The 11th annual Bonnaroo Music Festival runs June 7-10th in Manchester, Tennessee. This year’s bill is headlined by Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish, and the reunited Beach Boys, with Bon Iver, The Shins, Dispatch, Foster the People, The Avett Brothers, Skrillex, Feist, and Aziz Ansari among the other heavyweights.

Other notables include The Roots, Ben Folds Five, Black Star, Alice Cooper, St. Vincent, Mogwai, Major Lazer, Flying Lotus, Alabama Shakes, Dawes, Flogging Molly, Childish Gambino, Ludacris, tUnE-yArDs, SBTRKT, Battles, Black Lips, Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, The Joy Formidable, Young the Giant, Kurt Vile and The Violators, EMA, The Antlers, Delta Spirit, Das Racist, The War on Drugs, Laura Marling, Here We Go Magic,  Yelawolf, and Mac Miller.

Also playing are Umphey’s McGee, The Word (featuring Robert Randolph, John Medeski, and North Mississippi Allstars), Bad Brains, Mariachi El Bronx, The Devil Makes Three, Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, Gary Clark Jr., Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Kathleen Edwards, Phantogram, Two Door Cinema Club, Fitz and the Tantrums, The Civil Wars, City and Colour, The Kooks, Big Freedia, K-Flay, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Grouplove, White Denim, SOJA, Big Gigantic, Fruit Bats, Moon Taxi, The Soul Rebels, The Lonely Forest, ALO, Blind Pilot, Ben Howard, Trampled By Turtles, Mimosa, and Spectrum Road (featuring Santana, John Medeski, Jack Bruce, Cindy Blackman, and Vernon Reid.)

This year also promises another one of Bonnaroo’s trademark superjams; however, the participating artists have yet to be announced.

In all, over 125 bands and 20 comedians will perform across 13 stages during the four-day event. Additional artists and comedians will be revealed in the coming weeks. Below, you can watch the lineup announced by ESPN’s John Anderson.

Tickets go on sale beginning Saturday, February 18th at Noon ET via the festival’s website.

Update: Here’s the poster:

The CW continues to nab more indie stars. Following on the vampire slaying set by My Morning Jacket, St. Vincent will brave the delectable mischief of one Chuck Bass, when she appears on Gossip Girl tonight in a very special Valentine’s Day-themed episode. Check out a sneak preview below, featuring a short snippet of the indie songstress performing “Cruel”, and stay tuned for full clips following the episode. We’re just hoping Annie helps Blair come to her senses – seriously!

Update: Check out another clip from the episode, which sees St. Vincent performing “Cheerleader”.

Gossip Girl airs Mondays at 8/7 p.m. CT on The CW.

“I’m looking for something that’ll…break through. You know?” James Woods’ Max Renn yearns in David Cronenberg’s 1983 cult classic Videodrome. Oh, how things have changed. In today’s day and age, we’ve already drowned in media. It’s swallowed us. We’re nothing but a bubble amidst one infinite, engulfing abyss. Intimidated? You should be. With each passing second, you’re losing opportunities to take advantage of a culture that’s moving ahead and at an exhausting rate. You could very well be alone…left behind…abandoned. Terrified yet? Yes? Well, that’s more like it.

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief

Bad Veins – “Dancing on TV”

This clip from Bad Veins is equal parts tribute to the late, great Don Cornelius and A-ha’s “Take On Me”. How often can you say that about a music video?

The Black Keys – “Gold on the Ceiling”

The latest from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney is the visual approximation of a band taking a well-deserved victory lap after having one hell of a past couple years. Cushy recording studios, massive wardrobes, photo shoots – it’s all there. Congrats boys, you’re officially rock stars.

Coldplay – “Charlie Brown”

Who knew parkour was still a thing? I guess when Coldplay is playing at an underground warehouse in your town, all of the normal modes of transportation get thrown out the window.

Cults – “You Know What I Mean”

In this video, Brian Oblivion of Cults doesn’t simply let one body-scaring stunt gone wrong end his fictional career as a daredevil. Instead, he hops right back onto the horse (or rather, the ladder) and risks his life to impress the girl of his fancy.

Drake – “Practice”

When most of us walk into a hotel room, there’s usually only a maid tidying up. When Drake walks into a hotel room, he finds…well, just watch it. First make sure your mom or any co-workers aren’t around though.

Jonquil – “It’s My Part”

This video combines three things: pizza, animal masks, and bull riding. In case you were wondering…yes, the result is as awesome as it sounds.

Madonna (feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.) – “Gimme All Your Luvin”

Maybe a few of you have heard this one? To be honest, if I were ever featured in a video as unbearably corny and mindlessly bubblegum as this, I’d probably want to flip off the entire world too.

M.I.A. – “Bad Girls”

I guess Maya’s parents never told her to wear her seat belt when she was younger. Hey, at least no little kids got blown up this time.

Rick Ross – “Yella Diamonds”

As good as this track is, I’m still not sure how I feel about the fact that something that simply cuts back and forth from a vodka ad to a simulated rape scene passes as a hip-hop music video these days. Am I the only one who thinks the home invasion portion goes on maybe just a little too long?

St. Vincent – “Cheerleader”

We all know that Ms. Annie Clark “don’t wanna be a cheerleader no more,” but in this new video she apparently isn’t a big fan of being a giant-sized human art exhibit either. After breaking out of her binds King Kong-style, she unfortunately crumbles apart like a marble sculpture before she can make it to the Empire State Building.

St. Vincent has unleashed the video for “Cheerleader”, the latest single from last year’s best album, Strange Mercy. Directed by Hiro Murai, the clips sees a giant-sized Annie Clark on display at an art museum. Watch it below.

Update: The “Cheerleader” single arrives digitally on February 14th. It will include a “rare acoustic performance” of the song, according to an issued press release.

The 11th annual Sasquatch! Music Festival runs May 25-28th at the Gorge Ampitheatre in George, Washington. Topping this year’s lineup are Jack White, Beck, and Bon Iver, with Pretty Lights, Tenacious D, The Shins, Girl Talk, St. Vincent, Feist, and Silversun Pickups, among the other heavyweights.

Also playing are Spiritualized, Childish Gambino, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, M. Ward, tUnE-yArDs, Wild Flag, Mark Lanegan Band, Shabazz Palaces, The Walkmen, The Head and the Heart, Metric, The Joy Formidable, Little Dragon, SBTRKT, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Alabama Shakes, Kurt Vile, Zola Jesus, The War on Drugs, araabMUZIK, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

The bill also boasts Nero, Wolfgang Gartner, Deer Tick, Cass McCombs, Shearwater, The Helio Sequence, Gary Clark Jr., Apparat, THEESatisfaction, Dum Dum Girls, The Cave Singers, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Purity Ring, Active Child, Com Truise, Starfucker, Cloud Cult, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Grouplove, I Break Horses, Trampled By Turtles, Said The Whale, Hey Rosetta!, Gardens & Villa, and Craft Spells.

This year also marks the return of a comedy lineup with a live performance of Portlandia, in addition to Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Todd Barry, Beardyman, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, and Howard Kremer.

Check out the complete lineup at Festival Outlook.

Festival passes go on sale February 11th at 10:00 AM PT via the festival’s website.

Photo by Katie Scheuring

St. Vincent – ahem, Annie Clark – knows her share of covers. Last night, the Portlandia Tour stopped at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, where rather appropriately Clark chopped out a cover of Pearl Jam’s ’90s classic hit, “Black”. Stripped down, desolate, and soothing, Clark channels her inner Eddie Vedder here, ultimately proving she does still dream of the ’90s. Check it out below, courtesy of Pigeons & Planes.

In related news, see what cover she opts for next when she hits the road again next month. Peep the full itinerary below.

St. Vincent 2012 Tour Dates:
02/21 – Istanbul, TR @ Salon IKSV
02/22 – Rome, IT @ Lanificio 159
02/23 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv
02/24 – Milan, IT @ Tunnel
02/26 – Paris, FR @ Alhambra
02/27 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
02/28 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
02/29 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
03/02 – Porto, PT @ Vodafone Mexe Festival
03/08 – Perth, AU @ Rosemount Hotel
03/10 – Brisbane, AU @ The Hi-Fi
03/12 – Sydney, AU @ Factory Theatre
03/14 – Melbourne, AU @ The Hi-Fi
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater *
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/24 –  Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
05/03 – Providence, RI @ Lupo’s
05/05 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
05/07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar
05/08 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
05/09 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
05/10 – Indianapolis, IN@ Deluxe at Old National Centre
05/11 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
05/12 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
05/14 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
05/15 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
05/17 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
05/18 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
05/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
05/21 – Nashville, TN@  Cannery Ballroom
05/22 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
05/23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
05/24 – Richmond, VA @ The National

* = w/ tUnE-yArDs

Photo by Katie Schuering

St. Vincent has announced a new leg of U.S. tour dates behind her third LP, and our number one album of 2011, Strange Mercy. This particular road trip kicks off in Providence, RI on May 3rd and wraps in Richmond, VA on May 24th. As previously reported, St. Vincent will also team with tUnE-yArDs for a pair of dates around their respective appearances at Coachella.

Check out St. Vincent’s updated tour schedule below, along with the video for “Cruel”.

St. Vincent 2012 Tour Dates:
02/21 – Istanbul, TR @ Salon IKSV
02/22 – Rome, IT @ Lanificio 159
02/23 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv
02/24 – Milan, IT @ Tunnel
02/26 – Paris, FR @ Alhambra
02/27 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
02/28 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
02/29 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
03/02 – Porto, PT @ Vodafone Mexe Festival
03/08 – Perth, AU @ Rosemount Hotel
03/10 – Brisbane, AU @ The Hi-Fi
03/12 – Sydney, AU @ Factory Theatre
03/14 – Melbourne, AU @ The Hi-Fi
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater *
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/24 –  Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
05/03 – Providence, RI @ Lupo’s
05/05 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
05/07 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar
05/08 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
05/09 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
05/10 – Indianapolis, IN@ Deluxe at Old National Centre
05/11 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
05/12 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
05/14 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
05/15 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
05/17 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
05/18 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom
05/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
05/21 – Nashville, TN@  Cannery Ballroom
05/22 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
05/23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
05/24 – Richmond, VA @ The National

* = w/ tUnE-yArDs

“Cruel”:

Well, Conan certainly kicked the week off to a good start. Last night, Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, stopped on by the show to knock out a glimmering rendition of “Cheerleader” off of CoS Album of the Year, Strange Mercy. Rather humorously, Clark started the performance with a sly pop culture-savvy nod to Elvis Costello’s controversial 1977 Saturday Night Live performance by charging into “Radio Radio”, only to stop and state apologetically, “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, there’s no reason to play that song.” It was an odd move, but a pretty cool one. Naturally, Clark’s familiar anthem quickly followed after to perfection. Check it out below, courtesy of The Audio Perv.

In related news, St. Vincent will appear at this year’s Coachella Music Valley and Arts Festival, set to take place April 13-15th, 20-22nd. Around that time, the group plans to headline a few west coast dates with Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs – very cool.

St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs — the respective forces behind 2011′s first and eighth best albums – will come together this April for a pair of co-headlining performances. Sandwiched between their respective appearances at this year’s Coachella Music Festival are a pair of joint performances in Tucson, Arizona and Oakland, California on April 17th and April 24th, respectively. Check out both acts’ respective tour schedules below.

Also, if you haven’t already, check out the most recent episode of Audiography, which features a discussion with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark.

St. Vincent 2012 Tour Dates:
02/21 – Istanbul, TR @ Salon IKSV
02/22 – Rome, IT @ Lanificio 159
02/23 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv
02/24 – Milan, IT @ Tunnel
02/26 – Paris, FR @ Alhambra
02/27 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
02/28 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
02/29 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
03/02 – Porto, PT @ Vodafone Mexe Festival
03/08 – Perth, AU @ Rosemount Hotel
03/10 – Brisbane, AU @ The Hi-Fi
03/12 – Sydney, AU @ Factory Theatre
03/14 – Melbourne, AU @ The Hi-Fi
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater *
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/24 –  Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *

* = w/ tUnE-yArDs

tUnE-yArDs 2012 Tour Dates:
01/12 – Auckland, NZ @ Kings Arm Tavern
01/14 – Melbourne, AU @ Sugar Mountain Festival
01/15 – Richmond, AU @ Corner Hotel
01/18 – Sydney, AU @ The Famous Spiegeltent
01/19 – Sydney, AU @ Hunting Lodge
01/20 – Sydney, AU @ Keystone Bar
01/21 – Holbart, AU @ Theatre Royal
01/22 – Brisbane, AU @ Powerhouse
02/09 – New York, NY @ The Allen Room at Lincoln Center
02/12 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
02/13 – Leeds, UK @ Cockpit
02/15 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
02/16 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
02/17 – Rennes, FR @ Ubu Club
02/18 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
02/19 – Grenoble, FR @ Le Ciel
02/20 – Dudingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
02/22 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
02/23 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
02/25 – Oslo, NO @ BLA
02/26 – Malmo, SE @ Debaser
02/28 – Berlin, DE @ Festaal Kreuzberg
02/29 – Munich, DE @ Rote Sonne
03/01 – St. Gallen, FR @ Palace
03/02 – Turin, IT @ Hiroshima
03/03 – Rome, IT @ Lanificio
03/04 – Milan, IT @ Tunnel
03/06 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club
03/07 – Zagreb, HR @ Tvornica Kulture
03/08 - Ljubljana, SL @ Menza Pri Koritu
03/10 - Istanbul, TR @ Salon
03/11 – Tel Aviv, IR @ Barby Theatre
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater *
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/24 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
07/05-08 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival 

* = w/ St. Vincent

Other notables include St. Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Justice, Mazzy Star, M83, Explosions in the Sky, Childish Gambino, Flying Lotus, Destroyer, Cat Power, Madness, SBTRKT, Beirut, Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, fIREHOSE, Miike Snow, The Rapture, M. Ward, Jimmy Cliff with Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, The Horrors, Buzzcocks, James, EMA, Girls, tUnE-yArDs, and more.

The lineup also packs Wild Flag, ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Neon Indian, Santigold, Modeselektor, The Big Pink, Wu Lyf, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Head and the Heart, Laura Marling, Company Flow, AraabMUZIK, Kaskade, Le Butcherettes, Real Estate, Wild Beasts, La Roux, Thundercat, Azealia Banks, Kasabian, Goyte, Manchester Orchestra, Black Lips, Atari Teenage Riot, and more. Check out the full lineup below or at our Festival Outlook.

Update: Tickets go on sale Friday, January 13th at 10:00 AM PT. According to Pop & Hiss, three-day passes are $285, three-day with shuttle are $335, and VIP are $665.

We also spoke about her approach to songwriting, both in and out of the studio, crediting her mother, and working with the legendary Glenn Branca, as well as indie stalwarts the Polyphonic Spree, Sufjan Stevens, and Bon Iver.

More information is available on St. Vincent’s Facebook and Twitter page.

Featured Music:
01. St. Vincent – “Surgeon”
02. St. Vincent – “Year of the Tiger”
03. St. Vincent – “Strange Mercy”
04. Bon Iver & St. Vincent – “Roslyn”
05. Beck, St. Vincent, and Liars – “Never Tear Us Apart”

Audiography Episode 023 – “St. Vincent” 
Written and Produced by Len Comaratta

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Are you enjoying Audiography? Subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes!

A true sin in this world is ignoring art. But we do. Our world works too fast. Our eyes have too big of stomachs. We digest without reflecting. We rely on our subconscious to dig deeper. This is life in the modern world. Our main priority: time. There is no greater asset. Though, here’s a piece of irony: A real piece of art is a physical representation of time. So, what’s our excuse? Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer. Just an introduction, really.

Here’s the real meat: A couple years ago, I tapped my closest friend Cap Blackard to direct the art here on Consequence of Sound. In our four-plus year existence, the site’s never looked better, and he’s to credit for that. This doesn’t surprise me, though. In fact, you could say that was my plan all along.

Fun fact: In sixth grade, the two of us attended an incredibly pretentious private school, where art was restricted to the art room. Style didn’t exist, only uniforms. Despite these stuffy restrictions, Cap went on to win the top art award at the end of the academic year. Sitting there in the pew (yes, a church pew) watching him receive the award, I remember feeling both happy and slightly envious. I was stoked for my best friend, but, hey, it was sixth grade and I wanted a trophy, too. After all, my earlier days in tee ball didn’t necessarily stock my bookshelves with gold.

Instead, I became one of his biggest fans, and over the years, I’ve closely watched Cap grow as an artist. These days, it’s hard to keep up. He never stops creating. To quote the late Kyle Reese, “That’s ALL he does! You can’t stop him!” To help with the workload, he’s tagged some exceptional talent. His assistant (and CoS Senior Staff Writer) Drew Litowitz came in with a full house of cards, submitting a couple of this year’s best works. While his other associates have also produced some fantastic pieces, as well.

So, don’t be a sinner. Take a goddamn minute out of your day, and soak up the art – all 30 pieces (complete with liner notes).

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief 

The Decemberists

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

I love The Decemberists and was glad to get a chance to do something around their latest release. Not having a chance to listen to the album I went off what I knew. I’d heard that the title The King is Dead may be a reference to The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead. I adapted the Smiths album cover to instead feature Decemberists front man Colin Meloy and added in a yellow forest background as seen on the Decemberists cover, re-staging the somewhat romantic posturing as a like-wise romantic wistful forest reclining. -Cap Blackard

Bright Eyes

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Bright Eyes – The People’s Key

Nothing too complex behind this piece. The fire colors and design were inspired by the album cover and the image itself is riffing off Bright Eyes’ name and the album title. Done with inks and watercolors. -Cap Blackard

Radiohead

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured art for: Album Review: Radiohead – The King of Limbs

This was my first piece as Assistant Art Director. From the moment I first heard The King of Limbs, I knew I wanted to convey the record’s dubbed-out, fractal, frenetic, rhythmically reflective sound. I also wanted to focus on how those aesthetics relate to the tree from which the record finds its name. Since it took four years of hibernation to create the record, I show Thom Yorke crawling from the roots of the old tree like some psychotic patient, with magpies in the trees, lotus flowers on the ground – the line work scratched and inverted in a chaotic, disorienting world of echo. The unsettling thing about this piece, though, is that I drew it far before I saw any of the artwork found in the Universal Sigh or the record’s newspaper addition, and it is ridiculously similar to the line work and style of those drawings, specifically the way Stanley Donwood and Dr. Tchok handled the trees. Eerie. -Drew Litowitz

The Strokes

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: The Strokes – Angles

Consequence of Sound got a copy of Angles waaaaay before any of us expected to and we wanted to be the first to break it. In lieu of the time crunch, I did a manipulation of an older photo of mine that I felt meshed with the geometry of both the album cover and the album’s sound. This is from a series I did of the most incredible public structure I’ve ever seen: The Plantation Fashion Mall. Now closed and abandoned, I was allowed to shoot the building to preserve its magnificence. Its glass domes and palatial architecture are the glory of late ’80s and early ’90s Florida incarnate.

I used Photoshop to tailor the image to Angles adding in some bold colors to match the album cover. This was my last series to date on a traditional film camera. The grain of the film aided in creating a beautiful watercolor-like aspect to the feature image. -Cap Blackard

R.E.M.

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now

Originally, I was going to do this piece by bleaching dark paper, but I ended up buying the wrong kind of bleach and it had practically no reaction. So I opted for some very wet watercolor work with the intention of creating an abstract foundation for an edited version of my reference photo of Michael Stipe. The hardest whites are liquid paper, and the overlay worked out pretty well after some filters and sculpting.

The severe whites and blacks as well as the presence of lines and the marigold and yellow are references to the album cover for Collapse Into Now. -Cap Blackard

Foo Fighters

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

This is the first piece of photography I’ve done specifically for the CoS feature image. Since the first music videos accompanying this album were all recorded on VHS, I decided to incorporate tape into the image. The photo was taken on a garage floor with discarded cigarettes and matchsticks to add to a grungy feel.

The VHS tape sacrificed for this project was of the 1980 skit comedy film, Loose Shoes. Even with Bill Murray featured in a couple of scenes the film didn’t have enough redeeming qualities to save it from my screw driver. I placed a label reading “Wasting Light” on the cassette. -Cap Blackard

Panda Bear

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured art for: Album Review: Panda Bear – Tomboy

Leading up to the much-anticipated release of Tomboy, Panda Bear released a few 7″ singles and sold tour posters and t-shirts, all with simplistic, pencil-drawn gray and white images, similar to record’s future cover art. Among these singles was “You Can Count On Me”, which featured cover art of a simple pencil rendering of a father and child. For my Tomboy illustration, I wanted to draw a portrait of Noah Lennox in graphite, to match the simple visuals Lennox had been using of late. The drawing’s minimalism and crude pencil marks show Lennox alone, totally underexposed, accompanying a record of unbearable loneliness and solitude.  -Drew Litowitz

TV On The Radio

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

A digitally manipulated photo of a clustered flower that I took. No clue what kind it is. Normally I finish photos at a natural size and shrink them down to feature box size, but in this case what I thought were going to be some “final tweaks” on the feature image ended up being so extensive that it would’ve been a massive ordeal to redo them on the original file. There were many many many layers by the end of this piece. -Cap Blackard

Fleet Foxes

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured art for: Album Review: Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Helplessness Blues is one of the most desperately inquisitive records I’ve ever heard. For every statement, there’s Robin Pecknold with yet another existential inquiry. To express Pecknold’s anxious disillusionment, I scribed some of the record’s key lyrics around a simplistic portrait of the Fleet Foxes frontman, highlighting some of the record’s most difficult questions. The hardest one being, “WHY? The result looks something like a bathroom stall graffiti portrait, used as some sort of shrine. I think that about fits the bill. -Drew Litowitz

The Cars

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: The Cars – Move Like This

A rare instance where I did the feature art and wrote the article. This is a collage, mostly sampling from mid ’90s DC comics (read: disposable) with a few other pieces from newer issues that were damaged, as well as an old issue of Disney Adventures. Images of cars were cut out and assembled then painted over with acrylic. The colors red, yellow, green, and blue pertain to the album’s cover. When I scanned the piece I wrapped it in plastic wrap 1) because it was still wet and 2) because I thought it might look cool. The gloss of the plastic wrap ended up being a bit overwhelming on the whole, and I prefer the non-plastic version. However, the picture I ended up using as the feature image is a cropped version of the plastic wrap version. You can see the full size plastic version here. -Cap Blackard

Moby

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Moby – Destroyed

This drawing started on a paper tablecloth at a Moroccan restaurant in Chicago (the Moby head to the left, drawn without reference) and CoS President/Editor-in-Chief Michael Roffman insisted that it be used for the featured image. I crumpled it up and abused it in my purse for a couple weeks before sitting down to finish it adding layers of inks, charcoal, white paint and liquid paper. The larger Moby head was drawn with reference after I’d rorschached the paper. The general feel of the images was derived from Destroyed‘s theme of stark loneliness. -Cap Blackard

Summer Tours

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: The 15 Hottest Summer Tours of 2011

I wanted something that summoned the spirits of summer traveling in North America: big rigs, deep forests, tropical coasts, a funky car covered in luggage, and a mysterious sun-soaked crow spirit (a byproduct of reading dystopian America graphic novel Puma Blues and its art by Michael Zulli). This piece started with loose pencils, water colored over, then inked with a broken and spewing Pilot Razor Point pen, and finally, accented with a white paint pen and liquid paper. -Cap Blackard

Lady Gaga

Artist: Virginia McCarthy & Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Lady Gaga – Born This Way

The illustration pencils and inks are by good friend, talented illustrator, and frequent collaborator, Virginia McCarthy. I provided the colors. A strange Gaga creature leads former Gaga outfits in a choreographed dance number emulating the “Born This Way” music video. The “Born This Way” video was in many ways such a stark departure from the visual complexity of her previous videos that this seemed a pertinent comparison to make – with those previous video’s costumes following the simply and scantily dressed Gaga form. The coloring and background was done in Photoshop. -Cap Blackard

Bon Iver

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Going into this piece I took ideas from both the cover for Bon Iver – a kaleidoscopic kind of Bob Ross painting of pastoral landscapes and farm houses. As well as the exceptional music video for the then new track, “Calgary“. It’s got a recurring bed/sleep and couplehood theme. I smooshed all those ideas together for this image.

The face isn’t frontman, Justin Vernon, but he does kind of have ’70s hair, so that’s where that came from. The background was laid in with no linework underneath it. The figures were put in with blue line, painted over, and the final lines for the whole piece were done in charcoal. -Cap Blackard

Incubus

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Incubus – If Not Now, When?

When I do feature illustrations for CoS, I always look into the album and the band’s recent goings on. Sometimes I have a good familiarity with the artist(s), sometimes not so much. I always strive to keep elements of the band’s latest project imbued into the feature art. This one side steps a bit. The cover for If Not Now, When? is a black and white photograph with a decent amount of grain to it. I knew I wanted a piece that was relatively monochromatic that would either have natural grain, or that I’d add grain to. In looking into the meaning behind the album’s name and the title track, I decided to take it into an alternate direction, riffing off how I’d choose to interpret the album title. In this case- how long until animals take on human traits or humans take on animal’s? -Cap Blackard

Portugal. The Man

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Portugal. The Man – In the Mountain, In the Cloud

The man’s face was a doodle drawn in my sketch book, pretty much actual size in the full size picture. Done with a ballpoint pen. It wasn’t originally intended to be part of the feature art but while playing with it it seemed like an interesting fit. I changed the color of the drawing’s lines to reflect the line drawing color of the album art. The photo was taken by me at Apollo Beach on Florida’s Space Coast. -Cap Blackard

Jay-Z & Kanye West

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Rise to the Throne: The Collaborative Highlights of Jay-Z and Kanye West

This was actually the first feature illustration I did for CoS, back in fall 2010. I mixed up which album was coming out and did a piece for Watch The Throne and not My Dark Twisted Fantasy. So though my first piece of published feature art was for last year’s Daft Punk, this was the first drawn. Rapper Astronautalis is now the proud owner of the original watercolor of this piece. -Cap Blackard

Stephen Malkmus

Artist: Virginia McCarthy
Featured art for: Interview: Stephen Malkmus

Borrowing the building-side painting look from Mirror Traffic‘s album art, Virginia created this strangely sinister portrait of Malkmus. A pencil illustration overlaid with digital paint. I came in and overlaid it onto a beat-up cardboard texture to give it a similar street-side texture to the album art.  -Cap Blackard

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You

Riffing off the cover for I’m With You, with a fly perched on a pill capsule, I ended up with a fly version of Anthony Kiedis vomiting up pills into Flea’s mouth. Sure, why not?

This started with me working on a rough layout concept in Photoshop, where I completed the piece. For this image’s use in the feature box, it holds up really well. View it larger and my Photoshopping technique gets a bit transparent. It’d be nice to find the time to do an analogue version of this some day. -Cap Blackard

Lil Wayne

Artist: Bianca Triozzi
Featured art for: Album Review: Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV

Bianca took the truly lil’ Lil’ Wayne from the cover of Tha Carter IV and age-progressed him to current day Carter. Sharing a Twin Peaks fanaticism with myself and Michael Roffman, she thought she’d drop the rapper into his own personal Black Lodge, complete with an armless statue sporting Nicki Minaj hair. This piece was all analog. -Cap Blackard

St. Vincent

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured artwork for: Album Review: St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

On the outside, Annie Clark is adorable, petite, and elegantly beautiful. She’s every hipster’s dream-wife. But, her meticulously chaotic soundscapes stand in stark contrast to her outward appearance. I wanted to play with that concept. To show the perfect, cute Clark with an almost sinister look on her face, her crazed hair, and a little bit of blood on her surgical gloves (“Surgeon”), just a taste of what her latest record has to offer. Her perfection marred only slightly by the blood on her hands from cutting herself open and crafting one of the year’s best albums. -Drew Litowitz

Wilco

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured artwork for: Album Review: Wilco – The Whole Love

“The Art of Almost” and The Whole Love were the two phrases which led me to this minimal graphic. Using the “charging” symbol from an iPod or iPhone as a launching point, I created a worn, distressed heart, “almost” filled with love, but still well on its way to getting there. -Drew Litowitz

Ryan Adams

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured artwork for: Album Review: Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

Ashes. Fire. Roses. Using symbols commonly associated with Ryan Adams, and the record’s album art for inspiration, I wanted to create an image in which everything burned together into one fiery mess. Adams sits to the left, watching roses and a tropical forest burn right before his eyes. For such a dark, beautiful record, I think it gets the job done. -Drew Litowitz

October Party

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured artwork for: Consequence of Sound’s October Party in Brooklyn

For his birthday a couple years ago, indie rapper, Jackson, aka Ms. Paintbrush of Grand Buffet put a call out on his Tumblr for a gift wish. He wanted people to send him images of Jay Leno carjacking a seahorse. I was happy to oblige and sent him linework intending to color it soon after. Fast forward to this October and I finally got around to coloring it. This was simultaneous to being assigned our CMJ-timed October party poster and the image felt like a good fit for a concert poster. I’d done some “save the date” ad graphics leading up to the announcement of the party. They were simple, sepia-toned, text based images. Working the more bold, marker-colored seahorse graphic into that color scheme took some trial and error with different layering styles before I felt that it matched the feel of the rest of the poster. For the curious, the albums floating thin the seahorse’s car are Slave to the Rhythm and Tin Machine. You can see the original illustration with Jay Leno and the seahorse here. -Cap Blackard

Tom Waits

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Check Out: Are You Bad As Tom Waits?

This art was not just intended as the feature image for Waits’ Bad Like Me, but also CoS’ “Bad Like Me” Quiz. Inspired by that feature, I thought I’d make a carnival-style quiz machine to test your badness. This is a digital photo collage amalgamating many separate and very unrelated elements. The body of the machine is an antique, derelict Coke machine. You can check out a large, non-animated version here. -Cap Blackard

Coldplay

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto

I read that the WWII White Rose Movement was one of Chris Martin’s inspirations with this album, so I went with that image for the feature. There’s a memorial for the Movement that’s a very amorphous rose made from tiles set into the ground. I liked the notion, and based off that, I went for a similar idea with a fractured, but still recognizable look. The color scheme comes from the more prominent hues of the album art. Lots of texture layering for the background. This is an all-digital collage. -Cap Blackard

Lou Reed & Metallica

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured art for: Album Review: Lou Reed & Metallica – Lulu

No comment. – Drew Litowitz

The Beach Boys

Artist: Drew Litowitz
Featured art for: Album Review: The Beach Boys – The Smile Sessions

With my SMiLE graphic, I took the concept of a “lost” album to its logical pop culture counter-part. Parodying the well-known promotional image for ABC’s Lost, instead of Matt Fox and Evangeline Lilly in front of the bold Typeface, the five Beach Boys walk ominously along a dark beach, surfboard in hands. The scene’s high contrast gives the image a somber tone, the board looking almost coffin-like, with the Boys Beach marching towards an answer to the mystery of one of pop’s greatest enigmas. I knew I could have gone with something more along the lines of the album’s iconic cover, but I wanted to try something different. There was darkness behind the scenes, and I wanted to get at the legend of it all. Surf’s Up, indeed. -Drew Litowitz

David Lynch

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: David Lynch’s 20 Weirdest Musical Moments

For this graphic, I wanted to juxtapose some well-loved Lynchian images. The central image is of Dennis Hopper’s deranged, blue velvet obsessed criminal, Frank Booth. Eleanor Edwards photographed me with her blue velvet bathing suit shoved in my mouth. The rest of the images are all Twin Peaks- the zig-zag floor of the Black Lodge, splattered with garmonbozia, and a forest of Douglas Firs showing through underneath. -Cap Blackard

Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow

Artist: Cap Blackard
Featured art for: Album Review: Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow

Kate Bush is among my shortlist of all-time favorite artists. She’s a magical being in a woman’s body – people say variations of that all the time. As far as I’ve been able to tell, it’s true. I was really excited to get to do some feature art for 50 Words for Snow.

The first thing I attempted to do for this was to commission a local ice sculptor to do a rendition of Bush’s face, which I would light and photograph. Unfortunately, and as expected, ice sculpting was too expensive to pull that off. The illustration was easily something I could’ve lost myself in, with intricate details and so on. If I had allowed more time for myself I may have gone there. I mean, it’s Kate Bush! Instead I went for a more guttural, organic approach: I started with a broad, wedged pen and went at it abstractly. After creating a template for the piece that way, I went over it with a white paint pen, giving Bush’s face more depth and detail. Then grey markers, then more paint, then smaller ink pens, then more grey, then more paint.

Someday I hope to make something more grand based on Bush’s work. But it’s a start. -Cap Blackard

At this year’s Record Store Day – the April one, not the November shindig – I felt something that hadn’t occurred to me in probably 10 years. I felt excited to hold a record. Standing in line, clutching the inside of my far-too-thin hoodie (thanks, Chicago wind), I paced back and forth in my mind, thinking, God, I hope I get this album. The item in question? Big Star’s unreleased Third.

Of course, I didn’t get it. Nobody did. The store didn’t even receive a copy. So, instead, I spent a couple bucks on some singles, bit my lip, and went home somewhat satiated. But, for the 45 minutes prior to that moment, it was something slightly alien, but moreover familiar. There used to be a time when you couldn’t get an album.

Not everyone can remember that feeling, but they should. Prior to the digital revolution, music was somewhat of a privilege. As a child, you might spend weeks saving up money for something that takes less than two clicks to grab now. Don’t get me wrong — it’s liberating. But value gets partly tossed aside now. It really shouldn’t.

The album is by far the most integral facet of the music industry. People throw out EPs, toss in singles, but albums really mean something. If it’s even halfway decent, it’s essentially then a collection of perfected thoughts, emotions, and creations that are meant to be consumed, examined, and experienced. This year, we had far too many experiences – seemingly overloaded by an open-door policy of music thanks to Spotify.

That didn’t stop us, however, from finding 50 albums we thoroughly enjoyed.

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief

50. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

In 2011, a record like this with precise craft, honest and bare songwriting, and gorgeous, subtle polish seldom gets made. Ashes & Fire is a mainstay because of its demeanor: authentic, exposed, and sublime. It’s a departure from the soaring years with the Cardinals and the rowdy solo work of yesteryear. Instead, Ryan Adams is mellow and content; his voice gleams from artfully sparse production (see: “Dirty Rain”). A tightly focused survey of the remaining ashes of his past, the album subtly questions what to do with all that history in light of a different self and becomes a modern classic in the process. -Liz Lane

49. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

The Joy Formidable may very well be the most appropriately named band to make their full-length debut this year. On The Big Roar, the Welsh trio’s brand of hook-laden guitar pop is a delight to behold as Ritzy Bryan’s urgent delivery transforms song after song into something anthemic. Their swirling layers of guitars and rapid-fire percussion pack enough of a forceful punch to live up to the other half of the band’s name. Full of catchy choruses and relentlessly energetic guitar crunches, The Big Roar is a stadium-sized album amidst a sea of clubs. -Frank Mojica

48. Astronautalis – This Is Our Science

On This Is Our Science, Astronautalis, aka Charles Andrew Bothwell, sounds as convincing singing about a turbulent relationship on “Secrets on Our Lips” as he does spitting verses on cryogenic experimenter Robert Nelson on “Midday Moon”. But it’s not just for intellectuals: Bothwell duets with Tegan Quinn on “Contrails” and features rapper P.O.S. on the album’s title track, gaining both indie and hip-hop street cred. This diversity catapulted Astronautalis’ fourth album into the iTunes top 10 downloads when it was released. In addition, producer John Congleton’s signature desperate, moody arrangements add emotional depth to This Is Our Science’s largely intellectual material. -Harley Brown

47. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread

At just 24 years old, Goodbye Bread is Ty Segall’s fifth full-length, and again he plays every instrument. The stats are impressive, but this spotless collection of West coast garage tunes handily earns this spot. Less howl-y and punky than previous releases, Segall varies his influences from John Lennon (“I Can’t Feel It”) to smokey blues rock (“The Floor”), all loaded with warm, fuzzy reverb. Songs like “Comfortable Home (A True Story)” show the young artist’s growth into a more personal songwriter, his half-languid falsetto more revealing than ever. It’s mellower, sure, but it’s also some of his most carefully considered output yet, leading to some of his best. And there’s still plenty of stomp and roll. -Benjamin Kaye

46. Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale

The cover of Summer Camp’s Welcome to Condale features a woman in a bathing suit doing a keg stand. So appropriate for an album that tempts the imagination, concocting this place called “Condale” where the kids are hot, the music spacey and romantic. The album is jaded Americana (even though the band is from England), conjuring images of the boardwalk, $2 beer specials, and sand in your hair. Their foreign nature only makes their fascination with American culture that much more apparent. This is an album for losing your virginity in the backseat (“Last American Virgin”), getting sunburned by the lake (“Summer Camp”), and smoking your first joint (“I Want You”). It doesn’t attempt to hide the fact that it relishes in the cliché while embracing a nostalgic beauty that makes the frivolity of youth so universal. -Summer Dunsmore

45. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne

Watch the Throne, likely the most widely anticipated album of the current decade thus far, sounds exactly like what it is: Two of hip-hop’s most powerful overlords reveling in knowing that they’re just that. In barely 45 minutes, Yeezy and Hov plow through the likes of bionic pop-rap (“Lift Off“), borderline-dubstep (“Who Gon‘ Stop Me“), exotic grandeur (“Murder to Excellence“), and bare-bones soul (“Otis”), all of which is – this cannot be overstated – immaculately produced. Plus, with these two guys constantly playing verbal ping-pong, the whole album is indubitably and nearly incessantly fun. And that’s really all it ever needed to be. -Mike Madden

44. Yuck – Yuck

Admittedly, every sound on Yuck’s self-titled debut is one we’ve all heard before. Rather than embracing one particular influence, Yuck seamlessly pays tribute to nearly all of indie rock’s greatest legends from song to song (e.g. Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Dinosaur Jr.). Sure, there is a revitalization of the fuzzed-out sounds of the late 80’s and 90’s here, but Yuck also taps into the spirit and emotional highs and lows that made those bands so intriguing in the first place. Sometimes, it’s not what you do but how you do it that matters. -Frank Mojica

43. Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin

A few months back, our own Jeremy D. Larson wrote that the tone of Mikal Cronin’s self-titled debut falls “somewhere between Velvet Underground’s Loaded and The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells.” For one, he’s right. Yet moreover, the album exudes this sentimental presence that recalls ’60s mainstays like The Byrds or Jefferson Airplane. It’s a hazy experience that’s quite addicting, like a 151-glazed night in your college heartbreaker’s dorm room. (What? Stay with me, folks.) Check into Cronin’s living room stunner “Hold On Me”, a track that frolics with mousy percussion and cyclical acoustics. It’s a moody think piece. Not moody in the sense that you’re out to scratch the world’s eyes out, but sort of like that welcoming isolation you pine for from time to time. Fact: Sometimes being alone feels better. With a voice and ear like Cronin’s, it’ll always sound better. -Michael Roffman

42. Kendrick Lamar – Section .80

Twenty-four-year-old rapper Kendrick Lamar is a native of Compton, CA, but you’re not likely to figure that out while listening to Section.80. Its beats bear almost nil resemblance to the storied G-funk of the city’s past. Rather, the album is built around electro-tinged, blurry near-boom-bap that gives Lamar more than enough room to do whatever he chooses on the mic, something he takes full advantage of. Plus, his finest verses (found on “A.D.H.D.” and “Fuck Your Ethnicity”) occasionally evoke 2Pac at his least thuggish. No small feat there. -Mike Madden

41. Washed Out – Within & Without

Two years ago, Ernest Greene was just beginning to take Washed Out beyond a childhood bedroom side project. After a year of Sub Pop signage and this full-length debut, Within and Without, Greene is headed beyond being another chillwave act with synths. This album is devastatingly gorgeous, submerging listeners in Washed Out’s world of dense, warm vocals (“Eyes Be Closed”),  gloomy love songs with strings (“Far Away”), and jaunty pop  (“Before”). Within and Without is a kaleidoscope of discovery, uncovering directions Greene’s counterparts have yet to explore. -Lauren Rearick

40. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck

All Eternals Deck is a marvel, overflowing by turns with apathy, cheerful quirk, barely contained rage, and quiet wistfulness. And that’s just the first four tracks. John Darnielle’s vocal range is on full display here, laid over desperately driving guitars on 13 tracks as varied as they are meaningful. There are so many juicy pockets of lyrical cleverness here (see: “Estate Sale Sign”, “Prowl Great Cain”, and “For Charles Bronson”) that the album requires repeat listens to soak them all in. Fortunately, we’ve had most of 2011 to do just that. -Megan Ritt

39. Danny Brown – XXX

The greatest treasure of Detroit rapper Danny Brown’s breakthrough mixtape, XXX (an acronym that alludes to sex, drugs, and Brown’s age), is that it delivers as many ridiculous and hilariously clever lines as any other release this year. A brief sampling: “Sorta like Squidward and his clarinet/I’m in ya bitch mouth,” “You softer than Flanders’ son/Don’t make me put hands on son,“ “I‘m higher than Swizz Beatz’s hairline.” Oh, and the oft-dissonant, largely trimmed-down production has its moments, too (“Blunt After Blunt”, “EWNESW”, “DNA”). -Mike Madden

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38. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica

Daniel Lopatin has been making progressively bigger waves with each release since 2008’s Russian Minds, but Replica is easily his best, most accessible full-length to date. Rather than the swirling analog haze that colored his previous work, the album sees Lopatin mine the discarded junk culture of yesteryear for a singular, strangely dystopian vision of the future more akin to that of a science fiction author than a musician. From the piano-laden “Power of Persuasion” to the meditative ambiance of “Submersible”, Replica is remarkable music unlike anything else on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter. -Möhammad Choudhery

37. Real Estate – Days

Ben Folds chronicled the suburbs with white boy angst. Arcade Fire did it with melancholia. Real Estate takes a more laid-back approach, shrouding their simple, yet relatable, lyrics about suburban New Jersey (the songs have straightforward titles like “It’s Real” and “Wonder Years”) in a fog of hazy guitar solos and precise rhythm that could take place anywhere in the nation, as long as it’s not a city. Like a high school summer, it feels relaxed and alluringly repetitious. And isn’t that the point? -Dan Caffrey

36. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse

For anyone who thought Bon Iver was the definitive impressionistic album of the year, Bill Callahan’s latest proves to be its strictly Americana counterpart. Hell, just look at the cover art. With Apocalypse, Callahan turns the Americana landscape into an ocean of sounds. Over a fiddle, an organ, a pedal steel, and reverb swells, Callahan becomes America’s most forward thinking country/folk singer still making music rooted in those old-time standards. “DC-4-5-0,” Callahan laments in the last moments of Apocalypse.  It’s an interesting sentiment, a powerful statement made without any real words. It’s the record’s Drag City serial number. As Callahan closes the door on yet another chapter in his demented world of horses, gunslingers, and cattle prodding, he is well aware that he’s doing so. It’s the question of where he’ll head next that makes the current state of his affairs all the more fascinating. In the meantime, we’re glad he’s leaving off here. -Drew Litowitz

35. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Anonymity and avoiding press in the hyper-mediated blogosphere turns out to be a pretty effective tactic for getting some attention – especially for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, whose music turned out to be as difficult to place on the genre spectrum as it is to put a face on their online presence. With the release of their self-titled debut, the heavy hooks of Bandcamp viral “Ffunny Ffriends” find a home in a tightly performed but cheaply produced space odyssey – an intricate mix of psychedelics, speedy guitar riffs, and otherworldly vocals. Frontman Ruban Nielson’s knack for melody (who can resist “How Can U Luv Me?”) and treating the voice as an instrument proves to be the icing on the cake, validating the weird internet hype and translating the buzz into legitimacy. -Caitlin Meyer

34. Adele – 21

A lot of people may roll their eyes at the inclusion of Adele’s 21 to year-end lists, but you can’t deny the staying power and grip the album has had on popular music. Love her or hate her, you couldn’t walk past a stereo or TV that wasn’t playing Adele this year. Being a pop music juggernaut doesn’t mean the album shouldn’t be respected, however. From the infectious “Rolling in the Deep” to the heart-wrenching “Someone Like You” to the vengeful “Set Fire to the Rain”, the album is solid front-to-back. Adele’s voice is a one-of-a-kind, jazzy, smoky, emotional powerhouse, and the fact that she is still topping charts months after the album was released shows she has a complete right to be on everyone’s year-end list. -Nick Freed

33. Cut Copy – Zonoscope

Leaner, meaner, and with more percussion. That’s the gist of Cut Copy’s excellent (and Grammy-nominated) follow-up to In Ghost Colours. Zonoscope sprawls into epic, tribal sounds and Beach Boys vocal harmonies, retaining its New Order moodiness and evoking sounds of native Australian ’80s new wave. If you went to a festival this summer, chances are you heard one of these hip-shaking beats wafting across a simmering summer vista. Do yourself a favor and listen to them again. Re-live your summer. -Paul de Revere

32. Gotye – Making Mirrors

One-by-one the countries of the world are falling in love with Gotye. The Austrailian multi-instrumentalist’s third album, Making Mirrors, has found its way into U.S. playlists in the wake of his video for “Somebody that I Used to Know” featuring Kimba. In it we see Gotye, with the charming anarchistic boyishness of Sting, singing with the heartrending honesty of Phil Collins. Ultimately it’s Collins’ bandmate Peter Gabriel that Gotye gets compared to the most, and for an obvious reason – the album is a musical wonderland of deeply layered and sophisticated pop sounds the likes of which we haven’t heard since So. From the Miracle Mile-like nuclear romance of “Eyes Wide Open”, to the lavish electro-reggae of “State of the Art”, Making Mirrors is sonically diverse, and with Gotye’s disarmingly genuine lyrics, it pulls madly at our heartstrings. -Cap Blackard

31. Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow

The most precious thing Kate Bush possesses is a rather magical way of thinking, and her latest record reflects this through utilizing an array of idiosyncratic collaborators (Elton John, Stephen Fry, her son Albert “Bertie” McIntosh) and characters ranging from a romantic snowman to a Yeti. Snow is a perfect inspirational touchstone for Bush, because when it falls, it makes everything seem more clear and yet retains a dreamlike quality. 50 Words for Snow is the musical equivalent of a long, yearning sigh, with songs like “Wild Man” and (almost 14-minute-long) “Misty” inhabiting a half-lit world that at different turns takes in driving beats, haunting piano, and spoken word to create the kind of unusual, inventive, and expansive sound Bush has become synonymous with, and she remains a sensual metronome of sorts (especially her voice, so unwavering and true) -  comforting and necessary in this increasingly confusing world. -Siobhán Kane

30. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

Despite the subtraction of Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs keep chugging along with their latest effort. Slave Ambient is a 12-track wallop filled with Dylan-esque vocals, instrumentals, and, yes, ambience. Singer/guitarist Adam Granduciel takes us through the rough-and-tumble landscape where we find the catchy, constant stream of “Best Night”, the steady thumping of “Your Love Is Calling My Name”, and the acoustic-driven coda of the elegiac “Black Water Falls”. The guitar play between Granduciel and Dave Hartley is second to no one this year. -Justin Gerber

29. The Men – Leave Home

The Men nailed their demands to the door of the Church of Punk/Hardcore and peaced-out for greener pastures. The melting pot that resulted on Leave Home is an alarm call for purists and tourists alike. It plays like a record-collector’s wet dream with obvious hat-tips to Spaceman 3, Joy Division, The Wipers, and whatever else is in The Men’s milk crates. But there’s no prerequisite to feel the primal churning squalor of  ”L.A.D.O.C.H.”, a song specializing in blunt trauma force to the guts-bag. The cocaine-surf instrumentals, relentless noise punk, and post-punk kraut-rock tunes that quake with the words, “Can you push them away?” over and over are all hurled into a storm of angular guitars, walls of drums, knives, fists, and sweat that doesn’t ever let up. This album’s so far from pure that if you snorted it you’d land straight in the ER. Man, that’s what’s so great about it, though. -Jeremy D. Larson

28. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo

Smoke Ring for My Halo is probably the easiest album to digest in 2011. That is, if you enjoy a good daydream. With his spidery guitar scales, sunset-staring vocals, and uber-melancholic lyrics, Kurt Vile sucks you in. It’s so easy to get lost here. Right off the bat, “Baby’s Arms” acts as a wormhole, to which you’re sliding into repetition and soul-seeking rhythms. From there it’s pure moonshine. Down quick, hard-hitting. Producer John Agnello keeps things at home, as well, which is where Vile belongs. We like our singer-songwriters close to us, and it doesn’t get any more intimate than this. Looking for a friend? Consider this album your new roommate. Just don’t expect him to do the dishes. Though, he’ll certainly keep you company. Always. -Michael Roffman

27. Childish Gambino – Camp

If Drake is the MC who made it cool to rap and emote, then Childish Gambino (aka actor/comedian Donald Glover) helped evolve the style into something far more nuanced and outlandish. Thanks to his comedic background, Gambino peppers his tracks with catchy rhymes and clever quips galore (like the line from “Sunrise”: “I’ve seen it all, like I’m John Mayer’s penis hole”). He’s an MC who understands the power of beats and an appealing production style, which he demonstrates on cuts like the menacing “Bonfire” and the electro-heavy “Heartbeat”. But it’s his wide-open emotional sentiments that make the LP shine outside the confines of its genre. Whether he’s confessing his detachment from the black community in “Backpackers” or sharing the pain of his childhood heartache with “That Power”, Gambino wears his heart on his pink polo shirt, readily rubbing into listeners’ faces at any given moment. Looks like the joke’s on us after all. -Chris Coplan

26. Wild Flag – Wild Flag

Wild Flag aren’t Sleater-Kinney 2.0, and that wound up being a good thing. The highly anticipated debut from the Sleater/Helium/Minders supergroup is a new beast entirely, harder rocking than anything they’ve done before. While Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony’s voices will stir up a few warm, familiar memories, the overdriven guitars and psychedelic keyboard breakdowns make an outstanding case towards a new era for these musicians. Wild Flag stands as an impressive debut, with or without the band members’ all-star pedigrees. -Austin Trunick

25. Panda Bear – Tomboy

The journey of Panda Bear’s latest LP, Tomboy, was more akin to that of a hip-hop album than an indie solo record. After the first single dropped in the summer of 2010, Panda Bear announced a late fourth quarter release for his follow-up to the critically acclaimed, Person Pitch. Like countless rappers before him, Noah Lennox delayed his album again and again, finally releasing it on April 12th. The album is sonically smaller than Person Pitch but not any less ambitious. While wholly longer than its predecessor, the individual songs are short and to the point, resulting in fantastic, succinct blasts of space-age pop like “Last Night at the Jetty” and “Surfer’s Hymn”. -Carson O’Shoney

24. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

London artist SBTRKT has swept the world this year with his self-titled debut LP, rocking festivals and small venues alike. A leading proponent of post-dubstep sprinkled with a tad of R & B soul, his sound provides something astoundingly unique for the music scene: pure, unbridled novelty. “Wildfire” is the album’s standout track, its main synth bass line too infectious to ignore on the dance floor. “Living Like I Do” is stylistically different, evidencing more trance-like influences, and it shows the diversity of the album. Singing about love and heartbreak, with beats sometimes dizzying, sometimes morose, the album is an emotional exposition of SBTRKT’s affinity for the music medium. -Summer Dunsmore

23. The Weeknd – House of Balloons

The Weeknd really took this year by storm, in case you hadn’t been paying attention. It’s been a hurricane of success – the 21-year-old Toronto native is seemingly unstoppable. But it all started with the twisted allure of House of Balloons. From heavy hitting single fodder like “Wicked Games” and “High For This” to unsung heroes like the mellow “Coming Down”, or the Beach House-sampling “The Party & The After Party”, The Weeknd created a cohesive album equal parts grime and glamor. Multiply some of the tightest production this year by Abel’s pure upper register and you’ve got a winner. Now multiply that sum by uber-enticing lyrics of grotesquely beautiful over-indulgence, and what’s the outcome? An album that goes down smooth, but also leaves your esophagus battered, bleeding, and hurting oh so good. -Winston Robbins

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22. Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse

Super-bassist Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat, is only 27, but he already has the sort of resume most only dream of, logging performance credits with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Erykah Badu, along with a full-time gig as bassist for thrash-fusion legends Suicidal Tendencies. Someone this good could only play sideman for so long, though. After lending his virtuosic talents last year to Flying Lotus’ magnificent beat odyssey Cosmogramma, Lotus returned the favor by producing Bruner’s stellar debut, The Golden Age of Apocalypse. But make no mistake. This is Thundercat’s Golden Age, his smooth bass runs and smoother falsetto starring throughout. The beat-heavy “Daylight” and dreamy rework of George Duke’s “For Love I Come” are obvious highlights, though Thundercat’s distinctly cosmic presence and unparalleled skill make for essential listening from start to finish. -Möhammad Choudhery

21. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Christopher Owens’ sweet, puppy dog eyes timbre convinces just about anyone that despite substance problems, scars of a former religious cult, heartache, and anxiety, everything is just alright in the present. Father, Son, Holy Ghost harnesses music’s spiritual characteristics in a conspicuous manor, as Owens and his band mates cleverly balance yearning gospel pangs with snotty, west coast retro rock. There’s paranoia (“Die”), choir loft church organ soul (“Vomit”, “My Ma”, and “Love Like a River”), and an overall smart execution of style no matter what Girls’ carefree fuck-it-all style says (see: “Just a Song”). Their sophomore album shows that Girls have honed in on a truly distinct sound that pulls from past influences, but manages to sound wholly original and really, really good. From poppy, riff-heavy opener “Honey Bunny” to the emotional apexes of the final three tracks, Father, Son, Holy Ghost plays as a complete and fantastic album. -Liz Lane

20. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

How fitting that in the same year as his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Tom Waits released an album that reminds us precisely why we love and still need the old rain dog. In crisp, vibrant bursts, Bad As Me revisits and revitalizes numerous styles and sounds from across Waits’ nearly 40-year career. But this record is much more than an old beatboxing junkman’s recycling project. Whether it be the tender frankness of lover’s plea “Back in the Crowd”, the cool chill of life’s autumn felt on “Last Leaf”, or the jarring nightmare of wartime romp “Hell Broke Luce”, Waits’ finest songs still shine a brief light upon those who often go unseen and unheard, which is precisely why we need him. Yes, we like to “stomp, whistle, and scream” and “dance with a soldier’s glee” (whatever that entails exactly), but Waits also knows that we need to cry in our beer, howl at the moon, and occasionally have our lives dignified by a stranger sparing a moment to listen to our sad stories. The fact that Bad As Me somehow manages to make it all so goddamn fun is what makes him Tom Waits. -Matt Melis 

19. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life

From a deceptively quiet beginning roars Fucked Up’s epic punk opera, David Comes to Life. Composed of 18 tracks that form four acts, the eponymous David rises and falls through love, loss, and ultimate redemption, which might not be as notable a project if the entire thing wasn’t screamed into your headphones by Fucked Up’s own Damian Abraham. Fortunately, Abraham and his backing guitars manage to ratchet out many levels of emotion amidst the chaos (and if that’s not the sound of heartbreak, then nothing is), turning David into not just another noisy punk album but a meaningful, moving journey through that most universal of emotions – love. -Megan Ritt

18. Atlas Sound – Parallax

Bradford Cox has never been one for compromises, in performance or on record. Every single release under the Atlas Sound moniker or in collaboration with his fellow Deerhunter bandmates has been a thorough representation of his tenacious artistic vision at the current time. Parallax, though in part an homage to the Neil Young and Patti Smith singer-songwriters of yore, is no exception to this trend, replete with Cox’s trademark creative guitar inventions, alien soundscapes, and queer punk attitude. Dealing with neglect, personal perception, and, yes, romance, the album shelters some of the catchiest (“Mona Lisa”), starkest (“Flagstaff”), and most intricate (“Amplifiers”) songs in Cox’s body of work thus far. It is this exact contrast of the candidly sweet with the unabashedly weird and unexpected – the acoustic noise with the controlled studio work – that makes Parallax and Cox’s music in total the unique gift to modern music that it is. -David DiLillo

17. The Horrors – Skying

Skying is a paragon of how to face the pressures of matching initial critical success with a follow-up: Nut up, evolve, and do something people might not expect. The Horrors lock their goth-outlined, post-punk gaze down on their pop-laced shoes and dive into ’80s influences to put together an album encapsulating their progression as a band. Faris Badwan’s vocals have been raised and fleshed out; everything is subtler, tighter, and more atmospheric than 09’s Primary Colours, all of which works to this album’s favor. From the insanely absorbing rumblings and synths of “Changing the Rain” to the spellbinding repetitions of “Moving Further Away”, each track could soundtrack a John Hughes film as easily as a hazy dance scene. By being brave enough to vary their sound, The Horrors are proving to be a band capable of understanding and managing growth – something not every act can accomplish. -Benjamin Kaye

16. EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints

The songs feel more captured than recorded, like the studio just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch the drones, the noise, the insipidness, and the catharsis. The connection between each of the nine tracks is loose; some howl with feedback and noise, while others play at a grunge revival, and then there’s the cantillation of “California”, a homily so raw it has the congregation squirming in the pews. But the wide palate of Erika M. Anderson is the prize of the record. Her knife is sharp and knows who to cut and where and how and can do it in a hundred different ways to leave someone just as marked as she is. Couple that with the cool breeze of a west coast girl who knows how to write a catchy melody, and the masochism of Past Life Martyred Saints really becomes something very real and addictive. -Jeremy D. Larson

15. Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Radiohead has attained a status such that every album it releases is expected to reach groundbreaking heights, introducing the world to some new luminous idea that will set the bar for all pop and rock music yet to come. It’s understandable, because Radiohead has done that a couple of times. But while The King of Limbs doesn’t do that, it does nothing to earn unwarranted hostility either. There are several gems that have etched a permanent place in Radiohead’s oeuvre, including the invigorating “Bloom”, the wordless wonder “Feral”, and, of course, “Lotus Flower”. If Radiohead is finished making instant classics, it will be no tragedy if The King of Limbs is a sign of things to come. -J. Harry Painter

14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Over 12 spiritually emotional tracks, Robin Pecknold marries his flawless vocals to harmonies and expertly woven instrumentals, all in a rich and satisfying circle. The songs are charged with memorable, soaring melodies, and Pecknold’s observational, first-person lyrics are teasingly profound. On the title track, Pecknold sings, “If I know only one thing, it’s that everything I see/of the world outside is so inconceivable/that often, I barely can speak.” Fortunately, he still does. A hallmark is usually pretty small to the naked eye. When this record is dusted off in 30 or 40 years, you will surely find the word classic etched somewhere discreet. -Tony Hardy

13. Beyoncé – 4

Born from bits and pieces of Fela Kuti, Broadway musicals, and Lionel Richie, 4 is simultaneously one of Beyoncé’s most musically diverse and personal records. It’s a master class, of sorts, of pop music over the last 40 years. From the mega-sized R&B/show tune/love anthem of “Countdown” to the old-school swag of “Party” featuring André 3000, 4 is a hit factory extravaganza – only with more substance. It’s incredibly personal; far deeper than anything else in her otherwise emotionally available career. Yet it’s also quite compact, doing away with some fluff and filler that plagued her past LPs. Already, we’re bubbling over with joyous anticipation for what 5 has to offer. -Chris Coplan

12. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

This year, bass saxophonist Colin Stetson went from little-known indie symphony stalwart (having backed everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Tom Waits) to a solo force in his own right. Nothing could encapsulate his stratospheric shot to prominence better than his second long-player, a formative mesh of free jazz, thrumming drone, and beautifully structured songwriting. Even more impressive is that the disc is composed solely of single takes without any overdubbing or looping. That’s right. Other than vocal contributions from Laurie Anderson and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, the alternately cacophonic and startling, beautiful noises are coming straight from Stetson’s sax, proving his instrumental mastery and writing genius. -Adam Kivel

11. The Antlers – Burst Apart

Burst Apart couldn’t have been more appropriately titled, as it signifies the complete departure from the moving darkness of Hospice, the adherence to genre norms, and, most importantly for the band, The Antlers’ status as a one-man show. The creative talents of Peter Silberman, Darby Cicci, and Michael Lerner seamlessly fuse together throughout Burst Apart‘s 10 tracks to create everything experienced in their live show and, more markedly, a mesmerizing collaborative vision. Dynamism becomes the key word as the record progresses. The shifts from “Rolled Together”‘s hypnotic groove to straightforward rocker “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out” are executed without pause, without the emotive lyrics suffering in the least – proving anew that maybe, as long as you’re The Antlers, you really can have it all. -Caitlin Meyer

10. Drake – Take Care

Hip-hop’s a jungle full of bloodthirsty lions decked out in diamonds and looking for their next target. But suddenly a young lion emerges into a clearing: Drake. While his counterparts are all about pure thuggery and bragging ad infinitum, Drake’s sophomore LP changes the landscape with heartfelt, emotional confessions of lost love and personal inadequacies.

From the baller anthem of “Headlines” to the drunken loneliness and outbursts in “Marvin’s Room”, Take Care is Drizzy’s declaration of his own shortcomings in the middle of a white-hot ride up the charts, a spellbinding narrative if there ever was one. Drake has taken the work of his first, slightly disappointing record and shown himself to now fully understand the delicate balancing act he must endeavor. In essence, Drake has rewritten the rules of the rap game, adding much-needed depth to the swagger contest of modern verse slangin’. All hail the new king of the jungle. -Chris Coplan

9. Destroyer – Kaputt

According to Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar, Kaputt‘s coke rock aesthetic was never intentional. There was no irony, no hidden homage to Roxy Music and latter-day Steely Dan as many music fans and critics thought. It was just how he heard the songs. Whether you believe that insistence or not, the album’s enchanting mood and charismatic weirdness are undeniable. Bejar’s time-traveling tales of cryptic romance and doomed nightlife are laced with electronic drums, smooth jazz flute, and dreamy saxophone, the sonic equivalent to a Thomas Pynchon novel viewed through the glitzy fracture of a disco ball.

Opener “Chinatown” wraps the listener in the record’s world of slowly dying neon, the title track flits back and forth between what’s more appealing, cocaine or women (the band never bothers to decide), and album centerpiece “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker” escorts us through 400 years of the American party scene by way of a brown paper bag. The lyrics are impenetrable, and none of it probably ever happened, but that doesn’t keep us from feeling like we were there. -Dan Caffrey

8. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

It’s rare to make music that people have never heard before; but on w h o k i l l, tUnE-yArDs have done just that, combining ancient African musical traditions like polyrhythms with looping and other modern technologies. More importantly, with songs like the irresistibly anthemic “Bizness”, Merrill Garbus has expanded from a blog-cherished eccentricity to a universal must-see. Her arrangement of two saxophonists, a bassist, and her own vocal and percussive instrumentation has rarely, if ever, been seen in music history. Not only that, her husky, yet lilting, squawk—which veers from eerie on “Wooly Wolly Gong” to famously siren-imitating on “Gangsta”—demonstrates noteworthy versatility.

With w h o k i l l, Garbus has ascended to the ranks of groundbreaking female artists like Lauryn Hill and MC Lyte, whom she emulates on “Doorstep” and “Killa”, respectively. Like other female artistic idol Bjork, she uses her voice nontraditionally, at times to convey a political message (i.e. call-and-response loops that sound like monkeys, singing the lyrics to “America”, on “My Country). Despite all this ground she’s covered, Garbus continues to challenge herself like on “You Yes You”, when she asks, “What’s that about?” when she starts to sing about personal satisfaction and, thus, perhaps complacency. Songs like the atonal, stop-and-start “Es-so” exemplify w h o k i l l’s aural challenge because it sounds more pleasing with each listen, challenging the listener to meet Garbus on her level instead of vice versa. And, ultimately, the effort is worth it. -Harley Brown

7. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

With Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 set out to capture the stuff that dreams are made of – and succeed. This is nothing new in the world of dream pop and electronica, but M83′s ability to distil childhood longing and teenage nostalgia into spirit lifting, anthemic, synth opuses is second to none. He captures it. If you were a dreamy kid, adventuring at night, and trying to live out your dreams in the day – these songs crystallize that special feeling, that certain time, that tragic, beautiful, ever-fleeing youth. It’s an incredible thing to put on some headphones, curl up in bed, and go back.

Picking up where Saturdays = Youth left off, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming‘s sound matures while its subject matter remains in the same vein. That said, this is not a repeat performance. Anchored by far more analog instruments, and a thematic concept that spans two discs, M83 uses the space he’s created to its fullest with both gripping singles like “Midnight City” and affecting, transcendental instrumentals and interludes. “Claudia Lewis” recaptures the lavish art pop production of the ’80s and lovingly reinstates it as the ideal sound for rooftop dancefloors. “New Map” couples epic modern synth tracks with a smooth 70′s flute and sax arrangement for an exciting new sonic experience. With Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 has proven himself as the most exciting electropop act of the current age – a musical mind inevitably looking back, but always pushing forward. -Cap Blackard

6. James Blake – James Blake

It’s almost hard to remember the pre-Bon Iver owl hoot collaboration days of James Blake, but believe it or not the debut album that took the blogwaves by storm is less than a year old. James Blake is the London post-dubstep singer-songwriter at his most consistent and most focused, with not a misstep to be found through 11 tracks. It’s easy to write Blake off as a one-trick pony if one merely samples a song or two, but this album is so far above that that the criticism is criminally uncalled for.

James Blake isn’t a conceptual journey, but, sonically, each track offers something not heard in the track preceding it. Whether it’s full-on dubstep throbbing as on “I Never Learnt to Share”, straightforward, soulful piano balladry as on “Give Me My Month”, or vocal manipulation and sampling as on “To Care (Like You)”, Blake’s first and so far only full-length album holds the listener’s attention despite being chock-full of unabashed minimalism. It’s not just an extended experiment in fun new sounds, however. There are sing-along moments aplenty, from the Feist cover “Limit to Your Love” to the hook-heavy “The Wilhelm Scream” and sentimental album closer “Measurements”. If Blake has set the bar so high here that he never matches it, that’s one thing, but it cannot be justly denied that the bar is nonetheless high and worthy of all the shameless imitation it will inspire. -J. Harry Painter

5. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

Badass pop-rock is back, and Dave Grohl is driving the truck. Two things (other than being led by a Nirvana alum) have made Foo Fighters wildly successful for almost 20 years: an acute pop sensibility and a goofy sense of humor. They’re both present on Wasting Light, but there’s something even more important: a thrashing, hard rock attitude and sound that kicks you in the face and makes you want more. Part of this is due to the much lauded return to analog recording on this album, and the garage band sound is quite literal, since it was recorded in Grohl’s garage-cum-studio.

Grohl’s expertly crafted melodies are much more lyrical than a typical hard rock song, but from the opening dissonant strumming of “Bridge Burning”, it’s clear that the Foo Fighters are returning to some of the grungy-ness of that early ’90s alternative sound. Amidst the tight vocal harmonies of “Dear Rosemary” or the power ballad “I Should Have Known” or the über-poppy “Arlandria”, Foo Fighters deliver a bona fide metal track in “White Limo”, with Grohl’s screaming vocals and a heavy chromatic guitar riff. No wonder they put Lemmy in the video. When Grohl said, “never lose faith in real rock and roll music” at this year’s VMAs, this was the sound he meant. -Jake Cohen

4. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

On her ambitious eighth album, PJ Harvey crafts a lush ode to her homeland that is brutal and uplifting, admonitory and exalting. Through evocations of The Great War (WWI) and other conflicts, Let England Shake paints an achingly beautiful picture of a country built on the lives of young soldiers and broken promises, simultaneously praising its glory while lamenting its modern stagnation and bloody history. A polarity of sentiment, grandiose without the pretense, explores the conflict of patriotic love (“The Last Living Rose”) with sociopolitical dissatisfaction (“England”).

The poetic resonance is breathtaking, and Harvey makes you feel it. Her voice, flooded with emotion, soars and swirls amidst autoharps and horns, creating a sonic landscape unlike anything she’s done before. It’s strikingly passionate, with a hauntingly marching momentum that pulls you in to her tales of war and hope. The sound is bolstered by recording in a repurposed church, adding a hallowed echo perfectly suited to the subject. Its success is immutable; the album nabbed this year’s Mercury Prize, making PJ Harvey the first artist ever to receive the distinction twice. Though the music and lyrics give strong grounds to call this album an all-time great, the honors bestowed on it cement its place in the annals of musical, nay, artistic masterpieces. -Benjamin Kaye

3. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

2. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Justin Vernon is out of the cabin. With Bon Iver he begins his return to civilization, now accompanied by throngs of sensitive fans and new street-cred courtesy of Kanye West. On this journey, Vernon could have followed the blueprint of For Emma, Forever Ago: churn out new songs dominated by an acoustic guitar and stripped-down production. However, he opted to go in a new direction with a fleshed-out, proper band and Bruce Hornsby as a muse.

Bon Iver needs to be heard in order from beginning to end, as most great albums do. The deceiving hush in the opening moments of “Perth” begins the journey to “Beth/Rest”, a synth-driven, kitchen-sink track with a guitar solo straight out of A Momentary Lapse of Reason that still polarizes fans months after its release. But that’s the beauty of Vernon’s risk-taking throughout the album. He didn’t rest on his laurels and create For Emma: Vol. 2. If anything, he created Bon Iver Mach 2, now with saxophones. The inclusion of the best song of the year, the gorgeous acceptance found within “Holocene”, didn’t hurt the album’s placing as our second-favorite album of the year, either. -Justin Gerber

1. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

“He thought there was going to be so much—more than he had ever dreamed possible… instead there was absolutely nothing.” It’s a line that sounds stripped from the best of Annie Clark’s songs; except that it isn’t. It belongs to Marilyn Monroe, in one of her diaries that dates back to April 1955. But how tragic, and how intimate, is that? Here’s Monroe, one of the most widely sought after figures in the history of pop culture, digressing on the fear of disappointment, especially to a loved one. It’s a recurring element in much of her personal writings. It’s also one of the driving motivations for Clark’s best work to date, Strange Mercy.

“Oh America, can I owe you one,” Clark laments by album’s end on “Year of the Tiger”. It’s one of the most poignant and culturally relevant tracks of the year–a bombastic herald to the States’ end times, when capitalistic whores die at the hands of coffee makers. What bitter, insightful precision. Look to your town squares, your universities, your banks, and your financial districts. It’s a mercurial year for Americans. The track’s sort of wavy, lazy distortion exemplifies that. We’re wary of the errors, we’re indignant of our culture, and we’re starting to wake up.

But there’s a deeper sense of self-awareness that Clark exhibits here. It goes back to Monroe. She hints that, despite the culture’s pre-conceived notion that all is equal, it’s anything but that. People scoff at the misogynistic, heavily racial days of Mad Men every Sunday (y’know, when it returns), but it’s not too far off today. It’s still, in many ways, a man’s world, and Clark underscores this error. On “Surgeon”, she cries out how she “spent another summer on [her] back” and of things that let her “get along, get along,” and later on the title track, she insists she’ll remain by her “lost boys.” This idea couldn’t be any more boldly stated than on “Cheerleader”, where she calls members in her family “honest thieves,” chalking it up to an America “with no clothes on.” So, why stay? As she suggests later into the album on “Champagne Year”, “it’s not the perfect plan, but it’s the one we got.”

It’s dense, morose stuff, though you wouldn’t really notice. Clark has spent far too much time etching out adventurous rhythms, crossbreeding genres in each track; you’d be remiss to even acknowledge some of its lyrical madness. It’s a delightful listen with a foreboding underbelly, if you will. Take the transition from funky treading to its synth-laden baths at the end of “Dilettante”, for instance. That’s the sort of stuff a guru carves out. But, Clark proves worthy of that title earlier on (if she hadn’t via 2009′s Actor) with “Cruel”, this year’s most attractive pop song with the most invaluable question of ‘em all: “How could they be casually cruel?” Is she being rhetorical, or does she desire an answer? Hopefully the former, because quite pathetically nobody has the answer. Christ, what does that say about us? -Michael Roffman

50. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
49. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
48. Astronautalis – This is Our Science
47. Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
46. Summer Camp – Welcome to Condale
45. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne
44. Yuck – Yuck
43. Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin
42. Kendrick Lamar – Section .80
41. Washed Out – Within & Without
40. The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
39. Danny Brown – XXX
38. Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
37. Real Estate – Days
36. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
35. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
34. Adele – 21
33. Cut Copy – Zonoscope
32. Gotye – Making Mirrors
31. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
30. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
29. The Men – Leave Home
28. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
27. Childish Gambino – Camp
26. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
25. Panda Bear – Tomboy
24. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
23. The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
22. Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse
21. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
20. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
19. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
18. Atlas Sound – Parallax
17. The Horrors – Skying
16. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
15. Radiohead – The King of Limbs
14. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
13. Beyoncé – 4
12. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
11. The Antlers – Burst Apart
10. Drake – Take Care
09. Destroyer – Kaputt
08. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
07. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
06. James Blake – James Blake
05. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
04. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
03. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
02. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
01. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

Music videos accomplish what has never been done before in the history of media: They make experimentation a commercial enterprise. They afford musicians, filmmakers, and multimedia artists the chance to have their craziest ideas not only produced, but shown to a large audience. What’s more, in the age of Internet video, indie productions are now on equal footing with million-dollar productions. There’s no visual medium more diverse or creative than music videos. Thirty years after the launch of MTV, the format is not only alive and well, but it’s matured, expanded, and become a part of our global culture. When The Beatles, and later Mike Nesmith, laid the foundation for what we’d come to know as a music video, could they possibly have known how big this concept would become?

The prevalence of online video has changed the way we watch movies, television… everything really. It’s not just the revolution that’s televised, but cute animals, skate tricks, accidents, celebrations, millions of memes in the making, and amidst all this chaos, brilliant, fun, and mind-altering visual art. On 1/11/11, we unveiled Cluster 1, a sister site to Consequence of Sound dedicated to filtering out the schlock and giving you only the best short films, animation, docs, and since we’re CoS, a ton of amazing music videos. In just under a year, we’ve posted over 1,000 of them, all handpicked.

Now, it comes to the task of choosing 25 of the best videos we’ve seen all year. These aren’t just the ones that moved us, blew our minds, or made us lol, but a selection embodying the year in videos. Fancy dancin’ Thom Yorke memed his way across the internet, Beyoncé changed outfits like a kerjillion times, Gaga became a man and a fish and then checked into a fashionable mental institution, and while those mega-stars shook the world at large, countless others were wowing the small screen, trending through Tumblr, and becoming secret sensations. We’ve got indie sci-fi from Russia, the most awe-inspiring NSFW video you’ve ever seen, demonic puppets, ’90s sitcom parodies, and so, so, so much more. This was a good year.

Each and every one of these videos is incredible. We hope you’re prepared. Just click forward. An audiovisual onslaught awaits you.

-Cap Blackard
Art Director/Executive Producer, Cluster 1

25. Gentlemen Drivers – “Valdor”

Catchy songs aren’t a problem for French electropop collective Gentlemen Drivers; party-thumping single “Valdor” certainly fits into that category. Its video, however, is a different breed beast. Think Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”, only set within a fake sitcom and featuring a Thanksgiving turkey that mutilates humans. Over the years, the Internet has stripped “bizarre” of its power. But sometimes, and this is rare, its true meaning bleeds through – literally and metaphorically, come to think of it. Here’s one such example. -Ted Maider

Director: Allen Cordell

24. Battles feat. Gary Numan - ”My Machines”

The Creators Project is a high-concept art initiative that’s been turning heads in the industry. So, when they decided to take on the music video for Battles’ “My Machines” and include guest vocalist Gary Numan, it was guaranteed to be an event. They didn’t disappoint. The video takes a thoughtless everyday activity (a man heads up an escalator with groceries) and combines it with an all-too-human fear of machines. Just what happens when an on/off switch doesn’t work? Who or what are we at the mercy of? As the horrific eye candy proceeds, the electronically driven rock of Battles adds to the impact and drama. With its slick look and clinical, high-contrast shooting style, “My Machines” leaves the viewer with a sense of unease and one incorrigible thought: Perhaps machines have more of an upper hand than we’d like to give them credit for. Creepy. -Karina Halle

Director: Daniels

23. Skrillex – “First of the Year (Equinox)”

There’s a skill in building up and destroying atmospheres. For Skrillex, it’s commonplace. In the Tony Truand-directed video for “First of the Year (Equinox)”, a similar feat is accomplished. What starts out as a creepy snapshot of pedophilia ends with something else entirely. As the dubstep artist shakes up the track, the music video does the same, reversing everything you thought might happen in seconds. In a word: sinister. In two words: very fitting. -Joe Marvilli

Director: Tony Truand

22. Com Truise – “Brokendate”

Will Joines directs this Blade Runner-esque film for Com Truise’s “Brokendate”, setting Seth Haley’s relentless, pulsating analog synths into Joines’s dystopian futurescape. This clip is dripping in nostalgia. In five minutes, Joines references a number of cinematic legacies from decades past—80s trench coat heroes, TRON-like retro-futurism, and VHS aesthetics—in his own neon-soaked noir, which casts the New Jersey producer as a shades-wearing, cigar-smoking, villainous mastermind. Cyber babes in dark lipstick wielding (quasi) threatening laser guns, glowing, wireframe pyramids on massive mainframes, dead bodies left to rot on the sidewalk—seems like the perfect visual corollary to Com Truise’s hazy synth odyssey. -Lainna Fader

Director: Will Joines

21. Rammstein – “Mein Land”

Industrial metal isn’t exactly a genre known for its sense of humor. Rammstein is the rare exception. For the release of their greatest hits LP, Made in Germany 1995-2011, the band members shuffled their cards once again, showing their playful side in “Mein Land”. The party kicks off in 1964 with the group engaging in a hilarious Beach Boys parody. There’s surfing, dancing, and even a Baywatch moment for singer Till Lindemann. Hands down the best juxtaposition of the year.  -Joe Marvilli

Director: Jonas Åkerlund

20. Biting Elbows – “The Stampede”

Music videos don’t always have to be rich with meaning (or girls with large posteriors). Sometimes, they can be silly and meaningless and still make an impact. Biting Elbows’ clip for “The Stampede”, simply titled “Insane Office Escape”, gained global attention for its minimalistic, yet genius, plot: Dude steals something from work, kicks heaps of ass to get out of said office, and finally makes his escape by, drumroll, magic. It’s stocked with over-the-top action, bad karate, and tongue-in-cheek humor galore. It’s the kind of fun, goofball clip that undoubtedly got some of us into music videos in the first place. Plus, who wouldn’t want to dropkick their boss in the neck some day? -Chris Coplan

Director: Ilya Naishuller

19. Polinski feat. Big Black Delta - “Stitches”

65daysofstatic’s Paul Wolinski knows how to make a splash with a solo record. As Polinski, his first solo record, Labyrinths, was preempted by one hell of a video for “Stitches”. Directed by Caspar and Josiah Newbolt with pixel art by John DeLucca, “Stitches” is an homage to the text-based video game adventures of yore… with a little bit of David Lynch thrown in, maybe even some Cronenberg. It’s a sci-fi detective story told in moody pixelated images and scrolling text. But “Stitches” doesn’t just take you into an old-school computer game; it takes you into the living room with Polinski. The entire video is framed in a television set, and the entire time, oh so very subtly, you can see Polinski playing the game in the reflection of the screen. It doesn’t get much cooler than this; it was our pleasure to unleash this video on the world. -Cap Blackard

Directors: Caspar Newbolt and Josiah Newbolt

18. Kate Bush – “Deeper Understanding”

At first glance, Kate Bush’s video for “Deeper Understanding” is rather off-putting. Why would someone with her profound wit shoot a near-literal interpretation of the track’s lyrics? Simple, to ease the viewer in. Bush directs this intimate, voyeuristic affair, working with sly camera work and quasi-realistic tones that offer this artificial, detached aesthetic. Themes of loneliness and connectivity run rampant here, focusing directly on the crossroads of technology and social interaction. Perhaps this video is so affecting because there’s so much to empathize with here. Pretty timely stuff. -Chris Coplan

Director: Kate Bush

17. Radiohead – “Lotus Flower”

People expect any new Radiohead album to be a game changer. We are to listen and contemplate Radiohead; we must understand the music. Yet, in the video for “Lotus Flower”, Thom Yorke reminds us that rock music is Dionysian rather than Apollonian, that he wants us to dance to his music. No longer the introverted auteur, Yorke shows a different side in a wild, unbridled, completely un-self-conscious celebration of the body. To all the young and hip kids who stand at a rock club leg-locked, take Yorke’s advice: It’s OK to dance. “Lotus Flower” also reinforces a frequent criticism of The King of Limbs: It sounds too much like a Yorke solo album. There is no band in this video. But Yorke has clearly amassed enough cultural capital to make a black-and-white video of him dancing in a warehouse, and it’s one of the year’s best. -Jake Cohen

Director: Garth Jennings

16. Miles Fisher – “New Romance”

If you grew up in the early ’90s, the first few seconds of Miles Fishers’ “New Romance” will be a delight. Its sublime parody of Saved by the Bell almost warrants a spot on this list by itself. But the fun doesn’t end there. While the fashion and styles may be retro, there’s a sick sense of dark humor underneath the bright colors. Directed by Dave Green, the whole thing feels like the next Final Destination entry, only seen through the eyes of John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray). Not exactly your average afternoon special, but who doesn’t love chaos? Plenty here. -Joe Marvilli

Director: Dave Green

15. Is Tropical – “The Greeks”

Kids say the darndest things. These days they also do the darndest things. Is Tropical’s video for “The Greeks” takes this idea to another level. In this Tarantino-esque clip, a neighborhood game of cops and robbers goes awry. Drug trafficking, torture, and terrorism follow, and it becomes apparent that the video is posing an important question for us to answer: What is the world preparing our youth for? “You only get what you give away,” as the song’s mantra goes. So true. While altogether a darkly comical video on the corruption of youth, it’s also a brilliant display of the power of imagination. Yikes. What does that say about us? -Summer Dunsmore

Director: Megaforce

14. Evelyn Evelyn – “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn”

Despite a 100-year-long history of differing techniques, animation is still one of the most innovative fields in film today. The latest example is director Hoku Uchiyama’s groundbreaking video for Evelyn Evelyn. A cartoon image is drawn by the duo into a fogged-up glass window. From there, the visuals come alive and move through the panes, creating the story provided by the song’s lyrics. While it looks like the work could have been done on a laptop, the condensation is real. It took a few trials to get the lighting right, but the result is well worth any trouble. Innovative, outside the box, and just a little bit weird? Sounds like Evelyn Evelyn to us. -Joe Marvilli

Director: Hoku Uchiyama

13. Manchester Orchestra – “Simple Math”

They say life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die, and this autumn car accident depicted here may be the best representation of that. A tumultuous past spinning in and out of reality with just enough time to recollect moments that matter. These loopy camera shots and mumble-core (tumble-core?) lip-synching add a unique and memorable flair to this heartfelt trip through Andy Hull’s past. -Jeremy D. Larson

Director: Daniels

12. UNKLE feat. Nick Cave -  “Money and Run”

Rich men behave badly in UNKLE’s “Money and Run” video. Director Tom Haines mixes scenes of humor with horror in this short study of upper-class umbrage, from a tennis game gone wrong to vicious beatings in the street. Of all the violent vignettes, none is more strangely terrifying than the scene where a bare-assed man torments a cowering girl while wearing a Margaret Thatcher mask. Unsettling as they may be, they’re  disturbingly perfect visuals for Nick Cave’s urgent guest vocals. -Austin Trunick

Director: Tom Haines

11. Lady Gaga – “Marry the Night”

For the past two years, the music industry has dropped their jaws at Lady Gaga’s Alexander McQueen-shaped decadence, and that fascination has hardly subsided. With her 13-minute directorial effort, “Marry the Night”, Gaga assembled one of the most pretentious and over-sensationalized videos in recent memory. But, it wasn’t like she didn’t warn everyone. Prior to its release, Gaga told MTV, “This will be the longest video I’ve released to date… the beginning of the story I never told you.” In her mind, this untold story would be that of rejection, at least that’s what she told Alan Carr. It’s never that easy for pop stars, though. Instead, the video ended up being a metafictional parody of herself. Between the narration, the obvious aping of Madonna’s Desperately Seeking Susan, and the dolled-up dreams of a fashionista, Gaga assumes the role of the headline-grabbing drama queen. Here’s the question, though: Was this all intentional? Is this sensationalism intuitive? If so, it’s a pretty smart move on her part. It sort of harkens back to the early days of Eminem’s career, where he was so self-deprecating and self-aware that nobody could touch him. What’s there to even say? Checkmate, we guess. -Michael Roffman

Director: Lady Gaga

10. Fleet Foxes – “The Shrine/An Argument”

If you’re after a literal exposition of “The Shrine/An Argument”, you won’t find it in this video. Rather it’s a story in itself set to music that picks up on some of the song’s lyrical content but echoes more of its rhythms and cadences. The transitions in the song are expertly accentuated by rises and falls in the video narrative. The stop-motion animation technique used by director and co-animator Sean Pecknold (singer Robyn’s brother) lends a curious motion to the central stag-like character on his life-to-death journey. Think a slowed-down Mario in a video game. The film manages to be simultaneously heartwarming and unnerving, rich colors and surreal sunlight offering comfort bridged by a fear of global meltdown. It balances the beauty of nature with its raw bestiality alongside oddly homely, yet nightmarish, monsters. Form and content have rarely been better bedfellows in a music video. -Tony Hardy

Director: Sean Pecknold

9. Warm Ghost – “Open the Wormhole in Your Heart”

The directing team of Brandon LaGanke and John Carlucci at Holy Cow Films, along with Warm Ghost, present the human body as you’ve never seen it before. Think about this: Throughout art history, there is perhaps nothing that’s been so constant as observation of the human form. Despite all that time and all possible mediums, “Open the Worm Hole in Your Heart” offers something profoundly unique. It’s explicit, it’s chic, it’s powerful. Nude male and female bodies crawl, slide, and writhe over glass, distorting their shapes and textures. Oftentimes, you won’t be sure what body part you’re even looking at. Mix in some bubbling, black-lit neon liquids and the images meld together into a sensual human kaleidoscope. This year, Warm Ghost not only made a splash as an up-and-coming electronic act (e.g. their first full-length, Narrows, and performing at Moogfest) but also served as the progenitors of one of 2011′s first landmark videos. -Cap Blackard

Directors: Brandon LaGanke and John Carlucci

8. Beastie Boys – “Make Some Noise”

It may not be to music videos what The Godfather Part II is to film, but “Make Some Noise” is about as clever as it gets for a 25-years-after-the-fact sequel. In case you’ve been cruising through time in your Back to the Future-immortalized DeLorean, it’s the continuation of the Beastie Boys’ apartment party-crashing MTV classic “Fight for Your Right”. But what makes it immediately stand out as one of the top videos of 2011 are all the cameo appearances, none of whom are manufactured reality stars looking to extend their 15 minutes of fame. “Make Some Noise” is a nonstop parade of A-listers who you genuinely wanted to be part of a humorous tribute to three formerly raucous and immature MC’s who are now the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. That or director Nathanial Hörnblowér must have a lot of incriminating photos. -Gilles LeBlanc

Director: MCA

7. OK Go – “All Is Not Lost”

Ever since running onto the scene on a bunch of treadmills back in 2006 (and winning a Grammy), OK Go have become renowned for their consistently quirky, inventive, and downright cool music videos. As well as the continuous shot and time-lapse, they’ve mastered the art of the Internet, using sites like YouTube to their fullest advantage. The clip for “All Is Not Lost” takes things to the next level by inviting user input to add a personal touch. The impeccably choreographed homemade kaleidoscope effect is impressive, but when viewed on Google Chrome, your own message can be added to the final scenes. What’s more, you can watch the messages of other viewers around the world for a truly international video experience. This one is also up for a Grammy, and should it win, it could give a whole new level of credence to the digital age. -Benjamin Kaye

Director: Trish Sie

6. Childish Gambino – “Bonfire”

Though his lyrics may be littered with witty obscenities and outlandish “too-soon” jokes (case in point: “Made the beat and murdered it, Casey Anthony”), Childish Gambino’s stellar new record, Camp, also grapples with the seriousness of racial identity in modern society. The “Bonfire” video, through its dark mise-en-scene, frenetic editing, and nightmarish plot, provides an art house glimpse into the warped current state of racial affairs, while offering a visceral commentary on America’s tumultuous past concerning these issues. Director Dan Eckman tastefully does so without being preachy, and Glover’s performance is strikingly convincing. At the end of the day, the video is a thought-provoking counterpart to a sometimes-ridiculous song, an emphatic aesthetic success, and yet another demonstration of Donald Glover’s unfaltering creative genius. -Caitlin Meyer

Director: Dan Eckman

5. Destroyer – “Kaputt”

Unlike past Destroyer releases, Dan Bejar’s Kaputt revved up everyone’s libidos and amplified our subconscious desire for seductive disco-jazz. Fittingly, the surreal ’80s-like visuals for the title track leave you feeling like you’re “chasing cocaine through the backrooms of the world all night.” Such images as a geeky computer nerd, an inexplicable flying whale, steamy Jazzercise dancers, and the cheesy choreography of desert dancers are key elements that lend a self-aware sense of humor to the fantastical world conveyed by director Dawn Garcia. And, just like the music videos of the ’80s, there’s no real, deep, hidden meaning to all of this. Indeed, “It all sounds like a dream to me.” -Brittany Flynn

Director: Dawn Garcia

4. Beyoncé – “Countdown”

With the video for “Countdown”, Beyoncé proves once again that even though she’s beyond successful in life, love, and career, it’s impossible to hate her. The flawless makeup and choreography coupled (yes, that was intentional) with calculatedly goofy facial expressions and dancing maintain the tenuous balance between idol Sasha Fierce and Bey, the girl next door. It proves to her audience that even though Beyoncé is rapidly ascending the celebrity ladder to an almost untouchable height, she’s just like any other girl who secretly wants to be Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face. Furthermore, “Countdown”’s brightly colored American Apparel wardrobe and hip warehouse space—which are constantly advertised on our televisions, billboards, and Internet windows—along with the recently released Live at Roseland DVD package Beyoncé as an affordable lifestyle choice. And it works because you’re too busy trying to peep Bey’s baby bump to pay attention to the video’s subliminal advertising. -Harley Brown

Director: Adria Petty

3. St. Vincent – “Cruel”

Throughout her career as St. Vincent, Annie Clark has played with concepts of control and chaos, whether that means erupting into feedback-y guitar solos in the middle of a sharply orchestrated tune or, as in this video, playing such a solo while bound and gagged in the trunk of a sedan. Another familiar Clark topic is the flimsiness of gender roles, seen here as being kidnapped into suburban housewife-dom and eventually being buried alive. Throughout all the highbrow conceptualizing and dirt pileup, Clark remains cool, confident, stylishly dressed, and always ready to rock. The murderous, bespectacled, besweatered family seems like something out of a Wes Anderson nightmare, and Clark’s frazzled looks into the camera scream well-intentioned. The repeated, spinning camera shots of her backyard burial spliced with all of the should-be-wholesome weirdness makes this claustrophobic analysis of “normal” family life a perfect fit with Strange Mercy‘s combination of wit, austere beauty, and intricate simplicity. -Adam Kivel

Director: Terri Timely

2. Foo Fighters – “Walk”

No strangers to penning uplifting rock tunes, Foo Fighters buttoned up their latest LP, Wasting Light, with high hopes on sentimental closing track “Walk”. True to the Foo’s style, the group issued a silly pop video that’s become trademark for them (see: “Big Me”, “Learn to Fly”, this year’s “White Limo”). But, the video for “Walk” came off rather cinematic. Director Sam Jones parodies Joel Schumacher’s 90′s relic Falling Down, with Dave Grohl subbing for Michael Douglas’s iconic role. Anyone familiar with Grohl knows he’s hardly the serious type, and this video only adds to his comedic resume. As the Douglas character, Grohl struggles with an engulfing city — everything from messy traffic jams to pedantic employees. So, he goes nuts. Throughout, Grohl pummels people, he throws tantrums, and he even runs someone over with a golf cart. Blame it on the track, but there’s something oddly cathartic about it. It’s a hilarious escape. “Rock ‘n’ roll is a lifestyle and a way of thinking,” Jason Lee’s character says in Almost Famous. “But it’s a voice that says, ‘Here I am… and fuck you if you can’t understand me.’” That’s fully exemplified here. - David Buchanan

Director: Sam Jones

1. Tyler, The Creator – “Yonkers”

As Tyler, The Creator raps, “Yonkers dropped and left them craniums mind-fucked.” Why? For some time now, rap videos haven’t been a representation of an artist, but more or less the products that sponsor them. Until 2011, the year OFWGKTA’s ruthless leader became prince of hip-hop, notorious rap videos flaunted the latest from Gucci and Cristal. They served not as an extension of an artist’s personality, but an obnoxious commercial. Then Tyler, The Creator informed us, “Fuck money, diamonds, and bitches/Don’t need them” in what became the most intriguing music video of 2011. Rather than popping champagne, Tyler exposed the true Odd Future swag that is pure, unadulterated evil. But no longer was rap about the rich man; this video was self-made and posted on Tyler’s YouTube account. It launched the group into success and proved something millions of people tend to believe: The Internet can make you a star. View Count: 31,811,321. Just an FYI. -Ted Maider

Director: Tyler, the Creator

One second. Sometimes that’s all a photographer gets – and hardly in ideal conditions. At worst (and most likely), a photographer may be squeezed between 15 others in the pit, mere feet away from pyrotechnics, finding support from stress-rattled knees, while focusing on a spastic frontman and sheltering oneself from a downpour, which may or may not involve a hailstorm. Truth: A great photographer handles the unenviable task of capturing that one moment everyone goes home thinking about. Half-truth: There’s probably a statistic somewhere that discusses what the job does to the heart. If not, there should be a study. Double-truth: It’s just a sweaty, life-threatening task.

Hi, I’m Michael Roffman, President and Editor-in-Chief of Consequence of Sound. You may know me from such stories as “Look Out! The Gaslight Anthem is Coming!” or “Scratch that… Brian Wilson is not returning to The Beach Boys.” This year, I sent out dozens of writers and photographers to hundreds of shows and just about every major music festival this side of the Atlantic (some even overseas). Without a doubt, our eyes were everywhere.

More specifically, our photographers’ multiple weighty lenses. In the past 12 months, we’ve published countless, fully-stocked galleries, featuring some of the most awe-inspiring shots on the ‘net, all thanks to our brave and inordinately talented photographers. Actually, that’s an understatement. These artists bleed talent – to get somewhat histrionic. Look, we value words, but as Fred R. Barnard so famously wrote, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Cliche, but you spend over four years putting these live and festival reviews together. You’ll quickly see how true that statement is. To date, I still feel like I’ve attended Bonnaroo.*

For our annual report, we put together our 100 favorite photos of the year. Lots of colors, lots of locales, and plenty of popular mugs to savor. So, throw on some tunes, grab a bag of chips, and enjoy the trip. You’ll go places, kiddo.

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief

* Would never happen. This guy in mud? Nah.

Weezer

Event: Weezer at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom
Date: 1/7/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

The Walkmen

Event: The Walkmen at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse
Date: 1/13/2011
Photographer: Max Blau

Girl Talk

Event: Girl Talk at Atlanta’s Tabernacle
Date: 1/21/2011
Photographer: Max Blau

Sad Brad Smith

Event: Sad Brad Smith at Chicago’s Schubas Tavern
Date: 1/23/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

The Church

Event: The Church at Chicago’s Park West
Date: 2/11/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Robyn

Event: Robyn at Chicago’s The Riviera Theatre
Date: 2/14/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

The Dismemberment Plan

Event: The Dismemberment Plan at Chicago’s Metro
Date: 2/19/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Ben Kweller

Event: Ben Kweller at Chicago’s Vic Theatre
Date: 2/23/2011
Photographer: Joshua Mellin

Bright Eyes

Event: Bright Eyes at Miami’s The Fillmore
Date: 3/2/2011
Photographer: Lauren Guagno

Raphael Saadiq

Event: Raphael Saadiq at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Baby Headphones

Event: SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Owen Pallett

Event: Owen Pallett at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

The Strokes

Event: The Strokes at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

The Kills

Event: The Kills at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

TV on the Radio w/ Yo Gabba Gabba!

Event: TV on the Radio w/ Yo Gabba Gabba! at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Matt & Kim

Event: Matt & Kim at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Odd Future

Event: Odd Future at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Odd Future

Event: Odd Future at SXSW 2011
Date: 3/16-20/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Hollerado

Event: Hollerado at Axis of Audio Showcase: SXSW 2011
Date: 3/19/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Astronautalis

Event: Astronautalis (& Four Fists) at Axis of Audio Showcase: SXSW 2011
Date: 3/19/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

P.O.S.

Event: P.O.S. at Paid Dues Festival 2011
Date: 4/2/2011
Photographer: Winston Robbins

The Mountain Goats

Event: The Mountain Goats at Chicago’s Vic Theatre
Date: 4/5/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Queens of the Stone Age

Event: Queens of the Stone Age at Oakland’s Fox Theatre
Date: 4/11/2011
Photographer: Karina Halle

The Strokes

Event: The Strokes at Coachella 2011
Date: 4/15-17/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

Kanye West

Event: Kanye West at Coachella 2011
Date: 4/15-17/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

The National

Event: The National, Arcade Fire at Chicago’s UIC Pavillion
Date: 4/24/2011
Photographer: Lauren Guagno

Arcade Fire

Event: The National, Arcade Fire at Chicago’s UIC Pavillion
Date: 4/24/2011
Photographer: Lauren Guagno

Battles

Event: Battles at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall
Date: 4/30/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

tUnE-yArDs

Event: tUnE-yArDs at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall
Date: 5/10/2011
Photographer: Wallo Villacorta

Lykke Li

Event: Lykke Li at Chicago’s Metro
Date: 5/23/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

The Gorge

Event: Sasquatch! 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Death From Above 1979

Event: Death From Above 1979 at Sasquatch! 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Robyn

Event: Robyn at Sasquatch 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Fitz and the Tantrums

Event: Fitz and the Tantrums at Sasquatch! 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

The Flaming Lips

Event: The Flaming Lips at Sasquatch! 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

The Decemberists

Event: Sasquatch! 2011
Date: 5/27-30/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Melvins

Event: Melvins at Chicago’s Double Door
Date: 5/31/2011
Photographer: Katie Schuering

Bonnaroo Fan

Event: Bonnaroo 2011
Date: 6/9-12/2011
Photographer: Ben Kaye

Buffalo Springfield

Event: Buffalo Springfield at Bonnaroo 2011
Date: 6/9-12/2011
Photographer: Max Blau

Eminem

Event: Eminem at Bonnaroo 2011
Date: 6/9-12/2011
Photographer: Max Blau

Future Islands

Event: Future Islands at Chicago’s Subterranean
Date: 6/15/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Florence + the Machine

Event: Florence + the Machine at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom
Date: 6/18/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Glastonbury

Event: Glastonbury 2011
Date: 6/22-26/2011
Photographer: Laura Page

Eddie Vedder w/ Glen Hansard

Event: Eddie Vedder at The Chicago Theatre
Date: 6/28/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Phish Heads

Event: Phish Super Ball IX
Date: 7/1-3/2011
Photographer: Jake Cohen

Fucked Up

Event: Fucked Up at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall
Date: 7/2/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

Cold Cave

Event: Cold Cave at Pitchfork 2011
Date: 7/15-17/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

OFF!

Event: OFF! at Pitchfork 2011
Date: 7/15-17/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Event: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti at Pitchfork 2011
Date: 7/15-17/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

tUnE-yArDs

Event: tUnE-yArDs at Pitchfork 2011
Date: 7/15-17/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Fleet Foxes

Event: Fleet Foxes at Pitchfork 2011
Date: 7/15-17/2011
Photographer: Meghan Brosnan

Soundgarden

Event: Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, Mastodon at Washington’s Gorge Amphitheater
Date: 7/30/2011
Photographer: Karina Halle

Paul McCartney

Event: Paul McCartney at Chicago’s Wrigley Field
Date: 7/31/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Lolla Chicago

Event: Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Le Butcherettes

Event: Le Butcherettes at Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Crystal Castles

Event: Crystal Castles at Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Coldplay

Event: Coldplay at Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

The Chain Gang of 1974

Event: The Chain Gang of 1974 at Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Ellie Goulding

Event: Ellie Goulding at Lollapalooza 2011
Date: 8/5-7/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Foo Fighters

Event: Foo Fighters at Chicago’s Metro
Date: 8/6/2011
Photographer: Heather Kaplan

Foster the People

Event: Foster the People at Outside Lands 2011
Date: 8/12-14/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

Muse

Event: Muse at Outside Lands 2011
Date: 8/12-14/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

Arcade Fire

Event: Arcade Fire at Outside Lands 2011
Date: 8/12-14/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

Bush

Event: Bush at Chicago’s Congress Theatre
Date: 8/18/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Rubblebucket

Event: Rubblebucket at North Coast 2011
Date: 9/2-4/2011
Photographer: Lillian Cai

Pearl Jam

Event: Pearl Jam at PJ20 at Alpine Valley
Date: 9/3-4/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

Erykah Badu

Event: Erykah Badu at New York’s Rock the Bells 2011
Date: 9/3/2011
Photographer: Jake Cohen

Lauryn Hill

Event: Lauryn Hill at New York’s Rock the Bells 2011
Date: 9/3/2011
Photographer: Jake Cohen

The Kills

Event: The Kills at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom
Date: 9/5/2011
Photographer: Karina Halle

James Vincent McMorrow

Event: James Vincent McMorrow at Chicago’s Hideout
Date: 9/15/2011
Photographer: Matt Hyland

Delta Spirit

Event: Delta Spirit at Austin City Limits 2011
Date: 9/16-18/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

My Morning Jacket

Event: My Morning Jacket at Austin City Limits 2011
Date: 9/16-18/2011
Photographer: Nate Slevin

Kanye West

Event: Kanye West at Austin City Limits 2011
Date: 9/16-18/2011
Photographer: Nate Slevin

Randy Newman

Event: Randy Newman at Austin City Limits 2011
Date: 9/16-18/2011
Photographer: Nate Slevin

Incubus

Event: Incubus at Miami’s Bayfront Park
Date: 9/20/2011
Photographer: Lauren Guagno

Blink-182

Event: Blink-182 at West Palm Beach’s Cruzan Amphitheatre
Date: 9/23/2011
Photographer: Lauren Guagno

Deerhoof

Event: Deerhoof at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge
Date: 9/25/2011
Photographer: Katie Schuering

Radiohead

Event: Radiohead at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom
Date: 9/28/2011
Photographer: Nate Slevin

St. Vincent

Event: St. Vincent at Chicago’s Metro
Date: 10/5/2011
Photographer: Katie Schuering

Portishead

Event: Portishead at Chicago’s Aragon Theater
Date: 10/12/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

Sims

Event: Doomtree at Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Cafe
Date: 10/15/2011
Photographer: Harley Brown

The Stepkids

Event: The Stepkids at CMJ 2011
Date: 10/18-22/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

Duran Duran

Event: Duran Duran at The Chicago Theatre
Date: 10/21/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Deadmau5

Event: deadmau5 at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom
Date: 10/22/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

Moby

Event: Moby at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Moby

Event: Moby at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Childish Gambino

Event: Childish Gambino at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Catherine Watkins

Suicide

Event: Suicide at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

The Flaming Lips

Event: The Flaming Lips at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Catherine Watkins

Mayer Hawthorne & County

Event: Mayer Hawthorne & County at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

M83

Event: M83 at Moogfest 2011
Date: 10/28-30/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Zola Jesus

Event: Zola Jesus at San Francisco’s The Independent
Date: 11/1/2011
Photographer: Summer Dunsmore

Feist

Event: Feist at Chicago’s The Riviera Theatre
Date: 11/4/2011
Photographer: Brad Bretz

The Raconteurs

Event: The Raconteurs at Orlando Calling 2011
Date: 11/12-13/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

Pixies

Event: Pixies at Orlando Calling 2011
Date: 11/12-13/2011
Photographer: Cap Blackard

YACHT

Event: YACHT at San Francisco’s The Independent
Date: 11/17/2011
Photographer: Summer Dunsmore

M83

Event: M83 at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall
Date: 11/17/2011
Photographer: Jeremy D. Larson

The Cure

Event: The Cure at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre
Date: 11/23/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

Tinariwen

Event: Tinariwen at Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center
Date: 11/26/2011
Photographer: Harley Brown

Iggy Pop and the Stooges

Event: Iggy Pop and the Stooges at Hollywood’s Palladium
Date: 12/1/2011
Photographer: Debi Del Grande

[insert joke about Mondays] [follow up with how St. Vincent is absolutely stunning and a rightful cure to the start of a long week] [namedrop random moments on her new LP, Strange Mercy] [champion Jimmy Fallon] [argue Jimmy Fallon is better than most TV hosts] [cite the "get" of St. Vincent as just one of many examples supporting your argument] [loop it back to St. Vincent] [gush about St. Vincent's playfully raucous cover of The Pop Group's "She Is Beyond Good and Evil"] [reference Clark's uber cute yet punky stare] [cite The Audio Perv] [open your heart to Annie Clark once more, in the sad, sick hope she'll maybe read this and look you up] [go to sleep depressed]

Strange Mercy is currently available everywhere.

In August 2009, it finally happened. If you were a Gallagher brother, the prospect of playing in a band with your sibling for even one more riff became utterly abhorrent. (To borrow from Churchill, Noel and Liam became the person up with whom the other could not put.) When news of Oasis’ dissolution finally broke, fans and family therapists the globe over let out a collective “What the hell took so bloody long?” We all knew there was no way the band should have survived the “Don’t Look Back in Anger” video shoot—you know, the one where Liam sits around looking pissed while Noel sings lead—or that little episode involving Noel’s cricket bat and Liam’s head.

Following the split, Liam and the rest of the lads carried on by forming Beady Eye, which released its debut record, Different Gear, Still Speeding, earlier this year to unfavorable reviews, while Noel—following a long, proud tradition of pissed-off band members—opted to go solo as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. With Noel’s solo debut due out next week, CoS thought it might be fun to reflect on some other notable debuts by those who felt compelled to jettison (or take a break from) the band in favour (yeah, British-y spelling again) of seeing their own name stamped on the album cover. And as our look back (but not in anger) reminded us, this move hasn’t always yielded pretty results. In other words, Noel, here are some reasons to believe that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will be a smashing (could have said “brilliant”) success… and, unfortunately, several cases that suggest you had better call up your mum and see if she can arrange a playdate/sit-down with Liam very soon. -Matt Melis

Feature artwork by Drew Litowitz.

They chose wisely…

Elliott Smith – Roman Candle (1994)
Band Split From/Primary Band: Heatmiser

In an alternate universe, Elliott Smith might have been remembered simply as that dude with a wispy set of pipes from a short-lived indie rock band. Sure, Heatmiser put out some decent records, developed a modest following, and received a bit of critical acclaim, but let’s be honest: It would have been a pretty unfortunate place for Smith to settle down. Just ask the thousands of tortured souls still looking for answers to their troubles in the liner notes of Figure 8 or XO, scribbling their own one-line eulogies on red, black, and white curves on a Sunset Boulevard wall. In truth, Roman Candle was a hobby of sorts for Smith. Most of the songs don’t even have names—a happy accident, a truly heartfelt diversion. Never intended for official release of any sort, we’re all pretty lucky Smith’s then-girlfriend gave word of his modest cassette to record labels. It opened up a world of beloved tunes from one of music’s most cherished songwriters, for sure. –Drew Litowitz

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: Get depressed, get honest, and get some cassettes. Or, just soak yourself in some low-end wine.

They chose wisely…

St. Vincent – Marry Me (2007)
Band Split From/Primary Band: The Polyphonic Spree

At the recommendation of a friend, a young Berklee dropout named Annie Clark tried out and joined The Polyphonic Spree’s collection of touring musicians. She arrived around the time when “Light and Day” was reaching mainstream success. Touring is always fun, but Clark had bigger moments waiting for her in the studio. She left the band in 2006, took up the stage name of St. Vincent, and released Marry Me in 2007. From the first song, “Now, Now”, that juxtaposition between the beautiful and the violent was present. Most of the song plucks out a light, lovely melody, but it ends with some shockingly aggressive guitar shredding. The rest of the record walks that fine line between ironic and angry, subtle and direct, sad and scathing. The Polyphonic Spree may have lost an excellent guitarist, but the rest of the world gained one of the best solo artists in recent memory. –Joe Marvilli

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: It’s never too late to find a good cult to leave.

They chose wisely…

Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel 1 (Car) (1977)
Band Split From/Primary Band: Genesis

So what makes an artist go solo? The end of a road reached, need for a new canvas, boredom, money, family pressure, musical “differences?” In Peter Gabriel’s case, it was a planned exit, a mixture of family considerations, and a feeling that the success of Genesis had overtaken the original purpose of songwriting and performance. Released in 1977, when prog merchants were being dismissed as dinosaurs by the new wave of punk, Peter Gabriel’s first of a series of eponymous solo albums ticked enough familiar boxes to keep Genesis fans happy while introducing a diversity that would come to define his oeuvre. Opening with strong echoes of Genesis on “Moribund the Burgermeister” and ending with the Floyd-like epic “Here Comes the Flood”, the album takes in a raft of styles from folk to hard rock, symphonic tones to power balladry. The common link is the sheer quality of songwriting that makes these tunes sound fresh 34 years on and, of course, that unmistakable Gabriel vocal. –Tony Hardy

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: You’re not Peter Gabriel. You likely won’t be Peter Gabriel. This is the high, high watermark you build towards – sort of like the B-squad player wearing a pair of Jordans.

They chose wisely…

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
Group Split From/Primary Group: Fugees

While she was with the Fugees, Lauryn Hill became one of the best rappers to emerge from the brimming East Coast scene, regardless of gender. The Grammy-gobbling Miseducation proved that further, but it also showed she didn’t belong in any one niche; not only did she not need Wyclef Jean or Pras Michel, but she could carry an album with her singing voice, too. Songs like “Lost Ones” and the beatbox-aided cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” bombarded airwaves, and the entire album quickly became a landmark neo-soul effort. Unfortunately, Hill hasn’t dropped a proper solo album since, but if it remains that way, Miseducation will go down as one of the finest swan songs of its era. –Mike Madden

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: It’s okay to win a Grammy. Sometimes it helps. A lot.

They chose wisely…

Skrillex – My Name Is Skrillex EP (2010)
Band Split From/Primary Band: From First to Last

He went from screamo to making electronic music literally scream. The past year has been pretty swell for Sonny John Moore, aka Skrillex. He has become one of the most talked about players in this new wave of dubstep. Before he was causing mosh pits with stellar beats, he was stirring them as frontman for From First to Last, a band that could be perceived as the rock and roll version of Moore’s newer music. They had shrill guitars, pounding drums, and of course, Moore’s piercing vocals. But eventually Moore transformed into Skrillex and released some of the hottest EPs of the past year or so. Those EPs have projected him into stardom and allowed a live show that literally shakes buildings. He’s now such a big deal that Beavis and Butt-Head had to shit all over his success. –Ted Maider

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: Don’t take the recommendation too literally. We don’t need another DJ.

They chose poorly…

Kele  – The Boxer (2010)
Band Split From/Primary Band: Bloc Party

When Bloc Party broke and every DJ/producer in the indie-verse was pumping out drops and remixes of “Banquet”, the band held such promise, and the buzz piled up. They stood up mightily against it after their Silent Alarm debut, avoiding the sophomore slump with A Weekend in the City. But with the electro-tinged Intimacy, there seemed to be some “creative differences” in the band (angular rock vs. thumpy electro, it would seem), and the quartet took a hiatus in 2009.

As evidenced by shy frontman Kele Okereke’s solo debut, The Boxer, Okereke likely wanted to take the band toward a more electro sound. “The Boxer” kept Bloc Party’s dramatic flair, but it didn’t have the band’s sharp-as-a-tack sound. Then the NME reported that Bloc Party’s other three members, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Gordon Moakes, and drummer Matt Tong had auditioned a new singer for a new band without Kele present or even knowing about it. Even with repeated assurances to the contrary, it seems clear that Bloc Party won’t have any new music anytime soon, and maybe never again. –Paul de Revere

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: There may not be a Party, or even an Oasis, to go back to.

They chose poorly…

Billy Corgan – TheFutureEmbrace (2005)
Band Split From/Primary Band: The Smashing Pumpkins

A friend of mine used to refer to Billy Corgan’s first solo effort as I Am Lonely. What’s sad is that this joke title is strangely appropriate. Among all of Corgan’s latter-day projects–penning the Spun soundtrack, forming the ill-fated Zwan, and reviving the Smashing Pumpkins in various incarnations–TheFutureEmbrace boldly stands out as his most spectacular failure. Since he was the “driving force” behind the Pumpkins, everyone assumed his solo effort would be captivating, if not brilliant. After all, he did record almost all of Siamese Dream himself. However, once his solo record came out, people realized just how much band mates James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain really did contribute to the Pumpkins’ greatness. Siamese Dream wasn’t just great because Corgan recorded the bulk of it; it was great because he had the opinions of other people who were on the same level as him – or at least thought they were. And that was lost when he went off to go be lonely.–Ted Maider

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: No man is an island… not even a Brit.

They chose poorly…

Tom Peterson and Another Language – Tom Peterson and Another Language (1984)
Band Split From/Primary Band: Cheap Trick

Produced by Sir George Martin, Cheap Trick‘s All Shook Down was a mess of a record resulting from a clash of wills and styles. Coupling the wrong producer with songwriter Rick Nielsen’s unoriginal batch of songs was a recipe for Cheap Trick’s first dud of an album (after six stellar records in four years). On the heels of its release, bass player Tom Petersson suddenly quit the band to focus on a project he had been developing with his wife, Dagmar. The resulting band and album, Tom Peterson and Another Language (he inexplicably dropped the second ‘s’ in his name), is a prime example of poor execution of an even poorer idea. Single “Lose Your Mind” is a weak attempt to channel a hybrid of Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Missing Persons’ Dale Bozzio (only with more clothes and less synth), but the vocals come off sounding like they are being spoken by a non-English speaker (which they are, it just shouldn’t be so obvious!). From lumbering, lazy drumbeats, sluggish basslines, and sloppy guitar to an off-pitch dyed blonde fronting the band, there is practically nothing of merit, and certainly nothing original, on Petersson’s debut. No wonder he re-joined Cheap Trick. –Len Comaratta

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: Behind every good man, there’s a good woman. Unfortunately, there are good women behind some really bad solo records, too.

They chose poorly…

Gavin Rossdale – Wanderlust (2008)
Band Split From/Primary Band: Bush

As frontman for UK outfit Bush, Gavin Rossdale arrived in the wake of Cobain’s demise with the band’s single-heavy 1994 debut, Sixteen Stone. After dizzying audiences worldwide with his choice looks and obscure lyricism for the better part of a decade, Rossdale separated from the group, starting up modern rock collective Institute in 2004. When that went nowhere, he issued his first solo album in 2008 with Wanderlust. Three words accurately describe it to a tee: schlocky, uninspired, and soulless. Producer Bob Rock managed to strip away anything that made the singer admissible. Instead of sounding frail and discontented, Rossdale moved at the pace of a snail and glazed over with a digital rubdown that would make Britney Spears wince. There is no good song off Wanderlust. To this day, it remains a sour memory: like changing your car’s tire amidst a hurricane, waking up to find your dog dead in the living room, or realizing you left your wallet at an Auntie Anne’s in Atlanta International Airport during a layover. Fortunately for him, Rossdale reunited with Bush – or, drummer Robin Goodridge – and unleashed The Sea of Memories, an admirable improvement, but still loaded with all the Bob Rock signatures. Someone should have Metallica call him. Or, wait, nevermind. -Michael Roffman

Lesson to Be Learned, Noel: Stay away from Bob Rock. Forever.

They chose poorly…

Flavor Flav – Flavor Flav (Hollywood) (2006)
Group Split From/Primary Group: Public Enemy

“That’s right, Flavor goin’ solo/What you all know about that?” taunted Public Enemy hype man extraordinaire Flavor Flav on “Cold Lampin’ with Flavor” from 1988’s seminal It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. About 10 seconds into the first track of his eponymous solo debut, released nearly 18 years later, we found out we knew quite a lot about that. Hell, we knew more than we ever wanted to know about that (like what a crooning Flav sounds like). But this type of crime against humanity is bound to happen when you go from rolling with guys named Chuck D and Professor Griff to knocking boots with reality bimbos named New York and Pumkin. Thank God P.E. is still in “full effect” for Flav to go back to—where that giant clock around his neck still knows what time it is. -Matt Melis

Lesson to be Learned, Noel: If VH1 offers you a reality TV series, you get the chance to open your own fried chicken shack, or even if you just feel tempted to wear a viking helmet, please, just ask yourself, “WWCD?” (What Would Chuck D Do?)

Photo by Caitlin Meyer

Since the September release of her third LP, Strange Mercy, Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has seen a whirlwind of activity, from touring the States to hitting the late night circuit to popping up at festivals. This past weekend at Asheville, NC’s Moogfest, Consequence of Sound’s Research Editor and host of Audiography, Len Comaratta, got a chance to sit down with Clark and her tour manager, Tom Carlson, as they were ironing out some last-minute details for her upcoming European tour.

If you’re a fan of Len’s Audiography series, look out for a forthcoming episode with Ms. Clark herself.

You sound busy.

Annie Clark (AC): Trying to coordinate a European tour with a two-day turnaround.

When do you head to Europe?

Tom Carlson (TC): The eighth?

AC: Right after [Jimmy] Fallon, so the 7th [of November].

TC: The morning of the eighth, ‘cause Fallon is the seventh.

AC: It is. No, I fly that evening to Germany to do some German TV show.

Talk about being busy. And last night you said you had a late gig. Where were you playing last night?

TC: The Earl. In Atlanta. It’s like a club gig. It was fun.

AC: It was really fun. I like those club… I mean… it’s funny…

When you say “Club Gig,” what do you mean, like the 9:30 Club kind of thing versus an arena?

TC: One quarter the size of the 9:30 club.

AC: Yeah, it’s 250 capacity.

TC: Way too small for them to be playing.

AC: With our gear and our light rig, it was kinda Spinal Tap… or reverse Spinal Tap.

It worked?

AC: Oh yeah, it was a great time. It was a great show.

Do you like the intimacy, though, of the smaller shows?

AC: Yeah, I do, I do. It’s fun. A lot of these shows on this tour have been theaters. It’s sort of like very pristine, and we have an intense light show. It comes off well. It’s like a theatrical performance kinda thing, but it’s fun to just get nitty-gritty in a rock club, too. All the shows have been going well to be honest. It’s been a really fun tour.

Well this album is getting huge amounts of praise. It seems like it’s been out longer than just a month or a month and a half.

AC: Yeah, I think there was a lot of lead in to it, so the press people did their job.

Your producer, John Congleton, did a whole social media with Twitter. If you tweet so much, then a single will be released. How did you feel that that played out?

AC: I thought that that worked out well. I’m not a marketing person. I didn’t come up with that idea or anything; it was the in-house people at the label, but I thought it worked out really well. At some point, after maybe six days had gone by and people kept tweeting… it’s on my twitter feed, and I can see what people are saying. And I started to feel like, “You guys, is this kinda mean? People are really freaking out. They’re really ready for this single. Should we just give it to them?” And they were like, “No, no wait, this is the point.” So, it was a little bit of a game, I guess, but it worked out well. It got people excited… or angry.

One of questions I was told that I have to ask by one of our editors, who is in love with this album, is “What was the driving force behind what you were writing for Strange Mercy?” He sensed some kind of retro feminism in some of the songs, but he didn’t understand what your direction was. I didn’t really sense that, the way he was describing it, but he wanted to get your take on what was going on in your mind when you were writing the album. ‘Cause like with Actor, you said it was during a downtime. You were decompressing and watching a lot of films and that inspired you to what you were doing. Everyone keeps saying Strange Mercy is a departure, so what was going on when you were setting down to write that album?

AC: Well, a lot of the influence, at least superficially, on the record is still these little bits of pop culture that I can weave into my own experience. Like the hook for “Surgeon” is “best finest surgeon, come cut me open,” which is…

Marilyn Monroe…

AC: …yeah, what Marilyn Monroe wrote in her diary. I really fell in love with that particular sentiment.

Were you reading up on Marilyn Monroe? How did you stumble on that?

AC: You know what? I read it in a Vanity Fair article. I was in Seattle writing the record, and I was getting very frustrated with what I was coming up with. Lots of highs and lows in a writing process. You know, either you think it’s all good or you think it’s terrible, and there’s not a lot of in-between. And I was in a low patch, and I just thought, “forget it.” I’m just gonna check out of the studio early, just go have a glass of wine, and read a book because nothing is coming out. And I just picked up a Vanity Fair and got really engrossed in that article and her, and I think I probably still have my little journal I was carrying around. In giant quotes, underlined, circled, exclamation point, “Use this”. The next day I went back, and I wrote “Surgeon”.

You seem to be informed by a lot of pop culture. People always comment how even Marry Me was taken from an “Arrested Development” line…

AC: Yeah, yeah.

Is that intentional, or do you find that as you’re writing it just comes out of you?

AC: Yeah, that’s the thing. It probably sounds pretty redundant, but everything is inspiration for a song. Everything’s fodder for writing. On the last record, I just straight-up ripped a Hemingway quote out of The Sun Also Rises… it’s in “Just the Same, But Brand New”… verbatim. Hopefully, I can’t get sued for that sort of thing. I like re-appropriated it or collaged it together. But everything is kind of fodder for writing.

When did you start writing?

AC: I started writing songs when I was… probably before probably… we had a piano, and I would tinker around with that and write little bits of songs, and then when I got a guitar when I was 12, the first thing I did was learn a Neil Young song and then write one of my own songs.

Neil Young was the first person you learned on guitar?

AC: Probably. I think it was “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World”. I really liked that Neil Young and Crazy Horse record at that point in life. But, actually, it’s funny. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but the song “Year of the Tiger” on Strange Mercy, that riff [hums out the musical part] , that’s something my mom used to play on the piano… but I mean, it was sweet, it was sweetly played. Kinda plucky. I gave her writing credit. We co-wrote “Year of the Tiger” together, but that riff was always in my consciousness from a really young age.

Was Glenn Branca the first group you worked with? The 100 Guitar Orchestra.

AC: To say I worked with Glenn Branca is sort of like saying, as if I had walked through a recording studio and been like, “Yeah, I produced that record.” There was an open call for guitar players in New York. “Come for a pack of sandwiches and a coffee. Come and play. Bring your own amp and your own guitar out to Queens and play in this recording session.” I was a fan of Glenn Branca obviously, and everybody in the room was a massive fan of Glenn Branca, and I was just one of a hundred. It feels a little bit… to say I worked with him… Glenn Branca was not asking me for my input.

It was more like, “Here, play this part. Thank you.”

AC: Exactly. We were organized into maybe four different guitar sectors. All of our strings were tuned to the same, different octaves of the same note. When it was our time to go, it was crazy eighth notes and stop and crazy eighth notes, and it was thrilling to be in a room with that many guitars and that many amplifiers.

It must be just ridiculously loud…

AC: It was so loud. I had such a great time.

So, it was only for that one recording that you did that?

AC: Yeah.

On Actor, and even on Strange Mercy, there is distorted guitar. Is that informed from your time with Glenn Branca, or is the distortion something that you like doing on your own? The experimentation with the instruments.

AC: I just like it. Certainly, I am like anybody, a fan of the history of rock ‘n’ roll. That’s just guitar player 101, you know. I just like tweaking out with pedals. I think I probably really started delving into that stuff when I joined the Polyphonic Spree, because it just became necessary to have different textures and colors in my bag of tricks.

When you joined the Polyphonic Spree, was that after you moved back to Texas, or was that why you moved back?

AC: It was in quick succession. I dropped out of school; I moved to New York; I ran out of money in New York; I moved back to Texas. Two weeks later, I was in the Polyphonic Spree.

Was there another open call for that, or was it through people you knew?

AC: My friend Toby, the theremin player at the time, who played a Moog theremin, said, “You gotta come in and try out. They are always looking for people.” I had been a fan; I had grown up in Dallas. Right about 18, when I was 18 about to leave, that’s when the Spree really started. I remember seeing three or four shows of theirs and just being awestruck.

How did you get with Sufjan [Stevens] after that?

AC: I think somebody had sent him Marry Me before it had come out on a label. This would have been 2006, mid-2006. And Shara Worden, My Brightest Diamond, who’s a dear friend of mine, was gonna be not able to do some upcoming touring with Suf, and I was on tour… no, I don’t know how that happened. I got a call, “Sufjan wants to meet you and try out and maybe be in his band…”

What album was that in support of?

AC: That was in support of Come on Feel the Illinois. And so I went up to New York and tried out. I don’t remember if I tried out, God I don’t remember. Anyway, I joined up with him and then opened for him in Europe.

How was that?

AC: It was great.

So, you were the opening band, and then you came back onstage as backup…

AC: Exactly. I was opening up solo, and then I would come and play.

When you say “solo” you mean, literally by yourself, not with your band behind you.

AC: Yeah, I didn’t have a band.

When did you actually incorporate the band? Was it around the time of making Actor?

AC: I’ve always had a band that I’ve hired for live touring things.

Photo by Katie Scheuring

You’ve worked with Midlake’s guys…

AC: Yeah.

Is it just like with Texas musicians… is it a close-knit community?

AC: There’s a thing, yeah. I think there’s a thing.

Because Congleton’s from Texas as well, and Polyphonic Spree…

AC: Yeah, McKenzie [Smith, drummer for Midlake], John, Daniel Hart, who was in the live touring band for a long time and played on all three records, and Bobby Sparks, who played the Mini Moog on the newest record. It was all Texas people. It was a pretty tight-knit group of people, actually. I’m a solo artist, so sometimes you’ll have a record where a million people walk through the studio and add little things here or there, but it was pretty much just me and John in the studio the whole time. Bobby Sparks would come in and play the craziest shit you’ve ever heard in one or two takes. And we’d be like, “Ok, that’s great, Bobby. Thanks. See ya later. You probably did all of your parts for this record in under five hours.”

Have you ever gotten a chance to work with any major session musicians or any of the major studios like the Wrecking Crew or Muscle Shoals?

AC: Nooooo.

Would you be interested in that?

AC: Yeah, of course I would be interested in that sort of thing. Bobby, he’s a ringer. He’s like Mr. Come In and Knock It Out. McKenzie too is great. We’d just spend more time together because we’d be dialoging about the parts back and forth, and I think he knows me well now and I know him well, and I love the way he plays. We kind of both know at this point that there’s gotta be a groove, but it’s also gotta be a little bit off-kilter; there’s gotta be one little catch that makes it not just ho-hum drum thing. Be it a little stutter in the bass drum in “Strange Mercy” or a sort of dirty-south-like filtered snare drum thing in “Chloe in the Afternoon”. We’ve always… we just know.

Are you thinking about that when you are writing the songs, or is that mor