It Surrounds Everything: Russ's Best Records of 2011

2011's coming to a close, and it was an absolutely brilliant year for music, a year that I had a handful of records actually attach themselves to me in ways that formed new permanent favorites. Compiling ten albums that had serious meaning to me in 2011 and ranking them, though, was difficult as hell: who can say if the revelation at the gym had to one upbeat record is more or less impactful then the solving of an existential crises brought about by wandering the streets to another? 

Regardless, the iPod playcount and the amount I've talked about these albums cannot and do not lie: here's my top 10 favorite records of 2011. Sorry, Jay-Z and Kanye, but having that one good song on Watch The Throne does not a top-10 record make. And +10 to Kate Bush for fucking a snowman, -20 for so much of that record being boring. Special mention goes to John Maus who has an album that's literally number 11 of my top 10, sorry bro, part and parcel to making a list is leaving things off a list. Apologies if there's some overlap between here and there...actually, no, no apologies. This is what I loved and felt and breathed in 2011's music. 

#10:

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These Kids Wear Crowns Over Here: On Drake's "Take Care"

Drake ~ Headlines (Official Video) from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

There's a really telling and earnest interview with Drake at GQ where he discloses, amongst many other things, that favorite record of his is his new one, Take Care, and that his second favorite record is soldout 2009 favorite So Far Gone, which, it could be argued, is a "mix tape"--if, by "mix tape" we mean that a couple of songs are Drake rapping over beats that weren't created for him and that he didn't pay for them. Otherwise, though, give it to him: So Far Gone counts as an album, 100%, even breeding two now-classic Drake hits, "Successful" (my personal favorite Drake cut ever) and "Best I Ever Had". So let's give it to him: his best (of 3) mixtapes also counts as one of his most successful albums, infinitely better than his technical "debut", Thank Me Later.

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ooooh I needed that.

"Headlines" is a classic anthem, one for our times. One for the times of grand failures and grand successes, one in which Drake admits "yeah, I did this shit, and what of it?" Drake usually sucks live, at least from what I've seen but that's not the case here. Maybe we've actually watched him grow as a performer? Thank you, Drake. I'm thanking you right fucking now. 

I might be too strung out on compliments, overdosed on confidence

Started not to give a fuck and stopped fearing the consequence

Drinking every night because we drink to my accomplishments

Faded way too long, I'm floatin' in and out of consciousness

And they sayin' I'm back, I agree with that

I just take my time with all this shit, I still believe in that

I had someone tell me I fell off, ooh I needed that

Drake's made an anthem for trying harder, the "I'm sorry I don't want to be a slacker" jam for all of us who get up too early, work too late, and try too fucking hard. 

OVO SAD BOI

Run, do not walk, to this tumblr which attempts to explain why Drake is so sad on the recently-released cover for his new album Take Care

Drizzy got the money, so Drizzy gon' pay it

In an alternate world where I can ever get my shit together, I still have a social security card. In that world, I re-upped my passport. In that world, I am in Canada tonight for OVOFEST, at which Drake, Rick Ross and The Weeknd will be sharing a stage. In celebration of that bizarro world where, right now, I am drowning in drugs and a glass of syrah rose mixed with purp (ew? yum. ew...), Drake, just five minutes ago while you were having breakfast, released "Headlines". "Money over everything," it goes, "money on my mind. Tell 'em I apologize...it happens all the time." If Drake had stopped caring about anything but dying in a waterfall of painkillers on the last two sneaky releases that may or may not be from Take Care, that's stopped today, just now. Worth noting this is the return of both Drake wantonly throwing cash around like Scrooge McDuck in that opening scene of Ducktails AND Boi-1da. Coincidence? Hardly. 

Download "Headlines"