Comment: 2011's Best Songs

At the end of every year I tend to spend a bit of time contemplating how to suitably wrap things up. Sometimes it's a single post that just lists things that were particularly note-worthy, other years I have been much more formal and had a collection of top five lists. This year I feel like running with something a bit more free form so here is a list of my favourite songs from this year.

There are too many songs here to say something about all of them. I'll go into a bit of detail on a selection of the ones that meant the most to me and that will make the post long enough as it is. There is also a Spotify playlist that pulls all of these together to make it as easy as possible to have a listen. Nothing here is ordered based on 'best' - the playlist and this list were built to flow as well as is possible with such a diverse selection of music. Having said which, there was one song that stuck out for me more than any other this year... Read on to find out which...

'I Don't Want Love' - The Antlers
The opening track from The Antlers' Burst Apart was a contender for song of the year for me. It's a beautifully exposed and fragile track and the decision to stick such a piece at the start of an album still amazes me because it is so easy to miss just how staggering it is. There aren't many bands that come close to Thom Yorke's brand of experimental melancholy, but The Antlers come close.

'Collapse' - Iceage
Iceage's debut album was the kind of brash, rapid fire album that really encourages repeat listening, but it was the discordant melodies of 'Collapse' that I always longed for more of. This most surprising thing is how much is crammed into a two-minute record, from the frictional intro of the guitar to the closing bars at the end.

'Undertow' - Warpaint

'Codex' - Radiohead

'Share The Red' - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

'Vomit' - Girls
Girls' second album saw them continue to expand their sound but nothing on that album came close to the gospel ambition of this needy and emotional indie cut.

'I Can See Through You' - The Horrors

'Montana' - Youth Lagoon

'Come To The City' - The War On Drugs
I said it all on the review last week but golly, does this flick my switches. It's difficult to judge something so close to a first listen but I'm confident that 'Come To The City' will stick out for years to come. The sound of a hand reaching out to pull you from the quick sand - an emotive wall of sound.

'It Takes Time To Be A Man' - The Rapture

'Ice Cream' - Battles feat. Matias Aguayo
When I saw Battles at Glastonbury the mechanical precision and strength of drummer John Stanier blew me away: this dude kicked the fucking doors off. Matias' vocals and percussion just took things to another level - this is math rock on spring break: sexy, wild and completely in control.

'Caffeinated Consciouness' - TV On The Radio

'Manifesto' - Planningtorock

'Saturday Love' - Toro Y Moi

'Manila' - Rough Fields

'Minnesota' - Bon Iver

'The Wilhelm Scream' - James Blake

'Video Games' - Lana Del Rey
Is she for real or faking? That question seemed to rumble around for months and yet everyone seems to have forgotten that real pop music is just a show anyway. I don't need to know her real name - Lana stole my heart as she laid a smack across my cheek with the line "It's you, it's you, it's all for you... Everything I do...". Sometimes popular music is best left with some mystery.

'Space Is Only Noise If You Can See' - Nicolas Jaar
Still Jaar's best record and 2011’s most unhinged vocal by far. Try as you might, this makes no sense but the space groove bass line and wonky lyrics made Nicolas Jaar one of our most exciting producers. The fact that he hasn't felt the need to do anything even remotely similar since only compounds the magnificence of it. Grab a calculator and fix yourself.

'Stay' - Gunnar Bjerk

'What I've Lost' - Benoit & Sergio
Everything Benoit & Sergio released this year was fantastic, but nothing came close to this track from side two of the Boy Trouble EP, a contemplative late night road trip through the old haunts with a new (potential) lover. If people ever tell you electronic music has no soul then play them this - a track full of heart and pain and a crucial hint of hopeful yearning.

'Need You Now' - Cut Copy

'Midnight City' - M83

'Hawaiian Air' - Friendly Fires

'All Nite' - Rustie

'Fallout' - Neon Indian

'Lonely Days (Drop Out Orchestra Vocal Remix)' - Mario Basanov
Mario's original was good but this shimmering sun baked disco remix is truly great. It's strength is that it simply hits that summery Ballearic vibe better than any other seven-minutes of music I heard this year. Throw in some excellent guitar work (more guitar solos on disco please!) and you've got something very vey good indeed.

'Basement L.O.V.E.' - Motor City Drum Ensemble
MCDE's DJ Kicks blew every other mix CD released this year out of the water with it's fantastic mixture of soulful jazz and subterranean house music for the heads. This separate remix of the 'L.O.V.E.' cut released on that mix as an exclusive is a brilliant taster for that mix even if doesn't actually appear on it. Loose and airy, it feels like a slowed down summer's day spent dancing on Mediterranean tiles after a night with no sleep.

'Arise' - Maceo Plex

'Far Nearer' - Jamie xx
2010 saw the xx break into the mainstream but in 2011 Jamie proved the best is yet to come. As good as the xx's debut record is, in my opinion it can't hold a candle to this solo track. Sounds like Paul Simon kicking back on a dubstep rumbling tropical island; this is Kia Ora, Five Alive and Rubicon rolled into one.

'Banana Ripple' - Junior Boys
As if Mario Basanov and Jamie's 'Far Nearer' weren't enough sun... 'Banana Ripple' easily takes my vote for song of the year. This unashamed summer disco dance track caps off an album of angst-ridden self-reflective electronic pop on It's All True like a glorious and carefree butterfly emerging from a self-absorbed chrysalis. 'Banana Ripple' is a song of three acts where each one is more fantastic than the last. The Hammond organ peaking towards the end never fails to give me goose bumps, and that is what music is about.

So, what did I miss?

BP x

Album Review: Slave Ambient - The War On Drugs

The War On Drugs' Slave Ambient comes on like a golden sun-drenched California-born-and-raised country album, the jaunty melodies kicking off with 'Best Night', swimming in shimmering guitar work and a humming percussion backing. 'Brothers' retains the feeling but adds a bit of psychedelia, sounding like The Byrds on one of the Beatles' acid trips.

But throughout Slave Ambient each song from The War On Drugs feels like it adds a different element. 'I Was There' is sloppily gambolling around like one of the Verve's more experimental tracks which, if you put your ego aside, is still a good thing. Things really move with 'Your Love Is Calling My Name' though - the melodies and rhythms becoming more intensely mechanical and singer Adam Granduciel's vocals becoming entwined with the instruments so they feel like part of the music as much as the instruments.

It feels like a jumping off point and from here on out the ground is no longer beneath our feet. There are short slices of ambient and distorted circular instrumental and a glorious moment on 'Baby Missiles' that is a good barometer for The War On Drugs: we are basically listening to Bruce Springsteen backed by Neu!

The anthemic 'Come To The City' and its post-rock reprise encapsulate this album best though. It's a dazzling and bewildering fist-in-the-air shout of triumphant determination wrapped up in a home-coming that hits you with a bloody smile and a punch to the gut all at once. If U2 early U2 had transformed into something amazing instead of shit they might be something like this.

BP x

Slave Ambient is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: 50 Words For Snow - Kate Bush

Confession time: I've never really listened to much Kate Bush. I don't particularly have a reason why, I just haven't ever got around to it. I've now been living with her latest album, 50 Words For Snow, for a few weeks and it's a pretty incredible record.

It feels both dense and incredibly intense. It is also so entwined with the season that I really cannot imagine ever even considering playing it on a nice summer's day. Both of these facts are front and centre from the off, with opener 'Snowflake' a ten-minute walk through a jazz melody played on Bush's piano whilst her son Albert describes a strange sense of detachment in the snow. He seems to be struggling to find the person that is the subject of the song - it feels like getting lost and left alone in a white-out at night. Lonely but strangely serene.

A fitting opener, since this is an album of moods and atmosphere. It sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a movie, it's so consistent in theme and tone. That means it simply feels like too much - it's all just a little too rich and even the shortest song is almost seven-minutes long. It loses it's footing slightly on 'Wild Man' but you can't help but be charmed by Bush's penchant for the bizarre, as expressed on this tale of finding a yeti's footprints. It is the duet with Elton John that provides the climax on 'Snowed in at Wheeler St' however, and it is another tail separation - a theme that runs throughout the album. It's aggressively climatic chorus and finale hangs around long after the music has faded, although the sheer volume almost knocks the whole album off-kilter. It feels like an epic slab of AOR in the middle of a delicate jazz album.

50 Words For Snow is one of the most intriguing albums I've heard in a long time - it's themes and movements incredibly bold. It is over the top but you can't help but applaud Bush's willingness to experiment, whether it is with Stephen Fry reading out made up names for snow or in the folklore themes than run through some of the lyrics. Winter undoubtedly has a magical feel to it and this record probably captures that feeling better than any other I've ever heard.

BP x

50 Words For Snow is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

EP Review: The Harbour Wall - Rough Fields

I don't know why you haven't already heard of James Birchall or his alter ego Rough Fields. Hell, I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of them before the usual press release game of hide and seek. Because if The Harbour Wall is anything to go by he makes beautiful music poised to swallow you up.

The opening title track of this EP feels wonderfully brooding. It is simultaneously full of down beat confidence and defiance, the layered vocals may be soft and delicate but the harmonies and melody and bass and piano propel this song with a verve and self-assurance. Elsewhere, on 'Behave', there is whimsy and helplessness - Birchall's vocal asserting his uselessness at exhibiting self-restraint in the absence of his loved one.

This is a release of atmosphere - background noises and shuffles appear throughout but are most evident on the running water, wind and rain of the haunting instrumental 'Waller's Cut'. Birchall spent some time experimenting with techno and it shows in this EP's ticks and spasms. As a result it feels like we were there in the head of Rough Fields - there in the moments of loneliness from where some of these songs obviously sprang.

Rough Fields - The Harbour Wall by bombshop

Rough Fields has blended folk and post-rock to make an EP of both texture and melody. And at 22 minutes The Harbour Wall is over far too soon.

BP x

Head over to the Rough Fields website for more information and to buy The Harbour Wall, or use the Soundcloud player above.

EP Review: Darkside - Darkside

Nicolas Jaar still confuses the hell out of me. An artist influenced by Minimal IDM sounds like a snore rest on paper, but Jaar's hero Ricardo Villalobos is perhaps the only minimal producer who I can really see the artistry in. His music doesn't feel like it was only made for taking drugs to.

Space is Only Noise has moments of brilliance and I love it. But earlier this year seeing Jaar play live at Fabric was an unnerving experience on a couple of levels. Jaar benefits from a passionate following, the likes of which I haven't seen for a while: Fabric was packed out on a mid-week night (I think it was Wednesday?) and no-one was in any doubt that this was a star we were witnessing. There was no mild curiosity from inquisitive bloggers here, instead the room filled with wall-to-wall fever. Where did this excitement come from? And my bigger question was why - on record Jaar sounded great, atmospheric, emotional, experimental. In the flesh, sadly, it most sounded like this was just music made for taking drugs to.

Open air at Glastonbury was a different experience. There was more space, less dancing and the sky was lined with menacing storm clouds hanging threateningly overhead. It turned out to be much more fitting.

DARKSIDE - A1 by Clown & Sunset

Darkside is a side project from Jaar, collaborating with Dave Harrington. Together they focus on what Jaar does best - this is paranoid, dark pop music that blends live instrumentation with techno rhythms. Slow builds and breakdowns take the listener on a journey and, as a head piece, it's marvellous. Guitar work picks its way around nervous vocals and clattering synths. This feels part weirded out road trip with David Lynch, part cowboy blues, part Sunday morning maudlin come-down.

And so the conclusion to my confusion is this: I don't want to dance to Nicolas Jaar, I want to think to him. I want to experience the world filtered through his music coming out my headphones.

BP x

Darkside is out now on Nicolas Jaar's own Clown and Sunset label, you can order it on MP3 here.

Album Review: Soul on Soul (Deluxe Edition) - Jean Wells

I'm sure I point this out every year but December onwards always tends to see a dearth of decent music releases as the industry focuses on milking the valuable casual market for Christmas. The result is all X Factor, greatest hits compilations and deluxe reissues of the year's best (selling) albums.

Soul on Soul is a re-release, albeit one selected from an artist who deserves more exposure rather than less for once. Wells was never a massive star in her own time - her biggest single was the desperate and lovelorn 'Have a Little Mercy', which reached number 25 in the R&B charts on release in 1967. But her voice simply boasts bags of soul, and these songs always leave the gloves off.

Whether it is wallowing in the depths of emotion, as on the aforementioned 'Have a Little Mercy' or the similarly themed 'Sit Down and Cry', or being forthright and commanding respect Wells' songs are beautiful and gloriously sung. ’Somebody's Been Loving You (But It Ain't Been Me)’ is a brilliant example of the latter - a slamming put down to a cheating partner, Wells making it clear that she hasn't had anywhere near enough (ahem) attention lately.

Particularly mind-blowing is the synthesiser backed 'Roll Up Your Sleeves, Come Out Lovin' (Winner Takes All)’. Recorded in the early seventies it feels like a rough take on 80s disco but the fuzzy charm of the bass line gives it an incredible grounded feel. Best of all is 'What Have I Got To Lose', a soaring, string-led epic Philly soul joint that is all butterflies and sunshine of spring love - the all too short moment of contemplation before making your move on a new love.

If, like me, Christmas tends to drive you loopy with the disposability of it all then you could do much worse than keep this on standby throughout the next five weeks.

BP x

Soul on Soul is out now on BBE, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].