(Here is the link to the previous post where I listed my favorite CD's from the first half of 2011).
I know its a little late for this kind of 2011 retrospective, but if they can stretch the college bowl games out until January 9th, I can do a year end music review on January 3rd.
Here are my favorite CDs from the second half of 2011(these are records that were released from July 1 - November 30 or that were from earlier on the year, but I didn't get them until after I already composed the earlier list). Since 11/30 is always the cutoff date that I use in order to give me time to come up with the list, The Black Keys' El Camino and The Roots' Undun both are missing. They will be on the 2012 list (which is a guarantee because both are fantastic). I know my early 2011 list had 15 discs, but there were more records from that part of the year that I liked than there were in the 2nd half, so I am sticking with 10 this time.
10.) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
9.) Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
8.) Low - C'mon
7.) Wilco - The Whole Love
6.) Yuck - Yuck
5.) The Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
4.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
3.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
2.) Feist - Metals
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
The last few times I have tried to write a post on music rankings, I have had a pretty hard time, and I think its because I am just not very good at articulating my music critiquing. Everything comes out as "This was really good" or "I just didn't care for this" - I know what I like, but have a hard time coming up with words to describe WHY I like it. So, I think I am just going to stop (surprisingly, I have a much easier time critiquing movies and TV, so I will keep up with that). I believe that is one of the reasons that posts related to music take me so long to put together, and then I fall behind on what I want to write about. Going forward, I am going to limit my music related posts to, "Ok, HERE is some music I like", and maybe throw in a few anecdotes or personal experiences related to whatever music I am writing about and leave it at that.
Here is my overall Top 10 album list for 2011:
10.) The Raveonettes - Raven In the Grave
9.) Vivian Girls - Share the Joy
8.) Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
7.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
6.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
5.) Wye Oak - Civilian
4.) Feist - Metals
3.) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
2.) TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
THERE! That closes the book on 2011. I had thought about also writing a year end TV recap like I did last year, but I really don't watch that many current TV series, so a Top 10 list would pretty much just be the shows I watch regularly. I don't really watch any shows that are only ok - ALL my shows are good and I believe are the top shows of the year. So, I think instead I will be expanding my weekly TV reviews beyond just Thursday night. I will definitely add recaps for Justified and Mad Men when they premier, plus anything else I like that is coming back soon. (I am also going to make a real effort to come up with more posts that are not just reviews, like I did back when I started this blog, but I may have made that promise before, so we'll see).
I know its a little late for this kind of 2011 retrospective, but if they can stretch the college bowl games out until January 9th, I can do a year end music review on January 3rd.
Here are my favorite CDs from the second half of 2011(these are records that were released from July 1 - November 30 or that were from earlier on the year, but I didn't get them until after I already composed the earlier list). Since 11/30 is always the cutoff date that I use in order to give me time to come up with the list, The Black Keys' El Camino and The Roots' Undun both are missing. They will be on the 2012 list (which is a guarantee because both are fantastic). I know my early 2011 list had 15 discs, but there were more records from that part of the year that I liked than there were in the 2nd half, so I am sticking with 10 this time.
10.) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
9.) Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
8.) Low - C'mon
7.) Wilco - The Whole Love
6.) Yuck - Yuck
5.) The Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
4.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
3.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
2.) Feist - Metals
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
The last few times I have tried to write a post on music rankings, I have had a pretty hard time, and I think its because I am just not very good at articulating my music critiquing. Everything comes out as "This was really good" or "I just didn't care for this" - I know what I like, but have a hard time coming up with words to describe WHY I like it. So, I think I am just going to stop (surprisingly, I have a much easier time critiquing movies and TV, so I will keep up with that). I believe that is one of the reasons that posts related to music take me so long to put together, and then I fall behind on what I want to write about. Going forward, I am going to limit my music related posts to, "Ok, HERE is some music I like", and maybe throw in a few anecdotes or personal experiences related to whatever music I am writing about and leave it at that.
Here is my overall Top 10 album list for 2011:
10.) The Raveonettes - Raven In the Grave
9.) Vivian Girls - Share the Joy
8.) Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
7.) Loney, Dear - Hall Music
6.) Fruit Bats - Tripper
5.) Wye Oak - Civilian
4.) Feist - Metals
3.) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
2.) TV On The Radio - Nine Types of Light
1.) Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
THERE! That closes the book on 2011. I had thought about also writing a year end TV recap like I did last year, but I really don't watch that many current TV series, so a Top 10 list would pretty much just be the shows I watch regularly. I don't really watch any shows that are only ok - ALL my shows are good and I believe are the top shows of the year. So, I think instead I will be expanding my weekly TV reviews beyond just Thursday night. I will definitely add recaps for Justified and Mad Men when they premier, plus anything else I like that is coming back soon. (I am also going to make a real effort to come up with more posts that are not just reviews, like I did back when I started this blog, but I may have made that promise before, so we'll see).
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