Jonny writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Jon Schechinger)

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2011. The next list is from Jon Schechinger.

(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members’ picks.)

(Albums listed chronologically by release date)

• Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (Fat Possum)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  I still want to know where they learned those glam rock ethics. I could only hope for more harmonies, a few new stompboxes, and please keep those amazing hooks. Time is on their side.

   

  
  Songs: “Still New” and “Smile”

• PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Vagrant)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  This record still haunts me, so I won’t give it up. I was never into PJ until now. Better late than never.

   

  
  Songs: “The Last Living Rose” and “Hanging In The Wire”

• La Sera – La Sera (Hardly Art)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  How can we control fate so the next album blows us away? Another great debut LP. Very vinyl worthy.

   

  
  Songs: “Never Come Around” and “Devils Hearts Grow Gold”

• The Feelies – Here Before (Bar None)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  I cannot rave too much about this record without dissing a fair to significant amount of music released in the last five years. Boring or old? no, just good.

   

  
  Songs: “When You Know” and “Time Is Right”

• Cults – Cults (In the Name of)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  

   

  
  Songs: “Walk at Night” and “You Know What I Mean”
  
  
  
  
   

  and…
  
  
   

  The Poison Control Center – Stranger Ballet (Afternoon)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  
  
  Songs: “Porcelain Brain” and “Reoccurring Kind”
  
  
  
   

  Two of the most accessibly great pop records of the year released on the same day.

• Wild Flag – Wild Flag (Merge)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  As good as Sleater-Kinney? Yes.

   

  
  Songs: “Short Version” and “Electric Band”

• Veronica Falls – Veronica Falls (Slumberland)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  Formulaic and catchy? No problem. Married types are unattainable. It’s okay.

   

  
  Songs: “Beachy Head” and “Veronica Falls”

• Dum Dum Girls – Only in Dreams (Sub Pop)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  Ambition and song craft kick in the head. This is not selling out, but selling up. Shockingly grower of an album.

   

  
  Songs: “Heartbeat (Take It Away)” and “In My Head”

• Class Actress – Rapprocher (Carpark)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  A record that makes a case for the eighties retro sound and shockingly delivers.

   

  
  Songs: “Keep You” and “Weekend”

• Escort – Escort (Escort)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  Finally! They released an album!

   

  
  Songs: “Makeover” and “All That She Is”

Reissue:

• The Beach Boys – Smile (Capitol)
  BUY: Insound / iTunes
  

Honorable Mentions:

Belong, Blood Pressures, Sucre du Sauvage, Dirty Beaches, Strange Mercy, Mannequin Men. Where Are You?: Rage Against The Machine, Queens of the Stone Age, NOFX, Weezer, The Cure, The Smiths, XTC.

Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Clarence Ewing)

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members' top albums of 2011. The next list is from Assistant Online Media Director Clarence Ewing.

(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members' picks.)

1. tUnE-yArDs – W H O K I L L (4AD)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   I’m not the kind of person who stands on street corners loudly exclaiming “Holy S#%!” with my headphones on, yet that's just what I did when I first gave this album a listen while waiting for a bus. Merrill Garbus' melodic gymnastics and fiercely inventive technique (backed by Nate Brenner's sweet bass lines) are just brilliant.
2. Battles – Gloss Drop (Warp)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   They combine the blunt force of a punk band with the dexterity and precision of a chamber orchestra, genre-hopping all over the place to suit their needs. It's the most focused and confident experimental music or the most advanced pop music I've ever heard. Either way, it's fantastic.
3. White Hills – H-p1 (Thrill Jockey)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   A hot vortex of noise-rock that brings to mind jet engines, the drone of a billion computer servers, sports stadium entrance music, the static-y aftermath of bomb explosions, and political rallies, all mashed together and powered by anger and fear. No other album I've heard in the last decade so completely nails what the 21st century sounds like.
4. Panda Bear – Tomboy (Paw Tracks)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   I was prepared to be underwhelmed by this album when it was first released. The knock on Noah Lennox's follow up to his landmark album Person Pitch was that it’s “more of the same.” But sometimes that's a good thing, especially when it comes from a gifted musician who continues to sharpen his electro-ambient-avant-pop craft.
5. Julianna Barwick – The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   If forests could sing, I suspect this is what we would hear.
6. Daedelus – Bespoke (Ninja Tune)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   A remarkable sampler of the bleeding edge of dance and electronic music from a group of today's brightest talents (including Milosh, Inara George, Baths, and Young Dad) whose common denominator is Alfred Darlington, an accomplished musician in his own right and one of those guys who knows everyone in the scene.
7. Blueprint – Adventures in Counter-Culture (Rhymesayers)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   A terrific offering from a gifted rapper who draws from many musical sources to express himself (everything from gangsta beats to club-ready dance tracks to New Wave retro to Coldplay-ish anthemic mainstream pop), tied together by an undercurrent of melancholy and world-weariness. It's not just a great musical journey but a vivid picture of an individual.
8. The Cool Kids – When Fish Ride Bicycles (Green Label Sound)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   When it comes to rap, artists need to either move forward into new territory, or go back to what made it so great to begin with. This album from Antoine "Sir Michael Rocks" Reed (Matteson, Illinois) and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll (Mount Clemens, Michigan) takes the latter path, using stripped-down beats and vocal dexterity to breathe new life into an increasingly stale pop genre.
9. The Fleshtones – Brooklyn Sound Solution (Yep Roc)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   Remember a time when you could not play Rock unless you knew how to play Blues? The Fleshtones remember, and this legendary New York outfit serves up meat-and-potatoes glam-garage jams that pack more punch than most of today’s distortion-and-effects-laden alt-rock. And they make it sound effortless (after all, they've been doing it since 1976).
10. The Eternals – Approaching the Energy Field (Addenda / Submarine)
    BUY: Insound / iTunes
    The Eternals sound like what would happen if a funk band and an avant-garde jazz ensemble had a jam session one sunny afternoon in the ‘70s. Channeling the spirit of Sun Ra and Sly and the Family Stone, with political comment and poetry added for good measure, this is the modern example of how to do Fusion.

• And Some Outstanding Singles from 2011...
  "Beat and the Pulse" by Austra
  "Fast Challenges" by Chad Valley
  "Mop It Up" by Gauntlet Hair
  "As young As Yesterday" by Korallreven
  "Natural Causes" by Nite Jewel
  "Amor Fati" by Washed Out

Curtis Swank writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Curt Swank)

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2011. The next list is from volunteer Curt Swank.

(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members’ picks.)

1. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo (Matador)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
2. tUnE yArDs – W H O K I L L (4AD)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
3. Likki Li – Wounded Rhymes (LL)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
4. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints (Soulterrain Transmissions)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
5. Washed Out – Within and Without (Sub Pop)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
6. Steven Malkmus and The Jicks – Mirror Traffic (Matador)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
7. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
8. Wild Flag – Wild Flag (Merge)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
9. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Mute)
   BUY: Insound / iTunes
   
10. Mates of State – Mountaintops (Barsuk)
    BUY: Insound / iTunes