For The Record(s): Best Solo Albums of 2011

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  22 Dec 2011 in Music

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FEIST
METALS
Metals sees Feist showing some level of disdain over the pop audience that she previous made bedfellows with, so much so that there’s no more kooky chick-pandering tracks ala ‘1, 2, 3, 4’. This is her eschewing the increasingly annoying Zooey-type ADHD-addled zaniness in favour of something sombrer. For all its disinterest in courting the pop audience though, Metals isn’t a difficult album to wade through. In fact wade would be the wrong choice of verb as the album is very pleasant to the ears even with all the jaded and whimsy musings on a life gone up the sh*thole.

ST. VINCENT
STRANGE MERCY
When vague emotions fail Annie Erin Clark (St. Vincent) drowns them in guitar wails. Strange Mercy is Clark’s best work to date, displaying keen music acumen for affecting love songs and genuine sentiments. Let yourself sink into the album for far too long and you might just be fooled into falling in love with nothing.

LYKKE LI
WOUNDED RHYMES
It’s an inevitable trend that all artists must follow up their debut with a darker release, Wounded Rhymes is exactly that. Much less cheerful than her quirky and coy debut Youth Novels, the album feels like Lykke Li has matured into full blown adulthood in just a few years.

KATE BUSH
50 WORDS FOR SNOW
Kate Bush’s 10th studio album is proof that her creativity hasn’t been mined barren of gold just yet. We’ve wrote a lot about how relatively new acts have grown with their sophomore releases but 50 Words For Snow is genuinely the work of a truly experienced artist who has contributed, and will continue to contribute, to pop music’s canon.