Making that difficult second album look easy, Bon Iver’s frontman Justin Vernon returned in 2011 with a sophomore work maintaining the intimate formula that earned him acclaim. Since the release of ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, Vernon’s personal brand of alt folk has been a major influence for musicians of all genres. From hip-hop stars such as Kanye West, who sampled one of the auto-tuned tracks on his follow-up EP ‘Blood Bank’; to electronica wizard James Blake, with whom he recently collaborated on the track, ‘Fall Creek Boys Choir.’
Bon Iver’s follow up may have lacked the heartache that inspired his classic debut. It also leaned on complex production with richer arrangements. But somehow Bon Iver’s self titled follow up managed to preserve that spirit of introspection his first album gained from recording in a secluded woodland cabin.
The anticipating single ‘Calgary’ was a good reminder of the qualities that gave the band an instant cult following. Released alongside a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s much praised ballad, ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, it propelled the album to the top of the charts and helped sell out an international tour as soon it was announced. Even the Grammys fell under his spell by granting Bon Iver a bunch of nominations, included a belated one for Best New Artist.
Listen to ‘Calgary’ here.
Roberto Gonzalez Shazam's Tags Of 2011 bon iver
Lana Del Rey is an artist that’s undoubtedly inspired blog excitement and intrigue in 2011 . The first track to surface from her was ‘Video Games’. An enigmatically stylised video, breathtaking vocal and – potentially surgery enhanced – beauty all combined on one of the most intriguing and original tracks of the year. Internet hacks seemed to immediately fall head-over-heels in love with Del Rey, or grit their teeth while indignantly crowing against her former life as a failed pop artist (Lizzy Grant) and her apparent lack of authenticity.
It doesn’t really matter whether her striking image is of her own creation or that of a pop Svengali. Lana’s looks aside, ‘Video Games’ is breathtaking. Evocative strings, delicate harp and a hushed drum roll are the subtle accompaniments to the singer. The real focal point of the track is Del Rey’s spine chilling vocal. Telling the tale of a doomed relationship, she comes across as mix of Nancy Sinatra and one of the cast members of Larry Clark’s 1995 drama, Kids.
The song was named ‘Best New Track’ by Pitchfork and Del Rey’s debut album, ‘Born To Die’, is likely to be one of the most anticipated LP’s of 2012. While the singer’s first live performances have been reviewed as slightly shaky, it hasn’t shaken the buzz just yet. Let’s hope her album justifies the hype.
Jon Davies Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Lana del Ray
Since June this year Drake has been dominating blogs with his sophomore teasers including ‘Dreams Money Can Buy’ – sampled from Jai Paul, ‘Marvin’s Room’ and the duet with Rick Ross ‘Free Spirit’. Since releasing his second album ‘Take Care’, the title track has gone on to make the strongest impact with the commercial crowd. It features one of the biggest selling female artists of all time Rihanna and takes it sample from Jamie xx’s rendition of Gill Scot-Heron’s ‘I’ll Take Care Of You’.
The song features repetitive drums, a deep bassline and harmonic piano chords matched with polite side-chained strings. Drake’s lyrics touch upon past romances and the emotions involved with break-ups. The track reached #9 in the UK official charts and has topped our Shazam Tag Charts in the UK and USA. The album has been received with mixed reviews, although reaching #1 in the Billboard charts. Compared to Drake’s debut album, the overall feel of this is slower and introduces Drake more of a compassionate singer. With most songs produced by his sidekick 40, this was inevitable. Just Blaze’s production of ‘Lord Knows’ is the most dynamic and hard hitting track which also features Maybach Music, other featured artists on the album include The Weeknd, Birdman, Lil’ Wayne and Stevie Wonder.
Jack Taylor Shazam's Tags Of 2011 drake
Odd Future member Frank Ocean released his free 12 track mixtape, ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’, back in February of this year. Even now , Ocean’s tracks are getting regular plays in both the States and UK. Also he’s featured on many ‘To Watch’ lists for 2012, including topping ours. The most favourable track for Shazamers this year has been the slow tempo ‘Swim Good’, which has gained plenty of spins on college radio and the influential UK urban digital station BBC 1Xtra. Quite the achievement considering the track is taken from a free mixtape that’s had no help from a PR company. ‘Nostalgia, Ultra’ simply spun a web of downloads through word of mouth and the help of Odd Future leader, Tyler The Creator. The mixtape has since been plugged on numerous blogs gathering attention from musicians including Pharrell Williams and Beyoncé who have both been working with Frank in the studio on new music.
Lyrically adept and with a sensual tone, Frank’s voice simmers over the southern style beat. The track consists of a recurring organ riff that creates the backdrop for repetitive tambourines and distant claps phased to each ear. Frank’s lyrics are heartfelt and gripping with the singer talking about his journey to the ocean where he will deposit his broken hearts filled up in his Lincoln Town Car trunk. Dressed for a funeral, Ocean continues with his story until the listener is left with the reflective sound of seagulls and the tides of an ocean.
Previously available to download for free, his album has now been removed from Odd Future’s download page. Rest assured, there will be plenty more to come from Frank Ocean in 2012.
Jack Taylor Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Frank Ocean
In a year that is being referred to as the year of the female singer, British ones have fared particularly well. Whereas the record sales were dominated by Adele; there was also an almost unanimous critical consensus at choosing PJ Harvey’s eight studio album ‘Let England Shake’ as the best album of 2011. The Dorset songwriter has created an astonishing concept work about the devastating effects of war, immersed in history and poetry while also managed to expand her musical palette.
After twenty years of solid musical career, ‘Let England Shake’ meant another reinvention for an artist who’s never been happy resting on her laurels. Among the many accolades she gathered, PJ won the Mercury Music Prize, becoming the only act who has won the coveted award twice. Standout tracks were aplenty, but our favourite was second single ‘The Glorious Land’, where the singer samples both The Police’s ‘This Bed’s Too Big Without You’ and HM Irish Guards’ ‘Regimental March’ in a song that resonates as a powerful anti-war anthem.
Perhaps anticipating her end of the year’s critical momentum, PJ Harvey has just released a DVD compiling the short films that acclaimed photographer Seamus Murphy shot for each of the record’s twelve tracks.
Listen to ‘The Glorious Land’ here.
Roberto Gonzalez Shazam's Tags Of 2011 PJ Harvey
Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ was omnipresent in 2011. It was the biggest track from the biggest album of the year. If you think that’s hyperbolic, take a look at the raw data. Sales of over 5.8 million in the USA alone, not to mention over 4 million tags on Shazam: giving you an idea of just how much air play the record received on TV and radio. Despite being played to within an inch of its life over the past year – can there be anyone on Earth that hasn’t heard it?! – it’s impossible to deny that ‘Rolling In the Deep’ is as monumental pop song. The bluesy, stomping intro grabs your attention, until Adele’s broken hearted vocals swoop in for the kill.
‘Rolling In The Deep’ provided a definitive, morose counterpoint to the non-stop, in-the-VIP dance music (think LMFAO, David Guetta and Kelly Rowland) that also dominated the airwaves in 2011. Her next-level sales are driving increased interest in authentic singer/songwriters, something that’s pertinent when TV talent shows still hold so much stock in our cultural economy. In terms of music industry influence, as well as record sales, ‘Rolling In the Deep’ was year defining.
Stephen Titmus Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Adele
Back in February of this year, without any build up, Radiohead announced the release of their eighth studio album ‘King Of Limbs’. Only a day or two prior to this the blogosphere had been set alight with the emergence of the music video for debut track ‘Lotus Flower’.
Directed by Gareth Jennings and choreographed by Wayne McGregor, the video features singer Thom Yorke (complete with bowler hat) performing a strange kind of interpretive-jazz dance (for anyone that has witnessed Yorke’s live performances it could be said that a showcase such as this was long overdue). Filmed in black and white, Yorke’s erratic movements are manipulated in and out of time with the music, the simple use of imagery helping to make one of the most memorable videos of the year.
‘Lotus Flower’ itself is a carefully constructed collage of organic and electronic sound. Jittering programmed percussion flitters around dub bass and Yorke’s immaculate falsetto vocals weave their way seamlessly throughout the track. ‘The King Of Limbs’ certainly marks a distinct shift in the bands direction, with more of an emphasis around the electronic sound Yorke has been honing in his solo work and less so around the traditional rock formula of previous records.
The song received three nominations for Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Short Form Music Video at this years Grammy’s. A remix album of ‘The King Of Limbs’ entitled ‘TKOL RMX 1234567′ was released in October and features some of the bands favourite contemporary producers including; Modeselektor, Jamie xx, Four Tet, Nathan Fake and Caribou.
Andy Becker Shazam's Tags Of 2011 radiohead
In this day and age where the internet rules supreme it is extremely hard for a successful artist to break away from the public eye, keeping an air of mystery around your persona becomes almost impossible but one man who has managed to achieve great success whilst maintaining his anonymity is the mysterious masked producer SBTRKT.
With his stunning self titled debut SBTRKT has managed to break through the shackles of the underground Dance world whilst managing to be embraced by the commercial market without losing his credibility. “My ideals in writing music are that people will appreciate whatever emotion they can find in the song, it doesn’t matter what genre or idea that it stems from.”
SBTRKT’s expertise in merging pop sensibilities with rattling percussion and bass heavy production has taken the world by storm. The best example of his genre hopping wizardry is most apparent on the single ‘Pharoahs’ featuring the sublime Roses Gabor.
‘Pharoahs’ opens with one of this year’s most infectious hooks with a melody so simple and effective it makes you wonder why no one has done it before. Powered by SBTRKT’s crisp percussion and Roses sizzling vocal ‘Pharoahs’ is a straight up dance anthem designed to destroy any dance floor.
‘Pharoahs’ was no lucky stab in the dark either with his track Wildfire (featuring Yukimi of Little Dragon fame) lighting up dance floors across the world. Plus when you’ve got critically acclaimed rapper Drake offering to spit a verse on the remix you know you’re on the right track.
Simon Edwards Shazam's Tags Of 2011 SBTRKT
‘How To Love’ was the third single taken from Lil Wayne’s 2x Platinum album, ‘Tha Carter IV’. With its stripped down production style, featuring an acoustic guitar riff and simple drum beat, ‘How To Love’ is a slight departure from the man who gave us the rambunctious bass of ‘A Milli’. In fact, if you listen to the instrumental version of the track, you’d be forgiven for assuming that it was the work of a mellow singer/songwriter. However, the appearance of Lil’ Wayne’s inimitable drawl quickly makes you realise you’re hearing a new development for one of the most successful modern day rappers.
We have to confess, despite being a great track; we also have a selfish reason to include this in our countdown. This year ‘How To Love’ became the first ever ‘Shazamable’ music video. Hosted on VEVO, the clip prompted you to tag the video; with one lucky Shazam user winning a VIP trip for two to see Lil’ Wayne in concert. The clip – written by Lil’ Wayne – recalled a harrowing tale of a young woman struggling to deal with being the product of a broken home, before rewinding back to see what might have been. With nearly 40 million views, ‘How To Love’ definitely made it’s impression on 2011 and certainly gave us a great milestone to remember.
Jon Davies Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Lil Wayne
It’s nice when music slows down and gets sexy with it – and that’s exactly what happened when Canadian producer The Weeknd – aka Abel Tesfaye – released ‘What You Need’ back in March 2011. Very little was known about this enigmatic artist at the time (Tesfaye self released the track and his website was still under construction, further adding to the mystique) but the track lit up on the blogs and was soon one of 2011′s underground hits.
It’s a moonlit r’n'b track – sugary vocals dripping with a gorgeous nostalgic vibe, but with a darker edge. “Sinister chords, a deadly hook, a low frequency insisting ‘eff me harder’ and enough reverb to lose your virginity on one Sputnik ride round the back of Venus, just try and keep your legs closed” said Shan Phearson on Pinboard. It spawned a dozen remixes and re-edits, including DJ Fracture’s ‘Unofficial Wreck Your Weekend Remix’ on SoundCloud – some come close to the sheer delight of the original, like the Airsoft remix.
Visit The Weeknd’s website where you can download both short long-players (or long short-players depending on your worldview): ‘Thursday’ and ‘House of Balloons’, both released earlier this year.
Helia Shazam's Tags Of 2011 The Weeknd
