Sunday 3 February 2013

The Great Lost Albums of 2011

2011 was a bit of a blur for me. My youngest daughter was born in November 2010 so the following year, as you can imagine, was pretty crazy and my priorities weren't about discovering new music. I therefore missed a lot of music releases that year.

My daughter has since apologised, and I have forgiven her. However, I would still like her apology in writing but may have to wait a couple of years for that.

Recently, in order to get over it, I have re-visited 2011 and amongst my favourite albums that year that I was aware of at the time - the debut album by The Vaccines, 'Portamento' by The Drums and Radiohead's 'The King of Limbs', to name but 3 - I have also uncovered 3 beauties which I missed. I will come onto these a bit later.

It wasn't just me who missed these 3 by the looks of it though.

I wanted to find out if the 3 albums below were on any of the Top 50 lists compiled by the top music journalists in the industry. I decided to do what any 37 year old, who hasn't got a clue how to find things out, would do and I Googled 'Top 50 albums of 2011'.

I then looked at the Top 10 results in detail. These were Pitchfork, NME, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Spin, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, FACT Magazine, Paste Magazine & Obscure Sound, and not one of them mentioned any of my Great Lost Albums of 2011 below. I'd love to know what THEIR excuse was (okay, maybe they just didn't like them, fair point. But I do, so ner!)

Anyway, without further ado, here, my friends, are my Top 3 Great Lost albums of 2011 :


1. 'To the death of fun' by Cashier No. 9

"Oh them again", I hear you say. Okay, I admit I am slightly obsessed with this band at the moment and I think they know it.  I have a feeling they are very close to blocking my twitter account.

It's just a fucking great album that people need to discover, and now's your chance.

Here's a little teaser for you but please check out their album (how many times do I need to say this?!) and we'll all stalk them together - agreed?!




2. 'Buffalo' by The Phoenix Foundation

This album is amazing, it is so varied and just so beautiful.  They hail from New Zealand but the album does sound very 'British'.  I'm not usually a big fan of albums that start off with a slow song, I have always felt an album should be like a gig, where you start off with a real stomper (sorry, it was the only word I could think of) to get everyone dancing / moshing but 'Eventually' is just gorgeous and they've got it spot on.

You know when you hear an album and it only takes one listen to get into, well this is like that.  They've got a new double album out shortly which I'm really looking forward to and they are touring soon so try and catch them live.  Anyway, here's a clip of their song 'Buffalo' which is another beauty -


3. 'Whatwave' by Dead Trees

Erm...'Whatwave' also starts off with a slow song so my whole 'fast song at the start' opinion has now officially been quashed.  It was a bit of a rubbish statement anyway, wasn't it?

The Dead Trees are a great band and this album is a beauty, very summery / west coast sounding. I'm definitely looking forward to checking some more of their stuff out.

The song below is called 'World Gone Global' but you really have to listen to the whole album to fully appreciate them -




So there you have it. My next challenge is to find another 3 beauties from another year that were missed by the top music publications / websites and their dogs.

I'm probably going to struggle to be honest, 2011 may be a one off.  However, if you fancy giving it a go yourself, pick a year, discover some albums from it and then come back and write for Session Bloggers. Everyone's welcome.

Thanks for popping by.

Loads of love

Simon S.
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Simon. Just caught up this particular blog post the other week, and as a result ended up ordering "To The Death Of Fun" from Amazon, on a bit of a whim, following your positive comments and the video yo posted. The CD arrived today, and with the sun shining through the window as I work the soundtrack is PERFECT for this rare summers day. Cashier No 9 completely passed me by until this moment..but got to agree ...superb! SO thanks for sharing!!! :-)

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    1. That's great news Kevin, glad you like it. My favourite album at the moment is 'Howlin' by Jagwar Ma which is also perfect for summer. You should check that out too. That one definitely won't be in The Great Lost Albums of 2013 list as it's getting rave reviews at the moment. Thanks for commenting.

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