It’s that time of year again, and both Ed + I made compilations with our favorite songs of 2011. There is some artist overlap (hey, we’re married – we like some of the same things), but I assure you, they are two completely different mixes.
>>Click to download Carrie’s “Listen Up, 2011!”
Please excuse the complete lack of any tracks from the new Black Keys album – it’s hard to choose one, and I figured they’d be showing up in all kinds of other top lists anyway. Also, due to extreme negligence, there are no tracks by The Kills either. I concede this is just lame, but somehow the new album was off my radar and I haven’t given myself adequate time with it yet. I’m confident you’ll love these tracks though, and I am very happy to be happy with music in 2011 (as opposed to last year)!
Track list:
01/Marathon – Tennis
02/My Country – Tune-Yards
03/I Stayed Too Late – The Ettes
04/Deadbeat Summer* – Neon Indian
05/Two Against One – Danger Mouse + Daniele Luppi feat. Jack White
06/Solitude is Bliss* – Tame Impala
07/Bumper – Cults
08/Santa Fe – Beirut
09/German Love* – Starfucker
10/Weekend – Class Actress
11/The Suburbs (Arcade Fire cover) – Mr Little Jeans
*Track not released in 2011, but 2011 was when I discovered it … so there you have it.
>>Click to download “Ed’s Tops in 11”
This was a good year for music. Carrie still finds it entertaining how my musical tastes have expanded; those who have known me for years remember my trance boy phase and even after that, if it wasn’t electronic in some way, I wasn’t interested.
There were some really solid albums this year, and I think my mix represents a good spectrum of what was awesome. Make no mistake though, Dance Party Ed is still alive and well as evidenced by the seemingly random inclusion of White Knuckle Ride by Jamiroquai at the end of the comp!
Track list:
01/Michael Jackson – Das Racist
02/Deerhoof – Qui Doem, Només Somia
03/Still Sound – Toro y Moi
04/Eyes Be Closed – Washed Out
05/Season’s Trees – Danger Mouse + Daniele Luppi
06/Abducted – Cults
07/He Gets Me High – Dum Dum Girls
08/Desire Lines – Deerhunter
09/Shell Games – Bright Eyes
10/Lucidity – Tame Impala
11/Green Aisles – Real Estate
12/Money – The Drums
13/Get Away – Yuck
14/White Knuckle Ride – Jamiroquai
If you’re on Spotify, feel free to subscribe to our lists there if you don’t feel like downloading them!
Our Favorite Albums
We both agreed on our Top 3 albums this year … and we’re willing to share!
#1: Cults
This album is a complete play-through and we are both totally into it. Like, listen to it over… and over… and over into it. Yeah – they met in art school and were on Yo Gabba Gabba’s “Awesome Xmas Special” this year, so you know they are especially radical with that kind of hipster street cred.
#2: Danger Mouse + Daniele Luppi – Rome
We are both hard-pressed to think of a Danger Mouse project that isn’t awesome, and with Daniele Luppi, who is an Italian soundtrack composer clearly influenced by Ennio Morricone (who happened to compose the most epic and iconic Spaghetti Western soundtracks ever), Rome hits just the right chords for us. Top it off with multiple tracks featuring Jack White, and this is good as gold. It even kinda made us Norah Jones converts, too.
#3: Tune-Yards – Whokill
If our friend Tony hadn’t shown us this video of Merrill Garbus performing “Bizness” live in a studio in Brussels, I’m sure we’d never bother even giving this album a chance. We’d both heard this song over and over on SiriusXMU and were completely ANNOYED by it until we saw how all of the magic is done. This album is amazing and Carrie hasn’t stopped listening to this album or trying to sing these songs herself for six weeks straight. Enjoy it.