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I'm not sure why I'm missing half the blurbs in the Word document I have but fwiw:
- Spoiler:
- #40. James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
SOMB says: "So I'm in bed right now, wearing nothing but a lacy, racy pair of Jack Jones boxer shorts with a Philip Glass LP chilling me gently to a sleep where hopefully I'll dream of Heather Watson in white lingerie (just been watching the Australian Open, solid 9/10 rack I'd say) or of me hitting the winning shot at Wimbledon and giving the Queen a passionate embrace. I've just logged on to the SOMB and been harassed about a blurb I forgot to write, so here's something I knocked up. And put it this way, it's not the only thing that's ever been knocked up between my sheets.
But enough of trivialities, I'm here to talk about a song. And the trivialities are merely contexualisations, as I have in fact listened to this song many times while reclining on my Egyptian cotton sheets to get my thirteen hours of beauty sleep. It's one of those songs that's repetitive and ambient enough to work as background 'dinner party' music or sleep music yet relentless and beautiful enough to move you if you listen intently to every note (not that there are that many). It's simple, it's minimal, it's gorgeous, it's very sad, and even though Blake's Dad actually wrote it in 1974 I still think it's the best single in 2011. Nothing touched it for me, and I felt the full emotional weight of it many times. It came just at the right point in my life. And things are used to coming at the right time on my mattress. I'll stop now." -- Waves Within
#39. Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever
SOMB says: "“Jesus Fever” isn’t my favorite song on Smoke Ring for My Halo. That honor probably resides with “Runner Ups” or maybe “Baby’s Arms.” But “Jesus Fever” is the moment on the album when you know you’re in good hands—that you’re in for a really pleasant ride. “Baby’s Arms” sets the stage and sucks you in. “Jesus Fever” lets you know there’s plenty more where that came from. On Smoke Ring for My Halo, Kurt Vile proved that he’s adept at writing great songs using some of the most tried and true influences in rock music. There’s some Lou Reed here, some Bob Dylan there. And in interviews he makes it very clear that he gets it—he understands where his music comes from (his favorite album is On the Beach and he’s happy to talk about why he loves Crazy Horse). Kurt Vile and his band play through “Jesus Fever” with the same sort of self-assured air of the artists he credits as inspirational. That jangly guitar riff and the insistent drum machine in the background propel the song forward and give it a bouncy beat and breezy vibe. If anything, “Jesus Fever” reminds me of some of those sad-sounding but almost infuriatingly catchy songs that Jeff Tweedy used to churn out before he got clean. If you thought we didn’t need another artist who mines this same well, think again. Smoke Ring for My Halo is full of pitch-perfect and essential songs written by a gifted and prolific songwriter who’s just getting started and rapidly coming into his own." -- Pat Sansone
#38. Metronomy - The Bay / The Bay (Errol Alkan remix)
SOMB says: "2011 was a strange year weather wise once again in Blighty, once again no real summer to speak of in the normal months of June-August but a record busting October and way above average April meant it was the second hottest year on record.
What has this got to do with 'The Bay'? Well simply put having what should have been summer book-ended by what passed for summer meant that the release of Metronomy's Mercury nominated The English Riviera chock full of NME music was transferred into the soundtrack of the summer on release and was back again while we took in the heat in early October luxuriating on the South Coast, it's four top notch singles from the ear worm of 'The Look' which dominated toe-tapping flip-flops at Glastonbury this year to the opulent video to lead single 'She Wants' and the summer kiss off of 'Everything Goes My Way' in October they had a single for every moment, except the summer that didn't come. This is where 'The Bay' comes in.
In the same way that Joseph Mount doesn't look like the kind of bro that should be acting like that in the video, he looks like someone who should be nursing a local brewed ale in a boozer slightly off Chalk Farm Road. Torbay is The English Riviera, it has some palm trees and a good amount of sunshine each year, but it isn't the Côte d'Azur, Riviera ligure or as worthy of rhapsodising as California through popular song. That's what makes it so good though, not just the cooed "so good" or that liquid bass that permeates throughout, or the Erol Alkan's Extended Rework which seems to slow down time. It's the fact that a guy who doesn't look like he should be in a video like that, making music like this, about a place that doesn't seem like it deserves music like this released during a summer that didn't happen when it should have done.
I don't think you can more willfully imperfect that that." -- Mitchell
#37. Lykke Li - Sadness is a Blessing
SOMB says: " Every year there’s at least (AT LEAST!) one entry into the “#BeMyBabyBeatCollection”. Invariably, you hear the intro, recognize it immediately and hope the artist did it justice. It’s so prevalent in recorded music that the Wikipedia Page on it is hardly representative, and this specific song in question isn’t even included (someone get on that…undo? Mitchell? Utz? Ace? …I know you’re reading). I suppose *technically* someone is pounding on a big piano chord for the first note, but whatever. It’s not the first note that makes it iconic.
Lykke Li introduces perhaps the most emo entry on the list. Remember emo? When was the last time someone said emo? I just wanted to say emo, sorry. This chick is devastated. She is fraught and lost, and has reached such depths as to call Sadness her boyfriend. What a great fucking line. Like she heard CSS years back tell us that music was their hot hot sex, music was their girlfriend, and she let this rattle around her skull in her cold Scandinavian cabin where I’m sure she locked herself up for months when it was time to compose Wounded Rhymes, and she eventually says to herself, “lovefoxxx, girl, I got you beat. Hey, ‘beat!’ that gives me an idea, because there’s really only one definitive beat in the whole world.” I guess she says that lovefoxxx, actually. Also, she doesn’t actually talk like that. Oh, she lives in LA now? Whatever. When your character was built in Ystad, Sweden, it doesn’t matter where you live. You’ll always be an ice queen.
48 years after its initial use, the beat clearly sounds best when its linked to longing and wanting. Pleading, asking, begging. Ronnie sang it about a love yet to happen, it was hopeful and optimistic. Presumably, Lykke’s is about a love that has ended. Ended for half of the party, at least. The other half, Lykke’s half, lingers, haunting her. Which is okay with us, her half is the more important one. It brought us the centerpiece on this beautifully forlorn album. Sadness, most definitely a blessing. Thanks Lykke, you did it justice." -- without_opinion
#36. Wilco - I Might / I Love My Label
SOMB says: "The naysayers might have written Wilco off after two disappointing albums, but listen to the first few seconds of "I Might" and suddenly... "They're baaaaaaaack!" :sunglasses:
Is it the great guitarwork, courtesy of Nels Cline? Glenn Kotche's fine drumming? The steady basswork of Pat Sansone? Or the pained lyrics of Jeff Tweedy, who, in a perfect world, would be ruling Rock City in 2011? Alas, the whole band came together for one perfect song that can't be denied. In a year where Nickleback ruled the charts, Wilco ruled our hearts. -- Buttfucker
#35. Drake - Marvins Room
SOMB says:
#34. Iron & Wine - Tree By the River
SOMB says: "So, my favourite mystery of 2011 was what exactly Sam Beam was singing in this song. Is it what I always heard/liked/made the most sense to me that he means the world "to a potty-mouth girl"? Or does he mean the world to the much more puzzling "parted-mouth girl"? How can a mouth be parted? Is it like a hair-lip? Potty-mouth girl sounds more appealing, like one girl I used to like who when perturbed, by something as insignificant as missing a TV show or something as major as missing an appointment, would exclaim "Shitfuck" and it was pretty cute because she was pretty cute unless you got bogged down and focused on insignificant details like the fact that, taken at face value, "shitfuck" is actually kind of a gross combination of words and no practice of "shitfucking" could ever be something cute.
But, this song is a good one, sounding to my ears like one of those good pop songs that would come on the AM radio all the time when I was a little kid in the 80s and being driven to school and I would try to put together with my limited experience what the words would mean ("What's a private dancer?" "Why is he dancing in the dark?" "What's a crocodile rock?"...I still don't have the answers to those questions). And I'm pretty sure, even at 5 or 6 or 7 (I know I was listening to Phil Collins at 7, I have a French journal somewhere of a self-portrait of myself with headphones on listening to Phil Collins...little has changed), I would have understood Sam Beam meaning the world to a potty-mouthed girl, but not a parted-mouth girl.
If you only know Iron & Wine as the beardy whisper-folk guy who was once an indie darling until his music got used in movies and Skittles commercials and everyone who's everyone kinda started to hate him, you should probably give this one a shot because it's just a solid little pop song and you wouldn't be expecting this to be so upbeat or charming and lovable. And you wouldn't really expect that subdued Woo-hoo-ooo-ooo at the 1:10 mark, or the slightly less subdued one at the 1:25 mark, and you really wouldn't expect the crazy Wowwwwww-howwwww at the 3:12 mark.
Lastly, the song is that rare song you can put on mixes/iPods for your friend who never really got into music obssessively, or that girl who is really into Lady Gaga, or your always-one-step-ahead-of-you-in-being-hip younger brother, or your sister who pretty much thinks music peaked sometime in the late 90s, or the Dad who really only listens to Taylor Swift nowadays, or the mother who hasn't bought an album since Elton John's Greatest Hits in the 70s and not only have none of them dismiss it out of hand but have all of them tap their toes along with it because it's really just one of the best, if not the best, catchiest songs of the entire year that if I'm being honest with myself, really should have been my #1." -- caley
#33. The Rapture - How Deep is Your Love?
SOMB says:
-- RoBKoZ
#32. The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
SOMB says:-- pigfuck
#31. PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder / The Big Guns Called Me Back
SOMB says:
-- Mitchell
#30. Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar / Mindkilla
SOMB says: "'Glass Jar' is one giant tease. It might begin with "I can see everything; it’s everything time." But that’s bullshit; everything time won’t happen for another six minutes. The first three minutes of the song swirl around with little momentum. It feels like something is happening as a vibraphone swoops in at minute 2:30 – but that feeling subsides as the percussion abandons ship a little after three minutes as cymbal rolls fill in for actual beats.
Then something starts to happen at minute 3:30. A synth line trickles in. And hold on, we have actual drums at minute 4:00. And then… well we build. We swirl. Maybe we cut a caper or two. I’m sure various band members take a bathroom break. Gang Gang Dance are just are still just teasing us. He we are a full six minutes into the song and we are just lounging around, waiting for the party to begin.
And damn, does it ever. At 6:15 we get an actual beat; twenty seconds later we have real vocals – who cares that I have no idea what is being song. It feels so sexy and slinky to be in the song at this point. It’s everything time.
As the song sprints to its conclusion, all I want to do is get ready to start the song over and see if the build-up is just as prolonged the next time. Maybe next time it will feel shorter. Maybe next time it will make more sense. It never does - which somehow makes the song even more satisfying each time you listen to it." -- The Luscious Phil
#29. Flo Rida - Good Feeling
SOMB says: "Flo Rida's a guy who's never really been on my radar. When he first turned up, I remember making jokes about his name ("Flo Rida, cuz he's from Florida, get it?"), making jokes about his weirdly-shaped head (Which on a scale of weird rapper heads was nowhere near as weird as Rich Boy's but still weird, until he got a hair-cut, now he looks pretty much normal) and how friggin' terrible that 'Right Round' song was and still kind of is (Of course, I didn't like it by Dead or Alive, either). It wasn't until he sampled that "Blue daboo dee daboo die" song that I thought he might not be completely terrible (As a complete aside, I once had a friend who thought that the lyrics to that Eiffel 65 song were "I'm blue, I will bleed, I will die" which has now forever changed the way I view that song).
Then THIS song comes out and it's just goddamn undeniable. The first time I heard it, it was instantly stuck in my brain and I had to have it. And I looked it up to see if it was something that was a year or so old that I just missed out on but it was brand new and the consensus was that it was crap because it was ripping off some electronic dude's original version of it (Which is okay, but not nearly as good as this one) and I knew it would be high on my singles list even though I'd only heard it once. It's just so good. Big, pounding beat, Etta James sample and it's the rare song that feels exactly like its name. It's just hard not to feel good while listening to 'Good Feeling'. I think this will be playing at sports arenas for years to come every time a mascot wants people to dance so they can be on the JumboTron and everyone will eventually sort of dig when it comes on until it's just too much and becomes the 'Cotton-Eyed Joe' for the new generation. But, until that time, let's all just have a good time and listen to it.
Also, I have to award bonus points for the music video. First of all, most pretty boy male singers come up with some sort of weak music video plot to excuse their being shirtless in the video ("It''s a concept video about me having to have sex all the time...trust me!") but Flo Rida is just like "Look at how good I look!" and running around, lifting weights, doing cardio so we can all admire his physique. Secondly, he owns a Tron Bike. A Tron Bike. The man rides a goddamn Tron Bike, how can you not vote for him?!" -- caley
#28. Class Actress - Weekend
SOMB says: "Years ago, when Sound Opinions Message Board member HartsyThaiFood (he might’ve been Uncle Grimacy McPurple or one of his other incarnations at that point) was leaving college and entering the 9 to 5 world of office life, we had a conversation about what that transition was like. I don’t recall if this was an online or offline conversation, but I said something to the effect of “after a point, the weeks are all the same. Some are busy, some aren’t. The months change and the seasons change, but unless you’re in the perfect fit job where you truly love what you are doing, you aren’t exactly making memories on the weekdays. You probably fall into a routine, and what keeps things exciting and keeps you engaged are the things you fill your weekends with.” That is incredibly paraphrased, I sure didn’t bother looking to see if I had this advice written down. I have no idea if I meant it to sound as depressing as it does, or if it even is depressing based on your read of it.
Several years later (or maybe even just a few months later…I don’t know, I drink quite a bit and my memory of timelines is hazy) Uncle O’Grimacy mentioned that was a piece of advice that stuck with him, because of how true it turned out to be for him. I don’t know if he meant his response to sound as depressing as it does, or if it even comes off as being depressing. I’m not entirely sure it’s even a bad thing, at least if you’re filling your weekends with things that are awesome and fulfilling.
One of those things awesome and (hopefully) fulfilling is a new love. The kind where the two of you long for hours without commitments and responsibility so you can commit to irresponsibility. Those times exist on the weekend. Add some sweetly produced synths to go along with those times and some coyly sung lyrics, and you have Class Actress’s “Weekend”. Separation on weekdays from the one person or one thing permeating your thoughts and daydreams make those minutes and hours tick by slowly. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So bring it on, bring it on the Weekend." -- without_opinion
#27. Patrick Wolf - The City
SOMB says:
Sun drenched.
Won't let this city destroy us
Even if you haven’t seen the video for "The City" with all the lovely hipsters playing on a beach, this song is filled with beams of sun.
Won't let the city destroy our love
A happy romp through the sand declaring everlasting love to someone.
Won't let no mistake take the roof from off our heads
Through thick and thin, through debts, hard times love will survive.
Wanna see you top top top top of the morning
After a year of some downer albums,
Not about the debts you made
where I declared Bill Callahan’s Apocalypse my album of the summer,
The car we never had
it’s nice to be able to bop my head along to a danceable uplifting number about love that can make it.
The house we never owned
Think The Cure’s "Lovesong" but poppier.
Darling don't look so sad
The Talking Head’s "People Like Us" but universal.
It's about that day we kissed
Wilco’s "You and I" but with balls.
Up by Niagara Falls
Patrick puts on his Elton John glasses and writes the perfect love anthem.
It's about the keys the keys the keys to my heart you hold -- b*derty
#26. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass (feat. Ester Dean)
SOMB says: "As is often the case, 2011 provided more than a few classic summer jams to soundtrack the good and bad times of our warmer months--”Sure Thing,” “Motivation,” “Kush Groove,” The Book of David, to name a few--but for my money none made a bigger splash nor reached as many speakers as did Nicki Minaj’s midtempo ode to cute guys and booming systems, “Super Bass.” Originally a bonus track off the deluxe version of her debut album, it wasn’t until both Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez unexpectedly cosigned the track that either label heads or radio djs took notice, but from that point forth it took on a life of its own, appearing practically anywhere and everywhere. Whether in a car or on public transportation, with my girl friends or my grade-school cousins, in the midwest or on the west coast, at bars, bbqs or parties, seemingly none could avoid that infectious “boom-ba-doom boom boom-ba-doom boom bass,” calling us forth to join in; to sing and dance and rap along.
It’s often assumed in music geek communities like this that nothing matters but the music, man, and that everything else is a facade, particularly if a major label is involved. But for me it’s just as often about the social aspects of listening to music--sharing a song with a friend, dancing to it at a party, chatting about its video on g-chat, etc.--that makes a song special. And In my world o’ people it hasn’t been since the likes of “Since U Been Gone” or maybe early Gaga that a song has appeared in such a range of contexts and audiences as “Super Bass” has. In a sense it represents a time capsule of the year for me, with each listen reminding me of different places and people and conversations I had throughout the last 12 months. Perhaps that says more about me than anything else, but I do feel like for an era in which the monoculture is presumed dead and pop culture is thought to be splintered across thousands of small niches across the internet, the seemingly universal nature of a song like this is noteworthy in of itself.
All that said, the music matters too, of course. And “Super Bass” ain’t no slouch. Made up of two impressive verses, a decent bridge, and a whole lot of chorus, the song is part hip hop, and part r&b, but more than either it’s delicious bubblegum pop that’s sticky and sweet and reminds you of how fun and confusing summer love can be. And that’s more than enough for me.
Did I mention it’s fun to sing along to?" -- stphone
#25. St. Vincent - Cruel
SOMB says:
#24. Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
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#23. Omar S - Here's Your Trance, Now Dance
SOMB says: "It's been almost a year since I walked out of my parents home. My dad pressed a wad of sweaty twenties into my hand, looked me in the eye and said those words that I'll never forget. "You're no son of mine. Get out." I turned to my mother. She covered her face and wept, evading my gaze either out of shame for myself or fear of my father's wrath. I picked up my duffel bag, stepped across the threshold of our front door, and never looked back.
I realized, standing on the porch that chilly, grey afternoon, that I was totally free. That the person I used to be, the lie that I told the world every day since I was twelve years old, was all in the past. I hit the road. In that moment, I was reborn. I reached into my pocket and fumbled with my iPod. There was but one song I needed to hear. Right this moment. My bulky gloves impaired my precision dialing as I searched through my library, but within moments my journey toward self-discovery had a new soundtrack. Hi-hats, handclaps, and that glorious melody... house music was all I had left, but it was all I needed. It was as if Omar-S himself was saying to me, "Here's your trance, Stephen. Now dance!"
How long had I been crying? Were they tears of sadness, or born of a newfound strength, sprouting like a seed deep inside my heart? I don't know what the future holds for me. I guess that goes for all of us. But one thing's for sure. Every day I my heart beats, every day I have the strength to take another step, I'm going to live my life like a dance. I think Omar would approve." -
#22. Adele - Rolling in the Deep / Rolling in the Deep (Jamie xx shuffle)
SOMB says:
#21. Burial - Street Halo EP
SOMB says: "I don’t know anything about this. Maybe this is a giant leap forward. To me it sounds exactly like Burial. Clearly not a bad thing, but many demand progress. I was gonna throw a sentence in here about how progress isn’t that big a deal when you’re pretty much occupying your own space, but I don’t really have enough frame of reference to know if that’s true of this particular artist. I do recall a few months ago looking at youTube comments of an Untrue track and half the kids on there complaining about the lack of a “drop,” and that this was some sort of dealbreaker, spending the entire song waiting for a “drop” that never came. Which is sort of comforting, knowing that a bunch of kids out there don’t really get it either, although there’s also I don’t know what in the hell a "drop" even is, so it’s not that much comfort. But back to Street Halo. I mean even that name you’d think could’ve been used on dozens of already existing Burial tracks. But then that seems a pretty essential quality to what he does. All of his songs just sound like they exist in the world, that they were never actually made, just discovered floating around in some underpass late at night by William Bevan. Like Street Halo doesn’t even seem like music, just the audible equivalent of staring out of the subway window as the train moves, with green pipes and blurred moisture stains on porous concrete and dim rhythmic florescent bulbs passing by as my head bobs back and forth. And maybe our world is filled with this kind of stuff and maybe Burial is just treading water here but if that’s the case I guess we’re not doing too bad out here." -- Duff.
#20. The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness
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#19. Bill Callahan - Riding For the Feeling
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#18. Blawan - Getting Me Down
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#17. Destroyer - Kaputt
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#16. 151 Feva Gang - Kush Groove
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#15. Radiohead - Lotus Flower / Lotus Flower (Jaques Greene remix)
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#14. Kanye West - All of the Lights (feat. Rihanna)
SOMB says:
#13. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
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#12. Laura Marling - Sophia
SOMB says:
#11. Gotye - Somebody I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra)
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#10. Fucked Up - Queen of Hearts
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#9. Deadboy - Here EP
SOMB says: "2011 was a massive year for dubstep and electronic music, thanks in no small part to Skrillex, who rose virtually overnight to become the face of a new generation of young producers bringing "EDM" to the masses. Of course, no small part of any story about the Prince of Wobble would be complete without mentioning his tenure in screamo mainstays From First to Last. Dancefloor purists may deride his records, but it's hard to deny that the man knows how to move a crowd.. Maybe every DJ should be required to spend a few years in a "real" band before hitting the boards? B)
Exhibit A: Deadboy's Here, in which the London producer follows up on the promise of a string of acclaimed singles to produce his finest work to date: 20 minutes of boundary-hopping bliss that positioned him at ground zero of UK bass, dubstep and funky royalty. While Deadboy himself has yet to conquer the mainstream in any Skrillex-like fashion, he's certainly in a position to make a run for it. So is it any surprise that, like Mr. Moore, he first honed his chops not in front of a laptop but on stage as part of a good old fashioned rock band? Deadboy & the Elephantmen never quite achieved the success of their garage rock peers, The White Stripes or The Black Keys, but it certainly wasn't for a lack of passion on their part. Although the group have seemingly been consigned to "buzz band" status since their inception, their riotous performances earned the band a reputation as a live act not to be missed. And although his transition to electronic music -- a move that left more than a few loyal fans confused -- certainly afforded him room for the sort of trial and error that he never had while playing with his original band, in pure rock fashion, he's efficiently decided to forgo the "error" half of the equation thus far. Like "U Cheated" and "If U Want Me," the three tracks on Here are prime-cut chunks of the dankest funk, hi-gloss hits that are simply boss. While electronic music seems headed to a saturation point, thanks in no small part to its ease of entry, it's good to remember that you can always count on a good dose of good old fashioned rawk to take a stagnant sound to the next level." --
#8. Jay Z & Kanye West - Niggas In Paris
SOMB says:
-- Duff.
#7. XXXY - You Always Start It / Ordinary Things
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#6. Tyler, the Creator - Yonkers
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#5. Lana Del Rey - Video Games / Blue Jeans
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#4. Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
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#3. Cut Copy - Need You Now
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#2. M83 - Midnight City
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#1. Azealia Banks - 212 (feat. Lazy Jay)
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Last edited by undo on Fri May 10, 2013 3:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
