The 2011 Ho Media Awards
Website of the Year - Raspberry Pi
Great project, great cause. So beautifully nerdy to watch this happen from the ground up.
Book of the Year - Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus
Honorable Mentions go to Rothfuss for The Name of the Wind and Erikson for The Crippled God.
Movie of the Year - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows: Part 2
Some movie adaptations don't get it. This one did. Fairly faithful to the books throughout the series, the final installment didn't disappoint. Once the Blu-rays start come down, I think this is one to shelve next to Lord of the Rings.
$4 Artist (Discovery Artist) of the Year - Florence + The Machine
I'm not sexist. I just have obscenely high standards for female vocalists and happen to think that most are crap. But not Flo.
Amazon annoyed me for a good 6-8 months about Lungs. Usually I trust Amazon, so I listened to a few of the samples a couple of times but I wasn't moved. Finally Jason burned a copy of the whole album for me and told me to shut my piehole and really listen to it. It stopped me cold when I used it as background music while working on my senior project last spring, actively pulling me out of my engineering trance to check out the name of the current song several times. Ceremonials is full of similar levels of greatness, though Lungs enjoys a slight edge for being the darker of the two.
I guess the best things in life really are free!
Album of the Year - BELL X1's Bloodless Coup
The first track that was delivered to us in nearly-finished form was something called "Hey Anna Lena." It was close, but still missing something. I grew more fearful until the first single came out: "Velcro."
Nailed it.
The rest of the album has similar cathartic crescendos built in in different ways - from the sing-a-long chorus in "4 Minute Mile" to a timely shot at the ugly side of capitalism in "Sugar High" to the ridiculously sexy song about cheese "Haloumi." The only criticism I can make about the track listing is that they chose not to include "Amsterdam Says," an Amazon bonus track that serves as a slightly better closer than "74 Swans."
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, even this album was one noticeable defect. Several tracks on the latter half of the album were either poorly recorded or poorly mixed, most notably "Haloumi."
Song of the Year - Bell X1's "Hey Anna Lena"
Epic. Beautiful. Epically beautiful. Goosebumps every time. Sounded great live in Chicago this summer too. The final studio treatment completely won me over.
"Hey, What About THAT Album?" - The Almost-Made-It Edition
---DCFC's Codes and Keys
This was DCFC's X&Y - it's a good album, but when you're finished listening to it you realize that you haven't really been listening for a while. Nothing much else to say about it and maybe that's why it didn't make the top ten.
---Blind Pilot's We Are The Tide
This album seems slightly happier than their debut. They've got a fuller sound now too, which means they're fighting in a different, more challenging league.
---Lisa Hannigan's Passenger
See DCFC. Not a bad album, but nothing grabs me.
---Beirut's The Rip Tide
This could have been a contender if it had been longer. I'd place it at 11th on the year. It's Beirut's most accessible album yet...inasmuch as someone can say that Beirut is accessible.
---Amos Lee's Mission Bell
Willie Nelson wiped his ass with this album, which was doing pretty well until that last track... Ugh. I actually imported the last track into Audacity, trimmed that reprise out, and burned a new copy of that album just to make it listenable. I'm still fighting off the cramps that hit every time I get to the last couple of tracks.
---The Civil Wars' Barton Hollow
These two released a magical live album "Live at Eddie's Attic" (still available for free through their website that blew me away. Then they went into a studio and recorded something that was distinctly lacking in the magic category. Maybe the live atmosphere suits them better. Or maybe the live show was so monumental that anything else they do, however great, pales in comparison. You decide.
"Hey, What About THAT Album?" - The ...wtfuck? Edition
---Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues
I guess these guys were a one-off for me. So much 'meh' in one album that it's hard to stay awake.
---Elbow's build a rocket boys!
What utter garbage from a band that's capable of so much more. "Asleep In The Back" remains one of my top ten albums of all time. This could be one of the top ten disappointments of all time. To its credit, it has "The Birds."
---Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto
A disgusting sellout. I refuse to pay a single cent to the band for this album. When I can find it used for under $5, I'll pick it up for the few tracks that are worth remembering. If it was anyone else, it would just be a boring record. But, like Elbow, I expect more from Coldplay.
Dumbass of the Year - Dave Sardy
That's two important albums in a row that your pathetic excuse for talent has marred, Sardy. For making the same mistakes you always make and for ruining music that otherwise may have gone higher in the Top Ten, I salute you with Musing's Dumbass Trophy.
Best Things I've Heard This Year
Aside from things that came out this year, here's a few albums that really stood out amongst the variety of things I picked up this year.
---Florence + The Machine's Lungs
---James Vincent McMorrow's Early in the Morning
---David Geraghty's The Victory Dance
---Keaton Simons' Can You Hear Me?
---Stornoway's Beachcomber's Windowsill
---Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep [2-CD Edition]
Playlist of the Year
Any of the album highlights mentioned over the last few weeks combined with these tracks would make a great "best of 2011" CD:
James Vincent McMorrow - "We Don't Eat"
Keaton Simons - "Without Your Skin"
Alexi Murdoch - "Slow Revolution"
Amos Lee - "Hello Again"
DCFC - "St. Peter's Cathedral"
Blind Pilot - "Half Moon"
Natalie Merchant - "The Peppery Man"
Stornoway - "Zorbing"
Cutest Uncle/Niece Collaboration
Clearly she is not amused. But she IS awfully cute!
Looking Ahead: 2012
Charlie Winston and Snow Patrol are both in the middle of tours for new releases (neither is out here in the States yet, but they've both released their newest albums internationally) that sound great. fun.'s second album launches in February. Margot's fifth LP, Rotgut, Domestic drops in March. Noel's second album is due in Q3. Tom Baxter's album is very overdue - I'm not sure what to expect when it finally arrives. An EP was due in 2011 with a full-length to follow; if he's still working on the EP, the LP could be yet another year away. I believe The Killers are in the studio currently, working on their fourth album. Theoretically it couldn't be worse than Day and Age, but I've been wrong before...
In lit, I'm most excited to read the third of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's planned four book arc about the Cemetery of Lost Books, The Prisoner of Heaven. I've read that this is a direct sequel to The Shadow of the Wind with several crossover characters. Both Erikson and Esslemont are scheduled to contribute another one book apiece to their shared Malazan tale. The Chathrand series ends in Q2 with The Night of the Swarm. I still haven't read book 3 yet, so a delay on that one won't hurt. Stephen King goes back to the Dark Tower books with his next novel, although there's a lot of confusion about which of the two advertised plot synopses is correct. One summary says it's chronologically placed before The Gunslinger. Another says it describes the time/action between books four and five.
Without a doubt the most important release will be the conclusion of the Wheel of Time with the publication of A Memory of Light in Q4. This would be the most looked-forward-to publication if I wasn't simultaneously terrified that it will not end the way I've hoped for the last 15 years. Hard to believe it's been 15 years since I started reading that series. That's a long time to spend with characters, plot lines, and mysteries that will all be wrapped up (hopefully!) in one mammoth volume.
Leave a comment if there's anything you're looking forward to that I haven't covered here. Have a fantastic 2012!
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