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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You Talk Big, So I’ll Talk Bigger

You Talk Big, So I’ll Talk Bigger

Atlanta’s Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun are an incredible band. In-freaking-credible.  They play this fierce blend of electronic rock that comes built-in with hooks and mantras, like breakup music you can dance to if you’re so inclined or rock out to if you’re so inclined or just get absorbed in and listen, listen, listen.

(photo of TTMTTS at The Tank in Manhattan via This Week In NY)

They release a new E.P., Heavyweight Champions, next weekend (Oct 17), with a special show at Atlanta’s Drunken Unicorn. This new stuff, some of which they’ve been playing out on tour, shows why TTMTTS are masters of the short turn-around time befitting a barrage of E.P. releases (this is their third): the songs on Heavyweight Champions show a definite new attention to slowly divvying out personal details in the song lyrics, and this song, “Apologia”, is one of the heaviest, hardest things they’ve done to date.  It’s juxtaposed nicely as the second track with the E.P.’s opener and first single, the similarly-shocking New Order-ish nod “Bones”. There’s something devistating in the lines “you talk big, so I’ll talk bigger, you talk big so I’ll…talk”…it’s a promise and a threat, yeah? A promise and a threat that just keeps getting bigger.

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