Top Hits of 2011 (about time really) # 11 - 20

# 20 Kyla la Grange

A handful of songs out last year and an album rumoured to be released some time this year, this is not the last you've heard of Kyla la Grange. Seriously I must have had "Walk Through Walls" on repeat for almost the entire year. Pretty much the ultimate air-grabbing power ballad of 2011.

# 19 Cults - Cults

Yes, "Go Outside" was used in every single fucking advert under the sun, but it doesn't mean it's still not a great song. Cults' debut album was a subtle reminder of how good 60's doo wop still is and that it can be replicated to make almost any hipster cream their excruciatingly tight pants. Still, I saw these guys last May and it only went to confirm my love for the album. It starts to repeat itself towards the end so maybe pushing the concept is in order for album #2?

# 18 Braids - Native Speaker

Another band I chanced to see earlier last year, Canadians Braids released "Native Speaker" so early last year that I was afraid I'd forget all about it come the end of the year polls. No chance of that happening because Native Speaker has that listen and then listen again quality about it. If you want to describe them as the female-fronted Animal Collective then so be it. Personally I think there's so much more to them. Beautiful stuff.

  BRAIDS 'Lemonade' by kaninerecords

# 17 Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam

I can see a pattern forming here. I saw Ghostpoet earlier in the year too which cemented "Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam's" place on this list. Raps about everyday normal life over bleak bass-heavy post dubstep breaks. Special.

  Ghostpoet - Cash & Carry Me Home (feat. Kano) by ghostpoet

# 16 Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey's been quite the force of nature. Unavoidable and controversial. "OMG has she had her lips filled?" "OMG is she authentic?" "OMG am I allowed to listen to her?"

Sure you can deny that "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans" are good songs but luckily this is my list and I'm not denying it thus they're on the list. Dig it.

# 15 Fixers - Here's 2001 So Let's All Head For the Sun EP

So again, I saw these guys last year and even though they were unfortunately mixed to sound like a sack of shit playing the bagpipes, you could still, through the awful sonic mess, get the idea that these guys really have a knack for a catchy melody. Their studio recordings thankfully sound miles better and this EP does it all really. 

 Another Lost Apache by Fixers. 

# 14 Bon Iver - Bon Iver

For Bon Iver's second album it seems Justin Vernon finally got over his break up with Emma and recorded an album which is essentially a list of his favourite places. In fact the track list reads a bit like all the places your creepy older relative has been. You know, the one who sends you weird postcards of lakes and cottages from everywhere they go.

# 13 Peaking Lights - 936

This duo's amazing lo-fi record hit me out of the blue some time last year. Well the song "All the Sun That Shines" hit me out of the blue with it's hypnotic bass groove and the rest of the album followed suite. "936" is THE summer chill album that still goes nicely even though I'll probably not see the sun again for a few months.

All The Sun That Shines by Peaking Lights

# 12 Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX - We're New Here

Sadly the legendary Gil Scott-Heron passed away last year and his 2010 "I'm New Here" album will remain the genius' last in a career spanning 5 decades. "We're New Here" is a collaboration between Scott-Heron and Jamie XX ie. the producer behind The XX which revamps I'm New Here and adds elements of house, dubstep and hip hop. It just goes to show that even at the age of 60, Scott-Heron wouldn't rest on his laurels and was open and ready to embrace new ideas.

# 11 James Blake - s/t

So what if Blake's reinvented his sound for his debut album? For a few EPs Blake was one of the most exciting dubstep producers around and then he came out with this, this soft self-versed album of phrases repeated ad infinitum. Some said he'd sold out, some were freaked out by the fact he actually sang on the album himself, some said "James Blake" was fucking boring. Some impressionable young women and me said it's a wonderfully beautiful record with incredible production. You just have to listen to it, like.

What's Jamie XX up to now?

I thought today would be appropriate to check in on, maybe the hottest producer in town right now, Jamie XX. Yes, he's the guy from The XX who fiddles a load of knobs and pushes a load of buttons.

It seems like it's been nearly every day he comes up with a new remix. Usually which are absolutely pumping.

Now recently most of his time's been consumed by remixing Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here. Last year's I'm New Here was the legendary Gil Scott-Heron's first album in thirteen years. Now Jamie XX has only gone and reworked the whole bloody thing. And the result is something quite, well, amazing.

Album opener I'm New Here starts off with Scott-Heron's gruff "street poetry" until Gloria Gaynor kicks in. Cue the gliding bass and breakbeat and the whole thing sounds like a late-night wonderfest. I'm New Here doesn't utilise Scott-Heron's vocals as much as the rest of the album. The best moments of the pair's collaboration is when Scott-Heron's words are linked with Jamie's ravaging 2-step shuffle.



We're just gonna make do with Youtube video's now, because I just don't want to go to prison. Seriously I'd just be everyone's bitch. Yeah, even that white collar guy's who went down for bloody tax evasion.

I do love this one I'll Take Care of You. 4/4 and it's more like a 80's Trax house tune than the dubstep we're accustomed to with Jamie, that is until the piano line gets warped out of recognition and becomes a kind of hybrid behemoth.



NY is Killing Me is the one you'll possibly have heard. It was the first release from the album and has thus been everywhere. Hypnotic and bouncy, NY is definitely a tune. But after listening to the whole album (lots) it's lost its place to most of the other tracks as "best ones on the album".

Adele and Jamie xx

So whilst Adele gradually turns into KT Tunstall (see first single Rolling in the Deep off her new album 21) the rest of us are lucky to have Jamie from The XX making sweet sweet remixes for her. Obviously Chasing Pavements wasn't enough for Adele so she wanted to emulate the long-lived success story that was Tunstall and Eye to the Telescope.

Black Horse and a Cherry Tree anyone?





I do love Chasing Pavements though so maybe 21's got one of those beautys on it to get me to side with it. Here's hoping eh?