Favorite Music of 2011

Adele - 21

I discovered Adele last year on Pandora, literally right before 21 was released and Rolling in the Deep EXPLODED. This album is expertly crafted and stunningly original yet with a sweet dose of American blues/soul nostalgia. Pretty incredible genre choice for a gal from Ol' Blighty (shocked when I heard her speaking to the audience on a live track with an English accent).

The lyrics on 21 are soaked in pain and longing, with sass and headstrong defiance riddled throughout. Adele's powerful voice can fill any venue to the brim, enveloping one's soul and rocking it back and forth like a sweet grandmother. The instrumentation on the album ranges from light acoustic guitar to solo piano to full-on blues/rock arrangements. It's a great listen in the car, on a turbulent, exhausting flight (had many of these this year) or in an amber lit lounge while sipping tea or a cocktail. Can't wait to see what she comes up with next. Bravo, Adele!

Florence and the Machine - Lungs

My good friend and premier musical resource Kyra K introduced me to this album back in the summer of 2010 but it wasn't until this year that I got Flo and the gang into heavy rotation. Since early 2011 I've listened to this album AT LEAST once every other day. It's one of those albums that gets deeper and more complex the more you listen to it. I daresay it is a masterpiece.

Moody and melodic with a fat dose of reverb, Lungs swings between delicate strings (harps, guitars, ukuleles) and pounding, merciless drums. I think my favorite thing about this album is its vastness, a product of all of the aforementioned elements, giving it an infectious, epic, even cinematic quality. Florence's lyrics are visceral and richly poetic, making a perfect pair with its backing instrumentation. My favorite tracks are Howl, Drumming Song, and Blinding, though the album is best consumed continuously from beginning to end, just like a great film.

Lungs has apparently been a hit in Europe for years now, unsurprisingly, as so many amazing musical acts are before they tend to fall on American ears. Florence, like Adele, is also a Brit, which begs the question: Why are the Europeans still making better American-sounding music than America? You'd think we'd have learned our lesson by now.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Yeah, it was probably one of the most popular albums of the year worldwide, and for good reason. I LOVE this album, and I don't care who knows it. To my ears, Katy Perry far exceeds any other mainstream pop music act out there at the moment. She has six singles off of this album alone and they are ALL good.

While some will get all high and mighty condemning her work - she doesn't write her own stuff, her range isn't that great, the album's lyrics convey all the wrong messages for our youth and serve to reinforce the ever-lingering misogyny of American culture... Listen- Katy Perry is American pop music at its best, far better than the Britneys or Gagas who don't even try to pretend that they aren't blatantly ripping off Madonna. We want a new voice, not a sequel, and Katy Perry is that voice.

The production value of Teenage Dream is off the scale (awesome synth work!), and the songs are catchy and highly listenable on repeat. Of the songs on the album that didn't turn out so well (there are admittedly a few on there), the track "Who Am I Living For?" is one that, I swear to you, in 2012 I will remix into metal MAYHEM. The thought of Katy's voice singing those lyrics over searing guitar-distorted chaos gets me verrrry excited. Stay tuned.

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

I honestly have no idea how I came across this album but I am very glad I did. It was apparently recorded entirely in a church in Iceland. It's literally like nothing I've ever heard before, and I mean NOTHING. Well- I suppose it gets kind of close to the fuzzy atmospheric strangeness of Flying Lotus and maybe a teeny bit of Boards of Canada, but Hecker surpasses both in mood and texture.

The best way I can describe Tim Hecker's music is a perfect sampling of reality (the core instrument is the church's pipe organ) that has been manipulated to sound as though the instruments used on the album wouldn't be found anywhere on this planet. If I had to conjure up a specific image to represent the work, I would pick some sort of perpetual hazy desert sunset, with undulating dust flying through the air, flirting with the formation of patterns before disintegrating again into dancing particulate streams.

You certainly have to be in a specific state of mind to listen to the album but it is not at all challenging. If you are a fan of successful experimental electronic (yet not electronic-sounding) music projects, I can't recommend this release enough.

William Orbit - Pieces in a Modern Style 1 & 2

I enjoy William Orbit's work because he doesn't shy away from reinterpretation of the classics and he doesn't mask the electronic-ness of his orchestration. Pieces in a Modern Style has become a somewhat disparate but very successful catch-all collection that ranges from well-known Bach pieces (Prelude to Cello Suite #1) to the traditional requiem mass In Paradisum, to the time-honored one-act Mascagni opera known as Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry), used most famously in the opening credits of the film Raging Bull. If you enjoy bite-sized classical pieces and electronic/classical crossover you will absolutely love these two albums. Great for any situation, especially on headphones for relaxing during a long day at work.

Hans Zimmer - Inception (score)

Last year I crowned Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's The Social Network score as cinematic music champion, but that was only because I'd given Hans Zimmer's Inception score short shrift. As 2011 wore on, TSN quickly receded into the background of my musical favor, eclipsed by my near-obsessive diet of Inception.

While I did indeed love Inception as a film, I didn't fully appreciate the score, with its hybrid orchestral/modern/synthesized approach, nearly as much as it deserved until I'd given it a true, exhaustive headphone listen. Fluid airy guitars, perfectly warbly Blade Runner-esque synthesizer progressions, serene string harmonies and gripping, mammoth brass hits bring this intense work of genius beyond the silver screen to stand on its own as one of my favorite albums of all time. Listen and listen again. And check out this amazing short film that repurposes the cue from the Inception score known as "Time":