A PRELUDE TO CHRSWLKRVS’ END OF YEAR LISTS

I’ve listened to electronic music all my life but 2011 was the first year it superseded all other genres and made (most) everything else sound muted and dull. At Coachella, fed up with the hours it took lackluster indie bands to set up and tear down, friends and I spent most of our time in the Sahara Tent dancing to sets by Chuckie, Laidback Luke, and the Twelves. Instead of traveling to San Francisco to hear up-and-coming bands like in years past, I went to Las Vegas nightclubs to experience artists like Calvin Harris, Kaskade, and Skrillex. By Electronic Daisy Carnival my desire to engage in the “have you heard of” antics of indie culture was gone. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin came when I couldn’t make it through five tracks of Feist’s new album, Metals, without feeling bored, agitated, and eventually turning it off. In contrast, Feist’s The Reminder was my number one favorite album of 2007. I felt like Stan in the “Tween Wave” episode of South Park. Suddenly, everything sounded like shit.

That’s not to say my love of all other genres completely diminished. New Jersey quaint-rockers Real Estate made a gorgeous sophomore pass with Days. Drake’s had a dedicated spot on my stereo ever since “Best I Ever Had” and Take Care, the game-changing follow up to Thank Me Later, only solidified that further. It took a while before Alex Turner’s slow-burn, witty wordplay on Arctic Monkey’s Suck It + See won me over, but it did. The frost-like beauty of Washed Out’s Within + Without was immediately apparent.

With those exceptions, most of year’s listening was dedicated to electronic music, which made picking my top ten favorite albums of 2011 difficult. Electronic music is more single-oriented; a lot of my favorite artists didn’t put out LPs. That’s why this year I’ve expanded my list-making to cover my top twenty singles, top ten EPs, top ten DJ mixes, and finally, my top ten albums.

I’ll be putting the lists up over the next two days. Hopefully you enjoy them. Maybe I’ll turn you onto something new in the process.

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