Jeff Mangum came out of hiding to officially release some brilliant old tracks from the archives, Keaton Henson put out an achingly powerful single from 2010′s self-released Dear…, and a lot of deaf music reviewers shit on The Strokes latest collection of songs (except for us, of course). 2011 welcomed back our all-time favorite artists and introduced us to new favorites. Narrowing down the year’s best was especially difficult this time around, but here is our very biased list of 25 favorite tracks from 2011 (give the page a minute to load the embedded clips):
1. Neutral Milk Hotel – “Ferris Wheel on Fire”
2. Keaton Henson – “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are”
3. The Strokes – “Machu Picchu”
4. Feersum Ennjin – “Hate The Sun”
5. Modeselektor – “Pretentious Friends”
6. HEALTH – “Goth Star (Pictureplane cover)”
7. Tapes ‘n Tapes – “Nightfall”
8. M83 – “Midnight City”
9. SONOIO – “Enough”
10. Radiohead – “Codex”
11. Panda Bear – “Alsatian Darn”
12. Keaton Henson – “Strawbear”
13. The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
14. The Strokes – “Taken For A Fool”
15. M+A – “Liko Lene Lisa”
16. Tapes ‘n Tapes – “Badaboom”
17. Modeselektor – “Grillwalker”
18. The Horrors – “Still Life”
19. Saul Williams – “Triumph”
20. Amanda Palmer – “Map Of Tasmania”
21. Atlas Sound – “Mona Lisa”
22. Adebisi Shank – “Century City”
23. Puscifer – “Monsoons”
24. Battles – “Ice Cream”
25. Givers – “Noche Nada”
Calling HEALTH’s debut album a love/hate record is a ridiculous statement. It is what it is: a collection of experimental and unfocused noiserock tracks that seems to beckon for additional production or vocals by Mike Patton. If you’ve never heard of HEALTH, chances are they are not your cup of tea. Think 30-second Fantomas chapters brought to full song realization. The band seems to “get it” a bit more the second time around with Get Color. Again, too many of the tracks offer no reason get excited. Mundane and repetitive noise doesn’t seem to reveal anything new. There are some highlights though. “We Are Water” offers a rave-worthy anthem that will offend most of your senses. HEALTH reach their pinnacle with “Die Slow.” The track actually takes the form of traditional song structure and shows that these guys do have some talent. Followed by a beautifully disturbing video, “Die Slow” just might be one of the best tracks of 2009. Unfortunately, the song is positioned as the first track on the album, and the rest never lives up to what is promised. One fact that cannot be neglected is that HEALTH is one of the best live bands out there. The music is better packaged and experienced in performance.