I realize best of lists are highly subjective and are either fun to read or exhaustingly dull. That being said, here's my top 10 list of 2011 releases. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comment section.
Enjoy!
Flogging Molly – Speed of Darkness (Borstal Beat)
On their fifth full length, and first for their own label, the Celtic punks en camped in Detroit (home of front man and Irish expat Dave King and his wife and band mate Bridget Regan) to draw inspiration about a down on the ropes America thanks to questionable political and economic policies. Equal parts righteous anger and optimism, Speed of Darkness is a perfect album for 2011. A nice “f*@k you” to the 1% penned just months before that moniker became a common term.
Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (RCA)
I can’t fathom the backlash this band receives. They play brilliant hard rock and Dave Grohl has never tried to milk his rep in Nirvana – playing a completely different brand of music. Wasting Light is one of their best – a rock record for every Generation X kid now settled into life as a mature adult burdened with a mortgage, kids and the mind-numbingly mundane job they swore they’d never have. Though the band has made some solid albums in the past, Wasting Light is nearly spot on from the opening track to the very end.
Chuck Ragan – Covering Ground (SideOne Dummy)
There was plenty of handwringing in the punk rock community in 2006 when Chuck Ragan and the rest of Hot Water Music decided to break apart to focus on their own projects. A majority of the band immediately started The Draft, while front man Ragan decided to pick up the acoustic guitar, pair off with a fiddle player and a stand up bassist and play working class folk rock/bluegrass. As Covering Ground – his third solo album proves – all the worrying was for naught as Ragan is quickly earning a stellar reputation for being a fantastic singer/songwriter reminiscent of everyone from the Guthries to solo Springsteen.
Haunted Continents – The Loudest Year Ever (Forest Park Recordings)
OK, this one technically came out at the tail end of 2010, but didn’t really start to garner attention until 201 (so I’m counting it). The 10 track album has been accurately described by frontman/guitarist James (just James) as “Old Weezer meets Buddy Holly and The Crickets,” but the fuzzed out pop songs also draw from old school R&B and soul. Can’t wait to see the follow up.
American Werewolf Academy – Everything Is Alright So Far (Damnably Records)
The new album from Texas-based American Werewolf Academy is a baker’s dozen of new tunes and songs for earlier releases brimming with attitude and steeped in everything from 60’s garage, punk rock and Cheap Trick/Milk N’ Cookies-era power pop, one incredible song after the next. “Rock Show Tonight” (which tips its grease-smudged hat appropriately enough to The Replacements “Talent Show”) and the bratty album closer “Welcome to the Academy” (quite possibly the best Ramones’ song The Ramones never wrote), are both worthy of any critic’s “song of the year” list… and inclusion on my top albums list.
Todd Snider – Live: The Storyteller (Thirty Tigers/Aimless Records)
On Todd Snider’s latest double disc live effort, folk music’s reigning king of cool proves yet again why his studio albums – as solid as they may be – are still no match for his live shows. The songs themselves, while certainly impressive, like the stomper “Don’t It make You Want to Dance” and the why-the-hell-is this-song –not-a-classic-yet? “Conservative Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males”, take a back seat to Snider’s between song banter and song intros/explanations.
The Drowning Men – Beheading the Songbird (Borstal Beat)
It helps to have fans in high places. Southern Cali’s The Drowning Men found kindred spirits in Flogging Molly, who have been touring the country with the five- piece for the better part of 2011 and Flogging Molly’s front man Dave King has been talking about these guys to anyone who will listen, so it was little surprise that he signed the band on his own brand new label. Beheading the Songbird is a wholly original collection of songs combining the attitude of punk with folk, indie and straight up classic rock.
Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones (Epitaph)
It’s been about six years since Frank Tuner walked away from life in a hardcore band and swapped out the distorted guitars for an acoustic one. In that time he’s turned in an impressive collection of albums and managed to help define the punk singer/songwriter genre. His latest album, England Keep My Bones, is just one more example (as if one were needed) of just how confident Turner has become as a lyricists. A stellar collection about questioning and ultimately the choice to stay optimistic, the record may just be Turner’s best to date.
Chris Trapper – The Few and the Far Between (Starlit)
One-time Push Stars frontman Chris Trapper has been on his own for about a decade now – having put out more solo records at this point than with his former Boston band mates, and you can’t help but feel frustrated at how undeservedly underrated he remains. His eighth album (counting EPs and a holiday release) is a nice combination of intimate folk tunes, and great singer songwriter pop songs with solid hooks. Why is this guy not huge?
Cobra Skulls - Agitations (Fat Wreck Chords)
On Agitations, their third full length, Cobra Skulls have turned in their finest record so far. Not to say the early works were bad, just not as consistently great as this one. The record catches on the second track – the bouncy, Ramones-ish “Iron Lung” - and carries on strong to the end. With most songs clocking in at just around the two-minute mark the band gets in, tears it up and is gone before you realize just how much damage has been done. And isn’t that the way punk rock should be?
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