Boogie Staff Picks: The Year in Music [2011]

MIKE’S PICKS (@Goldnuggets)

This year was all over the place in music. Some years produce a couple records everyone can agree on, but if anything, 2011 showcased the corners of the web all at once and left us to figure out what was worth Listening to for ourselves.

1. Feist – Metals
One of the quietest records of the year, Metals was also one of the most ambitious. I can see why she took so much time off after The Reminder before re-surfacing with this personal statement. ‘The Circle Married the Line’ is alone worth the price of admission, but the more I listen to it as a whole, the more I’m reminded of how dynamic this artist is. Feist doesn’t need to raise her voice to make me pay attention.

2. Drake – Take Care
I’m a sucker for a musician with a sense of history, and Drake’s a man who knows where he comes from, and who’s come before him. Tracks in Take Care like Marvins Room aren’t afraid to question if success is worth the price, but make no apologies for the messes it brings either. A sober document from someone many thought was too young for this kind of brooding.

3. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
I’m not sure if this is considered a full-length or EP, but The King of Limbs is one of the most hypnotic and absorbing documents from a group everyone still compares themselves to. Its become unfashionable to talk about this record after so much ink has been donated already on their behalf, but they keep re-inventing themselves and I keep finding new reasons to watch Thom Yorke’s awkward dance steps in Lotus Flower.

4. Mastodon – The Hunter
Unlike the Roots, Mastodon finally dropped their usually high-minded concept in favor of bucking down on the meat and potatoes behind their energy. The Hunter is simple, unadorned, and highly approachable. While it doesn’t reach the heights of Leviathan, it’s refreshing to hear the guys just rock out for awhile.

5. The Roots – Undun
This came out of nowhere. It was released way too late in the year and weaves a complex story that can be difficult to approach. But it does something I haven’t heard before from the Roots before, showcase a fully thought out concept and still make it work as classic hip-hop.

6. Monogold – The Softest Glow
Brooklyn loves warming up to beach rock, but Monogold’s The Softest Glow sounds like they’ve been dreaming about it all year long, crafting an unexpectedly dynamic record made for time spent either on the pillow, or on the dance floor.

7. Yellow Ostrich – The Mistress
Recent Brooklyn import Alex Schaaf knows a good harmony when he hears one, and so does Barsuk, who signed him and released his strong debut The Mistress earlier this year. A confessional boy-meets-world diary entry from a whale-obsessed wanderlust.

8. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
Jangly and lo-fi, this years edition of ‘weird old Americana’ brought the spirit of Suicide together with The Kinks. Segall’s Goodbye Bread has more energy than most anything I’ve heard this year, wiping the floor with glo-fi and spilling his beer on it instead.

9. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Simon Reynolds would have a field day describing the retro sheen of their latest LP, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. ‘Love is like a River’ could have been a hit on American Bandstand a couple decades ago, but singer Christopher Owens makes his brand of muscle shoals-style soul sound fresh and urgent.

10. Destroyer – Kaputt
For Dan Bejar’s ninth record, he finally gets it exactly right with an arch and cynical read on lite-jazz that sounds prickly in the way that Donald Fagen used to describe Steely Dan as punk music.

LORI’S PICKS

1. Tom Waits – Bad as Me
2. Adele – 21
3. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – Soul Time
4. I also loved that Elvis Costello advised all of his fans NOT to buy his latest boxed set, The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook, because it cost over $250. (With that said, I’m sure it’s freaking amazing.)
5. St Vincent – Strange Mercy
6. The Black Keys – El Camino
7. Portugal. The Man – In the Mountain In the Cloud
8. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake