Top 5: 2011 CDs

     This week I am going to try putting up a Top 5 List each day naming the Top 5 Best of  2011.  Yes, it's that time of year where everybody comes out with their best of the year lists and who am I to not?  I'm going to start with the Top 5 Cds of 2011.  I'm not sure most people still buy CDs, but I do so the name still works.  I think there is an art to recording a full album of songs and it's an art I enjoy much more then the release of a single, so I'm going to reward those who still strive for 10-15 quality songs strung together to form a complete piece of work.  The other caveat I have to put in here is that I'm not as up on the music as I once was.  I don't work in a used record store anymore, so I don't get to hear every thing that gets released.  This list is the stuff that I was able to give a listen to and fall in love with, that being the case, the advantage is going to go to artists I already know the past work of and am more willing to give their new stuff a try.  Anyway, here's the Top 5 2011 Cds...

5)  Alpocalypse - Weird Al Yankovic
          It was great to see Weird Al back with a strong cd.  The weird thing was usually when I listen to one of his cds I pick out all the parody songs.  This time, because I'm so out of touch with the pop crap out there, I would turn on the radio and go, hey, that's a Weird Al song.  My favorites are "CNR", "Party In The CIA", "Skipper Dan", and of course, his traditional polka mix, "Polka Face".

4) Wasting Light - Foo Fighters
          Wasting Light is your typical Foo Fighters release.  It's a bunch of mediocre songs with a few amazing tracks thrown in between.  I know this doesn't totally fit my criteria of a complete album that works as a single piece of art, but the mediocre songs aren't bad and the amazing songs are so mind blowing I just can't ignore the album.  "Bridge Burning", "Rope" and "Walk" are great songs and "Arlandria" is an example of the perfect pop rock song.  The lesson is when Dave Grohl and the boys are on nobody is better.

3)  El Camino - Black Keys
          These guys have been around for a while, El Camino is there 7th studio release, but it looks like they have figured out how to perfect the creation of great album.  This follow up to last years amazing Brothers is just as strong, if not stronger.  Clocking in 38 minutes from beginning to end, El Camino starts out with the intense soulful "Lonely Boy" and doesn't let up until the cd is over.  The front of the cd tells you to play it loud and they aren't kidding.  "Lonely Boy" also has the privilege of being the best video I've seen in awhile not made by OK Go.  Simple as possible, one guy standing in front of a building dancing and singing along to the song, yet as funny and entertaining as anything I've seen on TV.


2)  21 - Adele
          There isn't much I can say about this album or this singer that hasn't been said in every publication or on every best of list for the year.  She's an amazing throw back with an incredible voice and a knack for writing songs that capture all the pain and heartache from love lost.  Fingers crossed her vocal cord injury doesn't end her career because two albums of her stuff just isn't enough.  I'm looking forward to listening to tons of Adele material for years to come.

1)  Easy Wonderful - Guster
          OK, I'm cheating a little on this one, but oh well.  It was released in October of 2010, but I spent most of this year listening to it over and over again, so I'm considering it a 2011 album.  I've been listening to Guster for 14 years, they've released a lot of great music, but this album, so far, is the peak of their career.  Easy Wonderful is a masterpiece.  There isn't a bad or even mediocre song on the album, every song makes me giddy when it pops up on my IPod.  In an era where listening to mixes and singles is the only way to listen to music, this cd is the rare cd that you can pop in and listen from beginning to end.