Author: Faronheit Page 142 of 192

Top 50 Albums of 2011: #50-41
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #40-31
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #30-21
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #20-11

Well, we’ve made it! At long last, I’m extremely proud to present to you my Top 10 Albums of 2011. It’s been a long and arduous road to get to this point. If you’ve stuck with me through it all, let me just say how much I appreciate it. What you’ll find in the Top 10 below are the records I feel represent this past year in music the best. They went above and beyond the rest of the records I heard to hold a special place in my heart. One that I’ll probably forget about by the time this thing rolls around again next year. But for now, I hope you’ll enjoy this and maybe even discover something new from it as well. It’s been a pretty fun ride as far as music has gone this year, and it makes me wonder what 2012 will bring. I may have a post on that before the end of the year. We’ll see. As of this posting, I’m also set to take a small year-ending 2 week vacation, as I could use a little time away from updating this site every day. I hope your holidays are fantastic, and we’ll officially catch up in January. Should you be so inclined however, I may post a couple of pieces for you to glance at during said vacation. Keep an eye out. Alright, so without further ado, please enjoy this final piece of Listmas, my Top 10 Albums of 2011. Oh, but first, do yourself a favor and catch up with the rest of the list:

And now, for the last time this year, click past the jump to read My Top 10 Albums of 2011!

Pick Your Poison: Friday 12-16-11

On 12/16/2011

Asher Roth – Choices (ft. Action Bronson)

Just a friendly reminder to all of you regular enjoyers/downloaders of Pick Your Poison every day – the segment is going on vacation for a couple weeks. Well, only kind of. I still plan on unleashing a weekly (instead of daily) edition of Pick Your Poison through the end of 2011. Look for those on Fridays. In other words, the next Pick Your Poison segment you’ll see will show up on this site one week from today. It will probably be a little larger than normal, given the volume of music that gets sent to me on a daily basis. Speaking of which, today’s edition is a little larger too, just an extra little treat for your holiday season. Tracks I’ll recommend today come from Atmosphere, Neighborhood Children, Paper Diamond, Umpire and Yukon Blonde. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to have a listen to songs from The Submarines and Young Empires. Have a great week, we’ll catch up next Friday!

Atmosphere – Somebody, MN (ft. Kill the Vultures, Big Quarters & MaLLy)

Beni – Someone Just Like You (Style of Eye Remix)

The Concept – Gimme Twice

Drake – Crew Love (The Soundmen Re-Fix)

Gil Scott Heron – I’ll Take Care of You (Mighty Mouse Re-Work)

The Jealous Guys – Life

Neighborhood Children – Bang Urself

Paper Diamond – Better Things

Plastic Operator – Making It Right

Thomas Collins – Snowfall

Umpire – Supply Chins

With Lions – Touch the Sound (FIGO Remix)

Wowser Bowser – To the Pleasant Life!

Yukon Blonde – Choices

SOUNDCLOUD

Bear Driver – Let The Cold

Cheap Girls – Ruby

ColeenN – Identical Snowflakes

Hooky – K9

Miike Snow – Devil’s Work (Alex Metric Remix)

The Submarines – Shoelaces

Young Empires – White Doves

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 [#20-11]

On 12/15/2011

Top 50 Albums of 2011: #50-41
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #40-31
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #30-21

We are oh so close to the end of this countdown, you can almost taste it. Today’s dishing out of my Top 50 Albums #20-11 makes for a rather enticing bunch. There’s a great variety of styles among this group, including and not limited to punk rock, soft rock, indie pop, psychedelia, electronica, 90s revival, and folk. I love this kind of diversity. You’ll see when we get there, the Top 10 are just as diverse. For now, please enjoy this particular segment of the countdown, and familiarize yourself with the rest of the family by following the links below:

And now, click past the jump to read my Top 50 Albums of 2011: #20-11!

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 12-15-11

On 12/15/2011

Anya Marina – I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas

Have you been following along with Listmas this year? Last week we did my Top 50 Songs of 2011, and this week is all about the Top 50 Albums. You can read all the Listmas posts by clicking here. If you’d just like to read posts on my Top 50 Songs of the Year, click up this link. And of course the Top 50 Albums list can be found right here. Check them out, become familiar with them, know them and love them, hopefully as much as I do. Alright, let’s get to your Thursday edition of Pick Your Poison. I can give a hearty positive reaction to tracks from Bears, Capitol 6, Nneka and Run Dan Run. Andrew Weatherall’s remix of Cut Copy’s lengthy “Sun God” is quite exquisite as well. And hey, there’s a new song from Tennis available for streaming in the Soundcloud section.

Barry Adamson – Destination (Mush Remix)

Bears – Eleven A.M.

Boombox Saints – Get That

Build Us Airplanes – The Running Song

Capitol 6 – Fever

Cut Copy – Sun God (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Elephant Micah – If I Were A Surfer

The Fax – Mexico (LUST Remix)

Geoff Geis – All I Want For Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey cover)

Nneka – My Home

Nous Non Plus – J’en Ai Marre / Had Enough

PlantLife – Lovetoy (The Wonderful Sound of Induce! Remix)

Post War Years – All Eyes (James Yuill Remix)

Quiet Lights – No More Canyons (The Brutalist School Remix)

Run Dan Run – Box-Type Love

The Very Most – A Very Wombling Merry Christmas

SOUNDCLOUD

Clubfeet – Fall From Here

The Ghosts – Enough Time (Joe Cool Remix)

Tennis – Tears In The Typing Pool

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 [#30-21]

On 12/14/2011

Top 50 Albums of 2011: #50-41
Top 50 Albums of 2011: #40-31

Part of me wishes I had more time to write intros to these individual blocks of 10 albums. Ultimately, it’s the least important element of these countdowns, because the albums with numbers next to them are the real point. So I’m just going to leave this one short and sweet. Today we reach the halfway point in our countdown, then promptly move past it. With each passing day and number, my love for these records grows stronger. Writing about them again in little pieces for this bit of Listmas is a nice refreshing of perspectives I took any number of months ago. I hope you’re enjoying this so far. We’ve only got a couple days left. If you’d like to do some catching up, here’s a couple links to show you what you’ve missed.

And now, click past the jump to read my Top 50 Albums of 2011: #30-21!

Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 12-14-11

On 12/14/2011

Akira the Don – Nothing Lasts Forever (ft. Envy)

Happy Hump Day to you and yours. Hope you’re already preparing for the weekend. It’s been raining all day in Chicago, which when you think about it is a great thing. According to a rain/snow scale, were it cold enough to be snowing and not raining, there would have been close to a foot of snow on the ground by now. Instead, we get a mild rain. In fact, there’s been only a few tenths of an inch of snow that has fallen in and around the city over the last few weeks. The longer we can do without significant snowfall, the better, I say. Farmer’s Almanac predicted one of the snowiest winters in history. I pray they’re wrong, otherwise January and February are going to be meteorological massacres. Let’s get to today’s edition of Pick Your Poison then. I’ll recommend tracks from Blonds, Jerry Leger, Leonard Friend, The Lower 48 and Roomdance.

Baron Von Luxxury – Rosebud Was the Name of His Sled

Blonds – Kite
Blonds – Treasure Coast

Cairo Knife Fight – The Origin of Slaves

Jerry Leger – You Didn’t Bury Me Deep Enough

Laura Warshauer – I Love You, Mr. Grinch (Von Ukuf Remix)

Leonard Friend – Serious Music

The Lower 48 – Into the Woods

NO – Another Life

NOTAR – Reach (ft. Chris Carrabba) (Volts United Remix)

Outasight – Let’s Go

The Real Tuesday Weld vs. Lady Gaga – Polka Phaze

Roomdance – Silver Mine

Turn Off Your Television – Phony Doctors

SOUNDCLOUD

Ernest Gonzales – The Prudence of Evolution

Flashguns – Come and See The Lights

fun. – One Foot

Heksenketel – Opto

Michael Canitrot – Blue Collision

Tony Castles – Heart in the Pipes (KAUF Remix)

Set List: Wilco [Riviera Theatre; Chicago; 12/13/11]

On 12/14/2011

In chicago, live music, music

For those that don’t know, Wilco is in the midst of a 5 night residency in their home city of Chicago at the moment. They performed on Monday night at the Civic Opera House for Night 1. I was unable to get tickets to that show (or I should say, rejected the option of buying very, very bad seats), but was able to make it out for Night 2 at the Riviera Theatre. This isn’t a show review, and I’m not going to write one right now for a couple reasons. The first being we’re in the middle of Listmas here and I’m buried in things I have to write. The second is that there are still 3 more Wilco shows to go before the week ends. I will be attending two of those three. Next week, once all the Wilco shows in Chicago have wrapped up, I’ll throw something together that essentially recaps all of them. For now, I wanted those looking for it to have the set list for the Riviera show. Naturally, the new album “The Whole Love” was (and will remain) the focus for the time being, however what I find most interesting are the choices made outside of the new material. Will the band try and attempt vastly different set lists each of their 5 nights in Chicago? The Riviera show featured plenty of changes from the Civic Opera House one, so we shall see. I must say that I LOVE how much attention “A Ghost is Born” got, and whipping out little-heard songs like “I Must Be High” and “Just A Kid” (from the freaking Spongebob movie soundtrack) was truly inspired. Overall a spectacular night, to the point where they even made the typically horrid sound system of The Riv work some magic. Must’ve been because I was standing next to the soundboard. Anyways, I’ll have more info and some additional set lists from the Wilco shows on Friday and Sunday nights as well, not to mention a full writeup/recap coming early next week. Until then, here’s the set list from The Riv show.

Less Than You Think
Art of Almost
I Might
Black Moon
Bull Black Nova
Side with the Seeds
I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Born Alone
You Are My Face
Open Mind
Kamera
I Must Be High
I’m Always in Love
Capitol City
Handshake Drugs
Can’t Stand It
Dawned on Me
Hummingbird
\**ENCORE 1**/
Via Chicago
Whole Love
The Late Greats
Walken
Just A Kid
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
\**ENCORE 2**/
Reservations
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
I’m A Wheel

Pick Your Poison: Tuesday 12-13-11

On 12/13/2011

Beni – Zig Zags (ft. Via Tania)

Have you been checking out Listmas over this last week and a half? Last week we covered my Top 50 Songs of the Year. It was magical. All this week, we’re counting down my Top 50 Albums of the Year. It’s been fun so far, and if you’re not keeping an eye on it, I think you’re missing out. Otherwise, here’s your Tuesday edition of Pick Your Poison. I will recommend tracks from Beni, Dressy Bessy, Goodman Brown, Imbogodom, St. Even and Walter Rose (with Lucinda Williams). In the Soundcloud section, enjoy some audio streams from The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Mouse on Mars and Weekend.

The Correspondents – Cheating With You (Chucks Remix)

The Creepy Crawlies – Kick Yr Blues

Cuckoo Chaos – Just Ride It (Jamuel Saxon Remix)

Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters – Seasonal Suite No. 62

Dressy Bessy – Mr. Kringle’s

Fort Fairfield – Patience (ft. Cosima Lamberth)

Goodman Brown – Holidays

Heroes 4 Hire – First Priority (ft. Ruste Juxx)

Imbogodom – Heir Looms

Isidore – Reappearance

Sick Friend – The Draft Dodger

Soso – Who’s Gonna Love Me (Ghost Remix)

St. Even – Blinding Love

Walter Rose – Driving South (ft. Lucinda Williams)

SOUNDCLOUD

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Heart Attack

Azari & III – Reckless (With Your Love) [Tiga Remix]

Flow Machines – I Was Born On Christmas Day (Saint Etienne and Tim Burgess cover)

Mouse on Mars – Chordblocker, Cinnamon Toasted (feat. Steven Jo)

Weekend – The One You Want

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 [#40-31]

On 12/13/2011

Top 50 Albums of 2011: #50-41

Yesterday was a whole lot of fun, crossing off the bottom 10 albums on my Top 50 Albums of 2011 list. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Today we hit Part II, in which #40-31 will spike your blood sugar. If you’re reading this, I’ll now drop a “hint” for you as to what the #1 album might be, just to satisfy your curiosity. I’ve yet to find a publication, in print or online, that has agreed with my choice for Album of the Year. That doesn’t so much tell you what it is, but more like what it isn’t. There should be a good 5-6 records at least you can cross off as candidates for that top slot. Just another couple days and you’ll know the full story. Until then, please check out yesterday’s 10 albums if you have yet to do so. Here’s the link to that.

And now, click past the jump to read my Top 50 Albums of 2011: #40-31!

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Albums of 2011 [#50-41]

On 12/12/2011

Welcome my friends, to the second week of Listmas, and the first installment of my Top 50 Albums of the Year. To put it in the simplest terms possible, I love this list. I love everything on it and everything about it. In my opinion, it’s the finest list I’ve ever put together, the most balanced and well-ordered. I feel it truly encompasses the best of the best from 2011, and honestly I couldn’t always say that in previous years. I’ve always doubted myself in one aspect or another. To answer your next question, yes, I’m upset that there were a few albums that couldn’t quite make the cut. I set the limit at 50, because it seems to be the fairest and most encompassing number to use. Coming up with 50 wasn’t so much a problem, but 55 or 60 might have been. At the end of all this, I may include a couple of honorable mentions, but primarily what you’re seeing here is what you get, and I’ve only made one small adjustment from my initial first draft. So we’ll be going through the Top 50 Albums all this week, 10 each day, until we hit number one. I hope it makes for some excitement and a great read on your part, and I also hope you discover something new as well, even if the most voracious of music lovers might recognize every single one of these. And so we begin with #50-41 today. Click past the jump to read onward!

Pick Your Poison: Monday 12-12-11

On 12/12/2011

Albert Swarm – Familiarities

This is a warning. The warning is that this will be the last Monday edition of Pick Your Poison for 2011. In fact, this will be the last full week of Pick Your Poison for 2011 as well. Next week and the following week, otherwise known as the last two weeks of the year, Faronheit will be on a posting vacation, and that includes distribution of mp3s. That’s okay, plenty of other people are headed out of town or will be busy anyways. The music also kind of dries up for those couple weeks as well. I will be posting some music for you to download or stream during those weeks, but look for editions of Pick Your Poison to be reduced down to Fridays only. Then, starting the first week in January 2012, things return to normal. Consider yourselves warned, friends. Okay, now let’s tackle today’s normal-sized edition. I can recommend tracks from Cloud Nothings, Field Mouse, Lovers, Chicago’s own Meryll, Silverhawk, and to get festive, Yuzima doing a Christmas classic.

Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless

Field Mouse – You Guys Are Gonna Wake Up My Mom

I, Colossus – The Ocean

Johny Draper – Street Dream

Lovers – How Beautiful You Are

Meryll – Red, Brown, Cerulean Blue

Now, Now – Dead Oaks

Silverhawk – Class War

Sylver Tongue – Hook You Up

Thallie Ann Seenyen – Angel

Tim Carr – Enough
Tim Carr – Downtown Girls

Warning Light – Eventide Ladies

White Fold – End of Now

Yuzima – Winter Wonderland

SOUNDCLOUD

Albert Swarm – Recurring Dream (:papercutz Remix)

Heroin In Tahiti – Death Surf

Plushgun – I Like It (Buffetlibre Remix)

Rednek – They Call Me (Radio Mix)

RJ Thompson – Fables

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Songs of 2011 [#10-1]

The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #40-31
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #30-21
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #20-11

On 12/09/2011

In best songs 2011, listmas, lists, mp3, music

Well my friends, we’ve reached the end. The end of our countdown of the Top 50 Songs of the Year, that is. I pray you’ve enjoyed this recap thus far, as there’s been plenty of variety to hopefully satisfy tastes of all shapes and colors and ears. One of the things I wish I could have included more of on this particular countdown is hip hop, so I’d like to apologize for the lack of it. I don’t listen to a lot of hip hop, so that’s problem 1 right there, but also of the hip hop I did listen to, some I felt wasn’t quite good enough to qualify for this list (see: Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne) while others made it quite difficult to single out a particular track as being better or more special than the others (see: Shabazz Palaces). So there’s no hip hop to be found in the final 10 songs listed below. What we do have though are all really special to me in their own individual ways. There’s a touch of folk, some more traditional pop be it upbeat or balladry, a few flashes of experimental or undefined, a couple dance cuts, and the genre revival of the year, 90s alt-rock. I like to think that my pick for Song of the Year is a little bit controversial, in that I’ve barely seen any mentions of it in any year-end lists, but I also feel like my logic and justification of its placement are valid. I hope you will agree with me, or at least understand where I’m trying to come from. So let’s get into it, but in case you’ve missed the other 40 songs covered on this list, feel free to follow the links below to learn more:

Without further ado, click past the jump to see my Top 10 songs of 2011, complete with mp3s (where available) or audio streams.

Pick Your Poison: Friday 11-9-11

On 12/09/2011

Baron Bane – Love.Cure.All

Brrr! Chicago is in the midst of a cold front right now, and given that it’s December anyways, it makes the cold temperatures that much colder. When things don’t get above freezing for a couple days, it’s easy to get the blues (both emotionally and bodily). If you’re in a very chilly place, curl up indoors with the heat on, a cup of hot coffee, tea or chocolate, and watch some TV or a movie. Or you could try and warm your body up via alcohol. Whatever floats your boat, which by the way you shouldn’t be boating in freezing temperatures anyways. My point is, stay in or not, just try to avoid exposure to the elements. At least there’s no snow in Chicago. Best of luck if you’re dealing with that. Let’s have a look at the Friday edition of Pick Your Poison. Highlights today include tracks from Baron Bane, Dada Trash Collage, Dear Lions, Orienteers, Perfume Genius, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Sleeper Agent. In the Soundcloud section you’ll also find a great new cut from Band of Skull. That Young Magic song is pretty great too.

Dada Trash Collage – Fliers

Dear Lions – Out of Body

Doe Paoro – Can’t Leave You

Everett Parker – Central Station

The Jefferson – Tell Me Your Name

Luise Pop – Black Cat

One One Five Nine – Things Change (Manny’s Song)

Orienteers – Do You Hear What I Hear?

Ostblockschlampen – Bitches From Ostblock

Perfume Genius – All Waters

Rodrigo y Gabriela – Juan Loco (ft. CUBA)

Running in the Fog – Know When to Run

Secret Rivals – Once More With Heart (Alphabet Backward Remix)

Sleeper Agent – Not Never

SOUNDCLOUD

Åbe – Leland

Band of Skulls – Sweet Sour

Gigamesh – When You’re Dancing (Moullinex Remix)

Kathleen Edwards – Change The Sheets

Tennis Bafra – Knox Harrington

Young Magic – Sparkly

Listmas 2011: The Top 50 Songs of 2011 [#20-11]

The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #50-41
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #40-31
The Top 50 Songs of 2011: #30-21

On 12/08/2011

In best songs 2011, listmas, lists, mp3, music

Thanks for hanging in there so far as we do Listmas 2011 proper with yet another day of counting down my Top 50 Songs of 2011. If yesterday was all about getting eclectic, today is much more thematically in the direction of upbeat pop and dark psychedelia. At least a couple of these songs have been in commercials or other such media-related ventures outside of the scope of music. That doesn’t so much matter to me, primarily because I’ve been listening to all these songs before they showed up anywhere outside of an album. In cases like that, I invoke the right of “finders keepers” in an effort to say that the music swayed me, not the product it may have been attached to in an advertisement or TV show. I hope these songs are familiar to you for those exact same reasons, and if you haven’t heard them before now, well, here’s your chance to make such a discovery. I hope this list has helped you find something new you may have missed earlier in the year. Speaking of things you may have missed earlier, have you checked out the first 3 installments of this Top 50 Songs of 2011 countdown? Here are the links so you can catch up:

And now, click past the jump to learn about songs #20-11, complete with mp3s (when available) or audio streams.

Pick Your Poison: Thursday 11-8-11

On 12/08/2011