anika in london

Here we are at the end of the year – prime time for lists. I think I have seen approx 23798241983 end of year lists pop up onto my screen since December 1st. A lot of websites take their lists very seriously and overly politicise their choices; I’m not really interested in those lists.

Here is a very loose list of things I’ve enjoyed in 2011 -

ALBUMS
I don’t suppose it’s a good idea to include albums I worked on this year, as showing favoritism is sometimes not very classy. But obviously the Bella releases and Tasseomancy’s Ulalume are some albums I’d heartily recommend……..

Here are some more albums I particularly enjoyed, in no order:

St Vincent – Strange Mercy
Austra – Feel It Break
Celebration – Hello Paradise
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
Peggy Sue – Acrobats
Cass McCombs – Wit’s End
Julianna Barwick – Magic Place
Tune Yards – w h o k i l l
Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
John Maus – We Must Become Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
Atlas Sound – Parallax

LIVE
1. Beach House at Listasafn Reykjavíkur, Reykjavik
2. Celebration at Subterranean A, Washington DC
3. Congotronics Vs Rockers at The Barbican
4. Sufjan Stevens at Royal Festival Hall
5. The Zombies at Shepherd’s Bush Empire
6. St Vincent at Queen Elizabeth Hall
7. Peggy Sue at Folly For A Flyover, Hackney Wick
8. Tune Yards at The French Legation Museum, Austin, TX
9. Sea of Bees at Everywhere
10. Austra at SXSW

Best Baltimore albums of 2011.

2012 = Beach House Beach House Beach House Beach House Beach House

Ah! Rules to see Cole doing his own thing! This is great:

Man, I love this so much. This song absolutely kills me. Here is the making of:

In a band full of pophit masters, to have the standout voice is no mean feat. Orby kills it. So good.

Whole song here.

Two friends of mine have been busy this winter making nice things…

Wears The Trousers 2011 Yearbook

BUY HERE

Alan has been hard at work compiling the Wears The Trousers 2011 Yearbook, full of unpublished interviews and bits and bobs from the year. Tasseo make the best albums list!

Yip! Buy a copy to receive a real life physical print copy through the post to your door. It looks beautiful. Bet it smells nice too.

For Folk’s Sake It’s Christmas 2011

My friend Lynn has compiled an album of Christmas pophits, with contributions from a whole bunch of guys including lovely Caitlin Rose. The proceeds are going straight to the Integrated Cancer Centre; they’ve already made several thousand (yes!) £ for this good cause, so make sure you buy one. The artwork is lovely also.

Look at those cycle paths!

Love David Byrne. Pophits.