2011 was an okay year for music. The songs I loved, I really loved, and the rest I couldn't care less about. These are my ten favorites in an order that is flexible but was still hard as hell to arrange. I'd also like to note that I am one opinionated guy and I get pretty profane, graphic, vulgar, wordy, and polarized in some of my reviews. They are MY reviews, and the views I have are not linked in ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM to the bands or artist who produced the music or anyone else but myself.
10. Frick Park Market- Mac Miller
Listen here!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ19PJ7-SWc
Mac Miller is one talented kid. He's as old as me and has accomplished more in his lifetime ALREADY, than any music teacher who sits alone at night with a shot glass in hand wondering what the hell happened to their music careers, ever will. The kid's devoted to his craft and doesn't opt to do things the same way those other fuckers on the scene do (you won't hear the powerful chord progression that the bass knocks out on this track in any other song that came out in 2011). This song is an OBELISK of fiery sound that knocks you down hard and then, once it deems you worthy enough to even look at its mighty presence once again, takes you back to Mac's backyard, chilling with some cold pizza and fat blunts.
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| This is Mac's backyard. It's full of neon ladies |
9. Call It What You Will - Larry & his Flask
Take a gander!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=903oVzMObak
Listening to this track is comparable to having a musical menage e trois with Bill Monroe and Patti Smith (doesn't sound attractive in the slightest, but hell you could still score some bragging rights in most hipster/redneck circles). Or maybe it's more like having a Tennessee Two-Step Hoedown with Jesus. Whatever it is, it's ncredible and will leave you searching for wooden boards to stomp and asses to kick for days on end. This song is lightening on the rickety wheels of a Model T Ford and you'll be humming it for weeks!
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| The guy smiling is the keeper of the band's communal tooth. |
8. Dedication to My Ex (Miss That) - Lloyd
Listen to it. NOW!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kLq3WMV1nU
Oozing Motown Flair and Hip Hop Swagger (complete with cameos by Lil' Wayne and Andre 3000, plus Wayne Brady in the video), this song struts like James Brown at the Apollo and plays like the haunting offspring of Curtis Mayfield and Amy Winehouse (the Beehive Queen; she was a virtuoso and may she rest in peace from those rabid paparazzi). I didn't hear a record all year with such confidence and bravado. The first time I heard this song, the air was electric and I was sucked in for good. It's crazy, scary, and pure gold. This song makes you feel like you're driving a '61 Bonneville, while cat calling at pretty girls through the streets of old school Detroit. Pure gold!
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| I liked this record this much. |
7. I Am Sick of People Being Sick of My Shit - The World/Inferno Friendship Society
I saw these crazy fools tear up a stage with their cabaret at Irving Plaza with my buddies (who are also crazy fools). I was all over the place (just missed starting an all out brawl with a security guard had my friend not swooped in like goddamn Superman) but when these guys entered the room, every soul on the dance floor erupted into anarchic wonder. This song opens up the album (which is equally mind-blowing) with the same spirit I felt emanating from that savage stage at Hallowmas. This is an anthem for every wild child out there who is brutally independent and don't care what anyone thinks of it and I say Hallelujah AMEN Let it roll! Blast this track from your car speakers and burn up the fiendish highway!
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| These guys are pretty sick of your shit. |
6. Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO
Hit it up fools!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6JDQCslE&ob=av3e
I have a theory about this group right here. I hope I'm right, but if I'm wrong, may the world have pity on our souls. This song is steeped to the brim in 80's runway flavor, Speedos, and far too much hair. And they know it. Countless times I've found myself gyrating and thrusting for no reason just at the mention of this song (it's kind of embarrassing). This is the most fun track that came out in 2011 because it's hilarious, self-deprecating, and bound for glory as the hallmark audition song at Chippendale's. I lose my mind when this comes on at clubs and bars but it makes me wonder: does LMFAO take themselves seriously? Or are they like the License to Ill-era Beastie Boys of the modern day? Party Rock Anthem is, to me at least, likely to go down as an actual anthem for my generation and I'm fine with it. You can call this all silly, you can say it's a joke, but these guys make hot records that have won awards. Hopefully, for the sake of population control, these two hombres will stay naked until the end of the world. Cheers you crazy cats and remember: WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE YEAH!
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| RedFoo SMASH. |
5. Stone Rollin' - Raphael Saadiq
Shove THIS in your ears!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHyalVRUXrA&ob=av2e
To put it lightly, this song is SEX. I've never had a compulsion to hump soundwaves before, but after hearing this song I was a sonic sex addict hellbent on digging his next fix. It was embarrassing, several people thought I should have been hospitalized BUT ANYWAY! This song slinks into the smoky blues ballroom in fishnets and a pair of hooker heels knowing exactly what to do next. It chews you up and spits you out and won't quit till it wants to. From the slow groove of the drums, the hop of the bass, the screeching harmonica, the haunting single violin, to the twang of the guitar, the whole arrangement is pure magic. The killer in this song that makes it truly awe-inspring is Saadiq's voice, grunting and squawking over the microphone about the woman he wants in the worst of ways. This track kicks and jerks around your head, ultimately leaving you on your hands and knees like a dog begging for more kibbles. Saadiq's a master and this track epitomizes the style and essence of this frenetic funk junkie genius.
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| Excuse me, waiter? Yeah, hi! I'll take one stone cold badass please, hold the toast. |
4. Gimme All Your Lovin' - Whiskey Shivers
This is it!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC6DuckeJUM
And now, to really flaunt some hipster cred. To all of you deranged hipsters out there who think pretentious acts like Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, and Florence + the Machine are the faces of indie and have some inkling of musical talent, please sit down, you're blocking my view of the revolution. It's people like you that keep kick ass bands like Whiskey Shivers from being the biggest thing in music. Unlike all these other "indie" drones, a lot of people DON'T know who Whiskey Shivers are, but would find their music fun as hell, nostalgic, and not so boring (or as you say "artistic"). I'm a country boy, born and raised, and when I first heard this song a doctor had to rush in with a defibrillator because they didn't think I'd survive. It's like I jumped down to Rose Hill, Kentucky to sip Jack with Flatt & Scruggs. This song is pure neo-Americana. This is exactly what country music is supposed to be right here! It's music to stomp your feet to, crush a beer can over your head to, dance around to, get crazy to, and showcase some much needed musicianship. It's genius, it's the best country song to come out since Johnny Cash's track "Sam Hall" (suck on tht Lady Antebellum, we all know Cee Lo Green deserved that Grammy) and I can't get enough. I've listened to it one hundred and fifty times today and I'll listen to it a full three hundred more. It leaves you zipping around with a craving for fast cars, open roads, and really cool facial hair. I hope Whiskey Shivers gains some more notoriety so they can keep on pumping out crazy records like this one. They'll be blowing minds from Halifax to Buenos Ares, and everywhere in between!
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| And they're wholesome as hell too! Four groupies is cleaner than fourteen. |
3. Otis - Jay-Z & Kanye West
LISTEN HERE!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoEKWtgJQAU&ob=av2e
This song had my jaw dropping from start to finish and I'm still trying to bring it back to my face. I absolutely loved everything about it! The sampling is spot on, Jay-Z and Kanye throw it way back to the Golden Age with the switch offs, tag teams, and absolute SWAG. Remember when I said "Dedication to My Ex" was the only track I heard all year with real bravado? I lied, this one's got it with a vengeance. I read one review in which the critic got mad about the track because Jay and Ye boast about their luxurious lifestyles while the rest of us are without jobs. I guess that reviewer asked Beyonce on a date and got shot down HARD. These guys don't need to relate to us, music is an escape. We wanna be 'photoshoot fresh and looking like wealth', but we can't and that's just the way it is. I may not be a big Kanye fan (I've always been a huge Jay-Z fan), but this song and the album it's on made me reconsider my position entirely. His rhymes are impeccable and the production is hypnotic, while Jay-Z strong arms the track with a flow that could flood the Mall of America in a matter of seconds. Even Otis Redding and James Brown get sick nods in it that really show a level of respect to classic artists that is absent in most modern music. It's songs like this one and the work of other artists such as the Black Keys and Adele that are bringing it back. Plus with a music video from the bizarre mind of Spike Jonze how could it not burn up the radio and tv? The song's a masterpiece; it hits you fast and hard with its decadent retro bombast like the Blitzkrieg till you wanna call the radio station and ask them to play it again and again and again! Kudos gentlemen, this is some masterful stuff.
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| ...lol |
2.2. Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez & the Scene
Here it is!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupeGtJ3a3E
"She's a Disney kid, Merrick, what the hell is wrong with you? WHERE'S YOUR MUSICAL INTEGRITY?" My integrity's right here. It was a contentious race for this spot between this song and Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger", but this one takes the cake and scarfs it down like an obese soccer mom crying over her broken dreams. Well, the song's a lot sexier than that (so are most things. Actually I don't know anything less sexy than that). "Moves Like Jagger" is a fantastic piece of music, but The Scene churns out some real musical mastery here. If "Stone Rollin'" is a smoky barroom circa 1963, this record's a coked up, stoned ass disco lounge circa 1979. The song is hot and exhibits how, even if this band is in Disney's pocket, they can produce a track that sounds authentic. This isn't Justin Bieber hopelessly trying to overcome adolescence with some dignity intact. Hell no, this song is sophisticated, delicate when it's gotta be, forceful and robust when it needs to be, and blows the lid off the idea that these Disney princesses can't also have talent. It's a shocker of a piece. When I first heard it I had no idea who sang it, wrote it, produced it, released it, etc. and best of all I didn't care. After I found out, I naturally had my reservations because, like a good music listener, I'm always skeptical and hesitant of these manufactured Barbie pop stars; but that debate's for the analysts and lawyers. I'm just gonna dig this song for what it is: an ode to acts like Michael Jackson and Chic, stalking the neon dance floor on Gloria Gaynor's legs with the ever so slightest hint of ABBA. I dig the track like no other, Gomez breathes fire like a sultry dragon in drag, the beat is lethal as an injection, the strings are more chilling than an Alfred Hitchcock film, and I hope to the good Lord above that The Scene keeps pumping out songs like this one.
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| Did I stutter? |
AND NOW LADIES AND GENTS, THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE, DYLAN MERRICK'S HANDS DOWN FAVORITE SONG OF 2011. ROLL THOSE DRUMS JOHNNY...
1. Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
For your musical pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_426RiwST8
The Keys have outdone themselves. Most bands just sit there like cocky Frat boys when they're coming off the coattails of a release like 2010's Brothers, but the Black Keys just jumped right back into the studio, kicked their amps and drums around a bit, and the resulting album is a hot, eclectic mess of a record that'll leave you abandoned on the roadside, dumbfounded with amazement, wondering what the hell happened to your ears and when it can happen again. "Lonely Boy" is straight up exploitation film era hellfire in the back of an old pick up truck. The video is probably the sickest things that's ever happened. PERIOD. END OF DISCUSSION. The song's height is its wild beat that no one discusses for some reason. Pat Carney bangs out a crazy, dangerous rhythm that's soaked to the bone in the proto punk styles of The Sonics and the surfer blues licks of the Revels. This is an instant classic in every way and is another amazing piece to add to the Keys' already brolic repertoire of songs. Gentlemen, I bow to you and your honorable efforts; you've made the spiraling, dismal abyss that was once a beautiful world of music pick itself up out of the gutter, dress to the nines, and stomp the streets in search of some wild kicks!
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| This guy agrees! |
~Viva amigos,
~D. Merrick
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