Share Your Top 2011 Recordings

[jazdoc]

As 2011 draws to a close, thought it might be fun and interesting to start a thread compiling everyone's favorite music from this year. Hopefully this will generate ideas for Black Friday and Holiday gifts. Here are my favorites in the Pop/Rock genre. All are available on vinyl! Sorry for the length of the post, but I included videos for reference as a some of these groups a tad obscure...

1. The Kills "Blood Pressures" (Domino)
Comeback LP no one saw coming. Pretty well recorded. Gotta love Alison Mosshart

2. Lia Ices "Grown Unknown" (Jagjaguwar)
Avant garde singer/songwriter. Very well recorded.

[video=vimeo;27307060]http://vimeo.com/27307060[/video]

3. Girls "Father, Son, Holy Ghost" (True Panther)
From Pitchfork's review: "The first listen to Father, Son, Holy Ghost brings with it an almost eerie sense of familiarity, like these are songs you've been hearing your whole life even when you can't place them" An excellent quality recording.

4. Sallie Ford and Go Outside "Dirty Radio" (Partisan)
"Mines the sweet spot between vintage and modern".

5. Cults "Cults" (In The Name Of)
Debut LP. Terrific infectious indie pop. Not the best recording.

6. Yuck "Yuck" (Fat Possum)
Guitar riff driven debut LP from a bunch of 20 year olds...

7. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi "Rome"
Five years in the making. A homage to spaghetti western soundtracks. Extremely well recorded. Features Jack White and Nora Jones. Shouldn't work but it's brilliant.

8. Head & The Heart "Head & The Heart" (SubPop)
This is what Fleet Foxes should aspire to. Very well recorded.

9. Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks "Mirror Traffic" (Matador)
Another fun release from the former Pavement frontman

10. Atlas Sound "Parallax" (4AD)

Just got this new release. Deerhunter's Bradford Cox's solo vehicle. Expands on last year's excellent Deerhunter LP "Halcyon Digest"

Favorite 2011 jazz on a separate post...

 

[mep]

True confession time-I've never heard of any of these groups.

 

[Steve Williams]

I haven't either but that is what makes a thread of this sort very interesting for me at least as I discover all sorts of new music

 

[mep]

But sometimes when you discover things, you wish you hadn't. Like discovering you have the crabs for instance.

 

[amirm]

Great thread. Since this is a forward looking thread as much as backward -- seeing how the year is not over yet -- I will mention the CD from a new artist I just discovered but yet not purchased:

Ashram: Maria and the violin's string

And another with vocals

On purchased items:

Florence and the Machine: Lungs
Lovely female vocals and tunes

Ólafur Arnalds: Eulogy for Evolution

And: Ólafur Arnalds: Found Songs [Limited Edition, Original Recording Remastered]

Damien Rice: "9"
What soothing female vocals

And Album "O"

And recommendation by another forum member:
Maria Mena: Apparently Unaffected

 

[Ron Party]

Wow, is this a tough question or what?!? Requires a lot of thought, but first and foremost, if you're a fan of the blues, would be Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa, Don't Explain

No video, but here's a link to their buttery version of Etta's I'd Rather Go Blind, very well worth watching (or rather listening) until the very end

And here is a live feed of them performing another track off of that album, I'll Take Care Of You, and while the video is choppy at times, Joe just absolutely tears it up starting at around the 4 minute mark:

 

[jazdoc]

Amir,

Thanks for the recommendations. Any comments as to sound quality of your picks?

 

[garylkoh]

Thanks, Mark for starting this thread. Now I've got my Christmas wish list started

I was disappointed by the sound quality of both the CD and the LP of Florence and the Machine: Lungs. Love the music, though.

Better sound quality - Feist: Metals

My new ATF "live" album is Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at the Lincoln Center:
The CD+DVD is worth paying the extra for
http://www.amazon.com/Play-Blues-Li...4C94/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321894063&sr=8-2

Another 2011 live album I enjoyed - also from Jazz at Lincoln Center

Girls: Father, Son, Holy Ghost has given me renewed faith in "young people music". The album is fabulously recorded, and the double (one white one black vinyl) album is has very quiet surfaces, excellent dynamics and very natural. I don't know where they had it pressed, but this is the first time I've seen "Golden" in the dead wax. Even the mp3 (which comes free with the LP) is excellent though it's more compressed than the LP - (might be a different master?).

I think that this is a good trend setting up - giving a free mp3 download for portable listening if you buy an LP.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I agree...it should be standard practice to include a DD when buying vinyl, especially when you consider the premium we pay for vinyl.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Although the vinyl release is delayed by a few days for the U.S. (Nov.28 at the latest), the new Kate Bush album "50 Words For Snow" will definitely be on my list. I think I posted this elsewhere, but you can listen to the whole album ----->

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/13/142133269/first-listen-kate-bush-50-words-for-snow

 

[jazdoc]

The Kate Bush LP received a great review at Pitchfork: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16067-50-words-for-snow/

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I read that review, along with others (I subscribe to her sitte...major fan here). Can't wait to hear how this sounds on vinyl...it's Xmas and I feel like I'm 7 again!

 

[jazdoc]

Just ordered the limited edition 12 LP box set of Calexico "Road Atlas". Should be here for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Gotta feeling this one is going to make the list...

 

[Bruce B]

If I may toot my own horn...

All About Jazz

 

[jazdoc]

Here are my favorite 2011 jazz recordings, in no particular order:

Jeremy Pelt "The Talented Mr. Pelt"

Renaud Garcia-Fons "Mediterranees"

Benny Green "Source"

Patty Ascher "Bossa, Jazz and Samba"

Chris Massey "Vibranium"

Terell Stafford "This Side of Strayhorn"

Gretchen Parlato "The Lost and The Found"

David Murray "Plays Nat King Cole En Espanol"

Pablo Aslan "Piazzolla In Brooklyn"

Christian McBride "Conversations With Christian"

Stefon Harris/David Sanchez/Christian Scott "Ninety Miles"

Garage A Trois "Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil"

 

[mep]

Doc-Are your choices all LPs?

 

[jazdoc]

Mark,

Only the Garage A Trois is available on vinyl...Not the best sonics but lots of fun.

BTW, the new Trombone Shorty release "For True" is available on vinyl...Might be a contender on this list but until I get the vinyl in my grubby hands I must withhold commenting

 

[Old Listener]

Hard to narrow it down

Some favorite CDs and digital downloads from the ~110 I bought this year

Non-classical:

Louis Jordan - "I believe in Magic" and the 5 CD set "Louis Jordan and his Tymphany Five".

Louis Armstrong plays W. C. Handy

Ray Charles: Genius

Classical:

Louis Moreau Gottschalk's (piano) music played by Phillip Martin on Hyperion (8 Cds worth)
The two Vanguard CDs of Gottschalk played by Eugene List are the best but he did not record everything. Martin recorded much more music.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Gil Shaham and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Schubert: sonatas and impromptus - Alfred Brendel

Beethoven: Piano trios - Stern / Istomin / Rose
Lovely playing. The Archduke trio recording is very special.

Prokofiev: Symphonies 1 and 7, The Love for Three Oranges - Malko / Philharmonia
A very good Sym. 7 (no easy to find a good recording of that lovely piece)

Mozart: Piano Sonatas - Lili Kraus (set on M&A)
This mono set has some better performances than the stereo set on Sony
Lili Kraus is the gold standard for this pieces


Remasters:

Rossini Overtures - Reiner / Chicago SO
nice job cleaning up some distortion on peaks
great music, powerful precise playing

Satch Plays Fats: the music of Fats Waller
Much more vivid sound that the 1986 CD
Great music by Fats Waller, great playing by Louis Armstrong and friends

Videos: DVDs and video downloads

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Gideon Kremer / English Chamber Orchestra (DVD)
The second movement of winter strides along briskly as I thinbk it should

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Julia Fischer / English Chamber Orchestra (download)
lovely playing

MP3 downloads:

Lonnie Mack: Memphis
Jimmy Soul: If you want to be happy for the rest of your life (make an ugly girl your wife)
Fats Domino: Kansas City
Tony Bennett: Stepping out with my baby

Lots of discoveries on YouTube too.

Bill

 

[LL21]

Vivaldi - Four Seasons - XRCD - Using all STradivari violins
Kind of Blue - K2
Time Out - K2
Grateful Dead - new remasters
Rossini - Sonatas - Neville Marriner - XRCD
Dexter Gordon - Doing Allright XRCD
Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues - Analogue Productions SACD
Muddy Waters - Folksinger - MFSL
Bach Cantatas - Easter Oratorio - Suzuki - SACD
Penguin Classics Guide - Bought nearly all the highest recommended works of Haydn and Bach...wow...incredible
Oscar Peterson - Night Train remaster
___________
Greatest Hits - Tupac
Dr. Dre 2001
___________
Gotan Project

 

[Old Listener]

Penguin Classics Guide - Bought nearly all the highest recommended works of Haydn and Bach...wow...incredible

I'd be interested in more details on the Haydn you bought and liked.

Bill