# 2011 Album Favorites

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HASH Magazine's Favorite Albums of 2011

Transcript of # 2011 Album Favorites

Page 1: # 2011 Album Favorites
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Radiohead

THE KING OF LIMBSXL

CHOICE CUT: BLOOM

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Girls

FATHER, SON, HOLY GHOST

TRUE PANTHER

CHOICE CUT: ALEX

“The way Chris’ songwriting and JR’s production interact is amazing. There’s good musicianship and there are some lyrical lines that I think are really special, like ‘...and then she’ll love me for all the reasons everyone hates me’.”—RUBAN NIELSON of Unknown Mortal Orchestra

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Ambrose Akinmusire

WHEN THE HEART EMERGES GLISTENINGBLUE NOTE

CHOICE CUT: HENYA

Bay Area trumpeter debuts as a bandleader on Blue Note with mostly meditative LP: Akinmusire’s muffled slipstream is ripe with purpose, and shines brightest during the subtle, open-air excursions—of which there are plenty.

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Favorite Album:

GOBLIN by Tyler, the Creator

“I love this album because it puts a stamp on time—when listening to it, you instantly know that hip-hop after this one album will have to be different.”

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tUnE-yArDs

W H O K I L L4AD

CHOICE CUT: POWA

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TV On The Radio

NINE TYPES OF LIGHTINTERSCOPE

CHOICE CUT: CAFFEINATED CONSCIOUSNESS

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRAFAT POSSUM

CHOICE CUT: NERVE DAMAGE!

Portland via New Zealand lo-fi spunksters spring to life in their florid but dusty debut, tracing a glittering stripe of rainbow-funk rock: riffing on the nonsensical (“Nerve Damage!,” “Jello and Juggernauts”) and just plain riffing (“Thought Balloon,” “FFunny FFriends”).

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Vinicius Cantuária & Bill Frisell

LÁGRIMAS MEXICANASeONE

CHOICE CUT: AQUELA MULHER

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRAFAT POSSUM

CHOICE CUT: NERVE DAMAGE!

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Bill Callahan

APOCALYPSEDRAG CITY

CHOICE CUT: ONE FINE MORNING

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Cymbals Eat Guitars

LENSES ALIENBARSUK

CHOICE CUT: DEFINITE DARKNESS

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Dengue Fever

CANNIBAL COURTSHIPCONCORD

CHOICE CUT: UKU

Los Angeles six-piece expands its formula with psychedelic synth-quirk and some-t imes r iotous ‘60s funk horns, conjur-ing another hazy spaghetti western out of Cambodian surf pop.

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Favorite Albums:

BLACK UP by Shabazz Palaces

“BLACK UP might be my favorite album of the year simply because it’s the boldest. The abstract arrangements have a wonderful sense of freedom to them. It can be hit or miss, at times, but hip-hop so desperately needs an injection of creativity and this record is a full needle”.

—PAUL SMITH, drummer/ producer

NEW HISTORY WARFARE VOL 2: JUDGES by Collin Stetson

“Love the sound and feeling. It makes me feel upside down in high speed forward motion and the tech-nique is profound, almost unbearable.”

—DAVID RALICKE, horns

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Casiokids

AABENBARINGEN OVER AASKAMMENPOLYVINYL

CHOICE CUT: DET HASTER!

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Action Bronson

DR. LECTERSELF-RESLEASED

CHOICE CUT: BUDDY GUY

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“Dude’s got a psychy-Neil Young thing goin’ on. I dig it. Our record also rules.”

—HONOR TITUS of Cerebral Ballzy

Kurt Vile

SMOKE RING FORMY HALOMATADOR

CHOICE CUT: RUNNER UPS

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Pistol Annies

HELL ON HEELSCOLUMBIA NASHVILLE

CHOICE CUT: HELL ON HELLS

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Danny Brown

XXXFOOL’S GOLD

CHOICE CUT: RADIO SONG

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Cerebral Ballzy

CEREBRAL BALLZYWILLIAMS STREET

CHOICE CUT: INSUFFICIENT FARE

‘80s-hardcore revivalists sprint through 12 songs in 20 minutes, skating, snearing, puking, ogling, spitting, cutting class: no regrets, no consequences.

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Mountains

AIR MUSEUMTHRILL JOCKEY

CHOICE CUT: BLUE LANTERNS ON EAST OXFORD

Brooklyn alchemists craft more electro-ecstasy with their finest long-play yet, twining digital and acoustic fibers into twinkling rivulets that bloom into unend-ing waterfalls.

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Favorite Album:

THE VOICE ROLLING by Mind Over Mirrors

“Fully-saturated harmonium blis-tering from bliss out to harmonic overdrive; hints of kosmische and some heavy nu age: echoes abound. Current Chicago resident Jamie Fennelly has created his own lush yet beastly concoction of bubbling stasis. Controls set either straight for the sun or perhaps your mind’s eye. Oh wait....”

—KOEN HOLTKAMP of Mountains

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Drake

TAKE CAREYOUNG MONEY/CASH MONEY/UNIVERSAL

CHOICE CUT: CREW LOVE

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Feist

METALSCHERRYTREE

CHOICE CUT: CAUGHT A LONG WIND

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Phonte

CHARITY STARTS AT HOMEFOREIGN EXCHANGE

CHOICE CUT: NOT HERE ANYMORE

Phonte raps with gritty gusto as the country spirals around him in this 2011 record for the times. Charity Starts At Home is a working class hero on the verge of existential implo-sion, meditating the merits of monogamy, hustling despite layoffs and spiking mort-gage rates—preaching to the choir, really, but without sounding preachy.

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Destroyer

KAPUTTMERGE

CHOICE CUT: SUICIDE DEMO FOR KARA WALKER

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Charles Bradley

NO TIME FOR DREAMINGDAPTONE

CHOICE CUT: HOW LONG

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Fleet Foxes

HELPLESSNESS BLUESSUB POP

CHOICE CUT: HELPLESSNESS BLUES

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Quilt

QUILTMEXICAN SUMMER

CHOICE CUT: COWBOYS IN THE VOID

Mellow melodists traverse space and time, channelling Left Coast folk circa Summer of Love, all the way from Boston in 2011.

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Favorite Albums:

ASLEEP ON THE FLOODPLAIN by Six Organs of Admittance, & 936 by Peaking Lights

“Together they stitch the ways in which I’ve come to know now... totally contra-dictory and totally on the same track.”

—SHANE BUTLER, guitar, vocals, banjo

OK MIDNIGHT, YOU WIN by Happy Jawbone Family Band

“It’s the album that Lou Reed would’ve wrote if he never moved out of his mom’s house and ate more junk food instead of drugs.”

—JOHN ANDREWS, drummer

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Atlas Sound

PARALLAX4AD

CHOICE CUT: TE AMO

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Paul Simon

SO BEAUTIFUL OR SO WHAT

HEAR MUSIC

CHOICE CUT: QUESTIONS FOR THE ANGELS

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Metronomy

THE ENGLISH RIVIERABECAUSE MUSIC

CHOICE CUT: THE BAY

“Shit is just mad catchy. I love the new move with more live instrumentation. Dude is a really good songwriter.”

—JOHNNY SIERA of The Death Set

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Pure X

PLEASUREACÉPHALE/LIGHT LODGE

CHOICE CUT: HEAVY AIR

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Jay-Z & Kanye West

WATCH THE THRONEROC-A-FELLA/ROC NATION/DEF JAM

CHOICE CUT: NEW DAY

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The Stepkids

THE STEPKIDSSTONE’S THROW

CHOICE CUT: LA LA

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Alec Gross

STRIP THE LANTERNSSOLEBURY MTN. MUSIC

CHOICE CUT: IF YOU DON’T MIND (BABY GO AHEAD)

Syrupy-voiced singer-songwriter gets con-ceptual over a soulful union of country and folk originals, belting like a supreme narra-tor when things get heavy.

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Favorite Album:

CIRCUITAL by My Morning Jacket

“Muscular and still so musical. These guys are some of the most important musicians working today.”

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Fucked Up

DAVID COMES TO LIFEMATADOR

CHOICE CUT: TRUTH I KNOW

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Oneohtrix Point Never

REPLICAMEXICAN SUMMER/SOFTWARE LABEL

CHOICE CUT: ANDRO

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Nostalgia 77

THE SLEEPWALKING SOCIETYTRU-THOUGHTS

CHOICE CUT: BEAUTIFUL LIE

Composer and gentle-jazz auteur returns from four years of collaborations with a record all his own—sorta. Josa Peit’s earthy baritone dominates the bulk of this LP, but in the best way; the Ger-man chanteuse realizes Nostalgia’s vision in ev-ery track she graces, from the dreamy “Beautiful Lie” to crisp, Howitzer-organ grumblers “Sleep-walker” and “When Love Is Strange.” Sleepwalking Society is mostly a marvel of steely blues, though its exiting gesture, the sighing instrumental “Hush,” is its greatest triumph.

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Raphael Saadiq

STONE ROLLIN’COLUMBIA

CHOICE CUT: GOOD MAN

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Ry Cooder

PULL UP SOME DUST & SIT DOWNNONESUCH

CHOICE CUT: LORD TELL ME WHY

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SBTRKT

SBTRKTYOUNG TURKS

CHOICE CUT: SOMETHING GOES RIGHT

It’s no stretch to say Aaron Jerome goes to as much trouble in chiseling an anti-ego as he does composing brooding funk-step grooves for the antisocialite. But the smoldering, Little Dragon-boosted standout “Wildfire” brought SBTRKT out of self-prescribed anonymity once Drake remixed it, tuning many ears to the Londoner’s self-titled debut. The charred-but-precise soprano of Sampha makes him a key feature, a space-lounge singer booted into the dance party SBTRKT engenders for the quiet confines between your headphones.

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The Death Set

MICHEL POICCARDNINJA TUNE

CHOICE CUT: WE ARE GOING ANYWHERE MAN

Aussie émigrés record their first full-length since the untimely death of co-founder/leader in 2009: the glossy punk-ballads are more dense, more serene, more poignant than before, but the trio’s raison d’être remains thrashing headlong into the unknown—while slapping you in the head and braying like a Beastie.

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Curren$y

WEEKEND AT BURNIE’SJET LIFE/WARNER BROS.

CHOICE CUT: THIS IS THE LIFE

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Favorite Album:

BEHOLD THE SPIRIT by William Tyler

“BEHOLD THE SPIRIT was released at the end of last year, but it’s a 2011 discovery for me. I had the pleasure of recording a quick session with Mr. Tyler in Nashville, and his debut confirmed my suspicions from that brief encounter—a rare emotional intelligence and a guitarist of The highest order.”

Willem Maker

AGAPAOSELF-RELEASED

CHOICE CUT: REVIVAL 6

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Little Dragon

RITUAL UNIONPEACEFROG

CHOICE CUT: SHUFFLE A DREAM

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PJ Harvey

LET ENGLAND SHAKEISLAND/VAGRANT

CHOICE CUT: ALL AND EVERYONE

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The Roots

UNDUNDEF JAM

CHOICE CUT: MAKE MY FEAT. BIG K.R.I.T

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The Black Keys

EL CAMINONONESUCH

CHOICE CUT: GOLD ON THE CEILING

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Frank Ocean

NOSTALGIA, ULTRASELF-RELEASED

CHOICE CUT: WE ALL TRY

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Joe Henry

REVERIEANTI

CHOICE CUT: GRAND STREET

Producer, singer-songwriter and downright multi-hyphenate Joe Henry lives in that ignominious domain of an influential musical pusher too often overlooked. His twelfth solo album is a lush and lethargic cycle of free-flowing compositions: they stumble and crash over their own feet, edges frayed into deliberate, stylish shambles. However bedraggled, the music always sounds sympathetic against Henry’s crooked tenor: “I deserve a much nicer hotel room than this,” he warbles in the album’s weary opener. Damn right.

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Yuck

YUCKFAT POSSUM

CHOICE CUT: STUTTER

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Tedeschi Trucks Band

REVELATORSONY LEGACY

CHOICE CUT: MIDNIGHT IN HARLEM

“It has such an amazing mix of blues, rock, funk, and country. Derek Trucks’ guitar work is worth the price of album alone.”

—BEN WILLIAMS

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The Weeknd

HOUSE OF BALLOONSSELF-RELEASED

CHOICE CUT: WICKED GAMES

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Shout Outs

EP’SBODY LANGUAGE, Social Studies

FORT LEAN, Fort Lean

PHANTOM FAMILY HALO, The Mindeater

MO KOLOURS, EP1: Drum Talking

GARY CLARK JR., The Bright Lights

HINDI ZAHRA, Until The Next Journey

THE ALABAMA SHAKES, The Alabama Shakes

TRACKSASAP ROCKY, “Peso”

THE WAR ON DRUGS, “Come To the City”

ELYSIAN FIELDS, “Sweet Condenser”

JAMES BLAKE, “I Never Learnt To Share”

DJ KHALED, “I’m On One”

BEN WILLIAMS, “Moonlight In Vermont”

BEASTIE BOYS, “Make Some Noise”

BEN SOLLEE, “Embrace”

TIM HECKER, “The Piano Drop”

VANAPRASTA, “G-”

BATTLES, “Ice Cream”

BODIES OF WATER, “Open Rhythms”

TWIN SISTER, “Kimmi In A Rice Field”

NICOLAS JAAR, “Variations”

WASHED OUT, “Eyes Be Closed”

UNKLE f. NICK CAVE, “Money And Run”

THE ANTLERS, “Rolled Together”

KATY B., “Katy On A Mission”

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF M. Sean Ryan

[email protected]

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Monica So

[email protected]

www.hashmagazine.com© HASH 2011

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