From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V10 #90 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Friday, January 20 2012 Volume 10 : Number 090 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] 2011 list [Thomas Krueger ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:46:33 -0600 From: Thomas Krueger Subject: [loud-fans] 2011 list Since Andy stared it, here's mine: 1. Apex Manor - The Year of Magical Drinking.This record perfects the sound of those early Wilco records, before that band started becoming more abstract and difficult. Singer and main songwriter Ross Flourney produces song after song of shimmering, flawless, personable power pop with occasional country and folk flourishes featuring dynamic, layered and sometimes just slightly surprising or off-kilter arrangements. 2. Wild Flag - Wild Flag. My friend Michael has a theory that many of the best bands have only three instrumentalists because they can use the additional aural space as a key element of the songs, but also must work together closely to fill enough of that space. With the much beloved Sleater-Kinney on hiatus, two members of that trio - polymath guitarist Carrie Brownstein and monster drummer Janet Weiss - helped launch this four piece band to much buzz. While the more complicated arrangements sometimes dull the push-pull tension of Sleater-Kinney at its best, the high level of songwriting and of flat-out fun makes that just a minor quibble. 3. Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer. On his eleventh CD this unassumingly brilliant singer-songwriter teams with veteran hard rock producer Bob Rock, who punches up the arrangements a bit and brings the lovely melodies up front. The result is one of the most accessible and consistent albums in a distinguished, if largely overlooked, discography. Sexsmith writes observantly and elegantly, with great humanity and optimism that never turns sappy or simple. 4. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams. Sounds like a fuzzed up version of the Shangri-La's recorded in a stairwell, fronted by bandleader Dee Dee's powerhouse vocals which evoke a sublime mixture of Chrissie Hynde, Martha Davis and Siouxsie Sioux. The songs stick in your head, fitting themes of distance and loss with irresistible, singalong choruses. 5. Roots - Undun. The Roots are as musical and ambitious as anyone in hip-hop. This semi-concept album focuses their usual hard-eyed humanism on the trials, triumphs and tragedies of desperate inner-city lives. Black Thought's raps exhibit amazing creativity and wisdom, never falling prey to sentimentality, egotism or mythmaking. As always, the Roots bring out the best in their guests, even further elevating the CD. 6. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines. One man band Michael Benjamin Lerner gallops through a clever indie-pop hodgepodge that roams freely between benchmarks ranging from Material Issue to the White Stripes, the Cure to the Shins. Lerner writes sharply and reflectively about love and (mostly) the loss of it. 7. Lydia Loveless - Indestructible Machine. This record harkens back to the halcyon days of the alt-country scare - 1996-99 - when there were a bunch of talented female artists who compellingly blended varying portions of country, rock and punk (Neko Case, Kelly Willis, Cheri Knight, the Damnations, and Syd Straw to name a few). Just 21 years old, Loveless already has that same sort of toughness, humor, swagger, conviction and lightly concealed empathy. 8. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest. Her first release in eight years didn't make a huge first impression but has really grown on me. As always, the songs are timeless, sounding like they could be from a century ago. Her voice and guitar intertwine seamlessly and gorgeously with her virtuoso partner David Rawlings, and the songs have a stark beauty and elegance that sweep you along, catching you up in their dreamy flow. 9. Parts & Labor - Constant Future. Synth-driven rock that sounds like a classic Eno record with the tempo and noise picked up a little because the drummer (the indomitable Joe Wong) could be mistaken for Dave Grohl. Master producer Dave Fridmann helps keep the record focused and sonically rich, making the record a pleasure from start to finish. 10. (tie) Dolorean - The Unfazed. Singer/guitarist Al James doesn't vary the formula much on Dolorean's fourth album but doesn't really need to with such a strong batch of songs. The melodies are quietly lovely; the lyrics introspective and wistful; the arrangements intricate, understated, warm and sweetly sad. 10. (tie) Beirut - The Rip Tide. Zach Condon's arrangements and vocals are intriguingly theatrical for rock music, and I really like the way many of the songs are driven by simple but insistently melodic horns. Beirut's fourth CD seems melancholy yet hopeful, nostalgic yet adventurous. Honorable Mention (in approximate order): Pains of Being Pure at Heart b Belong; Van Hunt - What Were You Hoping For?; Bright Eyes - The Peoplebs Key; Love Me Nots - The Demon and the Devotee; Deep Dark Woods - The Place I Left Behind; Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise; A.A. Bondy b Believers; Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones; Yuck b Yuck; Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong; Mekons - Ancient & Modern; Old 97bs - The Grand Theatre Vol. 2; Wilco - The Whole Love; Trombone Shorty - For True; Fucked Up - David Comes to Life; Richard Buckner - Our Blood; Feelies - Here Before; Glen Campbell - Ghost on the Canvas; Centro-Matic - Candidate Waltz; Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me; Chuck Ragan - Covering Ground; Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels; Okkervil River - I Am Very Far; Eilen Jewell - Queen of the Minor Key; Joy Formidable - The Big Roar; Hanni El Khatib - Will the Guns Come Out?; Wire - Red Barked Tree; Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See; Steve Earle b Ibll Never Get Out of This World Alive; Abigail Washburn - City of Refuge; Sarah Jarosz - Follow Me Down; Anna Waronker - California Fade; Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two; Foster and Lloyd b Itbs Already Tomorrow; Decemberists - The King is Dead; Amy Lavere - Stranger Me; Tommy Stinson - - One Man Mutiny; Middle Brother - Middle Brother, Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding; Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing; J. Mascis - Several Shades of Why; Miranda Lambert - Four the Record; John Doe b Keeper; Bottle Rockets - Not So Loud; Girls b Father, Son, Holy Ghost; Exene Cervenka - The Excitement of Maybe; Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues; Eleventh Dream Day - Riot Now; Alison Krauss and Union Station - Paper Airplane; Chris Thile and Michael Daves - Sleep With One Eye Open; Noel Gallagherbs High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagherbs High Flying Birds; Destroyer - Kaputt; Teddy Thompson b Bella; St. Vincent - Strange Mercy; Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean; Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know; Strokes b Angles. Might have made the list if Ibd heard them or heard more of them: Joe Henry b Reverie; Real Estate b Days; Duke Spirit b Bruiser; Nikki Lane - Walk of Shame; Matraca Berg - The Dreaming Fields; Oh Susanna - Soon the Birds; British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall; Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollinb, Sam Phillips - Cameras in the Sky; War on Drugs - Slave Ambient; Stephen Malkmus - Mirror Traffic; Obits b Moody, Standard and Poor; Glossary - Long Live All Of Us; Tune-Yards b Whokill; Childish Gambino b Camp; Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde; EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints; Features - Wilderness; Black Keys - El Camino; My Morning Jacket - - Circuital; Bangles - Sweetheart of the Sun; Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/Dream; Thee Oh Sees b Castlemania; Cute Lepers - Adventure Time; M83 - Hurry Up, Webre Dreaming; Lauderdale - Moving On; Tommy Keane - Behind the Parade; Shelby Lynne - Revelation Road; Roger Bryan and the Orphans b 37; Wye Oak b Civilian; Vaccines - What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?; Dwight Twilley - Soundtrack; Low - Cbmon; Ha Ha Tonka - Death of a Decade; Arkells - Michigan Left; Slow Club - Paradise; Horrors b Skying; Matthew Sweet - Modern Art; Ettes - Wicked Will; Go Team - Rolling Blackouts; Dead Rock West - Bright Morning Stars; Charles Bradley - No Time for Dreaming; The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart. Tom ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V10 #90 *******************************