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From its opening moments, you feel the 90s filtering into your veins like a half-used heroin needle and feel the sudden need to sit and soak it all in. There's the unexpected piano melody in the beginning of No Future/No Past building into a trudging guitar, bass, and drums, that only let up for a moment and only to build still more tension, Dylan Baldi's vocals growing slowly more desperate until the final outro-chant of the song title. It's like ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead stole Kurt Cobain's vocal aggression and his heroin needle and replaced the heroin with concentrated cough syrup.

Then comes Wasted Days, with its nearly 9 minutes, taking even more cues from Trail of Dead, mostly just riffing and building instrumental tension between sparsely dosed chants of “I thought I would be more than this.” And somehow the band makes it work. Maybe it’s all the angst.

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Originally posted to facebook at new years:

Its that time of year where I attempt to compile a list of the best albums of the year. It is always hard for me to rank albums, since I normally don't even get around to listening to them until a couple of months after they are released. So with that said I'll probably order them alphabetically. I'll include the number of plays courtesy of Last FM, as I'm more likely to have formed a definite opinion on something I've listened to a lot. I've tagged my friends that are most likely to be interested in good music.

Amorphis - The Beginning of Times - 8 plays

I'm still not sure what to think of this one. On first listen I really liked it, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe its because I'm distracted every time I listen to it, but none of the songs seem particularly memorable. Everyone is saying it is a step up from Skyforger, but I really liked that album, and it definitely doesn't compare to Silent Waters. I'll updte this if it grows on me - I have only heard it 8 times so far.
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Ordered by date, below are the most outstanding gigs I attended in 2011, along with the occasional video and photo I took at them.

28/01/11
Mélanie Pain
Jazz Café, London
A largely wonderful semi-acoustic set, with just Mélanie, a guitarist and keyboardist/pianist, which made a nice change from a full band and suited the songs well. I loved this gig!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKnvXZJCsik

14/02/11
Jonny
The Deaf Institute, Manchester
Great stuff...Doctor Rhythm seemed a bit temperamental but Norman and Euros were definitely playing up to that which added to the laughs. Fantastic sounding vocal harmonies, good songs and great interaction between the duo. I've never seen so many smiling people at a gig. If you're wondering, Doctor Rhythm is a cheap drum-machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MjHQdyZeBA

18/04/11
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Manchester Academy 2
Awesome sounding at times. One of the new songs, Summer Of Dead Souls, was a highlight. …

1. James Blake - James Blake
2. Cave In - White Silence
3. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
4. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne
5. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Tao of the Dead
6. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
7. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
8. Yuck - Yuck
9. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
10. Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion
11. Giles Corey - Giles Corey
12. The Horrors - Skying
13. The Antlers - Burst Apart
14. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
15. Arrange - Plantation

Musikalisch eher ein mittelmäßiges Jahr, mit vielen mittelmäßigen Alben, vielen Enttäuschungen, einigen Überraschungen. Was als fader Nachgeschmack immer noch hängengeblieben ist, ist die steigende Tendenz hin zum "Synthie-Pop" oder einfach nur zum Poppigen von Bands, von denen man das so nicht gedacht hätte. Bestes Beispiel: die neue Dredg. Auch etwas seltsam: die lang erwartete neue Mastodon entpuppt sich als Schritt in Richtung lustiger Power-Metal, weg vom progressiven, düsteren und harten, das diese Band bisher ausgezeichnet hatte. Andererorts "wagt" man den Schritt zurück, Bands wie Graveyard läuteten ein Revival des guten alten 70s-Prog a la Led Zeppelin ein, das sich hoffentlich auch im kommenden Jahr weiter durch die Musikwelt ziehen wird. Radiohead hingegen zeigen, dass man auch im Jahre 2011 immer noch experimentierfreudig sein darf. "The King of Limbs" prescht noch weiter in die elektronische Sparte als schon die Vorgängeralben, verliert dabei aber trotzdem nichts an wohliger Wärme. …

Top artists

1. Rise Against (1063 plays)
2. Radiohead (925 plays)
3. Jimmy Eat World (746 plays)
4. Björk (735 plays)
5. Courtney Marie Andrews (617 plays)
6. Say Anything (559 plays)
7. The Smashing Pumpkins (510 plays)
8. Brand New (436 plays)
9. The Gaslight Anthem (413 plays)
10. Angels & Airwaves (400 plays)
11. Deus (379 plays)
12. Blue October (366 plays)
13. 30 Seconds to Mars (359 plays)
14. Foo Fighters (339 plays)
15. Flyleaf (332 plays)
16. The Subways (323 plays)
17. Archive (316 plays)
18. Lumen (313 plays)
19. Placebo (286 plays)
20. Death Cab for Cutie (284 plays)
21. Deftones (283 plays)
22. Linkin Park (278 plays)
23. The National (274 plays)
24. Ryan Adams (264 plays)
25. Nine Inch Nails (255 plays)
26. Maybeshewill (254 plays)
27. White Lies (250 plays)
28. The Get Up Kids (246 plays)
29. M83 (230 plays)
30. Oceansize (224 plays)
31. Avril Lavigne (222 plays)
32. Incubus (205 plays)
33. Queens of the Stone Age (199 plays)
34. My Bloody Valentine (188 plays)
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I don't have the time to do this thoroughly this year, so I've decided to present my personal list of favourite 2011 records austerely and without much ado. I'm open to an exchange concerning last year's albums notwithstanding and I'd be happy to substantiate and restate my choices in a more extensive manner.

2011 - Trivia:

- For the first time since 2006 Portugal. The Man don't feature in my annual recapitualtion.
- I've listened to ca. 90 records released in 2011, including a few EPs.
- I was surprised with the fact that some of my favourite albums got many favourable reviews and how often those records appeared in the "best of 2011" summaries done by major music websites.
- I'm mildly disappointed with the overall quality of the albums which have been released this year. However, if I were to judge the year by the amount of single songs I found myself coming back to, I would surely concede that it was more than satisfying.
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Mostly due to a slew of disappointing releases from bands that I expect much more from, for me 2011 was definitely a year for expanding my taste. Fortunately there were at least 50 songs that were really good and you should look them all up. I could make a zip of them but I probably won't.

Best Songs:
50. "Young Pros" by Bass Drum of Death
49. "Symphony in White, No. 2" by Sun Airway
48. "Post Physical" by Pictureplane
47. "High School Lover" by Oregon Bike Trails
46. "Love To Get Used" by Matt Pond PA
45. "Needles and Pins" by Howth
44. "We Were Children" by Tribes
43. "Garfield" by Hail Mary Mallon
42. "Work" by 1,2,3
41. "Fleeced" by ARMS
40. "On Your Side" by Icarus Himself
39. "Heavy Water" by British Sea Power
38. "Do It Again" by Guards
37. "Frequency" by unouomedude
36. "Exhaustible" by DeVotchKa
35. "Whale" by Yellow Ostrich
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