Cover images of my top 15 favourite albums of 2011.
2011 was without a doubt P.J.Harvey‘s year. Let England Shake was the best album by a mile and her interviews and concerts confirmed her as an artist at the top of her game.
Otherwise, this was a year for renewing old acquaintances rather than making fresh discoveries.
The welcome return of Gillian Welch (and Dave Rawlings) was an event and the album proved well worth the eight year wait.
It was also a nice surprise that Charalambides released another Kranky studio work, a belated follow-up to 2007’s Likeness and as consistently excellent as ever. Continue reading →
There is no God and no cure for cancer. Further proof of these truisms comes with news of the death of Ari Up (Ariane Daniele Forster) aged just 48. When she began singing with The Slits she was only 13 and this all female band came to epitomise the revolutionary DIY ethic of Punk and helped show that women need not be content to slavishly follow stereotypical roles as passive, pretty adornments. They were not, nor had any desire to be, typical girls.
Plenty of other bands pretended not to able to play their instruments but The Slits were genuinely inept. They more than made up for this with attitude and an instinctive recognition of how you could incorporate dub rhythms and banal words to create a sound that was both radical and fun.
Unfortunately, I never got to see them live but well remember being entranced by their sessions for John Peel. The current crimson wave of girl bands from the US owe a great debt to their innovative and fearless example.
This recording from the Peel session of Love Und Romance is nothing less than a classic which includes the following great lyrics (when Ari could remember them):
Oh oh oh sweet love and romance / I’m so glad we met by chance Call you everyday on the telephone / Break your neck if you ain’t home
