—By Your Hand
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.
30. Hello Sadness - Los Campesinos!
Albums by the Welsh inside group Los Campesinos! all seem to feel remarkably the same, and that’s probably why they haven’t received much since they’re debut Hold On Now Youngster…, despite having released two full lengths now since then and a long EP. I would guess it’s because they’ve struck a winning combination: loud tracks, mixed with choruses sprinkled by all the band members, and bizarre tracks that seem to mesh between depression and the overly sexual society we live in. These concepts are a bit hard to grab ahold of at first: why would you want to hear songs about death, and giving head, from some guys with weird accents that you can’t really understand. Perhaps it’s what sets them apart, this immediate sense of downfall in every one of their songs, which has only grown stronger over time. Hello Sadness, however, is a triumph for the band, even if it takes a few listens to understand that. You get the sense that it is from the opening moments of “By Your Hand,’ which steers clear of long, strange track names and breaks immediate into a catchy chorus followed by its childish lyrics: “She had her hands in my trousers…” Those lyrics are a little bit off-putting, because there’s probably a more poetic way of looking at it, but that’s before you realize that Los Campesinos! don’t intend of sugar-coating anything for you: Sex is strange, Romance is boring, and Sadness is everywhere. And the fact that they can tell all this across in non-acoustic screaming matches is quite a feat.
The best track of the album, undoubtedly, is the second to last, “Baby I Got The Death Rattle,” which might be the band’s best. The lyrics are immediately appealing: “And you, you are a angel and that’s why you pray, and I am an ass and that’s why I pray.” There really aren’t other bands out there putting out thoughts like this, and once you realize that the songs are both insanely catchy and thought provoking, it’s a win for the band. The songs don’t really feel like wastes anymore, or repetitive, they just feel like several truths brought together by a bunch of people who like making music. But what immediately sets this album apart from the previous two/three is that it doesn’t have to be so in your face about it: it’s a more timid album. Instead of the long-winded track names and annoyingly short/long songs, the band knows they’re better than that. That’s why the closer, “Light Leaves, Dark Sees (Pt. II)”, doesn’t scream in your face so much as let you down easy, reminiscent of Yeasayer’s “Grizelda” in that sense. There might be moments on the album that still feel a bit like you’ve heard it before, but as a whole, Hello Sadness is a triumph because it’s a well-crafted album from a band that seems incapable of not being in your fact. And in the end, Hello Sadness comes off as the band’s best album, despite the fact that it might take a bit longer to get into, and there’s a little bit you’ve got to get over first.
29. Camp - Childish Gambino
The worst part about Childish Gambino’s newest album, Camp, is that it’s a rap album by Donald Glover, and Glover himself doesn’t really let you forget it. A lot of the album’s references and lines are rooted in this concept: that he’s an actor as well as a rapper and people want him to read their scripts and stuff - I guess that’s a common problem or something. And, yes, this is incredibly annoying, but more annoying is that it’s actually Donald Glover rapping. It’s not some person you haven’t heard talk or know nothing about - you know this guy, and he doesn’t seem like a rapper. And even though he knows it and addresses it, it doesn’t make it a lot easier for the listener. With that being said, Camp is a good album, once you get over the fact that Glover himself isn’t that good of a rapper. In fact, he’s not very good at all. He’s a smart guy who knows a lot of things, and he can reference those things in raps. He’s talking about Sufjan Stevens and other things that, according to him, black people shouldn’t like. And in addition to that, he’s got stuff that’s happened in his life: apparently living in the projects, a cousin whose into drugs, and other stuff like that. But you can’t really complain about his lack of things to say in these departments, because when it comes down it, there’s really no rappers out there who are better than this. The people who are better are people like Kanye and Jay and Odd Future, who are the exceptions. And so what if Glover is riding that line between good rap and bad rap, when his album is an honest effort with a lot of great beats, a lot of great moments, and a lot of heart.
“Outside” is a pretty good example of that. It’s a solid song that follows the example of Kanye, in that it mixes between genres and beats in order to give the effect of something big to come, and even though the album doesn’t necessarily deliver like a Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy might, it’s still an album that, from a rookie rapper whose also talented at comedy, has something to offer. Probably the most apparent track that does this is the single “Bonfire,” with feels like a Tha Carter IV track if Tha Carter IV was a good album. The beat is sick, the rap is sick, and apart from that, you can’t ask for much more. It’s not as effective as a song like “Yonkers” or anything, but there are moments where you smile, despite the fact that you don’t want to: “You can fucking kiss my ass, Human Centipede.” And there’s an obvious influence from rappers like Rick Ross and Andre 3000 - not nearly as good - but he’s in the right ballpark. On first listen, you want to hate songs like “Fire Fly,” because literally the opening lines are: “When they see us on the street, all they wanna do is take pics, and I’m like okay” - which is literally the worst ever, but then Glover starts rapping and you hear his beat and he’s okay. Maybe the album tries a little bit too hard, but it’s to be expected from a young rapper whose trying to make an impression on the game. Other standouts are “Letter Home,” which feels incredibly out of place, almost The Weeknd-esque, but is really an amazing track and shows Glover’s range, depending on how much producing he’s doing here. It’s something that also feels like it would appear on a Kanye album, but it’s done in an effective way, which doesn’t feel like a copy at all. “Heartbeat” is also pretty good (probably a little too much like “Blame Game”), as is “L.E.S.” which feels a bit off the mark but still good. And then, of course, there’s the long closer “That Power,” which I for one like, with it’s long monologue by Glover. There’s a lot of people who this will piss off, but it was a risk and I enjoy it. The beat in the background, while Glover talks, feels a little like a Madlib jam as well, and as much as you hate the fact that it’s all happening, it’s kind of cool. But believe me, I understand that people will hate this.
The real question here is why does this album matter when it’s an obvious Kanye ripoff. Yes, it is, and there’s no denying it. It’s an art piece that mixes rap, jazz, and other elements to reach a conclusion about a confused guy who obviously isn’t as awesome or as confused as Kanye. But does that mean, just because it’s not as good as Kanye, that we write it off completely? After all, Camp isn’t necessarily a Kanye album in the strictest sense, it just draws heavily influence from it, and if you were a rapper, who better would there be to draw influence from? Glover has a hard hump to get over with listeners: he’s a comedic actor who wants to be taken seriously as a rapper, and although he spends a fair amount of time addressing this concept, he also spends a fair amount of time talking about his attraction to asian girls, his lackluster childhood, and all kinds of things that pop in and out. It’s an interesting album, an interesting attempt, and an attempt that needs to be recognized. It might not withstand the test of time, but it’s obvious that Glover wanted to create an album, as opposed to some bullshit mixtape, and he did that. Camp is a good start, and a good album in the standard sense. It might not have all the greatest elements we want, but from start to finish, it’s got the feel he wants, and is a success.
