Samstag, 31. Dez 2011, 17:10

25. Nico Muhly - Seeing is Believing
24. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
23. Simon Curtis - R∆
22. Foster the People - Torches
21. Tom Vek - Leizure Seizure
20. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
19. Rebecca Ferguson - Heaven
18. Lady GaGa - Born This Way
17. Wynter Gordon - With The Music I Die
16. Neon Indian - Era Extraña
15. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
14. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
13. Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia
12. Sneaky Sound System - From Here To Anywhere
11. Friendly Fires - Pala

10. Penguin Prison - Penguin Prison
Penguin Prison had been trickling out material over what seemed like at least a couple of years, and probably remains even now better known as a remixer. So this is, perhaps, the unheralded triumph of the year. The gradual builds of synth beats and electronic percussion melodies isn't dissimilar from his style of remixing, but these tracks are perfectly crafted pop songs that peak, as they should, in choruses that are sharp and punchy. Penguin's vocals are sleek, smooth recall the likes of Prince and Phil Oakey of the 1980s, but the music here makes a thoroughly modern product of its shimmering funk.
Essential track: Pinocchio

09. The Weeknd - House of Balloons
The Weeknd's intoxicating mixture of eerie echo and explicit lyricism captured him a great deal of attention this year. Still the finest of his three mixtapes, House of Balloons, the first, had me fully ensnared from the moment Aaliyah made a ghostly appearance on the second track. Such a sample is emblematic of the album's overall feeling - a record that is lyrically simple and often rather crude, but that is constructed with such a deep, rhythmic soundscape that it reverberates throughout your entire body.
Essential track: House of Balloons - Glass Table Girls

08. Will Young - Echoes
Echoes wasn't the storming dance classic that his collaboration with Groove Armada, History, set him up for, but it is perhaps a more realistic evocation of the man himself. Always, as you might expect from the winner of a vocal competition, an appealing vocalist, Young here finally couples it with a set of tracks that really spark into a winning combination of smooth, glimmering synth melodies. While it runs an emotional gamut, there's a strong sense of contentment in the confident style Young delivers these feelings - an artist, finally, who has found material to match him.
Essential track: Runaway

07. Cher Lloyd - Sticks + Stones
Short, and sweeter than you might imagine, Cher Lloyd managed to reap the very best of what SyCo had to offer. The infamous Swagger Jagger may have grated on nearly everyone, but Playa Boi swags Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance with such exuberant panache that suggests Lloyd is more clued-up that she gets credit for. Sticks + Stones incorporates all potshots at her public image and uses them as party tricks, playfully accepting them through buoyant pop melodies. Inexplicably, an X Factor act has delivered an album that embraces everything people appreciated them for, while also crafting a distinctive and lively pop career.
Essential track: Playa Boi

06. Washed Out - Within and Without
Chillwave is oddly named, as the better examples of it always effect me on a physical level that is anything but relaxed. The soundscapes of Washed Out's first full-length record do settle into the kind of otherworldly grooves that are easy to slide into, but the constant reverberations of the bouncing synths ultimately results in an unsettling vibration. There's some magic in Washed Out's mastery of these electronics, a kind of soundtrack to your unpopulated dreams, the images of beautiful vistas tinged in the sadness of memory.
Essential track: Before

05. Katy B - On A Mission
One of my favourite memories from the past year was clutching my miniscule umbrella over the heads of four complete strangers in torrential rain, jumping up and down with complete abandon to Katy B at the Lovebox festival. Katy B's combination of pop and dubstep seemed to crystallise the general movement of the chart music scene itself, even if she herself never took off as expected. But there's an emotional keenness to the ordinariness of the scenes Katy describes here, swerving between caustic romantic tangles to dancefloor abandonment, and the mood captured in one of a moonlit London street, the sound of revellers faded around the corner. Keep it loud, and carry on home.
Essential track: Go Away

04. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Kate Bush's eerie collection of songs inspired by frozen precipitation takes a while to dig into, not least because the shortest track here is almost seven minutes long. But soon, it overcomes you like a black cloak, as if Kate has progressed from the ghostly white young woman to a creeping old witch. Physically, maybe not, but her voice has deepened, cracked, and her contributions here are of a morbid, desolate quality. She throws herself into a strange concept with full force, from the hilariously sinister egging on of Stephen Fry as he names those fifty words, to the despairing trudge of the duet with Elton John. It may prove one of her most rewarding recordings to date.
Essential track: Snowed In At Wheeler Street

03. Active Child - You Are All I See
Active Child's full-length debut begins with a multitude of shimmering strings, what seems like a whole troupe of harps being strummed to no apparent melody. You Are All I See is an immersive experience in a world you imagine behind an ornate mirror, your every step accompanied by beautiful orchestrations and the thin, floating, haunting vocals. It feels Celtic, and Oriental, feeling inspired by the most exotic moods of those backgrounds without ever feeling derivative of them. This is the sound of your brain floating into other dimensions, the impossible attraction of your subconscious stirring.
Essential track: Johnny Belinda

02. Gotye - Making Mirrors
Somebody That I Used To Know, the spearhead of Gotye's incredible success this year, is not at all representative of the astonishing breadth of the artist's third album. That breathtaking tale of a bitter break-up may remain the highlight here, but it is challenged by a set of tracks that encompass a variety of styles and attitudes that are threaded together by Gotye's vibrant delivery. Making Mirrors feels at once steeped in pop history and pleasingly fresh, with a kind of louche swing to its pleasures that make the more devastating moments (Don't Worry We'll Be Watching You hits hard from its shy dubstep crouch) even more powerful. Quite simply, this is the pop album of the year.
Essential track: State of the Art

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01. Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
When Mirrorwriting was released, it coincided with a job that required me to walk home after the midnight hour. The diffuse, ghostly soundscapes of Jamie Woon's heartfelt dubstep rang through my head as I trod down the bare streets, across the sodden leaves, looking out at the dewy grass and up at the vaguely visible stars. Great music is at its peak when it ties itself to your experiences, and so Mirrorwriting became the soundtrack to those walks, at its most vivid in that blue darkness, ghoulish sound effects vibrating through me. Who can tell if I would have fallen so hard for Mirrorwriting without those walks, although I suspect I might, as my propensity for dark, moody music has probably made itself clear across this list. Woon's vocals recall an unlikely counterpart, one Justin Timberlake, and often the beats of his music aren't too dissimilar from the dramatic Timbaland production of Justified. Woon is a great deal more sombre, but while the lingering mood of Mirrowriting is one of desolation, there is joy too, in the quiet genius of the enormous soundscapes and the sleek synth work. Every corner of this album contains new delights, and new emotions. Out of the finale, Waterfront, there emerges the faint glowing hope of dawn, reflecting on the still waters. After all, to write on the mirror, you have to carry on breathing.
Essential track: Night Air