uncle farkus’s 10 favorite albums of 2k11

10.] ‘belong’ // pains of being pure at heart

09.] ‘dye it blonde’ // smith westerns

08.] ‘father son holy ghost’ // girls

07.] ‘the rip tide’ // beirut

06.] ‘smoke ring for my halo’ // kurt vile

05.] ‘sound kapital’ // handsome furs

i was fortunate enough to see this group when they performed at clemson last year, just a few months before releasing this album. there i stood, the only professor/uncle in a crowd of drunk and high college students–most of whom were ‘faux hipsters’ in a southern region dominated by vineyard vines and guy harvey. still, the husband and wife duo sang and danced their hearts out for the college kids who paid nothing for the show. and along the way, they debuted several new songs from this album not yet heard outside of their live performances. that experience definitely influenced my severe liking of this album; but that wasn’t the only factor. ‘sound kapital’ capitalizes on electric guitars, synths, and samples for a combination that is just as much rock as it is pop. just as much dance as it is ‘head bob’. stylistically, there’s really a lot going on in this album that appeals to all of the taste buds in my ears. i enjoyed ‘face control’ by them a lot and stereotypically, i always held the opinion that ‘wolf parade > handsome furs’; but after this album, i have to reverse that opinion and say that this project is ‘the real deal’. the handsome furs is to dan boeckner as tim tebow is to the denver broncos.

04.] ‘camp’ // childish gambino

i used to mentor donald glover back [via the big brothers big sisters foundation] when he was growing up on the harsh, discriminating streets that so many of today’s rappers have to deal with in order to become a rapper. it’s like the spartans who beat their babies in order to make sure they could become a warrior in their teens. rappers have to survive in the hood if they are going to ‘make it’ in the rap game. this album is so crazy and hood, man. lyrically, glover is able to go back and forth between seriousness and just playing around so fluidly that you really can’t fault him for anything or else you are criticized for taking him too seriously/not taking him seriously enough. he beat the system tbh.

03.] ‘kaputt’ // destroyer

‘kaputt’ was one of the few albums that was able to keep its magic throughout the entire year. in fact, despite being a ‘top album contendor’ after a couple listens, ‘kaputt’ has only gotten better throughout the year and will likely continue to throughout years to come. i kind of noticed a lot of saxophone in music this year ranging from m83 to gaga. and of course, destroyer. destroyer did it best imo. ‘kaputt’ was the year’s most-beautiful and soothing album, which puts it at an entirely different level than the rest of the albums on this list and allowed me to enjoy it for reasons that i couldn’t find with others.

02.] ‘ambitious out of control’ // dada trash collage & bear ears

dada trash collage has been a farkville local legend for the past two years. this album, which was funded by kickstarter, is the most cohesive yet–as it should be. ‘ambitious out of control’ is an ‘in collaboration’ with bear ears–the wife of dada trash’s william freed. the poppy, electronic, sample-cladded album features the voices of both freed and his wife for an interesting combination that hasn’t been had one from dada until now. hopefully it won’t be the last time either. despite the significant amount praise that freed has been given by many smaller blogs around google the past couple years, he has managed to stay under-the-radar and relatively unknown. look for him to break out in 2012 with the release of ‘fun fund ep’ in february. for now, check out ‘ambitious out of control’ for free [via bandcamp]

01.] ’holy ghost!’ // holy ghost!

sitting in prospect park with my nephew this past summer, i recall a man with celery breath telling me that ‘holy ghost’ had come to save the dance scene with the next evolution of synths and grooves that stand apart from the likes of australia’s cut copy, the uk’s hot chip, and [wherever they are from] passion pit. the album has a distinct ‘new york city feel’ that is hard to explain but you know it when you hear it. the streets of brooklyn come alive and suddenly your are transformed into a hoody-covered leather jacket-bearing fine young man who can’t help but put earbuds in, let the 80′s-like synths create bumps of chill down the entire body, and walk around [wherever you are] like you own place.

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listen to a playlist of my favorite songs from each album on spotify