GUILL'S LIST

Guillaume Ibairen aitabitxia da. Horretaz aparte musika, literatura, komiki, zine, zientzia etabar luze batez asko daki. Musikaren arloan Melanie, The XX, Agnes Obel eta beste perlak bere gomendioak izan ziren bere garaian. Iaz fabore berdina eskatu nion baina berandu eman zidan. Faborea, Bagarako jendearentzat urteko diskarik hoberenak bere ustez zeintzuk diren esatea zen.

Hementxe, berarekin urteko azken gauarako elkartu baino lehen heldu zitzaidan imeila:

Hi N,

If I must "sum it up", I would say that 2011 was the year of the voice (and not of the albums).

Voices of the year 2011 (no particular order, those voices are just great):

Lana del Rey
(only on grooveshark for now, LP out for sale on 23rd of january; a bit commercial but many good songs on the LP (some fillers unfortunately): eg, Blue Jeans, Videogames, Driving in car with boys, Diet Mnt Dew, Kill Kill. The "Videogames" live at Jools Holland - reveals the falsetto sadness in her voice).

Woodkid
(Iron EP, Iron and Baltimore are just amazing songs; let's hope he will be able to hold such quality on a LP).

Anna Calvi
(debut album, !! LP is not greatly produced, voice is shadowed a bit, but all songs are musically great; amazing to hear this voice live)

Adele
("21", too commercial music but great soul voice). [nire komentarioa, jarri dudan abestia 83 milio baino gehiagok ikusi du youtuben... "too commercial"... akojonantea!]

2011 was also the year of the Dubstep - it seems :-) (beware intellectual music)

Nicolas Jaar - Sound is only noise LP (french dubstep, the best "research" music heard this year)

Podium:
James Blake - debut album ("the limit to your love" was a "hit"; but that is the only "song" like this on the album, the rest is nearly instrumental)

It seems that there are plenty of other dubstep albums this year. I should listen to more of them (zomby, sbrkt, etc) but it is quite "boring" music, so few albums at a time :-)

!! The XX will maybe come back as pure dubstep (Jamie XX being a dubstep DJ) see here. Not sure it is good news :-)

Albums "coup de coeur" 2011 (NB: In 2011, there was no real "album of the year" above every other one like the XX in 2009 or Agnes Obel in 2010).

ENGLISH

Albums of the year:

Metronomy - The English Riviera (english electronic pop close to perfection; it is a SUMMER album; stayed 4 months continuously on; many great songs and hits)

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (out very end of 2010; I discovered it in 2011 - sorry :-) ). The 10 in Pitchfork is not hype, it is amazingly deserved; the best hip hop album for years. Perfect mix of white pop and hip hop; amazing music, amusing provocative and erotic lyrics (!! Not english speaking children friendly !! :-) )

Under the radar LPs, I listened to a lot of times this year:

Lia Ices - Grown Unknown LP (for evenings - It went completely under the radar, only mentioned in one blog as album of the year on the second day of 2011; Since then no one mentioned it. I listened to it several dozen of times; perfect relaxing trip hop jazzy feminine voice album; one hit and it could have sold millions, please give it a try)

Jay Jay Johansson - Spellbound (perfect for evening too, superb jazzy come back of a triphop hispter in the nineties ("Whiskey" LP, listen to it if you don't know it))

The Pains to be Pure at Heart - Belong LP: same sound as the first album, but it is still the best shoegazing since "Ride - "Nowhere" LP", pure nostalgia with good lyrics

FRENCH

Album of the year
Melanie Laurent - En t'attendant LP (great lyrics (feminine, educated, humor), good quality music produced by Damien Rice (certainly for the second half songs - "hit songs" are in the first half); 2 english songs (not the best ones) )

Give it a try album (if you speak french) Julien Dore - Bichon (the 4 songs written by Armand Melies are of amazing quality + the hit Kiss me forever; great album for kids, and great live performance)

French hip hop deception: Orelsan 2nd LP - some good modern lyrics, some good ideas but too many fillers, music much less interesting than the 1st LP; and a bad ending to "Suicide Social" song (shotgun flaring (could push kids to suicide) in place of usual Orelsan - more educated - "realistic loser" humor). Listenable LP, but no more. Sighhhhh, I had hopes. I need to stop having hopes, not good for my morale.

 Miscellanea of 2011

I need to listen to Hanni El Khatib "Will the guns come out", pure rock "Jack White/Jon Spencer/bluesrock" style (will see him live in Feb; songs like "Fuck it.You win" can only be intriguing :-) ). Could be a great 2011 album not listed above.
Hjaltalin (Terminal LP) - they seem to be huge stars in Iceland; discovered them live, they were very good (arcade fire-like); I listened several times to their album, need to buy it to have better sound quality. Give it a try.
I smiled with Giedre (only videos on youtube - good (french) black humor jokes - to listen to...once). I have heard that some Depeche Mode remixes (4-disc album out this year) were really good (not yet bought the album). Need to relisten to the M83 album (not convinced at first listening). In Hip Hop, I read that Tyler the Creator and Drake 2011 LPs were good. I need to listen to them. I fear the hype.

Finally, if you like/read (french) comics, you could try those 2011 titles:

Chroniques de Jerusalem from Guy Delisle
En Cuisine avec Alain Passard from Christophe Blain
Les innocents from Davodeau

3 albums about craftmanship. Loved them.

Voila

See you in 2012,

G

Joder! Ze ona den! oso oso ona! Orain urte osoan egongo naiz itxaroan 2012eko hoberenak jasotzeko. Thanks Guill! I owe you one more!

Ni ez naiz hain txikia, Guillaume altuegia da.