This Is Book's Music

At the start of each year, I anticipate all of the good music that is to come.

You’ve probably read that before, right?

Last year was a great year for music. 2011 was not only incredible year, but it was fricken overwhelming. The traditional ways of music distribution, promotion, marketing, and awareness is now “open source”, in that whatever way you want to put out music, you can do it. It has been like that for a long time, even before the internet. In the last 16 years, we have seem the literal demise of an industry but an explosion on the amount of music being put out there. Some choose to release the album through labels, others go the DIY route. Some choose to promote it with social media posts and concert promotion with a bit of television and radio to go along with it others simply say “hey, here it is” and leave it alone.

Despite the lack of a cohesive industry these days, at times it seems everyone is united in an unspoken fashion to create and be heard. There are still a lot of labels who will do their best to say “we like what we’re hearing, and we’re going to push this music and the artist in the best way we no how.” Artists are also becoming more aware of the business, and understanding that while it may take more work than it would if they allowed a label to promote it, we can do it as well. I’d like to think my albums chosen here is a mixture of all of this.

Each year I always go through the dilemmas, the emotions, the riff raff, nick nack, and boof baf of what makes a “Best Of” list. Why do I create it? It’s a way of nicely wrapping up a year of creativity that has been put to the public, and to say “the year is over, that was a lot of listening”. It’s simply my way of saying “these are the albums I really like, and if you like what I write about, consider these my suggestions to you.” It all comes down to that, and in truth only that. The issues I deal with are my own: will people think I’m catering to a band, an artist, a rapper, a composer, a label? Will people think I’m catering to a city, a state, a country? No. Good music is good music, and I feel that these picks were some of the best to me. I’m not in this for popularity points. No one influences me, no one gives me payola. No amount of hype will persuade me to make a choice, and if it did, then I wouldn’t want to write about music anymore. Otherwise, Adele would be in my Top 10, if not #1. Who else would be in this list? Rihanna? Macaroon 5? Somebody on Bad Boy that has some kind of Ciroc endorsement? Is Bad Boy even a working label anymore?

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I used to be someone who admired Top 10 lists. I take that back: I still admire Top 10 lists, been that way for most of my life. I’ve talked about my love of lists, it’s not just a High Fidelity geek thing: PEOPLE WHO LOVE LISTS ACTUALLY EXIST. This year, there were so many great albums that I didn’t know if I should make it Top 10, Top 12, Top 15, Top 20, or Top 25? As with every year, creating a “Top 10″ list might make some people say “okay, so what’s at #10 is not as good as #9, and #2 is better than #5, right?” I don’t like the baseball card statistic mentality that has spread amongst music fans in the last decade, so I don’t want it to come off that way. As in year’s past, I want to limit it to a list of ten albums. The graphic below represent all of the albums in my Top 10 except for #1.

The albums shown above are (in alphabetical order by artist, from left to right):
AIDS Wolf-Ma vie balane avant-garge (Lovepump United)
Black Pus-Primordial Pus (Load)
Jeremiah Cymerman-Fire Sign (Tzadik)
DJ Shadow-The Less You Know, The Better (Verve)
Gods’illa-CPR: The Blend Tape (self-released)
Headnodic-Red Line Radio (Brick)
J-Live-S.P.T.A. (Said Person of That Ability)
Lil’ Daggers-s/t (Limited Fanfare)
Proh Mic-Rhythm For Days (All Natural)

These albums were exceptional. At a time when journalists, bloggers, and fans are condemning every technique of artists and whether or not they’re making “real” music, these artists simply did what they love to do: create. Each one is different from one another, as Proh Mic sounds nothing like Lil’ Daggers and AIDS Wolf definitely do not sound like Gods’illa. Maybe I should be more specific and do “Best Hip-Hop Albums”, “Best Metal Albums”, “Best Country Albums”, etc. but I think it’s more fun to throw everyone in the mix.

Again, I’m not putting them in any specific order, but I will say that I did have a difficult time picking the best album when I had three titles that I felt were incredible. Within my Top 3 are:
Black Pus-Primordial Pus (Load)
Jeremiah Cymerman-Fire Sign (Tzadik)

Before I heard my top choice, these two could have easily been #1. With Black Pus, I have enjoyed the progress Brian Chippendale has gone through in his music. As stated in my review, the last song on Primordial Pus ends with a song that sounds nothing like what he came out with before, a song that I seriously hope artists will cover and interpret in their own way, as I think it’s a fantastic track.

When I bought Jeremiah Cymerman‘s album (yes, I did buy a copy), I simply did so because I was a fan of his first album on Tzadik, and wanted to hear this. I had hoped to like what was on the CD, and I did. It’s another thing to be moved by the music in a way that I never expected, when it’s more than just “I really like this”. It goes deeper than liking it on the surface, it’s hearing it and knowing that it will hold up in 10 to 20 years. I love instant classics, but I want something that, like a good stew, will be better when it simmers, and Fire Sign is an album for now and one that will age properly.

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I would hope most people would have skipped this entire article and looked for the biggest graphic on the page to see what my #1 pick is. If not, here it is. This is what I feel is the Best Album of 2011:

I’m still blown away by this album, as it has never been done this way within a hip-hop context. Last year, The Roots were also on my Best Of Albums list twice with How I Got Over and their album with John Legend. As great as How I Got Over was, it was Erykah Badu‘s album that did it for me. This time, the Legendary went for broke and pulled off something that has already made people think differently on how hip-hop should be created and listened to. It’s allowing fans to realize that there are options in how to listen to music, and the idea of any long form project in hip-hop having to be heard in order is a foreign concept in a genre of music that critics claim is music for those with no order. This is music by a band who show a level of maturity that comes from not stunting one’s growth in order to have longevity and relevancy. The Roots were always outsiders in the music they call home, and have arguably taken the long scenic route over the year. It’s a journey that has lead them not only to this point in their careers, but with the kind of experiences that have lead to an album like this.

There’s now word that undun (Def Jam) may be turned into a play and a film, not unlike another well respected concept album, The Who‘s 1969 classic Tommy so perhaps this will allow fans to hear and see the album in yet more ways, reaching audiences who may not have heard or considered listening to hip-hop if it wasn’t for this story. If The Roots are their first introduction to this boom bap, that’s not a bad thing at all.