top 100 of 2011: #1-10

1. M83 – “Midnight City”

Ever since I heard “Run Into Flowers” eight years ago, I’ve been fully subcribed to M83′s stargazing, towering synth landscapes. And they are landscapes – fast moving hills and cities and clouds glimpsed from the passenger side of a car moving to an unknown destination, awaiting wordless promises and terrors. “Midnight City” is an appropriate title, then. It’s a song that feels like a progression of everything that’s gone before – “Run Into Flowers,” “Don’t Save Us From the Flames,” “Kim and Jessie”, and now “Midnight City” are all part of a building narrative that’s as cohesive and inspiring as anything in music right now. The sax solo at the end is the perfect culmination of that narrative, and I believe it stands as one of the best solos of the past decade. We’re at the point now where it feels wrong to say that it’s “80′s-inspired” or “retro”, because something else is going on in the way we’re using the past to create the future. Like this song suggests, something is building as we wait and listen. It feels obscene to even put it into words.

2. Julia Holter – “Tragedy Finale”

Julia Holter’s Tragedy struck me like a bolt from heaven – I lived and breathed inside of it like few other records I heard this year. A friend said last night that it reminded him of Expressionist German cinema from the 20′s and 30′s, and I can see how that makes sense – there’s a sort of poetic severity to much of it, an off-kilter use of jarring silences and angular, jutting edges, and a sense of pointing to modernity rather than postmodernity in its conceit and ambitions. I’ll still need many listens before I can say more, but let’s not forget the most important aspect of this work – its emotional arc. This final act from the record is a parting, aching sigh from Goddess Phaedra in her last moments, as she commits suicide out of guilt and heartbreak:

“Could you shift my weight a little?
And prop my head straighter?
What I most want–what I have spoken aloud–is eating me alive.”

One of the most devastating things I’ve heard this year and any year.

3. Colin Stetson – “The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)”

This selection should just be read as “the whole Judges record” because there’s no way I could rightfully choose one song to represent it. This just happens to be the one that best showcases the blinding virtuosity on display. Keep in mind while you listen, this is essentially a live solo record – one man and his bass saxophone, no loopers, no overdubs. His technique is such a pleasure and a SHOCK to hear – there are sometimes 3 or 4 different harmonies and percussive taps pulsating through this lungs and voice and fingers, turning the instrument into a dazzling polyphonic whirlwind. He shouts through the instrument while playing, and his voice seems to come through in an otherwordly caterwaul on top of everything else. It all bounces off the walls in the studio, captured by several well-placed microphones, and listening with headphones we can hear different parts panning and swirling in the mix. Judges is a vision of hell and transcendence, and taken as a whole it’s the most singular and powerful work of the year. I’ve heard it said that Stetson’s unusual technique is doing a serious number on his body and stamina – who knows how much longer he’ll be able to keep up such exertion. Enjoy it now while you can. I plan to do whatever it takes to see him live.

4. Tim Hecker – “In The Fog”

The three parts of “In The Fog” stand as the glorious, moving centerpiece of Ravedeath 1972. Tim Hecker places us at the center of a massive glacial block of sound, built from chiming church organs, fed through leslie speakers and analog delay and distortion and acres of reverb, moving slowly and surely as the bass notes go directly to the heart. It builds with a grandiosity that Hecker’s always been reaching for and finally hits perfectly here. It grows and becomes frightening, uncomfortably cosmic, moving outside of sense and time. But there’s always a sense of pulse and movement underlying everything.

5. Dirty Beaches – “Lord Knows Best”

First, there’s that Francoise Hardy piano loop, possibly the single best sample of the year. Then there’s the thick atmosphere of Lynch, the wide open spaces of Badlands, the dark reimagining of Americana and the sound of road movie nightmares. Love-murder ballads dreaming of the underbelly of the 50′s.

6. Liturgy – “High Gold”

Whatever your opinion of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s asshole status – I happen to agree with his theories of where black metal should be headed, but still think he needs to give it a rest and let the music speak for itself – Liturgy’s Aesthetica is an undeniable force. The variation on blast beat that he calls “burst beat” is vital and insane and always, well, bursting forth with new surprises and unusual time changes; splintering the song into tiny little shards of glass over and over again. LIturgy stands with Krallice and a few others who are doing really inspiring things with the black metal form and creating music that sounds like a visceral ego obliteration straight out of Holy Mountain.

Liturgy – High Gold by Thrill Jockey Records

7. Grouper – “Alien Observer”

I don’t even want to cheapen this song by talking about it it does some things to me and that’s all I want to say

8. John Maus – “Believer”

I was never clear on how this record is a big political or anti-fascist statement or whatever. I just really appreciate that propulsive drumbeat and the stacks and stacks of foggy synths and that buried baritone sitting perfectly underneath. Clouds of ecstatic major chords 4ever please I’m a believer.

9. Balam Acab – “Apart”

Listen to this with some good subwoofers and feel that bassline in your ribcage. And those sincere, love-struck vocals that are pitched to the stratosphere. Wander/Wonder is hermetic, womb-like, dazed pop with more layers than anyone can grasp on first or even tenth listen. Deep stuff in every sense of the word.

10. Craft Spells – “After the Moment”

Maybe this should be ranked higher for catchiness and the sheer amount of times I listened to it. There were a lot of tries, but no one got the New Order vibe better this year than Craft Spells. Idle Labor is an underrated masterpiece and every song is a shining pop gem, but this one in particular keeps giving. Should be played at every prom in the country.

And that’s it, I guess! I hope you enjoyed my top 100 and discovered one or two new songs that rocked yr world.