2012 Calvin Awards: Best Album
By BOP Staff
February 13, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With The King is Dead, The Decemberists successfully pared down the very elements - baroque folk, prog rock, murder ballads, songs about ghosts and pirates, etc. - that made us fall in love with their music in the first place; the result was a concisely pristine alt-country masterpiece. At times quiet and introspective ("January Hymn"), and in other places daring to evoke the jangle-pop influences of REM, this year's model has little in common with anything that came before it. And yet, we loved it all the same. Every stylistic choice represented a risk and a payoff, from Peter Buck's production (and mandolin), to the supporting vocals of Gillian Welch, to the very recognizable harmonica seemingly plucked straight from Bruce Springsteen's The River. Each of these elements contributed to a resulting sound greater than its parts, and an album that was our favorite of the year among a crowded field.
At this point, our second place finisher Bon Iver has produced two albums (For Emma, Forever Ago and the self-titled second album that's second on our best of 2011 list) that have met with immense critical acclaim and (relative) commercial success. While Bon Iver is unlikely to graduate to arenas, the success of their two albums means their nearest comparison in indie rock circles is Arcade Fire - the same Arcade Fire who won the Album of the Year Grammy in 2011 for their third album. Bon Iver - Bon Iver is a step away from For Emma, without leaving it behind. The sound is simultaneously intimate and grand, spare and enveloping and worth every minute you spend with it.
Third spot goes to Cults with their eponymous debut album. Sure, they may sound at times like a '60s girl group, with Madeline Follin's sweet voice lending a sweet air to the youthful-feeling tunes, there's a petulance in the lyrics that shows the band has a little more depth of intention than it appears on the surface. It's an album that once you pick it up, you want to listen to it over and over again, with "Go Outside," "Abducted," and "You Know What I Mean" in particular worming their way into your head and never ever leaving. We look forward to hearing this band's sound evolve.
Exploding into the mainstream after years of "best kept secret" indie blues rock, fourth place finisher The Black Keys had a fantastic 2010 album in Brothers, which finished fifth in our Best Album voting last year, and followed it up with a fantastic 2011 album (El Camino). As they embark on their first arena tour this spring, the band finds itself at their most commercially successful while hitting an artistic peak. El Camino is filled with hooks, dirty blues guitar and more hooks. Not only does El Camino boast one of the catchiest songs of the year (opener Lonely Boy), but it successfully meshes their spare, direct style with the more out there production of Danger Mouse, an experiment that really didn't work quite as well on 2008's Attack & Release.
Fifth place belongs to the ingenue of the year, Adele, with her album 21. While it wasn't her debut, this year was the first time most people had heard of the young British singer, who picked up the blue-eyed soul torch from Amy Winehouse and ran with it. Looking and sounding like the reincarnation of Dusty Springfield, this was a welcome breath of fresh air in the pop-saturated music scene right now. Showing that we're not afraid of a little bit of popularity, we've chosen this album despite the fact that radios spontaneously turned on to play Rolling In The Deep until we couldn't take it anymore. Moreover, the success of this album represented the triumph of voice over artifice, and that's a welcome development any time.
Tied with that is the latest from Foo Fighters, Wasting Light. This hasn't been a good half-decade for rock in general, with artists like Nickelback and Kings of Leon being ceded ground to blast us with generic pablum disguised as rock. While Dave Grohl isn't the most innovative guy ever, he came back this year after floating around a number of side projects to remind us of what rock is really about, with some back-to-basics punk-fueled anthems. Finally, something worth blasting our eardrums out for.
Civilian by the Baltimore duo Wye Oak earned seventh place in our voting, thanks to an album full of crisp, intelligent songwriting that represents a great leap forward for the band. Musically, the duo has never sounded better. Both Jenn Wasner's guitar work and Andy Stack's drumming/keys play nicely together. Though it doesn't mean much these days - everyone listens to everything on headphones or earbuds - Civilian is a headphone record in the obsolete sense of the word, which is to say it rewards an undistracted listener. To get the most out of Civilian clear your schedule for 40 minutes, don't multi-task, and spend some quality one-on-one time with it.
After the success of their debut full length (2008's Fleet Foxes), putting together a sophomore album was going to be no easy task. Their sound is easily reproducible, but fortunately Robin Pecknold and company were not content to stand pat. Helplessness Blues is not only a worthy second album, it's a far more challenging album than Fleet Foxes (the album) was, but also more varied, versatile and deep. Considering the obvious intricacies of their work, Fleet Foxes manage to make it seem effortless. It's a testament to their musicianship that this album would also work sans vocals.
Ninth place band Wild Flag is kind of an indie supergroup of sorts, including Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, Helium's Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole of The Minders. Their debut, self-titled album rocks hard, and delivers stripped down, raw guitar-driven stuff. There's great chemistry amongst this collection of talent, and the energy is simply undeniable. The enthusiasm of this girl group is through the roof, but it's not just a revisiting of S-K or Helium. Instead, these ladies meld their talents in such a way that full advantage is taken of what each has to offer.
Rounding out our top ten is the subtle swerve thrown by Zach Condon and his band Beirut on their fourth album The Rip Tide. Beirut managed to keep much of the instrumentation as on their previous work, but moved their sound away from baroque waltzes and toward a more pop orientation. The resulting gorgeous melodies on songs like "East Harlem" was welcomed by BOP's staff with open ears.
The Calvins: An Introduction
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture