Top 30 Albums of 2011: Part Three (10-1)

by Jonathan Doyle, Neil Karassik and Ken Stuebing

10. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Starting with 2007's White Chalk, PJ Harvey has stripped-down her sound to a streamlined delivery mechanism for her resolute voice. On Let England Shake, that voice delivers a powerful statement against war. I'm unaware of any artist who has attempted this kind of album since Neil Young's Living With War and, due respect to Uncle Neil, but Polly Jean blows him out of the water with her passion, vitriol and artistry. As beautiful as this album occasionally is, this is inherently challenging music that does not necessarily invite repeat plays. According to Harvey, the fruit of England/America's imperialism is orphaned children. On the chilling stomper, "The Words That Maketh Murder," she rhetorically references "Summertime Blues" by asking, "What if I take my problems to the United Nations?" This is not war as an abstract, but stinking flesh rotting in dirty fields -- and it's among the most important albums of the year. -- KS

9. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
2009’s Childish Prodigy should have been the breakthrough that Smoke Ring For My Halo ultimately became for Kurt Vile, but this album’s gentler approach went a long way to exposing the skill of Vile’s songwriting. While his previous album was more expansive and adventurous, Smoke Ring features his strongest group of songs to date. Every track is memorable, offering something slightly different from what has preceded it. Often existing in counterpoint to the lyrics, the mood of the album is in constant flux: dreamy (“Baby’s Arms”), celebratory (“Jesus Fever”), defiant (“Puppet To The Man”), elegiac (“On Tour”), urgent (“Society is My Friend”) – and that’s just side one. Like a great concept album, Smoke Ring For My Halo has a definite emotional trajectory, which gives these tracks a cumulative force that they might otherwise lack. This kind of controlled precision is the last thing I would have predicted from Vile, but it now seems like the logical next step in his rapid evolution. -- JD
RELATED: Kurt Vile and The War on Drugs (2010) | Vintage Vile-ence (2011) | Woods and Kurt Vile at Lee's Palace (2011)

8. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
I was prepared to love this record based on the luminescent artwork alone. Happily, Eye Contact delivers thoroughly interesting music commensurate with the majesty gracing its cover. If anything, Gang Gang Dance's music has mellowed in recent years, leading to this, a highly engaging -- yet still innovative -- joyful cacophony. Neophytes can expect a dependably intricate beat, a nice wash of synthesized electronics and other weirdness, topped by Lizzi Bougatsos' compelling, oft-soaring vocals. In terms of exploratory far-outness, this is akin to the Flaming Lips's Embryonic. Of the two bands, GGD arguably have the edge by virtue of a daring singer whose sometimes childlike, sometimes sinister intonations suggest Kate Bush's more experimental accomplishments. The album starts strong with the slow-building, eleven-minute opener "Glass Jar," achieving instant celebration that never relents. -- KS
RELATED: Gang Gang Dance at The Horseshoe (2011)

7. Atlas Sound - Parallax
Like Woods, the prolific Bradford Cox is a staple of Media Party's top 30 lists. For the past three years, either his four-piece band (Deerhunter) or his more intimate solo outing (Atlas Sound) has cracked our top 10. With Parallax, the divide between Cox’s projects has become narrower. Unlike before, Atlas Sound’s third LP is more psychedelic pop than psychedelic noise-rock, which is both a good and bad thing. As a longtime fan of Cox’s more ambient experiments in rock (best represented in Deerhunter’s Cryptograms), it’s disappointing that this album lacks in lengthy, hypnotic harmonies. However, Cox’s ability to craft memorable and concise music is stronger than ever. -- NK
RELATED: Top 30 Albums of 2009 | Top 30 Albums of 2010 | Bradford Cox vs. Inflexible Security Guard | CONCERT REVIEW: Spoon and Deerhunter (2010) | Halcyon Daze (2010)

6. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic
Never lacking in witty lyrics and tasty guitar licks, Stephen Malkmus’ post-Pavement output has kept him on the stoner map while many of his contemporaries either faded into anonymity or embraced something more conventional. Mirror Traffic follows 2008’s equally rad Real Emotional Trash, but here Malkmus and the Jicks opt for a hookier sound without sacrificing their shaggy slacker appeal. Several songs resemble something that could have easily appeared on one of producer Beck’s own albums, yet each lively track has that trademark Malkmus sound recognizable from Pavement’s underrated gem, 1995’s Wowee Zowee. In fact, Mirror Traffic is one instrumental freak-out shy of taking you back to a mid-nineties college dorm room. -- NK
RELATED: GATEFOLDING, Vol. 10 | Pavemania! (2010) | Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks at The Phoenix (2011)

5. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
With only seven tracks, this might seem like a light offering from Bill Callahan, but these are dense songs that need to be experienced in their entirety. Callahan isn’t a slave to the repetition of traditional pop songwriting. Even when he repeats vocal melodies, he keeps layering in striking new instrumental flourishes -- from Hendrixian guitar theatrics to delicate flute and piano -- so that we experience each repetition as something new. The obvious stand-out is “America!,” which showcases the album’s tendency to marry the delicate and the aggressive, both musically and lyrically. Callahan also pays skillful tribute to the eccentric musical stylings of Joni Mitchell in tracks like “Universal Applicant.” But by the time you reach the conclusion of this album’s mournful final track (“One Fine Morning”), you realize that it’s futile to pick favorites. Taken as a whole, this is an enigmatic, haunting vision from one of indie rock's most sophisticated songsmiths. -- JD

4. Neon Indian - Era Extraña
If Neon Indian’s debut, Psychic Chasms, struck listeners as a little too lo-fi -- that album could be compared to worn-out cassettes and busted arcade machines -- Era Extraña is a step in the right direction. This album treats fans to something tighter and considerably grander, though they are also treated to the wistful audio swirls, trippy laser-beam effects and 8-bit sound bites that made his previous album so memorable. Like Psychic Chasms, Era Extraña is a vibrant synthesis of analog and digital sounds, but it's consistently groovier than before, with far more polished songwriting and inspired arrangements that are retro-futuristic bliss from the first level to the final boss. -- NK
RELATED: Top 30 Albums of 2009 | GATEFOLDING, Vol. 41 | Neon Indian at Lee's Palace (2011)

3. Real Estate - Days
Indie bands are often criticized for dialing things back to reach a broader audience when they follow up their beloved debut with a glossier sophomore effort. This is not the case with Real Estate, who previously gave us one of the best albums of 2009. This time they’ve outdone themselves, cementing their status as one of indie rock's most exciting stoner bands. Like their self-titled debut, Days moves at a languid pace and is filled with chilled-out harmonies and evocative lyrics. The trio never sacrifice the perfectly indulgent, lo-fi moments that earned them a sizable cult fan base two years ago. For that alone, Real Estate is the coolest indie rock jam band of the new millennium. -- NK
RELATED: Top 30 Albums of 2009 | Girls and Real Estate at El Mocambo (2009) | Real Estate, Woods and... Real Woods (2010) | What's Next For Real Estate? (2010) | Real Estate at The Opera House (2010)

2. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
Earlier in 2011, Adam Granduciel casually mentioned that The War on Drugs had an ambitious album planned for some time later in the year. As a result of this conversation -- and the band’s impressive previous releases (Wagonwheel Blues, Future Weather) -- 2011 quickly became the year of waiting for Slave Ambient. When the album finally arrived in August, it did not disappoint. While a few tracks are holdovers from Future Weather (in slightly different versions), Slave Ambient features an abundance of thrilling new material (“Best Night,” the sweeping “Come to the City,” several appropriately ambient digressions). Many listeners have invoked rock icons Bob Dylan and Tom Petty in relation to The War on Drugs, but the influence that comes through most clearly on this album is the missing link between those two figures: Byrds front-man, Roger McGuinn. But like several other bands on this list, The War on Drugs don't simply imitate the past, they sculpt it into another form -- to thrilling, hypnotic effect. -- JD
RELATED: Kurt Vile and The War on Drugs (2010) | Put Some Sauce On It (2011) | The War on Drugs at The Drake (2011)

1. Destroyer - Kaputt
For all the talk about this album’s dystopian (aka accurate) vision of the future, the actual feeling of the music is incredibly positive. By indulging all kinds of strange, even disreputable musical impulses (from saxophone to eighties synths) and allowing them to coexist, Kaputt plays like the work of many individuals, rather than a blanket of smooth musical compromise. One album has no right to have this many incredible songs -- “Poor in Love,” “Kaputt,” “Downtown” and “Song For America” comprise the most impressive mid-section of any album in recent memory -- and they all flow naturally form the spirit of inclusive teamwork at the album’s core. None of the individuals get lost in the sprawl and they are each given several moments to shine: a vaguely Edge-inspired guitar intrudes on “Poor in Love” (at 2:06) and synths similarly take over “Downtown” (at 1:58), creating two of the album's most memorable flourishes. But the undeniable highlight of Kaputt is its title track, which brings the album’s unusual array of sounds and instruments together in its most glorious expression of disparate music in solidarity. It’s a poignant reminder that real artistic innovation comes not from compromise and restraint, but from many strong voices in full articulation. -- JD
RELATED: Wall of Sound (2011)

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