There’s really a lot to like about December: Religious turned secular festivities (Christmas and Hanukkah), New Year’s Eve, Candy Canes, the overuse of the colours red and white. But for all that I like about Christmas, I must admit that my favourite part about this time of the year is making my Best of *year* lists.
It’s a great time because the Winter break really allows for you to take some time off, pause, and think “man, what was awesome this year and what was completely awful?” It’s a reflection process that turns into an informative piece about just HOW was the year. So, I shall no longer wait; it’s time to assess what has been great in the last year for music.
However, before I start into my lists, I think it is important to pause and just recap what this year has been like for the music scene and set the perimeters for what I’ll be analyzing. I think that it’s important to say that I obviously approach my music listening from a certain grounding that privileges “indie” music artists. Outside of the world of hip-hop, I find that I do not generally listen to much music that would be played on mainstream radio. That being said, there are obviously some great and amazing songs that make it to the radio, but you will never ever hear me praising the Black Eyed Peas or any other run of the mill, copper penny in a world of copper pennies, boring generic rock or hip-hop acts.
Okay, now that we generally know what my bias is, I think we can talk about the year in music. I will be focusing on two main themes in my analysis: the first would be that this was an uncharacteristically great year for hip-hop, really proven with the release of Kanye’s new album; the second would be that artists who we have already classified as being great have continued to release more quality albums.
This year really saw the reinvigoration of the hip-hop genre. There have been some solid albums in the last few years but I can confidently say that there has not been this many solid hip-hop releases in one year since at least 2004 (such as Madvillain’s – Madvillainy, Kanye – College Dropout, M.I.A. – Arular, Dizzee Rascal – Showtime). This year basically delivered hip-hop albums that could easily make the top 10 list for best albums in the following year, without a doubt.
Das Racist’s emergence onto the hip-hop scene with the release of two mixtapes, Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man, brought a new voice onto the hip-hop scene, one that basically tore down the conventions of rap music while paradoxically praising them at the same time. Their first single “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” just really polarized everyone’s opinion of them when it came out last year. Are these guys serious rappers? Is this song mindless nonsense or a critique of consumer culture, meaning that all we can talk about is consumer culture? These two mixtapes should put everyone’s mind at ease to show how incredibly intelligent and witty this group is. They’ll make you laugh out loud (“Puerto Rican Cousins”), cleverly insult hip-hop music (“Fake Patois”) and then make you question how serious they really are about everything (“Hahaha jk”: “We’re not joking / Just joking / We are joking / Just joking / We’re not joking”), and drop a plethora of pop culture references in one song that would Ben Mulroney to shame. They’ve got some serious musical credibility to back up their big boasts with a lot of big name producers, such as Diplo and El-P, assisting them on the mixtapes. If you haven’t checked them out yet, I really suggest you get ready for the most interesting and unique hip-hop act you’ll have heard in a while.
On the more standard hip-hop fare, Kanye West and Big Boi have both released long awaited albums that may very well be the albums of their careers, well at least more certainly for Kanye. Both albums share a lot of hype: Kanye West had been making us anticipate in his album ever since he began posting his first Good Friday releases, and Big Boi had taken a while to get approval for his album to come through. When both albums dropped, they were like bombshells in the music world, and probably for good reason. Both albums are impeccably produced and just sound so dense, layered and full. The guest stars on both albums are pretty tight for the most part, but obviously the main artists shine through. I don’t really want to get too far into this but it should be said that both of these albums really demand a listen.
Anyways, for my list I’ve decided to not go with a standard ranking format but rather stick with a tier format. The one exception is that I will post my one favourite album this year that exceeds the rest for me. There are a couple albums I really need to give a better listen to (Sufjan, Deerhunter, Best Coast) so they will not be on this list. Anyways, enjoy! And have a merry Christmas!
My Top 25 Favourite Albums:
My Favourite Album:
- The National – High Violet
Killer Albums:
- Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son of Chico Dusty
- Das Racist – Sit Down, Man
- Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
- Robyn – Body Talk
Awesome Albums:
- Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
- Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
- Vampire Weekend – Contra
- Beach House – Teen Dream
Solid Albums:
- Sleigh Bells – Treats
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
- Foals – Total Life Forever
- Wolf Parade – Expo 86
Great Albums:
- Das Racist – Shut Up, Dude
- The Black Keys – Brothers
- Owen Pallett – Heartland
- The Walkmen – Lisbon
- Surfer Blood – Astrocoast
Good Albums:
- Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
- Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP
- LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
- Shugo Tokumaru – Port Entropy
- Menomena – Mines
