Album of the Year, 2011 – Number One

01. Tori Amos – Night of Hunters (Deutsche Grammophon)

Back to her best.

It all ends here, and as it began way back in 1996 with my number one album of the year coming from Tori Amos. It’s been a big year for me in terms of rekindling my love for Amos, as I am not one who has followed her devoutly over the last few years. Not only have her recent albums not featured in the year’s bests but I actually despise two of her albums: The Beekeeper and American Doll Posse, and so has been a comeback of such power that I was thrown off in the first few listens, wondering if I’d been transported back in time.

But no, it’s better than that because it’s 2011 and Tori is great again, and not just great but she has released her best album since the 1996 winner Boys for Pele, which is still, actually, my favourite album of hers to date. I enjoyed From the Choirgirl Hotel and Scarlet’s Walk, (both featuring in their respective year’s best ofs) but this Night of Hunters is truly special.

You begin to learn how special when finding out that the album was commissioned by the successful German classical record label, Deutsche Grammaphon, and that she is paying homage to classical composers, such as Satie and Chopin, whilst ‘It tells a modern love story that is only unraveled after a journey to Ireland’s mythic past.’

Just reading that you realise that the album is going to be special, even if some of the experiment fails, yet it doesn’t, not once in its 73 minutes and that gives an idea just of what talent Tori Amos possesses. I had placed this at number one after a couple of listens and after many more it never stood a chance of being knocked off the top perch. As the rest of the list flitted, this held its own and this is one of the years I am most confident that I have made the right choice.

If you only buy one album this year, buy this one, buy this and immerse yourself in the beauty and elegance of Tori Amos.

She’s back and I, for one, am so so happy about it!

[And it’s not over yet, as the best songs of 2011 are coming your way later today]

Album of the Year, 2011 – Number Two

02. Björk – Biophilia (One Little Indian)

It's the insane one!

And it’s time to bring in ‘mad as a hatter on mind-bending drugs’ Björk and her latest, crazy offering in the year’s best of. Incidentally, this is also Björk’s highest outing since I started the charts (her previous best was third in 2001).

I distinctly remember commenting on an update by that man, Steve Duffy, when he mentioned listening to this and I said I was struggling with it. I was still struggling a few weeks later and this album has climbed, albeit slowly, from way down in the low 70s (the bottom end of the top 30) up to number two. I’m not sure she ever had enough in her to take the top spot but this album is a prime example of the importance of properly listening to music. And yes, whilst getting on my own high horse I am also aware I am guilty of this too (Tom Waits would have never won in 2002 had I given Lambchop and Is a Woman, the listens it deserved, the latter being one of my top five albums of all time).

But hey, Björk is a character, equally adept at providing us with masterpieces as well as utter tosh and listening to this album just reminded me of my students’ adverse reaction to her at the summer camp I was teaching at, showing she doesn’t appeal to the youf of today.

She’s been influential, provocative, naive, mental, aggressive and downright complicated over these last 25 years or so (yes, her first release was in 1977) and I’ve been bemused, entranced, and downright nonplussed by her in that time.

Tell you what though, she’s never dull!

[editor’s note – Maddoc thinks she’s terrible and Audrey loves her]

Album of the Year, 2011 – Number Three

03. My Brightest Diamond – All Things Will Unwind (Asthmatic Kitty)

The mighty Sara Worden!

Shara Worden strikes again and anyone who knew she had released an album this year should really have been expecting her rather high up in the list. My Brightest Diamond is one of my most played artists since I started my whole Last.fm scrobbling saga (number six in the total played) and she’s had rather an impact on me, for her style, voice and wonderful, quirky lyrics. I’m quite sure a few of you have heard her but I’m also quite sure that many of you haven’t and it’s about time you did (you get a track here but also another on the best of for 2011).

Shara has that delectable mix of jazz, classical and pop/indie that I love and even though I said that Wild Beasts and Other Lives could have been in this position, to be honest this is where it belongs, it’s not good enough for either of the top two positions but holds its own against the aforementioned two.

So enjoy My Brightest Diamond and get ready for number two, coming soon!

Album of the Year, 2011 – Number Four

04. Wild Beasts – Smother (Domino)

A week ago it was number two in the chart and looking solid for that postion. The race intensified, the listening likewise and down it dropped. As with Other Lives, I could just as well imagine this as number three but I went with my gut hoping that my guts don’t have ‘shit for brains’.

Been reading today that this has been commented on by several reviewers as a likely candidate for album of 2011 and obviously I can see where they are coming from. This was one of Ian Stackhouse’s biggest follies, having them much lower than they deserved and I put that down to a possibility that he was not listening to them as much as he should. The album is arguably the most exciting and inspirational of 2011, and much as I try and convince myself that one of the lead singers’ voice is irritating I just keep on listening, keep on getting impressed.

This one will remain a classic for many years – get out and buy it people!

Number three is announced tomorrow and begins an unprecedented final three…

Album of the Year, 2011 – Number Five

05. Other Lives – Tamer Animals (TBD Records)

The first time I have had the privilege of listening to this band (it being their second release) and I was very quickly blown away by the sheer quality and majesty of it. I have already heard favourable comparisons with Fleet Foxes, which, although I can understand, I struggle to agree with. I have had a hard time getting my head around what is so good about the Foxes but not so these guys.

There’s a Floyd influence at work, which I love, (even picked up on by the wife) and although the album is only forty minutes long, it’s a very worthwhile and engaging forty, covering all the usual suspects with aplomb.

Tamer Animals, could have easily finished the year at number three, such was the difficulty in choosing between this and the next two up. Time will tell if I made the right decision, yet a decision had to be made.

Coming soon, number four…

Album of the Year 2010: Number 4

Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty Records) [9.5]

It’s with a heavy heart that I place this here, three places below where it was only a few weeks ago. It’s been a tough choice separating the conscious decision about what the best music of the year and who my favourite artist of the last few years is and coming up with a list that works…

So putting the fact that Sufjan is some sort of music god to one side and admitting that three albums this year are better (one of those keeps climbing) has been hard but necessary and so we see him here, with his third top five spot in five years (number three in 2005 with Illinoise and number one last year with The BQE).

So why has he finished up at number four and not higher this time? It’s as much to do with Sufjan’s attempt to find the perfect sound than with anything else, as in this album we get a real sense of the two sides of Sufjan: first is the Sufjan that needs no real explanation of quality, the side that marries gorgeous tunes to his presence-filled voice…

 

Sufjan is as Sufjan does

Followed by the Sufjan that infuriates, even though I understand exactly what he’s doing, that is the experimental Sufjan, playing around with styles, instruments and even his voice to see what the results are. It’s funny, as it’s rare to hear him described as experimental, mostly alternative, yet he’s one of the most experimental artists I know.

Stevens released this album and an EP this year (All Delighted People) and seeing as the EP is as long as the album, I would have loved him to have done an Eels and released two albums. If he’d done that he could have released one album of experimental tunes and one of the stuff you see above, which would have been easily my album of 2010.

Which, leads me onto an announcement now, and that is the song of 2010 and what better place to announce it, for it is…

 

Taken from All Delighted People 2010.

Album of the Year 2010: Number 5

Holy Fuck: Latin (Holy Fuck Music) [9.4]

I’m brave enough to now admit that this is the highest placed instrumental album of 2010, meaning that there will be no repeat of 2009 and the shock of a completely instrumental album taking top spot. For this year the lyricists won out.

But the top five is no mean feat and this is one powerhouse of an album from mellow intro to powerful conclusion and I have listened to this album so, so much over the last few months, with it climbing up the chart with almost every reckoning.

The album was released with a bonus CD, titled + Ghost, which isn’t included in this verdict, being as I haven’t listened to it anywhere near as much and because, when seeing the comments and listings for the album, I only see Latin mentioned. Together they make a decent length album actually as Latin is a bit short on minutes, only racking up about 38 in total.

For lovers of the music over the lyrics there is a lot to admire here, and after my introduction to the band with their excellent 2007 album, LP, I am impressed by how ‘different’ they sound, especially in an age where everything sounds like something else. They are one of the few bands this year that I have trouble picking a band which compares when discussing them.

Have a look at the video for Red Lights, easily one of the silliest videos of the year (meaning it’s one of my favourites too):

 

Cat lovers everywhere rejoice!

An interesting side dish to this is that this is one of the bands that Maddoc has got a real kick out of when listening to over the Christmas holiday and asked the question I have dreaded him asking since I got the album earlier this year,

What’s this band called Daddy?

[Only four to go, but who’s there?]

Album of the Year 2010: Number 6

The Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon (Warner Bros) [9.4]

And yes, it’s now time for my blasphemy spot on the top ten, knowing, as I do, quite a few of my friends’ aversions to the thing called the cover version…

Now knowing people have an aversion to cover versions and then hitting them with not only a song for song cover of an entire album but the said album being one of the finest albums of all time is only asking for trouble and for people to stop reading my music blog right here, right now (as Fatboy Slim might put it) or?

You know I’m more than happy to argue my corner on most things musical, making the odd exception for nostalgia music, but here I’m right up for the fight, you tell me when you want it and I’ll set the date…

No, but seriously this is an absolute fucking pearl of an album, not in the nearest region of being able to clean Gilmour/Waters, et al’s shoes but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because The Flaming Lips (with assorted ensemble) have managed to cover a masterpiece and make it sound rather lovely. I know the question is why? Why bother remaking that great film, the great album, that great novel? Because we do it all the time, if we don’t quote we paraphrase, I mean we constantly hear samples of other tunes in our favourite tunes, apparently everyone has been inspired  by the beatles (lower case ALWAYS intentional there) and Shakespeare’s classic tragedies are just rip-offs of great Greek tragedies (great covers mind)…

So forget it, forget it right now and have a listen, see if it is worth one or not – you might think no but then there should be other reasons for that. Argue with your beliefs, argue with your trends, constantly, cause man, it makes for better music, you hear better stuff all the time!

So what do I like about this? Do you care? Course you do…

 

It’s not Floyd you know…stop listening…

I like it because it’s energetic, because they try things and they play around with stuff. I like it because every time I hear this album it makes me want to listen to the original again, which can be a bad sign, when you feel you need to wipe the cover from your memory, but in this case it makes me realise (as if I didn’t already) just how great the whole musical arrangement of the album is and why it’s still being hailed 37 years later. Is it still the best selling LP of all time?

It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, in fact I read some abuse on the YouTube page where I got the video from, but I think it’s excellent and I’ve really enjoyed listening to it all year (it was one of the first of 2010 I got, being as it was released in December 2009).

[Remember there is a few days break now before we hit the top five on Monday 27th December – have a fantastic Christmas and see you on the other side…the light side?]

Album of the Year 2010: Number 7

Emeralds: Does it Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego) [9.2]

There’s some nostalgia mixed in with this one, as it’s time for one of my embarrassing confessions here, being that I am actually a fan of the German synth band, Tangerine Dream. I still remember the day, when I was living in Copenhagen, and my flatmate came in and asked what the ‘Pac-man music’ was that I was playing…

Which goes some to explaining this particular album’s lofty position (actually less lofty than it was last week, when it was sitting in the top five and seemed to be a contender for number one), as there is a real sense of nostalgia when listening, as they seem to have taken the music of Tangerine Dream and upped the ante, to make something much more modern and accessible, whilst retaining the essence of the band of my youth.

Have a look at a section of my favourite track (and the longest) Genetic here:

 

5 minutes of the 12 minute classic on the album.

I think it’s the inclusion of the guitars that make Emeralds feel more solid/more real than a band like Tangerine Dream, as, although the purely synth music of bands like Tangerine Dream and others of their ilk has lost much of its popularity, the addition of instruments with ‘clout’ add a new dimension.

The album flows along very nicely, it shifts and sways at the right times and is further indication that you can wow me with instrumental albums (if the number one album of 2009 didn’t show that) rather than this misconception (mostly brought about by myself it has to be said) that I am lyric fixated.

And there is another completely instrumental album still to come in this chart…

[Look out tomorrow for number six before a well earned break for Christmas!]

Album of the Year 2010: Number 8

The Knife: Tomorrow, In a Year (Brille Records) [9.1]

First up, you have to love music, I mean really love music, for this requires all the senses, all the faculties, patience, understanding and a whole host of other attributes too fearful to mention to get your head around it all otherwise.

David Sheppard, in his BBC review of the album has it spot on here when he states:

Okay, on paper it does sound a bit complicated, esoteric and, frankly, a bit bonkers: an opera, commissioned by a Danish performance art group, based on the theories of Charles Darwin, made by Swedish siblings Olof and Karin Dreijer, alias The Knife, who are better known for digital art pop and for donning spooky plague masks than for their insights into genetic mutation. Oh, and it also features three guest vocalists, including an operatic mezzo-soprano and some obscure electronic mates from mysterious Mitteleuropa and, er, Bolton.

The album is split into two CDs and while I enjoy both, I think I must have listened to the second CD around fifty times, compared to maybe ten for the first. The second is much more accessible and is a sort of pop/electronic meets classical sound, whilst the first is much more of the experimental meets classical/operatic. There is much to take in and I have very rarely listened to the two together, being as I was a little overwhelmed after the first attempt…(I warned you, it takes a lot this one!)

The BBC compare this to Björk, Crystal Castles and Fever Ray but I hasten to add that I don’t necessarily concur with that one. I would go as so far as to say that Björk’s Volta and Medulla, have enough of the ‘crazy juice’ in them to put them on a par but I’m not sure listeners of Björk will appreciate this or indeed vice versa.

If you want to get an idea of how hard work this is at times, then just have a listen to the three tracks on CD one: Intro, Minerals and Ebb Tide Explorer, then you’ve passed the test and can move to the next level…

Today, whilst looking for something to represent the album, I found a remix of probably my favourite track on CD two: Colouring of  Pigeons, so enjoy:

 

No video (unfortunately) but pretty tunes nonetheless!

You know what they say (I love the they, conjuring up wonderful images always) that hard work pays off, and I’m pretty sure it has for me here. By persevering with this one I think I’ve uncovered one of the absolute gems of 2010. Give it a chance you might just love it (or go mad in the process)!

[Look out for number seven on the morrow!]