My 2011 Music Review

2011's Music

I was quite shocked when reviewing my last.fm this evening, that my last 12 months top five artists were:

1. Foo Fighters
2. Kanye West
3. Professor Green
4. Aloe Blacc
5. Kings of Leon

This is utterly appalling, however, I can explain. I absolutely caned Foo Fighters before and after they ripped up the MK Bowl back in the summer, such a brilliant day (and David Haye got beat up), I genuinely liked Aloe Blacc and Kanye West's latest albums, but it seems Professor Greens 1st Album is a guilty pleasure of mine. I am not ashamed to admit I like Kings of Leon's earlier material. In my defence, my last 6 months history is not quite so embarrassing, also if I had reported by Album plays instead, Chew Lips and White Belt Yellow Tag would have been in.


The above inspired me to write a little bit about my listening in 2011, I will start with a quick summary by category:

Best New Album:                        Torches by Foster the People
My break from the norm:          For True by Trombone Shorty
Never Gets Boring:                   Silent Alarm by Bloc Party
How had I not heard it before:  Stay Kids by ANR
Grower:                                        Velociraptor! by Kasabian
Back in the playlist:                   Teen Dream by Beach House
Disappointment:                         Suck it and See by Arctic Monkeys


There are plenty of other albums that deserve a mention for 2011, such as, that of Birdy, Miles Kane, Fenech-Soler, Rifles, Ghostpoet, Yuksek, Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi, Jamie Woon, Funeral Party, Twin Atlantic, Rival Schools, Mother Mother, AWOLNATION, Raphael Saadiq and Dels but to mention a few. 

I will not begin a rant on Radio and commercial music, but you cannot look back on 2011's music favourably, when a N-Dubz Greatest Hits Album has been released, there are artists such as Tinchy Stryder &  Pitbull releasing material, J-Lo has made a comeback, and worst of all, Tinie Tempah was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Luckily for me, I don't get too much exposure to that world, but it is certainly the worst breed of commercial music I can remember, a collection of shit artists sampling old classics very badly. (Kind of a rant, I'm sorry)

I haven't listened to nearly enough new music this year, and hope to rectify that in 2012. I hope to listen and review at least 5 albums per month in 2012. I will be working on my Twitter followings over the next few weeks, looking for inspiration for new music albums, so if you come across this, and you know of a tweeter or tweeters who know their stuff, let me know, it will be greatly appreciated.

I currently use the following to find new music

http://pitchify.com/
http://pitchfork.com/
Related Artists on Spotify
Recommendations on Last.fm

http://www.last.fm/user/swfswf

(Image from http://www.andromedachild.com)

Boy Crisis - Boy Crisis

Rating: 2.75/5 Certainly Not the Greatest Pop Band of all time, but OK

Boy Crisis – Boy Crisis

I think Track names are all messed up in Spotify.

This album has been sitting in my "Unheard" folder in Spotify for quite some time, no idea how it got there, or where it come from. For this reason I looked them up on Last.Fm, and I came across this page.
http://www.last.fm/music/Boy%2520Crisis?ac=boy%20crisis
The opening paragraph almost made me delete the album completely.

Anyway, to the music, if the opening statement of the link above does not give you the impression that they are utter d*cks, the first 15 seconds of the first track "The Fountain of Youth" may change your opinion.

Actually after those initial 15 seconds, "The Fountain of Youth" is a safe track, it is pretty listenable, not sure if it would get you dancing or not, but it is OK. "Dressed to Digress" is a bit of catchy track, despite it's questionable lyrics. After this point, it seems the track names are incorrect, which makes it a bit more difficult to write about. However, listening on from the last track I mentioned, the Album is OK, well last track is below the standard of the rest of the record.

I would go as far to say it would be acceptable background noise, never going to be a classic, and I doubt it is a grower. It lacks something, an edge, substance maybe, I am just not sure, difficult album to rate. Despite this, I will listen a few more times before I decide whether I will delete forever.

My Single of the Album: Dressed to Digress

Birdy - Birdy

Rating: 3.5/5 Beautiful Voice, you need this after a bad day

Birdy – Birdy

This was recently recommended to me by someone whose music taste I am not familiar with, but I give them the benefit of the doubt, and added it to a playlist.

I had never heard of Birdy before I started to listen, after a few of the songs I recognised the lyrics, so I started the album again, and soon realised they were all covers, I may have realised sooner if I was not driving and had noticed the song names, not a massive fan of artists doing covers on a first album.

Well, I give it a chance, and ended up listening to it again afterwards, I put this unusual occurrence down to the awful day I had at work, I was in a foul mood, do not underestimate this mood, it was almost at the foaming at the mouth stage, obscenities were being screamed at just about everyone on the M25, and by the time I got home I had a smile for the Mrs and a friendly chat with the current lodgers (My Old man)

Birdy (all I know her as, I am yet to research any facts) has a very nice (find it hard using those combination of words without thinking of Borat) voice, which helps, especially as she has covered tracks that I listen to, or have listened to. 1901, Skinny Love, Young Blood and Shelter, are all very good tracks, and the others I haven't mentioned make up the numbers very well. For me, this album, will probably be a five minute wonder, but the current five minutes are very enjoyable.

If you have had a bad day, stick this album on, it helps, believe me!

My Single of the Album: People Help the People