Paul Parreira’s Critical Albums Of 2011

I spent the first half of 2011 digesting Destroyer's Kaputt, comparing it to The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout, and other 1980s bands I loved growing up. The experience was similar to the beginning of 2010, when all I listened to was the Beach House record. Dan Bejar's inscrutable lyrics, his sense of humor, the mix of lowbrow and highbrow wordplay, his homage to/collaboration with visual artist Kara Walker, the tunes, and of course, the horns. Groups are too afraid to use horns in their sound. Bring on the horns for 2012!

This autumn, all I listened to was Slave Ambient, the second full-length by The War on Drugs: my favorite album of the year. If you're a Bob Dylan fan, this record must be heard. I don't mean the whiney acoustic folk side of Dylan, I'm referring to the Hard Rain heroin-haze of his mid-70s sound. The War on Drugs mixes that with an edgy dose of both gnarly indie noise and old-fashioned stadium rock. It reminds me of Green-era R.E.M., when the indie darlings went major label, made the pop charts and performed at the Grammys while remaining true to themselves.

Then there's the glut of electronic music releases we heard this year. The Gold Panda and Zomby records are like brothers to me. Gold Panda is the older wiser sibling, experiencing its teenage years, drugs, sex and worrying about the future. Meanwhile, Zomby is still growing up, stretching its wings and learning to fly. I also think we have a chillwave classic by Washed Out: Within and Without is just beautiful and intimate in a way I don't normally associate with electronic music. And lastly, there's The Field's Looping State of Mind, a record so deep in its minimalism that you have to force yourself into repeated listens to reach the pot of gold. It's not for everyone, but it's wicked.