2.1.12
A full month into the new year and only two CDs purchased. I know January is typically a prett slow month for releases, but this has got to be the worst in years. And February's not looking much better at this point——I think I've got two or three things preordered, and I'm pretty sure that's lower than usual as well. Either I'm finally falling out of step with music enough that there's not much new that I'm interested in, or this is just a weird year and I'll end up buying way more later.

2.2.12
Continuing this idea that my tastes are falling out of step with the tastemakers, I did my annual review of which tracks in Pitchfork's top 100 tracks for the year were actually in my library. This year, I matched on 19, which is not the lowest total ever, but of the tracks that I actually liked (ranked four stars or more), the total was very, very low——only 11 of the 19——not quite 60%——made the cut with me. With my previous low match of 15 tracks, my taste was much more aligned with theirs——13 of the 15, or 87% were tracks that I not only had in my library but also rated highly myself.

Some of the tracks that they liked were from albums that I owned and liked overall, but they were picking tracks that I consider to be the weaker ones. A good example is Eleanor Friedberger's "My Mistakes" from Last Summer, which Pitchfork had at number 61. A great album with some killer tracks on it, but "My Mistakes" not even in my top three favorites. "My Mistakes" is a sold track, and worthy of four stars for me, but the song that makes that album is the closer, "Early Earthquakes"——nothing else on the record even comes close to that one. And there are other examples of this, too——Tune-Yards and Frank Ocean would both make my top 10 list of tracks for 2011, but not for the tracks that Pitchfork selected.

Probably the most telling thing about my disconnect with the Pitchfork staff is their top 10 tracks——in that group, I only owned one track, and although it happens to be the number one track (M83's "Midnight City") and it's also my favorite from off that album, it's not my favorite track of the year, and I'm not even sure if it's in my top 10.

2.3.12
Looking at Pitchfork's top 50 albums list, I match on twelve, but similar to the singles list, there are only eight of those records that I would consider to be pretty great albums worthy of consideration for a best-of list for 2011, and three of the other four are records that I more or less despise.

I haven't looked back to see how this compares to previous years, but I have a feeling that it's a pretty low match rate. Even including the honorable mentions, which gets the album category up to 70 releases, there's only one additional record that I have in my collection (although it's one I happen to like a lot, Eleanor Friedberger's Last Summer).

2.6.12
Some good choices in this month's MP3 albums for $5 offering from Amazon: St. Vincent's Strange Mercy, Massive Attack's Mezzanine, Duran Duran's Rio (possibly their best album), LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, and Gorillaz' self-titled debut album.

The only album I'm looking to pick up myself is White Rabbits' It's Frightening. I'm kind of surprised I don't own this already——I have their previous release, Fort Nightly, and I like it pretty well, and this record was produced by Spoon's Britt Daniel, which adds to its appeal for me. I think maybe I just didn't know that it had been released, because it's been out for a couple of years now.

2.7.12
I've been getting kind of obsessed with the music on Frank Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra. recently, but there are a lot of great non-musical moments, too——the Nicole Kidman rant from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut that underpins "Lovecrimes", the interludes of casette tapes being popped in and out of a deck, the alarm clock at the end of his cover of Coldplay's "Strawberry Swing"——but there's one that's my clear favorite.

About 45 seconds into "American Wedding", Ocean's remake of the Eagles' "Hotel California", just after he's finished speaking some phrases over the opening guitar part, there's the sound of someone flicking open a Zippo-style lighter and striking a flame. Then, a few seconds later, so quiet that it's almost imperceptible, there's the sound of someone taking a drag on a cigarette——all you can hear, and just barely, is the sound of the paper and dry tobacco burning with that gentle crackle that you can only hear when you're the one actually smoking the cigarette.

It's not something you're likely to hear the first time through unless you're listening on headphones that are turned up way too loud, and it's beautiful.

2.8.12
Even though Tim Kasher's output has been very uneven of late (the last truly great record from either of his bands, Cursive and the Good Life, was Cursive's Happy Hollow, released back in 2006), I still decided to preorder Cursive's newest offering, I Am Gemini, from Amazon. But then I got an email from Saddle Creek, Kasher's label, telling me that I could preorder the record from them for cheaper than Amazon and I'd get an immediate download, a couple of weeks before the official release. And luckily, it's pretty easy to cancel an Amazon preorder with no penalty.

This one sounds a lot more math rock-y than than recent stuff, so I'm hoping maybe this is a return to the style of Domestica and The Ugly Organ, still two my favorites.

2.9.12
It's been months since there's been anything like a flood of new releases, or even a single week where I wanted to buy more than one new record. I'm bored and looking for something new, and I know that somewhere out there is a record that will change my life that I haven't heard yet, but I have no idea how to find it.

2.10.12
I recently did my second Kickstarter donation to Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch to help finance his film God Help the Girl (on which the album of the same name by the group of the same name is based), but my third donation will be to a project that is more directly related to music: CASH Music, which is dedicated to building a platform of free tools that artists and labels can use to distribute their music directly to their fan base.

The most notable member of this collective so far is Kristin Hersh (originally of Throwing Muses fame), who has recorded and distributed her last several releases without the help of a label (there are many higher profile indie stars who have their names on the front page of the site, but as far as I know, none of them have really used the platform the way Kristin has).

Their current Kickstarter projectis to fund the hiring of some developers who can make improvements to their code and add some new features. Which doesn't seem that exciting, but once you get to know a bit more about their goals and how, if they're able to get the platform to where they want it, it could really revolutionize the industry of distributing and selling music. So read up on CASH Music a bit, and give a little if their mission sounds like something you'd like to support.

2.13.12
For the 2011 releases, I don't feel strongly enough about the stuff that I liked to do my traditional ranking of the top 10, so instead I'll just be giving you a list of songs and albums I thought were pretty great for the year. I similarly don't feel constrained by the 10 items limit because of the lack of an individual ranking, so if I don't hit 10 exactly, I'm not going to stress out about it.

As usual, I'll stick to a single entry per artist. Also, I'm not counting anything off of the Beach Boys' Smile because I don't technically count that as a 2011 release.

Let's get started with the singles, in alphabetically order of the artist:

Cloud Nothings——"Should Have"
A good representative track from one of my favorite records this year: power pop with some ragged edges played at a thousand miles an hour.

Cults——"Oh My God"
There's a lot of good stuff on Cults' debut record, but this is the one that immediately jumped out at me. It's one of those songs that you have to play like 10 times in a row the first time you hear it, because you just can't get enough.

Death Cab For Cutie——"St. Peter's Cathedral"
If you described this song to me, even in the context of it being a Death Cab song, I would probably guess that I would hate it when I heard it. But it might just be the most beautiful thing Ben Gibbard and company have ever written.

Eleanor Friedberger——"Early Earthquake"
Back when they were first getting started, it seemed obvious that Matthew was the sibling responsible for 90% of the Fiery Furnaces' songwriting. But on Eleanor's first solo album, she proves that not only is she just as important in crafting that band's sound, she just might be its soul.

Iron & Wine——"Tree By the River"
Even as Sam Beam's songwriting got more and more precise, I began to lose faith in the stories he was telling, to the point where, even though I couldn't point to a specific flaw in the record, I was completely bored with 2007's The Shepherd's Dog, his last studio album before 2011's Kiss Each Other Clean. The time off worked wonders for him: "Tree By the River" is exactly what I would have hoped for in imagining his transition from solo acoustic artist to a singer with a full band and electric instruments backing him.

Jay-Z & Kanye West——"No Church In The Wild"
This record as a whole grew on me, but no track moreso than this menacing, hard-edged track has become my favorite. A lot of that has to do with the refrain that Frank Ocean (who appears elsewhere on this list with an entry from his debut solo record), but the song also shows off some of Jay-Z's most vital lines in years, and you get the feeling he might not have been able to write them if he wasn't pushed on by his once-protege Kanye.

Jens Lekman——"Waiting for Kirsten"
I really don't care much for Kirsten Dunst, the subject of this song——in fact, the main reason I want to see Melancholia (the movie she was making with Lars von Trier when she was in the town where Jens lives) because a friend of mine told me that she seems absolutely miserable in it. But this song is touching and funny and sweet and mean all at the same——typical Jens. And I can't get enough of it.

Frank Ocean——"Songs For Women"
If I had actually made this list before 2011 was over, this song wouldn't have been on it, because I didn't download it (legally——Ocean released this album for free on his web site) until 2012. I have great affection for all of Nostalgia, Ultra., but this song is far and away my favorite. It's a great R+B song that skewers R+B——just like many of Kanye's songs poke fun at the stereotypes of hip hop while simultaneously being classic examples of hip hop.

Rural Alberta Advantage——"North Star"
Love this band, love this track. I don't have a whole lot else to say except that I bet most of you have never heard of them. Remedy that as soon as humanly possible.

St. Vincent——"Cruel"
I resisted Annie Clark's charms for a long time, and I have no idea why. Strange Mercy is pretty solid through and through, but "Cruel" is probably the most immediately catchy. And you know me——I'm a sucker for catchy.

The Streets——"Lock The Locks"
If this record had been any less good than it was, it would have been a sad end to what started out as a potentially brilliant career. "Lock the Locks" is the perfect end to what has been declared to be the final record from Mike Skinner's The Streets project. It's about leaving when you know it's time to leave——a job, a lover, a life——even though it's hard because you could fool yourself into staying comfortable and continuing on the same path. It will be interesting to see what comes next for him.

Tune-Yards——"Killa"
If I was in a place where I could rank albums this year, it's highly likely that Tune-Yards' WHOKILL would have been at the top of the list. It's hard for me to pick a favorite, but "Killa" will certainly do. If I tried to explain the sound to you, you would probably end up steering clear because it would sound pretentious, so I'm just going to tell you that it's awesome and you should go have a listen for yourself.

2.14.12
So. Best albums of 2011, arranged alphabetically by artist:

The Rip Tide——Beirut
After a promising early career, I had almost given up on Zach Condon as a one-trick pony whose trick I had long since grown tired of. But this is most solid and cohesive collection of songs yet, and for the first time in a while it actually sounds like he might be having a little fun.

Cloud Nothings——Cloud Nothings
I can just listen to this over and over and over It kills me that the follow up, which was released in January 2012, is so terrible. If you've been hearing any buzz on this band, ignore the new one and pick this one up instead.

Cults——Cults
I've generally steered clear of the plague of 60s girl groups combined with fuzz guitar that have become de rigeur over the past couple of years, but there's something about Cults that separates them from the pack. As much as I'm bored by the groups mining a similar vein, I'm excited by them, and I can't tell you exactly why.

Codes And Keys——Death Cab For Cutie
This isn't Postal Service Mark II as promised by the reviewers, but it's a pretty great Death Cab album.

Last Summer——Eleanor Friedberger
I don't think we're ever going to see a return to the crazy brilliance of Blueberry Boat from the Friedberger siblings, but if the next Fiery Furnaces is a quirkier version of Eleanor's first solo record, I'll be a happy man.

Let England Shake——PJ Harvey
We always knew Miss Polly Jean had more great albums in her, but I was beginning to wonder if she was purposely ignoring her muse. This album wasn't an entirely unexpected shock given her talent, but it was definitely a nice surprise.

Watch The Throne——Jay-Z & Kanye West
Except for the morose and brooding 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye West has yet to make an album that doesn't stand head and shoulders above the rest of the hip hop field. Here he brings mentor Jay-Z along for the ride, and the collaboration makes the old master sound more vital than he has in years. I don't know if Kanye will ever top last year's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but if he keeps on churning out records as good as Watch the Throne, he's going to be as important to the first 25 years of the 21st century as Michael Jackson was to the last 25 years of the 20th.

Hello Sadness——Los Campesinos
This is the first Los Campesinos album that I didn't like better than its predecessor, but it's still a pretty great album. And I still need to write up that show of theirs I went to see in November, which was life-altering.

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming——M83
I don't normally go for expasive double albums with lots of meditative instrumental tracks, but this one's a keeper. You'll get woefully few singles out of it to put on you shuffle playlists, but if you can just sit still for a few minutes and listen to it all the way through, you'll understand why it's on this list.

Nostalgia, Ultra.——Frank Ocean
After a dispute with his record company, Ocean posted this record for free on his web site, and after falling in love with it, I would have been willing to pay more for it than almost any other release on this list. It's hard to describe the eclectic mix of styles here (including covers/remakes of songs by Coldplay, the Eagles(!), and MGMT), but the closer you listen, the more incredible it gets. Greaty lyrics, great beats, great vocals. A truly unique emerging talent.

Departing——Rural Alberta Advantage
The sophomore outing from this Saddle Creek band is more of the same. But I loved their debut, and I love this one, too.

Strange Mercy——St. Vincent
There's a stretch in the middle that's slightly less interesting than the beginning and the end, but it's hard to find fault with this record. Except that I can't figure out for the life of me why she didn't make "Year of the Tiger" the title track.

WHOKILL——Tune-Yards
You're either going to love this one or hate it. And I love it. A lot.

2.15.12
One of my friends responded to my lament about wanting to hear some good new music by sending me a list of a dozen bands that he thought I might like. Of the twelve, only one was a band that I was already familiar with (Frightened Rabbit), so I was excited to give the rest of them a try. Here's his list, sans Frightened Rabbit and his commentary (because I don't know how he'd feel about me publishing it):

Noah and the Whale

The Voluntary Butler Scheme

Margot and the Nuclear So & So's

Eagle Seagull

Wintersleep

Astronautalis

The Roadside Graves

Tim Fite

Birdmonster

Passion Pit

The Crash

In quickly running through the bestselling releases on iTunes for each of these artists, the ones that immediately jumped out at me were the Voluntary Butler Scheme and Passion Pit. I downloaded the first album from Butler and have been listening to it for the past couple of days, and it's continuing to make a good impression on me.

Once I've gotten tired of listening to this on repeat, I'll download the Passion Pit EP, and then probably work my way back through the list one more time to make sure there's nothing else I've missed. And by then hopefully the new Sleigh Bells will be out, and I'm hoping that one dominates my listening for at least a couple of weeks like their debut did.

2.16.12
So I've decided that instead of waiting for new music to come along, I'm going to go back through the older stuff in my collection that I haven't listened to/rated since I converted it from CD to digital. I have close to 10,000 tracks that fit in this category, and undoubtedly there's a lot of great stuff in there that I've nearly forgotten about.

We'll see how much of that I can take, but hopefully that will keep me busy for a few days. And I'm going to need it, too——I'm so far behind reading admissions files for work this year that I'm going to spend virtually every free moment in the evenings and on weekends in front of my computer, and some musical variety will help make that process much less painful.

2.17.12
This listening to old music thing could get dangerous——there was a moment yesterday when I seriously considered buying Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's entire back catalog based on how much I was enjoying their best-of CD (which I'm not even sure how I ended up owning, because I loathe best-of collections). I liked them a lot in the mid-80s (when most of their fans thought they were in a creative freefall)——I distinctly remember a friend buying Crush for me and loving that album like nothing else that year——and although I went through a long phase of hating anything even vaguely electronic, I'm long since over that now. And there are just some really great songs in their catalog.

I also discovered that Shriekback's Oil and Gold may be better than the record that I always considered their masterpiece, Big Night Music. Fortunately, they don't have an extensive back catalog, and since I first came to know them in the era of the cassette, I already have all the CDs from them that are worth owning.

2.20.12
Something else I learned from listening to my older music that I hadn't rated: I don't like Ride or Lush nearly as much as I liked them 20 years ago.

2.21.12
The new Sleigh Bells, Reign of Terror, arrived yesterday a day early, and I've given it a few listens. There's a lot of good stuff on it, and they didn't stray as far from the sound of their first album as I thought they might. I'm still kind of hungry for new music because I think you need to be in a little bit of an angry mood to really get into Sleigh Bells, and I'm more tired and slighly depressed these days than angry. Still, I expect this one to stay in my main playlist for a while.

2.27.12
After listening to it a few more times, I think I almost kind of like of Montreal's latest, Paralytic Stalks. But I still don't love it, and I really wanted to love it.

2.28.12
If you've read this site for any length of time, you probably know by now that I don't typically get excited about nine minute long tracks. But Spiritualized's "Hey Jane", off their upcoming Sweet Heart Sweet Light, is something else, and as a lover of pop songs that run three minutes or less, I heartily endorse it. Listen below:

2.29.12
Frank Ocean might be the coolest person on the planet right now.