Geographically speaking, I don’t think I could be further from Scotland and still be in the UK. You’d never guess that from reading this blog however, as Scottish acts seem to be dominating my tastes for the last few years. 2011 has been no exception, and four albums on this list have their roots firmly planted north of the borders. As well as being a year for Scots, 2011 appears to be the year of the Return To Form. In itself this is a good thing, as recent years have seen more disappointing highly-hyped albums than good ones, but it means there’s a higher than normal percentage of ‘old pros’ in this year’s list: amazingly, only one album on this list is a debut.
At this point an honourable mention ought to go Chris Thile and Michael Daves for their album Sleep With One Eye Open. The Hype Machine’s widget for compiling their annual Zietgeist list didn’t recognize the Jonnie Common record, so albums 9 and 10 got bumped up a place, meaning Thile and Daves were promoted to the number ten spot on my Hype Machine list, but didn’t make the top ten proper.
So without further ado, here is the moment you’ve all been waiting for since January; the official Eaten by Monsters blog Top Ten of 2010:
10. Making Mirrors by Gotye. I umm-ed and ah-ed about whether this one would make the cut or not, as it isn’t a perfect record by any standards, and at times it strays far from what I would normally consider to be tasteful. For all it’s occasional flaws however, when it’s good it’s very, very good. His duet with Kimbra on Somebody That I Used To Know is a particular highlight, and the album is worth owning purely on the strength of that track alone.
9. Mine Is Yours by Cold War Kids. This one is simply fantastic right from the very first seconds. Robbers and Coward, from back in 2006 (and particularly the track We Used To Vacation), earned Cold War Kids a fairly unassailable position of prestige in casa EbM, but 2008’s Loyalty to Loyalty didn’t quite live up to expectation. As a result, the return to form displayed in Mine Is Yours is all the more satisfying.
8. Master of None by Jonnie Common. Despite my taste for singer-songwriter-style songwriting with esoteric electronic noises, it seems to be a micro-genre that is very infrequently mastered. Many try and fail to marry the two almost-mutually-exclusive textures, so when it’s pulled off successfully I’m over the moon, and rarely will you hear it achieved with such aplomb and deftness of touch that’s displayed on Master of None. 7. The People’s Key by Bright Eyes. Even more than Cold War Kids, the team behind Bright Eyes – Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis et al – have been slipping off their game of late. As much as their early efforts number among my favourite albums of all time, Cassadaga just doesn’t sit well with me. By all accounts The People’s Key will be the last album to bear the ‘Bright Eyes’ label, and I’m sincerely relieved that they managed to get all cylinders firing for their swan song.
6. Virtue by Emmy the Great. The trouble with Emmy’s debut album, First Love, was that all the best songs had been floating around for ages before the album was conceived. What drew me to the early demos was the almost brutal juxtaposition of Emmy’s voice and her lyrical content, thrown into sharp relief by the decidedly amateurish nature of the recordings. The pristine album cuts, shorn of all their grit and viciousness, left the album itself sounding weak by comparison. With Virtue – her second full-length – the production is even slicker, but this time it’s a blessing and not a curse.
5. Codes and Keys by Death Cab For Cutie. The last of the returns-to-form in this list, and by now the story’s a familiar one: astounding early albums, a disappointing last record, and finally the triumph that we’ve been waiting for. Codes and Keys marks a return to the more studio-based recording approach that made the band’s best albums such complete joys to listen to and, surprise, surprise, it’s led to yet another fantastic album.
4. Diamond Mine by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins. The Mercury Prize nominations are always interesting from an academic viewpoint, but rarely – if ever – do they include an album that I’d include if I was compiling the list. Imagine my surprise, then, upon discovering that this year’s shortlist that included this KC gem. It’s not Kenny’s best record by a long way, but it’s testament to the strength of his other work that this sub-par effort nevertheless warrants a fourth place on this list.
3. Boots Met My Face by Admiral Fallow. I only discovered this album recently, having grown to love the track Squealing Pigs over a period of a few months, and it’s fast moved up the ranks of this year’s best albums. While technically this record had its first release last year, it was re-released back in March, so I’m claiming it as a 2011 record (if only because I’m ashamed to have missed it the first time around).
2. New Blood by Peter Gabriel. Last year’s Scratch My Back project saw Gabriel record orchestral covers of a host of popular songs, and while on paper that sounds like a heinous cringe-fest not fit for human consumption, it was actually rather impressive (although a few of the covers were as awful as the premise suggested, far more were haunting, effecting, moving and surprisingly powerful renditions). This year he gave the same treatment to his own back-catalogue and had even greater success. An assured and overwhelmingly impressive album, New Blood is a truly remarkable feat, especially coming from someone that I’d written off as having his best days long behind him.
1. Factorycraft by FOUND. For a long time now I’ve liked the idea of FOUND much more than I’ve liked their actual music. Heralded by reviewers far more familiar with the band than I as their most accessible record to date, they’re not wrong as I finally find myself loving FOUND’s music. Maybe my taste is more predictable and mainstream than I’d like to admit, but the only thing that really matters is that this is a simply super record.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
Well we’ve finally made it to the end, and it turns out these little single-song showcase posts have been quite popular; I’ll have to do it again sometime. Since Christmas is practically upon us now, I thought I’d better post what I consider to be the best Christmas song ever. In fact, this little number from The Very Foundation (courtesy of XO for the Holidays 2009 comp.) is a song that ought to be an all-time-top-song of mine, but it’s just so Christmasy that to listen to it outside of December would just feel wrong. As it is, I savour the short time that I can get away with playing it on almost constant repeat. Witty and at times ridiculous, yet always displaying a proper Christmas spirit (without ever descending into schmaltz), this is, in my view, the very best that Christmas music has to offer.
I hope all your day’s are merry and bright, and merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
Long and slow, yet haunting and atmospheric, this track is one of Jim White‘s best. In fact, No Such Place – the album this song was taken from – is a genuine classic, the overall strength of which means Christmas Day is often pushed into the shadows, and it’s only at this time of year that it gets the attention it so richly deserves.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
At this time of rejoicing and all-round general good cheer we ought to remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas. Better known for their work at the centre of modern folk mainstays Bellowhead, Spiers & Boden are on hand to set us straight with this tale of a callous, vain and hardhearted Jesus.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
Now we’re within sight of the finish line, it’s time to bring out the big guns; none of the songs in this festive selection have been anything less than good, but now is the time to take it up a notch. These last four tracks are not only great Christmas songs, but simply great songs, period. Withered Hand (a.k.a. Dan Willson) have (has) just released a new Christmas song on YouTube called Real Snow, but it’s their (his) home-recorded effort from a couple of years ago that really struck a chord with me.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
This is the penultimate XO for the Holidays entry in this festive collection, and what Piney Gir‘s Christmas track lacks in length it more than makes up for in seasonal cheer.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
The Casiotone For The Painfully Alone brand has been retired for over a year now, but that’s no reason not to enjoy this festive little ditty. A reason not to enjoy it would be the stark bleakness of the lyrics; I’m a big believer in the ‘cheer’ part of Christmas, but nevertheless there’s still a few less-than-cheerful numbers amongst my Christmas playlist, this being one of the more obvious examples.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
Another comic juxtaposition of joy (Christmas) and emotional turmoil (yesterday it was alcoholism, today it’s infidelity) for your delectation as we enter the final week of our festive countdown, this time courtesy of the ever-excellent They Might Be Giants.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
There are few things on this earth worse than John Denver, and while this song of his verges on being an out-and-out comedy number (with a markedly unfunny subject matter) the Decemberists‘ usual textural panache lifts their version far above its humble origins.
[There’s plenty of great Christmas songs out there, but most suffer terribly from over-exposure. To remedy that, EbM presents a selection of alternative Christmas songs.]
Christmas is a time when my rational, atheist mind turns to mush when confronted with all the trappings of the season. Thick dripping candles, vaulted ceilings, and the sheer power of carols that have been hardwired into my brain from an early age all come together to leave me very confused indeed. It’s in that spirit that I find the Branches adaptation of O Come All Ye Faithful (taken from their new EP Merry Christmas, available for free download) intensely haunting, despite the god-fearing, exultant nature of the lyrical content.
10. Making Mirrors by Gotye. I umm-ed and ah-ed about whether this one would make the cut or not, as it isn’t a perfect record by any standards, and at times it strays far from what I would normally consider to be tasteful. For all it’s occasional flaws however, when it’s good it’s very, very good. His duet with Kimbra on Somebody That I Used To Know is a particular highlight, and the album is worth owning purely on the strength of that track alone.
9. Mine Is Yours by Cold War Kids. This one is simply fantastic right from the very first seconds. Robbers and Coward, from back in 2006 (and particularly the track We Used To Vacation), earned Cold War Kids a fairly unassailable position of prestige in casa EbM, but 2008’s Loyalty to Loyalty didn’t quite live up to expectation. As a result, the return to form displayed in Mine Is Yours is all the more satisfying.
8. Master of None by Jonnie Common. Despite my taste for singer-songwriter-style songwriting with esoteric electronic noises, it seems to be a micro-genre that is very infrequently mastered. Many try and fail to marry the two almost-mutually-exclusive textures, so when it’s pulled off successfully I’m over the moon, and rarely will you hear it achieved with such aplomb and deftness of touch that’s displayed on Master of None.
7. The People’s Key by Bright Eyes. Even more than Cold War Kids, the team behind Bright Eyes – Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis et al – have been slipping off their game of late. As much as their early efforts number among my favourite albums of all time, Cassadaga just doesn’t sit well with me. By all accounts The People’s Key will be the last album to bear the ‘Bright Eyes’ label, and I’m sincerely relieved that they managed to get all cylinders firing for their swan song.
6. Virtue by Emmy the Great. The trouble with Emmy’s debut album, First Love, was that all the best songs had been floating around for ages before the album was conceived. What drew me to the early demos was the almost brutal juxtaposition of Emmy’s voice and her lyrical content, thrown into sharp relief by the decidedly amateurish nature of the recordings. The pristine album cuts, shorn of all their grit and viciousness, left the album itself sounding weak by comparison. With Virtue – her second full-length – the production is even slicker, but this time it’s a blessing and not a curse.
5. Codes and Keys by Death Cab For Cutie. The last of the returns-to-form in this list, and by now the story’s a familiar one: astounding early albums, a disappointing last record, and finally the triumph that we’ve been waiting for. Codes and Keys marks a return to the more studio-based recording approach that made the band’s best albums such complete joys to listen to and, surprise, surprise, it’s led to yet another fantastic album.
4. Diamond Mine by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins. The Mercury Prize nominations are always interesting from an academic viewpoint, but rarely – if ever – do they include an album that I’d include if I was compiling the list. Imagine my surprise, then, upon discovering that this year’s shortlist that included this KC gem. It’s not Kenny’s best record by a long way, but it’s testament to the strength of his other work that this sub-par effort nevertheless warrants a fourth place on this list.
3. Boots Met My Face by Admiral Fallow. I only discovered this album recently, having grown to love the track Squealing Pigs over a period of a few months, and it’s fast moved up the ranks of this year’s best albums. While technically this record had its first release last year, it was re-released back in March, so I’m claiming it as a 2011 record (if only because I’m ashamed to have missed it the first time around).
2. New Blood by Peter Gabriel. Last year’s Scratch My Back project saw Gabriel record orchestral covers of a host of popular songs, and while on paper that sounds like a heinous cringe-fest not fit for human consumption, it was actually rather impressive (although a few of the covers were as awful as the premise suggested, far more were haunting, effecting, moving and surprisingly powerful renditions). This year he gave the same treatment to his own back-catalogue and had even greater success. An assured and overwhelmingly impressive album, New Blood is a truly remarkable feat, especially coming from someone that I’d written off as having his best days long behind him.
1. Factorycraft by FOUND. For a long time now I’ve liked the idea of FOUND much more than I’ve liked their actual music. Heralded by reviewers far more familiar with the band than I as their most accessible record to date, they’re not wrong as I finally find myself loving FOUND’s music. Maybe my taste is more predictable and mainstream than I’d like to admit, but the only thing that really matters is that this is a simply super record. 
Eaten by Monsters 