Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Tracks Of My Years 2011....


As with my albums of the year I was struggling to limit my tracks of the year to a Top 10 as I think this has been one of the finest years musically for many a year. Either that or I have finally latched onto the joy that is Spotify and heard a lot more music this year than any other in recent memory. Either way 2011 has seen some great releases.

Tracks that caught my attention in 2011 included The Horrors homage to late 70's Simple Minds with "Still Life", Spector's hook laden "Never Fade Away", Anna Calvi's "Blackout" and for sheer dump pop genuis you couldn't go wrong with The Vaccines' "If You Wanna".

Good as the above were they didn't quite make it onto the coveted Top 10 list which was reserved for the following - No's 10 - 4 : (in no particular order).....

Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Glasvegas - Lots Sometimes
Milk Music - Out Of My World
Cancel The Astronauts - Seven Vices
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Your Young Voice
Real Estate - Wonder Years
Kate Bush - Rubberband Girl

.... and these 3 which are my Top 3 of 2011

Howler - I Told You Once
Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells - The Copper Top
PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder

As I wrote in my albums of the year postings Aidan and PJ produced two of the best albums of the year also. Howler hail from Minneapolis, home to such luminaries as Husker Du and The Replacements, and while not the most original band in the world they did release 2 mins 53 secs of pop perfection in I Told You Once. The intro reminds me of That's Entertainment before launching into a track that would not have been out of place on the first Strokes album. Great stuff.

Finest moment in any track also goes to Polly Jean and her barely contained anger in The Last Living Rose when she sings....

"Past the Thames river flowing
Like gold hastily sold
For nothing....nothing"



Howler - I Told You Once

2 comments:

  1. have a great xmas Scott

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks FORW. Hope you and your family have a great Christmas.

    ReplyDelete