M83
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
M83 takes its name from Messier 83, a galaxy 15 million light-years away, and that’s precisely where “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” inhabits. From its dreamlike interludes to its expansive synth melodies to Anthony Gonzales’ career-making vocals, everything about “Hurry Up” suggests an existence somewhere far from Earth.
What launches “Hurry Up” into the stratosphere is one of the strongest album openers in recent memory, the one-two punch of the sweeping, Zola Jesus-bolstered “Intro” and the breathlessly exuberant “Midnight City,” the latter featuring a sax solo that puts all the other 2011 saxophone-soaked records to shame. Apologies, “Beth/Rest.”
“Hurry Up” is a triumph, a double album absent of any bloated tracks or pretense, a record that’s effortlessly epic. Followers of indie rock have grown accustomed to “cinematic” albums that swing for the rafters — and even witnessed Arcade Fire win a Grammy for one such album early this year — but Anthony Gonzales’ magnum opus sets a new standard.
M83 rises above the bevy of other 2011 releases by inhabiting an entirely different universe — one of its own making.
- Maeve McDermott
Arctic Monkeys
Suck It and See
Oh, the indie rockers from Sheffield have only gotten better over the years. Bursting onto the music scene in 2006 with their furiously fast rock debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” Arctic Monkeys received critical and mainstream success.
This past summer saw the release of their fourth album, the cheekily titled, “Suck It and See.” It’s full of sumptuously melodic guitars and summery, esoteric lyrics, like “Jigsaw women with horror movie shoes / Be cruel to me, ‘cause I’m a fool for you,” courtesy of lead singer Alex Turner, whose lyricism always has a head-in-the-clouds quality.
However, the band hasn’t gone soft by any means. Check out guitar-heavy jams, “Brick by Brick,” “Don’t Sit Down, ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” and the catastrophic “Library Pictures.” Be sure to check them out live when they go on tour next March with blues rock duo The Black Keys!
- Yohana Desta
Florence + The Machine
Ceremonials
Released Oct. 28, “Ceremonials” is Florence + the Machine’s second album, and is a worthy successor to 2009’s “Lungs.” Florence + the Machine’s trademark ethereal sound doesn’t waver, and the album has a stronger and more unified theme than “Lungs” did. Here, the band, led by singer Florence Welch, experiments with shrieking violins and spectral choirs, giving a gothic tone to songs like “Leave My Body.”
“Ceremonials” is a hauntingly beautiful album, with ephemeral ballads like “Never Let Me Go” or “What the Water Gave Me.” It’s is a massive triumph after the near-perfection that was “Lungs.”
- Hoai-Tran Bui
Nicki Minaj
Pink Friday
“Pink Friday” by Nicki Minaj was officially released in November 2010, but since some of her newest singles released in 2011 have been considered part of this album, this can still be my favorite album of 2011.
From catchy upbeat songs like “Super Bass,” to songs where Nicki’s true weirdness shines to a point only she can go, like “Roman’s Revenge,” “Pink Friday” established Minaj as the newest face of female rappers (sorry Kim). Minaj’s next album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” comes out on Valentine’s Day and will hopefully have more “Did It On Em” and less “Right Thru Me.”
- Kendall Breitman
