Technicolor

Best of 2011

Music:

5.  Radiohead - “the King of Limbs“ 

I called Adam Ball after hearing this record, and talked about how it was one of the most unlistenable records I had heard.  It’s obvious that you have to spend time with a Radiohead record, but after several listens I kept wondering what the hell they were doing here.  I left it alone for a few months, and then came back to it and it hit me.  I still stand by the fact that this record sounds as like it is 100% driven by Thom Yorke as opposed to all five members, and the least attainable Radiohead record to date.  But tracks like “Little by Little” continue rhythmic explorations that even the biggest hater wishes they had thought up, or at least wrapped their head around in the first place.  Best Tracks:  “Little by Little”, “Feral”

4.  MODESELEKTOR - “Monkeytown”

Monkeytown is their most fluid record to date.  This type of bang your head record doesn’t need to flow conceptually, but MODESELEKTOR just killed it with this record.  There’s a not a lot to cover in a review for this, but in the current world of contrived electronica (see: DeadMau5, Skrillex) MODESELEKTOR is just killing it.  Best Tracks:  “This (feat. Thom Yorke)”, “Berlin Clap (feat. Miss Platnum)”

3.  Drake - “Take Care”

I really should have started listening to hip-hop about 15 years ago.  And I don’t mean playing songs on the radio, I mean really listening.  Back then, things were still in somewhat of an interesting state, but these days hip-hop is just about all I listen to.  And these days just aren’t that great for the culture.  So, it’s a steady dose of Jay-Z, Tribe, and Eric B. and Rakim in my headphones right now.  I can’t put my finger on exactly what hip-hop is missing today…maybe some real consciousness, not just consciousness for the sake of a checklist.  I think a lot of it is just taking risks.  

808s and Heartbreaks took risks a few years back.  In retrospect, it’s the weakest of Kanye’s releases, but please thank him for taking a risk he wanted to take.

Drake’s second record is not a record that makes you reassess your day-to-day.  It’s not a hip-hop wonder.  For that matter, it really doesn’t have a place in a single genre.  But what Take Care embodies is risk.  For a mainstream artist, this is a genre-bending release that the artist wanted to make, without seeming interference with a record label.  It lives mostly in the realm of r&b, with nods to hip-hop and dubstep, but mostly in an area of study all its own.  I’ve spent a lot of time listening to this recently.   I can’t say it’s an perfect record that you absolutely need (honestly, Drake doesn’t have an amazing flow), but I applaud the risk Drake took on a second album…hip-hop needs more of these risks.  Best Tracks:  “Crew Love (feat. the Weeknd)”, “Over My Dead Body”

2.  M83 - “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”

A double LP concept record that is basically Where the Wild Things Are in space?  Awesome.  Helmed by the only person who can nod to the ’80s without it being ironic?  Check.  This is no Before the Dawn Heals Us, but it’s a great addition to their discography.  I’ll admit that I was honestly wanting something more with this record.  Conceptually, it’s excellent, but I would love some of the fat trimmed off.  My friend Ben just loves the track “Racone-Moi Une Histoire”, but this is the one place I have to disagree with him on.  I have to skip this little girl’s song every time I play this.  Even still, I’ve been jamming this all year, and it’s an excellent record.  Best Tracks:  “Midnight City”, “Steve McQueen”

1.  JAY Z & Kanye West - “Watch the Throne”

I could write a dissertation on how great Watch the Throne is.  It’s a masterpiece, and I’m sure you’re laughing when you read that, but it is just that.  It was hard making a top list this year, because this is the only record I truly was in awe of.

I was so excited when I had first heard about the plans for this.  Not arguably, but the best artists in hip-hop today who have such a mutual history and love for one another are doing a collaboration record?  Battle record—not a, but the (and I’ll admit a huge bias for me as I’m an obsessed Jay-Z fan).  What originally was supposed to be an EP turned into a full record in a comment by Jay last year.  I couldn’t wait.  

And when I first heard it, I remember thinking “are they serious…this is it??”  It sounded cheap.  It was over the top, and all over the place.  But yet I had to keep listening to it.  I had to keep listening.  I had to keep listening.

Then I got it.  So what do we have?  A gold cover designed by an italian fashion designer.  Non-stop self-referential one-ups and praises.  Samples from Blades of Glory.  A video including a blowtorch and a Maybach.  And in the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement this year, Jay and Yeezy got blasted for making a record about over indulgence and wasted wealth.  ”This is the wrong time for this record”, and “Irresponsible”.  Are you serious?

Are you fucking serious?  Have you ever listened to hip-hop?  To quote Jay, “this is black superhero music”…this is a celebration and a battle.  If you want to make the world a better place more power to you, but this type of record is not the forum.  Remember, this is the Throne.

This is it.  This is the top of their game.  This is not Jay’s best record, and it’s not Kanye’s best record.  This is a record that literally guards the metaphorical throne.

Personally, I’ve had some big internals struggle this year.  Nothing earth shattering…first world struggles…whatever, everyone is struggling.  But at the height of anxiety, this record made me feel like I could do anything when I sang with Jay, “if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too.”   The world is struggling.  But if you’ve worked your ass off and made it out alive, you have to celebrate.  Whoever you are.  Be humble, be thankful, stay hungry, and remember where you came from, but if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too.

What else?  Hooks.  This record is one giant chain of hooks.  

Luxury rap / the Hermes of verses / sophisticated ignorance / I write my curses in cursive

Ball so hard motherfuckers want to fine me / but first they gotta find me

Cock back snap back / see my cut through the holes

Last week I was in my other other Benz

Photoshoot fresh / lookin’ like wealth / I’m about to call the paparazzi on myself

I repeat / my religion is the beat / my verse is like church

Graduated to the MOMA / And I did all of this / without a diploma / graduated from the corner / y’all can play me / for a motherfuckin fool if ya wanna / street smart / and I’m book smart / could have been a chemist / cause I cook smart

And I’ll never let my son have an ego /  he’ll be nice to everyone, wherever we go / I mean I might even make ‘em be Republican / so everybody know he love white people

Cause the n*gga that said he’ll… / blast for ya / is now… / blastin’ for ya / that’s an assassin for ya / these n*ggas got a shot they’ll shoot / please lord / forgive him / for these n*ggas / not know / what they / do

Caeser didn’t see it so he ceased to exist / so the n*gga that killed him had keys to his shit / am I my brother’s keeper?

I don’t even know what to say. 

My girlfriend’s amazing siblings got me tickets for Christmas to the final night of the LA dates.  I was there when they infamously played N*ggas in Paris 10 times.  Friends kept saying to me, “that must have just been annoying.  Why would they do that?”  Because they can.  And because we loved it.  And because if you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting fucked up, too.  Best Tracks:  “Gotta Have It”, “N*ggas in Paris”

Honorable Mentions:

Bon Iver - “s/t” (by rights, it should be in the top 10, but I couldn’t solidify a full top 10, so this got bumped)

YACHT - “Shangri-La”

Pictureplane - “Thee Physical”

Rihanna - “Talk That Talk”

Beirut - “the Rip Tide”

the Weeknd - “House of Balloons”

Cults - “s/t”

Washed Out - “Within and Without”

Biggest Disappointment:

Justice - “Audio, Video, Disco”

Live Shows:

Archers of Loaf - 6/2 & 6/3 - Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA

Watch the Throne -12/13 - Staples Center - Los Angeles, CA

Films:

3.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

2.  Terri

1. Super 8