My Ten Favorite Releases of 2011

10 Monster Rally Coral
Ultra-minimalist record from a Columbus, Ohio crate-digger results in a world tour for your ears. Coral’s album art describes itself perfectly: a collage of different cultures interacting with one another. The sample choices are wide-ranging, but lock into each other like old friends… or maybe new lovers, it’s awkward and fun all at once. Perfect for work, the end of an evening, or the best elevator ride of all time.

09 Robert Ellis Photographs
Side A: five adventurous folk confessionals; Side B: five dead-simple country faux-standards. A daring way to sequence by any artist, let alone 23-year old Robert Ellis, who released Photographs on New West Records (his second full-length, first on a label). He makes genuine music that could potentially shake things up in the CMT world, the same way Nirvana jammed up the Warrants and Wingers on MTV. At least I’m hoping so.

08 Thee Oh Sees Carrion Crawler/The Dream
No album released this year makes me want to party more.

07 Happy Jawbone Family Band OK Midnight, You Win
File this under Universally Fun Pop, somewhere between Dr. Dog’s Easy Beat and of Montreal’s Cherry Peel. The charm level on this full-length is through the roof, perpetually in season for singalongs and dancing.
“Don’t Play Ding Dong Ditch on My Heart” MP3 

06 Holiday Shores New Masses for Squaw Peak
Florida ensemble take the sound they created on Columbus’d The Whim (likely my favorite LP of 2009), and point it straight for the cosmos. Excellent sequence of compositions, sometimes sounding like Arthur Russell fronting Weather Report and other times like an addendum to Talking Heads Fear of Music.
“We Couldn’t Be Together” MP3

05 Balkans Balkans
Young ATLiens made my ears hungry for two-guitar rock again, simple as that. So many creative moments on their self-titled debut: the ping-pong guitars before the second verse of “I Can’t Compete”, the stuttering lead of “Zebra Print”, the chorus-then-verse structure of “Flowers Everywhere”, loads more. The Strokes should learn a thing or two from these grasshoppers.
“Let You Have It” MP3

04 Times New Viking Dancer Equired
Recorded in a studio, proving their songs work without all the shit-fi production. Anyone bashing Dancer Equired for lacking balls is missing the point. TNV also wins Best Couplet of The Year with, “every now and then you are somebody’s slave / seeking the affection and attention you crave”.
“Try Harder” MP3

03 Fat History Month Fucking Despair
Fucking Despair successfully fuses post-punk with post-rock, humor with substance, all done in a ramshackle nature because of their modest setup of guitar (sans pedals!), drums, and vocals. The Allston duo sound like they themselves are fused together: ebbing and flowing through songs like centerpiece “You Can Pick Your Nose, You Can Pick Your Friends Nose, But You Can’t Escape Your Horrible Family” or the quick under-two-minute successor “No Safe”. Just read this thing that called Fucking Despair ”the Judd Apatow of indie rock albums” and that’s pretty accurate.
“No Safe” MP3

02 Real Estate Days
Martin Courtney writes songs that work to his bandmate’s advantages, and he’s only become better at it with Real Estate’s second full-length. Despite “It’s Real” being the peppiest song they’ve written to date, it comes off as effortless; the product of four friends completely aware of their roles. The sole dud on Days is “Wonder Years”, the only one not written/sung by Courtney, and even that cannot derail the otherwise flawless record.
“It’s Real” MP3

01 Deerhoof vs. Evil
Deerhoof is in love, yo. They wrote a whole batch of songs about love to prove it, then they went into the studio and tricked them the fuck out. The result is the most fun my ears and my brain had all year. Deerhoof vs. Evil employs the Studio As Instrument technique, something the band toyed with slightly on Friend Opportunity but never fully embraced. Layers of lush percussion take center stage throughout (especially on opener ”Qui Dorm, Només Somia”), and an arsenal of buzzing synths, guitars, and basses dart back and forth between both channels. All of this would mean nothing if the songs were crap, but Deerhoof has been successfully moving towards more accessible territory without losing their complex edge. It’s a tightrope they could eventually fall off, but for now, “No One Asked To Dance” and “Super Duper Rescue Heads” display a perfect balance. After 17 years, 10 albums, and countless reinventions, they’re still doing it better than most everyone. This is how to be a band.
“Behold a Marvel in the Darkness” MP3

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