2011 in Music
Four albums stand out as the best for me for 2011.
Adele -- 21
Linkin Park -- A Thousand Suns
30 Seconds to Mars -- This is War
M83 -- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Those four albums mimic the rollercoaster that 2011 was for me.
Adele's album applies to anyone that has ever been in any kind of relationship. Every song can apply to someone. In my case, just about every song applied to me. I spent months dwelling in her honey voice, nodding my head, tears springing to my eyes periodically in the ability to relate to her words. This album is a pure work of wonder, words hitting home like thunder, shaking the listener to the core. It's a must-have for music-lover's library.
Best songs -- Rolling in the Deep, Turning Tables, Set Fire to the Rain, Take It All, One and Only, Lovesong, Someone Like You, I Found a Boy
Linkin Park, though they have been around for ages, was entirely new to me this year. I never liked them. Always found them rather whiny, like teenagers who think the world is against them and nothing is ever their fault. I can't identify with that train of thought so never really was able to get what they had to say. Until this album appeared. I first heard "Waiting for the End" on the radio, from the beginning, and every word struck a chord somewhere inside me. I felt this song in my bones. From there, I got the album based on the recommendation of a friend, and it very quickly pulled me out of my Adele Dwell. It needed to be done. This album is full of strength, of power, of self-confidence, of recognizance. At the moment it came along, it was just what I needed.
Best songs -- When They Come For Me, Waiting for the End, Wretches and Kings, Iridescent, The Catalyst, The Messenger, Blackbirds
30 Seconds to Mars has been a favorite band of mine for a few years now. When This is War came out, I was hesitant, because I really only liked a few of the songs off A Beautiful Lie. But I wasn't disappointed. They managed to generate a lot of hype over their Hurricane video before they released it, and I was never really impelled to listen to the song, until the video came out. And it is by far the best and my most favorite track on the album. That song got me hooked into really taking a serious listen to the rest of the album and I loved what I heard. And then, well, then I saw them live, and that just sealed the deal. Hands-down, best, most intriguing, most entertaining performance by any musical act I have ever been lucky enough to bear witness to (yes, even better than Copeland). This album is all about rising up for the fight, throwing your fist in the air and surging forward. It's about crawling out of that hole, about falling down and getting back up again.
Best songs -- This is War, 100 Suns, Hurricane, Closer to the Edge, Search and Destroy, Alibi
M83 was new to my ears this year too. Thanks to my brother, who's quite a music snob himself, the beautiful sounds of this group have graced my ears and will not soon be forgotten. M83 is so much to me -- it's a part of my past, it's a part of my present, it's a part of my future. M83 is that soaring you feel once you've crawled out of that aforementioned hole and have taken flight. This was the first album I listened to first track to last in one sitting since, well, I have no freaking idea when. I never do that. Ever. And when I got to the end, all I wanted to do was start it over again. I never got to a single song in the 22-song set and wanted to skip it. This is easily one of the best albums I've ever purchased, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone I know.
Best songs -- Though I highly recommend listening from beginning to end, no stops, the tracks I get super excited about when they come on are Reunion, Wait, Raconte-moi une histoire, Claudia Lewis, New Map, OK Pal, Splendor, and Steve McQueen.
Other recommended listening from 2011:
Anberlin -- this band opened for 30 Seconds to Mars. I didn't know it at the time, but I would soon fall in love with them. Breathe, Cadence, Feel Good Drag, and Retrace are all fabulous songs.
Manchester Orchestra -- Though I purchased a couple of albums based on my sister's insistence, I haven't had a chance to go through all the songs to pick out what I like best (she says she likes them better than Copeland, and I call bullshit / sacrileg). But I quickly fell in love with I Can Feel a Hot One. If the lines "so I prayed for what I thought were angels / ended up in ambulances / the Lord showed me dreams of my daughter / she was crying inside your stomach / and I felt love ... again" don't get you just a little bit choked up, well... are you human?
Ray LaMontagne -- This guy has grown on me this year. But I particularly love Empty and Lesson Learned. Lesson Learned is haunting, chilling, strikingly true, and scary-relative.
The Republic of Wolves -- This is another band my sister recommended to me and I quickly fell for Oarsman. This is a very melodic, progressive song, and the ending is beautiful.
Sara Evans -- Little Bit Stronger is quite possibly one of the most quotable songs of 2011, and also quite relevant and relatable. Plus, she's gorgeous.
Rihanna -- She's my guilty pleasure as of late. Thanks to Only Girl (In the World), I sort of fell back into a dance music mode. It made me miss trance. It made me think a lot about my youth. And all the tracks I loved back then. Her stuff is all very house-y and trance-y, and I am really digging it. Also, though I'm not sure if it came out this year or not, but I at least heard it for the first time this year -- Complicated is a chord-striking song as well.
Happy listening, ya'll.
Adele -- 21
Linkin Park -- A Thousand Suns
30 Seconds to Mars -- This is War
M83 -- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Those four albums mimic the rollercoaster that 2011 was for me.
Adele's album applies to anyone that has ever been in any kind of relationship. Every song can apply to someone. In my case, just about every song applied to me. I spent months dwelling in her honey voice, nodding my head, tears springing to my eyes periodically in the ability to relate to her words. This album is a pure work of wonder, words hitting home like thunder, shaking the listener to the core. It's a must-have for music-lover's library.
Best songs -- Rolling in the Deep, Turning Tables, Set Fire to the Rain, Take It All, One and Only, Lovesong, Someone Like You, I Found a Boy
Linkin Park, though they have been around for ages, was entirely new to me this year. I never liked them. Always found them rather whiny, like teenagers who think the world is against them and nothing is ever their fault. I can't identify with that train of thought so never really was able to get what they had to say. Until this album appeared. I first heard "Waiting for the End" on the radio, from the beginning, and every word struck a chord somewhere inside me. I felt this song in my bones. From there, I got the album based on the recommendation of a friend, and it very quickly pulled me out of my Adele Dwell. It needed to be done. This album is full of strength, of power, of self-confidence, of recognizance. At the moment it came along, it was just what I needed.
Best songs -- When They Come For Me, Waiting for the End, Wretches and Kings, Iridescent, The Catalyst, The Messenger, Blackbirds
30 Seconds to Mars has been a favorite band of mine for a few years now. When This is War came out, I was hesitant, because I really only liked a few of the songs off A Beautiful Lie. But I wasn't disappointed. They managed to generate a lot of hype over their Hurricane video before they released it, and I was never really impelled to listen to the song, until the video came out. And it is by far the best and my most favorite track on the album. That song got me hooked into really taking a serious listen to the rest of the album and I loved what I heard. And then, well, then I saw them live, and that just sealed the deal. Hands-down, best, most intriguing, most entertaining performance by any musical act I have ever been lucky enough to bear witness to (yes, even better than Copeland). This album is all about rising up for the fight, throwing your fist in the air and surging forward. It's about crawling out of that hole, about falling down and getting back up again.
Best songs -- This is War, 100 Suns, Hurricane, Closer to the Edge, Search and Destroy, Alibi
M83 was new to my ears this year too. Thanks to my brother, who's quite a music snob himself, the beautiful sounds of this group have graced my ears and will not soon be forgotten. M83 is so much to me -- it's a part of my past, it's a part of my present, it's a part of my future. M83 is that soaring you feel once you've crawled out of that aforementioned hole and have taken flight. This was the first album I listened to first track to last in one sitting since, well, I have no freaking idea when. I never do that. Ever. And when I got to the end, all I wanted to do was start it over again. I never got to a single song in the 22-song set and wanted to skip it. This is easily one of the best albums I've ever purchased, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone I know.
Best songs -- Though I highly recommend listening from beginning to end, no stops, the tracks I get super excited about when they come on are Reunion, Wait, Raconte-moi une histoire, Claudia Lewis, New Map, OK Pal, Splendor, and Steve McQueen.
Other recommended listening from 2011:
Anberlin -- this band opened for 30 Seconds to Mars. I didn't know it at the time, but I would soon fall in love with them. Breathe, Cadence, Feel Good Drag, and Retrace are all fabulous songs.
Manchester Orchestra -- Though I purchased a couple of albums based on my sister's insistence, I haven't had a chance to go through all the songs to pick out what I like best (she says she likes them better than Copeland, and I call bullshit / sacrileg). But I quickly fell in love with I Can Feel a Hot One. If the lines "so I prayed for what I thought were angels / ended up in ambulances / the Lord showed me dreams of my daughter / she was crying inside your stomach / and I felt love ... again" don't get you just a little bit choked up, well... are you human?
Ray LaMontagne -- This guy has grown on me this year. But I particularly love Empty and Lesson Learned. Lesson Learned is haunting, chilling, strikingly true, and scary-relative.
The Republic of Wolves -- This is another band my sister recommended to me and I quickly fell for Oarsman. This is a very melodic, progressive song, and the ending is beautiful.
Sara Evans -- Little Bit Stronger is quite possibly one of the most quotable songs of 2011, and also quite relevant and relatable. Plus, she's gorgeous.
Rihanna -- She's my guilty pleasure as of late. Thanks to Only Girl (In the World), I sort of fell back into a dance music mode. It made me miss trance. It made me think a lot about my youth. And all the tracks I loved back then. Her stuff is all very house-y and trance-y, and I am really digging it. Also, though I'm not sure if it came out this year or not, but I at least heard it for the first time this year -- Complicated is a chord-striking song as well.
Happy listening, ya'll.