Butch Slap

Butch Slap's Top 30 Albums of 2011

2011-12-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

1. Cass McCombs - Wit's End / Humor Risk

The Lonely Doll Mystery Mail

2. Wooden Shjips - West

Home

3. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Honey Bunny

4. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain

Modern Art

5. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

The Last Living Rose

6. The Horrors - Skying

Endless Blue

7. Papercuts - Fading Parade

Do What You Will

8. Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Worm Tamer

9. Alexander Ebert - Alexander

Bad Bad Love

10. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic

Brain Gallop

11. The Phoenix Foundation - Buffalo

Pot

12. Tom Waits - Bad As Me

Satisfied

13. The Black Keys - El Camino

Hell Of A Season

14. The Antlers - West

Rolled Together

15. Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!

The Birds

16. The Black Angels - Phosgene Nightmare

The Boat Song

17. The Kills - Blood Pressures

Nail In My Coffin

18. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Youth Knows No Pain

19. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Calgary

20. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

Feral

21. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome

Two Against One (feat. Jack White)

22. Beirut - The Rip Tide

Santa Fe

23. The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

All Arise!

24. The Strange Boys - Be Brave

Be Brave

25. Peter Bjorn And John - Gimme Some

Tomorrow Has To Wait

26. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

Jesus Fever

27. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

America!

28. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light

You

29. Cornershop - Cornershop And The Double-O Groove Of

United Provinces Of India

30. Cults - Cults

Oh My God

(Links Removed by Request)

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

2011-10-17T09:50:00.005-04:00

I must say, I’ve taken quite shining to Girls. (Insert joke here) Not that there was anything wrong about their debut Album, but things really started clicking for me with last year’s EP Broken Dreams Club. With the new release, it all sounds bigger with epic jams and bottomless heartbreak. The band deftly channels The Beach Boys and Floyd, among others, yet manages to never let such monster influences overwhelm their own unique take on things.

Honey Bunny

Alex

Vomit

10 Great 2011 Albums Hitherto

2011-07-02T08:52:00.004-04:00

Wow…first post this year, busy-busy, so thought I’d play catch-up. Here are some of the albums that made it into heavy rotation the last six months. Hopefully a surprise or two there for you.

Phosgene Nightmare from The Black Angels - The Boat Song

Alexander from Alexander Ebert - Remember Our Heart

Wit's End from Cass McCombs - The Lonely Doll

Cornershop & The Double-O Groove Of from Cornershop - Topknot

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two from Beastie Boys - Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament

Burst Apart from The Antlers - Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out

Arabia Mountain from Black Lips - Raw Meat

Build A Rocket Boys! From Elbow - With Love

Fading Parade from Papercuts - I'll See You Later I Guess

Let England Shake from PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder

Butch Slap's Best Albums of 2010

2010-12-24T14:09:00.006-05:00

1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

All I Want

2. Clinic - Bubblegum

Milk And Honey

3. Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlet

Cloudy Shoes

4. The Black Keys - Brother

Sinister Kid

5. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Half Light II (No Celebration)

6. Tindersticks - Falling Down A Mountain

No Place So Alone

7. Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs

Tragedy (With Shelby Lynne)

8. Wild Nothing - Gemini

O, Lilac

9. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Revival

10. Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man

11. Harlem - Hippies

Friendly Ghost

12. The Divine Comedy - Bang Goes The Knighthood

Assume The Perpendicular

13. Menomena - Mines

TAOS

14. Lightspeed Champion - Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You

Sweetheart

15. The Walkmen - Lisbon

Woe Is Me

16. The National - High Violet

Anyone's Ghost

17. No Age - Everything In Between

Chem Trails

18. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

The Way To Gone

19. Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking It Easy

Heaven, Sittin' Down

20. Girls - Broken Dreams Club

Heartbreaker

Clinic – Bubblegum

2010-09-30T10:19:00.003-04:00

Clinic are back! And I mean that in every way. The new album stands solidly with the brilliance of their first two releases. They’ve tinkered with their instrumentation and songwriting—strings, acoustic guitar, and general poppy-ness—and I think it’s provided a new energy that the band has sorely needed. It’s one on my favorites of the year so far. So take a listen, and just try and get the bubblegum unstuck from your mind.

The Vaselines - Sex with an X

2010-08-31T18:50:00.002-04:00

To my ears, not a lot has changed in the 23 years since The Vaselines put out their only proper album. The new one seems to pick up right where they left off—quirky, marshmellow pop tunes with sunny harmonies. Sounds good to me.

Sex With An X

Poison Pen

It Wasn't All Duran Duran

Mouth To Mouth

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

2010-07-30T17:40:00.004-04:00

Not unlike 2007’s Neon Bible, a dark tension permeates this unapologetically conceptual album. The Suburbs is probably not as immediately likeable as the last, but I think that's ultimately a good thing in this case. I can tell from just a few listens that most all these songs have that subtle kind of hook that will work itself ever deeper once it takes hold. I’m looking forward to more extended listening as this becomes the soundtrack of the moment to my own suburban life.

City With No Children

Half Life II (No Celebration)

We Used To Wait

Damien Jurado – Saint Bartlett

2010-06-18T18:51:00.003-04:00

There is always a degree of melancholy on any Damien Jurado album, and on Saint Bartlett it’s turned up to about 8.5 (assuming the scale starts at 6). I continue to be amazed at the beauty and brilliance of his particular brand of songwriting. This release is a strong one with nearly every track pulling its weight, and should help to widen his small but adoring audience, of which I am a part.

Cloudy Shoes

Throwing Your Voice

Kalama

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

2010-05-19T18:43:00.005-04:00

The word is so out, that it almost doesn’t need to be uttered yet again. The new album is good – a masterpiece some say. And I can’t argue. Every track is a winner (with the exception of the dopey Drunk Girls.) James Murphy lays down chunky synth-beats, krautrock grooves, gurgles, chirps, and pays homage to his heros with wit, originality, and a touch of earnestness. We may not hear a finer album this year.

Recommended Tracks (sorry links were pulled):

Dance Yrself Clean

One Touch

All I Want

The Black Keys - Brothers

2010-05-14T18:58:00.010-04:00

Man, this is a good album. Glad the more straight-ahead blues-rock sound is up front and the Danger Mouse influence has taken a backseat. It’s why I really went for band to begin with. Here, their sound continues to evolve – and Dan Auerbach's vocals have never been more varied, reaching for the upper registers and even capturing a 60’s girl group vibe at times. Needless to say, I am completely down with my Brothers.

Recommended Tracks (sorry links were pulled):

Everlasting Light

Sinister Kid

Never Give You Up

Harlem - Hippies

2010-04-29T20:11:00.004-04:00

Austin, Texas based Harlem have put out a garage-pop gem of an album. It’s stripped down sound and catchy-as-hell songwriting is an effortless pleasure that will have you singing along in two minutes flat.

Recommended Tracks (sorry links were pulled):

Be Your Baby

Gay Human Bones

Torture Me

Faces

Tindersticks - Falling Down a Mountain

2010-03-19T18:31:00.002-04:00

I don’t know why it took me so long to dig into the new Tindersticks album. I’ve adored the band since their first release in 1993—although they did lose me for a brief time near the tumultuous end of their first incarnation. After a five-year absence, the band reformed with a more stripped down lineup and recorded The Hungry Saw, which I did indeed like very much. So maybe it’s just an over-familiarity with what they do that found me procrastinating with Falling Down a Mountain. In any event, I was missing out on a terrific album that features the strongest first three album tracks of any they’ve put out. The sound is looser and more confident—and I’m back 100%.

Falling Down a Mountain

Keep You Beautiful

Harmony Around My Table

No Place So Alone

Lightspeed Champion - Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You

2010-02-26T18:21:00.005-05:00

Though Dev Hynes has been busy cranking out scrappy music over the past couple years, he’s back with a proper full-length album. And although its appeal may not be quite as immediate as 2008's Falling Off A Lavender Bridge, it is remarkably good, and will no doubt, work its magic on you after a few extended listens. It’s really the first album out this year that I’m truly excited by.

Recommended Tracks (Sorry, links were pulled)

Marlene

I Don't Want To Wake Up Alone

Madame Van Damme

Sweetheart

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?

2010-01-22T18:56:00.003-05:00

BJM have not yet collapsed under the weight of their own strangeness. They return to semi-coherent form with their new release Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? The good news is that it’s actually got a lot going for it—driving spacey grooves (at times), more consistency as an album, a touch of Eastern instrumentation, and even a nod to Joy Division. The vocals are still a bit garbled, but overall, it’s a big step in the evolution of the “new” BJM sound.

Tempo 116.7 (Reaching for Dangerous Levels of Sobriety)

This Is the One Thing We Did Not Want to Have Happen

Super Fucked