2011 Reader Recommendations, Pt. II
And we continue with the reader recommendations (Part I over here) for their personal favorite albums/songs from this year!
Thisisntliving reminded me of the great, great mixtape 77777 by Joywave:
There’s too much good on this *free* mixtape to pass up. Along with that, Joywave and Tympanogram have joined forces for the Ridge 7”, which is one of my favorite tracks of the year (the title track, Ridge). Anyway, check this one out.
[more recommendations below]
Fellow Grand Rapids resident and all-around good guy @Climietown gave me a ton of great recommendations. Born Gold, The Little Village, and Gringo Star among others - but in sticking with the theme of albums I had missed this year, it was Future Islands’ On The Water that had somehow passed me by:
I don’t really have anything profound to say about this one, as I’m sinking my teeth into it yet, but it’s amazing to me how something like this can fly under the radar so ably.
Godblessorgetneglected recommends Hooray For Earth’s True Loves, an album I still have yet to get some serious time with:
What actually sticks out most to me with this album is the video for True Loves
Darthambiguous wants me to know, “My tastes are a little too mainstream, but the album of the year is Gotye’s Making Mirrors…”:
“…which has the song of the year Somebody That I Used To Know.” While it doesn’t top my song of the year list, this is a really great song. Here’s a remix with all the relevant parts included:
From this point on, I didn’t get a full chance to listen to all the recommendations that came across my path (sorry!). I’m starting up law school here in about a week and with all the class prep I’ve been lacking in time to just soak in music. Regardless, these are some albums that
Maria sent me Oh Land’s self-titled LP:
She writes, “My favorite album this year was Oh land’s self titled album. I came across them when going to see a Sia concert this summer and had never heard of them previously. I was completely blown away by them. Their album was on repeat in my car for a good 2 months straight. I absolutely love when this happens. My favorite song on the album is Wolf & I. I’m a sucker for dramatic and moody songs.” Cool! You can also hear some of Maria’s work here.
meeshmoustachio said just one work. Tycho.:
I’d heard the name mentioned a few times this year, and a quick search on hype machine is giving me some pretty soothing electronic vibes.
Thomas Richards recommended Class Actress:
In his words, “Favorite Album of the year: “Rapprocher” by Class Actress. Every track is 100% gold snythpop/chillwave, I love it.” He also went on to mention his favorite artist of the year as Star Slinger. Awesome choice.
I was going to add another late addition, but somehow I can’t find it in the tumblr dashboard! If you sent me a favorite album/artist/song this year but don’t see your name up here, let me know and I’ll update this post!
Other than that, this was a pretty fun experiment. Take a listen to all of these if you get a chance, there’s some great music up there, and no one person can get manage to soak up all the good stuff we saw in 2011 without a little help from another!
I’ll be back with my personal top songs and top albums for 2011 soon enough…
