BAP's 20 Favourite Albums Of 2011 So Far, Which Includes Many Albums Released In 2010, But I Don't Care Because I Am A Fearless Bastard.

It's half-year music list season! And yes, 20 is a lot. The first few months of the year were a godsend in terms of crazy good music, and it will be interesting to see how many of these records age well enough to hold their spots in my end-of-year list. As usual, this is arranged in no particular order.


21 , Adele
There are so many moments in this record which remind me strongly of a female Paolo Nutini (especially her inflections) and I must say I approve muchly. This classy lady has certainly set herself apart from the Duffys and Winehouses aplenty in the music scene. Also I wish I were the kind of 21-year old to sit down and write a Grammy-winning album in my free time. WTF talented kids. Stop making me look inadequate.






Hunger And Thirst, Typhoon
A quirky little band made up of anywhere between 7 and 17 members (I lost count), this album is a treasure trove of handclaps and massive folkjammy sing-alongs, and at least 4 songs made cry a little bit. Damn the emotional manipulation.





Sidewalks, Matt & Kim
So cute. Matt & Kim have gone for a more polished, produced sound this time, and it's like I'm one of the few people who don't find this a big deal. They still sound great, everything is catchy as hell, and it wonderfully evokes the feeling of walking down busy sidewalks on sunny days.





Suck It And See, Arctic Monkeys
I was one of the many who flat out hated the Monkeys' last release, Humbug (and it really was Humbug in every sense of the word). So you can only imagine my pure, unadulterated joy when I discovered that the new Arctic Monkeys record is the most perfectest possible combination of their old selves and their desire to break new musical ground ; the witty, pithy, sharp-as-tacks wordsmithery of Alex Turner meshes wonderfully with the more 60s psychedelic leanings of Humbug. And it is beautiful, and it makes me so happy I want to cry just thinking about how the Arctic Monkeys have made me fall in love with them all over again. I'll even go so far as to say that the title track (despite the crude-sounding name) may actually be the most gorgeous thing they've ever put to record. Well played, Monkeys. Well played. I'm all yours again.





No Color , The Dodos
It is lovely to see The Dodos scale back and return to their simpler, prettier roots of jangly guitar, aggressive frantic percussion and lilting melodies. Not to mention they've enlisted the eternal goddess Neko Case on backing vocals duty. It's noisy, foot-tappy, joyful and pretty much perfection.





King Of Limbs , Radiohead
This album was initially way too experimental for my tastes, having been spoiled by the relative accessibility of In Rainbows. But as the case always is with me and Radiohead, all it took was a few extra months for the songs to grow on me, and what do you know, Radiohead made my list. Again.





Wounded Rhymes, Lykke Li
If I had to pick out an early favourite for my personal album of the year, this would probably be it. Gone is the cutesy Lykke Li of the past ; now she's sharp, edgy, hurt, and full of Womyn Rage. Her voice is massive and soaring, even if the songs are not always lyrically spectacular. The songs are by turn aggressively sexual and painfully tender, and it's one of those times when I understand what it means when it is said that someone bleeds for their art. Don't let the synths fool you. Wounded rhymes, indeed.






Early In The Morning, James Vincent McMorrow
Beardy man who pulled of a Bon Iver, locked himself up in a cabin somewhere in the Irish countryside, and wrote a bunch of really pretty heartbreaky falsetto-ey songs. He is exceedingly poppy-sounding for a man with so much beard, but he already has brownie points for not making me fall asleep the first few times I gave his album a spin.





Bon Iver Bon Iver , Bon Iver
It's Bon Iver, bitches. Dig it or get out.





Mighty EP, Lord Huron
I don't know what sort of folk under which you'd categorize this, but I always get the impression of a bunch of happy animals frolicking around a watering hole in Africa. Also, it is beardy. Very beardy. If this is just the EP then I await with much anticipatory anticipation for the full-length release.





Everything Is Saved , David Wax Museum
Irresistibly infectious countrified folk rock with large doses of Mexican influences and enough handclaps to make anyone giddy. Also they use a donkey's jawbone as part of their percussion because that's not creepy at all.

The David Wax Museum - Yes, Maria, Yes by theericschuman



Romance Is Boring, Los Campesinos!
I'm suprised at how little love this record has been getting since its release in early 2010. It's absolutely fierce and bursting with the energy of drunken lovesick youth, machine-gunned lyrics about vodka vomit and orgasms (among other things) and violently melodic explosions of delicious indie rock sounds. It's no wonder they insist on the exclamation mark in their name ; they do absolutely nothing halfway, and it's spectacular.

Los Campesinos! - The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future by Arts & Crafts



Go Tell Fire To The Mountain , WU LYF
The weird shouty Kings Of Leon-ish vocals (you know what I mean) kind of rubbed me the wrong way at first, but I have learned to embrace the glorious messiness of it all. At times this record resembles some sort of exhilarating sonic collage of voices and echoey instruments rather than a straightforward piece of music, but it's weird and different and most importantly, fun.





Departing , The Rural Alberta Advantage
To them haters who have been saying how this is nowhere near as good as Hometowns, you are not right. Because this is some good shit right here [although admittedly I'd like to hear more harmonies with Amy Cole].





Love Remains , How To Dress Well
Not being much into R&B , I was rather dubious about Tom Krell's music at first. The fact that Pitchfork was drooling all over him didn't do much to change my mind either. But I am glad I eventually did, because this is sexy, stripped back, ethereal and completely addictive.





Mysterious Power, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Armed with his trusty harmonica and guitar, the eternally college-aged and angsty Ezra Furman returns with a set of songs that are everything we expect of him ; noisy, poignant, witty and far more intelligent than his years.





Smoke Ring For My Halo, Kurt Vile
This just makes me want to grow my hair out even more and wear baggy clothes and chill out in the back of a tour bus with a cigarette and some Kafka and talk about intelligent shit like postmodernism. Hells yeah, stoner folk jams.





Epic, Sharon van Etten
Utterly gorgeous and haunting and painful and liberating, and the only thing wrong with it is that there are only 7 tracks. MORE, Sharon, MORE.





Fading Parade, Papercuts
This is a strange one, because apart from Do What You Will (which is a terrific cut, by the way), I'd be hard-pressed to remember what any of the other songs sound like unless I'm actually listening to them. So maybe it's not really the kind of thing that sticks or makes an impression beyond vague memories of reverb-drenched melodies and breathy soaring vocals and dreaminess, and despite all that I still kind of adore this album. It remains to be seen whether or not I'll still want these songs in my music library by the end of the year, but for now it's all good.






James Blake , James Blake
So James Blake's voice is ridiculously sexy, let's establish that first. It's definitely the one thing that kept me invested in this odd collection of sampled beats and loops and endlessly repeated words and unclear structures and long gaps within songs, filled with nothing but silence. Bald-faced, audacious silence. After a few listens though, it becomes rather fascinating. Like The XX, this dude gets that sometimes the empty, audio-free spaces are just as important as actual sound. It also feels incredibly light and refreshing after plunging through albums by so many bands determined to play as many instruments as humanly possible per song (not that I'm complaining, but it's a nice change).







Also James, there is no limit to my love. So feel free to come over anytime and we can make sweet sweet Pitchfork-approved dubstep together.

Pretty.

A fantastic piece by Katie Makkai, defining the word "Pretty" and all its implications, on the pressures placed upon women to be pretty, and to find and place value in physical appearance. Every girl and woman you know should watch this.



I am fortunate enough to have parents who never insisted on me doing or wearing anything that was designed to make me a pretty little girl. I've always hated dresses and skirts and necklaces, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I made allowances for stuff like nail polish and dangly earrings, but never more than that. I was a happy kid, though. Puberty hit me extremely hard. I went for years and years before finally being diagnosed, at 18, with PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, a fairly common but pretty much never-discussed reproductive problem. PCOS basically involves a whole bunch of tiny growths in my lady parts that mess with hormones and result in me missing periods for quite literally years at a time (ngehh...too much information, you think?).

The physical symptoms of PCOS include skin pigmentations, excessive body hair growth plus hair loss - generally a very fucked up cocktail of almost too-balanced male and female hormones. It's not a curable disease so much as a lifelong condition ; as far as doctors can say, I'll be on the Pill for the foreseeable future to regulate my lady processes. And for the longest time, before I knew enough to put a name to my condition, I felt exceedingly strange, and very ugly. I have been mistaken for a boy far too many times than I can care to remember, and I somehow felt not worthy enough of being female, and I hid within baggy jeans and men's shirts and short hair. I had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to be friends with a creature like myself, while at the same time I took pleasure and comfort in other things I knew I was good at ; I was smart, and I was funny, I knew that. I could read three Jane Austen books in one day flat. I had impeccable taste in music and pop culture (durrr). I was nice. But oh boy, oh no, I was just too hideous to live. I wasn't skinny like other girls, I could barely fit into off-the-rack clothes, my voice was way too gravelly and deep to ever be considered feminine, I walked with a very pronounced slouch, eyes forever glued to the floor, because I was so much taller and bigger than everyone else. I didn't have my periods every month, like every other girl did. I looked so different from what I thought the acceptable image of a Real Girl should be, and as a result I hated being touched, I hated having my picture taken, I hated having to look at myself in any way or form. I wasn't girl enough. And I certainly wasn't pretty enough, and I hated myself for that as well.


Pretty was important to me. Being pretty would finally validate my status as female. Or failing to be pretty, to at least not be physically repulsive (physically repulsive is essentially how I saw myself in the mirror from ages 12 to 18). I wasn't right, I thought my parents would be terribly embarrassed at my failure to be a proper teenage girl. It didn't help when other girl cousins of mine were complimented on their looks and I got praise for my endless strings of A's. What was academic nerdery compared to being able to wear a cute blouse and look nice in it? It didn't help not knowing what was wrong with me ; years of so-called alternative herbal therapy and pills and being told "Don't worry it will work itself out" and that one time we seriously considered some weirdshit form of electrical acupuncture.


I can't tell you exactly when things changed, or how. Perhaps it was the comfort of knowing that whatever was wrong with me could be handled by a little yellow pill, or maybe it was just maturity. Whatever it was, my skin cleared up, I grew out my hair, and I stopped worrying. I stopped taking Pretty as the ultimate definition of womanhood, or femininity. I still feel a mite insecure around those seriously gorgeous girls who always have perfect hair and can pull of a miniskirt like woah, but I've stopped looking in the mirror and going "Ugh" at myself. I look like what I look like. Once in a while I get super dressed up and then I'm all "Hey, I clean up pretty good". I still get mistaken for a dude now and then, but these days it doesn't mean the end of the world. I wear nail polish and jewelry and nice clothes because I like them and I want to, and I no longer see them as items reserved for Real Girls Who Have Periods And Never Get Asked Stuff Like "Hey, Are You Just A Guy With Boobs Or What?" (true story [I was fifteen], and I have had much worse than that).

When I join in with the girlfriends on another round of Holy Crap, The Cramps Are Murdering Me Lah, it's always with a mixture of gratitude that I can actually be a part of this distinctly female monthly occasion, but also with the desire to tell them to quit whining because they have no idea how easy they have it (in the reproductive sense, anyway). And I suppose, most of all, I learned not to judge by appearance, pretty person or not. I know I risk sounding Hallmarkish and cheesy, but it's true. I'm a constant reminder of it myself, and I'm forever grateful to the people who were willing to look beyond my *gasp* PHYSICALLY REPULSIVE EXTERIOR (kidding, I'm not ugly, really) and see the personality and the everything else I already had but didn't notice because I was so busy trying to find a way to be pretty. Pretty, not to stand out from the crowd, but the kind of pretty I thought would finally make me normal, and regular, and just a girl. I cannot tell you how glad I am to have gotten over that period (HA) in my life. It's still a struggle, and it's not as though I am completely free of doubt and insecurity. What is good is that I'm in a much more positive place mentally, and not constantly beating myself up for failing to be a woman by my apparent inability to look like one. And that's a fine place to start.


In other news ; Fassbending continues. I'm slowly working my way through his (good and not embarrassing) films, and I watched Fish Tank just last week. It's a fabulous piece of work, a depressing and unflinching look at life for the British lower classes, and achieving womanhood, and escaping your circumstances. Michael Fassbender gives a very impressive performance in this one.



Very impressive.

No, actually he's a terrific actor and (usually) picks fabulous movies, so I won't have to constantly justify myself with "Oh but he's so pretty".

Up next in my Spree of Fassbendage is 2008's Hunger in which he also appears nekked plays Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Fassbending. So Much Fassbending.

Potential SPOILERS for the recently released X-Men : First Class


Here is my overall impression of the film.





Hnnnggguuuuuuhhhh.



Here are some of my other thoughts about the film, but with more words.

1. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, two of my favourite British men ever, in the same film. It is still rather odd to see them as leading men in a summer blockbuster comic book movie, and part of my brain refuses to accept it. But still. Fassbender. McAvoy. Together. McBendering. Fassavoying. It's too much for a girl to take. Both of them are easily the backbone of the film, and carry the plot and the entire supporting cast effortlessly, while delivering fabulous individual performances and having mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad chemistry with each other. Acting-wise, totally solid.



2. Speaking of mad, mad, mad, mad ,mad chemistry, the gay subtext within the Charles Xavier- Erik Lensherr friendship (intentional, according to the screenwriters) stopped being subtext and became plain text about 12 seconds after the title card. Even James McAvoy in an interview expressed mock surprise that the two didn't simply get married by the end. I can attest to the fact that he's not exaggerating; the Erik/Charles slash fiction pretty much writes itself.


You see? I mean sure, there's a winged topless woman in front of them, but they are in bed together. As if the Internet needs any more encouragement than that.



3. The entire thing could have just been Michael Fassbender Wears Nice Suits And Kills Nazis While Speaking Four Languages And Doing Funny Things To My Ladyparts, and I would have been just as happy. Happier, in fact.

4. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the plot was - it wasn't the strongest of storylines but it served its purpose, I suppose. Russians something something CIA something Cuban Missile Crisis something something mutants are DIFFERENT something something January Jones' boobs something. The important thing was that it didn't feel contrived or overly-hammed up, and more importantly, it was a heck of a lot of fun.
But most importantestly (this is now a real word, okay?), Michael Fassbender sexes sexily around the X-mansion, wearing a turtleneck. Of SEX.



5. The women in the movie aren't exactly portrayed in the best light. CIA agent Moira McTaggart is down to her bra and panties within seconds of the audience meeting her (but guys, those were her government-approved stripper club stakeout clothes, they were for WORK dammit), January Jones did nothing but walk around in tight suits with her chest hanging out. The mutant Angel chooses to join the "bad guys" almost as soon as her character is established, which means she had pretty much no lines or any development for the rest of the movie.And then there was that line about why women shouldn't be in the CIA. It's hard to tell if stuff like this was meant to reflect the rampant misogyny of the story's 1960s setting, or if it's just what it is - blatant sexism that's present in nearly all forms of modern media which goes unnoticed so much of the time. But let's forget about all that because here is Michael Fassbender in a suit again.




6. I have not seen a single episode of Mad Men, and therefore cannot comment on January Jones' acting in that show, but holy crap was she completely wooden and uncharismatic and unappealing as Emma Frost. She had a couple of pretty snarky lines that would have worked wonderfully if delivered well, but meh. But that's okay though, because while January Jones was not-acting, Michael Fassbender was providing enough intensity, complexity, vulnerability and charisma to run a nuclear power plant. If you could run a nuclear power plant on intensity, complexity, vulnerability and charisma, that is.


And on top of all that, he was also providing the HOT. Such selfless talent.



7. As Grace pointed out, the so-called villains in this instalment were one-dimensional, paper-thin and completely dispensable. Kevin Bacon's evil ex-Nazi character started off with promise but by the end had been reduced to the cartoonish "let's blow up the world" brand of super villain. His minions fared much much worse - they barely had any lines, and I don't think anyone so much as mentioned Riptide's name.



8. One-note bad guys aside, this film does a great job of fleshing out Magneto's character and origin story (cause let's face it, this is Michael Fassbender's movie and everyone else is there to be pretty wallpaper [except McAvoy, he co-owns this movie. And my heart]). Wait, what? Oh yes, this film does a great job of fleshing out Magneto's character and origin story in a way that made him somehow sympathetic and also not entirely evil/wrong. His Holocaust experiences and the way they shaped his future bitterness, anger, and his vengeful nature did not feel contrived or overdone in the slightest. And where the previous X-Mens seemed fairly contented to leave us with the Professor X = Bald and Good/Magneto = Caped and Bad dynamic, this one gives us more shades of grey, and spade upon spade of sexy.


Fassy darling, you seem to have forgotten your shoes. Don't worry though, I'll help you put them on, so you don't have to stop that intense-staring-into-the-vaguely-off-camera-distance thing you're doing so well there.


9. The focus is placed more on making it a character study of Erik Lensherr and Charles Xavier, and not so much on the flashy CGI or explosions. However, the special effects, when they did show up, were effective and suitably dignified with the proper dosage of badassitude. This scene with the missiles, for instance, was crazy hot.


I don't know how much it had to with the hundreds of phallic weapons dangling in the air right in front of him, or the fact that in this particular scene Michael Fassbender suddenly develops a very prominent Irish accent broad enough to drive several trucks through, but I wanted to bone him so hard at that moment, unflattering helmet or not.

10. I can't think of anything else to say, so here's some more Fassbender. It is a truly great man indeed, who can steal the boiling, frothing oceans of my lust away from James McAvoy.



Sweet Jesus help me.


In conclusion:

Fassbender.

Well okay, in all seriousness, X-Men : First Class, while it has its share of flaws, is a tremendous amount of fun, and in no way a waste of a couple of hours and fourteen bucks. It definitely surpasses it predecessors in terms of quality and storytelling (and hotness) and if any sequels are indeed planned, I for one will be looking forward to them. Also, Fassbender. All fangirl-style objectification aside, the man is a ridiculously good actor, and it's nice to see him (and McAvoy) get some major recognition from the masses, so people can cast him in more movies and I can go sit in dark cinemas and squeal (inwardly) for many years to come.

Excuse me while I just sit here and swoon a thousand times over.

Just a quick afterthought ; another thing that really bugged me was how Charles Xavier had to put two fingers to his temple to let us know every time he was using his mad mutant psychic skillz. Someone needs to come up with a new way for telepaths to do their telepathing, because way to be subtle, Captain Obvious.

After-afterthought : How is it that nobody in Hollywood has cottoned on to the undeniable truth that Fassbender needs to be the next James Bond? Because if he were, I would actually watch one of those damned movies. Many times. In a row. Also someone should appoint me as Head Boss Queen Leader of Hollywood because no one in that town knows what they're doing.