2011 in Music - Part Two

This is Part Two of my review of the year in music, Part One can be found here.

Best Album

Welcome back to 2011 in review, this year saw some fantastic new albums. It has been too difficult to pick one out as the best, so instead here are my choices of several, across many genres. Back in January, The Joy Formidable released 'The Big Roar', their debut album, after two years of singles and an EP, it was long awaited by fans and critics alike, the end result was fantastic. After being featured on the BBC Introducing Stage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend last year the band got increasingly successful. The album works so well because of the epic sound combined with the deep and personal lyrical content. Their biggest hit to date is the grunge inspired rollercoaster, 'Whirring'.

Also released in January, the second album from dance duo Chase and Status, which went plantinum later this year. 'No More Idols' features colloborations with several other acts and vocalists, including Liam Bailey, Maverick Sabre and Tempa T. The dance duo played to thousands of people over the summer, here is a link to 'Blind Faith' live at Glastonbury. 'End Credits' also featured in the 2009 film 'Harry Brown' (starring Michael Caine'). Chase & Status own MTA Records, a label which released the debut album of London duo Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray - also known as Nero. This album, 'Welcome Reality', compares to 'No More Idols' as in both instances it took the artist a long time to compile their previously released work onto one album. The singles from 'Welcome Reality' included the memorable 'Me and You', the music for this song video shows a teenager playing a retro arcade game, perhaps inspired by the recent Disney reboot; 'Tron Legacy'. This album is notable as the 'Thanks' in the CD booklet included artists as varied as Deadmau5, Joni Mitchell, Deftones and Jimi Hendrix.

Another album released this year which has made a significant impact album comes from Sound of Rum with their debut 'Balance'. Kate Tempest provides spoken word material that is set to music, she says that her influences vary from the likes of Scroobius Pip to Shakespeare and Blake. Her lyrics are incredibly well written, they mix the every day with the personal and emotional. Spoken word poetry is having a 'moment' right now, and this band are certainly a big part of it. The album is available on Sunday Best Recordings, here is the music video for 'Slow Slow'.

Live Music

2011 was a big year for live music as well. System of a Down played their first UK show since their hiatus at the Download Festival in Donington Park. The Cure played on the Saturday of Bestival on the Isle of Wight. The Prodigy released a DVD of their huge 2010 'Warriors Dance' show at the MK Bowl. Over at Worthy Farm, Radiohead played a surprise show at The Park stage of Glastonbury Festival. Pulp returned with their performanes at Reading and Leeds, before performing their last song Jarvis Cocker said "if we are only remembered for this song I don't care... Black Lace are only remembered for Agadoo, so it could be a lot worse", they then played 'Common People'. Nearer to the North West, the first ever Jodrell Bank Live event took place, The Flaming Lips performed on the site next to the Lovell telescope (which you might recognise from this Placebo music video). Manchester electronica DJ and blogger Fat Roland attended, here is what he experienced.

Personally, I went to a lot of live music events, but the performer that sticks out the most for me has to be Patrick Wolf, I got to see him three times this year, but each performance was very different. First of all back in March I bought tickets to see him play at Manchester Club Academy but the show was soon upgraded to the bigger Academy 2. He arrived on stage in a smart red suit, he had an image that paralleled the nature of his latest album, 'Lupercalia' of which he played several songs that evening. He also pleased the crowd with older material including his hit 'Accident and Emergency'. Later on in the year I saw him perform at Manchester Pride, a time where he discussed sexuality a lot and played a song from 'Lupercalia' called 'Bermondsey Street' - although it may not have been for others, this was my highlight of this years Pride festival. One small issue was that he performed before The Sugarbabes - possibly not the best line-up combination ever, but it certainly created an opportunity for humour, here is Wolf performing 'The Magic Position' back in August. When he returned to Manchester in October he bought a bigger band with him and a backdrop which included a giant house. Here he performed much of the same material, but walked out into the audience to sing 'Together'. He also previewed some material from his festive EP 'Brumalia' and dedicated 'The Gypsy King' to the travelling community of Dale Farm. I suspect 2011 was a good year for Patrick Wolf, his gigs on these three occasions were fantastic.

Best Music Video

This year saw the use of the celebrity in music videos as some kind of popular cultute reference point for what makes an artist cool. Ed Sheeran had Harry Potter star Rupert Grint in his video for 'Lego House', while Rizzle Kicks got James Corden to bust some moves at the end of their video for 'Mama Do The Hump'. A much more intelligent video was produced for the Foo Fighters, as their new video for 'Walk' parodied the Michael Douglas film 'Falling Down'. This was the first single from their new album 'Wasting Light'.

All jokes and general foolery put to one side, 2011 was a big year for political music. The Foo's protested against the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church who picketed outside their concert during their American tour. In Britain, the News of World scandal caused uproar, and Billy Bragg produced a song called 'Never Buy The Sun'. Later in the year the Occupy movements had a Thank You Gig from the world of music which featured Thom Yorke and Massive Attack. By far the best music video this year though, was the video for 'Make It Stop (September's Children)' by Rise Against, the video tells the story of teenagers at high school in America that are being bullied because of their sexuality - it acts as the bands contribution to the It Gets Better Project. This is a subject which is not usually discussed in alternative music, so to see this song and music video unfold was a big step forwards.

In 2011, we also listened to:


Ben Howard, The Big Pink, Cults, Ghostpoet, Girls, Ice Age, The King Blues, Neon Indian, SebastiAn, Skint & Demoralised, Tribes, and Washed Out 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To All!

Words: Zach Roddis - @zach2504