11 Greatest Things From 2011

Oh Land portrait

By Princess Stomper

 

SONG
Oh Land – ‘White Nights‘

I fell for this instantly, though I’m still not sure whether I’d classify myself as an Oh Land fan yet. There’s just enough off-kilter quirkiness to make her still-accessible glacial electropop intruging.

ALBUM
Battles – Gloss Drop

“Gloss Drop owns Mirrored in every possible way – if the previous album showed that they had potential, this is how Battles start to realise it.”

ALBUM
dEUS – Keep You Close

“So, yes, the album has strings. Very lush ones. Dirty, fuzzy bass. Xylophones. Woodwind. Strident, plonking piano. Yet all of it is understated, like something you’d hear in a classy bar at 3am.”

ALBUM
No Mas Bodas – Flesh

“Just knowing that there’s music this good out there makes me feel thankful, relieved, and a little bit spoiled.”

ALBUM
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts

Demolished Thoughts is a very accomplished, assured and well-written album but a little too lacking in contrast to have any genuine claim on greatness. One to be enjoyed in small doses when you’re in the mood for that type of thing – which in my case is surprisingly often.

(continues overleaf)

Pages: 1 2

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 10:54 am. It is filed under Princess Stomper and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

5 Responses to “11 Greatest Things From 2011”

  1. Darragh says:
    December 8, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Skyrim is presently taking my life apart. What a game.

  2. Princess Stomper says:
    December 9, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    I got about 25 hours in before my little girl was born and I haven’t had the opportunity to play since. I’m looking forward to jumping back in. :)

  3. Daniel says:
    December 10, 2011 at 7:21 am

    I picked up the No Mas Bodas EP on your recommendation. I’d be interested in hearing more, but the electribe beats become monotonous and really undermine the dynamics when they are static from beginning to end. If the beats were constructed from sampled loops like a Tuneyards/Andrew Bird arrangement, there would be an accretion of layers that build in volume and intensity. Without breaks, rests or dynamics, tracks feel like “jamming” with a drum machine instead of “songs”.

  4. simon says:
    December 10, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    thankyou so much for introducing me to “Dance To The Beat Of My Drum”.
    i am now putting it high in my list of favourite 2011 songs (close to Beyonce – “Countdown”, which is at the very top.

  5. Princess Stomper says:
    December 10, 2011 at 6:21 pm

    @ Daniel – interesting thoughts. I listened again to the EP to consider your points, but I have to say I disagree. There’s enough else going on in the tracks for it not to matter one whit.

    @ Simon – glad you like.

Leave a Reply