HT Staff’s 25 Best Albums Of 2011: #10 – #6

All week long we’ve been looking at our staff’s choices for the best albums of 2011 five LPs at a time. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between (but sorry Nefertiti’s Fjord it just wasn’t the year for lesbian-Afro-Norwegian-funk music). At the end of the day, we’re a music blog. Everyone is encouraged to write about what they like with no motives, no editorial biases, and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.

We’re in the home stretch so let’s check out numbers 10 through 6…

10) TV on the RadioNine Types of Light

Key Tracks: Second Song, Will Do, Caffeinated Consciousness

Sounds like: A producer cut through a bit of the fuzz of TVOTR to make a very listenable experience.

The Skinny: Sadly the last TV On The Radio record that will feature bassist Gerard Smith, who passed away only nine days after the release, Nine Types of Light showcases TVOTR at their most accessible and sonically pleasing timbre to date. If the album were to have a single it would be the love-longing song Will Do which proclaims, “I think we’re compatible I can see that you think I’m wrong” coupled with “Your love makes a fool of you, you can’t seem to understand – our heart doesn’t play by rules….” Sounds like the guy isn’t getting the girl and unfortunately, is stuck in a state of being ready to go if his hopeful partner ever were to change her mind. Caffeinated Consciousness ends with three minutes and twenty one seconds that you just wish could be heard (with the horn section) by 20,000 screaming fans in the encore slot at an arena – and no, Phish covering TV On The Radio doesn’t count.

– DaveO

9) The Head & The HeartThe Head & The Heart

Key Tracks: Lost In My Mind, Ghosts, Coeur d’Alene

Sounds Like: Seattle when the sun comes out; Your girlfriend’s new favorite band

The Skinny: If you didn’t know about The Head & The Heart when they dropped their self-titled debut back in April, the folk-pop act sure tried their hardest to make sure that you had by year’s end – thanks in part to a truly fantastic and infectious debut album and some relentless touring. The Seattle-based band’s album is full of instantly likable songs full of bouncy rhythms and lush three-part harmonies that are anchored by lead singer Josiah Johnson and beautifully accompanied by on the high end by Jonathan Russell and Charity Rose Thielen’s sultry, smoky vocals. Don’t be distracted by their happy-go-lucky sing-along sounds, lyrically this is a deep album about relationships, lost loves and finding one’s self.

– Jeffrey Greenblatt

8) My Morning JacketCircuital

Key Tracks: Victory Dance, Outta My System, You Wanna Freak Out

Sounds Like: Not Neil Young, anymore

The Skinny: With Circuital, My Morning Jacket continues to veer away from their original, Neil Young-soaked psychedelia. But that’s a good thing: there can only be one Neil Young, and MMJ came a little late to take that title. It’s been moving this way for a long time – their live shows of course are masterfully experimental while still downright dirty, knee deep in rock and roll – but Circuital is finally a good studio album. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to recreate a live show on record, and it’s about time that bands stopped attempting it – the studio is a place for a different medium. Circuital not only shows that MMJ is a talented studio act, but it gives them room to experiment live – all they need to do is take one step left or right from any of these songs and the results can be surprising.

– Jonathan Kosakow

7) The Black KeysEl Camino

Key Tracks: Dead and Gone, Gold on the Ceiling, Nova Baby, Mind Eraser

Sounds Like: The Keys’ garage blues of yore, but with an R&B-flavored, pimp-stroll swagger – and some upbeat, unabashed pop – having long since eclipsed the mangy, ragged bash-it-out stuff.

The Skinny: What keeps the Black Keys a staple of year-end Best-Of lists is that they’ve never lost their ability to invigorate, even as the grimy, howling, frayed-edge blues that first greeted us ten years ago has evolved into…well, what have Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney become? Maybe the best compliment paid to El Camino is that the Keys have met producer Danger Mouse in the middle instead of one party coming to – or yielding to – the other. There’s as much T. Rex here as there is sonics and stomp, and for a band that on 2002’s Thickfreakness seemed, for all its fun, to have a pretty limited trick bag, that’s growth. And yet, even among the “whoa-ohs” and hand claps and pop tasters found here, they also made room for curious little psyche-out gems like Nova Baby and piano-driven blues nuggets like Mind Eraser. They sound like themselves after all.

– Chad Berndtson

6) Fleet FoxesHelplessness Blues

Key Tracks: Bedouin Dress, The Shrine/An Argument

Sounds Like: Neil Young with Brian Wilson harmonies

The Skinny: Fleet Foxes come back strong with their second full-length effort, Helplessness Blues. Expanding on the delicate, finger-picked, harmony-driven sound captured on their debut with new textures, twists and turns, this record is darker and more brooding, taking greater chances with arrangements than previous releases. Helplessness Blues cements the band’s place on the forefront of modern Americana music, while opening doors to continue to push their sound forward.

– Joel Berk

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3 Responses

  1. Head and the Heart is definetly in my top 10 this year. Hoping UMPH makes this list. Looking at them being a good canidate for #1!

  2. @Win Very true, but it got a wide release this year. It’s sort of like the first Bon Iver album, technically it had come out the year before too. But regardless yes its a great album, and one of my most played this year.

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