Top Ten Albums, 2011 – Part V, 2-1
2. tUnE-YaRdS – w h o k i l l
Buckle up ‘cuz we’re gonna go quick, shake-a-shake-shake-a, gonna make-a you sick. – “Killa”
It’s been fun watching Merrill Garbus’ rise over the last two years. In that time, she’s gone from playing the Holocene with a lone bass player beside her; to Mississippi Studios; to the Doug Fir with a more robust backing band, saxophones and all; and, most recently, this winter at an absolutely packed Wonder Ballroom performance, which is impressive on any night, but I think this was on a Tuesday. Her live show is inspired, the woman herself inspiring. And although I had heard a lot of the songs on this list before the record came out, they’re all so good that it was inevitably going to be high on my list.
What w h o k i l l loses in the lo-fi charm and infinite-time-to-create of “bird-brains”, the songs and her style do not suffer for having the fuller production or the larger band. I tend to favor the lo-fi aesthetic and its DIY honesty in general. I like the reflections of humanity to be found in the imperfections of the music. On the other hand, tUnE-YaRdS is a force of nature, and the tools are only a means to an end. Here we’re shown that the songs that are just as potent whether cobbled together with the sounds from literal pots and pans or backed by a full horn section.
And this video for “Bizness” is pretty good, too.
1. Wild Flag
If you’re gonna be a restless soul then you’re gonna be so, so tired. – “Future Crimes”
Janet Weiss makes her second appearance on the top of my list, slaying the drum kit and singing backup for the fun and wonderful amalgam that is Wild Flag, joined by her ex-Sleater-Kinney bandmate Carrie Brownstein; Mary Timony of Helium fame; and Rebecca Cole of The Minders, Hungry Holler, and the Shadow Mortons (with Weiss). So by the line-up alone, this was a record I had highly anticipated. The Record Store Day 7″ (“Glass Tambourine” and “Future Crimes”, both re-recorded for the album proper) only heightened that. My expectations were exceeded, as not only are there are ton of other great songs on this record, but even the re-recorded ones sound better, beating out the primacy effect for once.
It doesn’t hurt that it starts and ends with end-to-end rock, and that the opener “Romance” makes for incredibly catchy radio music. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that it sounds a bit like Sleater-Kinney, because they were a fantastic band. But perhaps the biggest thing for me is all of the little moments: hooks, guitar solos, “yeahs”, lyrics, “na na na”s, driving organs and drums. They add up to a whole lot of fun that’s greater than the sum of, in the hands of a lesser band, straightforward parts. It’s the infectious shaky enthusiasm in the way Brownstein sings “if you need help with your motor / well you can borrow mine / borrow mine” in “Boom”. The quiet whispering that builds to a frenzy in the middle of “Glass Tambourine”; the pounding rhythm and the entire opening, really, of “Electric Band”; the dual guitars interplay throughout “Black Tiles”.
In record form, the tracks are divided fairly perfectly. “Short Version”, which starts the B-side, is every bit of a good album opener as “Romance”— punchy and fierce. In fact, it’s the song that ends the A-side, “Endless Talk”, that is the only track out of ten that, while I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just… forgettable, and suffers in the context of a lot of other amazing rock tunes. But it makes “Short Version” stand out even more and maybe it’s all part of the plan.
Add comment December 30th, 2011
