Favorite Albums and Films of 2011

12 Favorite Albums

12. Drake - Take Care

Okay, so Drake is complaining and whining about his first world problems and celebritydom here. And really, it’s an 18-track, hour long hissy fit of an entitled 10-year-old rapper. But man, his vocals got sick! No seriously, both Drake’s singing and rapping took a huge upswing and his technical skills got much better–you can tell he’s been putting work into his craft (destroys it in “Buried Alive”, didn’t even know it was Drake at first). The beats have his signature sound and are effectively moody (working with his longtime collaborator 40) and like I said, his skills are on display, but what makes this album a stand-out is Drake’s honesty. Initial joking aside, his heart is on full display in every track with a willingness to be as sincere as possible, even if embarrassingly so. With Drake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and even The Roots’ “undun”, the new movement in hip-hop is sadder, existential, and deeply introspective.

11. Thrice - Major/Minor

Thrice sheds the pretense and experimentation of their mid-20s and get down to a basic and raw sound for their 30s. The result is them doing what they do best without the ornamentation, but still sounding textured, melodic, and energetic. And Dustin’s writing just keeps getting better; their lyrics are always deep texts to look into.

10. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra

This 24-year-old is the future of R&B. He took a genre that I absolutely hated and made it fresh and enjoyable. The guy combines videogames, indie culture, Stanley Kubrick references (of course that won brownie points for me), and forlorn tales of love and loss, all through his brilliant songwriting and melodies. His voice is a golden light in an otherwise dismal genre. It’s all in the way he drawls way low for the “da da da da daaaaaaaaa” in “Static”.

9. The Roots - undun

The Roots go all the way for their concept album but for me, it wasn’t even the lyrics that pushed it thematically; it was all in the music. The chords are hopeful but sad underneath, the rhythms are mellow but forward moving, and the instrumental breaks reveal most of the story line. Not to say that Black Thought doesn’t fulfill his share–his voice is rugged, rhymes are fluid, and he spins a gangster biopic into an existentialist meditation. It’s the black American youth version of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”. It’s worth a full listen-through with undivided attention.

8. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

Simply, their voices were made for each other–they’re two streams flowing as one. The harmonies here are so effortless and beautiful that the only accompaniment they needed was an acoustic guitar and occasional piano.

7. Feist - Metals

It’s ironically called “Metals” when it sounds organic and natural. I saw a behind-the-scenes video of Feist recording inside this huge house in the middle of some foresty area and those settings definitely translate into the album’s feel. Even though there’s a lot of instrumentation, it’s an overall quiet record, with Leslie’s voice cutting through like it always does and being most prominent. I must have listened to “Cicadas and Gulls” more than any other song this year.

6. The Black Keys - El Camino

Raucous and so funky. These guys just don’t know how to be boring or write a bad song. Sing-along choruses, skillful instrumentation, and endless danceability.

5. Jay-Z & Kanye West (aka The Throne) - Watch the Throne

Bombastic, turgid, and completely pompous… but also victorious. “Watch the Throne” is a victory lap for Jay and Kanye. They’re the undisputed kings of hip-hop and they flaunt it unabashedly, in the best way possible: with great beats and dope rhymes. This could have been a second-rate nonchalant album but they put in all their care and effort to make it excellent in the way that has put them both on top. I gotta end this with a lyric-quote… okay, got it: “Hah?!?!?!”

4. Radiohead - The King of Limbs

This one definitely grew on me (because it’s the king of LIMBS, right? which is a big tree, you know???). At first pass, I knew I liked it but I didn’t know why I did or what exactly I just spent 40 minutes listening to. Was there a melody? Any choruses? A rhythm for sure… But like any other Radiohead record, I kept getting drawn back in, and with every listen, it morphed into something else, and then something else. Even now, whenever I listen to it, I discover something new or a song takes on a whole new character. Only Radiohead can do that for me.

3. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Huge and cosmic. This is the soundtrack to your space voyage to Jupiter. Every song, even the quieter acoustic tracks, have this gigantic, sweeping, and again, cosmic, sound. One music blogger put it well: it has a “super widescreen” quality–you can readily see the stars exploding and colors bursting as you listen. I also love the fact that it’s a double disc where both CD’s mirror each other like a brother and sister, as Anthony Gonzalez (lead songwriter) put it. Essential for outer-space road trips.

2. James Blake - James Blake

The perfect marriage of singer/songwriter vulnerability and modern digital wizardry. I just love his sensibilities in both: on the songwriter side, his vocals are soul-baring, and his piano playing is both sloppy and precise; on the production side, his beats skitter frantically while still maintaining a rocksteady rhythm. It’s like a 70s mo-town crooner mated with a DJ from the future.

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

I knew it was my top album when I saw it was the most played (by far) on my iTunes. Justin Vernon made a beautiful album in his log cabin using all lo-fi equipment and it was really cool to see what he did with access to a more professional studio. This album is just gorgeous–the only way to describe some songs is that it has the “sound of winter” (see: “Michicant” and “Holocene”). The orchestrations are grand, the quiet moments are tender, and that cheesy 90s R&B ballad keyboard on “Beth / Rest” is downright heartbreaking.

Honorable Mentions:

Kendrick Lamar - Section.80: Versatile, fully conscious, and unpredictable–the makings of a new voice in hip-hop that needs to be heard.

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues: As expected, a wonderful acoustic album with great harmonies and melodies.

Adele - 21: Needless to say, her vocals are unprecedented. Love the gospel, country, and folk influences. All it takes is a heart-wrenching break-up for Adele to write an amazing album?

The Weeknd - House of Balloons: Creepy, atmospheric, and brooding, all centered on Abel’s piercing voice.

Beyoncé - 4: I cannot deny my love for the second half of this album–8 songs that are vibrant, innovative, and those virtuosic vocal runs. With that said, I absolutely hate the ballad-heavy first half of the album. If the whole album was like the second half, it’d probably be in the Top 3.
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12 Favorite Films

12. Bridesmaids

The funniest movie of the year. That one-upping speech scene had me laughing, then cringing, then laughing, then cringing even more, then wishing it be over, then finally folding in on itself and becoming even more hilarious. This movie was able to do that and more. Kristen Wiig is showing her full arsenal, proving that she’s packing a lot more than just her cooky SNL characters and comedic chops. I hope we get to see a lot more of her range (including her writing) in future films.

11. Cold Fish

A film about the explosive undoing of complete repression and unleashing the id. A quiet, humble Japanese man with an unresponsive wife and a rebellious daughter is pushed to the edges of his sanity by a deranged serial killer, causing him to burst out in his own held-in emotions, a story only Sion Sono can tell so well. Again, he explores the roles of family (expectations and the weight of those expectations on the patriarch) and interpersonal ties–why we are either drawn or repelled by each other. The digital cinema is finessed and sophisticated like film cinema, elevating the digital medium.

10. Hanna

An action movie done with a craftsman’s touch. Joe Wright (known for British dramas “Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice”) keeps it visually and aurally arresting, while also fun and action-packed. And that Chemical Brothers score is propulsive and so fitting. The most elegantly told teenage-girl assassin story I’ve seen.

9. Bellflower

An awesome debut for complete DIY might-as-well-pick-up-a-camera work ethic. In fact, director Evan Glodell actually made his own camera, so yeah, he DIY-ed even that. It is bold, adventurous, and has some major balls. The story is all about the male ego and its strengths and weaknesses, seeking to break it down, deconstruct it, and analyze every piece. Heartbreak as filtered through the apocalypse.

8. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

It’s the anti-spy… spy movie. The tension and suspense aren’t brought through action set pieces or car chases, but rather through gestures, conversations, and mind games. There are no gadgets, just old-fashioned research. The film weaves a puzzle and allows the audience to navigate through, without spoon-feeding them any answers. Every performance is ace (featuring the cream of the crop actors of the UK), but Gary Oldman really wowed me. His George Smiley is understated to say the least: he expresses so much emotion and inner turmoil through the slightest of gestures or ticks of the eyebrow. The scenes with Tom Hardy are the most impressive because while he is threatening with screams and a hulking figure, Oldman remains calm and cool, not even raising the volume of his voice to match the intensity, but instead forcing Hardy to meet his quiet tone. Director Tomas Alfredson’s style is firmly established here (he previously did “Let the Right One In”) in slowly building a world and wrapping it around us.

7. Midnight in Paris

This is the aching and longing every writer fantasizes about and Woody Allen brings it to life here with great enthusiasm, as nicely expressed by Owen Wilson. All the writer/artist performances from the 1920s are great, even if overtly characterized, but it works. Paris is marvelous and beautiful (that opening!). In the end, it taught me that no matter how much you romanticize the past, the best time to live in is always the present.

6. The Tree of Life

Visually stunning with grand storytelling, check. Terrence Malick doesn’t disappoint with this meditation on family, creation, God, the universe, love and loss. It is one of the most deeply spiritual films I’ve seen/experienced. I watched it a second time, letting it just play in the background and I was even more compelled by it. It has its way of connecting the cosmological with the intimate.

5. We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lynne Ramsay, finally back after 10 years! Like I anticipated, she brings her poetic touch by utilizing every tool available to her to transfix the viewer: the shots are always purposeful to Eva’s perspective, the editing reflects her fractured memories (great match cuts), and the amazing sound design ties it all together. Tilda Swinton is masterful as Eva and brings us into the character’s state of mind rather than just showing a portrait to analyze. Though it’s about a teenager that goes on a school killing spree and the mother who has to face the consequences of that, it’s not a film that searches for answers, but tries only to be truthful. At first I thought, okay this movie is almost comical because this kid is so terrible to his mom all the time, but then it hit me that the narrator is unreliable, and these are her flashbacks–they are filled with guilt and shame and her memories show a tortured person that feels soley responsible for the crime.

4. Meek’s Cutoff

It’s deliberate and resolute. Kelly Reichardt (a director that’s getting better with every movie) uses each frame to push the story forward and the long shots didn’t feel lingering to me; you feel like you are surviving with them. The movie, to me, is really about the power struggles between the known and unknown, the wild and civilized. And I loved the ambiguous ending.

3. Drive

The most stylish film of 2011. The style is rigid and stubbornly steadfast and doesn’t bend to audience’s demands or expectations–in fact, it refuses to bend just like its lead character Driver. The film’s style, tone, and pacing mirrors Driver’s psychology and personality. And the pace speeds up and slows down, reflecting a car zooming to 60 then braking suddenly. It’s challenging, exciting, and really freaking cool. The entire cast (seriously, all of them) gives great supporting performances; all buoyed by Ryan Gosling’s understated menace and childlike warmth.

2. Hugo

For his first 3D movie, Scorsese could have told any story but he chose to use the cutting edge technology to introduce today’s audience to the very beginnings of cinema–he brings us forward to go backward. With 3D, he recaptures the power of the screen and how it immerses us in a story (hearkening back to the first film that showed an oncoming train which caused theatre-goers to gasp and run away in fear). But not only that, there’s also the themes of everything being connected, everything having a purpose, as shown literally through clockwork and metaphorically through every character discovering themselves. It’s a great balance between art and engineering, which filmmaking really is.

1. Hesher

My favorite movie of the year is usually the one I connect with the most. And for 2011, it was the story of a young boy who recently lost his mother and while figuring out the aftermath of his heartache, is visited by a wild free-loader who creates a profound interruption in his life that becomes a catalyst for moving on.

Honorable Mentions:

Insidious: Scariest movie of the year.

Cedar Rapids: It’s like one of those fun summer camp teen movies, except with adults. And John C. Reilly is great as always, starting off as the disliked douche-bag who morphs into the lovable sidekick.

Jane Eyre: Dark and atmospheric retelling of classic literature.

Beginners: A personal story with lots of quirk and a brave performance by Christopher Plummer as a gay man who comes out at the end of his life, a shoe-in for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Most anticipated for 2012: Haywire, Looper, Gravity, Moonrise Kingdom, The Master, Django Unchained, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit