The Year In Music: 2011

(By Richard Goodman, March 2012)

Another year has gone by which means I have somehow been forced once again to change the way I find and consume music.  Browsing music stores has long stopped being an option, as has MTV and broadcast radio, and even music magazines are starting to disappear too.  The most successful way to find stuff I like seems to be listening to commercials and watching television shows.  I say that a bit sarcastically because there are some people who only hear things through those venues whereas although I sometimes discover new things through them, more often it’s a matter of recognizing something I’ve already come across before.  This year, I have done a lot more downloading from Amazon because it isn’t worth paying hefty prices for CDs from unproven talents that had a great 15-second blast in an iPod commercial.  I’m willing to gamble $5 on a digital album from a buzz-worthy band but I won’t shell out $15 for the physical CD of that same band.  On actual CD, I’m buying only what I think I will really like.  For a digital or cloud purchase though I can relax my standards or not have such high expectations to begin with.  I don’t feel like I’ve been bilked if I only spent $5 on something that isn’t worthwhile.  Plus, I can sample a snippet of the songs before buying so I have a general idea if I think it will sound okay.  For that same reason, I’m starting to buy singles again, albeit digital singles.  Some bands aren’t worth gambling even the $5 on so I get the song I know I like and skip the rest.  At least the artist still gets some money from me for the single, because I wasn’t going to buy the album anyway.      

As I mentioned, the way I’m discovering what to buy has radically changed.  I’ve been listening to Pandora on my phone so I get streaming radio that plays songs related to the main artist I selected.  It is a random selection, and I can’t rewind or fast forward through a song.  I can skip one but not too many in a row or I get chastised with an ad.  I’m also listening to Spotify a lot, a whole lot.  It is a whole new way to consume music, unlike conventional or satellite radio (which I still listen to as well) and most of the streaming services (http://sowhatelseyougot.blogspot.com/2012/03/hit-streaming-service-spotify-eyes-us.html).  Spotify plays what you want, whenever you want and you can control it just like playing a CD on your stereo.  For a majority of things I’m interested in, I can listen to the whole album and decide if I like it.  If I do, I buy it.  It beats getting an album from Lana Del Ray, Kelly Clarkson, Tennis or Toro y Moi and finding out it isn’t that great. 

Spotify really scares me though.  If I can pull up something I like, whenever I feel like it, and play it in its entirety, why do I need to buy it?  It’s like having your entire music collection in the cloud but not having to pay for it nor even take the time and effort to upload it.  I’m not sure how musicians will get paid for their efforts.  What if nobody opts for the paid Spotify plan (which extends the unlimited listening ability to include not only your computer but also your mobile devices)?  Will it completely kill the music industry?  (And by kill, I don’t mean ending conglomerate music companies who rip off their artists.  I mean kill as in no one, not even do-it-yourselfers, will be able to support themselves by playing music for a living.)  I would hate to think I helped kill the music business so I continue to support artists I like by buying their creative output.  I’m just now a much more informed consumer and have vetted the product before buying it. 
Along these lines, I have compiled two playlists for you.  They contain my favorite songs for 2011.  These are the songs I liked the most, the ones that played over and over in my car and on my computer.  The lists are labeled as “What?” and “That!”.  The songs on “What?” are things I liked but that may be new to most people.  You probably haven’t heard the song and might not know who the group is.  Things on “That!” are songs you know, that you may have heard way too much probably but that I thought needed to be compiled because they are good songs.  You’ll just have to wait three years until you’ve sort of forgotten about them and you can hear them again with an almost open mind and a fresh ear.  I am also including some comments about each selection so you know why I liked it or what brought it to my attention.  If you would like to hear the songs, let me know and I can send you a CD of each playlist.  I’m also going to see in if I can compile and share the playlists on Spotify.  (If I’m successful though, you have to promise to buy something from one of the artists- I refuse to be responsible for killing the music industry.)  After the comments, I’m including my favorite albums for the year, the ones that disappointed me the most and then my monthly mix CDs for the car so you can see what else I listened to and liked but didn’t quite make the cut for the best of the year playlists.

Year In Music 2011 (Disc 1- What?)

St. Vincent- Cruel:  I’m a big fan of female musicians because they seem to be more willing to take chances with their songs.  Guys all want to be rock stars so they write loud, dumb songs with lots of guitar, just like they heard on the radio when they were playing air guitar in their bedrooms.  Chicks want to be songwriters, so they write songs that sound good but aren’t necessarily rock songs.  St. Vincent is one of those bands that is really a one-“man” show.  Annie Clark plays the guitar, sings and writes the songs and she has a real weird idea of how to do that.  Some of the songs are shoe-gaze dream pop and others are art-rock pieces.  Then there is this song.  “Cruel” sounds like a weird mix of latter-day Queen, particularly the guitar solos from “I’m Going Slightly Mad”, and Gwen Stefani’s  “Holla Back Girl”, including the near yodeling of the chorus.  Guys would be scared to write a song as interesting as this.

Kate Nash- I Love You More:  When they set their mind to it though, some guys can write interesting songs that also rock.  One of best examples of that is The Pixies.  I’ve loved the band ever since I saw them open for Love & Rockets.  One of the weirdest guys in the business is Black Francis.  He writes rock songs that somehow go askew partway through the song.  The vocals might suddenly turn into random screaming or the instruments go almost silent or the tempo abruptly speeds up or slows down or does both within 30 seconds.  Of course, there is a girl in the band who also helped write their stuff so maybe that explains some of it, why there is melody amid the noise.  Or is it noise amid the melodies?  That is the paradox of the Pixies and that is why I really miss their unique sound.  They did five albums before breaking up- three great ones (Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Trompe Le Monde), one good one (Come On Pilgrim) and one mediocre one (Bossa Nova).Five albums and they were gone although their influence continued on to bands like Nirvana and Radiohead.  Kate Nash wrote one of the best Pixies songs I’ve heard in a long while.  She starts with a typical song structure, crunchy guitars and breathy vocals, and then towards the end she goes “Heath-Ledger-Joker” meaning she gets totally demented, randomly wailing and shrieking until the song winds down.  Several other songs on her album are good too but this one is the stand-out since it is so different from the dance-pop, hip-pop, crap rock you hear these days.

Cage The Elephant- Aberdeen & Around My Head:  If Kate Nash wrote a good could-have-been-a-Pixies-song song, Cage The Elephant took it to the next level and then two steps beyond that.  I got the first C.T.E. album but that was bland compared to this gem.  They wrote what could have been a lost Pixies album between the fourth (Bossa Nova) and final (Trompe Le Monde) albums.  Half the CD sounds like an homage and the other half sounds like a current indie pop album so I put two songs on this year’s compilation so you can see that diversity.   This album was one of my favorites of the year.

Whitesnake- Steal Your Heart Away:  When I said guys wanted to be rock stars, this is exactly what I meant.  This has it all- long indulgent guitar solos, bludgeoning drum solos, histrionic vocals and completely ridiculous lyrics, all in a six minute long epic of hair metal stupidity.  Yeah, I’m making fun of this song but I liked enough to put it on my mix this year.  Sometimes you just need to rock out, unironically, to clear out your head and reset your expectations.  I usually use dance-pop songs to do that but occasionally I want a bit more testosterone in my aperitif (and I do realize all the reasons that sentence is the exact opposite of testosterone laden.) 

Tragedy- Shadow Dancing:  Everything I mocked, but still loved, about Whitesnake is present in this band.  They exist simply to mock hair metal clichés.  They do this by extending the style to other genres, thus showing the ridiculousness of those clichés.  I already wrote extensively on a blog about Tragedy, the #1 heavy metal Bee Gees tribute band (yes, I really just said that- it was not a typo), at   http://athoughtoccuredtome.blogspot.com/2011/10/tragedy-happens-luckily.html  so I won’t say much else other than I love this “band”.  They create a brain-befuddling mix of sounds and they have a great sense of humor.  How can you not like a band who puts out an album titled “Humbled By Our Greatness”? 

Daft Punk- Derezzed:  Good act and completely incredible first album.  Everything since then has been a progressively steeper decline in quality.  I thought the soundtrack to Tron would reverse that but it turns out that the two minute long musical snippets comprising the score for the movie’s scenes aren’t long enough to tell for sure.  It sounded good while watching the movie but it loses something listening to it without the visuals to go along with the music.  Either that or they really have completely lost their touch.  The one thing I thought worth salvaging from the film score was this piece, played during the club fight scene.

Spoon- The Minor Tough: Spoon makes low-fi alternative rock, relying mostly on acoustic sounds and/or under-produced songs.  I hate low-fi rock yet I love Spoon.  I think that means they are good.  This is one of the two or three gems from their indie, early-days compilation a series of sneaks.

Carbon/Silicon- DisUnited Kingdom: Imagine if Mick Jones from both the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite merged the two band’s styles, gathered a few friends and collaborators and did some songs that he posted for free on his website just to keep himself occupied.  Well, no need to imagine it because that is exactly what happened here. 

Hot Chip- One Life Stand: I’d heard some buzz about this band for a couple of years now and finally bought a CD.  Meh.  The title track is really good at least- a dance/pop ode to fidelity and true love that conveys real emotion and sincerity.  The rest is forgettable so I’m passing on buying anything else unless I happen to listen on Spotify and hear something else I like by them.

The Fixx- Shred Of Evidence: I don’t know when I became a big Fixx fan but somehow I own all their albums now.  My brother-in-law burned me a copy of the four I didn’t have so now I own the whole catalog.  This song is from the 2-disc greatest hits CD I got last year.  I got the collection mainly to have physical copies of some of the songs on those four burned CDs since they are lower sound quality MP3 versions than those found on regular CDs.   Plus, there were several live and demo versions of stuff that I thought would be interesting to hear.  This song is originally from the Calm Animals album but I hadn’t heard it in so long that it was like brand new to me and I really liked it (again.)

The Crash- Gigolo: It was 2:00 AM at night (in the morning) at a poker game and I had actually been drinking some beer while playing.   The host had his cellphone hooked into a speaker in another room and eventually this song came on.  When faint strains of the song first reached my poker-addled brain, I walked into the kitchen to stand next to the phone and listen to the song clearly.  None of the previous 20 obscure songs had made any impression on me at all, not even the Japanese pop stuff, but this one did.  I pulled out my phone to Shazam it as well so I didn’t forget the name of it the next morning.  Gigolo is from a 2003 album by an obscure Finnish band no one has ever.  It’s a pop/disco throwback a la “Funkytown” so it tickles all my soft spots.   Nothing else on either of their two albums, that I bought used, is remotely comparable though- this is a perfect “Buy just this song” band.  That night is also the first time I tried Bon Chon chicken- tasty, crunchy, juicy but with bones in weird places and it requires 30 minute call ahead service.  You can’t just walk in and get some.    

Keane- Looking Back:  Did you ever wish the theme from the movie Rocky had more lyrics?  Your prayers have been answered.  Keane decided to write a song based on that riff. So now you have a whole song instead of just a really cool horn/brass riff that repeats for three minutes.  It is just as inspirational as ever but it is a slightly bizarre feeling to hear the theme popping out in the chorus.

Little Steven- Forever:  when I watched MTV as a kid back in the 80’s, there was this barely one-hit wonder song/video by some guy named Little Steven who played in Bruce Springsteen’s band.  I recently came across my CD (yeah, a compact disc) of the song that I had converted from my tape of this single (yeah, a cassette tape) and decided to put it on my computer (yeah, my laptop) so I could listen to it some more.  I just loved the chorus, the sound of the horn parts and the video where he rides around on a ridiculous looking bicycle that was probably supposed to look cool.  Twenty some years later, that guy helped create and immortalize the television show The Sopranos, he created a fantastic weekly radio broadcast featuring new and old garage-style rock & roll, which became a satellite radio staple, he’s produced several albums for other artists and he’s a respected voice in the music community.  Not bad for a guy riding a stupid bike. 

Mark Ronson- Love It (In The End):  Ronson is a producer, most famous for having worked on Amy Winehouse’s big album, but after listening to several of his own outings, he should really be considered a multi-platform threat.  He can write cool songs, find the right artists to perform them, and produce the heck out of them.  I think he was more than slightly responsible for Winehouse having a hit and here on this album, he creates some great stuff in his own right.  This song has that same retro-style, like a lost 1960’s song that suddenly came to light again, but is bolder than a lot of the stuff actually made in that era.

Emily Osment- Gotta Believe In Something:  Yeah, this is a bubble-gum pop song from a former Disney Channel actress (and also Haley Joel –The Sixth Sense- Osment’s sister) but I like it.  It has a peppy chorus and a nice message that isn’t burdened down by the cynicism of regular musicians.  It is lightweight pop and if that is done right, it sounds really fun.  For instance, Bananarama aren’t taken seriously as artists, but who doesn’t love “Cruel Summer”, one of the most perfect lightweight pop songs ever written?  This song isn’t quite in ‘Rama’s league but it does momentarily fill my craving for aural candy.

Dandy Warhols- Little Drummer Boy:  Now speaking of cynicism, here’s the poster boys for it, which makes it odd that they decided to cover a Christmas song.  Dandy Warhols songs are normally full of sarcasm, jokes and ennui, and the music is all about fuzzy, droning guitars and extended noisescapes.  For some reason, what they do really excites me whereas someone like Bush, Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine don’t really have the same effect.  I don’t know why.  This same style is used on the classic Christmas song Little Drummer Boy and they make it sound like one of their songs, not something you find in a Rankin-Bass animated television show.  It is now tied for first place (with the Joan Jett version) as my favorite rendition of this song which is also one of my five favorite Christmas songs. 

Mogwai- Rano Pano:  I have no idea who this band is or what they are doing on my list.  Well, I do now, obviously, but they are not someone who had been on my musical radar.  Until I heard this song on a CMJ compilation, I hadn’t heard their name before and had no idea what kind of music they make.  I still don’t actually, because I listened to a couple of their albums on Spotify and only found two songs I really liked.  The rest weren’t bad but they didn’t hold my attention long.  This one though, I have played over and over again.  It has a hypnotic sound, even with the jarring guitars and weird sounds.  Listening to it makes me feel like I’m meditating in the middle of an apocalypse, like the world is collapsing around me but I’m at peace in my mind. 

Foster The People- Warrant: Lots of people have heard of this group by now but most people probably haven’t heard this song.  In fact, songs like this are a big reason why I am opposed to the disappearance of albums.  If you focus solely on singles and just try to have a hit, bands won’t experiment as much and they won’t come up with great album cuts like this one.  Actually, they won’t have as many hits either because the big success from this album (“Pumped Up Kicks” from Torches) was not a song that the writer considered a single and it was a surprise to them that a song about a serial killer (yes, go back and really listen to the lyrics) was a hit.  This means the hit wouldn’t have existed at all if the band wasn’t trying to come up with enough songs for an entire album.  I love the chorus of this song, both the lyrics and the harmony vocals.  It also plays as a sequel of sorts to “Kicks” because the song is about a criminal running away because of a warrant on his head and people wanting to take him alive or dead.  It’s also more muscular than the laid-back “Kicks”, more anthemic and propulsive.   

Grouplove- Tongue Tied:  This is another song that lots of people have heard even though they don’t realize it.  They have heard fifteen seconds of it on an iPod commercial but not the full version.  I heard it in reverse, late at night on the radio first and then later on the commercial where I thought “Wait, isn’t this…”.   It is a happy sounding song and every time I heard it I want to get up and dance around the room and sing out loud, even though I do both of those things poorly.

         

Year In Music 2011 (Disc 2- That!)     

Foster The People- Pumped Up Kicks: In last year’s music review (http://richardsrantingandramblings.blogspot.com/2011/05/year-in-music-2010.html ) I anticipated that this song would pop up on my favorites for the following year and I was right.  Still love the song.  The surprise is that the rest of the country came across it too and turned it into a big hit. 

Peter, Bjorn & John- Second Chance: This one wasn’t that big of a hit, but the reason it is on this list instead of the other list is because you hear this song every week on television, as the theme song to Two Broke Girls.  I’m glad  that PB&J get some money for song licensing but I get annoyed when I song I like becomes a theme song because I can no longer listen to the song on just a musical basis.  Every time I hear this song now, I think of the Kat Dennings show (and want a cupcake), just like every time that The Who’s “Who Are You” or “Won’t Get Fooled Again” comes on the radio I think of the “CSI” shows, complete with the forensics and dead bodies.  If I play Billy Joel’s “My Life”, “Bosom Buddies” comes to mind since it was used as the theme song.  That kind of throws off your mindset right away- men in drag are sort of a distracting image when listening to a song.  I better start getting used to it though since that’s one way for artists to make money these days.  Plus, there is the occasional perfect match of song, television show and theme.  The opening credits for “Chuck” do justice to the Cake song and Veronica Mars used the Dandy Warhols song “We Used To Be Friends” as their theme and that never bothered me.  In fact, I always tuned in early enough to catch the opening credits because I wanted to hear the theme- the song was great and the mood and lyrics for it fit exactly with the tone of the show.  One of my favorite songs and one of my favorite shows- a perfect association. 

Martin Solveig & featuring Dragonette- Hello:  I have a couple of albums by Dragonette so when I heard this song on the radio, I immediately liked it.  It is a nice club sounding track.

The Limousines- Very Busy People: I got the whole Limousines album even though on first listen the tempo of the songs all blended together.  What started to emerge from the similarity though were the different and very entertaining lyrics.  The writer is a smart ass and a provocateur so even on the bland songs, there is something to appreciate.  I think this song is about some people who think they have very busy lives and do important things even though how they describe things leads you to believe they are actually deluded slackers.  These guys are the best musical humorists since The Bloodhound Gang (and they are way less smutty.)

Ke$ha- Blow:  Everyone knows about Ke$ha so her shtick is no surprise anymore.  You either like her or you don’t.  I was surprised at how quickly she came out with a second album but I’m glad she did because there were several excellent songs on it, or rather several excellent Ke$ha songs.  Some of the things she pulls off would not work for any other artist.  No one else could make the lyrics “You don’t want to mess with us/ I got Jesus on my necklace” rhyme, much less be a highlight of the song.  My favorite song from the second album, Animal, was this one.

Pink- Raise Your Glass:  Pink is the perfect singles artist.  Everything she releases as a single is great and everything else on the album sucks.  She is the counter argument to my Foster The People lament about needing to see full albums from an artist instead of just singles.  Pink should release just two songs a year and do a greatest hits album of those songs every five years, because that is how long it takes for radio to stop playing them and for me to stop being tired of hearing them.

Cee Lo Green- Forget You: “Tired of hearing it” is exactly what I think when I hear this song come on, regardless of the version (“F You, “Forget You” or “Fuck You”).  I change the station whenever I hear it now.  It is still a great song though and you might not be as annoyed with it as I am so that’s why it is on this list.

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie:  Almost as soon as I heard it, this became one of my favorite Chili Peppers songs, which means you might not like it since no one likes my other favorites- One Big Mob, Aeroplane, Scar Tissue- and they love the ones I hate – Under The Bridge, Give It Away, Suck My Kiss.  This did get lots of airplay though, which is understandable because there were no other good songs on the “I’m With You album.  I was so disappointed with the album.

Kid Rock- All Summer Long:  I waited three years to get this song because I didn’t think I wanted to get the whole Kid Rock album just for one song.  I kept looking for a download of it and never found it since Rock is an anti-digital artist.  Eventually, I got a used copy and found that I was pretty much right in my assessment.  There were a few other decent songs, like So Hott, Sugar and Half Your Age, but nothing as transcendent and inspired as this mashup of Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama.

Aloe Blacc- I Need A Dollar: I’d never heard of this guy so when someone I was talking to said he was there current favorite artist, I had to check him out. I downloaded the album from Amazon for $5 and it was worth it for this song and two others (Love You Is Killing Me and Green Lights).  The song eventually found its’ way into a commercial so you probably know it as well by now.

B.o.b. & Bruno Mars- Nothin' On You:  Bruno Mars was everywhere last year.  If he wasn’t writing the song, he was singing on it or producing it.  He had a bunch of hits as a solo artist and also guesting on other people’s songs (which he likely wrote for them).  He has a smooth croon to his voice, a sincere sound that is full of sugar and longing.  This is one of my two favorites of his.

Far East Movement- Rocketeer:  This is the other one.

Lady Antebellum- Need You Now:  I don’t need to say anything about this one.  Everyone knows it and loves it as much as I do.

Black Keys- Howlin' For You:  The Black Keys really hit it big last year.  Their success started with the Danger Mouse –produced song “Tighten Up” and then was solidified with this song.  They are both very raw sounding, very emotional and very powerful.  When deciding which of the two to include, I listened to both of them repeatedly.  This one barely edged out the other because it is slightly less repetitious and is more layered but they are both fantastic.

The Heavy- How You Like Me Now:  You know this song because of the car commercial it was used in, the one with the Yo Gabba Gabba characters and the sock monkey.  This song rocks even without the bizarro commercial (you can skip the other songs on the album though.)

Michael Buble- Haven't Met You Yet:  Yes, I listen to show tunes, so what?  You might say this isn’t a show tune, that it is a Harry Connick knock-off, but I would point out that everything Connick did was a show tune of some sort.  It either literally was one or it at least sounded like one, which is just what Buble does too.  This is an infectious piece of fluff that gets lodged in your brain after ten seconds of the chorus.

Usher featuring Pitbull- DJ Got Us Falling In Love:  a “clubby” song and a very good one.  Catchy and aggressive. 

Selena Gomez- Love You Like a Love Song:  Remember what I said about Emily Osment’s song?  All of that applies here except that you have heard this one a lot on the radio. I am sure that Selena has no talent of her own; that her success is the result a studio producer bringing together all the necessary elements for a good song but it works.  This is a very good song, it works on several levels.  It’s edgy, melodic and lyrically sound.  It’s a pop song but a dark pop song, like ABBA used to make.  Plus, her voice is interesting and brings something extra to the song, like the way Miley Cyrus is also a puppet but her throaty vocal style redeems things.  Whitney Houston, who passed away this year, didn’t write anything herself and she relied on the producers in the studios to help concoct a good song but her voice made the song her own.  If Gomez can continue to find good songs and work with good producers, she might make my list again (and the same for Miley.)

Cast Of "Glee"- Pure Imagination:  I’ve stopped watching Glee for the plots that don’t involve Britney and just pay attention when a song comes on.  They cover some unusual choices, like this one- the linchpin from the Willy Wonka movie.  THE Willy Wonka movie, meaning the Gene Wilder one.  It’s a classic song that deserves to be rediscovered and the cast of Glee does a good job with it.

Adele- Rolling In The Deep:  Everyone has heard this song.  Everyone loves Adele.  I don’t, at least not as much, because I thought the album could be better.  I got it when it first came out, hoping all the songs would be like this one- dangerous, booming songs featuring powerhouse vocals and raw emotion.  The other songs do have the vocals but the intensity is lacking, at least to me.  I like Rumour Has It and Set Fire To The Rain but nowhere near as much as Rolling In The Deep.  It still holds up, still has an impact after dozens of listens.  I’ll close out my list with this song, the most universally acclaimed one of last year.  Besides, it would be hard to find something that could follow it.  So that has been my list of favorite songs for the year.  I hope you found a few new things that you liked, which is really my intent here.  I want to share things I like and hear from you what you liked or hated and what you would recommend to me.  Music is supposed to be a communal thing, drawing people together, disseminating ideas and sharing interests.

Here are my favorite albums that I listened to last year (the year they were actually released is in parenthesis).  The lists are in descending order so my overall favorite album last year was from Cage The Elephant, followed by the Black Keys and continuing on to the decent She & Him Christmas album which was my 15^th most favorite of the year.  The disappointing albums don’t necessarily suck, although some of them do (like Lady GaGa’s- I didn’t hear a single song I liked, after two albums that were full of great songs), but more often it is because of the wasted potential. The Cars got back together and recaptured their unique sound but forgot to write any good songs which is why they top the list as the biggest disappointment of the year.  All of the elements were there except good music.  The same thing happened to The Human League and Was Not Was.  Adele was a disappointment for the reasons explained above but that didn’t mean she had no good songs- just that there should have been more.  After the albums list is my list of Car CDs, the things I liked the most that month, pulled from what I listened to in my car on the way to work.  You can see what other things I listened to and liked but that didn’t quite make the top 20 cut for the year.  Please pass on to me any comments you have, any disagreements and- most importantly- any music you would recommend for me.  I’m all ears.

 Richard’s Favorite Albums Of 2011

1)      Cage The Elephant-  Thank You Happy Birthday  (2011)

2)      Black Keys, The-  Brothers  (2010)

3)      Foster The People-  Torches  (2011)

4)      Ke$ha-  Cannibal  (2010)

5)      Tragedy -  We Rock Sweet Balls & Can Do No Wrong  (2008)

6)      Mark Ronson & Business Intl-  Record Collection  (2010)

7)      Limousines, The  -  Get Sharp  (2011)

8)      Whitesnake-  Forevermore  (2011)

9)      Aloe Blacc-  Good Things  (2010)

10)   Kate Nash-  My Best Friend Is You  (2010)

11)   St. Vincent-  Strange Mercy  (2011)

12)   Katastrophy Wife-  All Kneel  (1993)

13)   Emily Osment-  Fight Or Flight  (2010)

14)   Kid Rock-  Rock N Roll Jesus  (2007)

15)   She & Him-  Very She & Him Christmas  (2011)

Richard’s Most Disappointing Albums Of 2011

1)      Cars, The-  Move Like This  (2011)

2)      Placebo  -  Live At La Cigale  (2011)

3)      Red Hot Chili Peppers-  I'm With You  (2011)

4)      Lady Gaga-  Born This Way  (2011)

5)      Peter, Bjorn & John-  Gimme Some  (2011)

6)      Keane-  Night Train  (2010)

7)      The Muppets (& Friends)-  Green Album, The  (2011)

8)      Human League, The-  Credo  (2011)

9)      Daft Punk-  Tron Legacy [Soundtrack]  (2010)

10)   Liz Phair-  FunStyle  (2010)

       11)   Ellie Goulding-  Lights  (2011)

       12)   Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin-  The Big Idea  (1990)

13)   Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffitti-  Before Today  (2010)

14)   Was (Not Was)-   Boo  (2008)

15)   Adele-  21  (2011)

Monthly Car CDs

January To April 2011 Car CD
Ke$ha	Cannibal
"	Grow A Pear
"	We R Who We R
"	Blow
Pet Shop Boys	Building A Wall
"	All Over The World
Lita Ford	Crave
"	Scream For Me
"	Everything
Daft Punk	Derezzed
"	Fall
Liz Phair	Bollywood
"	Beat Is Up
"	In Love With Yourself
"	And He Slayed Her
Golden Smog	Easy To Be Hard
Joy Formidable, The	Cradle
"	Whirring
Hot Chip	One Life Stand
April 2011 Car CD (Part B)
Katastrophy Wife	Sweetheart
"	Money Shot
"	Liberty Belle
"	Asstroglide
Steve Martin & S.C.R.	Rare Bird Alert
Juliana Hatfield	Taxicab
"	I Won't Let You Go
"	I Picked You Up (Version 2)
"	I Don't Wanna Dance
"	Between The Clouds
Cut Copy	Where I'm Going
MEN	Off Our Backs
Catwalk	(Please) Don't Break Me
Asobi Seksu	Perfectly Crystal
Toro Y Moi	Still Sound
Nick Lowe	Cracking Up
Dirty Vegas	Changes
The Kills	DNA
Sacred Reich	The American Way
Roy Orbison	Love Hurts
Brian Setzer	Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Far East Movement	Rocketeer
May 2011 CD
Black Keys	Tighten Up
"	Howlin' For You
Carbon/Silicon	Best Man, The
"	DisUnited Kingdom
"	Global War On Culture
"	I Loved You
"	The Network's Going Down
"	T.F. Madness
The Clash	Overpowered By Funk
Daft Punk	The Brainwasher
The Cars	Sad Song
"	Too Late
Black Cards	Club Called Heaven
Psychedelic Aliens	Bbe Keke Wo Taoo
Emily Osment	Lovesick
"	Gotta Believe In Something
"	Let's Be Friends
"	1-800 Clap Your Hands
June 2011 Car CD
Martin Solveig &	Hello
featuring Dragonette
Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti	L'Estat (According To...Widow's Maid)
"	Revolution's A Lie
Airborne Toxic Event	Does This Mean You're Moving
John Maus	Believer
She & Him	Please Please Please Let Me…
Ce Lo Green	Forget You
The Black Keys	The Only One
"	Ten Cent Pistol
Whitesnake	Love Will Set You Free
"	My Evil Ways
"	Steal Your Heart Away
"	Tell Me How
B.o.b. & Rivers Cuomo	Magic
B.o.b. & Bruno Mars	Nothin' On You
Lady Antebellum	Need You Now
July 2011 CarCD
Adele	Rolling In The Deep
"	Rumour Has It
John Legend & Roots	Hard Times
"	Wake Up Everybody
Kylie Minogue	Silence
She & Him	Lotta Love
Antonia Bennett	Love Is A Battlefield
Metric	Hustle Rose
"	Dead Disco
Wolf Parade	What Did My Lover Say?
Givers	Up Up Up
Modest Mouse	Whale Song
The Crash	Still Alive
"	What If I Meet You
"	Gigolo
The Heavy	Love Like That
"	How You Like Me Now
August 2011 Car CD
Aloe Blacc	I Need A Dollar
"	Loving You Is Killing Me
"	Green Lights
Spoon	Metal School
"	Quincy Punk Episode
"	The Minor Tough
"	The Agony Of Laffitte
Class Actress	Someone Real
Keane	Your Love
"	Clear Skies
"	Ishin Denshin (You've Got To Help Yourself)
"	Looking Back
The Limosines	Dancing At Her Funeral
"	Swordswlingwhr (Wishing Well)
"	Very Busy People
Foster The People	Pumped Up Kicks
"	Helena Beat
"	Call It What You ant
"	Warrant
September 2011 Car CD
Linsey Buckingham	Seeds We Sow
Class Actress	Journal Of Ardency
Melissa Auf Der Maur	The Key
"	Meet Me On The Dark Side
"	Out Of Our Minds
"	Follow The Map
EMA	Milkman
Lykke Li	I Follow Rivers
Foxy Shazam	Drain You
EMA	Endless Nameless
Aurelio	Tio Sam
Los Amigos Invisibles	Dulce
"	Es La Verdad
Titus Andronicus	A More Perfect Union
Black Cards	Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Fame
The Chain Gang Of 1974	Undercover
Ganglians	Jungle
September 2011 Car CD (Part B)
Lissie	Record Collector
"	When I'm Alone
"	Worried About
Wooden Shjips	Lazy Bones
Diego Garcia	Stay
Human League	Sky
"	Breaking The Chains
Cage The Elephant	Always Something
"	Aberdeen
"	Shake Me Down
"	Around My Head
"	Sabertooth Tiger
"	Flow
Weezer/Hayley Williams	Rainbow Connection
Alkaline Trio	Movin' Right Along
Little Steven	Forever
Stars On 45	Beatles Medley
October 2011 Car CD
Washed Out	Amor Feti
Mogwai	Rano Pano
Collective Soul	Energy
Delorean	Single Graces
Dave Stewart & B. Gaskin	Levi Stubbs' tears
Pete Yorn	Last Summer
Dead Weather	Die By The Drop
"	Blue Blood Blues
"	The Difference Between Us
"	I'm Mad
Revolting Cocks (RevCo)	Dykes
"	Juice
Nada Surf	When We Were Young
Peter, Bjorn & John	May Seem Mabcre
"	Second Chance
Tragedy	How Deep Is Your Love
"	Shadow Dancing
November 2011 Car CD
Ellie Goulding	Animal
"	Lights
"	Under The Sheets
Bootsy Collins	Bootzilla
"	Shejams (Almost Bootsy Show)
"	Countracula (This One'sFor You)
Pink	Raise Your Glass
Twin Sister	Eastern Green
"	Stop
Neon Indian	Polish Girl
Nick Gilder	Here Comes The Night
The Fixx	Shred Of Evidence
Kate Nash	I Love You More
"	I've Got A Secret
"	Take Me To A Higher Plane
Kid Rock	Sugar
"	So Hott
"	All Summer Long
December 2011 Car CD
Grouplove	Tongue Tied
Selena Gomez	Love You Like a Love Song
Usher featuring Pitbull	DJ Got Us Falling In Love
Michael Buble	Haven't Met You Yet
Cast Of "Glee"	Pure Imagination
"	Dancing Queen
Justice	Canon
Red Hot Chili Peppers	Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie
"	Ethiopia
"	Monarchy Of Roses
St. Vincent	Dilettante
"	Hysterical Strength
"	Cruel
Oh Land	Voodoo
Mark Ronson	Love It (In The End)
"	Somebody To Love Me
"	You Gave Me Nothing
She & Him	Little Saint Nick
"	Christmas Wish
Bananarama	Baby It's Christmas
Dandy Warhols	Little Drummer Boy