Really getting into The Men's album, Open Your Heart. Particularly digging this track at the moment. Easily song of the day from album of the week. So bummed that I missed them down at SXSW this year.
Been lost in the woods of being a working father and then at SXSW for the last few weeks. So no postings. Until now. Song of the day from album of the week. It's an obvious choice, but it's pretty darn solid. Nice comeback, Shins.
Two things.
1. I left a fairly large number of albums off of my Top 100 list by accident. Probably due to being an overworked new father who listens to a ton of music daily. Therefore, I will be posting an addendum to my list here shortly.
2. Digging the new Chairlift album alot. Liked their first one, for sure, but this one is catching me right off the bat. Check out this gem.
So it's finally here, my Top 100 Albums of 2011 list. And yes it's very late, but I have a very legitimate excuse - I had a baby boy a few months ago. Which brings me to my next point, that I would like to dedicate this list to my son, Emmett James. Since my wife was pregnant with him a large part of the year, Emmett essentially listened to many of these records with me, many times. And so to you, Emmett, I love you more astoundingly than I could have ever imagined. I have a feeling that you may someday makes lists like these, like your papa.
DJ Bunny Ears’ Top Albums of 2011
- Bon Iver Bon Iver
- James Blake James Blake
- Bill Callahan Apocalypse
- The Caretaker An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
- Destroyer Kaputt
- Atlas Sound Parallax
- Peaking Lights 936
- M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
- tUnE-yArDs WHOKILL
- John Maus We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
- DRC Music Kinshasa One Two
- Eleanor Friedberger Last Summer
- Jóhann Jóhannsson The Miner’s Hymns
- Youth Lagoon The Year Of Hibernation
- Andy Stott Passed Me By/We Stay Together
- Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch The Throne
- Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Wolfroy Goes To Town
- Shabazz Palaces Black Up
- Metronomy The English Riviera
- Radiohead The King Of Limbs
- Dirty Beaches Badlands
- Onra Chinoiseries, Pt. 2
- Hanni El Khatib Will The Guns Come Out
- Bahamas Pink Strat
- The Weeknd House Of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes Of Silence
- Tim Hecker Ravedeath ,1972
- Blues Control & Laraaji FRKWYS Vol. 8
- Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx We’re New Here
- Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
- Nicolas Jaar Space Is Only Noise
- Real Estate Days
- Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
- Blood Orange Coastal Grooves
- Panda Bear Tomboy
- Crystal Stilts In Love With Oblivion
- Omar Souleyman Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts
- Ford & Lopatin Channel Pressure
- Hauschka Salon Des Amateurs
- Iron & Wine Kiss Each Other Clean
- Moon Duo Mazes
- A Winged Victory For The Sullen A Winged Victory For The Sullen
- Hatchback Zeus & Apollo
- High Places Original Colors
- Thundercat Golden Age Of The Apocalypse
- PJ Harvey Let England Shake
- Zomby Dedication
- Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra
- The Black Keys El Camino
- Charles Bradley No Time For Dreaming
- Adele 21
- Joseph Arthur The Graduation Ceremony
- Demdike Stare Tryptych
- Beirut The Rip Tide
- Battles Gloss Drop
- Dominant Legs Invitation
- James Pants James Pants
- Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine
- About Group Start & Complete
- Adventure Lesser Known
- Widowspeak Widowspeak
- Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes
- Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow
- Yelawolf Radioactive
- Cults Cults
- TV On The Radio Nine Types Of Light
- Washed Out Within And Without
- Cold Cave Cherish The Light Years
- Cass McCombs Wit’s End
- Drake Take Care
- Future Islands On The Water
- I Break Horses Hearts
- Tyler, The Creator Goblin
- Bjork Biophilia
- The War On Drugs Slave Ambient
- Wolves In The Throne Room Celestial Lineage
- Tom Waits Bad As Me
- Idiot Glee Paddywhack
- Laura Marling A Creature I Don’t Know
- Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost
- The Sea And Cake The Moonlight Butterfly
- Danny Brown XXX
- My Morning Jacket Circuital
- Kate Bush Director’s Cut
- Ty Segall Goodbye Bread
- Cut Copy Zonoscope
- Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact
- The Roots Undun
- Oneohtrix Point Never Replica
- Pictureplane Thee Physical
- Wild Flag Wild Flag
- Wilco The Whole Love
- The Dodos No Color
- Cave Neverendless
- Balam Acab Wander/Wonder
- Theophilus London Timez Are Weird These Days
- St. Vincent Strange Mercy
- Class Actress Rapprocher
- Wild Beasts Smother
- EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
- Feist Metals
Honorable Mentions
- Beans End It All
- Com Truise Galactic Melt
- Cornershop Cornershop And The Double-O Groove Of
- Withered Hand Good News
- Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde
- The Go! Team Rolling Blackouts
- Netherfriends Barry And Sherry
- Anika Anika
- Belong Common Era
- Clams Casino Instrumentals
- Grouplove Never Trust A Happy Song
- Friends I’m His Girl
- Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See
- Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin’
- Das Rascist Relax
- Wavves Life Sux EP
- Soft Metals Soft Metals
- Yuck Yuck
- SBTRKT SBTRKT
- Modeselektor Monkeytown
- Dum Dum Girls Only In Dreams
- The Drums Portamento
- Mates Of State Mountaintops
- Holy Ghost! Holy Ghost!
- The Joy Formidable The Big Roar
- Portugal. The Man In The Mountain, In The Cloud
- Fucked Up David Comes To Life
- Goyte Making Mirrors
- The Kills Blood Pressures
- White Denim D
- Little Dragon Ritual Union
- Iceage New Brigade
- Wire Red Barked Tree
- Zola Jesus Conatus
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Hysterical
- Black Lips Arabia Mountain
- Deer Tick Divine Providence
- The Decemberists The King Is Dead
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. It’s A Corporate World
- Middle Brother Middle Brother
- Sandro Perri Impossible Spaces
- Gary Clark Jr. The Bright Lights EP
- Motopony Motopony
- Bachelorette Bachelorette
- Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest
- Moby Destroyed
- Paul Simon So Beautiful Or So What
- Veronica Falls Veronica Falls
Compilations, Reissues & Soundtracks
- MGMT Late Night Tales
- Cliff Martinez Drive (Original Soundtrack)
- V/A Those Shocking, Shaking Days
- V/A True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax, Vols. 1 & 2
- Talk Talk Laughing Stock
- Mark Hollis Mark Hollis
- The Beach Boys The Smile Sessions
- Willie Wright Telling The Truth
- Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry The Return Of Pipecock Jackson
- V/A This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel on 45RPM 1957 – 1982
- L’Orchestre Kanaga De Mopti Kanaga De Mopti
- Georges Brassens Gare Au Gorille
- El Rego El Rego
- Madlib Madlib Medicine Show – All Volumes
- Lijadu Sisters Danger
- V/A Thai Funk Vol. 1 & 2
- And every Mississippi Records release this past year, see:
- http://littleaxerecords.com/
- http://www.discogs.com/label/Mississippi%20Records
So I promise (promise!) that my Top Albums of 2011 list is still coming. It's just that being a new dad is taking most of my time and I couldn't be happier for that. In the meantime, I just quickly wanted to share one of my more favorite albums that I've heard so far this year. It's Hospitality's self-titled release on Merge. Check out this gem.
http://allmusic.com/album/hospitality-r2369228/review
The longest night of the year has passed one week ago and I am now listening to some late night Bahamian Obeah/hoodoo music from the amazing musician artist, Exuma, and digging deep inside and grabbing out all that darkness in me and letting it go in preparation for the new breath of the new year. And here's my song mantra for it. From his first album. Dig those haunting low-end drums. Out with the bad, in with the good.
Quiet night at home with the wife and baby boy, sitting at my desk (which is really just the farm table in our sun room) just starting to go through all the music I've loved this past year and attempting to begin to assemble my top album list of 2011. Have a feeling that this album will end up nearer to the top. Good stuff from a young lad from Boise, Idaho.
This post is dedicated to my wife, Bailey, and to welcome our new baby boy, Emmett James Johnson, into this world. You're the most beautiful and remarkable thing to happen to us. May you have an amazing life full of love, joy, adventure, friendship and wonder.
Working from home the rest of the afternoon, at my favorite spot at the dining room table among all the big Southern-facing windows. Bailey and the cat are sleeping in the diminshing sun's rays and I'm listening to a vinyl reissue of Painful, one of my favorite Yo La Tengo albums, and just waiting for our little guy to make his grand entrance into our world. Can't wait to meet him.
Haven't posted much lately as I've been completely wrapped up in work and more importantly, preparing for a little fella on the way. That said, I just wanted to quickly share a track from Friends that's been stuck in my head ever since I heard it. This one goes out to my lovely #1 gal who is about to be a momma.
