Albums in My Life: 2011

In 2011, I would turn 21 near the end of the year. But before that, I would endure a pretty dark year, and come through on the other side a pretty changed person. Also, about a month before I turned 21, I would meet the girl who I have now been dating for almost 8 years now. The year leading up to that meeting was quite a doozy.



Arctic Monkeys- Suck it and See
I worked at a summer camp for 6 years, and during the summer, I would be pretty cut off from the world. In that isolation, I would travel outside every other week or so and find out some of the things I had missed. For the summer of 2011, I had three albums in my CD player throughout the majority of the camping season. This was one of them. A lot of people don't like this record, but this to me was really the last Arctic Monkeys album I fully enjoyed. It's kind of a hodge podge record, but I enjoy all the different styles, and I think they still have their identity here, before part of it was polished off to try to grab the American mainstream ear.



The Decemberists- The King is Dead
Following The Hazards of Love, this record is a lot more straight forward and boiled down to its most basic elements. The songwriting is a lot more direct here, and its more a collection of songs than the narrative former record. I like this record a lot, and I was glad to see the band get a lot more exposure based on this record. I've definitely heard 'Down by the Water' and maybe a few other tracks on various radios or store loudspeakers over the years and I like it when bands I enjoy become more successful without having to play the game.




Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues
This album really changed my life, and was in constant rotation during my summer camp season. It's got a really post grad blues/ quarter life crisis feel about it, which was definitely happening to me, as I had just finished my junior year of college when this came out, and had no idea where my life should go. I still really don't, but it was definitely comforting to know I wasn't the only one. This really upped the ante from their debut, and I think it's Fleet Foxes best record. It's got a bit of a hopeful tone, but it's a pretty dark record, and the unexpected left turn of 'The Shrine/ An Argument' was one of my favorite musical moments of 2011.


My Morning Jacket- Circuital
The last of my 3 summer camp records. I had been looking forward to this album a lot before it dropped, and had listened to all the teaser tracks, a practice I now religiously avoid (I'd rather listen to he lump sum with everything in context. No need to spoil the album.) This was a little bit less eclectic than Z or Evil Urges, but I think it highlighted My Morning Jacket's strengths really well, and has a lot of replay value for me. I saw them play a decent amount of this live when they were touring The Waterfall, and they really open up some of this stuff to jam.


Tyler, the Creator- Goblin

Tyler, the Creator has really changed a lot since his days of eating cockroaches, hasn't he? This album was super shocking to people back in 2011, and the content is super dark and disgusting. I honestly don't think that this album could survive the backlash it would receive it were dropped in 2019. I loved how nihilistic and confrontational this album (along with the majority of Odd Future's catalog) was, and I'm sure if I listened back to it, it might not hold up super well, but in 2011, with me in a pretty angry and not great place, it spoke to me. Tyler Okonma and I are around the same age, so I think we were going through some of the same struggles concurrently, and I think that really speaks to this albums appeal for me.




So, that was the music of 2011 in a nutshell for me personally. Stay tuned for the albums in my life of 2012, and also keep your eyes peeled for some new features in development.


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