Our Year in Music 2011 coverage has already featured our Top 10 EP's of 2011, Top 20 Mainstream Albums of 2011, Listener's Poll Top 100 Spins and our Top Ten Videos of 2011. "Take Your Medicine" by The Quick & Easy Boys was voted song of the year and "Dum Dum Dah Dah" by The Nghiems took top honors as video of the year, and "El Camino" by The Black Keys was our Mainstream Album of The Year. In case you missed them, you can link back to those articles.
- Top 20 Indie Records of 2011 (11-20)
- BEST OF LISTS: Mike Picks His Favorite Songs Of 2011
- Top EP's of 2011
- Top 100 Spins of 2011
- Top 10 Videos of 2011
- Top 20 Mainstream Albums of 2011 (#1-10)
- Top 20 Mainstream Albums of 2011(#11-20)
Today's feature is The Top 20 Indie Records of the Year. Mini-reviews of these albums that have been posted elsewhere will be credited with links to the entire review, and I will select my personal favorite tracks from each album.
Later this week we will list the Year in Photos and (MY FAVORITE) the Best & Worst Album Covers of the year, along with our list of Top Compilation and Soundtrack releases of the year.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful and musically enriched New Year. I thank you for listening to Jivewired Radio and for supporting indie music, and I hope you will continue to listen throughout the new year.
Best wishes for a musically-enriched 2012,
Mike
And now, on to the Top 20 Indie Records of 2011...
01. El Camino by The Black Keys
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
The bottom line is that El Camino is a catchier, glitzier, ballsier BKs. Pre-release, Auerbach and Carney cited the Clash and the Cramps as inspirations, and you can hear their spirit in the speedy blitz of Camino's "Dead and Gone" and "Money Maker," the latter a stellar addition to the songs-about-crafty-hookers canon. But the new songs are far more tricked-out than any of the recordings by those aforementioned bands, or "Tighten Up," or anything on 2008's Attack and Release, a far more reserved full-length Danger Mouse-Keys collaboration.
Each track here is modded with classic cock-rock sonic tchotchkes: handclaps, talk-box guitar breaks, rainbow keyboards. The overall effect is something akin to ZZ Top with glitter in their beards. Which is to say: great. "Sister" slathers a fatback beat (you feel for Carney's kit, he hammers it so hard) and eighth-note guitar chug with spicy instrumental countermelodies. It's greasy boogie bliss.
-- Spin Magazine
Best Songs: Lonely Boy, Hell Of A Season, Dead And Gone, Sister, Money Maker, Gold On The Ceiling
Team Photo: Stop Stop, Nova Baby
02. The Whole Love by Wilco
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
Wilco are releasing The Whole Love on their own label, dBpm, underscoring their vaunted artistic independence; they're pretty much the only band from the Nineties this side of Radiohead who keep experimenting and growing their audience at the same time. The Whole Love seems like a celebration of that freedom, with songs that roam happily all over the place: "Capitol City" is a country waltz with bits of Dixieland clarinet, "Sunloathe" sounds like the Beatles if they were still together in 1974, and the vaguely psychedelic folk-pop title track takes Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge down to the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park for a summer-breezin' picnic.
It all suggests a jam band a hipster could love, with every note so tasty and rich you need to hit the gym after a couple of listens. Thankfully, noise-loving guitarist Nels Cline and the restless rhythm section of bassist John Stirratt and drummer Glenn Kotche make sure some of the soft moments aren't too snuggly. That hey-what-the-hell casualness extends to Tweedy, whose tendency to start each of his singer-songwriter meditations with the same "Dust in the Wind" chord progression is almost confrontationally laid back. You gotta hand it to a guy who can sing "Sadness is my luxury" (on "Born Alone") and sound like he's takin' it easy rollin' down Ventura Highway.
-- Rolling Stone Magazine
Best Songs: One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend), Whole Love, I Might, Capitol City, Dawned On Me
Team Photo: Rising Red Lung, Sunloathe, Art Of Almost
03. Wild Flag by Wild Flag
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
Make no mistake, Wild Flag is more than just Brownstein, and by no means is this band Sleater-Kinney redux. Though slightly less accomplished (combined accolades of individual members aside, this is a debut release), Wild Flag has a much more immediate sound with a clear and singular ambition that simultaneously points toward critical success and mass appeal. These are big songs with a big sound, and the band makes no attempt to shy away from their ability to rip and shred, showing no fear of loudness, ugliness or musical bombast. The quartet remains true to their post-punk, indie roots, a feat accomplished in spite of the perceived misconception that the super group as an entity usually equates to selling out. They haven't. Far from it, in fact.
-- Jivewired CD Review
Best Songs: Black Tile, Romance, Short Version, Something Came Over Me
Team Photo: Racehorse, Boom
04. Hurry Up We're Dreaming by M83
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
While each side of Hurry Up would be oddly slight for an M83 album, the demands of its 74-minute runtime are hardly daunting. It's actually the easiest M83 album to consume in one sitting, a reverse accumulation of past strengths that makes for Gonzalez's most compact and combustive music yet. He continues the path set by Saturdays=Youth by easing out of the mini-movie business in exchange for pop songcraft, while trading that LP's pretty-in-pink pastels for the urban neons and fluorescents of Before the Dawn Heals Us and embodying Dead Cities' mile-wide expansiveness.
-- Pitchfork CD Review
Best Songs: Midnight City, OK Pal, Steve McQueen, Reunion, Intro
Team Photo: New Map, My Tears Are Becoming A Sea
05. Whitey Morgan & The 78's by Whitey Morgan & The 78's
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
At their best, Whitey Morgan & The 78s put some much-needed grit back into the indie music scene. I’m talking about that free-swinging blues-and-outlaw-based country sound that has seemingly eluded the indie-rock world for so long. The Flint, Michigan band combines the swagger and divine inspiration of Johnny Cash with the soulful southern boogie of Lynyrd Skynyrd to put the masculinity back into country music while at the same time restoring its life force. A combination of original music and classic covers that are so good they feel original, the self-titled release on Bloodshot Records is straightforward, no frills music that is every bit as bad-assed as it's attitude reflects. The band is absolutely stellar on every track and Morgan is equal to the task. "Whitey Morgan & The 78s" is the malediction to everything Nashville wants country music to be and the anathema to everything they want us to like about country music. We should all thank Whitey Morgan for that.
-- Jivewired CD Review
Best Songs: Long Road Home, Bad News, Buick City, Hard Scratch Pride
Team Photo: Meanest Jukebox In Town, I Ain't Drunk
06. Elsie by The Horrible Crowes
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
n 1974, Rolling Stone Magazine’s Jon Landau wrote a concert review for a Boston publication called The Real Paper. Landau was one of the most respected music critics in the country, and his review of an up-and-coming musician’s recent performance would ignite a historical friendship and prophetically illuminate the career of one of the most important figures in rock and roll’s history. Landau’s now-famous quote read, “I saw rock and roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”
That celebrated (and often misquoted) sentence has been passed down from fathers to sons, from Springsteen diehards to first-time listeners. That quote holds a lot of weight, and more than 35 years later, it’s time to dust it off. While I reserve the right as a music critic to launch onslaughts of hyperbole every once in a while, it’s safe to say no exaggerations have been penned for the sake of hyping this review. Elsie is just that good.
-- Absolute Punk
Best Songs: Behold The Hurricane, Mary Ann, Go Tell Everybody, I Witnessed A Crime
Team Photo: Cherry Blossoms, I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together
07. Within & Without by Washed Out
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
"Within and Without" is the debut album by 28 year-old Atlanta-based songwriter and producer Ernest Greene, AKA Washed Out. It's a masterful, chill-wave and synth-based collection of emotive music that captures the spirit of the early to mid-eighties romanticist new wave, the type of music that would seamlessly fit in with your favorite John Hughes coming-of-age soundtrack. It's both beautiful and sublimely chill.
-- Jivewired CD Review
Best Songs: Amor Fati, Soft, Far Away, You And I
Team Photo: Eyes Be Closed
08. w h o k i l l by tUnE-yArDs
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
Back in 1983 Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon wrote an essay for Art Forum that suggested that when we go to rock performances, we pay to see other people believe in themselves. A lot of what makes w h o k i l l and tUnE-yArDs' excellent live performances so compelling is the degree to which Garbus commits to her ideas and displays a total conviction in her personal, idiosyncratic, high-stakes music. This, in and of itself, is very inspiring and empowering. This unguarded, individualistic expression encourages strong identification in listeners, so don't be surprised if this record earns Garbus a very earnest and intense cult following.
-- Pitchfork CD Review
Best Songs: Gangsta, Es-So, Bizness, Powa
Team Photo: Doorstep
09. Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
"Barton Hollow", the name of a nonexistent place, is largely polite. It approaches relationship and life dissatisfactions with a subdued presence reminiscent of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s duets. But the tranquility dissipates as the songs peak, with White and Williams escalating the volumetric power of their playing and singing, taking full control of the songs’ directions. They have no problem transitioning from tempered introspections to fiery declarations, at times within a single track.
-- Paste Magazine CD Review
Best Songs: Barton Hollow, Poison & Wine, 20 Years
Team Photo: I've Got This Friend
10. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
Buy It At:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
"Helplessness Blues'" analytical and inquisitive nature never tips into self-indulgence. Amidst the chaos, the record showcases the band's expanded range and successful risk-taking, while retaining what so many people fell in love with about the group in the first place. And once again, a strong sense of empathy is at the heart of what makes Fleet Foxes special. Much has been made of American indie's recent obsession with nostalgic escapism, but Robin Pecknold doesn't retreat. He confronts uncertainty while feeling out his own place in the world, which is something a lot of us can relate to.
-- Pitchfork CD Review
Best Songs: Grown Ocean, Helplessness Blues, Battery Kinzie, Lorelai
Team Photo: The Plains / Bitter Dancer, Someone You'd Admire
Part II: Top 20 Indie Records Of 2011 (11-20)
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