Of Courtyards

The Top 50 Albums of 2011

Finally, I have completed my list of The Top 50 Albums of 2011. Rather than give a big song-and-dance like I did last year, I decided to just let the albums speak for themselves. Here they are, starting with #50:

50. James Blake – James Blake

49. Mates of State – Mountaintops

48. Smith Westerns - Dye if Blonde

47. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic

46. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

45. Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil

44. Wilco - The Whole Love

43. Atlas Sound – Parallax

42. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

41. Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

40. Cults - Cults

39. Wire - Red Barked Tree

38. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

37. Animals As Leaders – Weightless

36. Dawes - Nothing is Wrong

35. Eisley - The Valley

34. The Roots – Undun

33. Boy and Bear - Boy and Bear

32. Childish Gambino - Camp

31. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die but You Will

30. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

29. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo

28. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

27. Jay-Z/Kanye West - Watch the Throne

26. Chris Bathgate - Salt Year

25. The Antlers - Burst Apart

24. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

23. Araab Muzik - Electronic Dream

22. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk

21. Yuck - Yuck

20. And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs

19. The Feelies - Here Before

18. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

17. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

16. The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart

15. Viva Voce - The Future Will Destroy You

14. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines

13. British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall

12. Beirut - The Rip Tide

11. The Dodos - No Color

10. Tapes ‘n Tapes - Outside

9. Radiohead - The King of Limbs

8. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

7. Real Estate - Days

6. The Decemberists – The King is Dead

5. the Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck

4. Feist – Metals

3. The Black Keys – El Camino

2. Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean

1. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Agree? Disagree? Have any comments or questions? Feel free to leave a comment.

Metroland

First, A Note

This is the first poem that I have written since going on "Poetic Hiatus" for the year 2011. I wrote this poem simply and unadorned with my usual haughtiness. I love this new style. I also love that Detroit has been such an inspiration to me. I hope you enjoy it.

Metroland

Solitudo placet Muses; urbs inamacia poetis est.

—ad Horace

Come, Gray Tethered Skylines,
to the winter-bound Campus,
covered in black ice lit
with Christmas bulbs from our white pine.
Smoke bellows from our breaths
like the once-burning smokestacks
on New Center’s edge;
like the Princess as it chugged along the Detroit River
before it froze over.
The blistered hurricane between the buildings
is a thief jumping from the alleyways,
broken-hearted as the way the Midwest sulks
while yet another Winter takes his place
within the air; within our lungs,
piercing our pink-fleshy bodies once turned to stone.

The neon-light haze distorts the moon’s phases—
now full for all eternity while the GM emblem
outshines Polaris—
the RenCen is ever so luminous.

As Windsor fades from sight,
the ever-haunted sidewalks press on
to Woodward, Griswald, and Cass:
Jefferson snatches us; drags us slowly to the darkness
before the light that Birmingham shines
—the mild retrograde motion of a Father’s gold;
the beaming lace from saris;
the silver Lexus hood ornaments that light fires
in the burnt-out street lights:
Speramus meliora;
resurget cineribus.

Breast milk highways quench the throats
of the Starving and the Dead.

In a house, the Old Man told me
of the West Side; of trips up North
where the snow became lifeblood;
of skipping over thin ice while booming
like pistons and spark plugs from the assembly lines.
In a house, the Old Man remembered when
the log cabin held a hearth that lit the winter up
as a single lamp lights Russell
on my drive home.
In a house, the Old Man lets the photographs out to play—
a Packard, once pristine like the slick black ice,
now rusted-out, broken-down
like the Old Man’s lungs.
Speramus meliora;
resurget cineribus.

It all comes back to the round-about:

A fatuous cylinder going ‘round and ‘round,
spiraling up and down
until it spits you out onto Woodward;
through the high-rises, past the theaters—
flashing lights and limousines—
past the fast food signs and liquor stores
to the ghost-town factories;
north & north & north some more
through Midtown where but one collective mind throbs,
scratching itself for a spark;
to Highland Park,
a flat-lined homeless man
that kicks and strains for one more sip of water;
Ferndale, alter for the sons of those unemployed;
Royal Oak, sipping sweat like wine;
Birmingham and Troy:
Fluorescent halos for the dead angels.

An infinite oval, the tracks go ‘round and ‘round:
the dead-end cycle of single-track dreams;
The People Mover carries them all where they need to go.
With tokens in our pockets, everyone’s the same;
everyone’s a tin can particle;
a Troy can live in the Digs.
Speramus meliora;
resurget cineribus.

Top 50 Albums of 2011 - The Preliminary List

It’s that time of year: When I compile my list of the Top 50 Albums of the Year. 2011 has seen a lot of great music, and I definitely have my work cut out for me on this list. After compiling a list of all of the albums on Pitchfork’s, Stereogum’s, Paste’s, and Spin’s respective end-of-year lists, as well as suggestions from friends and other prominent music bloggers and albums found on my own accord, I have come up with these 150 albums to consider for the Top 50. In the next few weeks, each album will be listened to (some for the first time, some for the 1,000th), reviewed, and ranked. The Top 50 Albums will become part of a list that will be published on all of my blogs/social media sites.

If you have any suggestions for additions to the list below, please let me know. I will begin reviewing these albums once I acquire them all.

The Preliminary 150 Albums (in alphabetical order, the order in which they will be listened to):

Adele - 21
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Toa of the Dead
And So I Watch You From Afar - Gangs
Animals As Leaders - Weightless
AraabMuzik - Electronic Dream
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
ASAP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP
Atlas Sound - Parallax
Austra - Feel It Break
Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee
Beirut - The Rip Tide
The Belle Brigade - The Belle Brigade
Beyoncé - 4
Big K.R.I.T - Return of 4Eva
Bill Callahand - Apocalypse
The Black Keys - El Camino
Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Boris - Attention Please
Boris - Heavy Rocks
Bright Eyes - The People’s Key
British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall
Burst Apart - The Antlers
Cage the Elephant - Thank you Happy Birthday
Cake - Showroom of Compassion
CANT - Dreams Come True
The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond this World
Cass McCombs - Wit's End/Humor Risk
Charles Bradley - No Time for Dreaming
Childish Gambino - Camp
Chris Bathgate - Salt Year
The Civil Wars - Barton Hallow
Clams Casino - Instrumentals
Cold Cave - Cherish
Colin Stetson - New History of Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Cults - Cults
Cut Copy - Zonoscope
Dale Earnheardt Jr. Jr. - It's a Corporate World
Danny Brown - XXX
Das Racists - Relax
Dawes - Nothing is Wrong
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
Deer Tick - Divine Providence
Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil
Destroyer - Kaputt
DJ Quik - The Book of David
The Dodos - No Color
Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs
Eisley - The Valley
Ella Riot - Love Child
EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
Eric Church - Chief
Explosions in the Sky - take care, take care, take care
The Feelies - Here Before
Feist - Metals
The Field - Looping State of Mind
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Flogging Molly - Speed of Darkness
Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra.
Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
G-Side - The One…Cohesive
Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & the Harvest
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories)
The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart
Holyghost - Holyghost
Iceage - New Brigade
Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
James Blake - James Blake
Jay-Z/Kanye West - Watch the Throne
The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Katy B - On a Mission
Kendrick Lamar - Section.80
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for my Halo
Liturgy - Aesthethica
Low - C'mon
The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Martyn - Ghost People
Mates of State - Mountaintops
The Men - Leave Home
Middle Brother - Middle Brother
Mister Heavenly - Out of Love
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die but You Will
the Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Mungolian Jetset - Schlugs
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
Neon Indian - Era Extrana
Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise
Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth
Oddisee - Rock Creek Park
Oneothrix Point Never - Replica
Over the Rhine - The Long Surrender
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Paul Kalkbrenner - Icke Wieder
Pictureplane - Thee Physical
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Portugal, the Man - In the Mountain of the Cloud
R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love
Real Estate - Days
Robert Pollard - Space City Kicks
The Roots - Undun
Rustie - Glass Swords
Rwake - Rest
Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Sepalcure - Sepalcure
Seryn - This Is Where We Are
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Siriusmo - Mosaik
Smith Westerns - Dye if Blonde
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic
The Strokes - Angles
Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows
Tapes ‘n Tapes - Outside
Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine
tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Twin Sister - In Heaven
Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Viva Voce - The Future Will Destroy You
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
Washed Out - Within and Without
The Weekend - House of Balloons
Wilco - The Whole Love
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Wire - Red Barked Tree
Woods - Sun and Shade
Wye Oak - Civilian
Yop - Atma
Youth Lagoon - The Years of Hibernation
Yuck - Yuck
Zola Jesus - Conatus

Here [A SONG REVISITED]

in the key of G

for the girl who saved my life about a year ago

now the drinks are running low

the smoke clears the room

i alone sitting alone

wondering what's left to do

i pull out my arm, i put it up

toward the light

see my veins, they're running through

where my skin was tight

all in all i wish you were here

on the stairs i sit and wait

for a body i can claim

it's not a way to fill my plate;

just way to say your name

i pull out a light, i light it up

all alone

it moves on through and through and through

all throughout my bones

all in all i wish you were here

walk away, the sunset gleams

like fluorescent light

here and there, the streetlights seem

to divvy up the night

look at my hand, look at the scar

it makes a little face

complicated as we are

you put me in my place

all in all i wish you were here

Home in the Trees

a song in the key of G

forces of nature that harbor her bright

come in to dance for this Muse's delight

motions engraving in soft lumber bands

fortunes remaining inside of her hands

now i sleep on her once bended knees

and she makes up our home in the trees

a train from Chicago through fields blooming green

bringing the night glow and red back to me

dreaming of farmlands—a golden wheat bed

smooth as my shoulder where she rests her head

and i think of her kissing the breeze

as she climbs to our home in the trees

drive home down M-10, she smiles in the lanes

basking in glories of our grayscale plains

raise up our glass to whatever we are—

more than the glances we made at the bar

now her hands are a beacon for me

while her arms take me home to the trees

Detroit Princess

a song in the key of E

the littleness of your black dress

shows me nothing but the crest

from your smile and rosy buds

of sumac lips

your shoulders pulled so taught in style

are deadly curves that make me smile

through the glass of gin i sip

while i scope your hips

your blonde hair on The Detroit Princess

sitting like a timid mistress

cowering by the heating vent

as it waits for more

the moonlight up behind the clouds

is glistening so up and proud

the moonbeams pouring from your eyes

fill my pours

i'm crazy but i can't complain

the beauty of the midnight wains

it's for you

the rainwater goes down the drain,

the thunder rolls, the angels frame

the sweet truth

though centuries of hurried waiting

finally gone contemplating

wond'ring if i'd grab your hand

you simply laughed

drove you home, you said before

you missed the lights on 94

the halo for your tired head

was taken back

the elements of sunny days

just threw all the cares away

drove to Lansing, who can say

if you thought of me

the carousel of tired eyes

left me with not great surprise

the telephone is not my friend

when i cannot sleep

a quarry for the crushed concrete

undeserved but very sweet

to nestle you

the drive home on the city streets

reminiscent of the feats

we wandered through

the hushness of the storm is tired

miles apart, our mouths are wired

to piano keys we know that we both

cannot play

the grimly sickled Detroit weeds

make me weezy, make me sneeze

make me wonder simply why

i miss your face

well on your way across the state

remember me; the way i made

you a rhythm for you feet:

i can't escape

The Right Way to Paradise

a song

the gray of the skyline

the smoke stacks in the night

the orange Woodward street lights keep me still

my drive home down Russell

befriends me; the bustle

of the 94 hustle that always kills

to drink from the River

came make a boy shiver—

the moon in a sliver rises high

on M-10, it's gorgeous

the bridges are for us—

the highways are porous at night

that old Detroit fire

the light-up desire

that douses the pyre for the dead

the right way to paradise

is right before our eyes

the winter supplies us with beds

to sleep

to dream

the smell of the Roseville Plant

the steam from the Griswald vents

so roughly circumvents the road

when i moved from Adrian

my car wheels were born again—

baptized in oil and cologne

when we look in hindsight

we'll think of the break lights

born right outside of where we live

kids play in the road

the Toyota lights glow—

but no one who knows will forgive

that old Detroit fire

the light-up desire

that douses the pyre for the dead

the right way to paradise

is right before our eyes

the winter supplies us with beds

to sleep

to dream

the milk from I-75

keeps all of us alive

the night is desire left to breathe

the black pothole coverings

is not a dark bloodening;

is all for a glowing for the free

To Guess; To Hope

a song

the smoke rings come up 'round my fingers and i

take another glass of bourbon before i go to bed

the raindrops keep rhythms for Ann Arbor's night

a deafening thump for each thought in my head

as i treat my displacement with curious songs

found an angel who lives a thousand miles east

but i cannot wait for her words for so long:

she wrote me in Harlem and she hugged me in Queens

there's no way to survive staring her pictures

when i think of her smile with its pearly gapped teeth

and her hair rough as wool; her eyes deep as Christmas—

the way they and entrance and they hypnotize me

give me I-80

give me 95

i'll drive to her with the radio on all night

twelve hundred miles

through rain and the fields

to guess what she's thinking; to hope for how she might feel

a suburban prison makes a new place to die

for the young and the restless, the ones who still dream

the hot New York summers make no one deny

how much holding someone creates barrels of steam

but i would still hold her if she led the way

through those Detroit winters that shiver and break

to the point of our demise, the grayest of grays

but still i will keep her and the snowfall at bay

there's no way to confront when you know she's so bold

when you see her lost pictures when alone in the night

the piles of loneliness open my eyes

but it's her who embraced me with her hearted demise

give me I-80

give me 95

i'll drive to her with the radio on all night

twelve hundred miles

through rain and the fields

to guess what she's thinking; to hope for how she might feel

Howling Dogs

a song in the key of F#

howling dogs

in the road

sniffing fog

gnawing bones

broken jaws

cold wet nose

cracked dry claws

on their toes

howling dogs

see through time

break the moon—

yours and mine

lie in grass

Deerfield Road

where's their home?

no one knows

howling dogs

have no home

eat the grass

throw it up

tracing teeth

to the bone

for howling dogs

in the road

Naked as the Stars

a song

my father built our house from railroad ties
my sisters poked me with a spike when i was young
we had a dog we caged with solemn eyes
my mother wore a badge but she never shot a gun

the Blissfield railway carries gasoline
nostalgia for the thirties makes my grandma weep
the virtue of the rust is trapped in seams
in twilight hours full of mugginess and sleep

with the songs we sang
and the games we played
i wanted to be naked as the stars
in the tired night
we take delight
in the sound of roaring tires from our cars

a rabbit rushes through our own backyard
the summer rain storms make us sink into the grass
the fire pit is nothing but a char—
a kind of smell that only autumn can make pass

a tired yawn, my uncles drink their beers
and tell us stories from their days in borderlands
the trainbells ring, the whistle brings out fear
in the chilly night and my mother grabs my hand

with the songs we sang
and the games we played
i wanted to be naked as the stars
in the tired night
we take delight
in the sound of roaring tires from our cars