Without a Yard

Might as well get these out of the way before the 2012 Mayan calendar apocalypse thing happens, too.  (Again, stalling, yes.)

Top five records in 2011 that were really good, but only in small doses (reasons outlined in handy parentheses):

1. Austra – Feel it Break (Shrill…Sorry, but it’s true.)
2. James Blake – s/t (Cold & melancholic, like a poorly curated pop-art exhibit soundtrack.)
3. tUnE-yArDs – whokill – (Too much, too busy, too piercing in its jangly-ness.)
4. K Flay – I Stopped Caring in ‘96 (Two words: white guilt.)
5. Raphael Saddiq – Stone Rollin’ (Too happy.)

Top five records I bought in Australia, still listen to on a regular basis, and secretly wish were released in 2011 because they’d have a fair shot at the real top ten:

1. Darren Sylvester – s/t (2008 – SERIOUSLY GET THIS. The Cars & T Rex honeymooned in Oz & this record appeared 9mos later.)
2. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (2010 – Swirly psych without hippie dippy-tude, still nice & fuzzy around the edges. Sent it to all my Black Angels/WarPaint friends.)
3. Mystery Twin – s/t (2010 – So different than anything I’ve listened to in ages, great work-music, which isn’t to imply that it’s a total snoozefest, cause, it’s, ugh, just go listen.)
4. Angus & Julia Stone – Down the Way (2010 – a bit folk-twee, in a Felicity soundtrack kind of way, but not as cheesy as the godawful CD-ROM-flashback-website would have you believe.)
5. Cut Copy – Zonoscope (FastFact: this came out in 2011 but I had nowhere else to put it.)

Top ten records that I didn’t weigh fairly because I have it in my mind that they should be as great as the artist(s)’s previous LP, which is wrong:

1. Wild Flag – s/t (It’s hard to not expect more from this amalgamation of grrrl hrrros… REMINDER:  before you get angry, remember the intro about the total unfairness of this list)
2. Das Racist – Relax (Meh. Maybe it was their lackluster SX appearance…)
3. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (So so so good.  But still…)
4. Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune (‘Nice, Nice, Very Nice’ was TOO darn nice.)
5. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (‘Little Bit’ less than what I’d hoped.)
6. The Roots – Undun (Solid…)
7. Black Keys – El Camino (Again, they set the bar SO high…)
8. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (the NEXT record will be insane…right?)
9. Ian Kamau – One Day Soon (SO GOOD…but the mixtapes spoiled me.)
10. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (concept albums, are, you know, um, tough to pull off…)