out didn’t quite make the albums list, and neither did Neon Indian, and Memory Tapes’s inclusion was a veritable squeaker, but all three artists impressed me enormously, and all three will be present on my forthcoming songs list. To the degree that this fledgling sound is in fact a coherent sound, and that these three artists from among certainly many more may be considered its most salient representatives, this sound is deeply moving to me and comes as close as any electronic music I’ve heard to delivering the emotional goods that I expect from the best pop. It’ll either take over indie electropop altogether in the next two years or be forgotten utterly. We’ll see. It might depend entirely on what M.I.A. decides to do next.

And as to the two songs lists I’m working on: they are totally driving me crazy. Wish me luck.

Top Fifty Albums of the 2000s

December 27th, 2009

Behold! The first of this decade’s stocktakings is complete.

  1. The Dismemberment Plan: Change
  2. Radiohead: Kid A
  3. Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender
  4. Jay-Z: The Blueprint
  5. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest
  6. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  7. Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity
  8. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
  9. Radiohead: In Rainbows
  10. Modest Mouse: The Moon & Antarctica
  11. Joanna Newsom: Ys
  12. OutKast: Stankonia
  13. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
  14. Death Cab for Cutie: We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes
  15. Elliott Smith: Figure 8
  16. Mastodon: Remission
  17. The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America
  18. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
  19. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
  20. Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
  21. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
  22. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
  23. Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
  24. Björk: Vespertine
  25. Fugazi: The Argument
  26. Burial: Untrue
  27. Sonic Youth: Murray Street
  28. The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
  29. Interpol: Antics
  30. Dirty Projectors: Rise Above
  31. Arcade Fire: Funeral
  32. Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It in People
  33. My Morning Jacket: Z
  34. The Joggers: With a Cape and a Cane
  35. Coheed and Cambria: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
  36. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
  37. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
  38. Menomena: Friend and Foe
  39. Deerhoof: The Runners Four
  40. M.I.A.: Arular
  41. Kanye West: Graduation
  42. Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
  43. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
  44. Strength: Going Strong
  45. Sleater-Kinney: The Woods
  46. Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
  47. Mastodon: Leviathan
  48. Q and Not U: Different Damage
  49. Animal Collective: Feels
  50. Battles: Mirrored

The best year for music this decade? As I confidently asserted at the time, it was 2007, all ten of whose Top Ten finalists made this list of fifty.

The artist of the decade? The raw numbers would suggest Radiohead. If we restrict ourselves to artists who first emerged this decade (and we hopefully can agree on a definition of “emerge” without too much back-and-forth), it looks pretty sweet for Joanna Newsom.

No matter the top dog, it was a delightful and consistently surprising ten years for music, and I think the list reflects the diversity of the pearls that this unpronounceable decade had to offer. I don’t know why Change still seems so insuperably brilliant to me all these years later—maybe it’s me—but it’s possible that it really is one of the best albums of all time.

Thinking of slapping some genre-specific sub-lists together (metal, hip hop, etc.). I feel pretty good about this one, though.

There Will Be Lists

December 16th, 2009

I’m working on year-end lists enumerating my favorite albums and singles of 2009, and strongly considering taking the time to compile a decade’s-best list as well.

So: don’t let my long absence from this blog fool you. I still live. It’s just that the blog was mostly used for movie reviews anyway, and I’ve stopped caring about movies because movies have stopped caring about me. And the trickle of trivial stuff I used to share on here has been relocated to twitter.com/quillh.

Milk

February 14th, 2009

Milk ★★★½

Deeply moving, heroic biopic about Harvey Milk (Penn), who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, holding the office of San Francisco City Supervisor for the better part of a year before his assassination in November of 1978. Penn’s beautifully openhearted performance lends the film the kind of rich humanity that movies of its ilk too often lack; first-time 29-year-old writer Dustin Lance Black also deserves kudos for having interwoven the events and themes of Milk’s political and personal lives so elegantly, making the necessary point that the gay rights issue is of course deeply personal to those fighting on its frontline. A very strong drama in a year sorely wanting for one. Penn and Black won well-deserved Oscars.

(2008) C-128m. D: Gus Van Sant. W: Dustin Lance Black. DP: Harris Savides. SEAN PENN, EMILE HIRSCH, JOSH BROLIN, DIEGO LUNA, JAMES FRANCO, ALLISON PILL, VICTOR GARBER, DENIS O’HARE. [R]