Butch Slap's Top 30 Albums of 2011

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

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

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

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

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.

Bubblegum

Baby

Lion Tamer

Milk and Honey

The Vaselines - Sex with an X

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

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