1. Burst Apart – The Antlers

2. The King of Limbs – Radiohead (yeah, this was hard to put at #2)

3. James Blake – James Blake

4. Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes

5. Looping State of Mind – The Field

6. Bohla (EP) – Blawan

7. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming – M83

8. Wander Wonder – Balam Acab

9. Slave Ambient – The War on Drugs

10. Dye it Blonde – The Smith Westerns

11. House of Balloons – The Weeknd

honorable albums:

we stay together – Andy Stott

the goat rodeo sessions – Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan

street halo EP – burial

electronic dream – araabMUZIK

strange mercy – St. Vincent

mirrorwriting – Jamie Woon

tamer animals – Other Lives

thora vukk – Robag Wruhme

sepalcure – Sepalcure

Best Tracks of 2011

1. ordinary things – XxXy

2. what you do with what you have – Blawan

3. songs for women – Frank Ocean

4. romantic streams – Sleep ∞ Over

5. kimmi in a rice field – Twin Sister

6. i wonder why you cry – Hard Mix

7. murderous joy – Carter Tanton

8. alphaville (Todd Terje Remix) – Bryan Ferry

9. hope – Munchi

10. tenderly – Disclosure

11. mornin’ – Star Slinger

honorable tracks:

getting me down – Blawan

NYC – Burial

wilhelms scream – James Blake

snooze 4 love – Todd Terje

belispeak – Purity Ring

before the bridge – Future Islands

everything is in line – My Brightest Diamond

you know what i mean – Cults

here’s a spotify playlist with as many of the listed albums and tracks that spotify hosts:
Top 11 of 2011

My Favorite Shows of 2011

(in Boston unless noted)

1. Towa Tei – Kyoto, Japan, April

2. Mount Kimbie – March

3. St. Vincent – Nov

4. Punch Brothers – Jan

5. Active Child + Chad Valley – Sep

6. The Field – Oct

7. Flying Lotus – Sep

8. Purity Ring (opening for Neon Indian) – Oct

9. SBTRKT – Nov

10. Röyksopp – NYC, March

11. David Bazan – June

honorables: Pictureplane and Cass McCombs

(crystal castles stunk the second time around)

Until I get motivated again to write album reviews, please follow me on Spotify. This playlist will only include albums I would want to feature on this blog. Enjoy!
Click: Follow Professor Keanbean on Spotify!

Post #52.  LP8, though hardly L.  My only disappointment with this album is its length. I want more!!  I’m such a Radiohead glutton that one of the reasons Hail to the Thief is my favorite Radiohead album is its length.  How can you beat 56 and a half minutes of Radiohead?  At 37 and a half minutes across only eight tracks, The King of Limbs is Radiohead‘s shortest album.

Perhaps keeping the album brief is an evil Radiohead trick to get me to listen over and over so I spend more time absorbing the details in each piece.  Well it’s working as I’m on my 25th listen and each track gets better every time through.  Whether this was intentional or not, TKOL needs multiple listens.

TKOL explores elements of psychedelic minimalism, with subtle themes entering and exiting, stream of consciousness lyrics, and droning undertones, which keep the songs from making major transitions as many other Radiohead songs do and give them an inward focus.  Unlike most other psychedelic rock, the droning elements to these songs are interweaving strings and horns orchestrated by Radiohead‘s lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood.  In some senses the band is lost in this album.  There aren’t any crazy Max/MSP solos and you have to try really hard to hear contributions from Ed O’Brien, the traditional rhythm guitar glue that holds a Radiohead song together.  The band member that stands out most to me is actually Phil Selway, as he takes the wheel for beat-driven tracks 1-5 and 8 and gives the rest of the band room to play and extend the range of their instruments.  The vast sonic landscape explored on this album is also largely facilitated by the work of producer Nigel Godrich who cleverly separates and blends each instrument.  His touch is especially evident on Bloom and Feral.

Here’s the music video for Lotus Flower and a full youtube stream of the album below.

source: deadairspace

1. Future Islands – In Evening Air

2. Owen Pallett – Heartland

3. Beach House – Teen Dream

4. Scuba – Triangulation

5. Benoît Pioulard – Lasted (write-up pending)

6. Clubroot – II: MMX

7. Four Tet – There is Love in You

8. Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Real Life is No Cool

9. Infinite Body – Carve Out the Face of My God

10. Punch Brothers – Antifogmatic

11. Echospace – Liumin

12. Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner

13. Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers

14. Twin Shadow – Forget

15. Phosphorescent – Here’s to Taking it Easy

16. James Blake – 3 EPs: The Bells Sketch/CMYK/Klavierwerke (write-up pending)

17. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

18. Caribou – Swim

19. Sarah Kirkland Snider (featuring Shara Worden and Signal) – Penelope (write-up pending) STREAM

20. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (write-up pending, maybe)

Honorable Mentions

Hot Chip – Coming on Strong

Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma

Delorean – Subiza

Arcade Fire – Suburbs

John Roberts – Glass Eights (write-up pending)

(Kanye doesn’t get one)