I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to at least 250 albums in 2011. Going by the sheer amount of music I’ve gone through over the last 12 months or so, even though that number is only the roughest of estimates, it’s probably closer to the truth. Now’s the time of year when blogs get into list mode, as it were, and post about their top ‘x’ albums/songs/gigs of 2011; we’ll be doing that soon, to an extent, but first come The Blue Walrus’s ‘honourable mentions’ posts. The four regular contributors will be rolling out four picks in one post, one each from the different quarters of 2011, over the next week-and-a-half or so – albums we knew were deserving of plaudits but didn’t, or just plain couldn’t, give enough time to. I’m up first, and here’s what I picked:
Q1 – January to March 2011 – The Boxer Rebellion: The Cold Still
A lot has been made about how misleading the lead single was: Step Out of the Car showcased a heavier, riffier Boxer Rebellion sound, but then when The Cold Still came along, it was revealed as the hardest-rocking song on an album that was more given over to atmospheric songs like Caught By the Light and the unashamedly anthemic Organ Song. Overall, their third album was the sound of a band deciding to finally start doing things on their own terms; dropped by their label in the week that their debut, Exits, was released, back in 2005, they took four years to return with Union in 2009, but with The Cold Still, the band found their feet and clearly signalled that they were in for the long haul. It was a work that was as widescreen as it was emotionally charged and bruised.
Buy The Cold Still.
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Q2 – April to June 2011 – Brontide – Sans Souci
There may have been a few post-rock albums released in 2011 that were better than this one, but few can argue the point that Sans Souci was the most complete. Conceived as a sprawling, cohesive 50-minute work from start to finish, Brontide’s long-awaited debut balanced delicacy with bone-crushing intensity, wrapping it up in jaw-dropping musicianship – for those of you wondering, this is what ex-I Was a Cub Scout drummer William Bowerman did next. One of the best drummers going today, his inventive style drove songs like Jura and Matador, on which he was matched by the technical wizardry of guitarist Tim Hancock and bassist Nathan Fairweather. Sans Souci sometimes became stunningly complex, as Arioso and the blistering send-off Tenbytwobyfour attested to, but it was an extremely enjoyable complexity. Sometimes you were left with no choice but to sit back and be amazed – and I was.
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Q3 – July to September 2011 – The Chakras – Build Me A Swan
An album that was years in the making, the Dublin band’s debut full-length only came to fruition after they signed to Planet Function Records in the UK. Its backstory has been well-documented, but when all is said and done, there will be no doubt left that Build Me A Swan was nothing short of thrilling. The quintet are about three times more powerful live than they are on record – believe me, a chance to go see them in a live setting is not to be sniffed at – but that’s not to say the album wasn’t up to the mark. It was, quite comfortably so: the singles, clarion-call We the People and euphoric Drifting (Take A Walk Inside) were merely the tip of the iceberg; the album revealed itself to be expansive and dynamic, packed full of sweeping melodies (Slowdive, Blinded) and spine-tingling intensity, as on Movement and Dark Horizon.
Stream Build Me A Swan; buy it here.
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Q4 – October to December 2011 – Youth Lagoon – The Year of Hibernation
Sometimes, albums come along that will not yield on their first, third, or even fifth, listen; they require real work, the fruits of the listener’s endeavours remaining just out of reach until that wonderful moment when everything falls into place and an epiphany occurs. I had not originally considered Youth Lagoon’s The Year of Hibernation for inclusion in my honourable mentions of the year, but I listened to it again this morning and had a bit of a moment. It’s a truly beautiful album that contains some of the most haunting songs of the year, and the marvelous three-song run that encompasses July, Montana and Posters will surely provoke some form of response from even the hardest of hearts. In a year where plenty of new talents have established themselves, 22-year-old Trevor Powers has stolen a march on pretty much everyone else.
Stream The Year of Hibernation via The Wave Breakers; buy it here.