The following are my top 10 albums of 2011. While this year has featured some great reissues and live albums, I’m only including CD’s of new music. So, here goes…
Riverside, Memories In My Head A mini-album clocking in at just over a half hour that is simply brilliant!
Steven Wilson, Grace For Drowning While I really like this and find more that I like on repeated listens, I don’t think I like it as much as most.
Yes, Fly From Here Easily the band’s best album since 90125.
Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins, A Scarcity of Miracles Essentially a mellow King Crimson ProjeKct.
Opeth, Heritage Abandons the death metal vocals altogether for a 70s prog vibe.
Pendragon, Passion The second excellent album in a row from a band I never really cared for in the past.
Airbag, All Rights Removed A solid sophomore release that isn’t quite as good as the debut.
Lunatic Soul, Impressions An instrumental affair from Riverside’s Marius Duda.
Tommy Shaw, The Great Divide The Styx guitarist/singer pulls off the bizarre - releasing an album of original bluegrass songs.
Blackfield, Welcome To My DNA The weakest of Blackfield’s three albums, likely owing to Steven Wilson’s lack of input (he was saving his best work for his solo album).
I want to give a special mention to the Beach Boy’s Smile Sessions release. This album, originally recorded in the last 60s but never released in its entirity (individual songs have appeared on various Beach Boys albums and Brian Wilson released a solo version of the album in 2004), it’s great to finally hear the full Beach Boys version. So while not really a new CD per se, it does deserve a special mention.
And the usual disclaimer - I’m sure in a few months I’lll hear something from 2011 that I hadn’t heard yet that I’ll love, bumping something off of this list.
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
Steven Wilson, Grace For Drowning Gazpacho, London Yes, In the Present Adrian Belew, Dust Aimee Mann, @#%&! Smilers David Gilmour, Live in Gdansk Phil Manzanera, Diamond Head Pendragon, Pure Australian Pink Floyd, Live at the Hammersmith Apollo 2011 Resonance Association, Waving Not Drowning Porcupine Tree, Recordings
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
The Kinks, Give the People What They Want The Kinks, State of Confusion The Kinks, Come Dancing With the Kinks Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd, A Foot in the Door Queen, Innuendo Queen, A Kind of Magic Queen, Made in Heaven Queen, The Miracle The Beach Boys, Smile Sessions Gazpacho, London Bass Communion, Cenotaph Rush, Time Machine 2011 Pure Reason Revolution, Valour Phil Selway, Running Blind Steven Wilson, Grace For Drowning Yes, Yesshows
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
Steven Wilson, Grace For Drowning King Crimson, Starless and Bible Black King Crimson, Discipline Gazpacho, A Night at Loreley Gazpacho, Tick Tock Gazpacho, Night Airbag, All Rights Removed Airbag, Identity Yes, Close to the Edge Yes, 9012Live: The Solos Red Orchid, Blood Vessels and Marshmallows The Kinks, Picture Book Richard Butler, Richard Butler Moraine, Metamorphic Rock Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon Resonance Association, Heliopause Lunatic Soul, Impressions Discipline, To Shatter All Accord Pineapple Thief, Variations on a Dream Alan Howarth performing music from John Carpenter’s The Thing
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
Anathema, A Natural Disaster Anathema, We’re Here Because We’re Here Porcupine Tree, The Incident Porcupine Tree, Stars Die Crack The Sky, Crack The Sky Crack The Sky, White Music Crack The Sky, Ghost Solstice Coil, Natural Causes
Radiohead is one of those bands that’s all over the place for me. I liked their earlier, more-or-less straight-on alternative rock. I liked the darkness of O.K. Computer and the total weirdness of Kid A. But then the band lost me. Amnesiac, which was recorded at the same time as Kid A, lacks that album’s inventiveness. Hail to the Thief, while having some good songs (namely “There There”) is just sort of there for me. In Rainbows was a nice recovery, but I find the latest, The King of Limbs, an album that seems weird just for the sake of being weird. But, with this band, you never know what might come next (well, other than it will be weird)…
Studio Albums Pablo Honey (1993): 3.5 stars The Bends (1995): 4.5 stars O.K. Computer (1997): 5 stars Kid A (2000): 5 stars Amnesiac (2001): 2.5 stars Hail to the Thief (2003): 3 stars In Rainbows (2007): 4 stars The King of Limbs (2011): 2 stars
Marillion will always hold a place in my heart as it’s the first band that Jessica and I discovered together. I had heard positive things about Marillion from some Pink Floyd usergroup that I was on at the time, so I thought I’d check them out. One day in the spring of 1996 while we were at some record store in the North Hills that doesn’t even exist anymore (there’s a Chuck E. Cheese there now), Jessica spied their live album, Made Again and we went from there. At one time our favorite band, they have slipped, quality-wise, over the past decade, and have been surpassed by Porcupine Tree (who, ironically, I got into because of Marillion!).
Studio Albums Script For a Jester’s Tear (1983): 3 stars Fugazi (1984): 2.5 stars Misplaced Childhood (1985): 3.5 stars Clutching at Straws (1987): 5 stars Season’s End (1989): 3.5 stars Holidays In Eden (1991): 3 stars Brave (1994): 4.5 stars Afraid of Sunlight (1995): 5 stars This Strange Engine (1997): 3 stars Radiation (1998): 3 stars Marillion.com (1999): 1 star Anoraknophobia (2001): 3 stars Marbles (2004): 3.5 stars Somewhere Else (2007): 1 star Happiness is the Road (2008): 3 stars Less is More (2009): 2 stars
I won’t bother with live albums as this band has released tons of them.
I was reading a magazine that reviewed all of Pink Floyd’s albums, and while it was an interesting read, I didn’t agree with everything. So I thought I’d rate albums on my own.
While Pink Floyd is no longer my favorite band (Porcupine Tree holds that distinction for over the past decade), I thought I’d start with the favorite band of my teen/college years. More rankings of other bands to follow.
Studio Albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967): 3 stars A Saucerful of Secrets (1968): 2.5 stars More (1969): 2 stars Ummagumma (1969): 2.5 stars Atom Heart Mother (1970): 2.5 stars Meddle (1971): 3.5 stars Obscured By Clouds (1972): 3.5 stars Dark Side of the Moon (1973): 5 stars Wish You Were Here (1975): 5 stars Animals (1977): 4.5 stars The Wall (1979): 4 stars The Final Cut (1983): 3.5 stars A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987): 3 stars The Division Bell (1994): 3.5 stars
Live Albums Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988): 2 stars Pulse (1995): 4 stars Is There Anybody Out There (2000): 3.5 stars
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
Yes, Fly From Here (my favorite Yes CD in quite some time) Porcupine Tree, Deadwing The Buggles, Adventures in Modern Recording Anathema, A Natural Disaster Zombi, Cosmos It Bites, Eat Me in St. Louis It Bites, It Happened One Night Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins, A Scarcity of Miracles Yes, 90125 Yes, Drama Flower Kings, Tour Kaput Tin Spirits, Wired to Earth
Just a sampling of some of the things I’ve been listening to the past month…
Riverside, Memories in My Head Anathema, We’re Here Because We’re Here Anathema, A Natural Disaster Caravan, In the Land of Grey and Pink The Cars, Move Like This Richard Butler, Richard Butler It Bites, This is Japan It Bites, It Happened One Night It Bites, The Tall Ships Zombi, Cosmos Spock’s Beard, X Airbag, Identity Porcupine Tree, Futile
