Music
All the Albums that Have Been Released in 2011 Thus Far that I Have Downloaded Illegally (with Commentary)
936 – Peaking Lights → I like this, but I’m not gonna get all excited about it.
A I A : Alien Observer – Grouper → This seems like alien music maybe? Just kidding, but am I? I think I liked this.
A I A : Dream Loss – Grouper → This is the same as the other one, right?
All Eternals Deck – The Mountain Goats → Forgettable. Forgiveable.
Angels Exodus – Lil B → Can’t go wrong, but also… can’t remember listening to this ever. Still seems good.
Apocalypse – Bill Callahan → One of my favorite albums of the year. Very funny, very smart. Excellent songwriting by a consistently excellent songwriter. Listened to this walking from East Village to West Village several mornings. Really good music videos.
Asleep on the Floodplain – Six Organs of Admittance → Never listened to this.
Batman – Lower Dens → Really liked the music video that went along with this. Good single, but I forget what it sounds like.
Belong – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart → Despite being a stupidly named band, this album is all right, but also sort of annoying. Ya… feel… me…
The Best of Gloucester – Danielson → Danielson has a new album. It sounds like other Danielson albums. Pretty funny, hehe.
Black Up – Shabazz Palaces → Not as good as the “myster[ious]” EPs, but pretty good. Best beats of the year, not sure about the best delivery. Cool website though.
Bon Iver, Bon Iver – Bon Iver → Really huge step forward for the old Boner. That first album was all whiny and stuff, and this is like happier whining with trumpets and stuff. I like it.
Boy Friend EP – Boy Friend → This sucked I think.
Bricksquad Mafia – Brick Squad → It seems unclear whether the mixtape title is styled “Bricksquad Mafia” or “Brick Squad Mafia.” Can’t recall anything about this album. Just seems nice and tight.
By the Hedge – Minks → I listened to this album walking on Bond St. between Bowery and Lafayette, and probably other places too. I liked listening to this album. There are parts with good talking and nice bass. Good to feel tired too I think.
Cape Dory – Tennis → This was cheesy and cutesy like whatever. I liked parts of it I guess.
Cherish the Light Years – Cold Cave → Not bad but like whatever.
Civilian – Wye Oak → Don’t remember ever listening to this, but it seems I listened to this. I assume I don’t like it.
Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings → Never listened to this.
Collected By Itself: 2006-2009 – Blank Dogs → Never listened to this either.
Cults – Cults → Cheesy and pretty bad, but okay in ways I guess, but probably not.
D – White Denim → Man… just whatever I guess. I think I liked one song maybe.
David Comes to Life – Fucked Up → Really damn good shit. Best Fucked Up album I’d say. I went to see them and the side of my face touched that lead singer’s fat sweaty hairy belly. This is supposedly a rock opera, but I can’t figure out the story. I’ve listened to this album mostly in the car and once when planting basil in the rain. They say David a lot in the album, and I’m David.
Deerhoof vs. Evil – Deerhoof → Never listened to this… for some reason…
Dr. Lecter – Action Bronson → Completely genius, best hip hop record of 2011 thus far. Sounds like Ghostface, but it’s a white guy with red hair from Queens. Really awesome music videos and vibe. Once he retweeted one of my tweets.
Dye It Blonde – Smith Westerns → I think I liked this, but now I don’t care about this. I listened to it on my way to get pastrami in the Lower East Side.
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World – Caretaker → I think I liked this but only listened to it once and I think there weren’t any words in the songs.
EP – Childish Gambino → Funny maybe in a bad way probably.
Eye Contact – Gang Gang Dance → Downloaded this and was like whatever and then deleted it when I was doing a mass clean of my iTunes and then heard one of my friends say he liked it so I redownloaded this and danced to it. Then I listened to it at work, and it’s still just okay… ya know…
The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian – The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian → This was pretty bad…
Go Tell Fire to the Mountain – WU LYF → Really enjoyable. Really good website. I listened to this a lot when I first downloaded it. Maybe I’ll listen to it more soon.
Goblin – Tyler, The Creater → Probably the biggest letdown of the year. Not bad really, but so underwhelming. Demonstrates the lack of growth and effort in OFWGKTA since they’re impressive breakout onto “the scene” last year. Dude seems wack.
Goodbye Bread – Ty Segall → Good but not great.
He Gets Me High – Dum Dum Girls → Bad.
Headbangers In Ecstacy – Puro Instinct → Middle of the road.
Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes → Better than their first album, which was pretty damn good, which means this album is pretty damn gooder, but for some reason I don’t ever feel like listening to it. I imagine them being upset with Bon Iver for being better at sad/happy cabin folk dude music.
Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost! → Supposedly this album was good, but I don’t remember wanting to listen to it ever, especially after listening to it.
Hot Sauce Committee Part Two – Beastie Boys → I like the first song on the record a lot. The music video/short film was pretty funny and, more importantly, easy to watch.
House of Balloons – The Weeknd → One of the best albums of the year. Really good samples and lyrics and moan sounds. Seems humble and powerful. Free download on artist website, so I guess I didn’t download it illegally, but oh well… it seems like I did because I downloaded it from Mediafire, not the website.
I’m Gay – Lil B → Great. Haven’t listened to all of this, but that doesn’t seem to matter because it won’t change my opinion. Dude redefines language. “Words don’t mean shit.”
Illusions of Grandeur – Lil B → Not as good as I’m Gay, but like, hey, still come on, still Lil B.
Island Brothers – Bonnie “Prince” Billie → Seems I listened to this but also seems like I didn’t, oh well.
James Blake – James Blake → Dude redefines dubstep, covers Feist. I like this music video he has where everyone spits in a bowl and then a girl drinks it. Hehe. But yeah, the album is good and surprising, and also happens to be surprisingly good.
The Journey To The 5th Echelon – The Jet Age of Tomorrow → Whatever. Just sayin’. I don’t have much to say.
Just Once EP – How to Dress Well → I think I liked some of this that I heard, but I might’ve just convinced myself of that.
Kaputt – Destroyer → Best album of the year thus far in my opinion. Dan Bejar destroys it. Dude brings it to a new level. I guess he also has like a doppelganger or something. But I mean, saw them live after really loving the album a lot and it was unimpressive. Still though, as an album… really awesome.
Keep – Animal Collective → This shit is so forgettable that I forgot about it. It was like for a shoe company. I think I liked the Panda Bear song though.
The King of Limbs – Radiohead → I’m a big Radiohead fan, and this was a good album, but mostly everyone just remixed the “Lotus Flower” video and then forgot about it, and I’m not gonna lie, I’ve only listened to this once since its initial hype/release.
Kiss Each Other Clean – Iron & Wine → Man, this sucked.
Leave Home – The Men → My friend told me to download this, and I did, and I started to listen to the first song twice, but it’s a long first song and it starts slow, so I haven’t finished it yet, but one day…
Let England Shake – PJ Harvey → This is all right/okay.
The Magic Place – Julianna Barwick → I enjoyed this, but I don’t care about listening to it again.
New Brigade – Iceage → This seems not bad but overrated I guess. It’s punk I think.
No Color – The Dodos → I never listened to this album.
Noble Savage – Maria Minerva → I liked this I guess, but I don’t care.
Nostalgia/Ultra – Frank Ocean → This is the best Odd Future release of 2011 thus far, lol.
The People’s Key – Bright Eyes → This sucked a lot if I remember correctly.
Pleasure – Pure X → I don’t remember listening to this, but I want to listen to this.
Ravedeath, 1972 – Tim Hecker → Lol, this sounds like a good name for an album. I don’t remember it, but I want to.
Return of 4Eva – Big K.R.I.T. → I listened to the beginning of this while I was walking to get my boots fixed on St. Marks. I don’t remember what it was like.
The Rip Tide – Beirut → Beirut has a new album. It seems the same the same as their other albums, which means it seems good, not bad.
Rome – Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi → Pretty bad.
Shapeshifting – Young Galaxy → I think I liked this when I first heard it, but I don’t ever think I’ll listen to it again. Damn. I’ve written this a lot today. Music is forgettable/disposable. These bands and albums and stuff are just getting thrown under the bus by me, and they don’t deserve it. I bet they have something to offer to the world, but nothing to offer me. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. You’re good people, and it’s not your fault that nobody cares about or remembers your music.
Share the Joy – Vivian Girls → This probably sucked.
Smoke Ring for My Halo – Kurt Vile → Didn’t like this, but it seems like everyone else did, so maybe I should listen to this again. Does anyone have a reason why I should care about Kurt Vile?
Sound Kapital – Handsome Furs → This sounds like the name of the band.
Space City Kicks – Robert Pollard → Oh whatever, come on. It’s like, you know. He makes too many albums. This was pointless.
Stay Home – The Beets → This was kind of shitty if I recall correctly, but not bad.
Summer Is Forever – Wavves/Best Coast/No Joy → This probably sucked, but I don’t remember and I’m afraid to ever try.
Tallinn at Dawn – Maria Minerva → She had another album I guess. I like how the cover looks like a cassette thing folded out. I think I liked this better than the other one. She’s got a cool apathy face, huh?
Terra – Julian Lynch → I like this dude. I liked this album. I forget what this album sounds like, but I’m sure I like it.
Tomboy – Panda Bear → This is one of the best albums of the year, but not the best album of the year. It was basically a bunch of expectations and singles that did their job and made me fairly happy. The songs that weren’t singles are forgettable. The rest of it is really solid. Pandy just announced a deluxe box set to go along with it, for those interested.
Underneath the Pine – Toro Y Moi → Big step forward for the Toro dude. Feel happy for him and his chill ass retro vibes.
w h o k i l l – tUnE-yArDs → Seems obvious that any band that stylized their album title and band name this way would suck a lot. This album sucks a lot. I can’t say how much it sucks. I deleted it soon after downloading.
We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves – John Maus → Very excellent. Funny and emotional and dark. Sounds like Ariel Pink with a deep voice and a lot of baggage. Biggest surprise of the year thus far for me.
What a Pleasure – Beach Fossils → I think I liked part of this at one point but can’t remember what it sounds like. I’m sure it sounds like beachy or something.
Widowspeak – Widowspeak → I actually downloaded this album on my girlfriend’s computer in the kitchen while her brother made us pepper and mozzarella sandwiches. I was pretty disappointed because it’s boring and because I saw them open for The Soft Moon in Brooklyn and was like “this band seems cool” but the album seemed not bad but more like come on dude whatever bro seriously. Maybe I’ll download it again, but I probably won’t listen to it again.
Wit’s End – Cass McCombs → I liked this a good amount.
Within and Without – Washed Out → Washed Out released an album that sounds worse than his singles and EPs, but not that bad, but not that good.
A Young Person’s Guide to Mark McGuire – Mark McGuire → I never listened.
Yuck – Yuck → This was supposedly a big thing in England, and it was compared to Pavement, but really it wasn’t like that, and there were a few good songs, but not strong enough to listen to all the songs like an album.
Zonoscope – Cut Copy → This is really good. Funny sort of but in a great way. I listened to it walking on West 4th St. imagining that it was the theme music to a new age version of Miami Vice with better critical reception, etc. The song “Pharaohs & Pyramids” is featured in a video I made at some point.
Sending this to the riaa.
I thought People’s Key was way better than Cassadega. I think he peaked with “Fevers & Mirrors/Digital Ash/I’m Wide Awake” though.
I was really disappointed in Radiohead’s after enjoying almost all of their other albums, especially OK Computer and In Rainbows.
didn’t listen to (mostly haven’t heard of) any of the others….
I admire all you guys for making lists of everything you watch/read/listen to, though. I tried to do that with at least just books this year and couldn’t keep up with it, even though I’ve barely finished reading anything. Maybe I’ll try again. Feel like most food/media I consume goes in/out with zero mindfulness and is only remembered when it’s great or awful, like shits.
I thought People’s Key was way better than Cassadega. I think he peaked with “Fevers & Mirrors/Digital Ash/I’m Wide Awake” though.
I was really disappointed in Radiohead’s after enjoying almost all of their other albums, especially OK Computer and In Rainbows.
didn’t listen to (mostly haven’t heard of) any of the others….
I admire all you guys for making lists of everything you watch/read/listen to, though. I tried to do that with at least just books this year and couldn’t keep up with it, even though I’ve barely finished reading anything. Maybe I’ll try again. Feel like most food/media I consume goes in/out with zero mindfulness and is only remembered when it’s great or awful, like shits.
I didn’t know Bill Callahan had an album out this year because I don’t keep up with anything, but definitely going to check out Apocalypse because I fucking loved Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
haha
yeah i got one of those copyright notices from my ISP so i gave up utorrent this year, it sucks, i hear so much less music without it and am stuck with what netflix and youtube clones offer for tv/movies
I play music while I write. Had some success drafting my novel whenI downloaded PJ Harvey, Cults and Beach House. Now things flow better with a mix of the three artists. Weird because I wouldn’t traditionally be drawn to any of the above bands outside of listening to them while I write.
“Yuck – Yuck → This was supposedly a big thing in England, and it was compared to Pavement, but really it wasn’t like that, and there were a few good songs, but not strong enough to listen to all the songs like an album.” Agree, don’t get the appeal of this at all.
Also, Pollard puts out too many albums, but I actually thought ‘Space City Kicks’ was maybe the best of, I don’t know, the last six.
I can’t believe you liked The People’s Key better than Cassadaga. I think he blew his load on Cassadaga. What a great album that was! I bought the people’s key the day it came out, listened to it, and thought it really sucked. When I said this on Amazon, I got a really violent reaction, like people wanted to push a freshly sharpened pencil through my dick hole. Oh well, to each his/her own. So much for our generation’s “Bob Dylan…” Lolz
I’m drunk and I hate everything
Fuck it bitch, I’m thugged out and I love this shit.
Cool, I remember being in college and being scared away from albums I actually would’ve liked because people made glib unfair comments about them. Thanks for reminding me this still goes on.
Also, Peaking Lights is excellent. I once saw them live at an “experimental pizza night.”
explain to me the last track of the bon iver album. sounds like a bette midler cover. dude’s a swagless hack. enjoyed the radiohead album after listening to it on repeat while under the spell of the flu. but i left it for toro y moi. that album makes me happy. it told me to paint my hallway mauve and my bathroom san jose blue. the bright eyes dude makes me angry. i remember when he was called paul westerberg. thems was better days. i didn’t understand the kurt vile album.
“Dude redefines dubstep.” LOL
I think I like this list.
Well, I’m not drunk yet and hate you for beating me to the punch.
But love you for posting it.
You and I need to bring some old school sound_rationale hate to HTMLGiant
Feel like people should write/post more about music on this site. I liked this post. I have been feeling pretty underwhelmed w/ 2011 releases so far but I haven’t really been looking either. New James Ferraro and Tim Hecker are the only things I can remember being excited about. Heard the new Devon Williams is good. booo
This list reminds me of some that I’ve seen on last.fm, but more diverse. Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker) has some decent releases, strange loopy samples and such, but it’s hit or miss. I suppose I need to listen to Lil B at least once, seeing that he “redefines language.” He’s been recommended to me more times than I can count. http://www.last.fm/user/BoT___
I should probably listen to it again, but I remember feeling very disappointed at how “country” it and his next few releases sounded, so when People’s Key came out and sounded more like the Bright Eyes I remembered from Fevers & Mirrors, I liked it probably a little more than it deserved. If you do push a freshly sharpened pencil through your dick hole, be sure to also film it and narrate it with the text of your bad review.
I think on average I like songs more than albums (it seems like there’s always a few songs any any album I can’t bring myself to like). And Bright Eyes has so many: Lover i don’t have to love, Take it easy, Line allows progress…, Something vague, Southern state, Spent on rainy days, From a balance beam, No lies just love, Black comedy, and many others.
Probably the only ones I’d add to that list from Cassadega and People’s Key are Four winds and Beginner’s mind, but if I had to listen to the whole album I’d much rather hear People’s Key than all the twanging.
do you get like ‘pumped’ on the second track of “david comes to life” where pink eyes is like “hello, my name is david” a lot in a really hardcore and ‘abrasive’ way. i feel i totally would if my name was david. really good list though, i had to agree a lot esp. with shabazz and tyler the creator. you should listen to six organs of admittance though, its definitely worth a listen.
Jejune Stars was the best song off “The People’s Key”, I thought. “Is it true what we’re made of? / why do I hide from the rain” is a great line.
Thing is, the albums since at least “Lifted” (I haven’t heard “Letting off the Happiness” and I just popped “Fever and Mirrors” into my CD player) were all basically concept albums. “Lifted” was about the cyclical nature of song-making; “Wide Awake” and “Digital Ash” were an intertwined commentary on cyclical growth (or lack thereof) combined with a motif of death obsession; and “Cassadaga” was about contrasting cult religiosity with individualistic naturalism, using a secluded psychic community as an overarching image to reinforce the juxtaposition.
So “The People’s Key” fit in that it was again examining a concept, in this case conspiracy theories (plus it had the obligatory spoken-word lead-in-and-motif). Except the permutations of that concept – consumption by technology, loneliness and separation, suicide, etc. – had all been done better in his earlier work (hell, even Jejune Stars was just a conceptual retread of the broad strokes from “Digital Ash”), and here really feel like a mish-mash of ideas. I mean, without the commentary from Denny Brewer it would be Cassadaga, Rastafarianism-style, but without a strong interlocking musical style.
yes i do get pumped on the second track of “david comes to life”
Ravedeath, 1972 is the best album of 2011. Sounds sorta like drowning at super slow-motion.
This is a stupid post and annoying.
welcome to the NO_zone
[…] at the ol’ HTMLGiant, dude posted a list of albums he downloaded and wrote one-line (mostly) responses. It was posted last night about the time I was enjoying the […]
rdio, spotify?
l still find it remarkable that people download this much music for free. I’m not necessarily against it but cannot do it myself. It feels like ripping two lines of a good poem out of a book or sampling everything at a buffet before buying any of it. I mean, yes, it’s nice to know more about music and what’s out there but shit, start with what you like and will support and follow that further into rooms where other stuff appears that you can support. This much downloading makes me think that the one doing it might be more concerned with having heard what’s just come out than actually discovering something they like.
the building i used to live in send out a memo saying they’d been notified that someone in the building had been downloading illegal music and movies and that in the future they would start evicting for doing such a thing.
the list included “how to train your dragon,” “iron man 2,” and an album by the ting tings. i looked at that list and thought, “why would anyone ever pay for those things?”
re: destroyer. i love destroyer. i saw them live right after destroyer’s rubies came out. and you are right. they are completely unimpressive live. destroyer’s albums are destroyer’s worth.
I saw Fucked Up a couple years ago in Pontiac, Michigan. The singer was completely naked by the end of the show.
Ah I do like that song a lot for the same line you quoted, couldn’t remember its name. People’s Key is also the only album where I can stand to listen to the spoken word beginning all the way through without fast-forwarding.
Letting Off the Happiness, if I’m remembering right, was one of his older albums and it has more of that lo-fi sound. I usually hate lo-fi stuff even when I want to really like it (such as the Robert Pollard stuff I tried listening to since DC likes it). Something about the studio sound just gets my ears so hard and when it’s not there I can barely tolerate listening. But I really like “Touch” off that album for the lyrics.
I really enjoyed reading what you wrote about the albums having concepts, it made me want to go back and listen to them again with that in mind. Very cool post.
yeah, i like pandora a lot when i’m at the computer, it’s just that i usually only listen to music when driving, so it has to be on my mp3 player and not require internet. radio’s OK sometimes, just soooo many commercials. for awhile when i had an HD radio, that was pretty cool, the 102.1-2 Edge channel didn’t have commercials and played some different stuff. will check out spotify maybe
Be sure not to support any of these people with your money, and then decry the plight of lit mags.
i’m not sure what you mean… can you elaborate?
blank dogs i like them a lot bro give it a listen
Put another way (as I understand the comment):
You (or people on this site) often complain that literary magazines cannot secure funds of which they are worthy. Or funds they deserve. Or funds in general.
You (as stated in this article) do not pay for your music.
The commenter (above) wonders how you can expect people to pay for one art form when you clearly do not pay for another.
Put another way: how can you expect people to pay for literary magazines/under-funded publications when you clearly do not pay for music? One art form’s worthiness v. another.
“All Eternals Deck – The Mountain Goats → Forgettable. Forgiveable.”
Agreed. I tried listening to it again yesterday to see if maybe I’d warmed up to it, but I only felt the same or worse.
When you ask someone to elaborate, it’s best to at least specify what details it is that you find unclear. Asking for elaboration without any sort of hint as to what needs to be clarified does nothing to help you get any sort of meaning out of what’s said. Instead, the elaboration comes, but it’s a shot in the dark and probably doesn’t get at what you were wanting to get at. This only extends the confusion and suffering in the world. Please stop this extension of confusion and suffering in the world of which you are now, at least tangentially, guilty of spreading.
Sorry for posting as the website, guys. I thought I’d exited out of the account earlier.
i didn’t understand what the commentor’s sentence was getting at, and rather, i didn’t understand its structure or what it was referring to, so i just asked for elaboration (supposedly on the entire statement)
i don’t expect people to do anything. i don’t have any feeling on one art form’s worthiness than another
i’ve never complained about literary magazine funds. i don’t care about literary magazine funds. or funds in general. that being said, not caring about paying for music does not translate to not caring about paying for literary magazines in my perception of the world. one feeling does not imply a certain direct correlation to a supposedly similar feeling. why should it? i don’t care about consistency. neither does walt whitman
I’m perplexed by that train of thought.
I can understand the tune of, “literary magazines subsist entirely off of funds and donations so they’re worthy of them” vs. “musicians derive at least a large portion of their income from live shows and other merchandise/rights/etc… that are unavailable for most literary people.”
I should reiterate at this point that I’m not accusing you of anything inasmuch as I’m explicating the person above me’s question (as you asked). However, I do kind of bristle at the idea that you’re OK with people downloading your own personal writing (or anyone else’s) for free and never paying for a book or literature ever.
i guess i just don’t care about money as much as you think i do
“It seems unclear whether the mixtape title is styled “Bricksquad Mafia” or “Brick Squad Mafia.” ” lol, i’ve felt troubled thinking about that, nice, still have no clue, seems funny
i feel similarly re tyler, the creator and lil b too
good job
lol, this list isn’t very good/whatever.