The Musicology brains trust pick their favourites of the year.
Matt Neal: Tom Waits - Bad As Me
This might be the perfect Waits album, distilling his career into perfect bite-sized nuggets yet never forsaking his edge, his musical eccentricities, his lyrical deftness nor his vocal idiosyncrasies. Both the perfect introduction to newcomers and the ideal consolidation for the true blue fans, it finds him at his most frantic, most deranged, most mellifluous and most entertaining - in other words, it's another stunning Waits record.
Also: Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, Mutemath - Odd Soul, Matt Hewson Quartet - Under The Gun, Gotye - Making Mirrors.
Tom Waits' Hell Broke Luce (profanity warning) from Bad As Me:
Brady Jones (Red Eagle): Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Unexpected? Yes. Undeserving? Hell no! I first listened to Hot Sauce Committee while walking through the CBD and found myself resisting the urge to assume Beastie Boys poses while pointing out sucker MC's and perpetrators. Nostalgia is awesome, especially when it's laid over happening beats and a generous offering of cowbell. "Can't tell me nothing, can't tell me nada/Don't quote me now because I'm doing the lambada."
Also: JEFF the Brotherhood - We Are The Champions, James Blake - James Blake, The Black Keys - El Camino, Mutemath - Odd Soul.
Beasties Boys with Nas on Too Many Rappers from Hot Sauce Committee Part Two:
Phillip Cooke (Capricorn Records): Dirty Beaches - Badlands
Imagine Elvis Presley is alive and having a psychotic episode in a Peruvian cave on acid while singing. A microphone is suspended from the ceiling thirty feet above, recording the whole thing. That is what Dirty Beaches Badlands sounds like. One of the key tracks is Speedway King - YouTube it now!
Also: Tom Waits - Bad As Me, Noel Gallagher & His High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher & His High Flying Birds, Bass Drum Of Death - GB City, Radiohead - King Of Limbs.
We YouTubed it for you:
Jackson McLaren: Wilco - The Whole Love
Recorded at their Chicago loft, the band is sounding as fresh and tight as ever. Nels Cline's guitar swirls, slides and spits as drummer Glenn Kotche drives the whole way through. Frontman Jeff Tweedy gets even more lyrically twisted: "I never know when I might ambulance/Hoist the horns with my own hands". To quote Andy Partridge, Tweedy is "bending the English language until it screams".
Also: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake, Josh T Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentleman, Tom Waits - Bad As Me, Eilen Jewell - Queen Of The Minor Key
Wilco's I Might from The Whole Love:
Tom Richardson: The Delta Riggs - Talupo Mountain Music Vol. 1
This is technically an EP but these guys are my new favourite band. Definitely the best live performance I saw in 2011. Front dude is very much like Chris Robinson from The Black Crowes (which is certainly cool with me). It's down south rock 'n' roll, duelling guitars etc. It's not as good as their debut self titled release but still pretty freakin' cool.
Also: Blackwood Jack - Blackwood Jack, Rob Sawyer - Lose Discover, Amos Lee - Mission Bell, Bon Iver - Bon Iver
The Delta Riggs' Time from Talupo Mountain Music Vol. 1:
Adam B Metal (The Departed): Kanye West & Jay Z - Watch the Throne
Much like 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch The Throne has made me take notice of modern hip hop again. For years it had nothing to offer me but the same stale carbon copy formula. Watch The Throne throws all traditions out the window. I love the unique musical compositions, some reminiscent of rock/metal progressions and the twin-headed lyrical attack from two of rap's greatest minds can't be ignored. Love him or hate him (most likely hate him) but Mr. West has done it again.
Also: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light, Thrice - Major/Minor, Brave It Through The Night - Brave It Through The Night, Frankenbok - The End Of All You Know
Kanye and Jay Z drop Lift Off with Beyonce:
Richard Tankard (Tank Dilemma): Ryan Adams - Ashes And Fire
If awarded for its stay in the car stereo, Ashes and Fire wins by a street. Ryan Adams' writing chops become more refined with each album, and here he chooses a raw and mostly sparse bed of instrumentation to display it. This is an honest, unpretentious set - presumably he labours/suffers hard to make it sound so effortless. Instant Adams classics such as Do I Wait, Kindness and the title track - not to mention the gobsmacking closer I Love You But I Don't Know What to Say - confirm that Adams is the real deal.
Also: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues, Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix, Cold Chisel - Live @ St Leonards Park, Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer.
Here's I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say:
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