2011

Based on my iTunes count, the following presents a pretty accurate list of the songs released in 2011 that I listened to most:

1 "Separator" by Radiohead, from The King of Limbs

Say what you will about Radiohead's reigning status (since, oh, about 1997) as the lowest common denominator of middle-brow art rock, it is a huge pleasure to hear this band continue to evolve, if not pushing artistic boundaries at least becoming more and more comfortable in their own skins--even if the music itself remains as anxious as ever. The King of Limbs came out of nowhere and made my year, and this song's crisp rhythms and gorgeous spidery guitar melody are its crowning moment.

2 "Street Halo" by Burial, from Street Halo EP

Burial doesn't have to evolve to remain on the bleeding edge of international electronic music--Burial has been doing basically the same thing since 2006 and the rest of dubstep is still struggling to keep up. Quavering bass tones, shuffling tech beats, disembodied voices blending with evocative synth melodies--I could be describing any number of "atmospheric" dubstep tracks released in the last year, but then why does nothing else hit me right in the base of the brainstem quite like Burial does?

3 "Platetectonics" by United Waters, from Your First Ever River

New York free rock duo Mouthus will for me forever be one of the defining groups of the 2000s, the decade in which noise seemed poised to conquer the indie underground, before it all dissolved into pop nostalgia. With this solo project Mouthus guitarist Brian Sullivan pries open his former band's claustrophobic lo-fi drift, with layers of tranquil guitar and drum machine loops unfolding into hazy fractal vistas like some psychedelic nature documentary narrated by a murmuring loner folk auteur.

4 "Sixteen Years" by Pink Reason, from Shit in the Garden

This is the most consonant and driving song on Pink Reason's latest LP, a follow-up to the drudge-punk masterpiece Cleaning the Mirror from 2007. Like the mutant RIYL offspring of Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, and Einsturzende Neubauten.

5 "Light of the Light" by Six Organs of Admittance, from Alseep on the Floodplain

Six Organs mastermind Ben Chasny has been gathering momentum since the early 2000s, and his latest album returns to his roots as a disciple of the American Primitive school of acoustic guitar, with a batch of solo pieces that focus on his precise, heartfelt guitar compositions and ephemeral vocals.

6 "Continuing the Good Life" by Matt Valentine, from What I Became

Like Chasny, in 2011 MV released this stripped-down solo joint that highlights his ability to rip a stellar post-Crazy Horse guitar solo and at the same time develop an intensely personal vocabulary within the tradition of stoned folk rock. Like a mini "Day in the Life," this little gem of a ditty builds a whole world of emotion out of a heart-tugging fingerpicked figure, backmasked effects, plaintive hoots and harmonica.

7 "West Hartford" by 200 Years, from 200 Years

The unassuming side project of couple(?) Elisa Ambrogio (frontwoman of East Coast noise rockers Magick Markers) and Ben Chasny (see above @5), this album is probably most pleasurable for a fan of both artists' more recognized work. Ambrogio lets down her guard and assumes an intimate singer-songwriter pose that yields beautiful results like this lamentful hometown reminiscence, while Chasny's fluent and understated lead guitar work and backing vocals offer proof of the bond between the two players.

8 "Swerve... The reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)" by Shabazz Palaces, from Black Up

It may be that hip-hop was born deconstructed, but it still sounds like Shabazz was doing something all kinds of unprecedented on Black Up, nowhere so much as this track, an album-closing banger and lead single that doesn't really bang, with cold-ass beats and guest vocals from Thee Satisfaction that seem at once distant and immediate. But try not to let this sparse but highly detailed jam highjack your sense of time, space and rhythm.

9 "Viper's Fang" by Skullflower, from Fucked on a Pile of Corpses

While great, nothing from Celestial Lineage, the lastest album by eco-purist black metallists Wolves in the Throneroom, even cracked my top 150 tracks of the year. This odious, hissing dirge, however, went on an unstoppable rampage through my psyche. Matthew Bower has released literally days worth of harsh psychedelic guitar noise over the last three decades, but until this track he had barely played a recognizable riff since 2005. And what a riff this is, its primitive BM roar slammed home by molasses-heavy drums and a wall of corrupting static.

10 "The Highwayman" by Arbouretum, from The Gathering

This song barely beat out Destroyer's Roxy Music simulacrum "Blue Eyes," probably because I was trying to figure out how to play it. Or maybe because in Arbouretum's hands this classic Jimmy Webb ballad (popularized by the eponymous country rock super group of Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson) is polished to a deep golden sheen and fired deep into the heart of the cosmos. Yeah, that's probably it.

Honorable mentions, including not released in 2011: Bob Dylan (had my belated Dylan phase in August, totally worth it), Richard & Linda Thompson, Fleetwood Mac, "Brain Champagne" by Thadwick Tristen Trevor III & Swan Coltrane, Stare Case, Prurient, Godflesh, Hummingbird of Death.

Best show of my entire life: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Seattle, February. Runners up for most fun shows of 2011: Seattle Halloween loveliness by Nod and the Hobgoblins, and Guate ragga jams by Fajaman.

Looking forward to 2012: The Glass Masses, the excellent debut album by my brother's band Rags & Ribbons; seeing Bloodsweep play live and sewing a backpatch on my jacket; maybe finally recording something myself?