The Best Albums of 2011
Introduction
I Couldn’t Understand What Just Happened To My Heart
Album of the Year:
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
I absolutely love concept albums and rock operas when they’re done well. But the problem is, so few of those albums work very well at all. It’s the single toughest thing to master in popular music in my opinion, and in addition, I am very, very picky, especially when it comes to rock operas. The last one I really liked was the Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come For Free (a hip hopera, I suppose), but I haven’t heard anything top Queensrÿche’s ambitious classic Operation: Mindcrime my 1988 album of the year. Of course, writing about metal you get plenty of bands putting out such records, but something always derails them: the songwriting gets lazy, the plotline gets stupid, it drags on and on. Nobody ever takes that idea and nails it like Queensrÿche, Pink Floyd, or Genesis did, and such feeble attempts get so boring.
When I heard that Canadian punk greats Fucked Up were going to be putting out a full-blown, 78 minute rock opera, however, I immediately thought, this could be amazing. If there’s one band that has the imagination, songwriting chops, and smarts to pull off a great rock opera, it’s these musicians, and indeed, they came through with not only a hugely compelling album but the best work of their career. The plotline is ingenious, starting off as pure operatic bombast and melodrama. First act: blue-collar boy meets activist girl. Second act: girl dies, boy is crestfallen. But midway through, things take a postmodern turn, as the characters in the story start to become aware of the narrator, who is making this story up as it goes along. Characters confront the narrator about his responsibility as a storyteller, both sides resolving in an extraordinarily touching way.
For all that cleverness, though, David Comes to Life would be nothing without the actual songs, and we get 18 tracks that all hold up extraordinarily well. The punk groundwork remains, but main songwriter Mike Haliechuk broadens the band’s scope considerably, creating simple rock ‘n’ roll songs that are catchy and energetic. There are so many highlights, but it doesn’t get much better than the glorious “Queen of Hearts”, as sweet a punk rock love song as the Ramones’ “Oh Oh I Love You So” and the Buzzcocks’ “Love You More”. Unlike Green Day, who for years claimed to be “punk” and railed against corporate arena rock only top sell out with a ham-fisted attempt at a rock opera of their own in the awful American Idiot, Fucked Up has pulled off a spectacular rock opera without betraying their punk roots. In retrospect, going middle-of-the-road and embracing art rock bombast was probably the most punk thing they could possibly do.
2. Austra - Feel it Break
It was almost exactly a year ago that a writer friend of mine asked me, “Have you heard Austra yet?” The single “Beat and the Pulse” had just surfaced online, and when I gave it that momentous first listen, I was floored. Here was something dark, chilly, enigmatic, and pop-infused, music with true mystique that came from Canada. One thing about Canadian indie music, there’s not enough mystique, and upon hearing that song I was drawn to Austra immediately, playing the track on repeat. When I finally heard the full album in March, it surprised me by just how slyly eclectic it turned out to be, but the entire record won me over. Led by singer-songwriter Katie Stelmanis, Austra revolves around her towering voice, not very different from the likes of Zola Jesus, Florence Welch, and Bat For Lashes. Only with Austra there’s a pop sensibility, an undeniable hookiness that dominates the music, no matter how quirky or brooding it gets, and therein lies its genius. It seems unconventional to mainstream music listeners, but for all the Siouxsie homages and Kate Bush-isms, it’s nothing but accessible. It draws people in, more than any indie record I’ve heard all year. Along with the murky brilliance of “Beat and the Pulse”, you’ve got the Martha & the muffins style new wave of “Lose It”, the Ladytron-esque iciness of “Spellwork”, the menacing thud of “The Villain”, ornate piano-driven numbers like “The Choke” and “Shoot the Water”, and a wonderful ‘80s avant-garde imitation in “Hate Crime”. Stelmanis is all over the map stylistically, but she reins it all in just enough to make the songs mesh together to create a wonderful album that deserves to be heard from front to back. It was an easy choice for both of my 2011 Polaris Prize ballots – and should have won the prize in September! – and very nearly became my album of the year. Austra and Feel it Break played a huge role in soundtracking literally my entire 2011, January to December, and will linger in my head for years to come.
3. Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street
I make my living writing about metal music, so I go through literally hundreds of metal albums per year, listening to loads and loads of ones that are merely competent or mediocre, and a good number of abominations. Every year there’s no shortage of albums I’d deem worthy of singling out come December (too many, some might say!), but 2011 was a strange year in that no one album stood head and shoulders above the others. I wind up submitting several year-end ballots over the course of every autumn, and this year was funny, as ones I sent in October, November, and December all had different orders, my opinions wavering just slightly enough to compel me to tinker with the rankings. As the year came to a close, however, the sixth album by San Francisco’s Hammers of Misfortune started to emerge as the one 2011 metal album I’m fondest of. I have never heard a Hammers album I did not like, but when I heard 17th Street in late August it resonated with me more than anything they’d ever done before. Guitarist/songwriter John Cobbett is so good at creating traditional heavy metal songs that hearken back to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and earlier, and the songs on this album are so rich, touching on various aspects of heavy rock from the 1970s, from the doom of “Staring (The 31st Floor)”, to the epic “Going Somewhere”, to the Jaguar/Tank speed of “Romance Valley”, to the clever Journey/Supertramp-referencing of “The Day the City Died”, to the full-on power ballad “Summer Tears”. Every song is different and quirky in its own way, but they’re so impeccably written, Cobbett capturing the vibe of each track perfectly. And it doesn’t get more spot-on than “The Grain”, the best metal song I’ve heard all year, my favourite song of 2011 period, a song so minimal in its approach, yet so disarmingly powerful that it can make even the stodgiest headbanger misty-eyed. A career peak for Hammers of Misfortune, that song, and the entire album for that matter, stay with you long after the first listen.
4. 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Every year some metal subgenres have a better year than others. 2001 was dominated by top-notch doom releases, especially coming from the more traditional side of doom, with proper, cleanly sung vocals atop those slow, funereal, dirge-like arrangements. But for all the cool doom albums I heard (YOB, SubRosa, Witch Mountain, etc.), the debut by UK band 40 Watt Sun blindsided me when I heard it early in the year. Formed by guitarist Patrick Walker and drummer Christian Leitch, both of whom were in the well-regarded band Warning, stylistically they bring nothing new to the table, in fact never deviating from their previous band’s formula at all. Only this time, everything the band does surpasses anything Warning had done, by a mile. The key factor on The Inside Room is melancholy, and Walker doesn’t just mope, he conveys heartbreak in a way that makes it feel gutwrenching. The riffs are stately enough, punctuated tastefully by Leitch’s drums and cymbal crashes, but it’s in the vocal melodies where the album packs its biggest punch, delivered in soulful fashion by Walker. In fact, Walker’s melodies start to bear an uncanny resemblance to old traditional ballads, pure, unflinching tales of love lost meant to be sung by a lonely old sod in a pub. Only here it’s in front of a crushing backdrop of distorted guitars and booming drums. And if all that wasn’t enough, the poetic lyrics come along and knock you off your chair (“the way you appear to me now you’d think the moon would hide for shame”). An unabashedly tender and sublime album, this has been a lock for my top five for a good ten months now, and deserves to be heard by all.
5. Opeth - Heritage
When I interviewed Opeth singer/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt a couple months ago, he made a comment that was really telling. He said that Opeth’s latest album Heritage was the first album he’s ever made that sounds like something he actually listens to as a fan. All this time the man’s been wowing us with album after quality metal album, and although they’ve always been perfectly in keeping with what he’d created Opeth to be, they still didn’t come close to sounding like the music he’s actually interested in. It practically reveals that he’d approached the making of the last couple albums more like an occupation rather than a passion. Granted, when you’re a popular band and have a really good thing going with a specific sound that goes over huge with your loyal fans, that’s got to be a comfortable feeling. So it had to be a really brave step for Åkerfeldt to ditch the extreme metal of Opeth’s core sound and head straight into progressive rock. A lot of fans didn’t take it very well, but to be honest, while the magnitude of Opeth’s stylistic shift was a big surprise, the fact that they went total prog was not. If you call yourself an Opeth fan and didn’t see this coming in some way, shape, or form, you’re not an Opeth fan, sorry. Aside from two legitimate hard rock tracks, Heritage has zero heaviness going on, but that’s a good thing, as it’s freed up Åkerfeldt and the band to expand its sound out further than it’s ever gone before, incorporating more jazz and folk elements alongside those ‘70s prog leanings. But the most remarkable thing to come out of all this is that for all the audacity (little distortion, no growled vocals), it still feels like an Opeth album. Not only that, but Åkerfeldt has arrived at a crucial point he’d been slowly, carefully working his way towards for nearly 20 years. He finally made that one big leap, and the end result is one of the finest albums Opeth has ever released, a harbinger of even cooler experiments to come.
6. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
It was a long wait, just over three years, for Lykke Li’s fantastic debut album, a record I absolutely loved, and what I was most interested in was hearing just where the Swedish singer-songwriter would take her unique, inventive style of pop music. It turned out Wounded Rhymes would crank up the melancholy and darkness even more than before. With producer Bjorn Yttling at the helm again, the songs were just as minimalist as what we heard on Youth Novels, but there’s such a stronger sense of cohesion on this one, the mood of each track blending nicely into each other. If anything, this album continues right where the last track on Youth Novels, “Window Blues”, left off. With Wounded Rhymes’ stark mood and increased sense of melodrama, it takes on a huge Phil Spector Vibe, the emotional gut-punches of “Love Out of Lust”, “Sadness is a Blessing”, “Unrequited Love”, and “Silent My Song” unquestionably the offspring of the Ronettes and the Crystals. Yet, typical of young Miss Zachrisson, there’s such a clever inventiveness on this record, like on “Rich Kids Blues”, “Youth Knows No Pain”, and shining through especially prominently on the scorching “Get Some”, which makes brilliant use of that overdone Bo Diddley beat, injecting a level of aggression that takes you aback, accentuated even more by Lykke Li’s enigmatic persona. No longer the quirky, whimsical young singer I saw perform around Oslo in early 2008, Lykke Li’s music is maturing at a very fast rate, and I look forward to hearing where she takes us next. [I also highly recommend Lykke Li's iTunes Session that came out this past summer]
7. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
It took me so long to fully appreciate Kate Bush. I remember seeing her videos for songs like “Wuthering Heights” back in the early 1980s and being just baffled at what I was seeing and hearing. What a bizarre woman, my 13 year-old self thought. I kind of liked “Running Up That Hill” and “Cloudbusting”, but I needed my musical tastes to mature more fully to actually “get” her music, and in retrospect the gateway drug was actually Goldfrapp. A friend implored me to try out Felt Mountain in 2001, and it clicked in a way I never expected. I could see the obvious influence of Kate Bush looming over that record, and that sent me back to The Hounds of Love, and finally in my 30s I was obsessed with that album. When Bush announced her comeback in 2005 with the double album Aerial, I found it too sprawling for its own good, despite a couple really fine moments. This year’s The Director’s Cut project was a neat idea, but it was 50 Words For Snow that marks a return to classic Kate Bush. What’s surprising about this album is just how restrained it is. Revolving mainly around her piano accompaniment, it’s so cozy and intimate, jazzy practically, comforting in the way the arrangements and Bush’s mature, sultry voice suck you in, only to blindside you with Bush’s typical idiosyncratic subject matter. In this case including stuff like points-of-view from snowflakes, a quirky attempt to actually find 50 words for snow, Yetis, and trysts with snowmen. Even the celebrity cameos by Elton John and Stephen Fry work shockingly well (Bush and John are incredible on their duet "Snowed in at Wheeler Street"). It’s a wonderful return to form by one of the more unique artists of our time, and am I ever glad I’m at the right point in my life where I can admire this weird, pretty, warm, beguiling piece of work. I can see listening to this album becoming an annual Xmas ritual, it's so perfect for this time of year.
8. Zola Jesus - Conatus
I was a bit late to Zola Jesus, not finding out about Nika Roza Danilova’s haunting compositions until shortly after I named Fever Ray’s debut my 2009 album of the year. There’s no question Zola Jesus is in exactly the same boat as Fever ray, Bat For Lashes, Florence & the Machine, and all the other goth-tinged Kate Bush clones, with its theatrical, atmospheric songs and Danilova’s powerful voice. But there’s always something especially chilly about Zola Jesus, something distant, detached, impenetrable that makes it a little more difficult to immediately absorb. The music has to grow on you. But what I wasn’t expecting was an album as moody as Conatus is. It’s so otherworldly that it makes 2010’s Stridulum II sound poppy by comparison. The majority of the album is a lot more abstract and ambient, the absolute barest minimum of synth arrangements backing up Danilova’s enigmatic singing. And when Conatus does venture toward the more accessible side of Zola Jesus’s oeuvre, as on “Vessel” and “Seekir”, it still stays an arm’s length from the listener, whether it’s a quirk in the arrangement, not completely embracing the pop song formula, or Danilova making her singing indecipherable. But this record requires patience, and given enough time to settle in, you start to sense more emotion in the songs than you originally thought, a song like “In Your Nature” conveying a vulnerability that’s charming. I’ve had this album since the week it came out back in early October, and I’ve only just started to grasp it. The more you hear Conatus, the more it stays with you, and I fully expect it to all through 2012.
9. Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand
There are so few bands around that hang around churning out new music for more than 20 years and still manage to get better with each new album, but Ireland’s Primordial is one of them. Starting off as a strictly black metal band way back when, they’ve slowly, gradually created their own signature sound over the years, eventually evolving into something truly unique in the metal world. Atop a constantly churning 6/8 beat that shows their string Celtic influence, Primordial unleashes waves of swirling guitar riffs that are simultaneously dense and melodic, forming a perfect backdrop for the powerful bellow of singer Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill, one of the greatest frontmen in all of metal, who pontificates with a mighty roar, commanding you to listen to every word. This album, the band’s seventh, is Primordial’s most fully realized work to date; stylistically nothing has changed, only that everything has been done better. The riffs are maelstrom-like, the rhythm section thunderous, Averill as well-read and bombastic as ever. But it’s so well-recorded this time around, the arrangements creating enough space for Averill’s terrific voice to play more of a central role, and true to form, he takes full advantage of the opportunity. Of all the songs, nothing quite compares to the album’s closing track “Death of the Gods”, as caustic a condemnation of the present state of Ireland as you’ll ever see, the heartfelt testament of a man who’s seeing a once-great nation lose its soul thanks to complacency, corrupt banks, and a severe brain drain. Always a band with something to say, Primordial has never sounded so impassioned. This’ll be a tough album to top.
10. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
One of the most endearing things about the great Polly Jean Harvey is her way of pulling the rug out from under your feet, but nobody, nobody could possibly have foreseen what she had in store on her eighth studio album. Her seductive, husky singing voice was abandoned in favour of a higher-register style. Her personal lyrics were replaced by songs dedicated to England’s military history. Her guitar was downplayed in favour of an autoharp. That’s right, an autoharp. What an eerie album this is. Sparsely recorded by producer Flood, Let England Shake is so stark, so peculiar, so difficult to pin down. To hear her brutal depictions of war in her new girlish voice is unsettling, achieving exactly what Harvey wants to achieve, but at the same time there’s a tenderness to this record that shows her love of her country. It’s no surprise that the album resonated hugely with the UK press and public (it won the 2011 Mercury Prize), but you don’t have to be from there to appreciate it. The power of the songs (“The Words That Maketh Murder”, the title track, “The Glorious Land”, and “All and Everyone” pack a wallop) is enough to win anyone over. What Harvey is singing about it universal, and couldn’t feel more relevant right now.
11. Florence & the Machine - Ceremonials
I was totally won over by Florence Welch’s first album two years ago, despite its bombast. She has a tendency to take Kate Bush’s highly stylized orchestral pop and hammer all subtlety out of it, and while normally that would be enough of an alarm to stay away. Welch has such charisma, both vocally and in her lavish compositions, that I find it all likeable, a lot more than I ever expected. With the follow-up on the horizon, I was wondering if Welch would tone things down a little bit, and to a certain extent she does, showing even more phenomenal range than on Lungs (“What the Water Gave Me”, “Seven Devils”), but make no mistake, much of Ceremonials is about blasting listeners into the stratosphere, and the anthemic tracks on this record are exhilarating, not cloying. Stuff like “Shake it Out”, “No Light, No Light”, and “Heartlines” are sonically massive, full of layered vocals and thunderous percussion, so much so that it feels like a violent collision between Kate Bush, Sisters of Mercy, and Phil Spector. Adele might have been the runaway commercial success of 2011, but I’ll take Florence’s soulful, dusky “Only if For the Night” and the gorgeous “All This and Heaven Too” over “Someone Like You” and “Rolling in the Deep” any day. Although I still consider Bat For Lashes the rightful heir to Bush’s weirdo-female auteur crown, it’s fantastic to see Florence & the Machine carve out its own niche and prove that the debut album was no fluke.
12. Obscura - Omnivium
Although I don’t romanticize death metal like other metal writers a little younger than me do – I was far too busy listening to Voivod and Faith No More in the late ‘80s to care about that stuff – I do thoroughly love the music when it’s done well. Especially in a live setting, death metal can be an awe-inspiring experience. On record, while the more physical, brutal stuff is great in its own right, when I hear a death metal band, especially a technically-oriented one, incorporate melodies and hooks into the compositions, that’s when I become a real fanboy. The last album to floor me with that difficult-to-perfect combination of technicality, physicality, and musicality was Neuraxis’s Trilateral Progression in 2005, 2006, so needless to say I was quite floored when I hear Obscura’s Omnivium. It’s not unlike American band Arsis in the way a little power metal flash is tossed in, and the band, led by guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kumerrer, pull it off with astonishing ease. This album has personality, plain and simple, from Kumerrer’s expressive, graceful leads, to Hannes Grossemann’s fluid yet fast drumming, to the incredible fretless basslines by Jeroen Paul Thesseling. Those three aspects give the record so much richness, and aided greatly by the fact that Obscura writes songs rather than just empty technical exercises for guitar nerds, it makes for an extraordinary extreme metal album suited more for a jazz festival than a dingy metal bar.
13. S.C.U.M. - Again Into Eyes
Back in July I was asked to review the new album by S.C.U.M.. I didn’t know anything about the band, and figured judging by their name they were just another lame goth band. So imagine my surprise when Again Into Eyes turned out to be a shockingly refined take on post-punk and dark wave, and that their name is actually cleverly taken from Valerie Solanas’ S.C.U.M. Manifesto (“society for cutting up men”). Just a week earlier I had reviewed the new album by the Horrors, a record that was decent but left me cold, and S.C.U.M. won me over so much more, and to this day I’m baffled why critics swoon over the Horrors and not this band. Stylistically there’s not much to S.C.U.M. at all, merely putting a tasty goth stamp on early-‘90s shoegaze, but the execution is impeccable and the atmosphere is effectively dreamy, Thomas Cohen’s effete affectations and phrasings complementing the music perfectly, waves of guitar giving way to more artificial sounds, and vice versa. Yet at the same time there’s an anthemic quality that reminds me a lot of Simple Minds, only nowhere near as pandering and cloying. Cohen is the key here, never going too over the top on a propulsive song like “Faith Unfolds”, his understated singing on a gorgeous song like “Paris” never becoming maudlin. It all culminates on the superb “Whitechapel”, which starts off as an airy ambient track and explodes into an ethereal, dancey groove. This was my biggest from-out-of-nowhere surprise of 2011.
14. Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
The fact that Cold Cave nicely recaptures the feel of 1980s gothic rock is enough to get my interest (along with metal I listened to a lot of early goth in the 1980s), but what knocks their second album out of the park is how polished and bombastic it is. What a lot of people tend to forget is that a lot of bands from the 1980s embraced the huge-sounding, flamboyant side of rock music just as much as glam metal did. The Sisters of Mercy collaborated with Jim Steinman, for crying out loud! This stuff is meant to be garish, and Cherish the Light Years does so brilliantly. The brainchild of singer Wesley Eisold, this album is so unironic in its approach that it’s refreshing: rhythm sections thump and thrum along, keyboards are as high-gloss as late-‘80s New Order, and Eisold’s singing, which is a little Robert Smith here, a little Dave Gahan there, postures and preens shamelessly. No, it’s not much different from anything we heard 15 years ago, but when it’s done this well, who cares? Besides, for all the polish, this is one charming record, from the pretty “Confetti”, to the impassioned, anthemic “Underworld USA”, to the all-out barrage of guitars and synths on the shimmering, explosive single “The Great Pan is Dead”.
15. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
I am nothing if not predictable. As long as the Drive-By Truckers continue to churn out the music, there’ll always be a good chance they’ll make my year-end list. When you’re as consistent as this band is, you risk being taken for granted a bit, and indeed it felt like their ninth album slipped in under the radar. Interestingly, Go-Go Boots turned out to be the Truckers’ most consistent album from start to finish in quite a while, something I wasn’t really expecting. Going into this year I knew that the band had a bunch of tracks left over from 2010’s The Big To-Do and that they had a more relaxed, soulful vibe, and being a huge, huge fan of their big rock sound, my expectations were lower than any DBT record that’s ever come out. Serves me right for underestimating them, as it turns out Go-Go Boots is an inspired collection of songs. We get the usual stuff, like Patterson Hood doing his storytelling, Mike Cooley piping in with his country tunes and acerbic wordplay, and Shonna Tucker chipping in with a song or two. But for all the memorable originals (“I Do Believe”, “Cartoon Gold”, “Used to Be a Cop”, “The Thanksgiving Filter”, “Mercy Buckets”), two covers by the severely underrated Muscle Shoals singer-songwriter Eddie Hinton, the forlorn “Where’s Eddie”, sung beautifully by Tucker, and the just-plain-lovely “Everybody Needs Love”, a song that feels made for the DBTs to perform, and they actually improve on the original. With Tucker now out of the band, we’ll wait and see where the band heads next, but as long as Hood and Cooley are breathing we’ll be getting new music from them. The best rock ‘n’ roll band in America will keep chugging along.
16. Leviathan - True Traitor, True Whore
Now here’s a very odd fit on a list that has a lot of talented female artists, one of those records that brings out the old “separating the artist from the art” debates. Back in January Jef “Wrest” Whitehead, known by many as the mind behind the black metal project Leviathan, was charged with battery and an especially horrifying sexual assault on his then-girlfriend. Before the case even went to trial he’d completed a new Leviathan album whose title clearly referenced the incident, and Profound Lore wasted no time putting it out. And the thing is, it just so happened to be the best Leviathan album since the seminal Tentacles of Whorror, or arguably better, an enthralling, cathartic mish-mash of sounds, mostly outside the realm of black metal, that somehow combine to form a cohesive whole. The quality of this work is undeniable. So does liking this album make one a misogynist? No, of course not, and anyone who thinks that is an idiot. I’ve interviewed Wrest as well as people close to him, and there’s every reason to believe the charges are false, but we’ll just have to see. For now, he’s innocent until proven guilty, and this album remains the fascinating result of an artist throwing himself into his art under the cloud of some deadly serious accusations and the prospect of serious jail time, and emerging with his finest work in ages. If he’s innocent, then this will all blow over. If guilty, on the other hand, then the question of whether or not one can find merit in this lightning rod of an album will be even more of a challenge, to say the least.
17. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Despite my weakness for weirdo female singer-songwriters, it took me a long time to warm up to Annie Clark’s shtick as St. Vincent. It actually wasn’t until I heard her song “Marrow” from 2009’s Actor that I started giving her music some serious listens, and I eventually admitted to thoroughly enjoying that album. Still, it felt like there was plenty of untapped potential there, and when I heard St. Vincent’s third album Strange Mercy this year, that was the first time I was smitten with one of her records, let alone impressed upon the first listen. It’s so much more audacious than the others. Clark goes all-out, from the adventurous vocal harmonies and melodies to her guitar playing, which at times can be surprisingly ferocious. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill, milquetoast indie rock either; if anything, Clark gets her prog on in a big way. You can hear King Crimson in the unconventional, nimble arrangements…just listen to “Neutered Fruit”. Totally one of a kind. But then she does a complete about-face on the dusky, Angelo Badalamenti-esque “Champagne Year”, coming off as a surreal torch singer. And then she tosses out a song like “Cruel”, the most ebullient song she’s ever written. It’s just so unpredictable, yet it never feels like a gimmick. The songs are smartly composed, and Clark’s surprisingly versatile voice (how she does that with only the slightest change in tone or phrasing is remarkable) has the album keeping an even keel from start to finish. I can’t help but gravitate towards it.
18. Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital
The more records Handsome Furs make, the more they leave Wolf Parade in their dust. In my opinion, anyway. What started off as a half-decent project by Wolf Parade guitarist Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry has turned into one of the best indie bands in Canada. Every record they put out feels more confident, and their third, the spirited Sound Kapital, is a knockout. The smartest thing the duo has done is totally downplay Boeckner’s guitars and place more focus on Perry’s vibrant keyboard melodies and gigantic, thudding beats. The end result is a fantastic little synth pop album, but what separates this particular synth pop album from all the others is Boeckner’s personality. He remains a rocker at heart, and though the sonic approach has changed, his lyrical themes and singing style has not changed one bit, as he brings an earnestness that’s so refreshing compared to all the detached vocals we hear in both electronic and indie rock these days. “When I Get Back”, “Bury Me Standing”, “Repatriated”, “Cheap Music”, these songs burst with energy thanks to Boeckner’s charisma and Perry’s accompaniment, and does it ever translate well in person too, as they deliver one intense, fun live show. And not only do I highly recommend this album, but make sure you download the killer iTunes bonus track “Agony” as well.
19. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
I always get a kick out of young indie rock bands who intentionally make lo-fi records because they think it’s cool or it gives them more credibility. Look back at the ‘90s, and so many important bands from that indie era – Beck, Pavement, Guided By Voices – started off recording via primitive means because that’s all they had, and they were talented enough to get a little creative with the primitive recording process. When they were given the chance to record in a proper studio, they jumped at the opportunity. That’s what they wanted all along. So I completely understand why singer-songwriter Dee Dee took her Dum Dum Girls project took full advantage of the chance to put out a big, slick record. What floored me, however, was just how night-and-day the transformation would be. It’s Pygmalion-esque (or for the younger readers, totally like She’s All That). Co-produced by the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner, it’s yet another great little pop record that couples distorted guitars and girl group melodrama, and Dee Dee, from out of nowhere, all of a sudden sounds like Chrissie Hynde. Just a terrific voice. Who knew? “Bedroom Eyes”, “Wasted Away”, the epic “Coming Down”, it’s all superbly crafted pop music, stuff that’s meant to be easy on the ears rather than poorly recorded just because it’s fashionable. Good for Dee Dee for having the guts to buck the lo-fi trend.
20. The Atlas Moth - An Ache For the Distance
Although I thought Chicago metal band the Atlas Moth showed plenty of potential on their debut A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky, I didn’t think they were quite worthy of the over the top praise they were getting at the time. True enough, it wasn’t until their second album that the band would truly blow me away. The band had hinted at versatility before, but the way this album dips into different genres and creates a unique hybrid of sounds is remarkable. So remarkable, in fact, that I’d have the worst time putting in words just what it was that made it so great. It still dogs me to this day, writing this blurb. It’s sludgy, it’s progressive, it’s melodic, it’s doomy. But I suppose more than anything, what sticks with me is just how bluesy it is. The blues permeate this album so much more than you can possibly expect, which really gives An Ache For the Distance personality, which you can hear on “Horse Thieves”, which dares to approach the sludgy, blues-drenched majesty of New Orleans’ Eyehategod. If there’s one track that sticks with me the most, it’s probably “Gemini”, with its slowly creeping pace, chanted vocals, and gorgeous, haunting Rhodes piano, indescribable enough for me to cave in and just say, you have to hear it for yourself.
Honourable Mentions of 2011:
(The best of the rest, in alphabetical order)
Katy B - On a Mission
This is the one dubstep album from 2011 I can get behind. Granted, Katy B integrates a lot of sounds into her music, and unlike the boring James Blake, this stuff is vibrant, Katy’s singing refreshingly restrained in an age where popular female singers are always trying way to hard to impress. On a Mission is pure class all the way, and has grown on me steadily all year.
Essential tracks: “Witches Brew”, “Broken Record”
Boris - New Album
If you ask me, Boris has been on one heck of roll these days. I always prefer it when the Japanese band embraces their heavy rock side rather than the drone/doom tediousness, but they took an even bolder turn in 2011, putting out three albums that expanded their musical palette even more. New Album is the most audacious, a strong J-pop influence creeping into their trademark organic rock sound.
Essential tracks: “Party Boy”, “Luna”
Kathryn Calder - Bright & Vivid
Formerly of Immaculate Machine and currently a member of the New Pornographers, I’ve long admired Calder’s recorded work, and her second solo album is one of the better indie pop efforts I’ve heard in a while, lush and very hook-oriented, while at the same time just kooky enough to give it character. At the heart of it all is her singing voice, which is as beguiling as ever.
Essential tracks: “Who Are You?”, “One Two Three”
Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
Call this indie rock for Mojo magazine readers. In other words, this debut by the British singer-songwriter-guitarist is sultry and atmospheric but also very firmly rooted in the blues. As a result the songs tread the same murky, emotionally intense territory as PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, yet at the same time are never above the odd shredding solo. It’s an extraordinary first album announcing the arrival of a major talent.
Essential tracks: “Desire”, “First We Kiss”
Cauldron - Burning Fortune
It’s as if Cauldron was made just for me, as the Toronto band doesn’t just specialize in the kind of traditional heavy metal that I listened to 27 years ago, they absolutely nail it. Modeled after the Scorpions’ Blackout and Dokken’s Under Lock and Key, these guys are very well-schooled in that ‘80s sound, and this is first-rate melodic metal with nary a trace of modern metal to be seen.
Essential tracks: “Miss You to Death”, “Tears Have Come”
The Devil’s Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
The enigmatic Dutch band blew me away a few years ago with their sumptuous blend of early-‘70s proto-metal and Satanic/psychedelic rock, but their debut full-length struck me as a bit hollow. Not this time around, as it’s a brooding, epic album that beautifully balances the darkness of early Fleetwood Mac and Coven with ambitious jams reminiscent of the 13th Floor Elevators. Satanic metal always works best when it’s seductive, not cartoonishly evil, and in that respect this record is near perfect.
Essential tracks: “Cruel Lover”, “She”
In Solitude - The World.The Flesh.The Devil
I don’t know why all these Mercyful Fate-obsessed Swedish bands have popped up over the last couple years, but I’m all for it. Much to my surprise In Solitude emerged as the best of the lot in 2011 with a second album that sounds confident enough to take that classic style of heavy metal and create their own identity. Consequently it feels familiar and timeless, and stands apart from the mighty Fate.
Essential tracks: “The World, the Flesh, the Devil”, “On Burning Paths”
Katzenjammer - A Kiss Before You Go
I adore Norway’s Katzenjammer, and I can’t believe they’re not getting a bigger push on this side of the Atlantic. Extraordinary multi-instrumentalists, singers, and songwriters, they bring such energy to their whimsical blend of Slavic folk, country, blues, Kurt Weill, and pop, and their second album simply bursts with it. Rosy-hued one minute, dirge-like the next, A Kiss Before You Go is unpredictable and enormously fun.
Essential tracks: “I Will Dance (When I Walk Away)”, “Shepherd’s Song”
Krallice - Diotima
I bet when all’s said and done Krallice will be one of the most influential bands extreme metal has spawned in the 2000s. They remain unequaled in the genre, continually expanding their sound, and their third full-length boasts enough subtle changes to differentiate from the last two. It’s as dense and challenging as ever, requiring patience from the listener, but it’s also some of the most thrilling extreme metal I’ve heard all year.
Essential tracks: “Telluric Rings”, “Litany of Regrets”
Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
These perennial favourites of mine never, ever disappoint. This time around, their fifth album goes back to the chilly, minimalist sound of their early work, built around restrained synth-pop arrangements and the haunting vocals of Helena Marnie and Mira Aroyo. A full decade after being lumped in with the “electroclash” fad, Ladytron has outlived all trends and turned into an incredibly resilient, not to mention consistent, band.
Essential tracks: “Ace of Hz”, “White Elephant”
Liturgy - Aesthethica
The most polarizing metal album of the year, Liturgy’s second album ticked off a lot of people basically for trying something new within back metal and taking that influence outside that genre’s template. And what’s wrong with being a little pretentious, especially when it’s done as sincerely as these guys do? Anyway, Aesthethica is far and away the most unique sounding album of 2011, euphoric, meditative, and exciting.
Essential tracks: “High Gold”, “Returner”
Pettybone - From Desperate Times Comes Radical Minds
It’s rare that a straight-ahead punk rock band catches my attention, but this debut by these four British women is a scorcher, hearkening back to the riot grrrl days of 20 years ago. The record’s plenty angry and smart, but wow, can they ever play as well, matching Fugazi and the Slits step for step, showing a lot more musical depth than those riot grrrls did way back when.
Essential tracks: “Le Regard”, “Northern Line”
Today is the Day - Pain is a Warning
The great noise rock band fronted by the inimitable Steve Austin has been chugging along, but their latest album is an eye-opener. Not only does it sound even angrier and psychotic than usual, but it’s extremely catchy, something we’re not exactly used to from them. Austin sounds creatively reborn on this record, which is highlighted by the raging title track, which combines the classic Willpower with the groove of AC/DC.
Essential tracks: “Pain is a Warning”, “Expectations Exceed Reality”
Chelsea Wolfe - Ἀποκάλυψις
Chelsea Wolfe was a total revelation for me last December, her album The Grime and the Glow taking folk music into territory so dark it bordered on black metal (in keeping with that vibe she’s even covered a Burzum song). Named after the Greek word for “apocalypse”, her latest album fleshes out her haunting sound even more, full band arrangements taking on a strong PJ Harvey feel. This one sticks with you for ages after first hearing it.
Essential tracks” “Mer”, “Pale on Pale”
Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
I’ve admired this Olympia, Washington band from their debut album back in 2006, but their fourth album marks the first time they’ve stepped from under the shadow of Ulver and Weakling and created something truly original, the culmination of a slow-steady musical evolution. Skeptics might scoff at their “Cascadian black metal”, but more than ever their music so beautifully reflects the majesty of the Pacific Northwest.
Essential tracks: “Prayer of Transformation”, “Woodland Cathedral”
The Best Ineligible Releases of 2011:
(collections of previously released material, like live albums, reissues, compilations, music DVDs, etc.)
1. Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle
”Stuck a peanut in your backbone. Spoke it down from there. All I ever wanted was to be your spine. Lost your friction and you slid for a mile. Overdone, overdrive, overlive, override.” Those lyrics defined my 1994. At least I think that’s what Eric Bachmann was singing. Was it “peanut”, or “pin”? At any rate, several songs from Archers of Loaf’s 1993 debut album Icky Mettle and the VS the Greatest of All Time EP were played countless times that year: that weirdly anthemic “Web in Front”, “Wrong”, “Plumb Line”, “You and Me”, “Audiowhore”, and I naturally freaked when I heard Matador was putting the album out in remastered and expanded form (even though I already had all the bonus tracks!). Coming from North Carolina, the similarities to Superchunk were uncanny at times, while it was also tempting to link Archers of Loaf’s strangely poetic, whimsical yet impenetrable lyrics with Pavement, who was doing a similar thing at the time. But Archers were always a big-sounding rock band, a little more like early Replacements, and did they ever get it right on Icky Mettle. I keep thinking, why can’t today’s indie rock be this impassioned, this loud, this FUN? I hate to sound like an oldster – but let’s face it, I am – but seriously, those were the days. Much of the greatest music that’s soundtracked my life came out from 1992 to 1996, and Archers of Loaf played a very big role.
2. Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman (Legacy Edition)
Back in 2002 Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne committed a heinous offence in the minds of Ozzy’s fans. Embroiled in a legal squabble over performance royalties with bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake, the Osbourne camp had Ozzy’s two classic albums Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman deleted, replacing them with re-recorded versions with the bass and drums re-done by Ozzy’s then-current band members. The end result sounded wrong in every way conceivable, but for nine long years that was all that anyone in a record store was able to get their hands on. This year, however, they finally righted things, doing proper remastered re-releases of both original albums. While the Blizzard reissue was excellent, Diary, Ozzy’s finest post-Sabbath album, turned out to be astounding. Not only did the original album sound fabulous – to this day Randy Rhoads remains my favourite metal guitarist of all time – but it was appended with a bonus CD of a full live set from 1982 that’s so energetic, so raw, that it absolutely shatters the highly polished and overdubbed Tribute live album from 1987. People like yours truly have been waiting a long, long time for something like this, and the new version of the classic Diary of a Madman exceeded expectations
3. Disco Inferno - The 5 EPs
Back in 1994 the only thing I knew about Disco Inferno was the cover art for D.I. Go Pop, that’s it. I didn’t hear that record until 2003, and it was a revelatory experience. After I reviewed the reissue in 2004 someone gave me a .zip file that had been making the rounds, a homemade mix of the band’s very obscure EPs that came out between 1991 and 1996. The music hinted at but was totally different from the challenging post-rock of D.I. Go Pop, but it was just as innovative, as the British band explored sampling, textures, and cut-and-paste aesthetics on these songs, ranging from the astonishingly beautiful “Summer’s Last Sound” and “Love Steps Out”, to the New Order-esque “The Last Dance”, to the brilliant Iggy Pop sample on the rambunctious “It’s a Kid’s World”. Anyway, years later that underground MP3 mix has finally been given a proper reissue thanks to its grassroots popularity, which is great to see. This is some of the best music to come out of the 1990s.
4. Suede - Suede
Suede’s 1993 debut album was not only a sensation in the UK and Canada when it first came out, but on a personal note it marked a crucial turning point in my own evolution as a music fan. By then the grunge thing had worn on me, metal was boring me, I was ready to move on. I was listening to new music like Sugar, Lush, the Charlatans, Jawbox, Velocity Girl, the Spinanes, Luscious Jackson. Suede had four absolutely monstrous singles by then (“The Drowners”, “Metal Mickey”, “Animal Nitrate”, “So Young”), and they all completely blew me away. It seems so silly now, but for this former metalhead to admit to himself that this band with the wussiest looking album cover ever and a shamelessly foppish singer was indeed great. It was a big step. To this day I think Suede’s first album is their best work, and the new deluxe reissue is wonderful, coming with a new remaster (though it was already an incredibly loud album), loads and loads of CDs and B-sides, as well as a DVD crammed with videos and live performances. Like I mentioned above, 1993-96 was a period that gave the world some amazing, amazing music – it hasn’t been equaled since – and I always love a chance to revisit with a swanky reissued album like this one.
5. Twisted Sister - Under the Blade: Special Edition
If you’re someone like me who spent a good chunk of the 1980s listening to Twisted Sister, oh my what a year this was to be a Twisted Sister fan. Not only did the band put out three DVDs and a live album, but they also reissued their entire out-of-print back catalogue. Among them was Twisted Sister’s scorching debut album Under the Blade. Back in 1985 I’d bought the North American remixed version, as did many other kids my age, but little did I know just how superior the original UK mix was. It’s so raw and vicious, the sound of a band that had played thousands of club shows and had honed their sound perfectly. Stay Hungry will always be my personal fave, but there’s no denying that Under the Blade is Twisted Sister’s most accomplished album, one of the best metal debuts of the 1980s. The bonus material on this reissue is unreal as well, a DVD of their incredible performance at the Reading Festival in 1982, where they walked out amidst a shower of detritus from the crowd, only to totally have them in their hands 45 minute later. This is essential ‘80s metal; top marks all around for this one.
6. Rush - Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland/Sector 3
What would a year-end list from yours truly be without an obligatory Rush DVD? Yes, I’m a shameless fan. I simply never tire of seeing new concert DVDs by the band. Part of it is because I don’t get anywhere near the opportunities to see Rush live as so many of my peers and friends do, so the latest Rush concert DVD is my way of doing that. But another big reason is that the band still sounds great. Time Machine is without a doubt the best-filmed Rush DVD to date, a real blast to watch, and musically the trio is as tight and irreverent as ever. However, my Rush geekdom kicked into high gear with the release of the Sector box sets, especially the third volume, which covers my favourite Rush era, from 1982 to 1988, presenting four studio albums (Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Moving Pictures, Hold Your Fire) and a live album (the underrated A Show of Hands). If Sector Three accomplished anything, it’s that it further cemented my belief that Grace Under Pressure will always be my favourite album of theirs. A great little box set.
7. Leonard Cohen - The Complete Studio Albums Collection
My Leonard Cohen is a weird one, a 20-year hodgepodge of promo CDs, promo MP3s, purchased CDs, burned CDs, vinyl, and recorded vinyl on cassette. Just sloppy. So when Sony put out the master singer-songwriter/Canadian treasure’s eleven studio albums in a neat, tidy, and extremely affordable (thanks, Costco!) package, I jumped at the opportunity. It’s pretty no-frills, just the CDs in replica LP sleeves, but they’re the same quality as the recent remasters. Besides, how can anyone mess up something like this? In this collection you have some of the greatest Canadian music and poetry ever written, spanning those classic early albums like The Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs of Love and Hate, to the towering late-‘80s/early-‘90s output of I’m Your Man and The Future, which I still consider the man’s finest hour. From the time I first saw his haunting video for “Dance Me to the End of Love” in 1984 and thought, who’s this weirdo?, I’ve steadily grown into a huge, huge admirer of Mr. Cohen, and if anything this box set gives me good enough reason to immerse myself in his music once again. And with a 12th album on the way in 2012, it’ll look live alongside my much-improved-looking discography.
8. Black Sabbath - Born Again: Deluxe Edition
The band might have been a bit of a mess in 1983 and the album still sounds – and looks - atrocious, but as the years have gone on I’ve developed quite a fondness for Black Sabbath’s much-maligned Born Again. Going back to 1985 when I first heard that churning, Bolero-style riff on “Zero the Hero”, to this day the evilest riff Tony Iommi has ever recorded, Born Again has been slowly worming its way into my subconscious. Go past the genius of that track, the album turns out to be quite a kooky affair thanks to the inimitable Ian Gillan, who brings a wry sense of humour to Sabbath’s lyrics that sets the record apart. That contrast of whimsicality and darkness is what makes the album do much fun, especially on “Trashed” and “Disturbing the Priest”. Born Again has yet to be issued on CD in North America, so I had to get this swanky new UK reissue, which comes with a recording of Sabbath’s Donington set in 1983. It’s a fascinating moment in Black Sabbath’s history that deserves to be appreciated more.
9. Pink Floyd - Why Pink Floyd…?
If you weren’t drooling over the prospect of hearing at least one of the newly reissued Pink Floyd albums, then there’s something seriously wrong with you, I’m sorry. Sure, a lot of their stuff is severely overplayed on classic rock radio – and despite being the most immaculate-sounding album ever made I really don’t need to hear Dark Side of the Moon again, but Pink Floyd’s vast discography is so rich and varied that it’s so much fun to delve into. I have my personal favourites (The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Meddle, the spacier moments of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), and these reissues have also encouraged me to delve a little deeper, exploring an underrated gems like More. The remasters sound terrific, the digipak artwork is a welcome change, and everything’s available in different formats, depending how deeply you want to experience Floyd’s music. They’ve done a great job.
10. UFO - The Chrysalis Years (1973-1979)
I’m a big fan of the very era of UFO that this new box set covers, so there was never any question I’d love it. A thoroughly detailed look at the band’s peak years in the 1970s, you get their five best albums (highlighted by the timeless classic Lights Out), the landmark live album Strangers in the Night, a few bonus tracks, and an unreleased live show from 1974. Granted, everything’s crammed on to five CDs, so it’s not like having all the albums lined up neatly on a shelf, but does this set ever give you bang for your buck. It’s as perfect an overview of UFO as that’s ever been put out, and if you’re unfamiliar with this woefully underrated band (in North America anyway), you need to hear this.
Introduction
Music writers like big round numbers, so here’s a real biggie: this marks the 25th year in a row I’ve nerdily compiled a list of my favourite music over the past year. [wait, I clearly cannot add, this is the
So what kind of year has 2011 been? Listening to as much metal music as I do, there’s been no shortage of albums I wholeheartedly recommend, but there haven’t been any titles that stand head and shoulders above everything else, no “consensus” picks among us critics. Which is a good thing, it makes for some very fun reading as everyone’s year-end list is different from the other, but still, it’s a little bit disappointing there’s no knockout of a record that screams, “Album of the year.” My new writing gig (more on that in a sec) has meant I don’t have as much time to listen to music outside metal as much as I’d like, but no worries, as I’ve never stopped keeping track of things. As if I’d stop doing that. Every year it’s always a challenge my metal and non-metal lists into one big personal encapsulation of my musical preferences over the past year, and looking at my 2011 faves from both sides of the fence, I find myself preferring mostly non-metal. When you compare my 2011 top ten with my 2010 top ten, you’ll see it’s nowhere near as heavy. There are loads of metal records I love of course, but 2011 has given me some music from outside the genre that’s really gotten to me, as you’ll see over the next 23 days. It’s been that kind of year.
As for how my past year’s gone, it’s been mildly eventful. After a lifetime of thinking cruises were the lamest things ever, I wound up going on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise in January and only had the best time, seeing dozens of shows while traveling from Miami to Mexico and back. It was perfect, being able to see more than 40 bands play, ducking out to sleep in your room which was two minutes away, grabbing something to eat, then heading out again to hear more music, a totally immersive metal experience. The fact that it was on a 14 story boat in the Caribbean was gravy. So three weeks into the year it was pretty much downhill after that. My computer crashed two separate times, making me lose tons of foolishly unarchived writing, which taught me two valuable lessons: 1) always back up your stuff, and 2) never use Windows again. The hilarious thing is, right when I swore off Windows for Mac forever (love my new iMac), I was offered a new job writing for MSN! Funny how stuff works out sometimes. Anyway, the MSN thing has been so great, as it’s taught me to pace my writing projects better. Instead of going randomly around the clock, I work stricter hours, and I find I’m nowhere near burned out this time of year as I usually am. Go figure. But it’s worked, as I continue to churn out the writing for Decibel, Terrorizer, Metallian the odd time, Hellbound.ca, and PopMatters whenever I can manage. No big cover stories, but I did finally finish my Cryptopsy Hall of Fame feature for Decibel, which was close to two years in the making. That was miraculous, I tell you.
Concert-wise, I knew going in that 70,000 Tons would be my live music highlight of 2011. Saxon playing Wheels of Steel and Strong Arm of the Law in their entirety, seeing ‘80s heroes Voivod and Raven for the first time ever, Amon Amarth play outside in the swirling, freezing open air at two in the morning, hearing Uli Jon Roth play old Scorpions songs, Testament, Exodus, Tyr, Death Angel, Destruction…the list is too long. Locally it was really dead in Saskatoon for the first part of the year, but I did eventually see some good shows. Slayer/Rob Zombie/Exodus, Katatonia, Amon Amarth (yet again), Enslaved/Alcest/Junius, Austra, Children of Bodom, Broken Social Scene, Pixies, Handsome Furs. Again, it’s not like I live in the live music epicenter of Canada, but it’s been a decent year.
I always like to point out releases from the previous year that I might have gotten into too late for that year’s best albums list, and there are a few, like Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid and Grinderman’s Grinderman II, which should have been on my 2010 list, but the interesting thing this time around is how two albums I loved in 2010 have stills tuck with me. Normally when I shift into New Year mode my previous year’s music gets either set aside or boxed away/archived entirely so I can neatly organize (ha) my new arrivals, but Ghost’s Opus Eponymous and Best Coast’s Crazy For You have hung around and hung around all year long. The songs on the Ghost album continue to hold up extremely well, they’ve become a real favourite band of mine. And although some people were really taken aback that I went with Best Coast as my Album of the Year over Agalloch’s masterpiece Marrow of the Spirit, it’s proven to be the smart choice, as those songs have held up wonderfully. I still have yet to tire of Bethany Cosentino’s tunes, and hopefully the follow-up has some of the same charm despite the fact that it’ll be a lot slicker-sounding.
At any rate, when my top 20 albums countdown begins on December 5th, be sure to watch for my top 20 singles countdown in the right margin, which will start at the same time as my album countdown. There will be MP3 links posted for each track, so don’t hesitate to sample (and then buy)! So thanks for reading this page for another year, and I hope you have as much fun reading this stuff as I do writing it. And thanks for stopping by. And of course, if I can introduce you to at least one piece of music you might have otherwise missed out on, then the whole project will have been totally worth it. Enjoy!
Past albums of the year (uh, please bear in mind I was sixteen when I started this):
1986: Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
1987: Def Leppard - Hysteria
1988: Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
1989: Voivod - Nothingface
1990: Megadeth - Rust In Peace, Led Zeppelin Box Set (tie)
1991: Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
1992: R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
1994: Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
1995: Elastica - Elastica
1996: Pulp - Different Class
1997: Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
1998: Monster Magnet - Powertrip
1999: Metallica - S & M
2000: Yo La Tengo - ...And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
2001: Bob Dylan - Love And Theft, The Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence & Despair (tie)
2002: The Streets - Original Pirate Material
2003: Manitoba - Up in Flames
2004: Arcade Fire - Funeral
2005: Opeth - Ghost Reveries
2006: Mastodon - Blood Mountain
2007: Alcest - Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde
2008: Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
2009: Fever Ray - Fever Ray
2010: Best Coast - Crazy For You
