Apr 05, 2016
Words by Anmol Lamba
I wish I had thought to start this column earlier. I have spent my last few hours wading through the releases that 2011 had offered and the year started off rather strong. Between January to March, we had already heard Nicolas Jaar’s debut Space is Only Noise, what I personally believe to be the Weeknd’s only good album (House of Balloons), Alex Turner’s soundtrack for Submarine, and Radiohead’s The King of Limbs. In case you had forgotten that Thom Yorke can dance, here’s a reminder:
April 2011 went on to be iconic for many reasons in pop-culture. Game of Thrones quietly aired its first episode, Steve Carell made his last appearance on The Office and the show would greatly suffer, Thor somehow successfully managed to make people care, only to be one upped by the Royal Wedding to make us collectively question “how is this a thing?”
In terms of music news, what’s perhaps most worthy of mentioning is LCD Soundsystem playing their “last” show in Madison Square Garden to much fanfare, scalper controversy, and sales of full discography box sets which would become invalidated a few years down the line as the band reunited recently (which as someone who is casual fan of their music is rather exciting).
Overall, here are five tracks we’re still listening to, in no particular order:
“Forgotten” by TV on the Radio
I don’t know if anyone really quite remembers 2011’s Nine Types of Light. After phenomenal back to back releases in the forms of Return to Cookie Mountain and Dear Science, this album was mostly seen as a let down, possibly due to extremely high expectations. As someone who was just getting into TV on the Radio at the time, the smoother sound of some of the tracks featured here served as a gateway drug for me to retroactively discover the band’s post-rock roots.
“Night Air” by Jamie Woon
Jamie Woon’s debut album Mirrorwriting would join the British R&B scene with sounds that were *just* recently explored by the xx and James Blake at the time, although in more indie pop and experimental ways respectively. But, despite not being entirely fresh, it was good. Really good. Features production work by Burial.
“Hillbilly Man” by Gorillaz
The Fall was mostly a gimmick album from late 2010 (receiving its physical release in April 2011). The Gorillaz had released a well-received-although-not-quite-as-good-as-Demon-Days album in the form of Plastic Beach earlier in 2010. Plastic Beach’s 16 tracks took nearly two years to record and came five years after Demon Days. Contrast that to the Fall, with 15 tracks recorded over one month’s time, and the primary headline around the album being that it was recorded with a then-new Apple product known as the iPad. I somehow managed to stumble through my general disinterest in the album at the time and arrive at "Hillbilly Man," which is a genuinely decent offering in an otherwise unmemorable album.
“County Line” by Cass McCombs
This is a moody song by Cass McCombs in line with many of the other tracks on Wit’s End. Two things happened here: firstly, I totally lost track of Cass McCombs’ career after this album and I am generally unaware whether that was just me or something that happened as a collective. Secondly, Mac DeMarco would later step in and deliver a similar(ish) sound that managed to sound fresher and less Paul McCartney. I don’t mean to detract from this track, which is amazing, it’s just surprising looking back that it had nowhere near the cultural significance I thought it would at the time.
“Gangsta” by tUnE-yArDs
I remember I was really resistant to the weirdness of her music initially but this track still managed to latch on to my mind and refuses to let go. Off of her sophomore album, w h o k i l l, "Gangsta" has gone from being a catchy, idiosyncratic indie single to a mainstream feminist rock anthem of sorts being featured in shows such as Orange is the New Black, Weeds, and The Good Wife. I personally find the track to be most memorable not only for the lyrics bur for also somehow managing to get one pumped up through the use of police sirens as a musical device. The lyrics allude to themes of cultural appropriation but even without that context, who can’t to relate to a song which opens with “What’s a boy to do if he’ll never be a gangsta?”
Overall the most memorable bit from this month, at least personally, was likely the introduction of Merrill Garbus (a.k.a. tUnE-yArDs) into our culture conscience. She would go on to release Nikki Nack in 2014 which didn’t quite have the same effect on my (“Water Fountain” was a nice single, though), she has since also produced two albums by Thao Nguyen, including a 2016 record worth checking out – A Man Alive.
See you next month.
Image: Paste Magazine