—Enough
TOP ALBUMS OF 2011
And so, we’ve reached the end of the year, and it’s time for the annual roundup of the year’s albums. This year’s total number came out to 46, for some reason. We’ll be counting down the albums to number one this whole month.
32. Bellflower (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Jonathan Keevil
Probably the other two things that Evan Glodell’s film Bellflower and Jonathan Keevil’s soundtrack for the film have in common is that they’re both incredibly independent in the purest sense. Glodell’s movie, which for some reason or another has attracted a certain amount of attention - perhaps because Glodell wrote, starred, directed, and made the camera for the film - is full of that indie sense that we’ve lost track of over the years: it’s got pseudo-bad acting, bizarre angles, lack of linear narrative, and overall sense that it appeals for the creators than it does to the audience. That’s not to say it’s a bad film - there are moments that are amazing - but it’s a film that doesn’t follow the structure we’re used to. Keevil’s soundtrack does essentially the same thing, despite being the standard folk-acoustic set that we’d expect nowadays. But there’s something that sets Keevil apart immediately, and that might be because the songs are so rich, so necessary, and so much more than they immediate present to the audience. They lack really anything apart from Keevil and his guitar - setting aside “Babyfin” and it’s wailing violins - but there’s something here, and it’s a shame that the movie doesn’t use the songs as well as it could. The trailer does, however, and it’s what dragged me to this movie in the first place; something about Glodell’s images mixed with Keevil’s dying tunes struck me. And after listening to the soundtrack repeatedly, it’s obvious to see that of the two the real magic is in Keevil, despite the immense effort the film puts forth - because it’s obvious that Keevil is putting forth little effort. You can see that from the loud burp he lets out at the beginning of “Blind, Deaf Too.”
The songs he has here are spare and limited: there are really only five of them, and then a few instrumental numbers that really don’t mean much - sure, they’re good, but the real gems here are Keevil’s musical numbers. From the beginning of “Bland,” we know that there’s something in store for us here. The songs follow the regular pattern and regular song structure, but there’s something that draws us to these songs; perhaps it’s Keevil’s lyrics, which I won’t transcribe here, but each line is a beautiful poem that stands for the testaments of loneliness, angst, and pretty much everything music stands for. It’s the most prevalent in “Enough,” which is one of the few great love songs of our generation. It’s a shame that these songs won’t get much play time, because there’s really something here. And as far as I know, this is the only stuff Keevil has released, which makes us immediately want more. But for now, we’ll have to live with the few songs he gives us here, which stem from sheer utter brilliance: here’s hoping we get more of it soon.
31. Watch The Throne - Jay-Z & Kanye West
There’s been a lot of talk about Jay-Z & Kanye West’s latest album together, Watch The Throne, and the majority of that has been based around how serious we should take it. As a public, do we still care about these figures, and do we still care that they’re rich, famous, and have problems? Are they as genius as they present themselves, and do they deserve the praise they get? Well, the very fact that these questions are being asked in the popular rap game about these two guys shows that this album is worthy of the praise it’s getting: the majority of other rap artists today aren’t putting out anything nearly as progressive as this. And yes, there is a level of them trying a little too hard here, and that’s evident by how repetitive things get at times i.e. songs like “Murder To Excellence,” which essentially tries to preach to us more than it does help us. And there are those moments on the album that don’t work, particularly it’s second half, after we’ve heard the amazing tracks like “No Church In The Wild” and “Niggas in Paris,” and a lot of that is due to the amazing beats, the amazing lines, and the interesting breakdowns, choruses, and change-ups, which are pretty much unheard of today unless we’re talking about underground rap. There’s a heavy Madlib and Stones Throw influence here, particularly in the sampling, and that’s welcome. It’s probably why there’s a continuous use of some sample at the end of most songs, like in “No Church.” It’s probably also why there’s a minute and a half long spread in which Beyonce is sampled to no avail, breaking here voice in and out of clarity. It doesn’t all necessarily work, in part because the album feels a bit rushed and under-produced, but the fact that’s it’s being done is a good thing.
West and Jay are too figures who seem to constantly be changing and people you can’t pin down, particularly West. There’s an obvious feeling of West pulling Jay up to his level here, and that’s probably because Jay has been rapping since the early nineties and things could not have changed more for rap since then. He’s trying to new things and trying to keep up, and it’s not necessarily working. But West tries his best to pull him up here, and maybe that’s because West isn’t so much of a rapper as he is an artist. We saw it most on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, where he would occasionally just start singing, just start talking, and then start rapping. There’s no rhyme or reason to what he does: he’s confused and sad and trying to figure it all out, and watching him to do it is an amazing process - it’s why Dark Twisted is such an amazing album. It came out of the ashes of 808s and Heartbreak, and we couldn’t have asked for a better album. Yes, Watch The Throne feels a little bit like a step down from there, but the fact that it exists is a good thing. You can look to “Why I Love You” as to why this album is a success: it’s simply full of good tracks and good raps. It might not make us think as much as Fantasy did, but we don’t always need that. Here, Ye and Jay are simply in their element, and it works. It might not be the best album they could put out together, but it’s an album that tries and doesn’t fail all the same. Maybe that doesn’t make an album worthy of being on an end of the year list, but it sure as hell makes it worth a listen. And when compared to the other music being played on the radio these day, it’s a huge step up.
When you look at Kanye’s The College Dropout compared to this album, it seems almost as if it isn’t possible, and that shows how far he’s come. And Jay has come pretty far as well: his The Blueprint III feels kind of confused, and low grade compared to The Black Album, but here he’s making something that we can all get on board with, and it’s obvious that together these two work, whether it’s on an anthem like “Otis” or a fist-pumping ode like “Who Gon Stop Me.” And on top of all that, there are certain moments of the album that are just awesome. “Sunglasses and Advil, last night was mad real,” or “If I was him, I woulda married Kate and Ashley.” Those are just lines you can’t beat, and you can’t find anywhere else. In a world where rap is simply references and similes, Jay and Kanye are doing more than that, and making music that challenges us and challenges the rap scene. Because without people like them, we wouldn’t have moved at all, and because of what these guys are capable of, Watch The Throne is a necessary step to get us into even deeper mainstream rap.
